Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dietary Habits and its Association with Metabolic Syndrome in a large sample of Iranian adults: a population-based study

Background Central obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and hypertension are the core components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) which is coincident with unhealthy dietary habits in the Middle-Eastern countries. The aim of this study was to explore the association between dietary habits and MetS of adult population living in Yazd Greater Area, Iran.Methods This is a cross-sectional study which uses the data of a population-based cohort study on Iranian adults, known as Yazd Health Study (YaHS). The relationship between dietary habits and metabolic syndrome among adults (n = 2896) were analyzed using multiple logistic regression method.Results The prevalence of the MetS among the participants was 32.2%. Outcomes from logistic regression examining show that breakfast consumption has a significant inverse effect on the occurrence of MetS after adjustment for age, education level, physical activity statue, history of chronic diseases and smoking (odds ratio (OR) = 0.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.14, 0.97). This effect remains significant even after adjustment for body mass index (BMI) and reveals that odds of having MetS is 69% lower in breakfast consumers in contrast to non-consumers (OR = 0.31, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.87). However, no significant relationship was observed between other dietary habits including consumption of sweetened drinks, sugar cubes, and fast foods and MetS after adjustment for all potential confoundersConclusions This study revealed that eating breakfast has an inverse relationship with metabolic syndrome. Finding out stronger evidence in relation between dietary habits and MetS, more researches especially population-based cohort studies are needed to be conducted.
Vibrotactile perception of musical pitch

Previous vibrotactile research has provided little or no definitive results on the discrimination and identification of important pitch aspects for musical performance such as relative and absolute pitch. In this thesis, psychophysical experiments using participants with and without hearing impairments have been carried out to determine vibrotactile detection thresholds on the fingertip and foot, as well as assess the perception of relative and absolute vibrotactile musical pitch. These experiments have investigated the possibilities and limitations of the vibrotactile mode for musical performance. Over the range of notes between C1 (32.7Hz) and C6 (1046.5Hz), no significant difference was found between the mean vibrotactile detection thresholds in terms of displacement for the fingertip of participants with normal hearing and with severe/profound hearing impairments. These thresholds have been used to identify an optimum dynamic range in terms of frequency-weighted acceleration to safely present vibrotactile music. Assuming a practical level of stimulation ≈10dB above the mean threshold, the dynamic range was found to vary between 12 and 27dB over the three-octave range from C2 to C5. Results on the fingertip indicated that temporal cues such as the transient and continuous parts of notes are important when considering the perception of vibrotactile pitch at suprathreshold levels. No significant difference was found between participants with normal hearing and with severe/profound hearing impairments in the discrimination of vibrotactile relative pitch from C3 to C5 using the fingertip without training. For participants with normal hearing, the mean percentage of correct responses in the post-training test was greater than 70% for intervals between four and twelve semitones using the fingertip and three to twelve semitones using the forefoot. Training improved the correct responses for larger intervals on fingertips and smaller intervals on forefeet. However, relative pitch discrimination for a single semitone was difficult, particularly with the fingertip. After training, participants with normal hearing significantly improved in the discrimination of relative pitch with the fingertip and forefoot. However, identifying relative and absolute pitch was considerably more demanding and the training sessions that were used had no significant effect.
Autonomous control and automotive simulator based driver training methodologies for vehicle run-off-road and recovery events

Traffic fatalities and injuries continue to demand the attention of researchers and governments across the world as they remain significant factors in public health and safety. Enhanced legislature along with vehicle and roadway technology has helped to reduce the impact of traffic crashes in many scenarios. However, one specifically troublesome area of traffic safety, which persists, is run-off-road (ROR) where a vehicle’s wheels leave the paved portion of the roadway and begin traveling on the shoulder or side of the road. Large percentages of fatal and injury traffic crashes are attributable to ROR. One of the most critical reasons why ROR scenarios quickly evolve into serious crashes is poor driver performance. Drivers are unprepared to safely handle the situation and often execute dangerous maneuvers, such as overcorrection or sudden braking, which can lead to devastating results. Currently implemented ROR countermeasures such as roadway infrastructure modifications and vehicle safety systems have helped to mitigate some ROR events but remain limited in their approach. A complete solution must directly address the primary factor contributing to ROR crashes which is driver performance errors. Four vehicle safety control systems, based on sliding control, linear quadratic, state flow, and classical theories, were developed to autonomously recover a vehicle from ROR without driver intervention. The vehicle response was simulated for each controller under a variety of common road departure and return scenarios. The results showed
COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF MEASURING THE RESIDUAL STRENGTH OF A CLAY

This paper describes a series of drained tests on Lias clay at various normal stresses in both a reversible shear box and a modified Bromhead ring shear apparatus. The residual failure envelopes were found to be curved at normal stresses below 150 kN/sq m (22 lb/ sq in.). At normal stresses above this value, the modified Bromhead ring shear tests produced lower values of residual shear strength than reversal shear box tests. The results indicate that residual failure surfaces are not developed at normal stresses below 30 kN/sq m (4.4 lb/sq in.).
THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELLING OF HYDRODYNAMICS AND THERMOSALINE CIRCULATION IN THE SAINT JOHN RIVER ESTUARY, CANADA

From sources in Canada and the United States, the Saint John River traverses more than 670 km before entering the Bay of Fundy at Saint John, New Brunswick. Mixing and exchange of fresh and salt water between the Saint John River, the adjoining Kennebecasis Fjord and the sea is driven by strong tides in the Bay of Fundy and fluvial flows, which are seasonal and highly variable. Upstream of the Port of Saint John, the bathymetry features a series of shallow sills and deep gorges. Estuarine mixing processes are controlled by a natural sill near the mouth of the river, known as the Reversing Falls. The restriction causes a turbulent rapid to form flowing upstream with the flood tide, which then reverses and flows downstream with the ebb tide. Although tides are damped by the Reversing Falls, intermittent discharges of saline water over the sill during the flood tide can accumulate in deeper parts of the estuary and penetrate more than 30 km upstream depending on seasonal river flows. A three-dimensional, baroclinic numerical model of the Saint John Estuary was developed based on the TELEMAC-3D finite volume solver to simulate hydrodynamics and circulation. The model setup, calibration and validation processes relied on field data derived from a multi-year campaign of bathymetric surveys and oceanographic measurements, conducted by the University of New Brunswick’s Ocean Mapping Group. The data included high resolution, multibeam bathymetric survey data, acoustic Doppler current profiles, and conductivity-temperature-depth measurements. The model has become a useful tool for assessing water exchange, water quality issues (e.g., fate and transport of effluent discharges), and the potential impacts of development within this dynamic estuary. A three-dimensional, numerical hydrodynamic model of the SJR estuary, which included temperature and salinity effects, was developed in TELEMAC-3D to simulate hydrodynamic conditions and circulation in the lower The hydrodynamic model was developed, and then calibrated and validated, using extensive and oceanographic datasets of New Brunswick’s The model was used to investigate the role of the Reversing Falls in controlling hydrodynamics in the lower and to investigate the dispersion and transport of effluent plumes
Methodology to Predict the Safety Performance of Urban and Suburban Arterials

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) have begun a major initiative to develop a Highway Safety Manual (HSM). The HSM began from recognition of the fact that, for safety to receive proper consideration in the highway project development process, analysts need tools to make quantitative statements about the safety effects of proposed projects or design alternatives. The key components of the HSM will be: Part I—Introduction and Fundamentals; Part II—Knowledge; Part III—Predictive Methods; Part IV—Safety Management of a Roadway System; and Part V—Safety Evaluation. HSM Part III will consist of chapters that provide safety prediction methodologies for specific types of highway facilities. The TRB Task Force plans that the first edition of the HSM should include safety prediction methodologies for rural two-lane highways, rural multilane highways, and urban and suburban arterials. These methodologies would address the safety performance of both roadway segments and at-grade intersections on these facility types. A prototype chapter on rural two-lane highways for use in HSM Part III has already been developed to illustrate the potential format and scope for such chapters. This report presents research results which document the development of a draft HSM chapter presenting a safety prediction methodology for urban and suburban arterials. This is the first safety prediction methodology developed specifically for the HSM. This report presents the results of the literature review, the survey of potential HSM users, the recommended structure of the safety prediction methodology, and the recommended work plan for the methodology development. Chapter 1 of this report provides an introduction to the report. Chapter 2 presents information related to the safety performance of urban and suburban arterials, including the results of the literature review and an HSM user survey. Chapter 3 summarizes the recommended structure for the safety prediction methodology. Chapter 4 presents the development of the project database. Chapter 5 documents the development of the base models and adjustment factors used in the HSM methodology, while Chapter 6 documents the accident modification factors (AMFs) used in the methodology. The HSM methodology is summarized in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 presents the results of a validation study in which the safety prediction methodology was applied to sites in jurisdictions other than those used in its development. Chapter 9 presents the conclusions and recommendations of the research. Appendix A presents the results of the survey of state and local highway agencies, MPOs, and TRB Task Force members. Appendix B presents a draft of HSM Chapter 10 which incorporates the safety prediction methodology.
The Influence of Ontological and Epistemological Stance on Educators’ View towards Human Governance

The purpose of this study is to explore the accounting educators’ views toward the principles of human governance and the influence of ontological stance (or worldviews) and epistemological stance (view of knowledge) on their view. The data was collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. 90 accounting educators from Malaysian public universities had responded to the questionnaire and 28 had been involved in the interview. All variables (except demographic information) were measured based on 5-point Likert scales ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The descriptive analysis and Spearman’s rank order correlation are used for analysis. The generic steps analysing are used for qualitative inquiry proposed by Creswell (2003). The finding revealed that accounting educators view human governance as a framework of good conduct of human being which emphasized both spiritual and physical well beings. There are positive medium correlations between ontological stances and educators’ view towards the concept of human governance as good governance. There are only positive small correlations between epistemological stances towards the educators’ view of human governance as good governance. This study provides new additional literature on ethics and empirical evidence on the concept of human governance.
Comparative genomics of swine pathogen Chlamydia suis with human- and mouse-adapted Chlamydia spp

Background The phylum, Chlamydiae, contains a unique set of obligately intracellular bacteria with specific host ranges, despite high genomic relatedness between species. Chlamydia suis, a ubiquitous swine pathogen, has the potential for zoonotic transmission to humans and often encodes for resistance to the primary treatment antibiotic, tetracycline. Because of this emerging threat, and to gain a better understanding of the basic biology, comparative genomics for a tetracycline-resistant swine isolate (R19) with inter- and intra-species genomes was performed. Results A 1.094Mb genome was determined through de novo assembly of Illumina high throughput sequencing reads. Annotation and subsystem analyses were conducted using novel bioinformatic platform, PATRIC, revealing 986 putative genes (Chls_###) that are predominantly orthologs to other known Chlamydia genes. Subsequent comparative genomics using C. trachomatis and C. muridarum, human and mouse pathogens, respectively, revealed a high level of genomic synteny and overall sequence identity. Around 857 genes were found to be conserved between these three species while 92 unique C. suis components were annotated. Direct comparison of chlamydia-specific gene families; inclusion membrane proteins, polymorphic membrane proteins and the major outer membrane protein as well as the plasticity zone, demonstrates the high gene content identity with C. trachomatis and C. muridarum as well as highlights putative host-specificity factors. Conclusions This study constitutes the first genome-wide comparative analysis for C. suis, generating a fully annotated reference genome using NIAID bioinformatic tool, PATRIC. Overall, these analyses build upon previous C. suis analyses to compare the composition of key genetic components with two closely related Chlamydia species. These studies will enable focused efforts on factors that provide key species specificity and adaptation to cognate hosts that are attributed to chlamydial infections, including humans. Continued analysis of the C. suis genome will facilitate studies into the complexities of the chlamydial proteome and discovery of basic biology.
On a Multigrid Method for Tempered Fractional Diffusion Equations

In this paper, we develop a suitable multigrid iterative solution method for the numerical solution of second- and third-order discrete schemes for the tempered fractional diffusion equation. Our discretizations will be based on tempered weighted and shifted Grünwald difference (tempered-WSGD) operators in space and the Crank–Nicolson scheme in time. We will prove, and show numerically, that a classical multigrid method, based on direct coarse grid discretization and weighted Jacobi relaxation, performs highly satisfactory for this type of equation. We also employ the multigrid method to solve the second- and third-order discrete schemes for the tempered fractional Black–Scholes equation. Some numerical experiments are carried out to confirm accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method.
The next generation of rural road crash prediction models: final report

The majority of fatal and serious crashes in New Zealand occur on rural two-lane roads. Data on historic crash patterns is not always sufficient to enable a suitable diagnosis of the safety deficiencies of various sections of this rural road network. It also cannot readily identify safety issues on low-volume roads and shorter sections of highway, where the relative scarcity of crashes may mask the considerable potential for proactive safety improvements. This report presents the third and final stage of a study that aims to develop crash prediction models for two-lane rural roads using data from almost 7000km of the rural state highway network. The report builds upon the findings of stage 1 (scoping study) and stage 2 (pilot study) to determine the most important parameters affecting safety on rural roads in New Zealand. The models have quantified the mathematical relationship between crashes and traffic volumes, road geometry, cross-section, road surfacing, roadside hazards and driveway density. These crash prediction models have enabled a better understanding of how safety is impacted by these factors and allow an understanding of how they interact with each other. They can also be used to determine which improvements are best to reduce crashes, for example whether to realign a road, widen the shoulder or remove roadside hazards.
A principled approach to knowledge elicitation and transfer in organisations

This thesis describes research carried out to investigate and address the problems related to the elicitation of knowledge from experts and its transfer to potential stakeholders in organisations. Essentially, knowledge elicitation and transfer is understood as a process of enabling people to acquire new capabilities while others who already have such capabilities explicate the domain specific knowledge underlying their performance. Knowledge elicitation and transfer have become essential processes in an environment influenced by the rate and direction of technological change, and characterised by an increasing complexity of tasks and greater employee mobility. The starting point of this research was the implementation of a knowledge elicitation and transfer strategy based on the use of social software at Cranfield University. Failure of that software to achieve its aims raised awareness of the limitations of purely technology-based approaches to knowledge elicitation and transfer. A collaboration with a gas turbine manufacturer then provided the setting for the trial of a people-based approach to knowledge elicitation and transfer. In a literature review an endeavour was made to study and provide an overview of the main contexts in which the knowledge elicitation and transfer problems have arisen. For each of the areas identified, an overview of the advantages and limitations of the techniques that have been used was provided. The literature shows that despite its importance for organisations, there is no method which is guaranteed to achieve knowledge elicitation and transfer. This motivated the researcher to formalise, refine and validate the newly developed approach by applying it in different organisations. The research has resulted in a number of contributions to knowledge and benefits for the organisations involved. A key contribution is a development of a new method called Concepts-Modelling-Experience (CoMEx), based on collaborative modelling of domain-specific knowledge. The applications of CoMEx in the field suggest that it overcomes some of the main deficiencies of well known approaches to knowledge elicitation and knowledge transfer, and that it brings additional benefits to organisations. However, the research has identified areas where there is significant scope for further research and investigation
Evaluation of Passive Force on Skewed Bridge Abutments with Large-Scale Tests

Evaluation of Passive Force on Skewed Bridge Abutments with Large-Scale Tests Aaron K. Marsh Department of Civil Engineering, BYU Master of Science Accounting for seismic forces and thermal expansion in bridge design requires an accurate passive force versus backwall deflection relationship. Current design codes make no allowances for skew effects on the development of the passive force. However, small-scale experimental results and available numerical models indicate that there is a significant reduction in peak passive force as skew angle increases for plane-strain cases. To further explore this issue large-scale field tests were conducted at skew angles of 0°, 15°, and 30° with unconfined backfill geometry. The abutment backwall was 11 feet (3.35-m) wide by 5.5 feet (1.68-m) high, and backfill material consisted of dense compacted sand. The peak passive force for the 15° and 30° tests was found to be 73% and 58%, respectively, of the peak passive force for the 0° test which is in good agreement with the small-scale laboratory tests and numerical model results. However, the small differences may suggest that backfill properties (e.g. geometry and density) may have some slight effect on the reduction in peak passive force with respect to skew angle. Longitudinal displacement of the backfill at the peak passive force was found to be approximately 3% of the backfill height for all field tests and is consistent with previously reported values for large-scale passive force-deflection tests, though skew angle may slightly reduce the deflection necessary to reach backfill failure. The backfill failure mechanism appears to transition from a log spiral type failure mechanism where Prandtl and Rankine failure zones develop at low skew angles, to a failure mechanism where a Prandtl failure zone does not develop as skew angle increases.