Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heat Liberation of Barium Cements as a Background of their Application in Mass Concrete Structures

The article deals with heat liberation of barium cements, which influences the crack formation in mass concrete structures. The results of heat release and physical testing of barium cements with a different content of BaO are presented in this paper. The strength of cement and its setting time will decrease significantly, if the content of BaO in clinker is high (about 47%). This cement is characterized by a low water requirement and heat liberation. Properties of cement with a low content of barium oxide (5.5%) are close to the properties of the standard Portland cement. In this case heat liberation is low in the initial period of hardening, but at the later stage it exceeds the exotherm of a reference sample. A small amount of BaO in cement clinker reduces the exothermic effect and increases the thermal crack resistance of concrete.
Path Planning for Single Unmanned Aerial Vehicle by Separately Evolving Waypoints

Evolutionary algorithm-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planners have been extensively studied for their effectiveness and flexibility. However, they still suffer from a drawback that the high-quality waypoints in previous candidate paths can hardly be exploited for further evolution, since they regard all the waypoints of a path as an integrated individual. Due to this drawback, the previous planners usually fail when encountering lots of obstacles. In this paper, a new idea of separately evaluating and evolving waypoints is presented to solve this problem. Concretely, the original objective and constraint functions of UAVs path planning are decomposed into a set of new evaluation functions, with which waypoints on a path can be evaluated separately. The new evaluation functions allow waypoints on a path to be evolved separately and, thus, high-quality waypoints can be better exploited. On this basis, the waypoints are encoded in a rotated coordinate system with an external restriction and evolved with JADE, a state-of-the-art variant of the differential evolution algorithm. To test the capabilities of the new planner on planning obstacle-free paths, five scenarios with increasing numbers of obstacles are constructed. Three existing planners and four variants of the proposed planner are compared to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed planner. The results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed planner and the idea of separate evolution.
DeepList: Learning Deep Features With Adaptive Listwise Constraint for Person Reidentification

Person reidentification (re-id) aims to match a specific person across nonoverlapping cameras, which is an important but challenging task in video surveillance. Conventional methods mainly focus either on feature constructing or metric learning. Recently, some deep learning-based methods have been proposed to learn image features and similarity measures jointly. However, current deep models for person re-id are usually trained with either pairwise loss, where the number of negative pairs greatly outnumbering that of positive pairs may lead the training model to be biased toward negative pairs or constant margin hinge loss, without considering the fact that hard negative samples should be paid more attention in the training stage. In this paper, we propose to learn deep representations with an adaptive margin listwise loss. First, ranking lists instead of image pairs are used as training samples, in this way, the problem of data imbalance is relaxed. Second, by introducing an adaptive margin parameter in the listwise loss function, it can assign larger margins to harder negative samples, which can be interpreted as an implementation of the automatic hard negative mining strategy. To gain robustness against changes in poses and part occlusions, our architecture combines four convolutional neural networks, each of which embeds images from different scales or different body parts. The final combined model performs much better than each single model. The experimental results show that our approach achieves very promising results on the challenging CUHK03, CUHK01, and VIPeR data sets.
Arabidopsis male sexual lineage exhibits more robust maintenance of CG methylation than somatic tissues

Significance Cytosine methylation is a mechanism of epigenetic inheritance—the transmission across generations of information that does not reside in DNA sequence. This transmission is mediated by enzymes that copy methylation states following DNA replication. Only a small group of plant cells—gametes and their progenitors—participates in inheritance, yet methylation is usually studied in other cell types, in which cytosine methylation within CG dinucleotides appears to be too low for stable maintenance. Here, we examine methylation in the pollen grains of Arabidopsis thaliana plants with methyltransferase mutations and show that although methylation is maintained by similar mechanisms in pollen and somatic cells, maintenance of CG methylation is more efficient in pollen, explaining how methylation can be faithfully inherited across generations. Cytosine DNA methylation regulates the expression of eukaryotic genes and transposons. Methylation is copied by methyltransferases after DNA replication, which results in faithful transmission of methylation patterns during cell division and, at least in flowering plants, across generations. Transgenerational inheritance is mediated by a small group of cells that includes gametes and their progenitors. However, methylation is usually analyzed in somatic tissues that do not contribute to the next generation, and the mechanisms of transgenerational inheritance are inferred from such studies. To gain a better understanding of how DNA methylation is inherited, we analyzed purified Arabidopsis thaliana sperm and vegetative cells—the cell types that comprise pollen—with mutations in the DRM, CMT2, and CMT3 methyltransferases. We find that DNA methylation dependency on these enzymes is similar in sperm, vegetative cells, and somatic tissues, although DRM activity extends into heterochromatin in vegetative cells, likely reflecting transcription of heterochromatic transposons in this cell type. We also show that lack of histone H1, which elevates heterochromatic DNA methylation in somatic tissues, does not have this effect in pollen. Instead, levels of CG methylation in wild-type sperm and vegetative cells, as well as in wild-type microspores from which both pollen cell types originate, are substantially higher than in wild-type somatic tissues and similar to those of H1-depleted roots. Our results demonstrate that the mechanisms of methylation maintenance are similar between pollen and somatic cells, but the efficiency of CG methylation is higher in pollen, allowing methylation patterns to be accurately inherited across generations.
Optimization of stretchable fingernail sensor fabrication based on finite element modeling

This paper describes the fabrication of a novel stretchable fingernail sensor prototype, mounted on the fingernail for detecting fingertip touch force direction. Fingernail sensors are optical reflectance photoplethysmograph sensors that detect the change in blood perfusion in the nail bed, as the finger pad touches a planar surface with various forces. The original fingernail sensor was rigidly attached to the human fingernail and accordingly needed to be customized to the geometry of the fingernail. Hence, to eliminate the need for customized fabrication for each individual user, it is desired to fabricate a stretchable fingernail sensor that is independent of the fingertip geometry. In this paper, we develop novel fabrication techniques that overcome the challenges of patterning conductive lines on a stretchable substrate, and of embedding rigid optical components in a stretchable platform while maintaining electrical conductivity. We conduct finite element analysis to optimize the sensor's design parameters. We also demonstrate the successful fabrication of a stretchable sensor prototype and test its functionality in relation to the design parameters. The outcomes of this work will also be applicable to a broad spectrum of other stretchable sensors that have an analogous concept of operation. Stretchable circuits are generally useful for any application where a circuit must conform to a surface with arbitrary two-dimensional curvature, such as the human body. Ultimately, similar sensors can also be placed on other parts of the body to monitor blood flow and perfusion.
A review of occupational therapy's contribution to and involvement in the work-to-retirement transition process: An Australian perspective.

BACKGROUND Retirement from paid work is an occupational transition, which can have a profound impact on a person's life. This review explored occupational therapy's contribution to and involvement in the work-to-retirement transition process in Australia. METHODS An integrative literature review was undertaken using seven article repository databases. PRISMA guidelines informed searches. Articles were included if participants were Australian; researchers' discussed retirement from an occupational perspective or the scope of practice of occupational therapists; and publication was from 1994 to June 2015 in a peer-reviewed journal. Articles were critically appraised and thematic analysis explored: (i) occupational perspective, (ii) occupational therapy scope of practice, (iii) theory and (iv) retirement definitions. RESULTS Eight articles met the review criteria. Three occupational perspective themes were identified: retirement intention influences, retirement preparation and retirement roles and activities. No articles on the current scope of practice of occupational therapy were found. Three articles discussed potential occupational therapy approaches. Three themes on what retirement is were identified: complete cessation, gradual transition and intermittent worker. Four theory themes were identified: occupational therapy, ageing, identity and work. CONCLUSION Occupational therapy has the potential to be involved in improving health and well-being for people in the work-to-retirement transition process. It is suggested that future research explore not only people's experiences but also the approaches of occupational therapy in assisting people through this occupational transition. The use of theory to guide Australian occupational therapy practice on retirement should also be explored. The use of consistent retirement definitions will assist in understanding research.
Perceptions of Individual and Community Environmental Influences on Fruit and Vegetable Intake, North Carolina, 2004

Introduction Increases in obesity and other chronic conditions continue to fuel efforts for lifestyle behavior changes. However, many strategies do not address the impact of environment on lifestyle behaviors, particularly healthy dietary intake. This study explored the perceptions of environment on intake of fruits and vegetables in a cohort of 2,479 people recruited from 22 family practices in North Carolina. Methods Participants were administered a health and social demographic survey. Formative assessment was conducted on a subsample of 32 people by using focus groups, semistructured individual interviews, community mapping, and photographs. Interviews and discussions were transcribed and content was analyzed using ATLAS.ti version 5. Survey data were evaluated for means, frequencies, and group differences. Results The 2,479 participants had a mean age of 52.8 years, mean body mass index (BMI) of 29.4, and were predominantly female, white, married, and high school graduates. The 32 subsample participants were older, heavier, and less educated. Some prevalent perceptions about contextual factors related to dietary intake included taste-bud fatigue (boredom with commonly eaten foods), life stresses, lack of forethought in meal planning, current health status, economic status, the ability to garden, lifetime dietary exposure, concerns about food safety, contradictory nutrition messages from the media, and variable work schedules. Conclusion Perceptions about intake of fruits and vegetables intake are influenced by individual (intrinsic) and community (extrinsic) environmental factors. We suggest approaches for influencing behavior and changing perceptions using available resources.
Insular Gray Matter Volume and Objective Quality of Life in Schizophrenia

Improving quality of life has been recognized as an important outcome for schizophrenia treatment, although the fundamental determinants are not well understood. In this study, we investigated the association between brain structural abnormalities and objective quality of life in schizophrenia patients. Thirty-three schizophrenia patients and 42 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging. The Quality of Life Scale was used to measure objective quality of life in schizophrenia patients. Voxel-based morphometry was performed to identify regional brain alterations that correlate with Quality of Life Scale score in the patient group. Schizophrenia patients showed gray matter reductions in the frontal, temporal, limbic, and subcortical regions. We then performed voxel-based multiple regression analysis in these regions to identify any correlations between regional gray matter volume and Quality of Life Scale scores. We found that among four subcategories of the scale, the Instrumental Role category score correlated with gray matter volume in the right anterior insula in schizophrenia patients. In addition, this correlation was shown to be mediated by negative symptoms. Our findings suggest that the neural basis of objective quality of life might differ topographically from that of subjective QOL in schizophrenia.
A Data Center Infrastructure Monitoring Platform Based on Storm and Trident

: Sensor data of a modern data center’s cooling and power infrastructure fulﬁl the characteristics of data streams and are therefore suitable for stream processing. We present a stream-based monitoring platform for data center infrastructure. It is based on multiple independent collectors, which query measurements from sensors and forward them to an Apache Kafka queue. At the plat-form’s core is a processing cluster based on Apache Storm and its high-level Trident API. From there, results get forwarded to one or multiple data sinks. Using our system, analytical queries can be developed using a collection of universal, generic stream operators including CORRELATE, a novel operator which combines elements from multiple streams with unique semantics. Besides the platform’s general concept, the characteristics and pitfalls of our real-world implementation are also discussed in this work.
Life Cycle Reversal in Aurelia sp.1 (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa)

The genus Aurelia is one of the major contributors to jellyfish blooms in coastal waters, possibly due in part to hydroclimatic and anthropogenic causes, as well as their highly adaptive reproductive traits. Despite the wide plasticity of cnidarian life cycles, especially those recognized in certain Hydroza species, the known modifications of Aurelia life history were mostly restricted to its polyp stage. In this study, we document the formation of polyps directly from the ectoderm of degenerating juvenile medusae, cell masses from medusa tissue fragments, and subumbrella of living medusae. This is the first evidence for back-transformation of sexually mature medusae into polyps in Aurelia sp.1. The resulting reconstruction of the schematic life cycle of Aurelia reveals the underestimated potential of life cycle reversal in scyphozoan medusae, with possible implications for biological and ecological studies.
Monitoring the human posture in industrial environment: A feasibility study

This paper describes a method that can be used to monitor the human posture in industrial environment. The method is based on the simultaneous use of a 3D camera (Microsoft Kinect V2) and a wearable motion capture system that uses inertial measurement units to identify the body posture (Notch Wearable). The data fusion at feature level allows overcoming the intrinsic limitations of the two methods, deriving from occlusions and electromagnetic interferences, respectively. This work describes the algorithms implemented for the data validation, the calibration of the two measurement systems performed in controlled environment and experiments performed in tailoring operations. The first step of our analysis was the implementation of algorithms used to validate the skeleton measured by the Microsoft Kinect, that is unreliable in presence of occlusions. The calibration of the Kinect and Notch systems was performed by asking to different subjects to repeat movements of the upper limbs and evaluating the measurements repeatability and reproducibility. Finally, experiments were performed in different tailoring operations and the cumulative probability density function of different body angles was evaluated to compute the biomechanical loads of the workers.
Minimum Recombinant Haplotype Configuration on Tree Pedigrees ( Extended Abstract )

We study the problem of reconstructing haplotype configurations from genotypes on pedigree data under the Mendelian law of inheritance and the minimum recombination principle, which is very important for the construction of haplotype maps and genetic linkage/association analysis. Li and Jiang [9, 10] recently proved that theMinimum Recombinant Haplotype Configuration (MRHC) problem is NP-hard, even if the number of marker loci is 2. However, the proof uses pedigrees that contain complex mating loop structures that are not common in practice. The complexity of MRHC in the loopless case was left as an open problem. In this paper, we show that loopless MRHC is NP-hard. We also present two dynamic programming algorithms that can be useful for solving loopless MRHC (and general MRHC) in practice. The first algorithm performs dynamic programming on the members of the input pedigree and is efficient when the number of marker loci is bounded by a small constant. It takes advantage of the tree structure in a loopless pedigree. The second algorithm performs dynamic programming on the marker loci and is efficient when the number of the members of the input pedigree is small. This algorithm also works for the general MRHC problem. We have implemented both algorithms and applied the first one to both simulated and real data. Our preliminary experiments demonstrate that the algorithm is often able to solve MRHC efficiently in practice.
A new class of magnetorheological elastomers based on waste tire rubber and the characterization of their properties

This paper proposes a new type of magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) using rubber from waste tires and describes its performance characteristics. In this work, scrap tires were utilized as a primary matrix for the MRE without incorporation of virgin elastomers. The synthesis of the scrap tire based MRE adopted a high-temperature high-pressure sintering technique to achieve the reclaiming of vulcanized rubber. The material properties of the MRE samples were investigated through physical and viscoelastic examinations. The physical tests confirmed several material characteristics—microstructure, magnetic, and thermal properties–while the viscoelastic examination was conducted with a laboratory-made dynamic compression apparatus. It was observed from the viscoelastic examination that the proposed MRE has magnetic-field-dependent properties of the storage modulus, loss modulus, and loss tangent at different excitation frequencies and strain amplitudes. Specifically, the synthesized MRE showed a high zero field modulus, a reasonable MR effect under maximum applied current, and remarkable damping properties.
Scaling up HIV viral load – lessons from the large‐scale implementation of HIV early infant diagnosis and CD4 testing

The scale‐up of effective HIV viral load (VL) testing is an urgent public health priority. Implementation of testing is supported by the availability of accurate, nucleic acid based laboratory and point‐of‐care (POC) VL technologies and strong WHO guidance recommending routine testing to identify treatment failure. However, test implementation faces challenges related to the developing health systems in many low‐resource countries. The purpose of this commentary is to review the challenges and solutions from the large‐scale implementation of other diagnostic tests, namely nucleic‐acid based early infant HIV diagnosis (EID) and CD4 testing, and identify key lessons to inform the scale‐up of VL.
Software defined backpressure mechanism for edge router

Increased network traffic has put great pressure on edge router. It tends to be more expensive and consumes more resources. Buffer is especially the most valuable resource in the router. Given the potential benefits of reducing buffer sizes, a lot of debate on buffer sizing has emerged in the past few years. The small buffer rule, for example, was challenged at edge router. Instead of buffer sizing, the goal of our work is to find out a way to relieve the pressure of edge router and logically enlarge its buffer size without incurring additional costs. In this paper, taking advantage of the global view of SDN, we proposed Software Defined Backpressure Mechanism (SD-BM) to alleviate the pressure of edge router. Particularly, we gave Refill and Software Defined Networking based RED (RS-RED) algorithm, which makes it possible to enlarge the network buffer logically and offloads traffic from busy egress router to free ingress devices. Simulation results show that it has comparable performance, both in time delay and loss rate, with edge router which has large buffer in traditional way. The results can have consequences for the design of edge router and the related network.
DATASET CREATION FOR GESTURE RECOGNITION

This paper introduces a fast and feasible method for the collection of hand gesture samples. Currently, there are not solid reference databases and standards for the evaluation and comparison of developed algorithms in hand posture recognition, and more generally in gesture recognition. These are two important issues that should be solved in order to improve research results. Unlike previous hand image datasets, which creation usually involves many different people, sceneries and light conditions, we propose a simplified method that requires just a single person’ hand being recorded in a controlled light environment. Our method allows the generation of thousands of heterogeneous samples within hours, thus saving time and people’s efforts. The resulting dataset has been tested with a cascade classifier, although it may be used by most pattern recognition systems, and compared with a classical dataset obtaining similar results.