Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seismic Response of Adjacent Unequal Buildings Subjected to Double Pounding Considering Soil-Structure Interaction

Various cases of two adjacent multi-story buildings with different numbers of floors and equal or unequal foundation levels under earthquake loading and considering soil-structure interaction (SSI) are investigated. A two-dimensional model for each case of the two adjacent unequal buildings without separation distance is used and a special arrangement of contact elements in the contact zone is employed to fulfil all possible deformation contact modes which take place under seismic loading. The soil is modelled by two-dimensional 4-node elements which are in contact with the foundations of the two adjacent buildings. This paper studies the earthquake-induced double pounding that takes place between the two adjacent unequal height buildings in some upper points at superstructure in the contact zone and also at foundation level, considering soil-structure interaction (SSI). The double pounding and the soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects should be taken into consideration in the seismic analysis of adjacent buildings especially those with different heights and different foundation levels.
Vitamin D Deficiency and Possible Risk Factors Among Middle Eastern University Students in London, Ontario, Canada

ii DEDICATION . iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . v LIST OF TABLES . vii LIST OF APPENDICES . viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . ix GLOSSARY . x CHAPTER 1 . 1
Classification and fingerprinting of different berries based on biochemical profiling and antioxidant capacity

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a composicao bioquimica de seis especies de pequenas frutas dos generos Fragaria, Rubus, Vaccinium e Ribes. As amostras das frutas foram coletadas em triplicata (com 50 frutas cada) de 18 diferentes especies ou cultivares dos generos mencionados, durante tres anos (2008 a 2010). Os teores individuais de acucares, acidos orgânicos, flavonois e acidos fenolicos foram determinados por cromatografia liquida de alta performance (HPLC), e os fenois totais (FT) e a capacidade antioxidante total (CAT), por meio de espectrofotometria. As analises de componente principal (ACP) e de agrupamento hierarquico (AH) foram utilizadas para avaliar as diferencas no perfil bioquimico das frutas. Os maiores teores de compostos bioativos foram encontrados em Ribes nigrum e em Fragaria vesca, Rubus plicatus e Vaccinium myrtillus. ACP e AH foram capazes de discriminar parcialmente as frutas com base em sua composicao bioquimica. Os acucares totais e individuais, a miricetina, o acido elagico, FT e CAT foram os parâmetros que mais impactaram na avaliacao da composicao bioquimica das pequenas frutas. AH fez a separacao de amora-preta, framboesa e mirtilo como grupos isolados, porem a classificacao do morango, da groselha-preta e da groselha-vermelha, em um grupo especifico, nao ocorreu. Ha grande variabilidade entre e dentro dos diferentes tipos de frutas vermelhas. A identificacao de metabolitos das pequenas frutas mostrou perfis bioquimicos unicos e combinacoes especificas de teores de compostos bioativos.
Differentiated Bandwidth Allocation with TCP Protection in Core Routers

Differentiated Services (DiffServ) networks categorize routers into edge routers and core routers. In core routers, one of the technological challenges is how to implement differentiated bandwidth allocation and TCP protection together with low complexity. We present an Active Queue Management (AQM) scheme called CHOKeW. A method is borrowed from a previous scheme, CHOKe, which draws a packet at random from the buffer, compares it with the arriving packet, and drops both if they are from the same flow. CHOKeW enhances the drawing function by adjusting the maximum number of draws based on the priority of the new arrival and the current status of network congestion. With respect to the number of flows, both the memory-requirement complexity and the per-packet-processing complexity for CHOKeW is O(1). An analytical model and multiple simulations are used to explain and evaluate CHOKeW. We show that CHOKeW is able to (1) support differentiated bandwidth allocation; (2) provide the flows in the same priority with better fairness than other conventional stateless AQM schemes such as RED and BLUE; (3) maintain high link utilization as well as short queue length; and (4) protect TCP flows by restricting the bandwidth share of high-speed unresponsive flows.
Early Experience in 100 Consecutive Patients With Injection Adipocytolysis for Neck Contouring With ATX-101 (Deoxycholic Acid)

BACKGROUND Deoxycholic acid (DCA) is approved for improvement in the appearance of moderate to severe convexity or fullness associated with submental fat. OBJECTIVE To assess early treatment experience with DCA injection in a clinical practice setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this single-center, prospective, single-arm, observational study, 100 consecutive patients seeking to decrease submental fullness received subcutaneous DCA (2 mg/cm2) injections in the submental area (maximum of 6 sessions at ≥1 month intervals). Treatment response was assessed 1 and 5 to 7 weeks posttreatment using the clinician-reported submental fat rating scale (CR-SMFRS) and retrospective independent photograph review by 2 physicians. RESULTS Overall, 100 patients had 152 treatment sessions (58, 33, 8, and 1 patients had 1, 2, 3, and 4 sessions, respectively). CR-SMFRS score improved by ≥1 point from baseline in 88 (88%) patients; of these, 46, 33, 8, and 1 patients had 1, 2, 3, and 4 sessions, respectively. Local edema, numbness, and tenderness were reported for a mean (SD) of 7.7 (5.3), 28.5 (11.4), and 3.5 (3.5) days, respectively. Two patients experienced marginal mandibular nerve paresis. CONCLUSION Deoxycholic acid injection, a minimally invasive procedure for neck contouring, was effective and generally well tolerated in the private practice setting.
Shape-Driven Gabor Jets for Face Description and Authentication

This paper proposes, through the combination of concepts and tools from different fields within the computer vision community, an alternative path to the selection of key points in face images. The classical way of attempting to solve the face recognition problem using algorithms which encode local information is to localize a predefined set of points in the image, extract features from the regions surrounding those locations, and choose a measure of similarity (or distance) between correspondent features. Our approach, namely shape-driven Gabor jets, aims at selecting an own set of points and features for a given client. After applying a ridges and valleys detector to a face image, characteristic lines are extracted and a set of points is automatically sampled from these lines where Gabor features (jets) are calculated. So each face is depicted by R2 points and their respective jets. Once two sets of points from face images have been extracted, a shape-matching algorithm is used to solve the correspondence problem (i.e., map each point from the first image to a point within the second image) so that the system is able to compare shape-matched jets. As a byproduct of the matching process, geometrical measures are computed and compiled into the final dissimilarity function. Experiments on the AR face database confirm good performance of the method against expression and, mainly, lighting changes. Moreover, results on the XM2VTS and BANCA databases show that our algorithm achieves better performance than implementations of the elastic bunch graph matching approach and other related techniques.
Comparing the maintainability of selenium WebDriver test suites employing different locators: a case study

Test suite maintenance tends to have the biggest impact on the overall cost of test automation. Frequently modifications applied on a web application lead to have one or more test cases broken and repairing the test suite is a time-consuming and expensive task. This paper reports on an industrial case study conducted in a small Italian company investigating on the analysis of the effort to repair web test suites implemented using different UI locators (e.g., Identifiers and XPath). The results of our case study indicate that ID locators used in conjunction with LinkText is the best solution among the considered ones in terms of time required (and LOCs to modify) to repair the test suite to the new release of the application.
Rate Modulation of the Human Anconeus Muscle During High-Intensity Dynamic Fatigue of the Elbow Extensor Muscle Group

ii Acknowledgments iii Table of Contents v List of Tables vii List of Figures viii List of Appendices ix List of Abbreviations x Glossary of Terms xi Chapter 1 1 1 Literature Review 1 1.1 General Introduction 1 1.2 Neuromuscular Transmission 1 1.3 Motor Unit Control Strategies 4 1.4 Electromyography 5 1.5 Elbow Extensor Muscle Group 6 1.6 The Anconeus Muscle 7 1.7 Neuromuscular Fatigue 8 1.7. 1 Techniques Used to Assess Neuromuscular Fatigue 8 1.8 Purpose and Hypotheses 10 Chapter 2 11 2 Introduction 11 Chapter 3 14 3 Methods 14 3.1 Participants 14 vi 3.2 Experimental Setup 14 3.3 Baseline Measures 16 3.4 Fatigue Protocol 17 3.5 Data Analysis 18 3.6 Statistical Analysis 20 Chapter 4 22 4 Results 22 4.1 Voluntary Activation and Peak Twitch 24 4.2 Motor Unit Firing Rate and Peak Power During the Fatigue Protocol 25 Chapter 5 27 5 Discussion 27 5.1 Anconeus as a model to study neuromuscular fatigue 27 5.2 Assessment of neuromuscular fatigue 28 5.3 Motor unit firing rates 29 5.4 Summary 31 5.5 Limitations 32 5.6 Future Directions 34 References 36 Appendix 45 Curriculum Vitae 46
Morphological and Optical Characteristics of Chitosan(1−x):Cuox (4 ≤ x ≤ 12) Based Polymer Nano-Composites: Optical Dielectric Loss as an Alternative Method for Tauc’s Model

In this work, copper (Cu) nanoparticles with observable surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) peaks were synthesized by an in-situ method. Chitosan host polymer was used as a reduction medium and a capping agent for the Cu nanoparticles. The surface morphology of the samples was investigated through the use of scanning electron micrograph (SEM) technique. Copper nanoparticles appeared as chains and white specks in the SEM images. The strong peaks due to the Cu element observed in the spectrum of energy dispersive analysis of X-rays. For the nanocomposite samples, obvious peaks due to the SPR phenomena were obtained in the Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectra. The effect of Cu nanoparticles on the host band gap was understood from absorption edges shifting of absorption edges to lower photon energy. The optical dielectric loss parameter obtained from the measurable quantities was used as an alternative method to study the band structure of the samples. Quantum mechanical models drawbacks, in the study of band gap, were explained based on the optical dielectric loss. A clear dispersion region was able to be observed in refractive indices spectra of the composite samples. A linear relationship with a regression value of 0.99 was achieved between the refractive index and volume fractions of CuI content. Cu nanoparticles with various sizes and homogenous dispersions were also determined from transmission electron microscope (TEM) images.
Mutations in genes encoding polycomb repressive complex 2 subunits cause Weaver syndrome

Weaver syndrome (WS) is a rare congenital overgrowth disorder caused by heterozygous mutations in EZH2 (enhancer of zeste homolog 2) or EED (embryonic ectoderm development). EZH2 and EED are core components of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), which possesses histone methyltransferase activity and catalyzes trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 27. Here, we analyzed eight probands with clinically suspected WS by whole‐exome sequencing and identified three mutations: a 25.4‐kb deletion partially involving EZH2 and CUL1 (individual 1), a missense mutation (c.707G>C, p.Arg236Thr) in EED (individual 2), and a missense mutation (c.1829A>T, p.Glu610Val) in SUZ12 (suppressor of zeste 12 homolog) (individual 3) inherited from her father (individual 4) with a mosaic mutation. SUZ12 is another component of PRC2 and germline mutations in SUZ12 have not been previously reported in humans. In vitro functional analyses demonstrated that the identified EED and SUZ12 missense mutations cause decreased trimethylation of lysine 27 of histone H3. These data indicate that loss‐of‐function mutations of PRC2 components are an important cause of WS.
P-MaNGA: full spectral fitting and stellar population maps from prototype observations

MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is a 6-yr SDSS-IV (Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV) survey that will obtain resolved spectroscopy from 3600 to 10 300 A for a representative sample of over 10 000 nearby galaxies. In this paper, we derive spatially resolved stellar population properties and radial gradients by performing full spectral fitting of observed galaxy spectra from P-MaNGA, a prototype of the MaNGA instrument. These data include spectra for 18 galaxies, covering a large range of morphological type. We derive age, metallicity, dust, and stellar mass maps, and their radial gradients, using high spectral-resolution stellar population models, and assess the impact of varying the stellar library input to the models. We introduce a method to determine dust extinction which is able to give smooth stellar mass maps even in cases of high and spatially non-uniform dust attenuation. With the spectral fitting, we produce detailed maps of stellar population properties which allow us to identify galactic features among this diverse sample such as spiral structure, smooth radial profiles with little azimuthal structure in spheroidal galaxies, and spatially distinct galaxy sub-components. In agreement with the literature, we find the gradients for galaxies identified as early type to be on average flat in age, and negative (−0.15 dex/Re) in metallicity, whereas the gradients for late-type galaxies are on average negative in age (−0.39 dex/Re) and flat in metallicity. We demonstrate how different levels of data quality change the precision with which radial gradients can be measured. We show how this analysis, extended to the large numbers of MaNGA galaxies, will have the potential to shed light on galaxy structure and evolution.
Spiders in the Sky: User Perceptions of Drones, Privacy, and Security

Drones are increasingly being used for various purposes from recording footage in inaccessible areas to delivering packages. A rise in drone usage introduces privacy and security concerns about flying boundaries, what data drones collect in public and private spaces, and how that data is stored and disseminated. However, commercial and personal drone regulations focusing on privacy and security have been fairly minimal in the USA. To inform privacy and security guidelines for drone design and regulation, we need to understand users' perceptions about drones, privacy and security. In this paper, we describe a laboratory study with 20 participants who interacted with a real or model drone to elicit user perceptions of privacy and security issues around drones. We present our results, discuss the implications of our work and make recommendations to improve drone design and regulations that enhance individual privacy and security.
The Course of Heart Failure Development and Mortality in Rats with Volume Overload due to Aorto-Caval Fistula

Background: There are only few studies documenting the long-term outcome of aorto-caval fistula (ACF) in rats, a model of volume overload heart failure (HF). The aim of the present study was to describe HF-related morbidity and mortality, and to examine the relation between cardiac hypertrophy and survival. Methods: Adult male Wistar rats underwent needle ACF or sham operation and 71 animals surviving the acute procedure with patent ACF were followed for 52 weeks. Results: By the end of the study, 72% of the ACF animals deceased and 82% developed HF signs. Of the HF rats, 65% died (median: 3 weeks after HF onset). Before death, body weight increased by 9% followed by a final drop. 28% ACF rats died suddenly, without preceding HF. Sudden death occurred earlier and in the rats with a trend to larger hearts (p = 0.07). In the whole ACF cohort, heart weight (heart weight/body weight ratio) was inversely associated with the length of survival (r = –0.51, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The median survival of ACF Wistar rats is 43 weeks, longer than reported in other rat strains. Increased heart weight is associated with higher mortality and a significant number of animals die suddenly.
Neuro-evolutionary topology optimization of structures by utilizing local state features

In this paper we propose a novel method for the topology optimization of mechanical structures, based on a hybrid combination of a neuro-evolution with a gradient-based optimizer. Conventional gradient-based topology optimization requires problem-specific sensitivity information, however this is not available in the general case. The proposed method substitutes the analytical gradient by an artificial neural network approximation model, whose parameters are learned by an evolutionary algorithm. Advantageous is that the number of parameters in the evolutionary search is not directly coupled to the mesh of the discretized design, potentially enabling the optimization of fine discretizations. Concretely, the network maps features, obtained for each element of the discretized design, to an update signal, that is used to determine a new design. A new network is learned for every iteration of the topology optimization. The proposed method is evaluated on the minimum compliance design problem, with two different sets of features. Feasible designs are obtained, showing that the neural network is able to successfully replace analytical sensitivity information. In concluding remarks, we discuss the significant improvement that is achieved when including the strain energy as feature.
Fusobacterium nucleatum: an emerging bug in colorectal tumorigenesis

The human intestinal microbiota is a plethora of diverse microbial species, wherein certain bacteria considered as driver bacteria with procarcinogenic features contribute directly toward colonic epithelium cell damage to initiate colorectal carcinogenesis. However, some bacteria, in particular Fusobacterium nucleatum, which is otherwise a normal resident of the oral microflora and a relatively poor colonizer of the healthy gut, have also been considered to play a role in the development of colorectal cancer. Many studies have reported that F. nucleatum is associated with colorectal adenomas and advanced-stage colorectal cancer, but its precise role in the early stages of colorectal tumorigenesis is poorly understood. Here, we review some of the important features of F. nucleatum, its association with inflammatory bowel disease, modulation of the tumor-immune microenvironment, and E-cadherin/&bgr;-catenin signaling.
Behavioral, Morphological, and Gene Expression Changes Induced by 60Co-γ Ray Irradiation in Bactrocera tau (Walker)

The sterile insect technique (SIT) may reduce pest populations by allowing sufficient amount of irradiation-induced sterile males to mate with wild females whilst maintaining mating ability comparable to wild males. Although the SIT methods are well understood, the optimal sterilizing dose and processing development stage for application vary among species. To ensure effective pest control programs, effects of irradiation on physiology, behavior, and gene function in the target species should be defined, however, little is known about irradiation effects in Bactrocera tau. Here, the effects of irradiation on rates of fecundity, egg hatch, eclosion, mating competitiveness, flight capability, morphology of reproductive organs, and yolk protein (YP) gene expression were studied. The results showed that rates of female fecundity and egg hatch decreased significantly (51 ± 19 to 0.06 ± 0.06 and 98.90 ± 1.01 to 0, respectively) when pupae were treated with >150 Gy irradiation. Flight capability and mating competitiveness were not significantly influenced at doses <250 Gy. Ovaries and fallopian tubes became smaller after irradiation, but there was no change in testes size. Finally, we found that expression of the YP gene was up-regulated by irradiation at 30 and 45 days post-emergence, but the mechanisms were unclear. Our study provides information on the determination of the optimal irradiation sterilizing dose in B. tau, and the effects of irradiation on physiology, morphology and gene expression that will facilitate an understanding of sub-lethal impacts of the SIT and expand its use to the control of other species.
Intelligence and all-cause mortality in the 6-Day Sample of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 and their siblings: testing the contribution of family background

Abstract Background Higher early-life intelligence is associated with a reduced risk of mortality in adulthood, though this association is apparently hardly attenuated when accounting for early-life socio-economic status (SES). However, the use of proxy measures of SES means that residual confounding may underestimate this attenuation. In the present study, the potential confounding effect of early-life SES was instead accounted for by examining the intelligence–mortality association within families. Methods The association between early-life intelligence and mortality in adulthood was assessed in 727 members of the 6-Day Sample of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 and, for the first time, 1580 of their younger siblings. These individuals were born between 1936 and 1958, and were followed up into later life, with deaths recorded up to 2015. Cox regression was used to estimate the relative risk of mortality associated with higher IQ scores after adjusting for shared family factors. Results A standard-deviation advantage in IQ score was associated with a significantly reduced mortality risk [hazard ratio = 0.76, p < 0.001, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.68–0.84)]. This reduction in hazard was only slightly attenuated by adjusting for sex and shared family factors [hazard ratio = 0.79, p = 0.002, 95% CI (0.68–0.92)]. Conclusions Although somewhat conservative, adjusting for all variance shared by a family avoids any potential residual confounding of the intelligence–mortality association arising from the use of proxy measures of early-life SES. The present study demonstrates that the longevity associated with higher early-life intelligence cannot be explained by early-life SES or within-family factors.
Properties of ligno-cellulose fiber Hildegardia

Studies on some properties such as the density, the degradation temperatures, the morphology and the spectral features of the ligno-cellulose fiber Hildegardia were carried out in both untreated and alkali treated form. The fibers are found to have good morphology and moderate initial and final degradation temperatures. On alkali treatment, the lignin was found to be eliminated. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 2216–2221, 2002