Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Survey on the Impact of Information Technology in the Canadian Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry

SUMMARY: A survey about the current and planned use of information technology (IT) and its impact on the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in Canada has been conducted at the end of 1998 and beginning of 1999. It was found that many business processes are now almost completely computerised and the tendency is toward a greater computerisation of the remaining processes. Although the Internet has been adopted by most firms surveyed, design information is still exchanged in its traditional form. These firms have increased and will increase further their investment in IT, which has raised productivity in most business processes and has resulted in an increase in the quality of documents and in the speed of work, better financial controls and communications, and simpler access to common data. However, the benefits of IT come at a cost since the complexity of work, the administrative needs and the costs of doing business have all increased. The continual demand for upgrading and the greater know-how required are considered important obstacles. The two most important areas of future research is the implementation of computer-inte grated design and construction as well as the development of new tools to support concurrent design and to assist designers in the conceptual stages.
The short-term economic consequences of COVID-19: Exposure to disease, remote work and government response

We examine the determinants of the consequences of COVID-19 on employment and wages in the United States. Guided by a pre-analysis plan, we investigate whether the economic consequences of COVID-19 were larger for certain occupations, using four indexes: workers relatively more exposed to disease, workers that work with proximity to coworkers, essential/critical workers and workers who can easily work remotely. We find that individuals that work in proximity to others are more affected while individuals able to work remotely and essential workers are less affected by the pandemic. We also present suggestive evidence that our indexes are likely explanations why certain demographic groups such as younger and minority workers have worse labor market outcomes during the pandemic.
Bandwidth Extension on Raw Audio via Generative Adversarial Networks

Neural network-based methods have recently demonstrated state-of-the-art results on image synthesis and super-resolution tasks, in particular by using variants of generative adversarial networks (GANs) with supervised feature losses. Nevertheless, previous feature loss formulations rely on the availability of large auxiliary classifier networks, and labeled datasets that enable such classifiers to be trained. Furthermore, there has been comparatively little work to explore the applicability of GAN-based methods to domains other than images and video. In this work we explore a GAN-based method for audio processing, and develop a convolutional neural network architecture to perform audio super-resolution. In addition to several new architectural building blocks for audio processing, a key component of our approach is the use of an autoencoder-based loss that enables training in the GAN framework, with feature losses derived from unlabeled data. We explore the impact of our architectural choices, and demonstrate significant improvements over previous works in terms of both objective and perceptual quality.
Expected utility maximization for an insurer with investment and risk control under inside information

Abstract This paper studies optimal investment and risk control strategies for an insurer who owns insider information. The insurance risk process is governed by a general jump diffusion process with random parameters and is correlated with the risky asset process in the financial market. We model the inside information by a general random variable related to the insurance risk process and the risky asset process. Under the criterion of expected utility maximization of the terminal wealth, we adopt white noise calculus and BSDE approach to analyze the problem for various utility functions.
Magnetoelastic hybrid excitations in CeAuAl3

Significance A cornerstone of condensed-matter physics is the Born–Oppenheimer approximation, which assumes that the motion of the atomic nuclei and electrons in solids may be treated separately. We report the observation of two distinct magneto-elastic hybrid excitations of the phonons and crystal electric fields (CEFs) in the paramagnetic state of the Kondo lattice compound CeAuAl3: (i) a vibronic bound state and (ii) a pronounced anticrossing. The formation of both excitations due to acoustic phonons in the presence of small coupling constants, as well as considerable damping of the CEF excitations by the conduction electrons, suggests that similar hybrid excitations must generically exist in a wide range of materials. This identifies CeAuAl3 as a showcase for the development of a predictive understanding of magneto-elastic instabilities. Nearly a century of research has established the Born–Oppenheimer approximation as a cornerstone of condensed-matter systems, stating that the motion of the atomic nuclei and electrons may be treated separately. Interactions beyond the Born–Oppenheimer approximation are at the heart of magneto-elastic functionalities and instabilities. We report comprehensive neutron spectroscopy and ab initio phonon calculations of the coupling between phonons, CEF-split localized 4f electron states, and conduction electrons in the paramagnetic regime of CeAuAl3, an archetypal Kondo lattice compound. We identify two distinct magneto-elastic hybrid excitations that form even though all coupling constants are small. First, we find a CEF–phonon bound state reminiscent of the vibronic bound state (VBS) observed in other materials. However, in contrast to an abundance of optical phonons, so far believed to be essential for a VBS, the VBS in CeAuAl3 arises from a comparatively low density of states of acoustic phonons. Second, we find a pronounced anticrossing of the CEF excitations with acoustic phonons at zero magnetic field not observed before. Remarkably, both magneto-elastic excitations are well developed despite considerable damping of the CEFs that arises dominantly by the conduction electrons. Taking together the weak coupling with the simultaneous existence of a distinct VBS and anticrossing in the same material in the presence of damping suggests strongly that similarly well-developed magneto-elastic hybrid excitations must be abundant in a wide range of materials. In turn, our study of the excitation spectra of CeAuAl3 identifies a tractable point of reference in the search for magneto-elastic functionalities and instabilities.
Obesity risk and preference for high dietary fat intake are determined by FTO rs9939609 gene polymorphism in selected Indonesian adults.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Data suggest that genetic factors are associated with BMI. The fat mass and obesity- associated (FTO) gene modulates adipogenesis through alternative splicing and m6A demethylation. Individuals with FTO rs9939609 gene polymorphism have a preference for energy-dense foods. This study investigates the relationship between FTO rs9939609 and obesity and preference for dietary fat intake among selected Indonesian adults. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A total of 40 non-obese and 40 obese participants aged 19-59 living in Jakarta were recruited. Body composition measurements included body weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, and body fat mass. Dietary intake was assessed using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire and food recall over 2 × 24-h periods. Genetic variation was determined using amplification-refractory mutation system polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS The genotype distribution of the FTO gene (rs9939609) was at Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium (p=1) with minor allele frequency=0.19. Individuals with AT/AA genotypes had 3.72 times higher risk of obesity (p=0.009) and 5.98 times higher dietary fat intake (p=0.02) than those with TT genotype. Obese participants with the AT/AA genotypes had 1.40 times higher dietary fat intake than those with the TT genotype (p=0.016). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that Indonesian adults with AT/AA genotypes of the FTO rs9939609 have higher obesity risks and preferences for high dietary fat intake than those with TT genotype.
Enjoy It Again: Repeat Experiences Are Less Repetitive Than People Think

What would it be like to revisit a museum, restaurant, or city you just visited? To rewatch a movie you just watched? To replay a game you just played? People often have opportunities to repeat hedonic activities. Seven studies (total N = 3,356) suggest that such opportunities may be undervalued: Many repeat experiences are not as dull as they appear. Studies 1–3 documented the basic effect. All participants first completed a real-world activity once in full (Study 1, museum exhibit; Study 2, movie; Study 3, video game). Then, some predicted their reactions to repeating it whereas others actually repeated it. Predictors underestimated Experiencers’ enjoyment, even when experienced enjoyment indeed declined. Studies 4 and 5 compared mechanisms: neglecting the pleasurable byproduct of continued exposure to the same content (e.g., fluency) versus neglecting the new content that manifests by virtue of continued exposure (e.g., discovery), both of which might dilute uniform dullness. We found stronger support for the latter: The misprediction was moderated by stimulus complexity (Studies 4 and 5) and mediated by the amount of novelty discovered within the stimulus (Study 5), holding exposure constant. Doing something once may engender an inflated sense that one has now seen “it,” leaving people naïve to the missed nuances remaining to enjoy. Studies 6 and 7 highlighted consequences: Participants incurred costs to avoid repeats so to maximize enjoyment, in specific contexts for which repetition would have been as enjoyable (Study 6) or more enjoyable (Study 7) as the provided novel alternative. These findings warrant a new look at traditional assumptions about hedonic adaptation and novelty preferences. Repetition too could add an unforeseen spice to life.
Long-term fragility: Interference susceptibility may be an inherent characteristic of memory traces acquired through fast mapping

ABSTRACT Research in adults and in children has demonstrated that item-label memory traces created during Fast Mapping (FM) can be retained over extended time-periods but are also highly susceptible to interference. This could be an inherent and adaptive characteristic of inferential learning allowing rapid and prolonged retention while maintaining a hypothesis status for easy abandonment in case of new evidence suggesting erroneous inference. These characteristics dictate boundary conditions for learning through FM that are best investigated by examining memory dynamics rather than memory quantity and necessitate more nuanced interpretations than recent reviews of FM in children and adults offer.
Mutant Ahi1 Affects Retinal Axon Projection in Zebrafish via Toxic Gain of Function

Joubert syndrome (JBTS) is an inherited autosomal recessive disorder associated with cerebellum and brainstem malformation and can be caused by mutations in the Abelson helper integration site-1 (AHI1) gene. Although AHI1 mutations in humans cause abnormal cerebellar development and impaired axonal decussation in JBTS, these phenotypes are not robust or are absent in various mouse models with Ahi1 mutations. AHI1 contains an N-terminal coiled-coil domain, multiple WD40 repeats, and a C-terminal Src homology 3 (SH3) domain, suggesting that AHI1 functions as a signaling or scaffolding protein. Since most AHI1 mutations in humans can result in truncated AHI1 proteins lacking WD40 repeats and the SH3 domain, it remains unclear whether mutant AHI1 elicits toxicity via a gain-of-function mechanism by the truncated AHI1. Because Ahi1 in zebrafish and humans share a similar N-terminal region with a coiled-coil domain that is absent in mouse Ahi1, we used zebrafish as a model to investigate whether Ahi1 mutations could affect axonal decussation. Using in situ hybridization, we found that ahi1 is highly expressed in zebrafish ocular tissues, especially in retina, allowing us to examine its effect on retinal ganglion cell (RGC) projection and eye morphology. We injected a morpholino to zebrafish embryos, which can generate mutant Ahi1 lacking the intact WD40 repeats, and found RGC axon misprojection and ocular dysplasia in 4 dpf (days post-fertilization) larvae after the injection. However, ahi1 null zebrafish showed normal RGC axon projection and ocular morphology. We then used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate truncated ahi1 and also found similar defects in the RGC axon projection as seen in those injected with ahi1 morpholino. Thus, the aberrant retinal axon projection in zebrafish is caused by the presence of mutant ahi1 rather than the loss of ahi1, suggesting that mutant Ahi1 may affect axonal decussation via toxic gain of function.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Affects Cognitive Processing and Modifies Oscillatory Brain Activity during Attentional Tasks

Abstract Despite the high prevalence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), current diagnostic tools to objectively assess cognitive complaints after mTBI continue to be inadequate. Our aim was to identify neuronal correlates for cognitive difficulties in mTBI patients by evaluating the possible alterations in oscillatory brain activity during a behavioral task known to be sensitive to cognitive impairment after mTBI. We compared oscillatory brain activity during rest and cognitive tasks (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test [PASAT] and a vigilance test [VT]) with magnetoencephalography between 25 mTBI patients and 20 healthy controls. Whereas VT induced no significant differences compared with resting state in either group, patients exhibited stronger attenuation of 8- to 14-Hz oscillatory activity during PASAT than healthy controls in the left parietotemporal cortex (p ≤ 0.05). Further, significant task-related modulation in the left superior frontal gyrus and right prefrontal cortex was detected only in patients. The ∼10-Hz (alpha) peak frequency declined in frontal, temporal, and parietal regions during PASAT compared with rest (p < 0.016) in patients, whereas in controls it remained the same or showed a tendency to increase. In patients, the ∼10-Hz peak amplitude was negatively correlated with behavioral performance in the Trail Making Test. The observed alterations in the cortical oscillatory activity during cognitive load may provide measurable neurophysiological correlates of cognitive difficulties in mTBI patients, even at the individual level.
Antibody-Induced Internalization of HIV-1 Env Proteins Limits Surface Expression of the Closed Conformation of Env

HIV-1 has evolved to acquire several strategies to limit the exposure of its envelope glycoproteins (Env) on the surface of infected cells. In this study, we show that antibody-induced Env internalization is conformation specific and reduces the susceptibility of infected cells to antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Thus, a better understanding of this mechanism might help develop antibodies with improved capacities to mediate ADCC. ABSTRACT To minimize immune responses against infected cells, HIV-1 limits the surface expression of its envelope glycoprotein (Env). Here, we demonstrate that this mechanism is specific for the Env conformation and affects the efficiency of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy, we show that broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) targeting the “closed” conformation of Env induce its internalization from the surface. In contrast, non-neutralizing antibodies (nNAbs) are displayed on the cell surface for prolonged period of times. The bNAb-induced Env internalization can be decreased by blocking dynamin function, which translates into higher susceptibilities of infected cells to ADCC. Our results suggest that antibody-mediated Env internalization is a mechanism used by HIV-1 to evade immune responses against the “closed” conformation of Env expressed on HIV-1-infected cells. IMPORTANCE HIV-1 has evolved to acquire several strategies to limit the exposure of its envelope glycoproteins (Env) on the surface of infected cells. In this study, we show that antibody-induced Env internalization is conformation specific and reduces the susceptibility of infected cells to antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Thus, a better understanding of this mechanism might help develop antibodies with improved capacities to mediate ADCC.
Identification and functional analysis of microRNAs in rats following focal cerebral ischemia injury

MicroRNA sequencing (miRNA-seq) was performed in the present study to investigate miRNA expression profiles in infarcted brain areas following focal cerebral ischemia induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. In total, 20 miRNAs were identified to be upregulated and 17 to be downregulated in the infarct area. The expression levels of six differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRs), miR-211-5p, miR-183-5p, miR-10b-3p, miR-182, miR-217-5p and miR-96-5p, were examined by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Subsequently, a miRNA-mRNA network was constructed. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses were performed to investigate the functions of the mRNAs targeted by these DEmiRs. The present study aimed to investigate the association between miRNAs and cerebral ischemia to provide potential insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying ischemic stroke.
The effect of anesthesia technique on tumor reccurrence rate after mastectomy

Background: Breast cancer is most common cancer in women. Although surgical and chemotherapy methods have improved survival, mortality is seen secondary to metastasis and recurrence. Neuroaxial anesthesia has been shown to suppress neuroendocrine stress response due to surgery with sympathetic blockade and has a positive effect on tumor recurrence. In this study, the hypothesis was regional anesthesia may have a positive effect on patient comfort, surgical success rate and complications in the short term, tumor recurrence and metastasis in the long term. Methods: Patients who underwent mastectomy for breast cancer were divided into two groups as thoracic epidural or general anesthesia retrospectively. Preoperative patient characteristics, intraoperative hemodynamic data and postoperative complications were recorded. Static and dynamic pain was evaluated at 12, 24 and 48 hours, at 1 week, 3 and 6 months, and at the end of 1 and 3 years. The presence of metastasis and recurrence was evaluated. Results: In this study, no relationship between recurrence and anesthesia type (p=1.0) could be found. Intraoperative hemodynamic data and pain scores were lower in patients who underwent thoracic epidural anesthesia. Conclusions: As a result, thoracic epidural anesthesia had hemodynamic effects and lower pain scores in postoperative pain control, but had no effect on tumor recurrence in breast cancer patients.
Heat trace asymptotics on equiregular sub-Riemannian manifolds

We study a "div-grad type" sub-Laplacian with respect to a smooth measure and its associated heat semigroup on a compact equiregular sub-Riemannian manifold. We prove a short time asymptotic expansion of the heat trace up to any order. Our main result holds true for any smooth measure on the manifold, but it has a spectral geometric meaning when Popp's measure is considered. Our proof is probabilistic. In particular, we use S. Watanabe's distributional Malliavin calculus.
Partial disentanglement of hierarchical variational auto-encoder for texture synthesis

: Multiple research studies have recently demonstrated deep networks can generate realistic-looking textures and stylised images from a single texture example. However, they suffer from some drawbacks. Generative adversarial networks are in general difficult to train. Multiple feature variations, encoded in their latent representation, require a priori information to generate images with specific features. The auto-encoders are prone to generate a blurry output. One of the main reasons is the inability to parameterise complex distributions. The authors present a novel texture generative model architecture extending the variational auto-encoder approach. It gradually increases the accuracy of details in the reconstructed images. Thanks to the proposed architecture, the model is able to learn a higher level of details resulting from the partial disentanglement of latent variables. The generative model is also capable of synthesising complex real-world textures. The model consists of multiple separate latent layers responsible for learning the gradual levels of texture details. Separate training of latent representations increases the stability of the learning process and provides partial disentanglement of latent variables. The experiments with proposed architecture demonstrate the potential of variational auto-encoders in the domain of texture synthesis and also tend to yield sharper reconstruction as well as synthesised texture images.
Early Stage Alterations in White Matter and Decreased Functional Interhemispheric Hippocampal Connectivity in the 3xTg Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized in the late stages by amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Nevertheless, recent evidence has indicated that early changes in cerebral connectivity could compromise cognitive functions even before the appearance of the classical neuropathological features. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and volumetry were performed in the triple transgenic mouse model of AD (3xTg-AD) at 2 months of age, prior to the development of intraneuronal plaque accumulation. We found the 3xTg-AD had significant fractional anisotropy (FA) increase and radial diffusivity (RD) decrease in the cortex compared with wild-type controls, while axial diffusivity (AD) and mean diffusivity (MD) were similar. Interhemispheric hippocampal connectivity was decreased in the 3xTg-AD while connectivity in the caudate putamen (CPu) was similar to controls. Most surprising, ventricular volume in the 3xTg-AD was four times larger than controls. The results obtained in this study characterize the early stage changes in interhemispheric hippocampal connectivity in the 3xTg-AD mouse that could represent a translational biomarker to human models in preclinical stages of the AD.
Stochastic Gravitational-wave Background from Binary Black Holes and Binary Neutron Stars and Implications for LISA

The advent of gravitational-wave and multimessenger astronomy has stimulated research on the formation mechanisms of binary black holes (BBHs) observed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)/Virgo. In the literature, the progenitors of these BBHs could be stellar-origin black holes (sBHs) or primordial black holes (PBHs). In this paper, we calculate the stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) from BBHs, covering the astrophysical and primordial scenarios separately, together with the one from binary neutron stars (BNSs). Our results indicate that PBHs contribute a stronger SGWB than that from sBHs, and the total SGWB from both BBHs and BNSs has a high possibility of being detected by the future observing runs of LIGO/Virgo and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). On the other hand, the SGWB from BBHs and BNSs also contributes an additional source of confusion noise to LISA’s total noise curve, and then weakens LISA’s detection abilities. For instance, the detection of massive black hole binary (MBHB) coalescences is one of the key missions of LISA, and the largest detectable redshift of MBHB mergers can be significantly reduced.