Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FREEWAY CAPACITY DROP AND THE DEFINITION OF CAPACITY

Two aspects of the definition of freeway capacity are considered here. The first is whether there is a reduction of maximum flow rates when a queue forms. There appears to be roughly a 6% reduction in maximum flow rates after the onset of congestion, but not of the type discussed in the current Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). An indirect issue arises during this analysis pertaining to the question of where capacity can properly be measured. The answer, not surprisingly, is that it can only be measured in a bottleneck, and not in a queue. However, the HCM discussion identifies the potential capacity drop on the basis of operations in a queue. The analysis contained here explains why that is inappropriate. The second aspect considered is the distribution over time of maximum flows at a single location. The distribution approximates a normal one reasonably well, with a mean of 6,071 and a standard deviation of 262 vehicles per hour. The unanswered question from the analysis is what portion, or percentile, of the distribution is appropriate to use to meet the HCM definition of capacity, which calls for a value that can "reasonably be expected" to be achieved.
Performance analysis of galloping-based piezoaeroelastic energy harvesters with different cross-section geometries

The concept of harvesting energy from galloping oscillations of a bluff body with different cross-section geometries attached to a cantilever beam is investigated. To convert these oscillations into electrical power, a piezoelectric transducer is attached to the transverse degree of freedom of the prismatic structure. Modal analysis is performed to determine the exact mode shapes of the structure. A coupled nonlinear distributed-parameter model is developed to determine the effects of the cross-section geometry, load resistance, and wind speed on the level of the harvester power. The quasi-steady approximation is used to model the aerodynamic loads. Linear analysis is performed to investigate the effects of the electrical load resistance and the cross-section geometry on the onset speed of galloping. The results show that the electrical load resistance and the cross-section geometry affect significantly the onset speed of galloping. Nonlinear analysis is performed to determine the effects of the electrical load resistance, cross-section geometry, and wind speed on the system’s outputs and particularly the level of the harvested power. A comparison of the performance of the different cross sections in terms of displacement and harvested power is presented. The results show that different sections are better for harvesting energy over different regions of the flow speed. The results also show that maximum levels of harvested power are accompanied with minimum transverse displacement amplitudes for all considered (square, D, and triangular) cross-section geometries.
Effects of Knee Osteoarthritis on Hip and Ankle Gait Mechanics

Introduction Knee osteoarthritis (OA) can affect the hip and ankle joints, as these three joints operate as a kinetic/kinematic chain while walking. Purpose This study was performed to compare (1) hip and ankle joint gait mechanics between knee OA and control groups and (2) to investigate the effects of knee gait mechanics on the ipsilateral hip and ankle joint. Methods The study group included 89 patients with end-stage knee OA and 42 age- and sex-matched controls without knee pain or OA. Kinetic and kinematic parameters were evaluated using a commercial optoelectric gait analysis system. Range of motion (ROM) during gait, coronal motion arc, and peak joint moment of hip, knee, and ankle joints were investigated. Results Ankle varus moment was 50% higher in the OA group (p=0.005) and was associated with higher knee adduction moment (p<0.001). The ROM of the hip and ankle joints were significantly smaller in the OA group and were associated with limited ROM of the knee joint (both p<0.001). The coronal motion arc of the hip was smaller in the OA group and was also associated with limited motion arc of the knee (p<0.001). Conclusions Knee OA has a negative effect on the ROM, coronal motion arc, and joint moment of the ankle joint and hip joint. As knee OA is associated with increased moment of the ankle joint, attention should be paid to the ankle joint when treating patients with knee OA.
Style length and flower morphology of three eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) cultivars from Iran affected by fruit load

A common feature of eggplant is its heterostyly. Long-style flowers bear fruits whereas short style ones fail to do so. Heterostyly is influenced by some factors such as genotype, climatic conditions and fruit load. In this study three eggplant cultivars from Iran were cultivated under greenhouse condition. The influence of presence of fruit (two fruits and four fruits) or absence of that on style length and some other flower morphological was studied in three positions of single, basal and additional. The presence of fruit, specially four fruits reduced style length, stigma width as well as mass of flower, pistil and stigma compared to the control in all times during fruit growth, and after fruit harvest they increased again. Fruit load didn’t affect the number of stamen and stamen length. These effects were observed in all three positons of single, basal and additional flowers of all three cultivars. Generally this study showed that fruit load has decreasing effect on style length and size of flowers forming after fruit setting, which reversed after fruit harvesting.
Clinical Pharmacist’s Intervention to Improve Medication Titration for Heart Failure: First Experience from Sudan

Background Medications known to improve outcomes in heart failure (HF) are either not prescribed or prescribed at sub-therapeutic doses. The addition of clinical pharmacists to the HF team positively impacts optimizing prognostic medications for a patient with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Objective To assess the intervention of the clinical pharmacist as part of the multidisciplinary (MD) team in up-titration to achieve target doses of key therapeutic agents for HFrEF. Methods This was a prospective one group pretest-posttest interventional study; a comparison of the target dose achievement of key therapeutic agents for HFrEF was performed before and after clinical pharmacist interventions. Results Out of 110 HFrEF patients, 57.3% were males, and the mean age of patients was 55.8 years (SD 12.6). Cardiomyopathy was the leading cause of HF. At baseline, 86% were on angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers/angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors (ACEIs/ARBs/ARNi) and 93.6% on beta blockers (BBs). At the end of study, the proportion of patients achieved the target dose was significantly increased (0 vs 77.4%, 6.8 vs 85.4%, and 0 vs 55.6%) for ACEIs, ARBs and ARNi, respectively, and (8.6% vs 66.1%; P = 0.001) for BBs. Moreover, the up-titration process was associated with significant improvement in most clinical as ejection fraction and New York Heart Association (NYHA) scale and laboratory characteristics. Conclusion As a part of the MD team in the outpatient HF clinic, the clinical pharmacists increased the percentage of HFrEF patients achieving the target or maximal doses of key therapeutic agents and improving clinical and laboratory parameters.
CasFlow: Exploring Hierarchical Structures and Propagation Uncertainty for Cascade Prediction

Understanding in-network information diffusion is a fundamental problem in many applications and one of the primary challenges is to predict the information cascade size. Most of the existing models rely either on hypothesized point process (e.g., Poisson and Hawkes processes), or simply predict the information propagation via deep neural networks. However, they fail to simultaneously capture the underlying global and local structures of a cascade and the propagation uncertainty in the diffusion, which may result in unsatisfactory prediction performance. To address these, in this work we propose a novel probabilistic cascade prediction framework CasFlow: Hierarchical Cascade Normalizing Flows. CasFlow allows a non-linear information diffusion inference and models the information diffusion process by learning the latent representation of both the structural and temporal information. It is a pattern-agnostic model leveraging normalizing flows to learn the node-level and cascade-level latent factors in an unsupervised manner. In addition, CasFlow is capable of capturing both the cascade representation uncertainty and node infection uncertainty, while enabling hierarchical pattern learning of information diffusion. Extensive experiments conducted on real-world datasets demonstrate that CasFlow reduces the prediction error to 21.0% by only observing half an hour of cascades, compared to state-of-the-art approaches, while also enabling model interpretability.
Behavioral Intervention of Calligraphy Training for Rehabilitation of Attention Dysfunction in Children with Mental Retardation

目的:探讨书法行为干预对智残儿童注意力障碍的康复作用. 方法:对海淀培智中心学校的34名智残学生,根据性别、年龄和智商匹配为实验组和对组照. 两组除相同的日常教学、学习活动外,只对实验组进行3个月,每周5天,每天1小时的书法行为干预. 注意力的评定指标采用注意划消测验和踪迹描绘测验两种方法,把在进行书法行为干预之前和之后两次测查结果进行比较. 结果:实验组智残儿童经3个月的书法行为干预,其注意力特别是在注意稳定性、注意选择性和注意灵活性等方面都有明显的提高,前测和后测的成绩比较差异非常显著(P＜0.1),对照组的成绩虽也略有提高,但差异均不显著(P＞0.5). 结论:进行有目的、有计划的书法行为干预,对轻(中)度的智残儿童注意力有明显的改善作用,表明书法训练对智残儿童的注意缺陷尤其是在注意稳定性、注意选择性和注意灵活性方面效果更为显著.
Monitoramento de variáveis de qualidade da água do Horto Ouro Verde - Conchal - SP

This work was carried out at the Brazil's International Paper Property - Ouro Verde Garden - Conchal - SP, aiming to monitor some variables of water qualities in two soil conditions (native forest and eucalyptus). Thus, monthly, water was collected at six points throughout the water course in order to represent the different soil occupations. The analyzed variables were: temperature (T), dissolved oxygen (DO), organic matter (OM) and hydrogenic potential (pH). Significative differences were found among the means of OM to the P3 point (native forest) and P6 (eucalyptus) and to DO of P1 point (native forest) and P6 (eucalyptus). When the sum of the effect in each soil conditions was compared no significant differences were observed for all studied variables.
Essential oil composition of wild growing Sage from R. Macedonia

The main objective of this study was to analyze and identify the essential oil composition of S. officinalis populations growing in Republic of Macedonia and to evaluate these data according to different standards’ requirements for, commercially most utilized, Dalmatian sage. The essential oil yield, obtained after hydrodestilation from leaves, of three different populations of Salvia officinalis L. from Republic of Macedonia was determined, varying from 1.40 to 3.46%. The GC/FID/MS analysis of the composition of the essential oils revealed 63, 57 and 51 components in Galicica Mtn. , Jablanica Mtn. and Karaorman Mtn. sage populations, respectively. The main components of the oil, in all three samples, were the terpene hydrocarbons, encompassing the monoterpenes: camphor (13.15 25.91%), α-thujone (19.25 26.33%), β-thujone (2.03 5.28%), 1,8-cineole (6.51 – 13.60%), α-pinene (0.93 – 1.47%), borneol (1.07 – 4.67%), then sesquiterpenes: trans (E)-caryophyllene (1.72 – 5.33%), α-humulene (2.89 – 7.99%), viridiflorol (4.27 – 7.99%), and the diterpene manool (2.13 3.79%). Thus, our results for the essential oil composition of sage complied with the reference values specified in the DAC 86 monograph for Salvia essential oil.
Deep Learning-Based Big Data Analytics for Internet of Vehicles: Taxonomy, Challenges, and Research Directions

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is a developing technology attracting attention from the industry and the academia. Hundreds of millions of vehicles are projected to be connected within the IoV environments by 2035. Each vehicle in the environment is expected to generate massive amounts of data. Currently, surveys on leveraging deep learning (DL) in the IoV within the context of big data analytics (BDA) are scarce. In this paper, we present a survey and explore the theoretical perspective of the role of DL in the IoV within the context of BDA. The study has unveiled substantial research opportunities that cut across DL, IoV, and BDA. Exploring DL in the IoV within BDA is an infant research area requiring active attention from researchers to fully understand the emerging concept. The survey proposes a model of IoV environment integrated into the cloud equipped with a high-performance computing server, DL architecture, and Apache Spark for data analytics. The current developments, challenges, and opportunities for future research are presented. This study can guide expert and novice researchers on further development of the application of DL in the IoV within the context of BDA.
Towards actual brazilian traffic load models for short span highway bridges

New live load models for highway bridge design in Brazil are under development by assembling real traffic database, traffic simulations, analytical-numerical modeling of the dynamic interaction between vehicle and structure and statistical extrapolations. This paper presents and discusses the results obtained in the first stages of this work which includes the comparison between the static effects due to the actual traffic of heavy vehicles and those generated by the live load model given in the current national code NBR 7188. It is demonstrated that this live load model is not appropriate to represent the actual traffic effects and may be, in some cases, non-conservative. The present work deals with short span bridges for two lanes single carriageway under free flow traffic scenarios. The representative static effects in these bridges due to the actual traffic of heavy vehicles are obtained by extrapolating its probability density functions to a certain return period. To this purpose, a traffic database was constructed by gathering data from several weighing stations in Brazilian highways which was then applied to perform traffic simulations through a specially developed computational tool.
‘At least I have done something’: A qualitative study of women's social egg freezing experiences

Social egg freezing has become an expanding clinical practice and there is a growing body of empirical literature on women's attitudes and the sociocultural implications of this phenomenon. Yet, its impact remains subject to ethical controversy. This article reports on a qualitative study, drawing on 18 interviews with women who had elected to initiate at least one egg freezing cycle in Belgium. Our findings, facilitated by a ‘symbiotic empirical ethics’ approach, shed light on the concerns and perceptions that accompany women's decisions while supporting a more context-sensitive reading of the ethical debate. We identified three key themes: feeling overwhelmed with uncertainty and a threatening future, bodily discomfort and distress during the medical process, and the endless pursuit of peace of mind. One of the issues that emerges from these findings is the risk ritual function of social egg freezing, referring to routine actions of risk anticipation that mitigate uncertainty and express a sense of individual responsibility. While more research is needed, this conceptualisation provides a starting point to flesh out the wider context of this moral practice and its symbolic meaning for women.
The effect of bitumen types on the performance of high-modulus asphalt mixtures

Abstract The objective of this study was the evaluation of high-modulus asphalt mixtures (HMAM). Two types of hard-penetration bitumen (HPB) and conventional bitumen were used to fabricate Enrobés à Module Elevé Class 2 (EME2) and Grave Bitumen Class 5 (GB5)) and control mixtures, respectively. In this study, complex modulus, fatigue, dynamic creep and moisture sensitivity tests and also, Witczak and Zhou models were used to evaluate the performance of the prepared mixtures. Results showed that hard-penetration bitumen (HPB) improved the performance of asphalt mixtures compared to conventional bitumen.
The impact of remote work and mediated communication frequency on isolation and psychological distress

ABSTRACT A massive shift towards remote work practices has presented many organizations and employees with acute challenges associated with multi-locational work. This shift underscores the need to reconsider isolation as one of the focal challenges of organizations in an era of increasingly dispersed and mediated work practices. This study relies on a three-wave survey among Finnish workers to investigate how remote work practices and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) have impacted perceptions of isolation during the global health pandemic, and whether these relationships have an effect on psychological distress. The findings indicate that facilitating the use of ICTs may help organizations and employees combat isolation, while simultaneous increases in remote work practices lead employees to feel more isolated. In addition, the findings highlight a reciprocal effect between psychological distress and isolation, suggesting that strain may both increase perceptions of isolation and be a result of being isolated.
Neudesin in obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus: the effect of acute fasting and weight reducing interventions

Context Neudesin has recently been identified as a novel regulator of energy expenditure in experimental animals; however, its role in humans remains unexplored. Objective The aim of this study was to assess the effects of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) along with selected weight reducing interventions on serum neudesin levels and adipose tissue mRNA expression. Patients and methods Fifteen obese subjects with T2DM undergoing endoscopic duodenal-jejunal bypass liner (DJBL) implantation, 17 obese subjects (11 with T2DM, 6 without T2DM) scheduled for gastric plication (GP), 15 subjects with functional hypoglycemia subjected to 72-hour acute fasting (AF), and 12 healthy controls were included in the study. Results Baseline neudesin levels were comparable between all groups. DJBL increased neudesin at 6 and 10 months after the procedure (1.77±0.86 vs 2.28±1.27 vs 2.13±1.02 ng/mL, P=0.001 for baseline vs 6 vs 10 months) along with reduction in body weight and improvement of HbA1c without any effect on neudesin mRNA expression in subcutaneous adipose tissue. Conversely, GP did not affect neudesin levels despite marked reduction in body weight and improvement of HbA1c. In contrast, AF decreased neudesin levels during the entire period (1.74±0.54 vs 1.46±0.48 ng/mL, P=0.001 for baseline vs 72 hours) with no impact of subsequent re-alimentation on neudesin concentrations. Conclusion Neudesin levels are differentially regulated during AF and chronic weight reduction induced by DJBL or GP. Further studies are needed to assess its possible significance in energy homeostasis regulation in humans.
Time series analysis of observed maximum and minimum air temperature at four urban cities of India during 1951-2015

A sixty - five year (1951-2015) long data for monthly minimum temperature (TMIN) and maximum temperature (TMAX), observed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), is statistically analyzed at four urban stations namely Bhubaneswar, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai of India. A bimodal nature in seasonality is noticed for TMAX and TMIN at all locations. Two peaks for TMAX and TMIN are observed in May and September. Exceptionally, Mumbai shows TMAX peaks during May and November and Delhi shows TMIN peaks during June and September. Higher standard deviations (SD) for TMAX is noted at Delhi with a maximum in March (1.78 °C), while for Chennai, the SD for TMIN is lesser compared to other cities. Two different periods 1951-1980 (P1, the first half of the study period) and 1981-2015 (P2, the second half of the study period) were identified from the time series of both TMAX and TMIN. A higher increasing trend is observed during P2 than P1 in all the cities except in TMIN at Mumbai. The highest increasing trend (0.040 °C/year) is observed for TMIN in Mumbai during P1 time, but the trend is almost constant (0.001 °C/year) during P2 time. The highest increasing trend for TMIN at Mumbai is mainly contributed by the increasing trend in post-monsoon and winter months in P1. Surprisingly, in both P1 and P2, the trends are less during monsoon months for all the cities. A consistent 5-year (3-year) band is observed throughout the wavelet power spectrum at the coastal cities Bhubaneswar, Mumbai (Chennai). However, the 5-year signal is not consistent at Delhi and it is observed only during the year 1975-1980. The global wavelet power spectrum showed that TMIN at Chennai has less power (0.6 °C2) corresponding to 3-year signal and Mumbai has highest power (12 °C2) corresponding to the 5-year signal in comparison to other cities.
Tau Cleavage Contributes to Cognitive Dysfunction in Strepto-Zotocin-Induced Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (sAD) Mouse Model

Tau cleavage plays a crucial role in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a widespread neurodegenerative disease whose incidence is expected to increase in the next years. While genetic and familial forms of AD (fAD) occurring early in life represent less than 1%, the sporadic and late-onset ones (sAD) are the most common, with ageing being an important risk factor. Intracerebroventricular (ICV) infusion of streptozotocin (STZ)—a compound used in the systemic induction of diabetes due to its ability to damage the pancreatic β cells and to induce insulin resistance—mimics in rodents several behavioral, molecular and histopathological hallmarks of sAD, including memory/learning disturbance, amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation, tau hyperphosphorylation, oxidative stress and brain glucose hypometabolism. We have demonstrated that pathological truncation of tau at its N-terminal domain occurs into hippocampi from two well-established transgenic lines of fAD animal models, such as Tg2576 and 3xTg mice, and that it’s in vivo neutralization via intravenous (i.v.) administration of the cleavage-specific anti-tau 12A12 monoclonal antibody (mAb) is strongly neuroprotective. Here, we report the therapeutic efficacy of 12A12mAb in STZ-infused mice after 14 days (short-term immunization, STIR) and 21 days (long-term immunization regimen, LTIR) of i.v. delivery. A virtually complete recovery was detected after three weeks of 12A12mAb immunization in both novel object recognition test (NORT) and object place recognition task (OPRT). Consistently, three weeks of this immunization regimen relieved in hippocampi from ICV-STZ mice the AD-like up-regulation of amyloid precursor protein (APP), the tau hyperphosphorylation and neuroinflammation, likely due to modulation of the PI3K/AKT/GSK3-β axis and the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activities. Cerebral oxidative stress, mitochondrial impairment, synaptic and histological alterations occurring in STZ-infused mice were also strongly attenuated by 12A12mAb delivery. These results further strengthen the causal role of N-terminal tau cleavage in AD pathogenesis and indicate that its specific neutralization by non-invasive administration of 12A12mAb can be a therapeutic option for both fAD and sAD patients, as well as for those showing type 2 diabetes as a comorbidity.