Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seismic tests on precast segmental concrete columns with unbonded tendons

Four unbonded post-tensioned precast segmental concrete columns were subjected to pseudostatic simulated lateral seismic loading in the Charles Lee Powell Structural Research Laboratories at the University of California at San Diego. The influence of parameters including steel jacket confinement, prestress level, and column aspect ratio on column force – deformation characteristics, energy dissipation, damage level, and failure mode was studied. To investigate prestress influence and damage repairability, each column was tested twice: the first test with a given prestress level and a second test, subsequent to column repair, with higher initial prestressing. Shear keys were not provided at segment interfaces, and thus shear was transferred by a friction mechanism. Ductile flexural response was observed in all tests, and maximum column drift levels of 4 – 6% were achieved. Damage included minor concrete crushing at the interface of column and footing, steel jacket inelastic straining, and residual drift on.
Methodological Approach to the Energy Analysis of Unconstrained Historical Buildings

The goal set by the EU of quasi-zero energy buildings is not easy to reach for a country like Italy, as it holds a wide number of UNESCO sites and most of them are entire historical old towns. This paper focuses on the problem of the improvement of energy performance of historical Italian architecture through simple interventions that respect the building without changing its shape and structure. The work starts from an energy analysis of a building located in the historic center of Tivoli, a town close to Rome. The analysis follows the recommendations of the UNI TS 11300-Part1, which indicates how to evaluate the energy consumptions. The calculations were performed only on the building envelope, based on passive solutions and alternatives. Four passive strategies were examined and applied based on the location of the building and the non-alteration of the structure and the landscape. The obtained results impacted positively on the energy performance of the building: the annual energy saving reached a maximum value of 25%. This work shows how it is possible to improve the energy performance of an existing building achieving a significant energy saving with the respect of the building architecture, shape, function and the surrounding landscape.
Data Integrity Limitations in Hybrid Security Architectures

Abstract : We discuss a class of computer/network architectures that supports multilevel security and commercial applications, while utilizing primarily commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) workstations, operating systems and hardware components. We show that a property of these architectures is that, while they are capable of supporting multilevel confidentiality policies, they do not generally support partially ordered integrity policies: specifically, these architectures do not support the maintenance of data that is higher in integrity than the integrity level of the COTS components, thus limiting their applicability to processing environments where the integrity of data is consistent with that of low-assurance software.
Design and implementation of miniaturised capsule for autofluorescence detection with possible application to the bowel disease

Early signs of intestinal cancer may be detected through variations in tissue autofluorescence (AF), however current endoscope-based AF systems are unable to inspect the small intestine. This thesis describes the design, fabrication, implantation, testing and packaging of a wireless pill capable of detecting the autofluorescence from cancerous cells, and able to reach parts of the gastrointestinal tract that are inaccessible to endoscopes. The pill exploits the fact that there is a significant difference in the intensity of autofluorescence emitted by normal and cancerous tissues when excited by a blue or ultra violet light source. The intensity differences are detected using very sensitive light detectors. The pill has been developed in two stages. The first stage starts with using an off-chip multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) device as a light detector. In the second stage, the light detector is integrated into an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The pill comprises of an ASIC, optical filters, an information processing unit and a radio transmission unit, to transmit acquired data to an external base station. Two ASICs have been fabricated, the first stage of this work involved implementing an ASIC that contains two main blocks; the first block is capable of providing a variable DC voltage more than 72 V from a 3 V input to bias the MPPC device. The second main block is a front-end consisting of a high speed transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and voltage amplifiers to capture the very small current pulses produced by the MPPC. The second ASIC contains a high voltage charge pump up to (37.9 V) integrated with a single photon avalanche detector (SPAD). The charge pump is used to bias the SPAD above its breakdown voltage and therefore operate the device in Geiger mode. The SPAD was designed to operate in the visible region where its photon detection efficiency (PDE) peaks at 465 nm, which is near to human tissues autofluorescence peaking region (520±10 nm). The use of the ultra low light detector to detect the autofluorescence permits a lower excitation light intensity and therefore lower overall power consumption. The two ASICs were fabricated using a commercial triple-well high-voltage CMOS process. The complete device operates at 3V and draws an average of 7.1mA, enabling up to 23 hours of continuous operation from two 165mAh SR44 batteries.
Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community

Introduction 1. The Work of Story 2. Stories in Our Lives Interlude 1: The Legacy of Tanya 3. A Road Traveled: The Evolution of the Digital Storytelling Process 4. The World of Digital Storytelling Interlude 2: Wynn's Story 5. The Seven Steps of Digital Storytelling 6. The Story Circle: Facilitating the Digital Storytelling Workshop Interlude 3: Elizabeth's Story 7. Approaches to Scripting Prompts and Processes 8. Storyboarding Interlude 4: Ray's Story 9. Designing in Digital: Working with Digital Imagin, Audio, and Video 10. Distribution, Ethics, and the Politics of Engagement Interlude 5: Zahid's Story 11. Applications of Digital Storytelling 12. When Silence Speaks - A Conversation with Amy Hill 13. Stories from Fishing Lake, Alberta - A Conversation with Yvonne Pratt 14. Humanizing Healthcare: A Conversation with Pip Hardy & Tony Sumner 15. Digital Storytelling in Higher Education - A Conversation with William Shewbridge, Liv Gjestvang, Walt Jacobs, and Cheryl Diermyer Addendum: Silence Speaks Digital Storytelling: Guidelines for Ethical Practice by Amy Hill and Lucy Harding Appendix: Digital Storyteller's Bill of Rights Bibliography Index
Initiation of Pancreatic Cancer: The Interplay of Hyperglycemia and Macrophages Promotes the Acquisition of Malignancy-Associated Properties in Pancreatic Ductal Epithelial Cells

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is still one of the most aggressive solid malignancies with a poor prognosis. Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are two major risk factors linked to the development and progression of PDAC, both often characterized by high blood glucose levels. Macrophages represent the main immune cell population in PDAC contributing to PDAC development. It has already been shown that pancreatic ductal epithelial cells (PDEC) undergo epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) when exposed to hyperglycemia or macrophages. Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether concomitant exposure to hyperglycemia and macrophages aggravates EMT-associated alterations in PDEC. Exposure to macrophages and elevated glucose levels (25 mM glucose) impacted gene expression of EMT inducers such as IL-6 and TNF-α as well as EMT transcription factors in benign (H6c7-pBp) and premalignant (H6c7-kras) PDEC. Most strikingly, exposure to hyperglycemic coculture with macrophages promoted downregulation of the epithelial marker E-cadherin, which was associated with an elevated migratory potential of PDEC. While blocking IL-6 activity by tocilizumab only partially reverted the EMT phenotype in H6c7-kras cells, neutralization of TNF-α by etanercept was able to clearly impair EMT-associated properties in premalignant PDEC. Altogether, the current study attributes a role to a T2DM-related hyperglycemic, inflammatory micromilieu in the acquisition of malignancy-associated alterations in premalignant PDEC, thus providing new insights on how metabolic diseases might promote PDAC initiation.
Reply on RC1

Author’s reply (AR): The purpose of this study was to differentiate permanent grassland from the areas of different crops. However, due to the crop rotation cycle, some cropland areas may be covered by temporary grassland for a single year. From our mapping perspective these annual grasslands (set-aside fields or meadows) may still be considered as croplands since their dominant use over the time period is cropland. This areas also do not fulfil the criteria to be classified as permanent grasslands. Such differentiation of land uses is only possible using a robust modelling approach which considered more than a single year in the classification model. We have clarified this aim in lines 12, 41 and 58 (in the traced version of the manuscript).
Intelligent decision support system for equipment diagnosis and maintenance management

Summary form only given. This paper reports the research project which has been carried out at the Central Textiles (HK) Ltd. in Hong Kong. The main objective of the project is to help the company to approach an integrated maintenance management system by using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. This AI-based maintenance management system schedules and controls maintenance activities under considerations of not only the working conditions of equipment in the company but also the production quality, production system efficiency and production cost.
Safety characteristics of the integral fast reactor concept

The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) concept is an innovative approach to liquid metal reactor design which is being studied by Argonne National Laboratory. Two of the key features of the IFR design are a metal fuel core design, based on the fuel technology developed at EBR-II, and an integral fuel cycle with a co-located fuel cycle facility based on the compact and simplified process steps made possible by the use of the metal fuel. This paper presents the safety characteristics of the IFR concept which derive from the use of metal fuel. Liquid metal reactors, because of the low pressure coolant operating far below its boiling point, the natural circulation capability, and high system heat capacities possess a high degree of inherent safety. The use of metallic fuel allows the reactor designer to further enhance the system capability for passive accommodation of postulated accidents.
Performance optimization for unmanned vehicle systems

Technological advances in the area of unmanned vehicles are opening new possibilities for creating teams of vehicles performing complex missions with some degree of autonomy. Perhaps the most spectacular example of these advances concerns the increasing deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in military operations. Unmanned Vehicle Systems (UVS) are mainly used in Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions (ISR). In this context, the vehicles typically move about a low-threat environment which is sufficiently simple to be modeled successfully. This thesis develops tools for optimizing the performance of UVS performing ISR missions, assuming such a model. First, in a static environment, the UVS operator typically requires that a vehicle visit a set of waypoints once or repetitively, with no a priori specified order. Minimizing the length of the tour traveled by the vehicle through these waypoints requires solving a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). We study the TSP for the Dubins’ vehicle, which models the limited turning radius of fixed wing UAVs. In contrast to previously proposed approaches, our algorithms determine an ordering of the waypoints that depends on the model of the vehicle dynamics. We evaluate the performance gains obtained by incorporating such a model in the mission planner. With a dynamic model of the environment the decision making level of the UVS also needs to solve a sensor scheduling problem. We consider M UAVs monitoring N > M sites with independent Markovian dynamics, and treat two important examples arising in this and other contexts, such as wireless channel or radar waveform selection. In the first example, the sensors must detect events arising at sites modeled as two-state Markov chains. In the second example, the sites are assumed to be Gaussian linear time invariant (LTI) systems and the sensors must keep the best possible estimate of the state of each site. We first present a bound on the achievable performance which can be computed efficiently by a convex program, involving linear matrix inequalities in the LTI case. We give closed-form formulas for a feedback index policy proposed by Whittle. Comparing the performance of this policy to the bound, it is seen to perform very well in simulations. For the LTI example, we propose new open-loop periodic switching policies whose performance matches the bound. Ultimately, we need to solve the task scheduling and motion planning problems simultaneously. We first extend the approach developed for the sensor scheduling problems to the case where switching penalties model the path planning component. Finally, we propose a new modeling approach, based on fluid models for stochastic networks, to obtain insight into more complex spatiotemporal resource allocation problems. In particular, we give a necessary and sufficient stabilizability condition for the fluid approximation of the problem of harvesting data from a set of spatially distributed queues with spatially varying transmission rates using a mobile server.
Improving performance of Solid State Drives in enterprise environment

Flash memory, in the form of Solid State Drive (SSD), is being increasingly employed in mobile and enterprise-level storage systems due to its superior features such as high energy efficiency, high random read performance and small form factor. However, SSD suffers from the erase-before-write and endurance problems, which limit the direct deployment of SSD in enterprise environment. Existing studies either develop SSD-friendly on-board buffer management algorithms, or design sophisticated Flash Translation Layers (FTL) to ease the erase-before-write problem. This dissertation addresses the two issues and consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the white-box approaches that optimize the internal design of SSD. We design a write buffer management algorithm on top of the log-block FTL, which not only optimizes the write buffer effect by exploiting both the recency and frequency of blocks in the write buffer, but also minimizes the destaging overhead by maximizing the number of valid pages of the destaged block. We further identify that the low garbage collection efficiency problem has a significantly negative impact to the performance of the page-mapped SSD. We design a GC-Aware RAM management algorithm that improves the GC efficiency even if the workloads do not have updating requests by dynamically evaluating the benefits of different destaging policies and adaptively adopting the best one. Moreover, this algorithm minimizes the address translation overhead by exploiting the interplay between the buffer component and the FTL component. The second part focuses on the black-box approaches that optimize the SSD performance externally. As an increasing number of applications deploy SSD in enterprise environment, understanding the performance characteristics of SSD in enterprise environment is becoming critically important. We identify several performance anomalies of SSDs and their performance and endurance impacts on SSD employed in enterprise environment by evaluating several commercial SSDs. Our study provides insights and suggestions to both system developers and SSD vendors. Further, based on the performance anomalies identified, we design an IO scheduler that takes advantage of the SSD features and evaluate its performance on SSD. The scheduler is shown to improve performance in terms of bandwidth and average response time. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my thanks to my advisor, Dr. Hong Jiang, for his support, guidance and encouragement during my five-year Ph.D. study at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Jiang not only teaches me how to do research, but also teaches me how to improve my writing …
FREEWAY CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION

A set of guidelines have been developed for nationwide application to the conservation of fuel on urban and rural freeways in the near-term (1985) and for the long-term (2000). The thrust has been on identifying which freeway control and management strategies have the greatest potential for energy conservation. These preferred strategies have been identified by the application of computer simulation models for the evaluation of all potential freeway control strategies. The models were exercised against a set of representative freeway test sites. As a part of the analysis, the various freeway control strategies have also been rank-ordered in terms of their fuel cost-effectiveness and the nationwide fuel savings have been estimated. (FHWA)
The ecology of palm genomes: repeat‐associated genome size expansion is constrained by aridity

Genome size varies 2,400-fold across plants, influencing their evolution through changes in cell size and cell division rates which impact plants’ environmental stress tolerance. Repetitive element expansion explains much genome size diversity, and the processes structuring repeat ‘communities’ are analogous to those structuring ecological communities. However, which environmental stressors influence repeat community dynamics has not yet been examined from an ecological perspective. We measured genome size and leveraged climatic data for 91% of genera within the ecologically diverse palm family (Arecaceae). We then generated genomic repeat profiles for 141 palm species, and analysed repeats using phylogenetically-informed linear models to explore relationships between repeat dynamics and environmental factors. We show that palm genome size and repeat ‘community’ composition are best explained by aridity. Specifically, EnSpm CACTA repeats were more abundant in palm species from wetter environments, which generally had larger genomes (>2.15Gbp/1C), suggesting amplification. In contrast, Ty1-copia Angela elements were more abundant in drier environments. Our results suggest water stress inhibits the expansion of repeats through selection on upper genome size limits. However, Ty1-copia Angela elements, which may associate with stress-response genes, have amplified in arid-adapted palm species. Overall, we provide novel evidence of climate influencing the assembly of repeat ‘communities’.
Experimental investigations on high speed solid and composite rotor induction motor

To improve upon the performance of high speed solid rotor induction motor, composite rotors were constructed by depositing the layers of Cu+(Fe-Co) and Cu+(Fe-Ni), in few tens of microns. Performance was evaluated through the equivalent circuit approach, the parameters of which were determined only by no load and blocked rotor tests on the machines at 400 Hz. The torque and the torque per unit current increases significantly on the composite rotors. All the computed performance characteristics at 400 Hz have been presented in this paper. The complex dependency of the rotor parameters on slip has been clearly brought out. The improvement of overall performance of the composite rotor induction motor has been predicted.
A Review on Calixarene Fluorescent Chemosensor Agents for Various Analytes

Calixarenes are well - known supramolecular host molecules with versatile applications. Over the past decades, hundreds of selective and sensitive detections have been reported by employing calixarenes as the chemosensor agent. The detection and quantification of ionic species are crucial as heavy metal ions are harmful to living organisms, while monitoring anions is pivotal in the environmental samples. On the other hand, detecting and quantifying biomolecules and neutral molecules are critical due to their irreplaceable role in human health. In this review, we summarized the application of calixarenes as the supramolecular chemosensor agent for detecting metal ions, anions, biomolecules, and neutral molecules through fluorescent spectroscopy. This review updates the world with the application of calixarene derivatives as fluorescent chemosensors and challenges researchers to design and develop better chemosensor agents in the future.
Three new Russula species in sect. Ingratae (Russulales, Basidiomycota) from southern China

Abstract Three new species of Russulasection Ingratae, found in Guizhou and Jiangsu Provinces, southern China, are proposed: R.straminella, R.subpectinatoides and R.succinea. Photographs, line drawings and detailed morphological descriptions for these species are provided with comparisons against closely-related taxa. Phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region supported the recognition of these specimens as new species. Additionally, R.indocatillus is reported for the first time from China and morphological and phylogenetic data are provided for the Chinese specimens.
Models and performance evaluation for multiple-input multiple-output space-time adaptive processing radar

Signal and clutter modelling and optimum performance evaluation for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-based space-time adaptive processing radar is addressed. A signal model is developed to account for both code diverse MIMO (c-MIMO) and frequency diverse MIMO (f-MIMO), and a general framework on performance evaluation is presented to take into account various waveform configurations including phased array (PA), partially correlated MIMO and ideally orthogonal MIMO. The proposed framework evaluates the system performance through optimum processing (OP) gain and transmit array (TA) gain. The OP gain is in turn evaluated by the number of available space-time measurements (ASMs) that depends on the number of clutter degrees of freedom (clutter NDoF) relative to the system degrees of freedom (system NDoF). The waveform diversity introduced by MIMO, especially f-MIMO, could significantly enhance the OP gain by increasing the number of ASMs. Hence, in OP-gain-limited scenarios, where the overall performance significantly degrades despite the TA gains, the preferable configuration in terms of optimum performance would be ordered as f-MIMO, c-MIMO, and last, PA, that is, no MIMO.