Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bottom Flange Reinforcement in NU I-Girders

The 1996 edition of AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges stated that nominal confinement reinforcement be placed to enclose prestressing steel in the bottom flange of bridge girder from girder ends to at least distance equal to the girder’s height. The 2004 edition of AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications changed the distance over which the confinement reinforcement was to be distributed from 1.0h to 1.5h, and gave minimum requirements for the amount of steel to be used, No.3 bars, and their maximum spacing, not to exceed 6”. Research was undertaken to study what impact, if any, confinement reinforcement has on the performance of prestressed concrete bridge girders. Of particular interest was the effect confinement had on the transfer length, development length, and vertical shear capacity of the fore mentioned members. First, an analytical investigation was carried out, and then an experimental investigation followed which consisted of designing, fabricating, and testing eight 24” tee-girders and three NU1100 girders. These girders had different amount and distribution of confinement reinforcement at girder ends and were tested for transfer length, development length, and shear capacity. The results of the study indicated that: 1) neither the amount or distribution of confinement reinforcement had a significant effect on the initial or final transfer length of the prestressing strands; 2) at the AASHTO predicted development length, no significant change was found on the nominal flexural capacity of the tested girders regardless of the amount and distribution of confinement reinforcement; and 3) despite the improved anchorage of prestressing strands at the girder ends when higher levels of confinement reinforcement are used, the ultimate shear capacity of tested girder was found to be considerably higher than nominal capacity even when low levels of confinement reinforcement are used.
The Experience of Taking Medication to Prevent a Further Heart Attack: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Background Following an acute myocardial infarction, patients are prescribed a regime of cardio-protective medication to prevent recurrent cardiovascular events and mortality. Adherence to medication is poor in this patient group, and not fully understood. Current interventions have made limited improvements but are based upon presumed principles. Objective To describe the phenomenon of medicine-taking for an individual taking medication for secondary prevention for an AMI. Setting Four participants from the community in the South-East of England, taking medication following an AMI, were recruited from local publicity. Method Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse transcriptions of semi-structured interviews with participants. Main Outcome Measure Themes were generated for each participant, then summarised across participants. Results Five key themes were produced; the participants needed to compare themselves to others, showed that knowledge of their medicines was important to them, discussed how the future was an unknown entity for them, had assimilated their medicines into their lives, and expressed how an upset to their routine reduced their ability to take medication. Conclusion Participants described complex factors and personal adaptations to taking their medication. This suggests that a patient-centred approach is appropriate for adherence work, and these themes could inform clinical practice to better support patients in their medicine adherence.
Determinants of Distress Risk of Nepali Commercial Banks

This paper aims to examine the banks’ specific factors affecting distress risk. Using modified Altnan Z score as measure of distress risk, the study employed secondary data of 18 banks listed in Nepal Stock Exchange Limited for the study period from 2008 to 2014. The results show that the liquidity, profitability and size have the significant positive effect on z score indicating lower distress risk of firms. These results support the too big to fail doctrine and provides justification to increment of capital to 8 Arba by Nepal Rastra Bank. The study provides insight into the regulatory body and concerned authority of banks. Managers should make effort in maintaining the liquidity position of the bank and make effective strategy to earn higher profitability to avoid from being financially distressed.
QTL-seq Analysis of Seed Size Trait in Grape Reveal New Insight on The Genetics of Seedlessness

Background Seedlessness in grape ( Vitis vinifera ) is an important commercial trait for both the fresh and drying markets. However, despite numerous studies, the mechanisms and key genes regulating grape seedlessness are mostly unknown. Results In this study, we sequenced the genomes of the V. vinifera seeded cultivar ‘Red Globe’, the seedless cultivar ‘Centennial’, as well as the derived hybrids. Nonsynonymous SNPs were identified and analyzed with respect to published transcriptome data. All the DEGs containing nonsynonymous SNPs were further analyzed in terms of expression patterns, Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment. A potential QTL region associated with seed size was characterized based on SNP indices for both seedless and seeded progeny. Expression analysis of candidate genes during ovule development in multiple seeded and seedless grape cultivars further indicates their potential function in grape seed development. Conclusion In summary, DEGs containing nonsynonymous SNPs were mainly protein kinase, transcription factors, cytochrome P450 and other factors related to seed development, which were mainly involved in biological processes like hormone balance, seed coat and endosperm development, reproductive organ development, oxidation and reduction, senescence and cell death. Based on SNP-index and expression pattern analysis, three genes were further identified as potential seedlessness-related genes. Overall the data cast light on the differences of seed development between seeded and sedless progeny in perspective of both functional variants and expression pattern,which provides valuable candidates for future functional study.
An Efficient Selection Operator for Genetic Search of Pipe Networks Optimal design

An efficient selection operator for use in genetic search of pipe networks optimal design is introduced in this paper. The proposed selection scheme is the superior member of a family of improved selection operators developed in an attempt to more closely simulate the main features of the natural mating process which is not reflected in existing selection schemes. The mating process occurring in the nature exhibits two distinct features. First, there is a competition between phenotypes looking for the fittest possible mate which usually ends up with choosing a mate with more or less the same fitness. Second, and more importantly, the search for a mate is often confined to a community of phenotypes rather than the whole population. Four different selection operators simulating these features in a random and pre-determined manner are developed and tested. All the selection schemes exhibit good convergence characteristics, in particular the one in which both the size of the sub-community and the pair of the mates in the sub-community are determined randomly. The efficiency of the proposed selection operator is shown by applying the method for the optimal design of three well-known benchmark networks, namely two-loop, Hanoi and New-York networks. The proposed scheme produces results comparable to the best results presented in the literature with much less computational effort.
Evaluation of meeting beams by field tests and computer simulation. Final report

The objective of this study was to conduct field experiments to evaluate alternative meeting beams in terms of visibility distances and glare effects. The conventional U.S. and European low beams were used as a basis for comparison with the experimental mid beams. There was generally good agreement between computer simulation predicted visibility distances and those obtained in the field test. It was concluded that improved meeting beams should incorporate the general characteristics of the mid beams used in these tests and that the mid beams should be dimmed when meeting another vehicle which is in the outside lane and when following another vehicle at distances of less than about 200 ft.
Lean Manufacturing Principles Guide, Version 0.5. A Guide to Lean Shipbuilding

Abstract : The Toyota Production System (TPS) was developed to become competitive on world markets, particularly competing with Henry Ford, while addressing the particular circumstances Toyota faced in Japan. Through years of trial and error on the shopfloor Toyota discovered that they could simultaneously achieve high quality, low cost, and just-in time delivery by shortening the production flow by eliminating waste. This simple concept is at the heart of the TPS and what distinguishes it from the older mass production paradigm it supplants. The focus is always on shortening the production flow and waste is anything that gets in the way of a smooth flow. The theoretical ideal is continuous one-by-one piece flow. While this ideal is rarely realized, practitioners of TPS understand directionally that performance of the system will improve if the system is moving toward continuous flow by eliminating waste. To understand what this new paradigm of manufacturing of lean manufacturing is, it helps to briefly consider the history of mass production in America and how Toyota's path deviated from that trajectory.
‘The nature of bad news infects the teller’: The experiences of envoys in the face to face delivery of downsizing initiatives in UK public sector organisations

Aim: This study builds on a previous research paper published by Acas (Ashman 2012) that explores the experiences of public sector employees that have been given the task of delivering the generally bad news of downsizing decisions face to face with the victims and then deal with the immediate repercussions – labelled downsizing envoys. The evidence from that paper is combined here with data gathered from envoys in the private sector in order to identify the similarities and differences in the experiences of envoys between the two sectors. The aim of this paper is to develop further our understanding of the envoy situation and to identify what instances of good practice can be garnered from either sector. Methodology: In combination with evidence from the public sector study a total of 50 envoys were interviewed; where 24 came from across 9 public sector organisations, a further 24 from across 8 private sector organisations and two independent consultants. The interviewees are all presently or recently based in the North West of England. Including the 2 consultants 30 envoys are HR professionals and the other 20 are envoys drawn from other organisational functions. Findings: A broad summary of the data gathered would indicate that in terms of how they undertake the role - that is, regarding attitude and personal conduct - the envoys are very similar irrespective of their sector or organisation. However, where the sector does have a differentiating influence is on how the role affects the envoys – in other words, the emotion and strain experienced in carrying out the task. Factors that make a difference here include how much support is available to envoys and what part they play in decision making processes. Suggestions for good practice: The suggestions for good practice include ensuring that envoys are involved in decisions that affect their role and impact upon their understanding of downsizing rationale; that envoys do not feel forced into the role; that realistic efforts are made to train and develop envoys – especially with regard to the emotional aspects of the role; and to ensure that envoys are properly supported throughout downsizing activity.
Modeling of the Suspended Solid Removal of a Granular Media Layer in an Upflow Stormwater Runoff Filtration System

Upflow granular media filtration devices are widely used for stormwater runoff treatment. However, the system performance is not well characterized due to the irregular removal of suspended solid (SS) in the pretreatment (sedimentation) chamber and, hence, its irregular input to the media layer. In this regard, the performance of the granular media layer of an upflow filtration system is investigated herein by the use of various models. Due to the significant variation in the SS concentration of the influent and effluent to and from the media layer, the deep bed filtration model, the k-C* model, and the porous media capture model provide limited descriptions of the system performance. By contrast, the performance is well described using the kinetic model, the modified k-C* model using a specific deposit, and the modified porous media capture model using a specific deposit. The parameters of the latter models are shown to be in good correlation with the filtration velocity, SS removal, and specific deposit. The results suggest that modeling using a specific SS deposit can provide an accurate description of the granular media layer performance under a highly variable influent SS concentration.
The Effect of Load Placement on Lower Extremity Joint Biomechanics in Landing

Landing is a critical component to athletic performance. Many studies have investigated the effect that added mass has on landing biomechanics finding when load is added to the body during a landing task, an increase in both vertical (VGRF) and anterior-posterior ground reaction forces is observed. These studies have focused primarily on adding mass to the trunk segment. It is unclear, however, if these adaptations would persist if mass was added to other body segments. We hypothesize that altering the load placement on the body will alter the kinetics and kinematics of lower extremity joints during landing. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of load placement on joint biomechanics during jump landing compared to unloaded jump landing. 7 healthy college-aged individuals participated in this study. Participants were outfitted for bilateral lower-extremity 3D motion capture. VGRFs were collected from two force platforms. Each participant completed 3 successful jump landings in 3 conditions (unloaded, loaded thigh, and loaded trunk). 10% of the participant's mass was added to the trunk via a weighted vest and 5% was added to each thigh via weighted pants during the loaded conditions. Landing height was standardized to 50 (± 2.5) cm. Student's paired samples T-tests were used to detect any mean differences with (p < 0.05) indicating significance. A significant reduction (p = .004) in peak VGRF was found between the loaded thigh condition (1935.4N ± 419.9N) and the loaded trunk condition (1755.7N ± 308.9N). Results showed that during the loaded thigh condition, participants landed with more extended knees (-12.3 ± 5.9 deg) than the unloaded (-13.1 ± 4.6 deg) and loaded trunk (-15.0 ± 6.5 deg) conditions however these results were not significant. Hip flexion angle increased in the loaded trunk condition (-22.5 ± 9.3 deg) compared to loaded thigh (-15.3 ± 7.6 deg) and unloaded (19.6 ± 6.2 deg) although these results were not significant. Our results supported our hypothesis that altering the load placement on the body will alter lower extremity joint biomechanics during landing from a drop jump.
Investigation of premenstrular dysphoric disorder comorbidity and related factors in patients with anxiety disorder

Aim: Because of the fact that the frequency of both anxiety disorders and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) are high in women and that studies investigating PMDD comorbidity in patients diagnosed with anxiety disorder are limited, this study was aimed to investigate PMDD comorbidity and related factors in patients with anxiety disorders. Materials and Methods: 183 subjects who were followed up with a diagnosis of anxiety disorder in Necmettin Erbakan University Meram Medical Faculty Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic were included in the study and were evaluated with Sociodemographic Data Form, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). PMDD comorbidity was investigated according to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition (DSM-IV-TR) criteria by making psychiatric interviews. Results: 57 (31.2%) of 183 subjects diagnosed with PMDD constituted the PMDD group and the remaining 126 patients constituted the non-PMDD group. The mean BAI scores of the PMDD group were significantly higher than those of the non PMDD group, whereas the mean age of the PMDD group was significantly lower than that of the non PMDD group. The BMI of the PMDD group was significantly higher than that of the non PMDD group. Conclusion: PMDD is common in patients followed up with a diagnosis of anxiety disorder and what is associated with PMDD is be young age as well as excessive chocolate consumption.
EXAMINATION OF INDICATORS OF CONGESTION LEVEL

This research report examines the relationships between many possible indicators of congestion and estimated congestion level in an attempt to identify and validate indicators for areawide congestion measurement purposes. The study estimates the congestion level for 50 large and medium-sized U.S. urban areas with 3 congestion measures. The estimated congestion level for each urban area is then graphically and statistically compared to indicators composed of travel, facility supply, and demographic characteristics to determine close relationships. Two of the congestion measures used in this study, the roadway congestion index and the congestion severity index, produced results with a high correlation to each other. An index-incorporating congestion duration on freeway segments (lane-mile duration index) suffered from unobtainable data for several urban areas and was consequently less comparable between the other two measures. It was determined that two indicators related to travel intensity--daily vehicle miles of travel per lane-mile and daily vehicle miles of travel per square mile--had the closest correlation to estimated congestion levels. Average annual daily freeway traffic per hourly capacity, previously used as a facility measure, was identified also as having a close relationship to areawide congestion level.
Design implications for social-energy applications

Home-energy studies suggest that providing users with real-time and cross-household feedback may nudge users toward sustainable behaviors. Although methods of comparison yield significant savings, only a limited amount of homeenergy research has explored social communication with feedback devices. Inspired by our prior energy studies in low-income communities, we present the results of a needs-validation study and provide design implications for real-time, communitybased feedback displays. The NSF under grant IIS-0893733, IBM, Google, and Intel support this work. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of these organization and corporations.
Structured tracking for safety, security, and privacy: algorithms for fusing noisy estimates from sensor, robot, and camera networks

Emerging developments in the speed, size, and power requirements of processors, coupled with networking advances, enable new applications for networks of sensors, cameras, and robots. However, we live in a world filled with uncertainty and noise, which affects the sensors we use, the environments we model, and the objects we observe. In this dissertation, we define Structured Tracking, where we apply novel machine learning and inference techniques to leverage environmental and tracked-object structure. This approach improves accuracy and robustness while reducing computation. We focus on three application areas of societal benefit: safety, security, and privacy. We apply Belief Propagation (BP)[148] algorithms to sensor networks, and describe our modular framework for the more general Reweighted-BP formulation[203]. To improve safety, we track pallets in warehouses. We apply Particle Filtering[162] and model the cardiod-shaped response pattern of ultrasound between static beacons and mobile sensors to improve tracking accuracy by 11%. We also show using inter-distance sensor readings, we can improve accuracy by 3–4x over the recent SMCL+R formulation[46], while being more likely to converge. We use a generalization of Particle Filtering, Nonparametric-BP (NBP)[183], which can model multi-modal and ring-shaped distributions found in inter-distance tracking problems. We develop a novel tracking algorithm based on NBP to fuse dynamics and multi-hop inter-distance information that increases accuracy, reduces computation, and improves convergence. For security, we present a novel approach for intruder surveillance using a robotic camera, controlled by binary motion sensors and use Particle Filtering to model intruder dynamics and environment geometry. We also present a localization-free approach to robot navigation using a distributed set of beacons, which emit a sequence of signals to direct a robot to the goal, modeling the robot's dynamics uncertainty, with up to 93.4% success rate. We introduce an approach to privacy for visual surveillance, "Respectful Cameras," that uses probabilistic Adaptive Boosting[68] to learn an environment-specific 9-dimensional color model to track colored markers, which act as a proxy for each face. We integrate probabilistic Adaptive Boosting with Particle Filtering to improve robustness, and demonstrate a 2% false-negative rate.
Assessment of Bioactive Resin-Modified Glass Ionomer Restorative as a New CAD/CAM Material. Part I: Marginal Fitness Study

The objective of this in vitro study was to evaluate and compare the marginal fitness of monolithic crowns fabricated from a newly developed bioactive CAD/CAM resin block and reinforced resin CAD/CAM block pre-and post-cementation with adhesive and self-adhesive resin cements. Bioactive CAD/CAM block were fabricated from ACTIVA BioACTIVE-RESTORATIVE (Pulpdent Corporation, USA) using a clear rectangular Teflon mold. Thirty-two human maxillary first premolar teeth were prepared to receive full crowns then divided into two main groups of 16 teeth each according to the type of block used to fabricate the crowns: Group A: crowns fabricated from the bioactive resin block, Group B: crowns fabricated from reinforced composite block (BRILLIANT Crios, Coltene). Each group was then subdivided into two subgroups according to the type of resin cement used for cementation, Subgroups (A1, B1): RelyX Ultimate cement, Subgroups (A2, B2): ACTIVA BioACTIVE-cement. The prepared teeth were scanned using CEREC Omnicam digital intra-oral and the crowns were then designed using CEREC Premium software (version 4.4.4) and milled using CEREC MC XL milling unit. The marginal gap of each crown was measured before cementation at four points on each tooth surface using a digital microscope at a magnification of 230x. Each crown was then cemented on its respective tooth according to the manufacturers’ instructions of each cement, and the marginal gap was measured again at the same aforementioned points. The results of this study showed that the marginal gap of all groups are below the clinically acceptable limit. Meanwhile, the marginal gap of the crowns fabricated from both block types increased significantly after cementation with both types of cement. Pre-cementation, student’s t-test revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the marginal gap of crowns fabricated from both block types (p> 0.05). Post-cementation, a statistically highly significant difference was seen between both block types with both types of cement (p<0.01). From the results of this study, the newly developed bioactive resin block seems a promising material for CAD/CAM applications in terms of marginal fitness.