Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Backflow from a model fracture network: an asymptotic investigation

We develop a model for predicting the flow resulting from the relaxation of pre-strained, fluid-filled, elastic network structures. This model may be useful for understanding relaxation processes in various systems, e.g. deformable microfluidic systems or by-products from hydraulic fracturing operations. The analysis is aimed at elucidating features that may provide insight on the rate of fluid drainage from fracturing operations. The model structure is a bifurcating network made of fractures with uniform length and elastic modulus, which allows for general self-similar branching and variation in fracture length and rigidity between fractures along the flow path. A late-time $t^{-1/3}$ power law is attained and the physical behaviour can be classified into four distinct regimes that describe the late-time dynamics based on the location of the bulk of the fluid volume (which shifts away from the outlet as branching is increased) and pressure drop (which shifts away from the outlet as rigidity is increased upstream) along the network. We develop asymptotic solutions for each of the regimes, predicting the late-time flux and evolution of the pressure distribution. The effects of the various parameters on the outlet flux and the network’s drainage efficiency are investigated and show that added branching and a decrease in rigidity upstream tend to increase drainage time.
Shadow sites : photography, archaeology, and the British landscape, 1927-1955

Introduction The Archaeological Imagination Tracing the Trace: Photography, the Index, and the Limits of Representation Reading Antiquity, Mapping History Revenants in the Landscape: The Discoveries of Aerial Archaeology Recuperating Ruins A Tale of Two Cities Conclusion Appendix: John Piper's 'Papers from Antiquity'
Estimation of Redshift Effect of Neutrino Photon Interaction and Discussion on the New Neutrino Detection Device

This paper assumes that the red shift of the galaxies' spectrum is due to the interaction of photons with neutrinos in the universe space. Using the available data, a rough estimate of the amount of redshift that this effect can produce is obtained, yielding an order of magnitude for the neutrino photon interaction to produce a redshift effect. On this basis, this paper designs two devices that can be used to detect the number of neutrinos through this effect.
Carbon sequestration and soil fertility of tropical tree plantations and secondary forests in Vietnam

Substantial areas of degraded land need to be restored to provide goods such as fuel wood, timber, as well as ecological services including biodiversity, soil protection and hydrological services. The conventional way to rapidly increase forest cover and attain high timber productivity is to use monoculture timber plantations. Many monoculture plantations, including those involving exotic species, have been successfully used for these various purposes. Although monoculture plantations pose some ecological problems they can be productive and sustainable if they are carefully managed. This thesis has two overall objectives 1) to qualify timber yield, biomass growth and carbon sequestration dynamics (including soil C) in different plantations in Vietnam and from these results propose optimal rotations and management systems to provide sustainable productivity and maximise carbon sequestration in plantations; 2) to evaluate the impacts of different land uses and forest covers on soil properties and fertility in Vietnam. Most of the work was done in plantations of Eucalyptus urophylla, Acacia mangium, Pinus merkusii and in secondary forests and pastures. Two approaches were used for modelling plantation growth and soil C dynamics in plantations. One approach used allometric equations combined with a carbon dynamic model (CO2FIX) and the other used the 3-PG process model. Results from both approaches highlighted the unsustainable consequences of short rotation plantations, particularly those using Eucalyptus urophylla which had negative impacts on soil properties and fertility when managed using short rotations. By contrast, Acacia mangium and Pinus merkusii are better than Eucalyptus urophylla in supplying multiple products and improving soil fertility. At the early stages of their development (the first 20 y), secondary forests and A. mangium plantations did not have different effects on soil properties in five soil types at different locations in Vietnam. Individually, the main effect of forest’s biomass on soil properties was found in both A. mangium plantations and secondary forests, with increasing biomass having a positive impact on key soil properties. Soil types have distinguished characteristics on different soil properties and plantation age and latitude have significant impacts on some soil properties. There is a need for a system of long-term permanent plots established over a wider scale for future studies. Such a system would be preferable to the pair-wise comparisons that had to be used in this work. Future researchers should pay attention to the establishment of these permanent plots as the data collected from such system will be extremely valuable to understand ecological dynamics and interactions between vegetation and soil nutrients.
Evaluation of Pool Habitat Suitability of In-Stream Structures in Restored Streams of Western North Carolina

One of the most critical aspects of stream restoration is the creation of suitable aquatic habitat. Much of this work is accomplished through the installation of both hard and soft instream structures. The structural stability of these practices has been well studied and monitored for decades. However, the evaluation of habitat potential of these structures has remained almost entirely qualitative and categorical. The objective of this study aimed to fill this void by quantitatively evaluating the habitat potential of a variety of common in-stream restoration structures and bend treatments in Western North Carolina through the measurement of common habitat features such as pool depth and length, distance to cover, and depth of cover (or undercut), with the ultimate goal of providing design recommendations for stream restoration projects listing habitat enhancement as a top priority. In analyzing the results of the study, high habitat quality was defined by large pool depths (for increased niche space and low flow velocities), small distances to cover, (for faster escape from predation), and large cover depth or undercut values, (for shelter, predation, and rearing). Collectively, soft structures provided the deepest pool depths, with shorter distances to cover and larger cover depth values than their fellow hard in-stream structures. Likewise, bend treatment groups containing soft in-stream structures also excelled in these areas. Bends containing hard structures produced much higher pool lengths, in many cases longer than the curvature of the bend itself. Design goals based on habitat enhancement of small streams should focus heavily on the installation of rootwad revetments and cover logs for creation of deeper pools with increased flow variation and increased cover depth. In addition, both these structures will also serve to promote the acquirement and continued recruitment of large and small woody debris into the streams. Where hardened structures are deemed necessary for structural or hydrologic purposes, they should be accompanied by soft in-stream structures to create combination bends to supplement habitat within these areas.
Tracking Source Code Propagation in Software Systems via Release History Data and Code Clone Detection

Apparatus for expelling air from pockets between superimposed sheets of successive stacks has a brush or roller which can be lowered onto the topmost sheet of a stack while the leader of the stack is pulled along a stationary support by a tongs. The brush or roller urges successive increments of the lowermost sheet of the moving stack against a stationary or rotary anvil whereby the pockets of air are eliminated in automatic response to forward movement of the stack with the tongs. Expulsion of air from the stacks enhances their shape-retaining ability during transport toward the next processing station or stations as well as at such stations. The brush or roller is mounted on pivotable arms which can be rocked back and forth by one or more levers which are pivotable by a cam and follower assembly receiving motion from the main prime mover of the machine or production line wherein the stacks are formed and/or processed.
Crowd Replication: Sensing-Assisted Quantification of Human Behaviour in Public Spaces

A central challenge for public space design is to evaluate whether a given space promotes different types of activities. In this paper, as our first contribution, we develop crowd replication as a novel sensor-assisted method for quantifying human behaviour within public spaces. In crowd replication, a researcher is tasked with recording the behaviour of people using a space while being instrumented with a mobile device that captures a sensor trace of the replicated movements and activities. Through mathematical modelling, behavioural indicators extracted from the replicated trajectories can be extrapolated to represent a larger target population. As our second contribution, we develop a novel highly accurate pedestrian sensing solution for reconstructing movement trajectories from sensor traces captured during the replication process. Our key insight is to tailor sensing to characteristics of the researcher performing replication, which allows reconstruction to operate robustly against variations in pace and other walking characteristics. We validate crowd replication through a case study carried out within a representative example of a metropolitan-scale public space. Our results show that crowd-replicated data closely mirrors human dynamics in public spaces, and reduces overall data collection effort while producing high quality indicators about behaviours and activities of people within the space. We also validate our pedestrian modelling approach through extensive benchmarks, demonstrating our approach can reconstruct movement trajectories with high accuracy and robustness (median error below 1%). Finally, we demonstrate that our contributions enable capturing detailed indicators of liveliness, extent of social interaction, and other factors indicative of public space quality.
Carvedilol vs endoscopic band ligation for the prevention of variceal bleeding: a meta-analysis

Objective: Variceal hemorrhage is the primary driver of mortality in patients with portal hypertension. Recent guidelines recommended that patients with esophageal varices should receive endoscopic band ligation (EBL) or carvedilol as prophylaxis of variceal bleeding. Several clinical trials have compared carvedilol use with EBL intervention, yielding controversial results. The present study aimed to perform a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the benefits and harms of carvedilol vs EBL for the prevention of variceal bleeding. Methods: Studies were searched on Pubmed, Embase, Medline, and Cochrane library databases up to August 2018. Main outcomes in selected studies (variceal bleeding, all-cause deaths, bleeding-related deaths, and adverse events) were pooled into a meta-analysis. Results: Seven RCTs were identified in this meta-analysis, including a total of 703 patients. A total of 359 patients were randomized to carvedilol group and 354 were randomized to EBL group. No significant difference in variceal bleeding was observed between carvedilol use and EBL groups (relative ratio [RR] = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.60–1.23, I 2 = 11%), without publication bias. No significant difference was found neither for all-cause deaths (RR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.44–1.53, I 2 = 66%) nor for bleeding-related deaths (RR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.39–1.87, I 2 = 42%) in four included studies. Moreover, no reduced trend was observed toward adverse events in carvedilol group compared with that in EBL group (RR = 1.32, 95% CI = 0.75–2.31, I 2 = 81%). Conclusion: There is no significant difference between carvedilol use and EBL intervention for the prophylaxis of variceal bleeding in patient with esophageal varices. Large-scale clinical trials are further needed to make a confirmed conclusion.
Are elevated maternal thyroid hormone concentrations after-mid-pregnancy shearing responsible for changes in lamb fleece characteristics?

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that elevated maternal thyroid hormone concentrations in midpregnancy are responsible for the observed differences in lamb follicle characteristics as a result of mid-pregnancy shearing. The study involved 51 twin-born lambs in a 2 x 2 factorial design involving dams that were either shorn or unshorn in mid pregnancy and had either normal or elevated thyroid hormone levels. All ewe groups were thyroidectomised except for unshorn-normal ewes which were sham-operated. The thyroxine implant and injection regimes used to manipulate maternal thyroid hormone levels in mid-pregnancy were successful in mimicking the levels previously reported in mid-pregnancy shorn ewes. Lambs born to shorn dams had significantly (P<0.05) higher coefficients of variation of mean fibre diameter. Dam shearing treatment had no effect on any other follicle or wool characteristic. Lambs born to ewes with elevated thyroid levels in mid-pregnancy had a significantly (P<0.05) higher numbers of secondary fibres, and tended to have more primary fibres (P=0.08) and whiter wool (P=0.06). The absence of any dam shearing-treatment effect on secondary and primary fibre numbers, fibre diameter and length, suggests that the changes observed in follicles and wool characteristics of lambs born to mid-pregnancy shorn dams are primarily due to elevations in maternal thyroid hormone levels in mid-pregnancy. More work is required to confirm this hypothesis.
hypertension as a predictive biomarker in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer treated with apatinib

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is a common adverse event of the vascular endothelial growth factor pathway inhibitor apatinib. This study was conducted to evaluate the association of apatinib-induced HTN with clinical outcomes in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 110 consecutive patients with advanced NSCLC who were treated with apatinib from August 2014 to January 2018. All patients were classified as normotensive or hypertensive based on blood pressure measurements after initiating therapy. Therapeutic response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox proportional hazards method. Results: A total of 46 patients (42%) were diagnosed with HTN. The median PFS for the hypertensive and normotensive groups were 5.6 months and 4.2 months, respectively ( P = 0.0027). The median OS times for the hypertensive and normotensive groups were 9.9 months and 7.8 months, respectively ( P = 0.005). Thirty percent of patients who experienced HTN showed partial response to apatinib as compared with 6.3% of non-hypertensive patients ( P = 0.002). HTN was independently associated with improved PFS and OS on both univariate and multivariate analyses. Conclusion: Apatinib-induced HTN may be an inexpensive, valid, and easily measurable biomarker for apatinib antitumor efficacy in patients with advanced NSCLC.
Improving Security in Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption with Hidden Access Policy and Testing

Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is one of the practical technologies to share data over cloud since it can protect data confidentiality and support fine-grained access control on the encrypted data. However, most of the previous schemes only focus on data confidentiality without considering data receiver privacy preserving. Recently, Li et al.(in TIIS, 10(7), 2016.7) proposed a CP-ABE with hidden access policy and testing, where they declare their scheme achieves privacy preserving for the encryptor and decryptor, and also has high decryption efficiency. Unfortunately, in this paper, we show that their scheme fails to achieve hidden access policy at first. It means that any adversary can obtain access policy information by a simple decisional Diffie-Hellman test (DDH-test) attack. Then we give a method to overcome this shortcoming. Security and performance analyses show that the proposed scheme not only achieves the privacy protection for users, but also has higher efficiency than the original one.
Bmc Microbiology Association of the Shuffling of Streptococcus Pyogenes Clones and the Fluctuation of Scarlet Fever Cases between 2000 and 2006 in Central Taiwan

Background: The number of scarlet fever occurrences reported between 2000 and 2006 fluctuated considerably in central Taiwan and throughout the nation. Isolates of Streptococcus pyogenes were collected from scarlet fever patients in central Taiwan and were characterized by emm sequencing and a standardized pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method. National weekly report data were collected for investigating epidemiological trends.
Prognostic Values Of Preoperative Serum CEA And CA125 Levels And Nomograms For Young Breast Cancer Patients

Background: Young breast cancer patients have poor prognosis compared to older patients in both overall survival (OS) and loco-regional failure-free survival. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and Cancer antigen 125 (CA125) have been widely used, but their prognostic value in young breast cancer patients remains unknown. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative CEA and CA125 serum levels and to build nomograms for better prognostic prediction of young Chinese breast cancer patients using both tumor markers. Methods: We included 576 young breast cancer patients ( ≤ 40 years at diagnosis) and collected their preoperative information. The best cut-off values of the CEA and CA125 were identi ﬁ ed with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify the relative risks of factors for the overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS), and nomograms were constructed based on these identi ﬁ ed factors. Results: The best cut-off values for CEA and CA125 in young breast cancer patients was 3.38 ng/mL and 19.38 U/mL, respectively. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that young patients with low levels of CEA and/or CA125, had longer OS and DFS. Multivariate analysis suggested that both CEA and CA125 levels were independent predictive elements for OS. Nomograms were built and showed a better predictive ability for OS (AUC = 0.856) and DFS (AUC = 0.702) in young breast cancer patients. Conclusion: Preoperative serum CEA and CA125 levels could be the independent prognostic factors for OS, and the nomograms including these two variables provide more personal forecasts information to help physicians optimize treatment for young breast cancer patients better.
Decision Aid Implementation and Patients ’ Preferences for Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment: Insights from the High Value Healthcare Collaborative Patient Preference and Adherence

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) research has emphasized the role of decision aids (DAs) for helping patients make treatment decisions re ﬂ ective of their preferences, yet there have been few collaborative multi-institutional efforts to integrate DAs in orthopedic consultations and primary care encounters. Objective: In the context of routine DA implementation for SDM, we investigate which patient-level characteristics are associated with patient preferences for surgery versus medical management before and after exposure to DAs. We explored whether DA implementation in primary care encounters was associated with greater shifts in patients ’ treatment preferences after exposure to DAs compared to DA implementation in orthopedic consultations. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: 10 High Value Healthcare Collaborative (HVHC) health systems. Study participants: A total of 495 hip and 1343 adult knee osteoarthritis patients who were exposed to DAs within HVHC systems between July 2012 to June 2015. Results: Nearly 20% of knee patients and 17% of hip patients remained uncertain about their treatment preferences after viewing DAs. Older patients and patients with high pain levels had an increased preference for surgery. Older patients receiving DAs from three HVHC systems that transitioned DA implementation from orthopedics into primary care had lower odds of preferring surgery after DA exposure compared to older patients in seven HVHC systems that only implemented DAs for orthopedic consultations. Conclusion: Patients ’ treatment preferences were largely stable over time, highlighting that DAs for SDM largely do not necessarily shift preferences. DAs and SDM processes should be targeted at older adults and patients reporting high pain levels. Initiating treatment conversations in primary versus specialty care settings may also have important implications for engagement of patients in SDM via DAs.
Model and observed seismicity represented in a two dimensional space

In recent years theoretical seismology lias introduced some formulae relating the magnitude and the seismic moment of earthquakes to the size of the fault and the stress drop which generated the earthquake. In the present paper we introduce a model for the statistics of the earthquakes based on these formulae. The model gives formulae which show internal consistency and are also confirmed by observations. For intermediate magnitudes the formulae reproduce also the trend of linearity of the statistics of magnitude and moment observed in all the seismic regions of the world. This linear trend changes into a curve with increasing slope for large magnitudes and moment. When a catalogue of the magnitudes and/or the seismic moment of the earthquakes of a seismic region is available, the model allows to estimate the maximum magnitude possible in the region.
Associations between change in blood pressure and functional outcome, early events and death results from the Efficacy of Nitric Oxide in Stroke trial

Objectives: High blood pressure (BP) is associated with a poor outcome after acute stroke. Early reduction in BP may be associated with fewer early adverse events and deaths, and improved functional outcome. Methods: Analyses used data from the Efficacy of Nitric Oxide in Stroke trial, a multicentre randomized single-masked and outcome-masked trial of glyceryl trinitrate vs. no glyceryl trinitrate in 4011 patients recruited within 48h of an ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke and with raised SBP (140–220mmHg). Change in SBP from baseline to day 1 was categorized as: more than 15% decrease, 15–5% decrease, 5% decrease to 5% increase (no change – reference) and more than 5% increase. The primary outcome was functional outcome (modified Rankin scale) score at 90 days. Results: Across all patients, both moderate (5–15%) and large ( > 15%) decreases in SBP were associated with beneficial shifts in the modified Rankin scale relative to patients with no change in BP: adjusted common odds ratio (OR) 0.81 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.70–0.90] and OR 0.84 (95% CI 0.71–1.00), respectively. A moderate decrease in SBP was also associated with a lower risk of early adverse events, adjusted OR 0.69 (95% CI 0.52–0.90). Conclusion: Modest decreases in SBP in acute stroke appear to be associated with fewer early events and better long-term functional outcome.