Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A study of BIM collaboration requirements and available features in existing model collaboration systems

Established collaboration practices in the construction industry are document centric and are challenged by the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Document management collaboration systems (e.g. Extranets) have significantly improved the document collaboration in recent years; however their capabilities for model collaboration are limited and do not support the complex requirements of BIM collaboration. The construction industry is responding to this situation by adopting emerging model collaboration systems (MCS), such as model servers, with the ability to exploit and reuse information directly from the models to extend the current intra-disciplinary collaboration towards integrated multi-disciplinary collaboration on models. The functions of existing MCSs have evolved from the manufacturing industry and there is no concrete study on how these functions correspond to the requirements of the construction industry, especially with BIM requirements. This research has conducted focus group sessions with major industry disciplines to explore the user requirements for BIM collaboration. The research results have been used to categorise and express the features of existing MCS which are then analysed in selected MCS from a user’s perspective. The potential of MCS and the match or gap in user requirements and available model collaboration features is discussed. This study concludes that model collaborative solutions for construction industry users are available in different capacities; however a comprehensive custom built solution is yet to be realized. The research results are useful for construction industry professionals, software developers and researchers involved in exploring collaborative solutions for the construction industry.
Market‐based frequency domain decomposition for automated mode shape estimation in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensing technology has paved the way for the cost‐effective deployment of dense networks of sensing transducers within large structural systems. By leveraging the embedded computing power residing within networks of wireless sensors, it has been shown that powerful data analyses can be performed autonomously and in‐network, without the need for central data processing. In this study, the power and flexibility of agent‐based data processing in the wireless structural monitoring environment is illuminated through the application of market‐based techniques to in‐network mode shape estimation. Specifically, by drawing on previous wireless sensor work in both decentralized frequency domain decomposition (FDD) and market‐based resource allocation, an algorithm derived from free‐market principles is developed through which an agent‐based wireless sensor network can autonomously and optimally shift emphasis between improving the accuracy of its mode shape calculations and reducing its dependency on any of the traditional limitations of wireless sensor networks: processing time, storage capacity, and power consumption. The developed algorithm is validated by estimating mode shapes using a network of wireless sensors deployed on the mezzanine balcony of Hill Auditorium located at the University of Michigan. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of PTEN and Nogo Codeletion on Corticospinal Axon Sprouting and Regeneration in Mice

Axons in the adult CNS have poor ability to grow after injury, impeding functional recovery in patients of spinal cord injury. This has been attributed to both a developmental decline in neuron-intrinsic growth ability and the presence of extrinsic growth inhibitors. We previously showed that genetic deletion of Nogo, an extrinsic inhibitor, promoted axonal sprouting from uninjured corticospinal tract (CST) neurons but not regeneration from injured CST neurons, whereas genetic deletion of PTEN, an intrinsic inhibitor, promoted both CST sprouting and regeneration. Here we test the hypothesis that combining an elevation of neuron-intrinsic growth ability and a reduction of extrinsic growth inhibition by genetic codeletion of PTEN and Nogo may further improve injury-induced axonal growth. In an apparent paradox, additionally deleting Nogo further enhanced CST regeneration but not sprouting in PTEN-deleted mice. Enhanced CST regeneration and sprouting in PTEN and PTEN/Nogo-deleted mice were associated with no or only temporary improvement in functional recovery. Our data illustrate that neuron-intrinsic and -extrinsic factors regulate axon regeneration and sprouting in complex ways and provide proof-of-principle evidence that targeting both can further improve regeneration. Neuron-intrinsic growth ability is an important determinant of neuronal responsiveness to changes in extrinsic growth inhibition, such that an elevated intrinsic growth state is a prerequisite for reducing extrinsic inhibition to take effect on CST regeneration. Meanwhile, additional strategies are required to unleash the full potential for functional recovery with enhanced axon regeneration and/or sprouting.
Prevalence of cervicobrachial discomforts in elementary school teachers.

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence of cervicobrachial order discomforts in Elementary Public School teachers from 1st to 4th years in the city of Pato Branco - PR. METHODS Cross-sectional study made with 160 public school teachers from 1st to 4th years in the city of Pato Branco - PR. Data collection was made from a structured questionnaire, and a physical examination with manual palpation and orthopedic tests. RESULTS The obtained data showed the presence of pain in the trapezius muscle region, on the left side, in 52.5%; and, on the right side, in 50.6%. The analysis also showed that there is a strong relationship between the cervicobrachial problems presented and the labor activity. The final evaluation of this study demonstrates the great need of primary care for these workers, that is, carrying out activities to prevent musculoskeletal diseases developed through work, either to preserve the individuals' physical integrity or the quality of education. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was high among teachers. There is evidence that the prevalence was connected to job demands.
Role of user-created programs in online game consumer behavior

Abstract This article reports a study investigating value co-creation in online games through fan-created mods for effects on motivations, experiences, attitudes, and satisfaction. A study of 95 World of Tank players shows that user-created mod programs directly and positively influence players’ experiences and attitudes and also indirectly influence satisfaction. The study provides insights showing that mods benefit both game companies and players. Online game companies can use the results of this study to better understand the value of mods and to recognize that they will gain benefits by encouraging their use.
A Reading Experiment with L2 Readers of English in Hong Kong--Effects of the Rhetorical Structure of Expository Texts on Reading Comprehension.

A study investigated three issues: (1) differences between two types of rhetorical organization of expository text (problem-solution pattern and collection-of-descriptions pattern) in the reading recall of second-language readers; (2) differences between the two types on reading recall of readers at two levels; and (3) relationship between the ability of second-language readers to recognize and use the top-level rhetorical organization of an expository text and the amount of information recalled from the text. Subjects ware 40 students, 20 secondary-school leavers and 20 second-year university engineering students in Hong Kong for whom English is a second language. Two versions of a passage with identical content, one with each type of rhetorical organization, were used. Each text was read by half of each group. Recall of the passages was tested. Results suggest that the rhetorical treatment of propositions in a text influences recall, and that the problem/solution pattern is more effective. However, no difference was found in recall results at the different student levels. The findings have implications for classroom instructional approaches and selection of student texts. A 38-item bibliography and the two text versions are appended. (MSE) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** HONGKONG PAPERS IN UNGUISDCS AND LANGUAGE TLACHING 12 (APRIL 1909) ISSN 10154059
Adiponectin in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Background Though adiponectin has been associated with insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors, the relationship between adiponectin and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) remains controversial. The aim of this study was to compare adiponectin level in women with PCOS and without PCOS, and to investigate the relationship between adiponectin level and metabolic variables including insulin resistance. Methods 60 women with PCOS were enrolled along with a control group of 80 healthy women, matched for age and body mass index (BMI). We measured hormonal and metabolic parameters, as well as the plasma adiponectin concentration of each participant. We estimated the insulin sensitivity according to the quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI). Results The PCOS group displayed significantly lower level of adiponectin (P < 0.001) after adjustment for age, BMI, mean blood pressure, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, and several metabolic parameters. Adiponectin levels were positively correlated with QUICKI in the PCOS group (P < 0.001) and the control group (P = 0.03). Following step-wise multiple regression analysis, however, adiponectin level was positively correlated with QUICKI in the control group only (P = 0.03). In addition, adiponectin level was found to be independently associated with HDL-cholesterol level (P < 0.001) and BMI (P = 0.02) in the PCOS group and independently associated with HDL-cholesterol (P = 0.02) in the control group. Conclusion We report decreased adiponectin level in PCOS patients in relation to controls independently of insulin resistance or other metabolic factors. And adiponectin is associated with both lipid metabolism and obesity, which, in turn, is related to insulin resistance in PCOS. Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanism of adiponectin in PCOS.
Orchestrating production computer algebra components into portable parallel programs

This paper demonstrates that it is possible to obtain good, scalable parallel performance by coordinating multiple instances of unaltered sequential computational algebra systems in order to deliver a single parallel system. The paper presents the ﬁrst substantial parallel performance results for SymGrid-Par, a system that orchestrates computational algebra components into a high-performance parallel application. We show that SymGrid-Par is capable of exploiting diﬀerent parallel/multicore architectures without any change to the computational algebra component. Ultimately, our intention is to extend our system so that it is capable of orchestrating heterogeneous computations across a high-performance computational Grid. For now, we illustrate our approach with a single, unmodiﬁed production computational algebra system, GAP, running on two common commodity architectures — a homogeneous cluster and an eight-core system. Computational algebra applications are large, specialised, and symbolic, rather than the more commonly studied numerical applications. They also exhibit high levels of irregularity, and multiple levels of irregularity. We demonstrate that for three small but representative algebraic computations, good parallel speedup is possible relative to a sequential GAP system running on a single processor/core. We compare the performance of the orchestrated system with that of parGAP, an established parallel implementation of GAP, demonstrating.
The Strategic Context Of External Network Ties: Examining The Impact Of Director Appointments On Board Involvement In Strategic Decision Making

Prior research has given little consideration to external determinants of knowledge and perspective that may affect directors' ability to contribute to the strategic decision making process. We introduce a framework on board involvement in which the potential for directors to contribute to firm governance and strategic decision making (i.e., in the form of monitoring and advising top management) is critically influenced by (1) whether they hold appointments to other firms with more or less-related product, corporate, and international strategies, and (2) whether such a portfolio of board appointments is suited to the degree of environmental instability surrounding the focal firm. Hypotheses are tested with a comprehensive data set that combines archival reports with behavioral data obtained through surveys of Forbes 1000 directors and CEOs. The findings suggest that while the simple number of director appointments to other boards does not influence board involvement, appointments that have the potential to provide directors with relevant strategic knowledge and perspective do enhance the board's ability to contribute to the strategic decision making process. Support for the theoretical framework presented in this study helps answer recent calls for board research that examines the "substantive context" of board appointments, and moves our understanding beyond the number of such appointments or director independence as predictors of board decision making. The findings also show the potential power of models that link the broader, social-structural context in which boards are embedded, as well as the environmental conditions that surround them, with micro-behavioral processes that occur inside the "black box" of corporate boards.
The Development and Validation of a Rapid Assessment Tool of Primary Care in China

Introduction. With Chinese health care reform increasingly emphasizing the importance of primary care, the need for a tool to evaluate primary care performance and service delivery is clear. This study presents a methodology for a rapid assessment of primary care organizations and service delivery in China. Methods. The study translated and adapted the Primary Care Assessment Tool-Adult Edition (PCAT-AE) into a Chinese version to measure core dimensions of primary care, namely, first contact, continuity, comprehensiveness, and coordination. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Chinese Rapid Primary Care Assessment Tool (CR-PCAT). Eight community health centers in Guangdong province have been selected to participate in the survey. Results. A total of 1465 effective samples were included for data analysis. Eight items were eliminated following principal component analysis and reliability testing. The principal component analysis extracted five multiple-item scales (first contact utilization, first contact accessibility, ongoing care, comprehensiveness, and coordination). The tests of scaling assumptions were basically met. Conclusion. The standard psychometric evaluation indicates that the scales have achieved relatively good reliability and validity. The CR-PCAT provides a rapid and reliable measure of four core dimensions of primary care, which could be applied in various scenarios.
Crystal structure of Ni-sorbed synthetic vernadite: a powder X-ray diffraction study

Abstract Vernadite is a nanocrystalline turbostratic phyllomanganate containing Ni, and is widespread in surface environments and oceanic sediments. To improve our understanding of Ni uptake in this mineral, two series of analogues of vernadite (δ-MnO2) were prepared with Ni/Mn atomic ratios of 0.002-0.105 at pH4 and 0.002-0.177 at pH 7. Their structures were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The δ-MnO2 nano-crystals are essentially monolayers with coherent scattering domains sizes of ~10 Å perpendicular to the layering and ~55 Å within the layer plane. For Ni/Mn < 0.01, the layer charge deficit is apparently balanced entirely by interlayer Mn, Na and protons. At higher Ni/Mn, Ni occupies the same site as interlayer Mn above and below vacant sites within the MnO2 layer and at sites along the edges of the layer. However, the layer charge is balanced differently at the two pH values. At pH 4, Ni uptake is accompanied by a reduction in structural Na and protons, whereas interlayer Mn remains strongly bound to the layers. At pH 7, interlayer Mn is less strongly bound and is partially replaced by Ni. The results of this study also suggest that the number of vacant octahedral sites and multi-valent charge-copmpensating interlayer species are underestimated by the currently used structure models of δ-MnO2.
Super-Resolution of Dynamic Scenes Using Sampling Rate Diversity

In earlier work, we proposed a super-resolution (SR) method that required the availability of two low resolution (LR) sequences corresponding to two different sampling rates, where images from one sequence were used as a basis to represent the polyphase components (PPCs) of the high resolution (HR) image, while the other LR sequences provided the reference LR image (to be super-resolved). The (simple) algorithm implemented by Salem and Yagle is only applicable when the scene is static. In this paper, we recast our approach to SR as a two-stage example-based algorithm to process dynamic scenes. We employ feature selection to create, from the LR frames, local LR dictionaries to represent PPCs of HR patches. To enforce sparsity, we implement Gaussian generative models as an efficient alternative to L1-norm minimization. Estimation errors are further reduced using what we refer to as the anchors, which are based on the relationship between PPCs corresponding to different sampling rates. In the second stage, we revert to simple single frame SR (applied to each frame), using HR dictionaries extracted from the super-resolved sequence of the previous stage. The second stage is thus a reiteration of the sparsity coding scheme, using only one LR sequence, and without involving PPCs. The ability of the modified algorithm to super-resolve challenging LR sequences reintroduces sampling rate diversity as a prerequisite of robust multiframe SR.
Free-Ranging Frigates (Fregata magnificens) of the Southeast Coast of Brazil Harbor Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli Resistant to Antimicrobials

Seabirds may be responsible for the spread of pathogenic/resistant organisms over great distances, playing a relevant role within the context of the One World, One Health concept. Diarrheagenic E. coli strains, known as STEC (shiga toxin-producing E. coli), and the extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC and the subpathotype APEC), are among the E. coli pathotypes with zoonotic potential associated with the birds. In order to identify health threats carried by frigates and to evaluate the anthropic influence on the southern coast of Brazil, the aim of this work was to characterize E. coli isolated from free-ranging frigates in relation to virulence genotypes, serotypes, phylogenetic groups and antimicrobial resistance. Cloacal and choanal swabs were sampled from 38 Fregata magnificens from two oceanic islands and one rescue center. Forty-three E. coli strains were recovered from 33 out of the 38 birds (86.8%); 88.4% of strains showed some of the virulence genes (VGs) searched, 48.8% contained three or more VGs. None of the strains presented VGs related to EPEC/STEC. Some of the isolates showed virulence genotypes, phylogenetic groups and serotypes of classical human ExPEC or APEC (O2:H7, O1:H6, ONT:H7, O25:H4). Regarding antimicrobial susceptibility, 62.8% showed resistance, and 11.6% (5/43) were multidrug-resistant. The E. coli present in the intestines of the frigates may reflect the environmental human impact on southeast coast of Brazil; they may also represent an unexplored threat for seabird species, especially considering the overlap of pathogenic potential and antimicrobial resistance present in these strains.
Entropies and rates of convergence for maximum likelihood and Bayes estimation for mixtures of normal densities

We study the rates of convergence of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and posterior distribution in density estimation problems, where the densities are location or location-scale mixtures of normal distributions with the scale parameter lying between two positive numbers. The true density is also assumed to lie in this class with the true mixing distribution either compactly supported or having sub-Gaussian tails. We obtain bounds for Hellinger bracketing entropies for this class, and from these bounds, we deduce the convergence rates of (sieve) MLEs in Hellinger distance. The rate turns out to be (log n) κ /√n, where K ≥ 1 is a constant that depends on the type of mixtures and the choice of the sieve. Next, we consider a Dirichlet mixture of normals as a prior on the unknown density. We estimate the prior probability of a certain Kullback-Leibler type neighborhood and then invoke a general theorem that computes the posterior convergence rate in terms the growth rate of the Hellinger entropy and the concentration rate of the prior. The posterior distribution is also seen to converge at the rate (log n) κ /√n in, where K now depends on the tail behavior of the base measure of the Dirichlet process.
The indeterminate adrenal mass in patients with cancer

Abstract With the increasing use of abdominal cross-sectional imaging, incidental adrenal masses are frequently detected. The commonest clinical question is whether these are benign adenomas or malignant primary or secondary masses. The nature of incidentally detected adrenal masses can be determined with a high degree of accuracy using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as benign adrenal masses such as myelolipomas, lipid-rich adenomas, adrenal cysts and adrenal haemorrhage which have pathognomonic imaging findings. However, there remains a significant overlap between the imaging features of some lipid-poor adenomas and malignant lesions. We review the recent advances in CT, MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) which can be used to distinguish between benign adenomas and malignant lesions of the adrenal gland.
A Control-Flow Normalization Algorithm and Its Complexity

A single method for normalizing the control-flow of programs to facilitate program transformations, program analysis, and automatic parallelization is presented. While previous methods result in programs whose control flowgraphs are reducible, programs normalized by this technique satisfy a stronger condition than reducibility and are therefore simpler in their syntax and structure than with previous methods. In particular, all control-flow cycles are normalized into single-entry, single-exit while loops and all GOTOs are eliminated. Furthermore, the method avoids problems of code replication that are characteristic of node-splitting techniques. This restructuring obviates the control dependence graph, since afterwards control dependence relations are manifest in the syntax tree of the program. Transformations that effect this normalization are presented, and the complexity of the method is studied. >