Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gulf Coast Megaregion Evacuation Traffic Simulation Modeling and Analysis

This paper describes a project to develop a micro-level traffic simulation for a megaregion. To accomplish this, a mass evacuation event was modeled using a traffic demand generation process that created a spatial and temporal distribution of departure times, origins, and destinations based on past hurricane scenarios. A megaregion-scale simulation was required to assess this event because only at this level can traffic from multiple cities, over several days, with route assignments in multiple and overlapping directions be analyzed. Among the findings of the research was that it is possible to scale-up and adapt existing models to reflect a simultaneous multi-city evacuation covering a megaregion. The movements generated by the demand and operational models were both logical and meaningful and they were able to capture the key elements of the system, including the traffic progression over vast spaces and long time durations. They were also adequate to demonstrate benefits of proactive traffic management strategies and the effect of increased and decreased advanced warning times. The project also revealed numerous limitations of existing modeling and computational processing capabilities. The knowledge and results gained from this research can be adaptable and transferable for the evaluation of other locations with different road networks, populations, transportation resources, and hazard threats. Models such as this can be modified to represent anticipated growth and development within large regions and can be used to evaluate the interrelationships between behavioral response and regional transportation management strategies.
Empirical projection of global sea level in 2050 driven by Antarctic and Greenland ice mass variations

Global mean sea level rise, driven by ice mass loss in Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets (AIS and GrIS), is a significant consequence of global warming. Although various ice sheet models have attempted to predict the ice mass balance and subsequent sea level changes, non-trivial disagreements between models exist. In this study, we employ an empirical approach to estimate the future (2050) ice mass changes for both ice sheets, assuming their historical patterns of ice dynamics would persist in the coming decades. To achieve this, we estimate decadal-scale ice discharge variations by subtracting the surface mass balance (SMB) from the observed ice mass changes and extrapolate linear trend and acceleration components of ice discharges up to 2050. We also consider future SMB data from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 models to estimate net ice mass balance. Our estimates suggest that from 2021 to 2050, the global sea level rise due to AIS and GrIS ranges between 6–19 mm and 15–31 mm, respectively. Additionally, we investigate regional sea level variability resulting from geoid changes induced by ice mass changes in both regions, highlighting that heterogeneous sea level changes may cause more pronounced sea level rises in lower latitude regions, where major cities are located.
Research on the results of the WLTP procedure for a passenger vehicle

The article considers variables registered in the WLTP procedure. The test results of a passenger car with a compression-ignition engine have been analysed. The tests were carried out on a chassis dynamometer. The tests were performed for engine cold start and ran up to the point of reaching stabilized operating conditions. The average specific distance emissions and volumetric fuel consumption were assessed for individual test phases as well as for the entire test. It was found that the results in the first test phase, which corresponded to the engine cold start up to stabilized operating conditions, had the most significant impact on the overall exhaust emission and fuel consumption results in the test. The specific distance emissions of carbon monoxide, non-methane hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides were by far the highest in the first phase of the test. In the fourth phase of the test, the specific distance emissions of methane and carbon dioxide turned out to be the highest, as well as the operational volumetric fuel consumption being the highest.
The change in contact angle at unsaturated CO2‐water conditions: Implication on geological carbon dioxide sequestration

The performance of a geologic carbon storage site strongly depends on the capillary pressure of sealing rock and formations. While wettability of minerals is a key factor in capillary pressure, published contact angles are inconsistent. This study explores the discrepancy of published contact angles in order to reduce the uncertainty of measured laboratory contact angles, and understand the variation of contact angles at unsaturated CO2‐water conditions. A ratio of droplet dimension and triple line (or contact line) are used to explain the observed wide range of contact angles and the variation of contact angle at unsaturated conditions. Results show that the shape factor has a good agreement with contact angle change during CO2 dissolution in water. Silica substrate has clear two pinned and slip stages of triple line during CO2 droplet dissolution, which cause contact angle on silica substrate to increase from 34.5° to 42.1°. However, mica substrate has the repeated pinned and slip stages due to the heterogeneity of mica surface, which cause contact angle to increase dramatically from 25.4° to 68.1°. Thus, both the impact of the unsaturated CO2‐water conditions on the wide range of contact angle and the heterogeneity of mineral surface should be considered when one estimates capillary pressure based on contact angle in geological CO2 sequestration.
The Impact of Maternal Obesity on Adipose Progenitor Cells

The concept of Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) postulates that adult-onset metabolic disorders may originate from suboptimal conditions during critical embryonic and fetal programming windows. In particular, nutritional disturbance during key developmental stages may program the set point of adiposity and its associated metabolic diseases later in life. Numerous studies in mammals have reported that maternal obesity and the resulting accelerated growth in neonates may affect adipocyte development, resulting in persistent alterations in adipose tissue plasticity (i.e., adipocyte proliferation and storage) and adipocyte function (i.e., insulin resistance, impaired adipokine secretion, reduced thermogenesis, and higher inflammation) in a sex- and depot-specific manner. Over recent years, adipose progenitor cells (APCs) have been shown to play a crucial role in adipose tissue plasticity, essential for its development, maintenance, and expansion. In this review, we aim to provide insights into the developmental timeline of lineage commitment and differentiation of APCs and their role in predisposing individuals to obesity and metabolic diseases. We present data supporting the possible implication of dysregulated APCs and aberrant perinatal adipogenesis through epigenetic mechanisms as a primary mechanism responsible for long-lasting adipose tissue dysfunction in offspring born to obese mothers.
Syngas production via dry reforming of methane over Ni/MgO-ZrO2 catalyst

This study intended to evaluate the catalytic activity of Ni/MgO-ZrO2 to produce syngas through dry reforming of methane (DRM). The catalyst was prepared by using co-precipitation method followed by impregnation of Ni metal. XRD, BET and FESEM were used to analyze the physicochemical characteristics of the prepared catalyst. A stainless steel vertical reactor fixed with a catalyst bed inside was used to run the DRM process at 800°C, 1 atm and 1:1:1 ratio of CO2:CH4:N2. From the three catalysts studied, Ni/MgO-15%ZrO2 had the maximum conversion for CH4 and CO2 compared to the other two catalysts. The high conversion achieved was because of zirconium oxide. The result obtained from the DRM reaction was further supported by the characterization results, which included average particle size, the morphology of the catalyst, and catalyst peaks.
Phylogenomics of Snakes

Reduced representation genome sequencing has ushered in new methods for understanding how life evolved on earth. These methods utilise genetic data in the form of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of loci to estimate phylogenetic relationships. This approach, often termed phylogenomic analysis, has the potential to resolve controversial evolutionary relationships, particularly among ancient, rapid radiations. Among vertebrates, phylogenomic analyses are increasingly applied to an iconic group of reptiles, snakes. Phylogenomic analyses of snakes have begun to shed light on long-standing questions including relationships among snake families, their origin among squamate reptiles and putative causes of speciation within recent radiations. In addition, these methods may even be used to obtain genetic data from archival museum specimens. This emerging approach for understanding snake evolution will be improved by whole genome sequencing initiatives that include a diverse group of snake species.
Does the use of low-molecular-weight heparin during pregnancy change the expression of PD-1 and PDL-1 in women with recurrent pregnancy loss?

Objective: The programed cell death gene-1 ligand (PDL-1) is expressed by villous syncytiotrophoblasts, cytotrophoblasts, and fetal cells in close contact with maternal tissue and blood. Programmed cell death gene-1 (PD-1) and the PDL-1 pathway cooperate with human leucocyte antigen-G (HLA-G), expressing intermediate trophoblastic cells and syncytiotrophoblasts to inhibit the function of activated T-cells. With this mechanism, the immunosuppressive microenvironment protects the placenta. This study investigated changes in PD-1 and PD-L1 gene expression in patients with a history of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Materials and Methods: Sixty patients participated in the study and were divided into three groups. Group 1 (G1): healthy pregnancy, G2: RPL but not low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH), and G3: RPL and LMWH. PD-1 gene expression in placental tissue samples was measured by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and PD-L1 Elisa assay, and the study was supported by histopathology. Results: The PD-L1 value decreased significantly in G2. A significant difference was observed between the groups in PD-1 gene expression levels in G1 and G2. It was observed that vascularization increased and the villi structures intensified in G3. In G2, there was villus dysplasia in the placenta, enlargement in the intervillous region, and fibrin deposition. It was observed that the villi structures in G3 returned to a morphology similar to that of G1. Conclusion: T-cells are activated in patients using LMWH, and a new therapeutic strategy can be developed to prevent pregnancy loss by targeting the PD-1 pathway.
Sedimentologic changes in the deposits of an evolving lahar-flood in 2006, Hood River Basin, Mount Hood, Oregon

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact pdxscholar@pdx.edu. Recommended Citation Poole, Matthew Ray, "Sedimentologic Changes in the Deposits of an Evolving Lahar-Flood in 2006, Hood River Basin, Mount Hood, Oregon" (2016). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3376.
Theoretical Performance of Low Rank Adaptive Filters in the Large Dimensional Regime

This paper proposes a new approximation of the theoretical signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) loss of the low-rank (LR) adaptive filter built on the eigenvalue decomposition of the sample covariance matrix. This new result is based on an analysis in the large dimensional regime, i.e., when the size and the number of data tend to infinity at the same rate. Compared to previous works, this new derivation allows us to measure the quality of the adaptive filter near the LR contribution. Moreover, we propose a new LR adaptive filter and we also derive its SINR loss approximation in a large dimensional regime. We validate these results on a jamming application and test their robustness in a multiple input multiple output space time adaptive processing application where the data size is large.
Lifestyle and functional fitness of elderly men and women attending a community center

Identifying indicators that contribute to a favourable living condition becomes of great value for the diagnosis, as well as implementing preventive and health-promoting actions. The present work objective was to evaluate and compare the lifestyle, depressive symptoms and functional aptitude of elderly men and women attending a community centre. The sample consisted of 277 elderly people, 197 (71%) women and 80 (29%) men aged above 60 years. The elderly were evaluated using a questionnaire to assess lifestyle and depressive symptoms, and their functional fitness was assessed by functional autonomy tests. The differences between the parameters were analysed by the student’s t-test and χ 2 whenever appropriate. Depressive symptoms were present in 35% of the elderly; however, the lifestyle analysis showed that 57.40% of the elderly had a very good classification, followed by 24.55% as good, 17.33% as excellent and 0.72% as regular. Regarding functional fitness, 19.39% of the elderly had a score related to a very good level, 15.97% good, 16.35% fair and 45.29% weak. The results found in this study suggest that the elderly attending the community centre presented low depressive symptoms with a lifestyle classification considered very good, however, with poor functional fitness with differences in some parameters between men and women.
Correlates of physiological stress and habitat factors in reintroduction-based recovery of tiger ( Panthera tigris ) populations

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Government of India [NTCA Order No. 1-3/93-PT (Vol. II)]. We thank Wildlife Institute of India (P.R. Sinha and V.B. Mathur), the State Forest Departments of Madhya Pradesh (H.S. Pabla, N. Kumar, D. Shukla, S. Kumar and R.S. Murthy) and Rajasthan (V.K. Melhotra, R.S. Shekhawat and M. Parashar); colleagues (J.A. Johnson, S. Sen, Q.Qureshi, S. Bhattacharya, P. Chaurasia, D. Chatterjee, S.K. Bhardwaj, M. Naveen and S. Roamin) and field sta for providing support and facilitating field data collection. We are grateful to the reviewers and especially the editor of the manuscript for valuable inputs. These tiger reintroductions were implemented as per the protocol issued by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which is the supreme authority in India, as far as tiger management is concerned. In this protocol, NTCA has incorporated IUCN reintroduction specialist groups’ guidelines. In term of field execution, the chief Wildlife Warden is empowered to carry out such management interventions, but because India is signatory to IUCN, the guidelines laid down by IUCN are generally followed and in this specific context has been incorporated through NTCA protocols. Abstract
Analysis of waterspout environmental conditions and of parent‐storm behaviour based on satellite data over the southern Aegean Sea of Greece

A frequent area of waterspout formation is identified over the southern Aegean Sea. The objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to investigate the temporal evolution of Cloud Top Temperature (CTT) of cloud lines (waterspouts' parent clouds) that triggered the formation of single or multiple waterspout events, by using Meteorological Satellite Second Generation infrared satellite data, cloud base height data and weather observations from the closest Hellenic National Meteorological Service meteorological station; (2) to synthesize a detailed climatology of the thermodynamic environment during waterspout activity and (3) to explore the sea‐surface temperature (SST) seasonal distribution and its possible relationships with the temperature of the middle and lower troposphere during waterspout days over the southern Aegean Sea.
The natural forest gaps maintenance diversity of understory birds in Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve, northern Thailand

Siri S, Ponpituk Y, Safoowong M, Marod D, Duengkae P. 2019. The natural forest gaps maintenance diversity of understory birds in Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve, northern Thailand. Biodiversitas 20: 181-189. We compared the species composition and feeding guilds between under closed canopies and forest gaps in the low-elevation montane evergreen forest in Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve. Monthly mist netting was used to capture birds from January 2015 to December 2017. In total, 958 individual birds belonging to 65 species were captured over 25,920 sampling hours. Of the total number of birds, 475 were from 51 species (Shannon-Wiener index: H' 2.974) under closed canopies and 483 were from 47 species (H' 2.985) in forest gaps. The number of bird species in gaps increased rapidly and constantly through 1 year following gap creation. Forest gap localities contained 48% of the understory birds in the area. Foliage–gleaning insectivores were the dominant bird feeding guild in both areas. Some species such as Erythrura prasina is a nomadic bird were found on first year of the forest gap only. Overall, we found that the forest gaps created by natural disturbances in the Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve had no negative impact on the diversity of understory bird communities. The natural forest gap are created by intermediate disturbance promotes a relatively high biodiversity of birds in the ecosystem.
Length-Weight Relationships (LWRs) of Four Loach Species of the Cobitidae Family from the Surma River, Bangladesh

Four loaches, namely, Lepidocephalichthys guntea (Hamilton, 1822), Lepidocephalichthys annandalei (Chaudhuri, 1912), Lepidocephalichthys thermalis (Valenciennes, 1846), and Lepidocephalichthys berdmorei (Blyth, 1860) from the Cobitidae family, were collected from the Surma River, Bangladesh. Of the total 376 speciminia, 193 males (51.32%) and 183 females (48.67%) in number; were collected with the support of local fishermen using a variety of nets at 15-day intervals from November 2022 to April 2023. The length-weight relationship (LWR) parameters were analyzed using the equation W = a L b . L. annandalei displayed a notable isometric growth pattern, with a condition factor (K) ranging from 0.725 to 0.734. In addition, L. thermalis exhibited isometric growth among males, while females showcased positive allometric growth with a condition factor (K) varying between 0.697 and 0.714. L. guntea exhibited a consistent positive allometric growth pattern across all aspects, with a condition factor (K) ranging from 0.729 to 0.738. In contrast, L. berdmorei demonstrated positive allometric growth, but males and females both exhibited a negative allometric growth pattern. The condition factor (K) for L. berdmorei ranged from 0.699 to 0.702. This suggests a complex growth pattern influenced by both length and weight in every experimental loach. The research underscores the importance of recognizing gender-specific variations in growth patterns within species.
Guideline-Based Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Delivered by an mHealth App: Development Study

Background Identifying high-risk individuals is crucial for preventing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Currently, risk assessment is mostly performed by physicians. Mobile health apps could help decouple the determination of risk from medical resources by allowing unrestricted self-assessment. The respective test results need to be interpretable for laypersons. Objective Together with a patient organization, we aimed to design a digital risk calculator that allows people to individually assess and optimize their CVD risk. The risk calculator was integrated into the mobile health app HerzFit, which provides the respective background information. Methods To cover a broad spectrum of individuals for both primary and secondary prevention, we integrated the respective scores (Framingham 10-year CVD, Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation 2, Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation 2 in Older Persons, and Secondary Manifestations Of Arterial Disease) into a single risk calculator that was recalibrated for the German population. In primary prevention, an individual’s heart age is estimated, which gives the user an easy-to-understand metric for assessing cardiac health. For secondary prevention, the risk of recurrence was assessed. In addition, a comparison of expected to mean and optimal risk levels was determined. The risk calculator is available free of charge. Data safety is ensured by processing the data locally on the users’ smartphones. Results Offering a risk calculator to the general population requires the use of multiple instruments, as each provides only a limited spectrum in terms of age and risk distribution. The integration of 4 internationally recommended scores allows risk calculation in individuals aged 30 to 90 years with and without CVD. Such integration requires recalibration and harmonization to provide consistent and plausible estimates. In the first 14 months after the launch, the HerzFit calculator was downloaded more than 96,000 times, indicating great demand. Public information campaigns proved effective in publicizing the risk calculator and contributed significantly to download numbers. Conclusions The HerzFit calculator provides CVD risk assessment for the general population. The public demonstrated great demand for such a risk calculator as it was downloaded up to 10,000 times per month, depending on campaigns creating awareness for the instrument.
Statistical Study of Low-Intensity Single-Molecule Recognition Events Using DeepTipTM Probes: Application to the Pru p 3-Phytosphingosine System

The interaction between the plant lipid transfer protein Pru p 3 and phytosphingosine was assessed using an atomic force microscope. Phytosphingosine was covalently immobilized on DeepTipTM probes and Pru p 3 on MicroDeckTM functionalized substrates. Single-molecular interaction events between both molecules were retrieved and classified and the distribution for each one of the identified types was calculated. A success rate of over 70% was found by comparing the number of specific Pru p 3-phytosphingosine interaction events with the total number of recorded curves. The analysis of the distribution established among the various types of curves was further pursued to distinguish between those curves that can mainly be used for assessing the recognition between phytosphingosine (sensor molecule) and Pru p 3 (target molecule) in the context of affinity atomic force microscopy, and those that entail details of the interaction and might be employed in the context of force spectroscopy. The successful application of these functionalized probes and substrates to the characterization of the low-intensity hydrophobic interaction characteristic of this system is a clear indication of the potential of exploiting this approach with an extremely wide range of different biological molecules of interest. The possibility of characterizing molecular assembly events with single-molecule resolution offers an advantageous procedure to plough into the field of molecular biomimetics.