Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF STEEL PLATE REINFORCED CONCRETE SHEAR WALLS

The steel plate reinforced concrete shear wall (abbreviated as SPRCW) is an innovative type of lateral force resisting structural member potentially used in steel-concrete composite structures in high-rise buildings, especially in earthquake-prone regions. This kind of walls is formed by inserting both steel plate and steel sections (eg. steel channels) into the ordinary RC shear walls. This paper presents an experimental study on the seismic behavior of such structural members. The test was conducted through the cyclic loading scheme on a series of models at 1:2 scale. The primary parameters vary in thickness of the steel plate, aspect ratio of the wall, and thickness of the SPRCW. In order to determine the influence and relative importance of different detailing on integrity between the steel plate and concrete component under service load, such details as lateral ties and welding studs on the steel plate are designed as well. The experimental program is developed to evaluate the damage patterns, hysteretic response, strength, stiffness and ductility behavior of the walls under constant axial compressive loads and cyclic horizontal forces. In addition, the experimental results of SPRCWs are compared with those of other three ordinary RC shear walls. Through this investigation, it is observed that steel plate and steel sections incased in the wall plays a major role in carrying loads, while concrete provides lateral restraint for steel plate, and therefore, prevent the steel plate from premature failure in stability and increases deformation capacity of the wall.
Knowledge Engineering Using the UML Profile - Adopting the Model-Driven Architecture for Knowledge-Based System Development

Knowledge engineering (KE) activities are essential to the process of building intelligent systems; it conceptual modelling is exploited so that the problem-solving techniques used may be understood. This paper discusses platform independent conceptual modelling of a knowledge intensive application, focusing on knowledge-based systems (actually, a rule-based KBS) in the context of a model-driven architecture (MDA). It emphasises the use of problem-solving methods for developing the knowledge-level models. An extension to the Unified Modeling Language (UML), using its profile extension mechanism, is presented. The profile discussed in this paper has been successfully implemented in the eXecutable Modelling Framework (XMF) – a Meta-Object-Facility (MOF) based UML tool. A case study demonstrates the use of this profile; the prototype is implemented in the Java Expert System Shell (Jess).
A Survey of Image-based Relighting Techniques

JVRB, 4(2007), no. 7. - Image-based Relighting (IBRL) has recently attracted a lot of research interest for its ability to relight real objects or scenes, from novel illuminations captured in natural/synthetic environments. Complex lighting effects such as subsurface scattering, interreflection, shadowing, mesostructural self-occlusion, refraction and other relevant phenomena can be generated using IBRL. The main advantage of image-based graphics is that the rendering time is independent of scene complexity as the rendering is actually a process of manipulating image pixels, instead of simulating light transport. The goal of this paper is to provide a complete and systematic overview of the research in Imagebased Relighting. We observe that essentially all IBRL techniques can be broadly classified into three categories (Fig. 9), based on how the scene/illumination information is captured: Reflectance function-based, Basis function-based and Plenoptic function-based. We discuss the characteristics of each of these categories and their representative methods. We also discuss about the sampling density and types of light source(s), relevant issues of IBRL.
Beneficial Effects of Exercise Pretreatment in a Sporadic Alzheimer’s Rat Model

Purpose This study aimed to examine the effects of swimming exercise pretreatment on a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rat model and provide an initial understanding of related molecular mechanisms. Methods Male 2.5-month-old Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into the following four groups: (a) control, (b) swim + vehicle, (c) STZ without swim, and (d) swim + STZ. The Barnes maze task and novel object recognition test were used to measure hippocampus-dependent spatial learning and working memory, respectively. Immunofluorescence staining, Western blot analysis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis, and related assay kits were used to assess synaptic proteins, inflammatory cytokines, total antioxidant capacity, antioxidant enzymes, amyloid-beta production, and tau hyperphosphorylation. Results Behavioral tests revealed that exercise pretreatment could significantly inhibit STZ-induced cognitive dysfunction (P < 0.05). STZ animals displayed significant loss of presynaptic/postsynaptic markers in the hippocampal CA1 that was reversed by exercise pretreatment (P < 0.05). STZ rats also displayed increased reactive gliosis, release of proinflammatory cytokines, and oxidative damage, effects attenuated by preexercise (P < 0.05, between-treatment changes). Likewise, preexercise significantly induced protein expression (P < 0.001) and DNA-binding activity (P = 0.015) of Nrf2 and downstream antioxidant gene expression in the hippocampal CA1 region (P < 0.05). STZ rats had increased levels of amyloid-beta (1–42) and tau hyperphosphorylation that were significantly ameliorated by exercise (P < 0.05). Histological studies showed that exercise imparted substantial neuroprotection (P < 0.001), suppressing neuronal apoptosis–like cell death in the hippocampal CA1 compared with the STZ control group (P < 0.001). Conclusions Exercise pretraining exerts multifactorial benefits on AD that support its use as a promising new therapeutic option for prevention of neurodegeneration in the elderly and/or AD population.
Human Endogenous Retrovirus Expression Is Inversely Associated with Chronic Immune Activation in HIV-1 Infection

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) are remnants of ancestral retroviral infections integrated into the germ line, and constitute approximately 8% of the genome. Several autoimmune disorders, malignancies, and infectious diseases such as HIV-1 are associated with higher HERV expression. The degree to which HERV expression in vivo results in persistent inflammation is not known. We studied the association of immune activation and HERV-K expression in 20 subjects with chronic, untreated progressive HIV-1 infection and 10 HIV-1 negative controls. The mean HERV-K gag and env RNA expression level in the HIV-1 infected cohort was higher than in the control group (p = 0.0003), and was negatively correlated with the frequency of activated CD38+HLA-DR+CD4+ T cells (Rho = −0.61; p = 0.01) and activated CD38+HLA-DR+CD8+ T cells (Rho = −0.51; p = 0.03). Although HIV-infected persons had higher levels of HERV-K RNA expression (as expected), the level of RNA expression was negatively associated with level of T cell activation. The mechanism for this unexpected association remains to be defined.
The 5‐hydroxytryptamine4 receptor enables differentiation of informational content and encoding in the hippocampus

Long‐term synaptic plasticity, represented by long‐term depression (LTD) and long‐term potentiation (LTP) comprise cellular processes that enable memory. Neuromodulators such as serotonin regulate hippocampal function, and the 5‐HT4‐receptor contributes to processes underlying cognition. It was previously shown that in the CA1‐region, 5‐HT4‐receptors regulate the frequency‐response relationship of synaptic plasticity: patterned afferent stimulation that has no effect on synaptic strength (i.e., a θm‐frequency), will result in LTP or LTD, when given in the presence of a 5‐HT4‐agonist, or antagonist, respectively. Here, we show that in the dentate gyrus (DG) and CA3 regions of freely behaving rats, pharmacological manipulations of 5‐HT4‐receptors do not influence responses generated at θm‐frequencies, but activation of 5‐HT4‐receptors prevents persistent LTD in mossy fiber (mf)‐CA3, or perforant path‐DG synapses. Furthermore, the regulation by 5‐HT4‐receptors of LTP is subfield‐specific: 5‐HT4‐receptor‐activation prevents mf‐CA3‐LTP, but does not strongly affect DG‐potentiation. These data suggest that 5‐HT4‐receptor activation prioritises information encoding by means of LTP in the DG and CA1 regions, and suppresses persistent information storage in mf‐CA3 synapses. Thus, 5‐HT4‐receptors serve to shape information storage across the hippocampal circuitry and specify the nature of experience‐dependent encoding. © 2016 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Intra-individual variation of basal metabolic rate and the influence of daily habitual physical activity before testing

The present study determined the intra-individual variation of BMR measurements, using a standard out-patient protocol, with the subjects transporting themselves to the laboratory for the BMR measurements after spending the night at home. The effect of a non-fasting state and variation in daily habitual physical activity the day before testing was evaluated. Eight male and eleven female subjects participated in three BMR measurements with 2-week intervals. Physical activity was estimated with a tri-axial accelerometer for movement registration, during the 3 d before each BMR measurement. There were no significant differences in estimated BMR (ANOVA repeated measures, P=0·88) and in physical activity (ANOVA repeated measures, P=0·21). Mean within-subject CV in BMR was found to be 3·3 (SD 2·1) %, ranging from 0·4 to 7·2 %. Differences between BMR measurements could not be explained by differences in physical activity the day before; however the mean within-subject CV in BMR changed from 5·7 to 5·2 % after correcting for within-machine variability and from 5·2 to 3·3 % after excluding five measurements because of non-compliance to the protocol including fasting. In conclusion, BMR values measured with a standard out-patient protocol are sufficiently reproducible for most practical purposes despite the within-subject variability in physical activity the day before the measurement. For this purpose, however, non-fasting subjects must be excluded and a regular function check of the ventilated-hood system is recommendable.
Quantitating translational control: mRNA abundance-dependent and independent contributions and the mRNA sequences that specify them

Translation rate per mRNA molecule correlates positively with mRNA abundance. As a result, protein levels do not scale linearly with mRNA levels, but instead scale with the abundance of mRNA raised to the power of an “amplification exponent”. Here we show that to quantitate translational control, the translation rate must be decomposed into two components. One, TRmD, depends on the mRNA level and defines the amplification exponent. The other, TRmIND, is independent of mRNA amount and impacts the correlation coefficient between protein and mRNA levels. We show that in S. cerevisiae TRmD represents ∼20% of the variance in translation and directs an amplification exponent of 1.20 with a 95% confidence interval [1.14, 1.26]. TRmIND constitutes the remaining ∼80% of the variance in translation and explains ∼5% of the variance in protein expression. We also find that TRmD and TRmIND are preferentially determined by different mRNA sequence features: TRmIND by the length of the open reading frame and TRmD both by a ∼60 nucleotide element that spans the initiating AUG and by codon and amino acid frequency. Our work provides more appropriate estimates of translational control and implies that TRmIND is under different evolutionary selective pressures than TRmD.
Ju n 20 08 DTP-MSU / 0725 Generating technique for U ( 1 ) 3 5 D supergravity

We develop generating technique for solutions of U(1) 5D supergravity via dimensional reduction to three dimensions. This theory, which recently attracted attention in connection with black rings, can be viewed as consistent truncation of the T 6 compactification of the eleven-dimensional supergravity. Its further reduction to three dimensions accompanied by dualisation of the vector fields leads to 3D gravity coupled sigma model on the homogeneous space SO(4, 4)/SO(4)× SO(4) or SO(4, 4)/SO(2, 2) × SO(2, 2) depending on the signature of the three-space. We construct a 8×8 matrix representation of these cosets in terms of lower-dimensional blocks. Using it we express solution generating transformations in terms of potentials and identify those preserving asymptotic conditions relevant to black holes and black rings. As an application we derive the doubly rotating black hole solution with three independent charges. Suitable contraction of the above cosets is used to construct a new representation of the coset G2(2)/(SL(2, R) × SL(2, R)) relevant for minimal five-dimensional supergravity.
Melatonin protects prepuberal testis from deleterious effects of bisphenol A or diethylhexyl phthalate by preserving H3K9 methylation

A growing number of couples experience fertility issues with almost half being due to malefactors. The exposure to toxic environmental contaminants, such as endocrine disruptors (EDs), has been shown to negatively affect male fertility. EDs are present in the environment, and exposure to these toxins results in the failure of spermatogenesis. The deleterious effects of EDs on spermatogenesis have been well documented, whereas improvement of infertility associated with spermatogenesis defects remains a great challenge. Herein, we report that in vitro exposure of prepuberal mouse testes to two well‐known endocrine disruptors (EDs), bisphenol A (BPA) or diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), impairs spermatogenesis with perturbing self‐renewal, spermatogonia activity, and meiosis. Evidence indicates that such effects are likely due, at least in part, to decreased G9a‐dependent H3K9 di‐methylation. Of note, we found that melatonin (MLT) protected the testis from the negative ED impacts with preserving spermatogonia stem and meiotic cells, along with maintaining normal H3K9 di‐methylation in these cells. Taken together, this work documents that BPA and EDHP adversely affect prepuberal spermatogenesis and perturb crucial epigenetic activities in male germ cells and highlight the protective ability of MLT.
The p-adic Waldspurger formula

In this article, we study $p$-adic torus periods for certain $p$-adic valued functions on Shimura curves coming from classical origin. We prove a $p$-adic Waldspurger formula for these periods, generalizing the recent work of Bertolini, Darmon, and Prasanna. In pursuing such a formula, we construct a new anti-cyclotomic $p$-adic $L$-function of Rankin-Selberg type. At a character of positive weight, the $p$-adic $L$-function interpolates the central critical value of the complex Rankin-Selberg $L$-function. Its value at a Dirichlet character, which is outside the range of interpolation, essentially computes the corresponding $p$-adic torus period.
Effect of telehealth intervention on breast cancer patients’ quality of life and psychological outcomes: A meta-analysis

Introduction Telehealth intervention has been proposed as an innovative intervention approach to breast cancer patients, but there are still conflicting results in the literature about its effect. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched from inception to 3 October 2016 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which assessed the effect of telehealth intervention versus usual care in breast cancer patients. No language restrictions were used. Standardized mean difference (SMD) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was pooled when needed. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted if necessary and feasible. Results Twenty RCTs with a total of 2190 participants were included into this meta-analysis. Compared with usual care, telehealth intervention was associated with higher quality of life (SMD = 0.60, 95% CI 0.18–1.01, p = 0.005) and self-efficacy (SMD = 0.59, 95% CI 0.19–0.98, p = 0.003), with less depression (SMD = −1.29, 95% CI −2.28 to −0.30, p = 0.01), distress (SMD = −0.25, 95% CI −0.40 to −0.10, p = 0.001) and perceived stress (SMD = −0.30, 95% CI, −0.59 to −0.02, p = 0.04). However, anxiety score did not differ significantly between the two groups (SMD = −0.09, 95% CI −0.22 to 0.04, p = 0.17). Discussion Telehealth intervention is superior to usual care in breast cancer patients for improved quality of life, higher self-efficacy and less depression, distress, and perceived stress. However, these results should be recognized cautiously due to between-study heterogeneity, indicating that further well-designed RCTs are warranted.
Scaling Out the Discovery of Inclusion Dependencies

Inclusion dependencies are among the most important database dependencies. In addition to their most prominent application ± foreign key discovery ± inclusion dependencies are an important input to data integration, query optimization, and schema redesign. With their discovery being a recurring data profiling task, previous research has proposed different algorithms to discover all inclusion dependencies within a given dataset. However, none of the proposed algorithms is designed to scale out, i.e., none can be distributed across multiple nodes in a computer cluster to increase the performance. So on large datasets with many inclusion dependencies, these algorithms can take days to complete, even on high-performance computers. We introduce SINDY, an algorithm that efficiently discovers all unary inclusion dependencies of a given relational dataset in a distributed fashion and that is not tied to main memory requirements. We give a practical implementation of SINDY that builds upon the map-reduce-style framework Stratosphere and conduct several experiments showing that SINDY can process huge datasets by several factors faster than its competitors while scaling with the number of cluster nodes. 1 Discovering Inclusion Dependencies Given a relational dataset, an inclusion dependency (or short IND) is a constraint expressing that all values of some column (combination) A are also found in some other column (combination) B. This is formally expressed as A ⊆ B and read as “A is included in B”. In the context of this IND, A is called the dependent column and B the referenced column. This rather simple type of dependency has a broad range of applications, the most prominent one being foreign key discovery. In a dataset that consists of multiple relations, foreign keys describe how their records relate to each other, thus, their knowledge is crucial to any further work with this dataset. However, for various reasons this knowledge can be lacking: datasets are obtained as dumps in some export format that does not capture the schema of the dataset but merely its content; not all databases are capable of enforcing foreign key constraints; and even if so, capturing these constraints is sometimes avoided for performance reasons as the foreign key enforcement involves some computational overhead. Besides foreign keys, INDs are valuable knowledge to many other applications [CTF88, Gry98, LV00], like schema redesign (e.g., detect duplicate information) and data integration (e.g., joining tables from multiple data sources). As opposed to the detection of other data dependencies, such as functional dependen-
Core Losses Analysis of a Novel 16/10 Segmented Rotor Switched Reluctance BSG Motor for HEVs Using Nonlinear Lumped Parameter Equivalent Circuit Model

In this paper, a new nonlinear lumped parameter equivalent circuit model is proposed to calculate the core losses of a novel 16/10 segmented rotor switched reluctance motor (SSRM) for belt-driven starter generators. The model investigates the hysteresis, eddy current and anomalous losses by using the method of energy conservation. Four parameters are introduced in the proposed model to consider the effects of saturation and leakage flux in SSRM. They are the incremental leakage inductance, the incremental equivalent winding resistance, the incremental magnetizing inductance, and the incremental equivalent core-loss resistance. This model can overcome the hysteresis effects of winding resistance and leakage inductance on the current, and improve the accuracy of the parameters. To illustrate the advantages of the proposed model, an experiment platform is developed. Experimental results show that the proposed model can significantly improve the calculation accuracy of core losses of the SSRM. The accuracy is better than the conventional Epstein frame method. The proposed core-loss model and analysis method can be applied to other kinds of switched reluctance motors.
Is It Possible to Detect Activated Brown Adipose Tissue in Humans Using Single-Time-Point Infrared Thermography under Thermoneutral Conditions? Impact of BMI and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Thickness

Purpose To evaluate the feasibility to detect activated brown adipose tissue (BAT) using single-time-point infrared thermography of the supraclavicular skin region under thermoneutral conditions. To this end, infrared thermography was compared with 18-F-FDG PET, the current reference standard for the detection of activated BAT. Methods 120 patients were enrolled in this study. After exclusion of 18 patients, 102 patients (44 female, 58 male, mean age 58±17 years) were included for final analysis. All patients underwent a clinically indicated 18F-FDG-PET/CT examination. Immediately prior to tracer injection skin temperatures of the supraclavicular, presternal and jugular regions were measured using spatially resolved infrared thermography at room temperature. The presence of activated BAT was determined in PET by typical FDG uptake within the supraclavicular adipose tissue compartments. Local thickness of supraclavicular subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT) was measured on CT. Measured skin temperatures were statistically correlated with the presence of activated BAT and anthropometric data. Results Activated BAT was detected in 9 of 102 patients (8.8%). Local skin temperature of the supraclavicular region was significantly higher in individuals with active BAT compared to individuals without active BAT. However, after statistical correction for the influence of BMI, no predictive value of activated BAT on skin temperature of the supraclavicular region could be observed. Supraclavicular skin temperature was significantly negatively correlated with supraclavicular SCAT thickness. Conclusion We conclude that supraclavicular SCAT thickness influences supraclavicular skin temperature and thus makes a specific detection of activated BAT using single-time-point thermography difficult. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the possibility of BAT detection using alternative thermographic methods, e.g. dynamic thermography or MR-based thermometry taking into account BMI as a confounding factor.
A novel method for detecting and predicting resident's behavior in smart home

By development of sensor technology, wireless communication, machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, smart environments have improved into a significant research area. A kind of smart environment is smart home that provides an intelligent and integrated environment, equipped with sensors and actuators. Activity of Daily Living (ADL) in smart homes has helped in elderly care, health care, etc. Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is the task involved in reasoning within smart homes with the purpose of recognizing the ongoing activity of the resident and is inferred using machine learning and artificial intelligence methods out of sensors data. In this paper, we have proposed an activity mining and tracking method called Uncertain Pattern-Discovery Method that enables tracking regular activities and detect changes in an individuals behavioral pattern and lifestyle.