Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling structural behavior of reinforced concrete beam–slab substructures subject to side-column loss at large deflections

This article proposes an energy-based method to determine the collapse resistance of beam–slab substructures subject to side-column removal scenarios. These include the removal of intermediate columns along the edge or those at corner. Four contributions to the internal energy dissipation are taken into account, including extension of reinforcing bars in the slab and beams, sectional bending moment at plastic hinges of beams, sectional bending moment along yield lines of the slab, and additional resultant bending moment from membrane forces in the slab and tensile forces in beams. The performance of the proposed method is validated against existing experimental results. A comparison of collapse mechanism of substructures subject to these two side-column removal scenarios is made in detail. It is found that no tensile catenary action developed in the beam for the removal of a corner column. The energy dissipation due to the extension of reinforcing bars and additional resultant bending moment contributes most to the resistance of substructures at large deflections. The proposed method can accurately capture the main collapse mechanisms of beam–slab substructures at large deflections, thus providing an accurate prediction of its progressive collapse resistance.
Prevention of childhood obesity in India: Way forward

Childhood obesity is a burden in developed and developing countries. Overweight and obesity are caused by numerous social and environmental factors that influence people's food habit and physical activity. Role of primary or secondary prevention is the mainstay plan for controlling this epidemic. Various adaptable best practice models are available in the developed nations. However, further research needs to be done to examine the most effective strategies of intervention, prevention, and treatment of obesity in our setting. Through this paper, we would like to highlight best practices and potential interventions to reduce the burden of obesity in India.
Differences in Adolescent Substance Use by Hispanic Subgroup: What We Know and What We Need to Find out

Differences in health outcomes on the basis of racial and/or ethnic group membership have been documented among Hispanics in the US. As this heterogeneous population continues to grow, so does the importance of understanding the subgroups within it and the possible effect that between-group variations may have on health outcomes. This article highlights a major limitation of the existing research: that the Hispanic population is almost exclusively lumped into one pan-ethnic category when examining substance use behaviors. However, there is evidence to suggest that differences in substance use behaviors exist between Hispanic subgroups, which may be important when designing prevention and intervention programs. While the majority of research in this arena has focused on adults, more research is required to understand subgroup differences in substance use behaviors among Hispanic youth. This article provides a synopsis of the research on U.S. Hispanic substance use behaviors, including how factors such as acculturation, nativity, and culture of origin can act as risk and protective factors. However, there is an insufficient amount of research looking at how the differences between Hispanic subgroups may interact with acculturation levels to increase or decrease risk factors associated with substance use. Therefore, the authors suggest that substance use researchers attempt to improve future study designs by asking standardized demographic questions of national origin and/or ethnic/subgroup identity and take this into account in their analyses. The collection of such specific data could then be used to develop more targeted prevention and intervention programs.
Hierarchical clustering of monoclonal antibody reactivity patterns in nonhuman species

Monoclonal antibodies (Mab) are an important resource for defining molecular expression and probing molecular function. The characterization of Mab reactivity patterns, however, can be costly and inefficient in nonhuman experimental systems. To develop a computational approach to the pattern analysis of Mab reactivity, we analyzed a panel of 128 Mab recognizing sheep antigens. Quantitative single parameter flow cytometry histograms were obtained from five cell types isolated from normal animals. The resulting 640 histograms were smoothed using a Gaussian kernel over a range of bandwidths. Histogram features were selected by SiZer—an analytic tool that identifies statistically significant features. The extracted histogram features were compared and grouped using hierarchical clustering. The validity of the clustering was indicated by the accurate pairing of externally verified molecular reactivity. We conclude that our computational algorithm is a potentially useful tool for both Mab classification and molecular taxonomy in nonhuman experimental systems. © 2009 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Frame size selection in CSMA‐based cognitive radio wireless local area networks

The performance of cognitive radio‐based wireless local area networks (WLANs) is affected by channel conditions, the contention processes of unlicensed/secondary users (SUs) and collisions between SUs and licensed/primary users (PUs). Given these effects, it is feasible to adjust the frame size to maximise goodput. Existing frame size adjustment mechanisms for WLANs are based on the assumption that optimal frame size depends on either the channel conditions or the contention among nodes. These approaches do not consider the collisions between SUs and PUs. Thus, they lead to suboptimal solutions and cannot be directly applied to cognitive radio‐based WLANs. In this paper, an analytical model to determine the optimal frame size for carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance‐based cognitive radio networks based on the probability of frame error, the probability of collisions among SUs and the probability of collision between SUs and PUs is proposed. Numerical and simulation results indicate that selecting the optimal frame size significantly improves goodput. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prolonged Ocular Inflammation in Endotoxin-Induced Uveitis in Lysosomal Phospholipase A2-Deficient Mice

ABSTRACT Purpose: The goal of present study was to elucidate the pathophysiological roles of lysosomal phospholipase A2 (LPLA2) in intraocular pressure (IOP) levels and ocular inflammation. Methods: C57BL/6 (wild-type) and LPLA2-deficient mice with C57BL/6 background were employed. The IOPs were compared between wild-type and LPLA2-deficient mice during their aging, after topical administration of antiglaucoma medications such as travoprost, dorzolamide, or timolol maleate, or after induction of endotoxin-induced uveitis (EIU) using lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Concerning the EIU, ocular inflammation was also evaluated by immunohistochemical analysis by the anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) antibody. Results: The LPLA2-deficient mice showed higher IOP levels than the wild-type mice until 2 months of age (P = 1.60E-06); in older mice there was no difference between the two groups. Significant differences in the IOP changes between groups in young mice were seen after administration of 0.5% timolol (P < 0.05). Upon induction of EIU by LPS, compared with wild-type mice (P < 0.05), IOPs were significantly elevated in LPLA2-deficient mice at maximum levels of the ocular inflammation (48 h). Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that LPLA2-deficient mice showed more prolonged expression of GFAP at the inner plexiform layer and inner nuclear layer by EIU than that found in the wild-type mice (P < 0.05). Conclusions: These results confirm that LPLA2 plays a significant role in the control of IOP during mouse ocular development or with ocular inflammation by facilitating the digestion of intraocular insoluble materials.
Stroke subtypes, risk factors and mortality rate in northwest of Iran

Background: Stroke is the second most common cause of death and first cause of disability in adults in the world. About 80% of all stroke deaths occur in developing countries. So far, the data on stroke epidemiology have been limited in Iran. Therefore, this study was focused on stroke demographic data, risk factors, types and mortality. Methods: A retrospective study was done in two university tertiary referral hospitals in Tabriz, northwest of Iran, from March 2008 to April 2013. Patients diagnosed with stroke were enrolled in the study. Demographic data, stroke subtypes, duration of hospitalization, stroke risk factors and hospital mortality rate were recorded for all the patients. Results: A total number of 5355 patients were evaluated in the present study. Mean age of the patients was 67.5 ± 13.8 years, and 50.6% were men. Final diagnosis of ischemic stroke was made in 76.5% of the patients, intra-cerebral hemorrhage (ICH) with or without intra-ventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in 14.3% and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in 9.2%. Stroke risk factors among the patients were hypertension in 68.8% of the patients, diabetes mellitus (DM) in 23.9%, smoking in 12.6% and ischemic heart diseases (IHD) in 17.1%. Mean hospital stay was 17.3 days. Overall, the in-hospital mortality was 20.5%. Conclusion: Compared to other studies, duration of hospital stay was longer and mortality rate was higher in this study. Hypertension was the most common risk factor and cardiac risk factors and DM had relatively lower rate in comparison to other studies. Because of insufficient data on the epidemiology, patterns, and risk factors of stroke in Iran, there is a necessity to develop and implement a national registry system.
Intercountry Transfer of Triazole-Resistant Aspergillus fumigatus on Plant Bulbs

We investigated whether plants imported to Ireland from the Netherlands might harbor triazole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus. Samples of plant bulbs were positive for triazole-resistant A. fumigatus with CYP51A mutations. We hypothesize that this represents a route for intercountry transfer of an emerging resistance mechanism in a major opportunistic mold pathogen.
Cognitive conflict in social dilemmas: An analysis of response dynamics

Recently, it has been suggested that people are spontaneously inclined to cooperate in social dilemmas, whereas defection requires effortful deliberation. From this assumption, we derive that defection should entail more cognitive conflict than cooperation. To test this hypothesis, the current study presents a first application of the response dynamics paradigm (i.e., mouse-tracking) to social dilemmas. In a fully incentivized lab experiment, mouse movements were tracked while participants played simple two-person social dilemma games with two options (cooperation and defection). Building on previous research, curvature of mouse movements was taken as an indicator of cognitive conflict. In line with the hypothesis of less cognitive conflict in cooperation, response trajectories were more curved (towards the non-chosen option) when individuals defected than when they cooperated. In other words, the cooperative option exerted more “pull” on mouse movements in case of defection than the non-cooperative option (defection) did in case of cooperation. This effect was robust across different types of social dilemmas and occurred even in the prisoner’s dilemma, where defection was predominant on the choice level. Additionally, the effect was stronger for dispositional cooperators as measured by the Honesty-Humility factor of the HEXACO personality model. As such, variation in the effect across individuals could be accounted for through cooperativeness.
Safe, Multi-Agent, Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Driving

Autonomous driving is a multi-agent setting where the host vehicle must apply sophisticated negotiation skills with other road users when overtaking, giving way, merging, taking left and right turns and while pushing ahead in unstructured urban roadways. Since there are many possible scenarios, manually tackling all possible cases will likely yield a too simplistic policy. Moreover, one must balance between unexpected behavior of other drivers/pedestrians and at the same time not to be too defensive so that normal traffic flow is maintained. In this paper we apply deep reinforcement learning to the problem of forming long term driving strategies. We note that there are two major challenges that make autonomous driving different from other robotic tasks. First, is the necessity for ensuring functional safety - something that machine learning has difficulty with given that performance is optimized at the level of an expectation over many instances. Second, the Markov Decision Process model often used in robotics is problematic in our case because of unpredictable behavior of other agents in this multi-agent scenario. We make three contributions in our work. First, we show how policy gradient iterations can be used without Markovian assumptions. Second, we decompose the problem into a composition of a Policy for Desires (which is to be learned) and trajectory planning with hard constraints (which is not learned). The goal of Desires is to enable comfort of driving, while hard constraints guarantees the safety of driving. Third, we introduce a hierarchical temporal abstraction we call an "Option Graph" with a gating mechanism that significantly reduces the effective horizon and thereby reducing the variance of the gradient estimation even further.
In vitro fertilization stimulation protocol for normal responder patients

The aim of this prospective observational study is to determine the different outcomes of IVF/ICSI treatments after using antagonists or agonists of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) for controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) in normal responder patients. Two hundred forty-seven patients undergoing IVF treatment at the Centre of Reproductive Medicine, Rome (CERMER), from January 2005 to December 2008, were included in the study. Patients were stimulated either with a standard long protocol with GnRH agonists (n = 156) or with GnRH antagonists (n = 91). The use of GnRH antagonists resulted in a significant reduction in the duration of the stimulation (Agonist Group 14.10 ± 2.25 vs Antagonist Group 11.34 ± 2.11; p < 0.001) and in the amount of gonadotrophin (IU of r-FSH) needed (Agonist Group 1878 ± 1109 vs Antagonist Group 1331 ± 1049; p = 0.0014). Moreover a lower number of cycles were cancelled with the antagonist protocol (4.39 vs 6.41%). The GnRH antagonist protocol, when compared to the GnRH agonist one, is associated with a similar clinical pregnancy rate, similar implantation rate, significantly lower gonadotrophin requirement and shorter duration of stimulation. For this reason, GnRH antagonists might be a good treatment even for normal responder patients undergoing IVF.
Solutions et matériaux nouveaux pour guide d'onde Térahertz

iv ACKNOWLEDEGMENTS . v TABLE OF CONTENTS . vi LIST OF FIGURES . x LIST OF TABLES . xv 1 THE TERAHERTZ GAP: “A PART OF SPECTRUM THAT HAS BEEN LEAST EXPLORED”. 1 1.1 The THz gap . 1 1.2 THz Applications . 2 1.3 THz generation and detection . 3 1.4 Needs for new materials and solutions . 4 1.5 Thesis outline . 5 2 STATE OF THE ART: NOVEL MATERIALS FOR TERAHERTZ WAVEGUIDING . 6 2.1 THz Wave Guiding Technology . 6 2.1.1 Metallic Waveguides . 7 2.1.2 Dielectric Waveguides . 10 2.2 Transparent Guiding Mediums. 15 2.2.1 High Resistivity Silicon . 15
Light to Moderate Alcohol Drinking is Associated with Higher Cognitive Function in Males with Type 2 Diabetes

This study examined cognitive function in males with type 2 diabetes who drank light to moderate levels of alcohol in comparison to abstainers. Patients who abstained from alcohol use (Abstainer; N = 99) were compared to patients who were current drinkers (Drinker; N = 20) with respect to demographic, clinical, and cognitive variables. There were no significant differences between the Drinker and Abstainer groups in demographic and general clinical variables (p values > .05). After controlling for various potential confounding variables including age, education level, number of years diagnosed with diabetes, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), hypertension status, and depression, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that the Drinker group performed significantly better than the Abstainer group, specifically on three of five cognitive tests—Digit Span Backward, Digit Symbol, and Trail Making B (p values < .05). Our findings suggest that light to moderate alcohol consumption, up to two drinks per day, is associated with relatively higher cognitive function in males with type 2 diabetes.
Traditional Authority at the Crossroads of Governance in Republican Cameroon

The study shows that traditional authority is indeed at the crossroads of governance in republican Cameroon. The citizen is bound by both modern law and traditional values; even if political theorists and leaders of republican institutions take objection to certain traditional values and seem to find difficulty over whether/how to formally integrate traditional authorities into the realm of the republic. Traditional authority incarnates a reassuring institutional stability and certainty to the masses, which elected officers (who come and go) do not provide in republican institutions. The vast majority of the population feels distant from the concept of ‘republic’ at grassroots level, where traditional authority remains the de facto institution of local governance. Based on empirical findings that highlight the important role that traditional authorities play in local development, the paper submits that traditional authorities should be formally integrated into the republican institutional setting by effectively constituting the first level of decentralized institutions of governance.
Antenatal prevalence of fear associated with childbirth and depressed mood in primigravid women

Aim: To investigate the antenatal prevalence of fear of childbirth and its association with depressed mood in low-risk primigravidae in a referral teaching hospital. Settings and Design: The study was conducted in a tertiary referral center catering to three districts in the state of Kerala. This was a cross-sectional study with internal comparison of associated factors. Materials and Methods: Malayalam translation (translation back translation) of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was self-administered by the participants. It was followed by a structured interview based on the International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD 10) after which the EPDS scale was scored. Statistical Analysis: Chi-square test was used to compare the presence of fear in women with a EPDS of ≥ 12 and the association of fear and depression. Results: Fear associated with childbirth was expressed by 17.7% women. The prevalence of depressed mood based on the EPDS (score > 12) was 9.8% but based on the ICD 10 criteria, the prevalence of depression was 8.7%. A significant number of women with depressed mood and clinical depression had fear of childbirth of some sort. Conclusions: A significant number of primigravid women with depressed mood and clinical depression had fear of childbirth of some sort.
Denosumab or Zoledronic Acid in Postmenopausal Women With Osteoporosis Previously Treated With Oral Bisphosphonates

Context: Denosumab and zoledronic acid (ZOL) are parenteral treatments for patients with osteoporosis. Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the effect of transitioning from oral bisphosphonates to denosumab or ZOL on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone turnover. Design and Setting: This was an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind trial. Participants: A total of 643 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis previously treated with oral bisphosphonates participated in the study. Interventions: Subjects were randomized 1:1 to sc denosumab 60 mg every 6 months plus iv placebo once or ZOL 5 mg iv once plus sc placebo every 6 months for 12 months. Main Outcome Measures: Changes in BMD and bone turnover markers were measured. Results: BMD change from baseline at month 12 was significantly greater with denosumab compared with ZOL at the lumbar spine (primary end point; 3.2% vs 1.1%; P < .0001), total hip (1.9% vs 0.6%; P < .0001), femoral neck (1.2% vs −0.1%; P < .0001), and one-third radius (0.6% vs 0.0%; P < .05). The median decrease from baseline was greater with denosumab than ZOL for serum C-telopeptide of type 1 collagen at all time points after day 10 and for serum procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide at month 1 and at all time points after month 3 (all P < .05). Median percentage changes from baseline in serum intact PTH were significantly greater at months 3 and 9 with denosumab compared with ZOL (all P < .05). Adverse events were similar between groups. Three events consistent with the definition of atypical femoral fracture were observed (two denosumab and one ZOL). Conclusions: In postmenopausal women with osteoporosis previously treated with oral bisphosphonates, denosumab was associated with greater BMD increases at all measured skeletal sites and greater inhibition of bone remodeling compared with ZOL.
Sharing to be sociable, posting to be popular: factors influencing non-static personal information disclosure on Facebook among young Dutch users

Facebook use is closely tied to the need to disclose various types of personal information for users to experience the full benefits of using the platform e.g., relationship maintenance, impression management. However, despite the benefits that can be derived from using the site, risk perception and privacy valuation could also deter disclosure. Results of a survey with 295 students of a vocational school in the eastern region of The Netherlands reveal that the benefits of sharing information primarily influence young Facebook users' decision to post non-static personal information e.g., photos, statements of current activities, and thoughts on issues or things on the site. Furthermore, such a decision is also predicated on the size of respondents' Facebook networks and the length of their Facebook membership. Surprisingly, however, the perceived risks attributed to the actions of Facebook and members of the Facebook users' network and users' privacy valuation do not affect the decision to share information on the site.
The interactive effects of mortality salience and political orientation on moral judgments.

In two studies, the authors examined how threat induced by reminders of mortality would moderate the effect of political orientation on moral judgments. In Study 1, university students (n = 113) categorized their political orientation, were randomly assigned to complete a fear of death or public speaking scale, and then completed a moral foundations questionnaire. In Study 2, university students (n = 123) rated their political orientations, were randomly assigned to write about their own death or dental pain, and then completed a moral foundations questionnaire. In both studies, mortality salience intensified the moral differences between liberals and conservatives. These findings were primarily the result of the reactions of liberals, who responded to mortality salience with increased ratings of the fairness/cheating virtue in Study 1 and the care/harm virtue in Study 2.