Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnitude and extent of six years of land subsidence in Shanghai revealed by JERS-1 SAR China data

Many provinces in China including Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiansu, Hubei, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Changzhou, Cangzhou, and Jianxing (Deng and Ju, 1994; Ding et al., 2005; Hu et al., 2004; Xue et al., 2005; Yang et al., 2005) are subsiding owing to rapid development and urbanization. The cause identified with these subsidence phenomena has been mainly due to excessive withdrawal of groundwater (Chai et al., 2004; Shi and Bao, 1984; Xue et al., 2005; Yang et al., 2005). The subsidence phenomenon in China occurs mostly in medium-seized and large cities with common characteristics of being slow, accumulative and irreversible (Xue et al., 2005). At least, 45 cities and municipalities (China Daily, 2003b; Deng and Ju, 1994; Hu et al., 2004) are experiencing this geological problem owing to massive exploitation of underground water to meet the needs of the rapid evolving industries and urbanisation. In the case of Shanghai, the massive construction of high-rise buildings in the downtown area has also contributed to the subsidence problem (China Daily, 2003b; Zhang et al., 2002). About 11 cities, including Shanghai, have recorded accumulative subsidence values exceeding 1 m at their subsidence centres (Hu et al., 2004; Yang et al., 2005; Zhang et al., 2002). The most affected cities, since the early 1900s, are Shanghai, Tianjin and Taiyuan, with each of them having accumulative subsidence value greater than 2m (China Daily, 2003b). The Chinese government has spent billions of Yuan (RMB$), as direct and indirect economic costs, in addressing land subsidence problems in China. Hu et al. (2004) mentioned that the estimated total economic loss due to land subsidence in Tianjin is RMB$189.6 billion. In the three areas of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, the total economic loss is estimated at RMB$46.87 billion (Yang et al., 2005). For Shanghai, the China Daily (2003b) and Yang et al. (2005) quoted the total economic losses of about RMB$290 billion, in the last 40 years, due to land subsidence and its related problems. 25
Overview of OMEN

This paper introduces OMEN (On-demand Metadata Extraction Network), which addresses a fundamental problem in MIR: the lack of universal access to a large dataset containing significant amounts of copyrighted music. This is accomplished by utilizing the large collections of digitized music available at many libraries. Using OMEN, libraries will be able to perform on-demand feature extraction on site, returning feature values to researchers instead of providing direct access to the recordings themselves. This avoids copyright difficulties, since the underlying music never leaves the library that owns it. The analysis is performed using grid-style computation on library machines that are otherwise underused (e.g., devoted to patron web and catalogue use).
PLFire: a visualization tool for asynchronous phased logic designs

We present a visualization tool called PLFire, which allows a user to observe the behavior of a Phased Logic (PL) circuit. Phased logic is a technique for realizing self-timed circuitry that is delay-insensitive and requires no global clock. One advantage of self-timed circuits is that throughput is based on average propagation delays and not worst-case delay. By being able to visualize the operation of a PL circuit, including the token flow, a designer gets a better understanding of what features of a design have the greatest impact on performance.
Female gait patterns: the influence of footwear.

The two horizontal orthogonal ground reaction forces, mediolateral (Fx) and antero-posterior (Fy), together with limb segment displacements, were recorded simultaneously during gait from 24 female subjects aged 18–29 years. Recordings were made for each subject barefoot and when wearing each of four different pairs of shoes: soft-soled, rigid-soled, medium- and high-heeled. The results showed a trend for increasing lateral stability with increasing heel height and decreasing ground contact area. This.was reflected in decreasing mean values for defined ground reaction force peaks in the medio-lateral direction at heel strike and at toe off. Limb segments displacements tended to increase with decreasing heel height and increasing shoe-ground contact area, being greatest when subjects were wearing pumps, i.e. flexible-soled, no-heeled shoes.
Alternative polyadenylation and gene expression regulation in plants

Functioning as an essential step of pre‐mRNA processing, polyadenylation has been realized in recent years to play an important regulatory role during eukaryotic gene expression. Such regulation occurs mostly through the use of alternative polyadenylation (APA) sites and generates different transcripts with altered coding capacity for proteins and/or RNA. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie APAs are poorly understood. Besides APA cases demonstrated in animal embryo development, cancers, and other diseases, there are a number of APA examples reported in plants. The best‐known ones are related to flowering time control pathways and stress responses. Genome‐wide studies have revealed that plants use APA extensively to generate diversity in their transcriptomes. Although each transcript produced by RNA polymerase II has a poly(A) tail, over 50% of plant genes studied possess multiple APA sites in their transcripts. The signals defining poly(A) sites in plants were mostly studied through classical genetic means. Our understanding of these poly(A) signals is enhanced by the tallies of whole plant transcriptomes. The profiles of these signals have been used to build computer models that can predict poly(A) sites in newly sequenced genomes, potential APA sites in genes of interest, and/or to identify, and then mutate, unwanted poly(A) sites in target transgenes to facilitate crop improvements. In this review, we provide readers an update on recent research advances that shed light on the understanding of polyadenylation, APA, and its role in gene expression regulation in plants. WIREs RNA 2011 2 445–458 DOI: 10.1002/wrna.59
High speed mask-less laser-controlled precision micro-additive manufacture

A rapid, mask-less deposition technique for writing metal tracks has been developed. The technique was based on laser-induced chemical vapour deposition. The novelty in the technique was the usage of pulsed ultrafast lasers instead of continuous wave lasers in pyrolytic dissociation of the chemical precursor. The motivation of the study was that (1) ultrafast laser pulses have smaller heat affected zones thus the deposition resolution would be higher, (2) the ultrashort pulses are absorbed in most materials (including those transparent to the continuous wave light at the same wavelength) thus the deposition would be compatible with a large range of materials, and (3) the development of higher frequency repetition rate ultrafast lasers would enable higher deposition rates. A deposition system was set-up for the study to investigate the ultrafast laser deposition of tungsten from tungsten hexacarbonyl chemical vapour precursors. A 405 nm laser diode was used for continuous wave deposition experiments that were optimized to achieve the lowest track resistivity. These results were used for comparison with the ultrafast laser track deposition. The usage of the 405 nm laser diode was itself novel and beneficial due to the low capital and running cost, high wall plug efficiency, high device lifetime, and shallower optical penetration depth in silicon substrates compared to green argon ion lasers which were commonly used by other investigators. The lowest as-deposited track resistivity achieved in the continuous wave laser experiments on silicon dioxide coated silicon was 93±27 μΩ cm (16.6 times bulk tungsten resistivity). This deposition was done with a laser output power of 350 mW, scan speed of 10 μm/s, deposition pressure of 0.5 mBar, substrate temperature of 100 °C and laser spot size of approximately 7 μm. The laser power, scan speed, deposition pressure and substrate temperature were all optimized in this study. By annealing the deposited track with hydrogen at 650 °C for 30 mins, removal of the deposition outside the laser spot was achieved and the overall track resistivity dropped to 66±7 μΩ cm (11.7 times bulk tungsten resistivity). For ultrafast laser deposition of tungsten, spot dwell experiments showed that a thin film of tungsten was first deposited followed by quasi-periodic structures perpendicular to the linear polarization of the laser beam. The wavelength of the periodic structures was approximately half the laser wavelength ( /2) and was thought to be formed due to interference between the incident laser and scattered surface waves similar to that in laser-induced surface periodic structures. Deposition of the quasi-periodic structures
High dietary cholesterol intake during lactation promotes development of fatty liver in offspring of mice.

SCOPE We have previously demonstrated in mice that a maternal high fat diet during lactation enhances the susceptibility of offspring to obesity and fatty liver. A causative molecule, however, is yet to be identified. Therefore, we examined the role of cholesterol, the dietary intake of which increases with consumption of a high fat diet. Excessive cholesterol intake is involved in the development of fatty liver, which in turn becomes a risk factor for metabolic syndrome, which includes obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. However, our knowledge of the influences on offspring of excessive maternal cholesterol intake alone during pregnancy and lactation is limited. We examined how excessive maternal cholesterol intake during lactation influences susceptibility of the offspring to metabolic syndrome in mice. RESULTS High cholesterol intake promoted triacylglycerol accumulation in the liver of offspring (p < 0.05), and elevated expression of molecules involved in hepatic lipoprotein influx was identified as the underlying mechanism. CONCLUSION These findings demonstrate that excessive maternal cholesterol intake during lactation enhances the susceptibility of the offspring to development of fatty liver.
AKT1 G205T genotype influences obesity‐related metabolic phenotypes and their responses to aerobic exercise training in older Caucasians

As part of the insulin signalling pathway, Akt influences growth and metabolism. The AKT1 gene G205T (rs1130214) polymorphism has potential functional effects. Thus, we determined whether the G205T polymorphism influences metabolic variables and their responses to aerobic exercise training. Following dietary stabilization, healthy, sedentary, 50‐ to 75‐year‐old Caucasian men (n= 51) and women (n= 58) underwent 6 months of aerobic exercise training. Before and after completing the intervention, dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry was used to measure percentage body fat, computed tomography to measure visceral and subcutaneous fat, and oral glucose tolerance testing to measure glucose total area under the curve (AUC), insulin AUC and insulin sensitivity. Taqman assay was used to determine AKT1 G205T genotypes. At baseline, men with the GG genotype (n= 29) had lower maximal oxygen consumption values (P= 0.026) and higher percentage body fat (P= 0.046), subcutaneous fat (P= 0.021) and insulin AUC (P= 0.003) values than T allele carriers (n= 22). Despite their rather disadvantageous starting values, men with the GG genotype seemed to respond to exercise training more robustly than men with the T allele, highlighted by significantly greater fold change improvements in insulin AUC (P= 0.012) and glucose AUC (P= 0.035). Although the GG group also significantly improved with training, the change in was not as great as that of the T allele carriers (P= 0.037). In contrast, after accounting for hormone replacement therapy use, none of the variables differed in the women at baseline. As a result of exercise training, women with the T allele (n= 20) had greater fold change improvements in fasting glucose (P= 0.011), glucose AUC (P= 0.017) and insulin sensitivity (P= 0.044) than GG genotype women (n= 38). Our results suggest that the AKT1 G205T polymorphism influences metabolic variables and their responses to aerobic exercise training in older, previously sedentary individuals.
Microwave imaging of moving objects

Microwave images for objects in motion can be obtained with quality as good as those obtained in the stationary case if the signal waveforms, data acquisition systems, and image reconstruction algorithms are cleverly designed. The principle of imaging for objects in motion is to eliminate the gross Doppler effect of the echo signals and only reserve the differential Doppler information to reconstruct the image. Accordingly, requirements for parameters of the signal waveform are established. Two steps are involved in the image reconstruction algorithm: range alignment and phase compensation. Focused images of complex‐shaped targets with simulated motion have been obtained experimentally.
Monitoring of fracture healing by electrical conduction: A new diagnostic procedure

Background Electrical stimulation of fractures has been reported to enhance fracture healing. X-rays are normally used to assess union of fractures. Electrical conduction is not tried as a tool to study fracture healing. The current study focuses on electrical conduction as a diagnostic tool to assess fracture healing and new bone formation. The aim was to find if electrical resistance across the fracture can be used as a tool to study fracture healing which can be verified with simultaneous radiographs. Materials and Methods A prospective study was conducted where 12 open fractures of tibia, including two with bone defects were evaluated. They were debrided and four-carbon ring Ilizarov external fixators were applied. Their healing was followed with clinical assessment and periodical X-rays till the endpoint of fracture union and then the rings were removed. In addition, all these cases also had application of electrical voltage in the range of 0.1–1.0 V DC in 0.1 V increments, across the two wires on either side of fracture. The output current was recorded by an ammeter connected in series. Resistance calculated for various voltages was plotted as a graph for the period of fracture treatment and the characteristics were studied. This graph was compared with the appearance of new bone in the X-rays. Results In all cases, when the above graph stabilized, in the consecutive recordings, the X-rays showed healing (bridging callus) matching the curve and the patient was able to load the limb. The time of stabilization of this graph for a specific voltage was different in individual cases. However, for a given case, the resistance characteristics were the same for the entire voltage range of 0.1–1.0 V. Conclusion If the resistance versus day curve stabilizes on the consecutive recordings, we can predict that the fracture is in the process of healing. This stabilization period also matched the patients’ ability to comfortably load the limb and also the radiographs which showed bridging callus (healing). If this is used as a positive criterion for fracture healing in future, the radiation exposure by X-rays shall be less.
The fluid and electrolyte balance of New Zealand European and Māori/Pacific Island athletes: An observational study

Abstract Observational research on professional athletes from the USA suggests differences may exist in sweat sodium loss based on ethnic differences. The New Zealand (NZ) sporting population is mainly of European or Māori/Pacific Island origin. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the fluid-electrolyte balance of athletes by ethnicity. A total of 20 Māori/Pacific Islanders (MP; body mass 100.97 ± 13.05 kg) and 29 NZ European (NZE; body mass 89.11 ± 11.56 kg) elite male athletes were recruited. Sweat rates were determined by body mass change during a 1-h spin cycle exercise session, during which fluid intakes and heart rate were recorded. Sweat samples were analysed for sodium concentration. Mean ± SD sweat sodium concentrations were 73.4 ± 27.2 mmol·L−1 and 55.5 ± 26.8 mmol·L−1 for the MP and NZE groups, respectively (p = 0.070). Sweat rate was 0.93 ± 0.26 L·h−1 for the MP group and 0.89 ± 0.33 L·h−1 for the NZE group (p = 0.357). Fluid intake was 1.05 ± 0.48 L and 0.93 ± 0.49 L for MP and NZE, respectively (p = 0.395). Half of the MP group gained weight during the exercise session compared to 37% of the NZE group. Pre-exercise urine specific gravity was significantly lower amongst the NZE group (1.016 ± 0.009 g mL−1) than the MP group (1.024 ± 0.008 g mL−1) p = 0.001. There was no significant difference in heart rate between the groups, p = 0.082. Hydration practices of athletes in NZ may differ by ethnicity, and this may highlight the need for more targeted education by ethnicity.
Functionalised liquid crystals for manipulating terahertz radiation

New materials and techniques are needed to advance terahertz science and technology. Liquid crystals have been widely used for devices such as phase shifters and light modulators in the optical and terahertz regime. Liquid crystals doped with ferroelectric nanoparticles have improved of the birefringence in optical regime. In this work, the method of doping liquid crystals with ferroelectric nanoparticles in order to improve their birefringence in the terahertz regime is being investigated. The nanoparticles are synthesised using the sol gel technique and then characterised to check their ferroelectric properties. The new liquid crystals/nanoparticles suspensions were characterised with terahertz time domain spectroscopy and an algorithm was developed to determine the refractive index of the materials. In order to thoroughly understand the interactions between the liquid crystal molecules and the nanoparticles, several liquid crystals were doped with nanoparticles. After the doping of liquid crystals with nanoparticles the absorption spectrum of the new suspensions and the birefringence were measured. An increase in the birefringence of the liquid crystals was observed, most significantly in liquid crystals 2020 and E7. The other materials explored in this work are azobenzene complex dyes. The azobenzene complex dyes, PAADs, have been used for aligning of liquid crystals in the optical regime and also for manipulation of light polarisation and create complex beam shapes. Here I present a study of ultra-thin films of photo-aligning materials, in the optical regime with a future target to use them for applications in the terahertz spectral range. Finally, graphene is investigated as a zero-gap semiconductor for terahertz emission via the use of ultrafast diffusion carrier currents.
Modeling Non-Functional Aspects in Service Oriented Architecture

Service oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural style to reuse and integrate subsystems in existing systems for designing new applications. Each application is designed in an implementation independent manner using abstract concepts: network services and connections between network services. In SOA, the non-functional aspects of services and connections should be described separately from their functional aspects because different applications use services and connections in different non-functional contexts. This paper proposes a UML profile to graphically design the non-functional aspects in SOA and maintain them in an implementation independent manner. This paper presents the design of the proposed UML profile and describes how it is used in service-oriented application development
The S3.mp scalable shared memory multiprocessor

S3.mp (Sun's Scalable Shared memory MultiProcessor) is a research project to demonstrate a low overhead, high throughput communication system that is based on cache coherent distributed shared memory (DSM). S3.mp uses distributed directories and point-to-point messages that are sent over a packet switched interconnect fabric to achieve scalability over a wide range of configurations. S3.mp uses a new CMOS serial link technology that achieves transmission rates >1 Gbit/sec and that is directly integrated into a packet router chip. Unlike other DSM systems, S3.mp can be spatially distributed over a local area via fiber optic links. This capability allows S3.mp to interconnect clusters of workstations to form multiprocessor workgroups that efficiently share memory, processors and I/O devices. Multichip module technology, the integrated arbitrary topology router, fast serial links, and a DSM system that is integrated into the memory controller allow compact, massively parallel S3.mp systems. <<ETX>>
Analysis of educational media server workloads

This paper presents an extensive analysis of the client workloads for educational media servers at two major U.S. universities. The goals of the analysis include providing data for generating synthetic workloads, gaining insight into the design of streaming content distribution networks, and quantifying how much server bandwidth can be saved in interactive educational environments by using recently developed multicast streaming methods for stored content.
Augmented patient-specific facial prosthesis production using medical imaging modelling and 3D printing technologies for improved patient outcomes

ABSTRACT Facial prosthetic offer patients a low risk and high impact treatment option to address underlying facial defects. Such devices are generally handmade, requiring several labour-intensive manufacturing phases and numerous patient consultations to develop the final device. Therefore, production is a time-consuming and costly process with significant inconvenience to the patient and highly dependent on the skills of the prosthetists, making the whole process highly subjective. We investigate the potential of medical imaging, 3D design modelling and high-resolution 3D printing to augment the production of an auricular prosthesis for a patient who was previously using a handmade prosthesis. We reproduce the patient’s uncompromised anatomy from CT scan data, before printing a mirrored template to use in the casting process for a silicone prosthesis. This technique realises a superior end prosthesis with a realistic look on the patient while streamlining the current production methodology.
Disseminated sporotrichosis as a manifestation of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome

We describe two cases of disseminated sporotrichosis as a manifestation of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. After the initiation of highly active anti‐retroviral therapy, one patient presented disseminated lesions, whereas the other patient’s preexisting lesions worsened and became more extensive. Simultaneously, their CD4 T cell counts increased and HIV viral loads decreased.
Association Between Lower Digit Symbol Substitution Test Score and Slower Gait and Greater Risk of Mortality and of Developing Incident Disability in Well‐Functioning Older Adults

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether, in well‐functioning older adults, a lower score on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) and slower gait are associated with greater risk of mortality and of developing incident disability independent of other risk factors, including brain structural abnormalities (white matter hyperintensities, brain infarcts, ventricular enlargement) and whether the combination of varying levels of DSST score and gait speed are associated with a greater risk of mortality and disability than low DSST or slow gait alone.
A Hybrid Mesh Routing protocol for ubiquitous internet connectivity in hierarchical Wireless Mesh Networks

We propose a cross-layer-aware Hybrid Mesh Routing (HMR) protocol for the ubiquitous Internet connectivity in hierarchical Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) that can provide the Internet access for users by mesh routers. The HMR protocol applies two independent routing metrics to obtain high performance. The HMR is able to take advantage of each of those protocols strengths depending on the situation, and more suitable than other protocols in hierarchical hybrid WMNs by providing the benefits of both hop count and link quality metrics. Through simulations, we show that our schemes perform better than existing mechanisms in terms of various performance measures.