Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Composite Frames with Dissipative Beam Splices: Numerical Analyses and Design Guidelines

Interest in designing structures that cost less to repair after they have been subjected to strong earthquakes has been increasing in the recent years, which led to the development of innovative repairable welded FUSEIS beam splices serving as dissipative beam-to-column connections in moment resisting composite steel and concrete frames. Upon a review on the individual characteristics of the beam splices obtained from an extensive experimental campaign, retrieving the necessary information to perform their modelling and validation in numerical analyses, the beam splices were applied on 3 case study building configurations comprising of 2, 4 and 8 stories to evaluate their global performance under seismic action. Numerical analyses were performed, in which the buildings were designed and safety checked through a Eurocode 8 based procedure that had been proposed herein, including Linear Response Spectrum and Non-linear Static Pushover analyses. Comparison to equivalent traditional moment-resisting frame structures was conducted as well. The outcomes of these numerical analyses were satisfactory: (i) the system exhibited good behavior under seismic action, proving to be relatively strong and stiff with large capacity of energy absorption and (ii) inelastic deformations were strictly limited to the beam splices, avoiding the spread of plasticity to the rest of the structural elements.
A transformer of one-third wavelength in two sections - for a frequency and its first harmonic

The quarter-wave transformer transforms in one frequency f/sub 0/, but not its first harmonic 2f/sub 0/. The transform in 2f/sub 0/ is needed in a dual-band operation of GSM and PCS. This requirement can be fulfilled in a two line-sections of 1/6 wavelengths each, adding to 1/3 wavelengths for the total transformer length in the lower band centering at f/sub 0/ (fundamental), or 2/3 wavelengths in the upper band centering at 2f/sub 0/ (1st harmonic). The 1/3-wave transformer is analytically inexact but effectively exact for engineering applications. For example, for impedance transforms of K = 4, the inexactness gives a reflection of |/spl Gamma/| = 0.013.
Seed Germination and Dormancy.

Seeds are a vital component of the world’s diet. Cereal grains alone, which comprise -90% of all cultivated seeds, contribute up to half of the global per capita energy intake. Not surprisingly then, seed biology is one of the most extensively researched areas in plant physiology. Even in relation to the topics reviewed here, a casual perusal of the Agricola database reveals that well over 5000 publications on seed germination and 700 on seed dormancy have appeared in the last decade. Yet we still cannot answer two fundamental questions: how does the embryo emerge from the seed to complete germination, and how is embryo emergence blocked so that seeds can be maintained in the dormant state? Obviously, with such a large literature on the subject, this review is far from comprehensive. Nevertheless, it provides both an overview of the essential processes that are associated with germination and a description of the possible impediments thereto that may result in dormancy. With the seed, the independence of the next generation of plants begins. The seed, containing the embryo as the new plant in miniature, is structurally and physiologically equipped for its role as a dispersa1 unit and is well provided with food reserves to sustain the growing seedling until it establishes itself as a self-sufficient, autotrophic organism. Because the function of a seed is to establish a new plant, it may seem peculiar that dormancy, an intrinsic block to germination, exists. But it may not be advantageous for a seed to germinate freely, even in seemingly favorable conditions. For example, germination of annuals in the spring allows time for vegetative growth and the subsequent production of offspring, whereas germination in similar conditions in the fall could lead to the demise of the vegetative plant during the winter. Thus, dormancy is an adaptive trait that optimizes the distribution of germination over time in a population of seeds. Seed dormancy is generally an undesirable characteristic in agricultural crops, where rapid germination and growth are required. However, some degree of dormancy is advantageous, at least during seed development. This is particularly true for cereal crops because it prevents germination of grains while still on the ear of the parent plant (preharvest sprouting), a phenomenon that results in major losses to the
Direct Imaging of Protein Organization in an Intact Bacterial Organelle Using High-Resolution Atomic Force Microscopy

The function of bioenergetic membranes is strongly influenced by the spatial arrangement of their constituent membrane proteins. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can be used to probe protein organization at high resolution, allowing individual proteins to be identified. However, previous AFM studies of biological membranes have typically required that curved membranes are ruptured and flattened during sample preparation, with the possibility of disruption of the native protein arrangement or loss of proteins. Imaging native, curved membranes requires minimal tip–sample interaction in both lateral and vertical directions. Here, long-range tip–sample interactions are reduced by optimizing the imaging buffer. Tapping mode AFM with high-resonance-frequency small and soft cantilevers, in combination with a high-speed AFM, reduces the forces due to feedback error and enables application of an average imaging force of tens of piconewtons. Using this approach, we have imaged the membrane organization of intact vesicular bacterial photosynthetic “organelles”, chromatophores. Despite the highly curved nature of the chromatophore membrane and lack of direct support, the resolution was sufficient to identify the photosystem complexes and quantify their arrangement in the native state. Successive imaging showed the proteins remain surprisingly static, with minimal rotation or translation over several-minute time scales. High-order assemblies of RC-LH1-PufX complexes are observed, and intact ATPases are successfully imaged. The methods developed here are likely to be applicable to a broad range of protein-rich vesicles or curved membrane systems, which are an almost ubiquitous feature of native organelles.
On the nature of thermal diffusion in binary Lennard-Jones liquids

The aim of this study is to understand deeper the thermal diffusion transport process (Ludwig–Soret effect) at the microscopic level. For that purpose, the recently developed reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method was used to calculate Soret coefficients of various systems in a systematic fashion. We studied binary Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluids near the triple point (of one of the components) in which we separately changed the ratio of one of the LJ parameters mass, atomic diameter, and interaction strength while keeping all other parameters fixed and identical. We observed that the magnitude of the Soret coefficient depends on all three ratios. Concerning its sign we found that heavier species, smaller species, and species with higher interaction strengths tend to accumulate in the cold region whereas the other ones (lighter, bigger or weaker bound) migrate to the hot region of our simulation cell. Additionally, the superposition of the influence of the various parameters was investigated as well a.
Draft Genome Sequence of the Shellfish Bacterial Pathogen Vibrio sp. Strain B183

ABSTRACT We report the draft genome sequence of Vibrio sp. strain B183, a Gram-negative marine bacterium isolated from shellfish that causes mortality in larval mariculture. The availability of this genome sequence will facilitate the study of its virulence mechanisms and add to our knowledge of Vibrio sp. diversity and evolution.
Validity of the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire with elderly psychiatric patients.

Cette etude, menee sur une population geriatrique, montre une association nette entre les diagnostics, les resultats du «Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire», et ceux des tests neuropsychologiques. Cet instrument se revele valide pour la discrimination entre troubles organiques et troubles fonctionnels
A candidate gene analysis of three related photosensitivity disorders: cutaneous lupus erythematosus, polymorphic light eruption and actinic prurigo

Background Polymorphic light eruption (PLE) is a common inherited photosensitivity disorder, which may predispose to several related but distinct conditions, including subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (SCLE), discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) and actinic prurigo (AP).
HD 91669B: A NEW BROWN DWARF CANDIDATE FROM THE McDONALD OBSERVATORY PLANET SEARCH

We report the detection of a brown dwarf candidate orbiting the metal-rich K dwarf HD 91669, based on radial-velocity data from the McDonald Observatory Planet Search. HD 91669b is a substellar object in an eccentric orbit (e = 0.45) at a separation of 1.2 AU. The minimum mass of 30.6MJup places this object firmly within the brown dwarf desert for inclinations i ≳ 23°. This is the second rare close-in brown dwarf candidate discovered by the McDonald planet search program.
InfiniTAM v3: A Framework for Large-Scale 3D Reconstruction with Loop Closure

Volumetric models have become a popular representation for 3D scenes in recent years. One breakthrough leading to their popularity was KinectFusion, which focuses on 3D reconstruction using RGB-D sensors. However, monocular SLAM has since also been tackled with very similar approaches. Representing the reconstruction volumetrically as a TSDF leads to most of the simplicity and efficiency that can be achieved with GPU implementations of these systems. However, this representation is memory-intensive and limits applicability to small-scale reconstructions. Several avenues have been explored to overcome this. With the aim of summarizing them and providing for a fast, flexible 3D reconstruction pipeline, we propose a new, unifying framework called InfiniTAM. The idea is that steps like camera tracking, scene representation and integration of new data can easily be replaced and adapted to the user's needs. This report describes the technical implementation details of InfiniTAM v3, the third version of our InfiniTAM system. We have added various new features, as well as making numerous enhancements to the low-level code that significantly improve our camera tracking performance. The new features that we expect to be of most interest are (i) a robust camera tracking module; (ii) an implementation of Glocker et al.'s keyframe-based random ferns camera relocaliser; (iii) a novel approach to globally-consistent TSDF-based reconstruction, based on dividing the scene into rigid submaps and optimising the relative poses between them; and (iv) an implementation of Keller et al.'s surfel-based reconstruction approach.
Efficacy of Tai Chi on Pain, Stiffness and Function in Patients with Osteoarthritis: A Meta-Analysis

Background Whether Tai Chi benefits patients with osteoarthritis remains controversial. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of Tai Chi exercise for pain, stiffness, and physical function in patients with osteoarthritis. Methods A computerized search of PubMed and Embase (up to Sept 2012) was performed to identify relevant studies. The outcome measures were pain, stiffness, and physical function. Two investigators identified eligible studies and extracted data independently. The quality of the included studies was assessed by the Jadad score. Standard mean differences (SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated and pooled using a random effects model. The change in outcomes from baseline was compared to the minimum clinically important difference. Results A total of seven randomized controlled trials involving 348 patients with osteoarthritis met the inclusion criteria. The mean Jadad score was 3.6. The pooled SMD was −0.45 (95% CI −0.70–−0.20, P = 0.0005) for pain, −0.31 (95% CI −0.60–−0.02, P = 0.04) for stiffness, and −0.61 (95% CI −0.85–−0.37, P<0.00001) for physical function. A change of 32.2–36.4% in the outcomes was greater than the minimum clinically important difference. Conclusions Twelve-week Tai Chi is beneficial for improving arthritic symptoms and physical function in patients with osteoarthritis and should be included in rehabilitation programs. However, the evidence may be limited by potential biases; thus, larger scale randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm the current findings and investigate the long-term effects of Tai Chi.
A Transcriptome Approach Toward Understanding Fruit Softening in Persimmon

Persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.), which is a climacteric fruit, softens in 3–5 weeks after harvest. However, little is known regarding the transcriptional changes that underlie persimmon ripening. In this study, high-throughput de novo RNA sequencing was performed to examine differential expression between freshly harvested (FH) and softened (ST) persimmon fruit peels. Using the Illumina HiSeq platform, we obtained 259,483,704 high quality reads and 94,856 transcripts. After the removal of redundant sequences, a total of 31,258 unigenes were predicted, 1,790 of which were differentially expressed between FH and ST persimmon (1,284 up-regulated and 506 down-regulated in ST compared with FH). The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were further subjected to KEGG pathway analysis. Several pathways were found to be up-regulated in ST persimmon, including “amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism. ” Pathways down-regulated in ST persimmon included “photosynthesis” and “carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms. ” Expression patterns of genes in these pathways were further confirmed using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Ethylene gas production during persimmon softening was monitored with gas chromatography and found to be correlated with the fruit softening. Transcription involved in ethylene biosynthesis, perception and signaling was up-regulated. On the whole, this study investigated the key genes involved in metabolic pathways of persimmon fruit softening, especially implicated in increased sugar metabolism, decreased photosynthetic capability, and increased ethylene production and other ethylene-related functions. This transcriptome analysis provides baseline information on the identity and modulation of genes involved in softening of persimmon fruits and can underpin the future development of technologies to delay softening in persimmon.
Toxicity spectrum of inhibitors of mammalian target of rapamycin in organ transplantation: etiology, pathogenesis and treatment

Introduction: Control of the immune responses is critical for body homeostasis. Immunosuppressive strategies have been critical to this enterprise as they reveal molecular and cellular mechanisms of immune-mediated tissue destruction. Areas covered: While exerting potent effects to blockade critical processes during cell maturation prior to division and effector functions, the novel drug class of mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors (mTORi) consequently exert adverse reactions due to disruption of pleiotropic physiologic pathways. This review includes selected clinical and preclinical materials from the time of the author's own first-in-human experience in 1993 through to 2009. The goal of this contribution is to provide a foundation in basic biochemical processes to allow the reader to understand the pathophysiology of adverse clinical reactions. Expert opinion: mTORi, as potent agents for clinical immunosuppression, inevitably, disrupt multiple cellular pathways as well as important vectors of host resistance. Judicious use of this pharmacologic class demands dedication to learning strategies of individualization for patient needs and reactions in the manner of clinicians previously committed on the introduction of calcineurin inhibitors 3 decades ago.
Bilateral blue noise sampling

Blue noise sampling is an important component in many graphics applications, but existing techniques consider mainly the spatial positions of samples, making them less effective when handling problems with non-spatial features. Examples include biological distribution in which plant spacing is influenced by non-positional factors such as tree type and size, photon mapping in which photon flux and direction are not a direct function of the attached surface, and point cloud sampling in which the underlying surface is unknown a priori. These scenarios can benefit from blue noise sample distributions, but cannot be adequately handled by prior art. Inspired by bilateral filtering, we propose a bilateral blue noise sampling strategy. Our key idea is a general formulation to modulate the traditional sample distance measures, which are determined by sample position in spatial domain, with a similarity measure that considers arbitrary per sample attributes. This modulation leads to the notion of bilateral blue noise whose properties are influenced by not only the uniformity of the sample positions but also the similarity of the sample attributes. We describe how to incorporate our modulation into various sample analysis and synthesis methods, and demonstrate applications in object distribution, photon density estimation, and point cloud sub-sampling.
Protein secondary structure prediction using data mining tool C5

This paper reports our experimental results in protein secondary structure prediction using the machine learning software, C5. The accuracy improvement in the prediction of protein secondary structure is the focus of our study. Starting with a target protein with unknown secondary structures, we investigate three different approaches and find that training cases selected based on sequence homology can achieve the highest predictive accuracy of 75% in testing cases. Our result indicates that the method of selecting proteins for the training cases has the most significant impact on predictive accuracy.
SMART MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES

Ultrasonic wedges which can propagate one longitudinal L and two orthogonally polarized shear S waves are presented. In order to use this wedge to generate and received guided plate acoustic waves along a metal plate at high temperatures brass which has a slow L and S wave velocities was chosen. Mode conversion method was used to convert L to S waves in the wedge. The mode conversion efficiency is 90.8%. The wedge has been tested up to 150°C. The L and S waves in the wedge have been converted to symmetrical, anti-symmetrical and shear horizontal plate acoustic waves in a stainless steel plate. Experimental measurements demonstrated that the guided acoustic waves, in particular, shear horizontal plate waves using high temperature wedges may be an excellent approach for non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring of metal structures.
Testing multiple levels of influence in the intergenerational transmission of alcohol disorders from a developmental perspective: The example of alcohol use promoting peers and μ-opioid receptor M1 variation

Abstract This study examined the interplay between the influence of peers who promote alcohol use and μ-opioid receptor M1 (OPRM1) genetic variation in the intergenerational transmission of alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms while separating the “traitlike” components of AUD symptoms from their age-specific manifestations at three ages from emerging adulthood (17–23 years) to adulthood (29–40 years). The results for males were consistent with genetically influenced peer selection mechanisms as mediators of parent alcoholism effects. Male children of alcoholics were less likely to be carriers of the G allele in single nucleotide polymorphism A118G (rs1799971), and those who were homozygous for the A allele were more likely to affiliate with alcohol use promoting peers who increased the risk for AUD symptoms at all ages. There was evidence for women of an interaction between OPRM1 variation and peer affiliations but only at the earliest age band. Peer influences had stronger effects among women who were G-carriers. These results illustrate the complex ways in which the interplay between influences at multiple levels of analysis can underlie the intergenerational transmission of alcohol disorders as well as the importance of considering age and gender differences in these pathways.
Combating School Bullying through Developmental Guidance for Positive Youth Development and Promoting Harmonious School Culture

Bullying and violence, which can bring detrimental effects, are situations which young people have to face in their process of development. Though school bullying has been a spreading and explicit problem in Hong Kong schools, most of the programs or guidelines dealing with the problem lack citywide, recognized initiatives and the effectiveness of these programs is unknown due to the lack of evaluation. The present paper discusses preventing school bullying from a developmental guidance perspective, using the positive youth development paradigm and promoting the values of harmony and forgiveness at the whole-school level to cultivate a harmonious school culture as a way of combating school bullying.
AIREAL

AIREAL is a novel haptic technology that delivers effective and expressive tactile sensations in free air, without requiring the user to wear a physical device. Combined with interactive computers graphics, AIREAL enables users to feel virtual 3D objects, experience free air textures and receive haptic feedback on gestures performed in free space. AIREAL relies on air vortex generation directed by an actuated flexible nozzle to provide effective tactile feedback with a 75 degrees field of view, and within an 8.5cm resolution at 1 meter. AIREAL is a scalable, inexpensive and practical free air haptic technology that can be used in a broad range of applications, including gaming, mobile applications, and gesture interaction among many others. This paper reports the details of the AIREAL design and control, experimental evaluations of the device's performance, as well as an exploration of the application space of free air haptic displays. Although we used vortices, we believe that the results reported are generalizable and will inform the design of haptic displays based on alternative principles of free air tactile actuation.
Steady-state bioequivalence studies of two memantine tablet and oral solution formulations in healthy volunteers

The bioavailability of memantine was compared using two tablet (Memantine LACHEMA 10 tbl. obd. and Akatinol® Memantine 10 tbl. obd., Study A) and two oral solution formulations (Memantine LACHEMA gtt. and Akatinol® Memantine gtt., Study B) containing 10 mg memantine hydrochloride in two randomized, two-period, two-sequence, crossover studies with 24 healthy volunteers. In both study periods, memantine concentrations were determined by gas-chromatography with electron-capture detection in plasma samples taken at the steady state after 22 days of once-daily dosing. The arithmetic mean (SD) pharmacokinetic parameters in the studies A and B were: AUC0-0τ,ss 768 (141) vs. 727 (99) and 807 (154) vs. 836 (156) ng/ml h, Cmax,ss 37.3 (6.1) vs. 35.2 (4.5) and 39.2 (7.3) vs. 40.6 (6.7) ng/ml. Median values of Tmax were in the range of 4 to 5 h. Both tablet and oral solution formulations were found bioequivalent (90%-confidence intervals for AUC0-τ,ss, Cmax,ss and Cτ,ss within 101-114% (Study A) and 92 and 104% (Study B)). For the peak-trough fluctuation, the bioequivalence intervals were 85-107% and 86-04%, respectively. By pooled analysis of both studies, the geometric mean (90% CI) relative bioavailability of memantine from tablets compared to oral solutions was 91% (85-98).