Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wrinkling of Composite-facing Sandwich Panels Under Biaxial Loading

The problem of face wrinkling in sandwich structures was identified as an important failure mode and first analyzed in 1940 by Gough et al. [1], who used a Winkler-type elastic foundation to model the core. This work was followed by experiments and further analysis by many others. Until 1966 all of the research was devoted to uniaxial compression loading. However, in many applications, such as naval and aircraft structures, panels are subjected to biaxial loading. Such loadings were first analyzed by Plantema in 1966 [2] for the case of sandwich constructed of isotropic materials. Sullins et al. [3] suggested an interaction equation that can be used as a criterion of wrinkling under compression in the principal directions. This equation is formulated in terms of the ratios of the principal compressive stresses to the corresponding wrinkling stresses. More recently Fagerberg [4, 5] and Vonach and Rammerstorfer [6] considered the case of sandwich with orthotropic facings. The present work attacks the subject problem using three different models for the core. One model uses a simple Winkler elastic foundation approach. The second model, following Hoff and Mautner [Hoff, N.J. and Mautner, S.E. (1945). The Buckling of Sandwich-Type Panels, Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 12: 285–297. ], uses a linear model for the decay in deformation from the core-facing interface, while the third model, following Plantema [Plantema, F.J. (1966). Sandwich Construction, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. ], uses an exponential decay.
Importance of Diarrhea in Evaluating Constipation in Irritable Bowel Syndrome Clinical Studies

Background Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by alterations in bowel function, abdominal discomfort, and bloating. The symptoms of IBS vary widely between constipation and diarrhea predominance. In this study, we examine “constipation minus diarrhea” score (C–D) to account for the contribution of diarrhea and to create a reliable method for predicting constipation predominance in IBS. Methods A nested study was conducted in participants with IBS by Rome I criteria. After consent, they completed a daily stool diary for 1 week. This included recording frequency of bowel movements and describing consistency of stool using the Bristol stool scale. After submitting their diaries, participants rated their bowel symptoms using a visual analog score (VAS) scale from 0 to 100 mm, with 100 mm representing maximum severity. VAS scores for C, D, and C–D were subsequently compared with the true stool events of the previous week by stool diary to validate the potential usefulness of the simple C–D method. Results Eighty-four participants with IBS completed stool diaries and VAS surveys for bowel symptoms, from which C–D scores were compiled. By correcting for the predominance of constipation compared with diarrhea, C–D scores predicted constipation based on the frequency of bowel movements and Bristol stool score. Furthermore, a second method was used to validate the C–D technique by comparing the mean C–D score in participants with constipation (⩽3 d with bowel movement in previous week). In this case, the mean C–D score was 74.1±3.8 compared with −3.0±5.9 for patients with >3 days with bowel movement in that week (P<0.001). Although the constipation severity alone also distinguished these 2 groups, the difference was less impressive (P<0.01). In participants with mean Bristol stool scores of ⩽2 in the preceding week, the C–D mean score was 25.4±6.1 compared with participants having mean Bristol stool score of >2 where the C–D was −11.1±5.9 (P<0.01). Using constipation severity by VAS alone, there was no significant difference between these same 2 Bristol stool categories (P=0.29). Conclusions IBS patients' self-assessment of constipation and diarrhea severity using the C–D score is an effective predictor of C-IBS and constipation severity. The C–D score may be a useful tool in future IBS constipation trials, as it seems to predict constipation and it correlates well with stool diaries.
Adjustment after miscarriage: Predicting positive mental health trajectories among young Australian women

Understanding predictors of adjustment after miscarriage can assist in the development of supportive interventions. This article uses data from three waves of the Younger Cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (1996, 2000, 2003) to examine predictors of positive Mental Health trajectories among 998 women who had experienced miscarriages. Using the five-item Mental Health subscale of the SF-36 (MHI-5) as an outcome, a multilevel model of change showed a general positive trend in Mental Health over time; also, higher education and satisfaction with the primary care physician were associated with higher Mental Health scores at each survey. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, stress and negative life events were negatively associated with Mental Health. A history of medically diagnosed depression or anxiety was a significant predictor of change in Mental Health across the surveys, with women with such a history showing downward trajectories in Mental Health over time. The data suggest that greater targeted support and monitoring for women who have a history of mental health problems may assist those women to cope following miscarriage.
2 A Personal News Agent that Talks and Learns

We present an intelligent agent designed to compile a daily news program for individual users. Based on feedback from the user, the system automatically adapts to the user’s preferences and interests. In this paper we focus on the system's user modeling component. First, we motivate the use of a multi-strategy machine learning approach that allows for the induction of user models that consist of separate models for long-term and short-term interests. Second, we investigate the utility of explicitly modeling information that the system has already presented to the user. This allows us to address an important issue that has thus far received virtually no attention in the Information Retrieval community: the fact that a user's information need changes as a direct result of interaction with information. We evaluate the proposed algorithms on user data collected with a prototype of our system, and assess the individual performance contributions of both
Planning feasible and safe paths online for autonomous underwater vehicles in unknown environments

We present a framework for planning collision-free and safe paths online for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in unknown environments. We build up on our previous work and propose an improved approach. While preserving its main modules (mapping, planning and mission handler), the framework now considers motion constraints to plan feasible paths, i.e., those that meet vehicle's motion capabilities. The new framework also incorporates a risk function to avoid navigating close to nearby obstacles, and reuses the last best known solution to eliminate time-consuming pruning routines. To evaluate this approach, we use the Sparus II AUV, a torpedo-shaped vehicle performing autonomous missions in a 2-dimensional workspace. We validate the framework's new features by solving tasks in both simulation and real-world in-water trials and comparing results with our previous approach.
A quadratic programming approach for decomposing steady-state metabolic flux distributions onto elementary modes

MOTIVATION It is known that steady-state flux distributions in metabolic networks can be expressed as non-negative combinations of elementary modes. However, little understanding has been achieved so far in how individual elementary modes contribute to the reconstruction of actual physiological flux distributions. RESULTS We introduce an approach for decomposing steady-state flux distributions onto elementary modes based on quadratic programming. The decomposition is performed so as to favour modes that are closest to the actual state of the system, i.e. most relevant for biological interpretation. As an illustration, an application of this approach to a model of yeast glycolysis is presented. AVAILABILITY Software is available upon request from the authors.
The Hurst phenomenon and fractional Gaussian noise made easy

Abstract The Hurst phenomenon, which characterizes hydrological and other geophysical time series, is formulated and studied in an easy manner in terms of the variance and autocorrelation of a stochastic process on multiple temporal scales. In addition, a simple explanation of the Hurst phenomenon based on the fluctuation of a hydrological process upon different temporal scales is presented. The stochastic process that was devised to represent the Hurst phenomenon, i.e. the fractional Gaussian noise, is also studied on the same grounds. Based on its studied properties, three simple and fast methods to generate fractional Gaussian noise, or good approximations of it, are proposed.
Oblivious transfer with a memory-bounded receiver

We propose a protocol for oblivious transfer that is unconditionally secure under the sole assumption that the memory size of the receiver is bounded. The model assumes that a random bit string slightly larger than the receiver's memory is broadcast (either by the sender or by a third party). In our construction, both parties need memory of size in /spl theta/(n/sup 2-2/spl alpha//) for some /spl alpha/< 1/2 , when a random string of size N=n/sup 2-/spl alpha/-/spl beta// is broadcast, for /spl alpha/>/spl beta/>0, whereas a malicious receiver can have up to /spl gamma/N bits of memory for any /spl gamma/<1. In the course of our analysis, we provide a direct study of an interactive hashing protocol closely related to that of M. Naor et al. (1998).
Notice of RetractionThe effects of managerial power on debt financing choice

Agency theory suggests that debt reduces managerial discretion over corporate resources because higher debt financing increases the commitment and pressure to distribute surplus cash as repayment of debt obligations. Using cross-sectional data from 127 Chinese private listed companies during the period of 2003-2004, this paper examines the relationships between managerial power and firm's debt financing choice. Focusing primarily on the power the managers have over the board as a consequence of his formal position, status as the chairman of the board, and status as the board's sole insider, we find that firms with powerful managers have low level of debt and low level of short-term debt. These results suggest that powerful managers have greater incentives to avoid debt and short-term debt.
Fragments and Text Categorization

We introduce two novel methods of text categorization in which documents are split into fragments. We conducted experiments on English, French and Czech. In all cases, the problems referred to a binary document classification. We find that both methods increase the accuracy of text categorization. For the Naive Bayes classifier this increase is significant.
Superstructure scattering distribution based ship recognition in TerraSAR-X imagery

Benefiting from the improved resolution and polarization information of SAR data, ship recognition has attracted much attention during the last decade. This paper considers the ship recognition in TerraSAR-X imagery. We propose a novel feature extraction algorithm, named Superstructure Scattering Distribution (SSD), by investigating the ship's superstructure and corresponding electromagnetic scattering mechanism. In SSD, we first segment the image areas that correspond to the scattering of ship's superstructure using segmentation and edge detection methods. Once the superstructure areas of ship in SAR imagery have been obtained, we then calculate a novel feature parameter to describe the distribution and shape complexity of the ship based on the fractal dimension and other shape complexity descriptors. Extensive experiments have been carried out on ship datasets collected from TerraSAR-X SAR imagery. The results validate that the SSD feature can achieve better performance together with other physical features.
Robotic Exoskeletons for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation

In 2003, 700,000 persons in the United States suffered a cerebral vascular accident (CVA), or stroke, with the total number of survivors estimated at 5.5 million. The total cost for rehabilitation and lost revenue in 2006 was 57.9 billion (Thom, Haase et al. 2006). Stroke commonly causes significant residual physical, cognitive, and psychological impairment (Gresham 1990). As the geriatric population increases and more effective therapies for acute stroke management emerge, there will be more survivors living with disabilities. In addition to greater numbers of survivors, there has been an increase in the number of more moderately affected survivors (Wolf, D'Agostino et al. 1992), which has increased the demand for stroke rehabilitation in an era of health care cost containment. Efforts to prevent stroke must, therefore, be balanced with pragmatic efforts to prevent disability and maximize quality of life for stroke survivors. Persons with hemiparesis following stroke constitute the largest group of patients receiving rehabilitation services in this country. The current consensus regarding rehabilitation of patients with some voluntary control over movements of the paretic limb is that they be encouraged to use the limb in functional tasks and receive training directed toward improving strength and motor control, relearning sensorimotor relationships, and improving functional performance (Gresham, Alexander et al. 1997). Given such recommendations, the research community has responded with efforts to improve the effectiveness of rehabilitative treatment of motor disability resulting from stroke.
Importance of ventricular longitudinal function in chronic heart failure.

AIMS Despite its immediate relevance, cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is infrequently performed in the presence of chronic heart failure (CHF). Previous studies of patients suffering from CHF have found a closer correlation between exercise capacity and measurements of diastolic than systolic ventricularfunction. We examined the correlation between echocardiographic measurements and (i) results of CPET and (ii) cardiovascular prognosis. METHODS AND RESULTS We performed resting two-dimensional echocardiograms and CPET in 140 patients with CHF (mean age = 61 ± 13 years, 111 men). The underlying heart disease was ischaemic in 48 patients (34%). They were followed for a mean of 38 months (range 28-52). The mean left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) was 30 ± 9% and peak VO₂ 17.2 ± 6.5 mL/kg/min. LVEF correlated weakly with peak VO₂ (r = 0.21), while systolic and early diastolic LV longitudinal function correlated best [early diastolic peak velocity at the mitral annulus (E'): r = 0.38; global longitudinal strain (GLS): r = -0.4; P <0.001 for both]. By multiple variable regression analysis, the best prediction of peak VO₂ was derived from a model based on age, mitral annulus end-diastolic peak velocity (A'), GLS, right ventricular (RV) systolic strain, and left atrial systolic strain (r² = 0.57; P <0.0001). The two best independent predictors of adverse cardiovascular events at 28 months were GLS (odds ratio 1.31, P <0.001; prognostic cut-off = -8%) and RV systolicstrain (odds ratio 1.05, P =0.01; prognostic cut-off = -22%). CONCLUSION Resting RV and LV longitudinal functions were reliable predictors of adverse cardiovascular events and correlated moderately with, but not took to the place of, CPET measurements.
Nennu and Shunu: Gender, Body Politics, and the Beauty Economy in China

This essay analyzes recent discourse on two emerging representations of women in China, “tender” women (nennu) and “ripe” women (shunu), in order to examine the relationships among gender, body politics, and consumerism. The discourse of nennu and shunu suggests that older, ripe women become younger and more tender by consuming fashions, cosmetic surgery technologies, and beauty and health care products and services because tender women represent the ideal active consumership that celebrates beauty, sexuality, and individuality. This discourse serves to enhance consumers’ desire for beauty and health and to ensure the continued growth of China’s beauty economy and consumer capitalism. Highlighting the role of the female body, feminine beauty, and feminine youth in developing consumerism, this discourse downplays the contributions of millions of beauty and health care providers (predominantly laid‐off female workers and rural migrant women) and new forms of gender exploitation. Such an overemphasis on gender masks intensified class division. This essay suggests that women and their bodies become new terrains from which post‐Mao China can draw its power and enact consumerism. Gender constitutes both an economic multiplier to boost China’s consumer capitalism and a biopolitical strategy to regulate and remold women and their bodies into subjects that are identified with the state’s political and economic objectives. Since consumerism has been incorporated into China’s nation‐building project, gender thus becomes a vital resource for both consumer capitalist development and nation building. This essay shows that both gender and the body are useful analytic categories for the study of postsocialism.
Expression of Alpha-smooth Muscle Action in Goat Temporomandibular Joint Disc and Its Effect on Self-Assembled Engineered Constructs

Purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of smooth muscle action-alpha (α-SMA) in native goat temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disc and in self-assembled construct of TMJ disc. Expression of a-SMA in native one-month-aged goat TMJ disc was examined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) method. TMJ disc cells were isolated from one-month-aged goat TMJ discs with 0.1% type I collagenase and passaged to P3 for tissue engineering. 5.5×10(6) cells were seeded into 5 mm diameter wells filled with 2% agarose gels in which 10μg/L IGF-I growth factor was added to stimulate mature process of self-assembled constructs of TMJ disc. Dimensions, forms and weights of constructs were measured respectively at the second, fourth, sixth and eighth week. IHC staining was used to examine the distribution of α-SMA in self-assembled constructs. The IHC staining for α-SMA was globally uniformly distributed in all four groups of self-assembled constructs and expressed the strongest in the second group. This experiment also confirmed that much more significant expression of α-SMA in self-assembled constructs than in the native TMJ disc tissue. Conclusively, α-SMA could take part in the regulating developmental process of engineered construct and may be used partially to explain the reason why TMJ disc self-assembled constructs become much smaller and denser during its growth and development due to its volume shrinkage.
Phenotypic selection on flowering phenology and pollination efficiency traits between Primula populations with different pollinator assemblages

Abstract Floral traits have largely been attributed to phenotypic selection in plant–pollinator interactions. However, the strength of this link has rarely been ascertained with real pollinators. We conducted pollinator observations and estimated selection through female fitness on flowering phenology and floral traits between two Primula secundiflora populations. We quantified pollinator‐mediated selection by subtracting estimates of selection gradients of plants receiving supplemental hand pollination from those of plants receiving open pollination. There was net directional selection for an earlier flowering start date at populations where the dominant pollinators were syrphid flies, and flowering phenology was also subjected to stabilized quadratic selection. However, a later flowering start date was significantly selected at populations where the dominant pollinators were legitimate (normal pollination through the corolla tube entrance) and illegitimate bumblebees (abnormal pollination through nectar robbing hole which located at the corolla tube), and flowering phenology was subjected to disruptive quadratic selection. Wider corolla tube entrance diameter was selected at both populations. Furthermore, the strength of net directional selection on flowering start date and corolla tube entrance diameter was stronger at the population where the dominant pollinators were syrphid flies. Pollinator‐mediated selection explained most of the between‐population variations in the net directional selection on flowering phenology and corolla tube entrance diameter. Our results suggested the important influence of pollinator‐mediated selection on floral evolution. Variations in pollinator assemblages not only resulted in variation in the direction of selection but also the strength of selection on floral traits.
Vertigo botanicorum sp. nov. (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Vertiginidae)—a new whorl-snail from the Russian Altai Mountains

Vertigo botanicorum sp. nov. is described from the Russian Altai Mountains. The species was recorded in 8 out of 118 study sites and totally 21 live individuals and 15 empty shells were collected. It is a medium-sized Vertigo species living in various tall-forb meadows, shrubby and forest habitats; avoiding only dry and strictly open sites. Mostly it was found in rather acidic sites of higher altitudes (above 1300 m a.s.l.).
Learning Distance Metrics with Contextual Constraints for Image Retrieval

Relevant Component Analysis (RCA) has been proposed for learning distance metrics with contextual constraints for image retrieval. However, RCA has two important disadvantages. One is the lack of exploiting negative constraints which can also be informative, and the other is its incapability of capturing complex nonlinear relationships between data instances with the contextual information. In this paper, we propose two algorithms to overcome these two disadvantages, i.e., Discriminative Component Analysis (DCA) and Kernel DCA. Compared with other complicated methods for distance metric learning, our algorithms are rather simple to understand and very easy to solve. We evaluate the performance of our algorithms on image retrieval in which experimental results show that our algorithms are effective and promising in learning good quality distance metrics for image retrieval.
Superplastic Extrusion of Al2O3-YTZ Nanocomposite and Its Deformation Mechanism

Using Al2O3-YTZ(3mol% yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia) nanocomposite, superplastic extrusion under different conditions was adopted to form blade models. The results demonstrate that desired microstructure is achieved through the addition of 20mol% YTZ which acts as a second-phase pinning agent. At temperature range of 1650°C to 1700°C the material shows good deformability. At this elevated temperature the maximum extrusion pressure is lower than 25MPa, and the maximum punch speed is about 0.35mm·min-1. In superplastic extrusion the dominating deformation mechanism is grain sliding and rotation, the accommodating mechanism is intergranular zirconia coordinated deformation. Meanwhile static and dynamic grain growth also plays an important role in deformation.