Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERFORMANCE CONTROL BASED ON GREEN TREE BEHAVIOR

This article presents a realistic analogy, with practical applications, between green trees and manmade moment frames under similar loading conditions. The paper also introduces a new facet of bioinspiration which attempts to benefit from some of the natural design strategies involved in the structural performance of trees, rather than utilizing them as raw materials. The paper suggests that bioinspiration can help transfer and improve basic design concepts from trees to moment frames under seismic as well as gravity loading scenarios. For instance, it has been shown that earthquake resistant systems can best be realized by performing design led analysis rather than investigating analytic results and that structural design should be performance based rather than instruction oriented computations. In other words, it is preferable for earthquake resistant structures to be designed in accordance with observed rather than expected behavior, i.e., desirable response characteristics should be induced rather than investigated. These features constitute the core of the recently developed performance control (PC) methodology that aims at rational design of engineering structures under both service as well as extreme loading conditions. In the interim a number of new design formulae have also been introduced. Two examples have been provided to demonstrate the applications of the conceptual design similarities between green trees and earthquake resisting moment frames.
The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues

The content at the end of any hyperlink is subject to two phenomena: the link may break (Link Rot) or the content at the end of the link may no longer be the same as it was when it was created (Content Drift). Reference Rot denotes the combination of both effects. Spatial metadata records rely on hyperlinks for indicating the location of the resources they describe. Therefore, they are also subject to Reference Rot. This paper evaluates the presence of Reference Rot and its impact on the 22,738 distribution URIs of 18,054 metadata records from 26 European INSPIRE spatial data catalogues. Our Link Rot checking method detects broken links while considering the specific requirements of spatial data services. Our Content Drift checking method uses the data format as an indicator. It compares the data formats declared in the metadata with the actual data types returned by the hyperlinks. Findings show that 10.41% of the distribution URIs suffer from Link Rot and at least 6.21% of records suffer from Content Drift (do not declare its distribution types correctly). Additionally, 14.94% of metadata records only contain intermediate HTML web pages as distribution URIs and 31.37% contain at least one HTML web page; thus, they cannot be accessed or checked directly.
Muiti-layer optimization in wireless ad hoc networks

The growing prevalence of wireless ad hoc networks calls for an innovative design to support Quality of Service (QoS) while maintaining high energy efficiency and bandwidth efficiency. In this dissertation, a multi-layer optimization approach is developed in view of benefits and necessities of sharing information among different layers. Specifically, given the traffic demands with QoS requirements, how to jointly design physical, MAC and network layers to optimize the network performance is considered in this dissertation. Firstly, a joint power control and maximally disjoint multipath routing scheme is proposed for QoS provisioning of end-to-end traffic with minimum rate constraint. A framework of power control with QoS constraints is introduced and both centralized and distributed solutions are derived. It is demonstrated by simulations that the proposed scheme provides high energy efficiency and the prolonged network lifetime, as well as robustness when augmented with a dynamic traffic monitoring and switching mechanism. In order to fulfill the QoS requirement at the link layer, TD/CDMA has been chosen as the MAC scheme due to its support for a high network throughput in a multihop environment. The multi-link versions of proportional fair and throughput optimal scheduling algorithms are proposed for multihop wireless ad hoc networks. In addition, a generic token counter mechanism is employed to satisfy the minimum and maximum rate requirements. Approximative algorithms are suggested to reduce the computational complexity. In networks that lack centralized control, distributed scheduling algorithms are derived and fully distributed implementations are provided. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes. In order to further improve bandwidth efficiency, cognitive radio is considered for more efficient spatial and temporal spectrum sharing. Specifically, we consider the scenario where a cognitive radio ad hoc network is formed by low power personal/portable devices operating simultaneously in the same frequency band along with a legacy system. A power control problem is formulated to maximize the energy efficiency of the ad hoc network, as well as to guarantee QoS for both legacy network users and ad hoc network users. The results show that cognitive radio greatly improves bandwidth efficiency of wireless ad hoc networks. %%%%
The Relationship between Body Composition and Physical Fitness and the Effect of Exercise According to the Level of Childhood Obesity Using the MGPA Model

Childhood obesity can lead to adulthood obesity with adverse effects. Since body composition and physical fitness differ depending on the obesity degree, a systemic analysis could help classify that degree. We used three study designs based on the obesity degree (body mass index [BMI] as a reference) for our objectives. First, we identified the relationship between body composition and physical fitness. Second, we determined the effects of exercise on body composition and physical fitness. Third, we performed a path analysis of the impact of exercise on body composition and physical fitness, and verified those effects among the groups. In study 1, 164 10-year-old subjects were divided into four groups: 33 in the normal weight (NO), 34 in overweight (OV), 54 in obesity (OB), and 43 in the severe obesity (SOB) group. In study 2, 101 participants from study 1 who wished to participate in the exercise program were divided into four groups (same criteria). The exercise program (three times a week for 60 min, for 16 weeks) consisted of sports and reinforcement exercises of increasing intensity. Body composition was measured by body weight, percentage of body fat (%BF), muscle mass, skeletal muscle mass (SMM), and body mass index (BMI). In contrast, physical fitness was measured by muscular strength, flexibility, muscular endurance, agility, and balance. As a result, all body composition variables were higher in the SOB group than in the other groups. Physical fitness, muscular strength and balance, and agility were highest in the SOB, NO, and OV groups, respectively. Pearson’s correlation revealed that muscular strength was associated with height and body weight across all groups. Agility showed a negative correlation with %BF in the NO, OB, and SOB groups. SMM was positively correlated in the OB and SOB groups. After the exercise intervention, BMI and the %BF of the SOB group were significantly reduced (p < 0.01, and p < 0.001, respectively), while SMM presented a significant increase (p < 0.001). Height also showed a significant increase in all groups (p < 0.001). Among physical fitness variables, muscular strength, flexibility, muscular endurance, and balance showed a significant increase in all groups, while a significant increase in power was observed in only the OB and SOB groups. As for the effects of the body composition on physical fitness after exercise intervention, the greatest impact was observed for balance, muscular strength and agility, and muscular endurance in NO, OV, and OB groups, respectively. In conclusion, the body composition, physical fitness relationship, and the effects of exercise intervention on them differed depending on the obesity degree. Furthermore, the results varied according to the obesity degree. Thus, our study highlights the importance of creating particular exercise programs for the effective prevention and treatment of childhood obesity considering the obesity degree.
Measures to assess a warning vaccination level in a stochastic SIV model with imperfect vaccine

A stochastic Markovian Susceptible‐Infectious‐Susceptible (SIS) model, with infection reintroduction is considered to represent the evolution of an epidemic process within a finite population. Disease is assumed to be a contact disease whose effect can be prevented by a vaccine. Before the epidemic process emerges, v0$v_0$ individuals got vaccinated to assure that the population is protected by herd immunity. In consequence, we formulate the model by adding a new compartment for vaccine protected individuals. The administered vaccine is not a perfect one and consequently it fails in a proportion of vaccinated individuals that are not protected against the vaccine preventable communicable disease. Hence, while the infectious process is in progress, the initial vaccine coverage declines and herd immunity could be lost. A threshold on the size of the vaccinated group is included as a warning measure on the protection of the community. Our objective is to define and study random characteristics, depending on the vaccination eligible group, that could advise health authorities when to launch a new vaccination program to recover the initial immunity level.
Application of a Novel PM Model to Assess the Risk of Clostridioides difficile Infections in Medical Facilities as a Tool for Improving the Quality of Health Services and the Safety of Patients

Infections with multi-drug resistant microorganisms associated with the provision of health services have become an acute problem worldwide. These infections cause increased morbidity as well as mortality and are a financial burden for the healthcare system. Effective risk management can reduce the spread of infections and thus minimize their number in hospitalized patients. We have developed a new approach to the analysis of hazards and of exposure to the risk of adverse events by linking the patient’s health record system to the entire infrastructure of the hospital unit. In this study, using the developed model, we focused on infections caused by the Clostridioides difficile bacterium, as they constitute a significant number of nosocomial infections in Poland and worldwide. The study was conducted in a medical facility located in the central part of Poland which provides tertiary care. In the proposed PM model, a risk analysis of hospital acquired infections at the Intensive Care and Anesthesiology Unit combined with the hospital’s technical facilities and organizational factors was conducted. The obtained results indicate the most critical events which may have an impact on potential hazards or risks which may result from the patient’s stay at the specific ward. Our method can be combined with an anti-problem approach, which minimizes the critical level of infection in order to determine the optimal functioning of the entire hospital unit. Research has shown that in most situations the spread dynamics of nosocomial infections can be controlled and their elimination may be attempted. In order to meet these conditions, the persons responsible for the daily operation of the medical facility and its individual wards have to indicate potential events and factors which present a risk to the hospitalized patients. On the basis of a created spreadsheet directions for improvement may be finally established for all potential events, their frequency may be minimized, and information may be obtained on actions which should be undertaken in a crisis situation caused by the occurrence of a given phenomenon. We believe that the proposed method is effective in terms of risk reduction, which is important for preventing the transmission of multi-drug resistant microorganisms in the hospital environment.
How wrong can you be? Can a simple spreading formula be used to predict worst-case underwater sound levels?

Several simple spreading laws have been proposed to allow estimates of underwater sound levels to be made without the complication of numerical modelling. Underwater acoustic propagation depends in an involved way on a number of geometric and environmental parameters, including source, receiver and water depth, and water column and seabed acoustic properties. As a result, there are many scenarios in which the use of these formulae lead to large errors. However, there would be a place for a formula that could provide an upper limit on received sound levels in a particular situation as this would enable sound sources that had a very low probability of posing an environmental hazard to be quickly eliminated from further consideration. Such a formula is proposed in this paper and its bounds of applicability are explored by comparison with numerical model results for several scenarios.
Phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of two species related to family Arecaceae

The role of natural products as remedies has been recognized since ancient times. Demand for medicinal plants is increasing in both developed and developing countries due to growing recognition of natural products as being safer and having a potential of large benefits to society. Egyptian flora, being variable, has become an interesting spot to prospect for new chemical leads. So, in recent decades, many studies have been carried out on different plant species to discover compounds of possible interest for different medicinal applications. Among these studies, several have focused on the biological and phytochemical properties of different species of the family Arecaceae. Arecaceae is among the famous plant families which include genera that introduce phenolicrich species. Previous phytochemical investigations have shown that flavonoids, anthocyanidins, lignans, benzenoids, benzoquinone, monoterpenoids, and nor isoprenoids are constituents of family Arecaceae. Archontophoenix alexandrae is known as Alexander palm, king Alexander palm, king palm and northern bangalow palm. It is endemic to northern Queensland and Australia and occurs in the rainforests of tropical and warm temperate regions. It is often used as an ornamental plant. Dictyosperma album has two common names; princess palm and hurricane palm. It is native to Reunion and Mauritius. The root decoction of Dictyosperma album is used as diuretic. It was reported that Archontophoenix alexandrae (Wendl. & Drude) and Dictyosperma album (Bory) H.Wendl. & Drude ex Scheff. ; family Arecaceae; contain glycoflavones; being with few reports on their chemical constituents; motivated us to investigate their phytochemical constituents and their antioxidant activity.
A Multi-Point Geostatistical Seismic Inversion Method Based on Local Probability Updating of Lithofacies

In order to solve the problem that elastic parameter constraints are not taken into account in local lithofacies updating in multi-point geostatistical inversion, a new multi-point geostatistical inversion method with local facies updating under seismic elastic constraints is proposed. The main improvement of the method is that the probability of multi-point facies modeling is combined with the facies probability reflected by the optimal elastic parameters retained from the previous inversion to predict and update the current lithofacies model. Constrained by the current lithofacies model, the elastic parameters were obtained via direct sampling based on the statistical relationship between the lithofacies and the elastic parameters. Forward simulation records were generated via convolution and were compared with the actual seismic records to obtain the optimal lithofacies and elastic parameters. The inversion method adopts the internal and external double cycle iteration mechanism, and the internal cycle updates and inverts the local lithofacies. The outer cycle determines whether the correlation between the entire seismic record and the actual seismic record meets the given conditions, and the cycle iterates until the given conditions are met in order to achieve seismic inversion prediction. The theoretical model of the Stanford Center for Reservoir Forecasting and the practical model of the Xinchang gas field in western China were used to test the new method. The results show that the correlation between the synthetic seismic records and the actual seismic records is the best, and the lithofacies matching degree of the inversion is the highest. The results of the conventional multi-point geostatistical inversion are the next best, and the results of the two-point geostatistical inversion are the worst. The results show that the reservoir parameters obtained using the local probability updating of lithofacies method are closer to the actual reservoir parameters. This method is worth popularizing in practical exploration and development.
The Organization of Somatostatin-Immunoreactive Cells in the Visual Cortex of the Gerbil

Somatostatin (SST) is widely expressed in the brain and plays various, vital roles involved in neuromodulation. The purpose of this study is to characterize the organization of SST neurons in the Mongolian gerbil visual cortex (VC) using immunocytochemistry, quantitative analysis, and confocal microscopy. As a diurnal animal, the Mongolian gerbil provides us with a different perspective to other commonly used nocturnal rodent models. In this study, SST neurons were located in all layers of the VC except in layer I; they were most common in layer V. Most SST neurons were multipolar round/oval or stellate cells. No pyramidal neurons were found. Moreover, 2-color immunofluorescence revealed that only 33.50%, 24.05%, 16.73%, 0%, and 64.57% of SST neurons contained gamma-aminobutyric acid, calbindin-D28K, calretinin, parvalbumin, and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II, respectively. In contrast, neuropeptide Y and nitric oxide synthase were abundantly expressed, with 80.07% and 75.41% in SST neurons, respectively. Our immunocytochemical analyses of SST with D1 and D2 dopamine receptors and choline acetyltransferase, α7 and β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors suggest that dopaminergic and cholinergic fibers contact some SST neurons. The results showed some distinguishable features of SST neurons and provided some insight into their afferent circuitry in the gerbil VC. These findings may support future studies investigating the role of SST neurons in visual processing.
Blood pressure and cognitive function among older adults in India

Objective We aimed to investigate the relationship between blood pressure and cognitive function among older adults in India. Methods In this study, we analyzed cross-sectional data of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively) and cognitive testing from 3690 adults aged 60 years and older participating in the Longitudinal Aging Study in India—Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia from 14 states in India. Results After controlling for key sociodemographic, health, and geographic factors, higher SBP and lower DBP were each independently associated with worse cognitive function. Older age, female sex, lower education level, being widowed, residing in a rural area, being a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, having a low level of economic consumption, being underweight, and a history of stroke were all independently associated with worse cognitive function scores. Conclusions Both SBP and DBP were independently associated with cognitive function among older adults in India in diverging directions. Clinical interventions targeting high SBP and low DBP may benefit both cognitive health and cardiovascular health.
Impaired Generation of Transit-Amplifying Progenitors in the Adult Subventricular Zone of Cyclin D2 Knockout Mice

In the adult brain, new neurons are constitutively derived from postnatal neural stem cells/progenitors located in two neurogenic regions: the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricles (migrating and differentiating into different subtypes of the inhibitory interneurons of the olfactory bulbs), and the subgranular layer of the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Cyclin D2 knockout (cD2-KO) mice exhibit reduced numbers of new hippocampal neurons; however, the proliferation deficiency and the dysregulation of adult neurogenesis in the SVZ required further investigation. In this report, we characterized the differentiation potential of each subpopulation of the SVZ neural precursors in cD2-KO mice. The number of newly generated cells in the SVZs was significantly decreased in cD2-KO mice compared to wild type mice (WT), and was not accompanied by elevated levels of apoptosis. Although the number of B1-type quiescent precursors (B1q) and the overall B1-type activated precursors (B1a) were not affected in the SVZ neurogenic niche, the number of transit-amplifying progenitors (TaPs) was significantly reduced. Additionally, the subpopulations of calbindin D28k and calretinin interneurons were diminished in the olfactory bulbs of cD2-KO mice. Our results suggest that cyclin D2 might be critical for the proliferation of neural precursors and progenitors in the SVZ—the transition of B1a into TaPs and, thereafter, the production of newly generated interneurons in the olfactory bulbs. Untangling regulators that functionally modulate adult neurogenesis provides a basis for the development of regenerative therapies for injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.
Information technology foresight:the future application of theworld wide web in construction

Information technology (IT) is fundamentally changing global construction business. TheInternet, and more specifically the World Wide Web (WWW) will be key to this change.Forecasting technological change is notoriously difficult. This is becoming furtherexacerbated by the increasingly evident cycles of over-hype and disillusionment that newtechnologies and management paradigms face.Science policy research has developed innovative forecasting methods to deal with such aproblem. Key within these is the use of scenarios to describe the integrative effects ofdevelopments in parallel technologies and their socio-economic context.This paper contains a detailed scenario of the way the WWW may be used in globalconstruction in the year 2001. Analysis of the scenario causes key questions to be askedregarding the impact of technology development in construction. These questions are inneed of urgent, serious consideration by: governments, senior construction executives,educators, students, researchers, recruiters, and new entrants to the industry.The answers to these questions will help shape a key component of the research andinnovation agenda for construction for what is left of this millennium.