Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermal effects on the wake of a heated circular cylinder operating in mixed convection regime

Abstract The thermal effects on the wake flow behind a heated circular cylinder operating in the mixed convection regime were investigated experimentally in the present study. The experiments were conducted in a vertical water channel with the heated cylinder placed horizontally and the flow approaching the cylinder downwards. With such a flow arrangement, the direction of the thermally induced buoyancy force acting on the fluid surrounding the heated cylinder would be opposite to the approach flow. During the experiments, the temperature and Reynolds number of the approach flow were held constant. By adjusting the surface temperature of the heated cylinder, the corresponding Richardson number ($\mathit{Ri}= \mathit{Gr}/ {\mathit{Re}}^{2} $) was varied between 0.0 (unheated) and 1.04, resulting in a change in the heat transfer process from forced convection to mixed convection. A novel flow diagnostic technique, molecular tagging velocimetry and thermometry (MTV&T), was used for qualitative flow visualization of thermally induced flow structures and quantitative, simultaneous measurements of flow velocity and temperature distributions in the wake of the heated cylinder. With increasing temperature of the heated cylinder (i.e. Richardson number), significant modifications of the wake flow pattern and wake vortex shedding process were clearly revealed. When the Richardson number was relatively small ($\mathit{Ri}\leq 0. 31$), the vortex shedding process in the wake of the heated cylinder was found to be quite similar to that of an unheated cylinder. As the Richardson number increased to ${\ensuremath{\sim} }0. 50$, the wake vortex shedding process was found to be ‘delayed’, with the wake vortex structures beginning to shed much further downstream. As the Richardson number approached unity ($\mathit{Ri}\geq 0. 72$), instead of having ‘Kármán’ vortices shedding alternately at the two sides of the heated cylinder, concurrent shedding of smaller vortex structures was observed in the near wake of the heated cylinder. The smaller vortex structures were found to behave more like ‘Kelvin–Helmholtz’ vortices than ‘Kármán’ vortices, and adjacent small vortices would merge to form larger vortex structures further downstream. It was also found that the shedding frequency of the wake vortex structures decreased with increasing Richardson number. The wake closure length and the drag coefficient of the heated cylinder were found initially to decrease slightly when the Richardson number was relatively small ($\mathit{Ri}\lt 0. 31$), and then to increase monotonically with increasing Richardson number as the Richardson number became relatively large ($\mathit{Ri}\gt 0. 31$). The average Nusselt number ($ \overline{\mathit{Nu}} $) of the heated cylinder was found to decrease almost linearly with increasing Richardson number.
Application of Vibrotactile Feedback of Body Motion to Improve Rehabilitation in Individuals With Imbalance

Background and Purpose: Balance rehabilitation and vestibular or balance prostheses are both emerging fields that have a potential for synergistic interaction. This article reviews vibrotactile prosthetic devices that have been developed to date and ongoing work related to the application of vibrotactile feedback for enhanced postural control. A vibrotactile feedback device developed in the author's laboratory is described. Methods: Twelve subjects with vestibular hypofunction were tested on a platform that moved randomly in a plane, while receiving vibrotactile feedback in the anteroposterior direction. The feedback allowed subjects to significantly decrease their anteroposterior body tilt but did not change mediolateral tilt. A tandem walking task performed by subjects with vestibulopathies demonstrated a reduction in their mediolateral sway due to vibrotactile feedback of mediolateral body tilt, after controlling for the effects of task learning. Published findings from 2 additional experiments conducted in the laboratories of collaborating physical therapists are summarized. Results: The Dynamic Gait Index scores in community-dwelling elderly individuals who were prone to falls were significantly improved with the use of mediolateral body tilt feedback. Discussion and Conclusions: Although more work is needed, these results suggest that vibrotactile tilt feedback of subjects' body motion can be used effectively by physical therapists for balance rehabilitation. A preliminary description of the third-generation device that has been reduced from a vest format to a belt format is described to demonstrate the progressive evolution from research to clinical application.
Dynamic Query Optimization under Access Limitations and Dependencies

Unlike relational tables in a database, data sources on the Web typically can only be accessed in limited ways. In particular, some of the source fields may be required as input and thus need to be mandatorily filled in order to access the source. Answering queries over sources with access limitations is a complex task that requires a possibly recursive evaluation even when the query is non-recursive. After reviewing the main techniques for query answering in this context, in this article we consider the impact of functional and inclusion dependencies on dynamic query optimization under access limitations. In particular, we address the implication problem for functional dependencies and simple full-width inclusion dependencies, and prove that it can be decided in polynomial time. Then we provide necessary and sufficient conditions, based on the dependencies together with the data retrieved at a certain step of the query answering process, that allow avoiding unnecessary accesses to the sources.
A review of function modeling: Approaches and applications

Abstract This work is aimed at establishing a common frame and understanding of function modeling (FM) for our ongoing research activities. A comparative review of the literature is performed to grasp the various FM approaches with their commonalities and differences. The relations of FM with the research fields of artificial intelligence, design theory, and maintenance are discussed. In this discussion the goals are to highlight the features of various classical approaches in relation to FM, to delineate what FM introduces to these fields, and to discuss the applicability of various FM approaches in these fields. Finally, the basic ideas underlying our projects are introduced with reference to the general framework of FM.
The Importance of Risk and Subgroup Analysis of Nonparticipants in a Geriatric Intervention Study

Background. A major concern in intervention studies is the generalizability of the findings due to refusal of intended participants to actually take part. In studies including ill older people the number of those declining to participate may be large and the concern is therefore relevant. Objectives. To compare patients characteristics, rates of acute readmission, and mortality after one and six months among older persons who agreed and those who declined to participate in a randomized controlled trial and to describe subgroups of nonparticipants. Design. Comparative study based on a randomized controlled trial. Setting. University hospital in the Capital Region of Denmark. Participants. Patients ≥70 years discharged home after a short Emergency Department stay. 399 were requested to participate; 271 consented, whereas 128 refused. Results. Refusers were more likely to be readmitted (p < 0.001) or die (p = 0.006). The largest subgroup of refusers described as “too ill” had the highest risk of readmission (OR = 3.00, 95% CI = 1.61–5.47, p = 0.001) and of mortality within six months (OR = 3.50, 95% CI = 1.64–7.49, p = 0.002). However, this seems not to have affected the results of our randomized study. Conclusion. We recommend that intervention studies among older people or other fragile patient groups include analysis of relevant risk and subgroup analyses of refusers.
Transformative social protection

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. Reproduction, copy, transmission, or translation of any part of this publication may be made only under the following conditions: • with the prior permission of the publisher; or • with a licence from the or from another national licensing agency; or • under the terms set out below. This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee for teaching or non-profit purposes, but not for resale. Formal permission is required for all such uses, but normally will be granted immediately. For copying in any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher, and a fee may be payable. Printed by XPS Limited, Brighton UK IDS is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (No. 877338). iii Summary Social protection describes all public and private initiatives that provide income or consumption transfers to the poor, protect the vulnerable against livelihood risks, and enhance the social status and rights of the marginalised; with the overall objective of reducing the economic and social vulnerability of poor, vulnerable and marginalised groups. This paper argues against the popular perception of social protection as " social welfare programmes for poor countries " , consisting of costly targeted transfers to economically inactive or vulnerable groups. It also challenges the limited ambition of social protection policy in practice, which has moved little from its origins in the " social safety nets " discourse of the 1980s, and aims to provide " economic protection " against livelihood shocks, rather than " social protection " as broadly defined here. Instead, we argue that social protection can be affordable; it should extend to all of the population; it can contribute to the Millennium Development Goal of poverty reduction; and it can empower marginalised people and be socially " transformative " .
Incidence, Predictors, and Postoperative Complications of Blood Transfusion in Thoracic and Lumbar Fusion Surgery: An Analysis of 13,695 Patients from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Database

Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Objective To identify predictive factors for blood transfusion and associated complications in lumbar and thoracic fusion surgeries. Methods The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database was used to identify patients who underwent lumbar or thoracic fusion from 2010 to 2013. Multivariate analysis was used to determine predictive factors and postoperative complications associated with transfusion. Results Out of 13,695 patients, 13,170 had lumbar fusion and 525 had thoracic fusion. The prevalence of transfusion was 31.8% for thoracic and 17.0% for lumbar fusion. The multivariate analysis showed that age between 50 and 60, age between 61 and 70, age > 70, dyspnea, American Society of Anesthesiologists class 3, bleeding disease, multilevel surgery, extended surgical time, return to operation room, and higher preoperative blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were predictors of blood transfusion for lumbar fusion. Multilevel surgery, preoperative BUN, and extended surgical time were predictors of transfusion for thoracic fusion. Patients receiving transfusions who underwent lumbar fusion were more likely to develop wound infection, venous thromboembolism, pulmonary embolism, and myocardial infarction and had longer hospital stay. Patients receiving transfusions who underwent thoracic fusion were more likely to have extended hospital stay. Conclusion This study characterizes incidence, predictors, and postoperative complications associated with blood transfusion in thoracic and lumbar fusion. Pre- and postoperative planning for patients deemed to be at high risk of requiring blood transfusion might reduce postoperative complications in this population.
Temporal and spatial association of Streptococcus suis infection in humans and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome outbreaks in pigs in northern Vietnam

SUMMARY Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) outbreaks in pigs are associated with increased susceptibility of pigs to secondary bacterial infections, including Streptococcus suis – an important zoonotic pathogen causing bacterial meningitis in humans. This case-control study examined the association between human S. suis infection and PRRS outbreaks in pigs in northern Vietnam. We included 90 S. suis case-patients and 183 non-S. suis sepsis controls from a referral hospital in Hanoi in 2010, a period of major PRRS epizootics in Vietnam. PRRS exposure was determined using data from the National Centre of Veterinary Diagnosis. By univariate analysis, significantly more S. suis patients were reported residing in or adjacent to a PRRS district compared to controls [odds ratio (OR) 2·82, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·35–5·89 and OR 3·15, 95% CI 1·62–6·15, respectively]. Only residency in adjacent districts remained significantly associated with risk of S. suis infection after adjusting for sex, occupation, and eating practices. SaTScan analysis showed a possible cluster of S. suis infection in humans around PRRS confirmed locations during the March–August period. The findings indicate an epidemiological association between PRRS in pigs and S. suis infections in humans. Effective strategies to strengthen control of PRRS in pigs may help reduce transmission of S. suis infection to humans.
Delay of Muscle Vasodilation to Changes in Work Rate (treadmill grade) During Locomotion.

Previous studies examining the delay to the onset of vasodilation have primarily focused on the onset of exercise, a setting complicated by the fact that the muscle pump and the vasodilator systems are both activated, making it difficult to attribute changes in blood flow to one or both. The goal here was to determine the delay to the onset of vasodilation after changes in work rate imposed by changes in treadmill grade (work intensity) during locomotion at a steady speed. The rationale was that constant speed would help ensure constant muscle pump activity (contraction frequency) such that vasodilator responses could be examined in isolation. Seven Sprague-Dawley rats underwent three trials each in which treadmill incline was suddenly ( approximately 1 s) elevated from -10 degrees to +10 degrees. The delay to the onset of vasodilation averaged 5.0 +/- 1.8 s, and this delay was not altered by inhibition of nitric oxide synthase. Similar or longer delays were seen during sinusoidal exercise. Thus there is a significant delay before the onset of vasodilation after an increase in work intensity (muscle force) during locomotory exercise at constant speed.
Intergenerational Dialogue Exchange and Action: Introducing a Community-Based Participatory Approach to Connect Youth, Adults and Elders in an Alaskan Native Community

The broad goals of the community-based participatory research (CBPR) include community engagement, capacity building, developing practical solutions for community concerns and knowledge building. This article describes the data generation and sharing process as it relates to the goals of CBPR and health promotion in an American Indian/Alaska Native communities. The project described herein, “Investigating Inupiaq Cultural Resilience: A Pilot Study, “ achieved these goals in a tribal context by fostering intergenerational dialogue through data collection. The intergenerational exchange served to collect data for a community-based participatory study and provide an opportunity for communication between Elders, adults and youth. By providing an arena for intergenerational sharing, the format encouraged cross-age connections and in doing so, supported, in a broad sense, the transmission of cultural knowledge. The article describes the process and articulates the ways it supports the CBPR goals of engagement, practical relevance, knowledge generation and health promotion.
Constraint Satisfaction Problems Solvable by Local Consistency Methods

We prove that constraint satisfaction problems without the ability to count are solvable by the local consistency checking algorithm. This settles three (equivalent) conjectures: Feder--Vardi [SICOMP’98], Bulatov [LICS’04] and Larose--Zádori [AU’07].
Presenilin 1 Mutants Impair the Self-Renewal and Differentiation of Adult Murine Subventricular Zone-Neuronal Progenitors via Cell-Autonomous Mechanisms Involving Notch Signaling

The vast majority of pedigrees with familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) are caused by inheritance of mutations in the PSEN1 1 gene. While genetic ablation studies have revealed a role for presenilin 1 (PS1) in embryonic neurogenesis, little information has emerged regarding the potential effects of FAD-linked PS1 variants on proliferation, self-renewal and differentiation, key events that control cell fate commitment of adult brain neural progenitors (NPCs). We used adult brain subventricular zone (SVZ)-derived NPC cultures transduced with recombinant lentivirus as a means to investigate the effects of various PS1 mutants on self-renewal and differentiation properties. We now show that viral expression of several PS1 mutants in NPCs leads to impaired self-renewal and altered differentiation toward neuronal lineage, in vitro. In line with these observations, diminished constitutive proliferation and steady-state SVZ progenitor pool size was observed in vivo in transgenic mice expressing the PS1ΔE9 variant. Moreover, NPC cultures established from the SVZ of adult mice expressing PS1ΔE9 exhibit reduced self-renewal capacity and premature exit toward neuronal fates. To these findings, we show that both the levels of endogenous Notch/CBF-1-transcriptional activity and transcripts encoding Notch target genes are diminished in SVZ NPCs expressing PS1ΔE9. The deficits in self-renewal and multipotency are restored by expression of Notch1-ICD or a downstream target of the Notch pathway, Hes1. Hence, we argue that a partial reduction in PS-dependent γ-secretase processing of the Notch, at least in part, accounts for the impairments observed in SVZ NPCs expressing the FAD-linked PS1ΔE9 variant.
Holograph Interferomatery for Modelling Rate Change of Shoreline from Airsar Data

This work is introducing a new approach for modeling shoreline change rate from AIRSAR Cvv- band. The hologram algorithm has been applied to simulate the wave spectra propagation pattern. In addition, Doppler frequency and azimuth cut off models are used to model longshore current movement and rate change of sediment transport volume. The results show that the phase information of AIRSAR hologram image can be used to simulate the wave refraction pattern. Furthermore, the Shoreline change rate is less than -0.5m /day which indicates an erosion event with accuracy error of plusmn 0.05 m/day.
Social Capital, Internet Connectedness & Political Participation: A Four-Country Study

This paper examines the relationship between social capital, Internet connectedness and political participation in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. While a number of studies have hypothesized a relationship between social capital and political participation, few have been able to model, measure and compare levels of engagement beyond the general consensus that higher levels of social capital mean higher levels of political involvement. While some studies have claimed that Internet use has negative effects on these areas of life, others have argued for negligible or even positive outcomes. We develop a typology of Internet users (socialisers, utilitarians, and game-players) and explore a relationship between technological connectedness and political participation that we hypothesize is positively moderated by social capital connectedness. Using structural equation modeling on the Survey2000 dataset, we find no significant negative effect of connectedness on social capital, a negative effect of connectedness on political participation in the United States except when mediated by social capital, and different degrees of positive effects of connectedness on social capital and political participation varying by Internet user and by country.
Smooth Discrimination Analysis

Discriminant analysis for two data sets in IRd with probability densities f and g can be based on the estimation of the set G = {x : f(x) I g(x)}. We consider applications where it is appropriate to assume that the region G has a smooth boundary. In particular, this assumption makes sense if discriminant analysis is used as a data analytic tool. We discuss optimal rates for estimation of G.
Research in International Business and Finance The effect of leverage on performance: Domestically-oriented versus internationally-oriented ﬁrms

This paper examines the relation between ﬁnancial leverage and ﬁrm performance for a panel of 159,375 non-ﬁnancial ﬁrms in Thailand during the ﬁnancial crisis of 2007–2009. We ﬁnd that for the full sample, leverage is negatively associated with ﬁrm performance. In addition, the effect of leverage on performance is negative for the domestically-oriented ﬁrms and is positive for the internationally-oriented ﬁrms. Furthermore, ﬁrm size mode- rates the effect of leverage on performance. These results might be driven by the fact that the internationally-oriented ﬁrms tend to have a larger pool of resources, knowledge and capability than the domestically-oriented ﬁrms. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Prevalence of Class 1 Integrons and Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases among Multi-Drug Resistant Escherichia coli Isolates from North of Iran

Background: Extended spectrum beta lactamases (ESBLs) are an important cause of transferable multidrug resistance (MDR) in gram-negative bacteria. The most described ESBL genes are generally found within integron-like structures as mobile genetic elements. The aim of this study was to identify the accompanying of class 1 integrons and ESBLs in the MDR E. coli isolates. Methods: Susceptibility to antimicrobial agents was determined for 33 E. coli strains by the disk diffusion method. Double-disk synergy test was applied for screening ESBL. To identify the strains carrying integrons, the conserved regions of integron-encoded integrase gene intI1 were amplified. For detection of gene cassettes, 5′CS and 3′CS primers were used. Results: All E. coli isolates were identified as multi-drug resistant. More than 50% of the isolates were resistant to tetracycline, cephalothin, cefuroxime, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, and third generation cephalosporines. Nearly all of the isolates displayed sensitivity to piperacillin. There was a significant correlation between production of ESBL and resistance to all antibiotics except for ciprofloxacin and piperacillin (P < 0.01). Thirty two MDR strains (97%) included class 1 integron, and some isolates that included integrons were similar in the size of gene cassettes. The isolates were different in the resistance profiles; however, some others had similar resistance profiles. Of eight ESBL positive isolates, seven (87.5%) carried class 1 integrons. Conclusion: Class 1 integrons were frequent in MDR and also ESBL-producing E. coli isolates. High prevalence of class 1 integrons confirms that integron-mediated antimicrobial gene cassettes are important in E. coli resistance profile.
Temporal properties of short gamma-ray bursts

We analyse a sample of bright short bursts from the BATSE 4B-catalog and find that many short bursts are highly variable (δt m i n /T « 1, where δt m i n is the shortest pulse duration and T is the burst duration). This indicates that it is unlikely that short bursts are produced by external shocks. We also analyse the available (first 1-2s) high-resolution Time Tagged Events (TTE) data of some of the long bursts. We find that variability on a 10-ms time-scale is common in long bursts. This result shows that some long bursts are even more variable than it was thought before (δt m i n /T 10 - 4 -10 - 3 ).