Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Review of the Current State of Knowledge on the Effects of Radiation on Concrete

A review of the current state of knowledge on the effects of radiation on concrete in nuclear applications is presented. Emphasis is placed on the effects of radiation damage as reflected by changes in engineering properties of concrete in the evaluation of the long-term operation (LTO) and for Plant Life or Aging Management of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Japan, Spain, and the United States. National issues and concerns are described for Japan and the US followed by a discussion of the fundamental understanding of the effects radiation on concrete. Specifically, the effects of temperature, moisture content, and irradiation on ordinary Portland cement paste and the role of temperature and neutron energy spectra on radiation induced volumetric expansion (RIVE) of aggregate-forming minerals are described. This is followed by a discussion of the bounding conditions for extended operation, the significance of accelerated irradiation conditions, the role of temperature, creep, and how these issues are being incorporated into numerical and meso-scale models. From these insights on radiation damage, analyses of these effects on concrete structures are reviewed and the current status of work in Japan and the US are described. Also discussed is the recent formation of a new international scientific andmore » technical organization, the International Committee on Irradiated Concrete (ICIC), to provide a forum for timely information exchanges among organizations pursuing the identification, quantification, and modeling of the effects of radiation on concrete in commercial nuclear applications. Lastly, the paper concludes with a discussion of research gaps including: 1) interpreting test-reactor data, 2) evaluating service-irradiated concrete for aging management and to inform radiation damage models with the Zorita NPP (Spain) serving as the first comprehensive test case, 3) irradiated-assisted alkali-silica reactions, and 4) RIVE under constrained conditions. « less
Distribution patterns of Terebellidae (Annelida: Polychaeta): an application of Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE)

The biogeography of Terebellidae (Polychaeta) using Parsimony Analysis of Endemism (PAE) is investigated and species and genera distribution in relation to coastal and continental shelf areas of endemism around the world is considered. Hierarchical patterns in PAE cladograms are identified by testing for congruence with patterns derived from cladistic biogeography and geological evidence. The PAE cladogram indicates that many of the extant terebellid worms from the current Southern Hemisphere (“Gondwanan clades”) have originated from Laurasian ancestors or, in the case of the clade formed by Brazilian, South Atlantic and Antarctic taxa, have descended directly from an ancestral lineage common to some Northern areas. The present analysis also shows a high level of endemism at the species level. Relationships of the areas differ slightly from previous biogeographical analyses applied to other polychaete families.
SATELLITE IMAGE CLASSIFICATION OF BUILDING DAMAGES USING AIRBORNE AND SATELLITE IMAGE SAMPLES IN A DEEP LEARNING APPROACH

Abstract. The localization and detailed assessment of damaged buildings after a disastrous event is of utmost importance to guide response operations, recovery tasks or for insurance purposes. Several remote sensing platforms and sensors are currently used for the manual detection of building damages. However, there is an overall interest in the use of automated methods to perform this task, regardless of the used platform. Owing to its synoptic coverage and predictable availability, satellite imagery is currently used as input for the identification of building damages by the International Charter, as well as the Copernicus Emergency Management Service for the production of damage grading and reference maps. Recently proposed methods to perform image classification of building damages rely on convolutional neural networks (CNN). These are usually trained with only satellite image samples in a binary classification problem, however the number of samples derived from these images is often limited, affecting the quality of the classification results. The use of up/down-sampling image samples during the training of a CNN, has demonstrated to improve several image recognition tasks in remote sensing. However, it is currently unclear if this multi resolution information can also be captured from images with different spatial resolutions like satellite and airborne imagery (from both manned and unmanned platforms). In this paper, a CNN framework using residual connections and dilated convolutions is used considering both manned and unmanned aerial image samples to perform the satellite image classification of building damages. Three network configurations, trained with multi-resolution image samples are compared against two benchmark networks where only satellite image samples are used. Combining feature maps generated from airborne and satellite image samples, and refining these using only the satellite image samples, improved nearly 4 % the overall satellite image classification of building damages.
Tropical Indian Ocean Basin Warming and East Asian Summer Monsoon: A Multiple AGCM Study

A basin-scale warming is the leading mode of tropical Indian Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) variability on interannual time scales, and it is also the prominent feature of the interdecadal SST trend in recent decades. The influence of the warming on the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) is investigated through ensemble experiments of several atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The results from five AGCMs consistently suggest that near the surface, the Indian Ocean warming forces an anticyclonic anomaly over the subtropical western Pacific, intensifying the southwesterly winds to East China; and in the upper troposphere, it forces a Gill-type response with the intensified South Asian high, both favoring the enhancement of the EASM. These processes are argued to contribute to the stronger EASM during the summer following the peak of El Nino than monsoons in other years. These model results also suggest that tropical Indian Ocean warming may not have a causal relationship to the synchronous weakening of EASM on interdecadal time scales.
Bottom-up effects of host plant nutritional quality on Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) and top-down effects of herbivore attack on plant compensatory ability

The plant stress and plant vigour hypotheses are competing paradigms pertaining to the preference and performance of herbivorous insects on their host plants. Tests of these hypotheses ideally require detailed information on aspects of soil nutrition, foliar nutrient levels and parameters of herbivore fitness, but such studies are uncommon. These hypotheses were tested using the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), reared on its host plant, Brassica napus (L.), grown in an experimental system of five nutrient regimes. Different levels of fertilizer treatments significantly affected the nutrient content of B. napus foliage and this in turn affected the preference and performance of P. xylostella. Ovipositing females discriminated among host plants grown in soils subjected to different fertilizer treatments and selected plants on which pre-imaginal survival was highest, development fastest and longevity of the next generation of adults the longest, even when food was scarce. Plants subjected to herbivory by P. xylostella responded by producing elevated levels of some nutrients (e.g., sulphur), but other nutrient levels declined in infested leaves (e.g., nitrogen). Regardless of the rate of fertilizer application, plants compensated for herbivory by increasing root mass compared to un-infested control plants; plants grown in soils receiving the optimum quantity of fertilizer developed the most robust root systems when infested. The plant stress and the plant vigour hypotheses are likely to be at the opposite ends of a continuum of responses between insects and their host plants. Our investigations indicate a complex set of interactions involving both bottom-up and top-down effects, which interact to affect host plant quality, oviposition site selection by female herbivores and the fitness of their offspring.
CLOSED FORM EXPRESSION FOR FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION AT COMBINED HCF / LCF LOADING UDC : 620

For the combined HCF/LCF loading, which stress history is simplified in the way that it consists of one LCF stress block with number of cycles equal to the number of start-up in-service operations and one HCF stress block with summed-up all HCF cycles, the closed form expressions are derived for estimating both the crack initiation life and the crack propagation life at combined HCF/LCF loading. As an example of the use, Smith and Haigh diagrams are obtained for the components made of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V, which enable the fatigue strength estimation for designed fatigue life, known load ratio and certain number of HCF cycles per one combined stress block.
Preparation of Cage Nanoporous Silica and Its Application in Chromatographic Fillers

In this paper, the cage nanoporous silica is composed of ethyl orthosilicate as silicon source, triblock copolymerpoly (ethylene oxide) -poly (propylene oxide) -polyethylene oxide (F127) as structure guide agent and additive, whilethe Fm3m cubic structure of cage type nanoporous silica was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis method. It is easyto control the self-assembly of the silica triblock copolymer intermediates thermally. In addition, the change in samplepore size and pore volume can be achieved by a hydrothermal reaction at a temperature of 100 ° C to 150 °C. Smallangle X-ray diff raction shows that these samples have ordered pores, while adsorption studies show that they havehigh porosity, uniform distribution of bimodal pores and large pore volume. Use separation of p-methylbenzene borate,iodobenzene and biphenyl by using three kinds of cage-type nanoporous silica materials as chromatographic fi llers. Theresults showed that the material prepared at 130 ℃ under hydrothermal condition had the best eff ect on the separationof three organic compounds.
Influence of Sequential Washing on The Ph and Electrical Conductivity of Graded Coir Pith

Coir pith is being considered as a waste generated during the separation of fibres from the husk. It is a light weight spongy material, and has lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloce and protein in substantial amount. In the present study, the pH and electrical conductivity (EC) were analyzed in the sieved coir pith during sequential washing. The results indicated that the hydrogen ion concentration was low in unwashed and first washed coir pith and high in final wash and simultaneously EC was high in unwashed and low in seventh washed coir pith extract. The final washed coir pith could be taken to future studies, because a suitable pH and EC had been achieved in the final wash. The results suggest that, pH and EC are the major influencing factors that determine the quality of any soilless media and the ways to bring them to an optimum level.
Exploring social-indexical knowledge: A long past but a short history

This article has three main aims. First, I review what is known about encoding social-indexical information in phonetics/phonology, suggesting that it is more complex and more extensive than typically acknowledged in laboratory phonology. Secondly, I explore evidence for the development of indexical knowledge in phonological acquisition, considering indexical learning from the perspective of exemplar theory. One of the attractions of exemplar theory is its capacity to predict learning of both linguistic and social structures through the same mechanism. The tenets of exemplar theory also make a number of predictions about indexical learning: some types of indexical properties are likely to be transmitted more readily than others, as a function of the frequency and phonetic transparency with which they are manifested. The predictions appear to be borne out relatively well by the available data. I end by raising a number of implications and challenges, in particular, but not exclusively, for exemplar theory.
Two-Sample Nonparametric Estimation of Intergenerational Income Mobili ty

We estimate intergenerational income mobility in the USA and Sweden. To measure the degree to which income status is transmitted from one generation to another we propose a nonparametric estimator, which is particularly relevant for cross-country comparisons. Our approach allows intergenerational mobility to vary across observable family characteristics. Furthermore, it ts situations when data on fathers and sons come from di fferent samples. Finally, our estimator is consistent in the presence of measurement error in fathers' long-run economic status. We fi nd that family background captured by fathers' education matters for intergenerational income persistence in the USA more than in Sweden suggesting that the character of inequality in the two countries is rather di fferent.
The effects of re‐homogenization on plagioclase hosted melt inclusions

Melt inclusions trapped in phenocrysts provide a unique picture of magma systems prior to modification by crustal processes. However, post‐entrapment crystallization complicates their interpretation. Re‐heating the phenocryst to the temperature of entrapment is a commonly applied method to recover the original melt composition. To understand the effects of re‐homogenization, we compared the composition of re‐heated and naturally quenched melt inclusions and inclusion compositions that had been subjected to over‐heating and under‐heating to examine the degree to which anomalous compositions were produced. Our results on plagioclase hosted inclusions from ocean floor basalts indicate that the general patterns represented by naturally quenched inclusions are the same as observed for rehomogenized inclusions. Most important, the range of minor elements described for plagioclase hosted inclusions from basalts is found in naturally quenched inclusions, and is therefore not a consequence of the re‐homogenization process.
AGE AND DENSITY MODIFY THE EFFECTS OF HABITAT QUALITY ON SURVIVAL AND MOVEMENTS OF ROE DEER

We analyzed spatial variations in movements and survival in a roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) population (Chize ´, western France) by using recent developments of multistate capture-mark-recapture modeling in order to estimate transition and survival probabilities of individuals living in three habitats of contrasting quality. Irrespective of both population density and sex, habitat quality did not influence survivorship of prime- age or senescent roe deer. Likewise, habitat quality did not influence fawn survival at low density. On the other hand, fawn survival at high density was 20% higher in the resource- rich hornbeam-dominant coppices than in the other poorer habitats. We found, as expected, that fawns were mobile, whereas adults of both sexes were highly sedentary. Movements of roe deer among habitats were markedly influenced by habitat quality. Transition prob- abilities of individuals from the rich hornbeam coppices toward other habitats were lower than transition probabilities of individuals from the poor beech stand or from the medium- quality maple dominant coppices toward the rich hornbeam coppices.
Permafrost monitoring and detection of climate change

Ground temperature monitoring has been proposed as a means of detecting climate change in permafrost regions, although it is well known that the relationship is not simple. This paper presents a functional model of the permafrost-climate relationship, which accommodates the geographical variations of climatic, surface and soil factors that control ground thermal regime. The model is used to analyse the impacts of climate change on ground temperatures and to assess the design and interpretation of ground temperature monitoring programs. The model suggests that lithologic conditions form the primary local influence on permafrost temperatures, followed by snowcover and vegetation. Results using the model suggest that simple monitoring of active layer depth does not provide a reliable indicator of changes in permafrost temperature conditions, and that monitoring at exposed bedrock sites will produce the most direct signal of climate change on the ground thermal regime. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Comparison of nutritional status between patients from urban area with rural area undergoing hemodialysis in Kushtia district, Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

Malnutrition is a common problem in patients with end stage kidney disease (ESKD) undergoing hemodialysis that increases morbidity and mortality rate in Bangladesh. The main objective of this cross sectional study was carried out to compare the nutritional status between urban patients with rural patients undergoing hemodialysis. End-stage renal-failure outpatients who underwent hemodialysis were recruited from Sono Hospital Limited, Kushtia, Bangladesh. Direct method of nutritional assessment including anthropometric measurement, biochemical measurement, clinical assessment and dietary method was carried out. Socio economic data were also collected. The result reveals that 69.0% of the total participants were male and 31.0% were female. The mean age of male was 46.10±13.23 years and that of female was 43.11±16.47 years. Among 142 cases 50.0% were from urban area and 50.0% were from rural area. 53.5% of the total participants were economically satisfied and 46.5% were non-satisfied. 76.3% of high socioeconomic group consisted of urban area and 23.7% consisted of rural area. Again 19.7% of low socioeconomic group consisted of urban area and 80.3% consisted of rural area. According to WHO classification for BMI 15.5% had BMI below 18.5kg/m2 in urban and 18.3% had BMI below 18.5kg/m2 in rural area. Of the total participants 97.2% were anemic, 66.9% had anorexia, 69.7% had depression, 63.4% had nausea, 58.5% had vomiting, 30.3% had heartburn, 47.2% had constipation, 38.0% had dizziness, 19.7% had chest pain, 5.6% had dysphagia, 34.5% had fatigue, 48.6% had headache, 26.1% had diarrhea, 50.7% had pruritus and 13.4% had shortness of breath. Mean±SD hemoglobin level of urban participants was 8.37±1.46 and that of rural participants was 8.12±1.85. The result shows that malnutrition was more prevalent among rural hemodialysis patients than that of urban. The cause of malnutrition was related to low socioeconomic condition and inadequate nutrient intake. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. December 2016, 2(4): 603-610
Literature Review: Kinematics of the BMX Supercross Gate Start

The aim of this literature review was to identify the depth and scope of peer reviewed literature on rider kinematics of the Bicycle Motocross Supercross (BMX SX) gate start action, in particular literature that describes the optimal BMX SX gate start technique or relates to the prescription of training methods to improve performance. A pilot search was conducted to identify the optimal databases to use. Key search terms and inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to select the articles of relevance which were then critically analysed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational and Cross-Sectional Studies. Two studies were retained for review. Both the studies were limited by number of participants and methodological rigour and scored poorly on the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational and Cross-Sectional Studies. No studies were found that correlated kinematic measures from the gate start action to gate start performance outcome. A secondary aim was to investigate the tactical importance of the gate start, power generation at the start of a BMX race and skill acquisition. Literature reported discrepancies between field and laboratory results which demonstrates the importance of ecologically valid research methodology. Despite evidence that the gate start is a critical component of the race with direct implications for race outcome, this review of the literature identified very limited research in the area of BMX rider kinematics of the BMX SX gate.
Lytwyn, Michael and Chen, Haofeng and Ponter, Alan R.S. (2015) A generalised method for ratchet analysis of structures undergoing arbitrary thermo-mechanical load

A novel approach is presented based upon the Linear Matching Method framework in order to directly calculate the ratchet limit of structures subjected to arbitrary thermo-mechanical load histories. Traditionally, ratchet analysis methods have been based upon the fundamental premise of decomposing the cyclic load history into cyclic and constant components respectively, in order to assess the magnitude of additional constant loading a structure may accommodate before ratcheting occurs. The method proposed in this paper, for the first time, accurately and efficiently calculates the ratchet limit with respect to a proportional variation between the cyclic primary and secondary loads, as opposed to an additional primary load only. The method is a strain based approach and utilises a novel convergence scheme in order to calculate an approximate ratchet boundary based upon a predefined target magnitude of ratchet strain per cycle. The ratcheting failure mechanism evaluated by the method leads to less conservative ratchet boundaries compared to the traditional Bree solution. The method yields the total and plastic strain ranges as well as the ratchet strains for various levels of loading between the ratchet and limit load boundaries. Two example problems have been utilised in order to verify the proposed methodology.
Is Acupuncture Effective in Reducing Itch Intensity and Wheal Size in Patients with Dermatologic Conditions

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether acupuncture is effective in reducing itch intensity and wheal size in patients with dermatologic conditions. STUDY DESIGN: Review of all English language primary randomized controlled trials published after 1984 DATA SOURCES: Three randomized controlled trials were found using Pubmed database. OUTCOMES MEASURED: The three trials measured various outcomes: Visual Analog Scale (VAS); Eppendorf Itch Questionnaire; Cumulative Itch Index; Perimeter of wheal and flare size before, during, & after acupuncture; Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) RESULTS: Belgrade et al. found statistically significant improvement in itch intensity and flare size of patients with histamine-induced itch after active acupuncture compared to pseudo acupuncture and no acupuncture. In the study by Pfab et al., the direct and preventive effect of acupuncture on atopic eczema showed significant decrease in itch intensity, wheal, and flare size compared to placebo acupuncture and no acupuncture. Jerner et al. found slightly considerable yet statistically significant improvement in skin symptoms of plaque psoriasis after placebo acupuncture compared to active acupuncture. CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture, as an adjunct treatment to standard atopic dermatitis care, is an effective inhibitor of histamine-induced and atopic dermatitis itch and wheal/flare size.
Photocatalytic hydrogen production using metallic silver loaded calcium titanate photocatalyst

LOADED CALCIUM TITANATE PHOTOCATALYST By AZZAH ALZAHRANI A thesis submitted to the Graduate School-Camden Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Graduate Program in Chemistry written under the direction of Dr. Alexander Samokhvalov and approved by ________________________ Alexander Samokhvalov ________________________ Alex J. Roche ________________________ George Kumi