Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transportation Planning to Accommodate Needs of Wind Energy Projects

There is an upward trend in wind energy production in Texas and a growing need to transport wind turbine components in that state. This paper proposes a methodology and an associated operational planning tool that can be used to develop optimal route plans for the transportation of wind turbine components on Texas roadways. The paper also recommends transportation infrastructure maintenance and improvement strategies, as well as more general multisector infrastructure improvements that will be needed to respond to the predicted growth of wind energy over time. Specifically, researchers predicted the amount of energy that will be installed in Texas from 2015 to 2025 and used the new planning tool, along with detailed knowledge of the wind energy production industry and the related supply chain, to find optimal routes for wind turbine components (minimizing both potential for road damage and driver delay). A methodology in which the planning tool is used for the analysis of several what-if scenarios is also proposed. Although the planning tool and the associated methodology were developed for Texas, they can be generalized to any other state after the underlying databases are updated.
k-d Darts

We formalize sampling a function using k-d darts. A k-d Dart is a set of independent, mutually orthogonal, k-dimensional hyperplanes called k-d flats. A dart has d choose k flats, aligned with the coordinate axes for efficiency. We show k-d darts are useful for exploring a function's properties, such as estimating its integral, or finding an exemplar above a threshold. We describe a recipe for converting some algorithms from point sampling to k-d dart sampling, if the function can be evaluated along a k-d flat. We demonstrate that k-d darts are more efficient than point-wise samples in high dimensions, depending on the characteristics of the domain: for example, the subregion of interest has small volume and evaluating the function along a flat is not too expensive. We present three concrete applications using line darts (1-d darts): relaxed maximal Poisson-disk sampling, high-quality rasterization of depth-of-field blur, and estimation of the probability of failure from a response surface for uncertainty quantification. Line darts achieve the same output fidelity as point sampling in less time. For Poisson-disk sampling, we use less memory, enabling the generation of larger point distributions in higher dimensions. Higher-dimensional darts provide greater accuracy for a particular volume estimation problem.
Fine mapping reveals sex bias in QTL affecting growth, skeletal size and obesity-related traits on mouse chromosomes 2 and 11

Previous speed congenic analysis has suggested the expression of growth and obesity quantitative trait loci (QTL), segregating between the CAST/EiJ (CAST) and C57BL6/J- hg/hg (HG) strains, on distal mouse chromosomes (MMU) 2 and 11 are dependent on sex. To confirm, fine map and further evaluate QTL X sex interactions, we constructed congenic by recipient F 2 crosses for the HG.CAST-( D2Mit329-D2Mit457 )N(6) (HG2D) and HG.CAST-( D11Mit260-D11Mit255 )N(6) (HG11) congenic strains. Over 700 F 2 mice were densely genotyped and phenotyped for a panel of 40 body and organ weight, skeletal length and obesity-related traits at 9 weeks of age. Linkage analysis revealed 20 QTL affecting a representative subset of phenotypes in HG2DF2 and HG11F2 mice. The effect of sex was quantified by comparing two linear models, the first included sex as an additive covariate and the second incorporated sex as an additive and an interactive covariate. Of the 20 QTL, eight were sex-biased, sex-specific or sex-antagonistic. Most traits were regulated by single QTL; however, two closely linked loci were identified for five traits in HG2DF2 mice. Additionally, the confidence intervals for most QTL were significantly reduced relative to the original mapping results, setting the stage for quantitative trait gene (QTG) discovery. These results highlight the importance of assessing the contribution of sex in complex trait analyses. Model_SI and Model_A are described in detail in Materials and Methods. ∆ LOD is the difference in LOD between the two models. Sex indicates QTL which are either sex-biased ( ∆ LOD>1) or sex-specific/sex-antagonistic ( ∆ LOD>3); M=QTL with more significant effects in males, F=QTL with more significant effects in females and I=sex antagonistic QTL. of QTL peak given in cM and approximate Mbp. 1.5 LOD confidence interval. Sex-specific additive (a) and dominance (d) effects were calculated for each sex separately using unadjusted genotypic means at each marker nearest the QTL peak (a = the average difference in trait means between homozygous genotypes and d = is the deviation from the average difference between homozygotes; positive and negative a values indicate an increase and decrease, respectively in the trait mean due to replacing B6 alleles with CAST alleles). %V, is the percent of phenotypic variance explained by each QTL, calculated as %V=100(1-10^(-2LOD(n))), where n is the
Cyclic AMP dose-dependently prevents palmitate-induced apoptosis by both PKA-and cAMP-GEF-dependent pathways in b -Cells.

Chronically elevated levels of free fatty acids (FFA) are thought to cause lipid accumulation in pancreatic b -cells and lead to b -cell dysfunction and/or destruction via apoptosis. Our studies show that incubation of the b -cell line, RINm5F, with increasing concentrations of the saturated FFA, palmitate, caused apoptosis based on increases in caspase 3 activity, Annexin V staining, and cell death. Furthermore, exposure of RINm5F cells to cAMP increasing agents, IBMX and forskolin, completely abolished palmitate-mediated caspase 3 activity and significantly inhibited Annexin V staining and cell death. The cyclic AMP analogs, cpt-cAMP and dibutyryl cAMP, mimicked the protective effects of IBMX and forskolin, suggesting that cAMP is the mediator of the anti-apoptotic effects. The protective action of IBMX and forskolin was rapid and did not appear to require gene transcription or new protein synthesis. However, these protective effects were clearly independent of protein kinase A (PKA) due to the lack of inhibition by PKA inhibitors, H-89 and KT5720. In attempts to identify this PKA-independent mechanism, we found that the newly developed cAMP analog, 8CPT-2Me-cAMP, which selectively activates the cAMP-dependent guanine nucleotide exchange factor (cAMP-GEF) pathway, mimicked the protective effects of IBMX and forskolin, suggesting that the cAMP-GEF pathway is involved. In addition, both glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) and its receptor agonist, Exenatide, inhibited palmitate-mediated caspase 3 activation in a dose-dependent manner. Unexpectedly, H-89 partially reversed the protective effects of GLP-1 and Exenatide, suggesting that PKA may play a role in the protective effects of these incretins. To explain these seemingly conflicting results, we demonstrated that low concentrations of cAMP produced by GLP-1 and Exenatide preferentially activate the PKA pathway, whereas higher cAMP concentrations produced by IBMX and forskolin activate the more dominant cAMP-GEF pathway. Taken together, these results indicate that intracellular concentrations of cAMP may play a key role in determining divergent signaling pathways that lead to antiapoptotic responses. In this study, we have developed an in vitro model of palmitate-induced apoptosis of the b -cell line, RINm5F, and demonstrated that cAMP increasing agents including IBMX and forskolin, and G protein-coupled receptor agonists, GLP-1 and Exenatide, provide protection in both a PKA- and cAMP-GEF-dependent manner. Low concentrations of cAMP produced by GLP-1 and Exenatide preferentially activate the PKA pathway whereas higher cAMP concentrations produced by IBMX and forskolin activate the more dominate cAMP-GEF pathway. These findings suggest that modulation of cAMP concentrations may provide a strategy to optimize antiapoptotic signaling pathways.
Title: Comparing measures of fat-free mass in overweight older adults using three different bioelectrical impedance devices and three prediction equations. Running title: Body composition by three BIA devices

Title: Comparing measures of fat-free mass in overweight older adults using three different bioelectrical impedance devices and three prediction equations. ABSTRACT: Objectives: To compare measures of fat-free mass (FFM) by three different bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) devices and to assess the agreement between three different equations validated in older adult and/or overweight populations. Design: study. Measurements: Body composition was measured using three BIA devices: Tanita 300-GS (foot-to-foot), Impedimed DF50 (hand-to-foot) and Impedimed SFB7 (bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS)). Three equations for predicting FFM were selected based on their ability to be applied to an older adult and/ or overweight population. Impedance values were extracted from the hand-to-foot BIA device and included in the equations to estimate FFM. Results: The mean FFM measured by BIS (57.6 kg ± 9.1) differed significantly from those measured by foot-to-foot (54.6 kg ± 8.7) and hand-to-foot BIA (53.2 kg ± 10.5) (P < 0.001). The mean ± SD FFM predicted by three equations using raw data from hand-to-foot BIA were 54.7 kg ± 8.9, 54.7 kg ± 7.9 and 52.9 kg ± 11.05 respectively. These results did not differ from the FFM predicted by the hand-to-foot device (F = 2.66, P = 0.118). Conclusions: Our results suggest that foot-to-foot and hand-to-foot BIA may be used interchangeably in overweight older adults at the group level but due to the large limits of agreement may lead to unacceptable error in individuals. There was no difference between the three prediction equations however these results should be confirmed within a larger sample and against a reference standard.
Laplace transform current density convolution finite-difference time-domain formulation for the modelling of 1D graphene

This study proposes a method for modelling of the graphene sheets using a finite-difference time-domain method based on Laplace transform current density convolution. The modelling of the graphene sheets is achieved by using their effective conductivity when placed in a finite-difference time-domain lattice and applying Laplace transform for obtaining tangential current density on the graphene sheet and associated recursive Maxwell's equations of the tangential electric field components on the graphene sheet. The proposed numerical formulation is validated by comparing it with the analytical results. A design example of the periodic structure is developed to investigate the behaviour of the graphene sheets and its application is proposed for the reconfigurable terahertz graphene antennas.
CONSEQUENCES OF DEFORESTATION ON BIRD DIVERSITY IN THE HAMUMA FOREST, SOUTHWESTERN ETHIOPIA

: The Afromontane forests of Ethiopia are global biodiversity hotspots, known for their high biological diversity and endemism. However, conservation of these areas is challenging due to increasing human-induced threats. In this study, the effects of forest disturbances on birds were examined in the Hamuma Forest, an Important Bird Area, in the south-western Ethiopia. Birds were sampled across two seasons in three habitat types: intact forest, cultivated land (forest converted to settlement and cultivation), and open land (open bush land, grasslands and open woodlands). Using bird assemblage and functional traits of birds related to habitat type, the differences among the habitat types were examined in terms of avian species richness, taxonomic diversity, abundance, and assemblage composition. Bird assemblage species richness and abundance were not significantly different between the forest and cultivated land habitats, but were significantly lower in the open land habitat than the former two habitat types. Mean taxonomic diversity of bird assemblages was also significantly greater in the forest than in the cultivated land and open land, but the difference between the latter two habitat types was statistically not significant. At guild level, however, species richness and abundance of forest specialists were significantly greater in the forest habitat than the other habitat types. Assemblage composition was distinct among the habitat types and the pattern of assemblage was attributed to variations in vegetation structure among sites, mainly by tree and shrub abundances. These findings suggest the need for continued protection of intact forest ecosystems to maximize functional heterogeneity associated with specialist tropical forest taxa.
RELIABLE MACHINE LEARNING ACCELERATION FOR FUTURE SPACE PROCESSORS AND FPGAS: LEON, NOEL-V AND TASTE

In this paper we present the design and implementation of two hardware designs for the acceleration of AI processing in space. First we present a SIMD module extension for Cobham Gaisler’s LEON3 and NOEL-V space processors with support for fast AI operations, which achieves up to 4 × performance improvement for commonly used ML operations compared to a minimal LEON3 conﬁguration. Next, we present a Binary Neural Network (BNN) FPGA accelerator which leverages ESA’s TASTE model-based framework to facilitate communication with the host space processor. Our simulation results show an estimated performance improvement of 32 × compared to LEON3.
electronics Is There a Predisposition towards the Use of New Technologies within the Trafﬁc Field of Emerging Countries? The Case of the Dominican Republic

: Technological devices are becoming more and more integrated in the management and control of trafﬁc in big cities. The population perceives the beneﬁts provided by these systems, and, therefore, citizens usually have a favorable opinion of them. However, emerging countries, which have fewer available infrastructures, could present a certain lack of trust. The objective of this work is to detect the level of knowledge and predisposition towards the use of new technologies in the transportation ﬁeld of the Dominican Republic. For this study, the National Survey on Mobility was administered to a sample of Dominican citizens, proportional to the ONE census and to sex, age and province. The knowledge of ITS topics, as well as the use of mobile applications for mobility, are scarce; however, there was a signiﬁcant increase that can be observed in only one year. Moreover, technology is, in general, positively assessed for what concerns the improvement of the trafﬁc ﬁeld, even though there is a lack of predisposition to provide one’s personal data, which is necessary for these devices. The process of technological development in the country must be backed up by laws that protect the citizens’ privacy. Thus, technologies that can improve road safety, mobility and sustainability can be implemented in the country.
The Result of Antioxidant System in Coronary Artery Deficiency

— Background: Recently years, increasing coronary artery disease in the worldwide. An estimated 17.9 million people died from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in 2016, representing 31% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, 85% are due to heart attack and stroke, reported WHO. Myocardial infarction is invariably followed by numerous pathophysiological and biochemical alterations including hyperlipidemia, thrombosis, lipid peroxidation and free radical damage etc., leading to qualitative and quantitative changes of myocardium. Determination of in blood serum and cardiac tissue homogenate levels of cardiac biomarker cardiac specific troponin I and estimation of some antioxidants enzymes of experimental acute infarction model induced by coronary artery occlusion in rats. Materials and methods: Adult male Wistar rats, weighting approximately 180 to 200±20 gram, used for the experiment. We did coronary occlusion induced myocardial ischemia by Kogan A.K. , Ambaga M /1979/‘s method. The experiment is 1 st , 3 rd , 7 th , 14 th 21 st days blood samples were collected and used to determine in blood serum and cardiac tissue homogenate levels of cardiac biomarker cardiac specific troponin I (CT n -I) and estimation of some antioxidants enzymes (SOD, GSH, GSH-px) were estimated using standard rat ELISA KIT by enzyme-linked immunesorbent assay. Result: Determination of cardiac troponin-I levels in blood serum of experimental acute infarction model induced by coronary artery occlusion in rats increased by 31.9-58.4% in the 1 st , 3 rd , 7 th , 14 th 21 st days of the test compared to healthy groups. The cardiac biomarker cardiac specific troponin I is indicative for cardiomyocyte damage and is currently used in the diagnosis and prognosis of myocardial ischemia. It is also shown that substances such as endogen and antioxidant decreases in heart ischemia. Conclusion: Determination of decreased level are antioxidants (SOD, GSH, GSH-px) in blood serum of experimental acute infarction model induced by coronary artery occlusion in rats, it seems to induced of pathogenesis of coronary disease and infarction myocardium while the accumulation of lipid product cause to damage the cell membrane.
Edinburgh Research Explorer FreezeML

ML is remarkable in providing statically typed polymorphism without the programmer ever having to write any type annotations. The cost of this parsimony is that the programmer is limited to a form of polymorphism in which quantifiers can occur only at the outermost level of a type and type variables can be instantiated only with monomorphic types. Type inference for unrestricted System F-style polymorphism is undecidable in general. Nevertheless, the literature abounds with a range of proposals to bridge the gap between ML and System F. We put forth a new proposal, FreezeML, a conservative extension of ML with two new features. First, let-and lambda-binders may be annotated with arbitrary System F types. Second, variable occurrences may be frozen , explicitly disabling instantiation. FreezeML is equipped with type-preserving translations back and forth between System F and admits a type inference algorithm, an extension of algorithm W, that is sound and complete and which yields principal types.
A Method for Calculating Shape Similarity among Trajectory of Moving Object Based on Statistical Correlation of Angular Deﬂection Vectors

—In recent years, mobile electronic devices, specially smartphones, are gaining more attention in people’s daily life. These devices provide many features that often process information gathered by one of their several built-in sensors. Among them, one of the most popular is the Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. This sensor allows the systematic and chronological collection of location information that represents the trajectory of the moving object that carries it. Trajectories are considered valuable sources of information for analysing and understanding of moving objects’ behavior. There is a considerable number of researches that analyse objects’ trajectories. Among them, the identiﬁcation of trajectories’ similarity is one where researches are currently being developed. The similarity of trajectories may indicate common behaviors inside groups of individuals that can be useful in various application areas. However, how to measure the trajectories’ similarity even though they are in different directions and far from each other? Trying to solve this problem, this paper proposes a method to calculate similarity among trajectories applying statistical correlation over their vectors of angular deﬂections. Preliminary results indicate that the method can identify similarity in shape among trajectories. However, when their shapes are too complex, it can not reach suitable results.
at UWindsor Hyperfine structure of the 23P state of 3He with and without an external magnetic field

The hyperﬁne structure of the 2 3 P state of 3 He with and without an external magnetic ﬁeld is precisely calculated. All the linear terms, diamagnetic terms and the α 2 relativistic correction terms are included in the Zeeman Hamiltonian. The values of the ﬁelds for 32 crossings and 5 anticrossings of the magnetic sublevels are theoretically predicted for magnetic ﬁeld strengths up to 10 000 gauss. The results are compared with experimental data and other theoretical works. All related matrix elements are calculated with high accuracy by the use of double basis set Hylleraas-type variational wavefunctions. (Some ﬁgures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)
Teaching presence predicts cognitive presence in blended learning during COVID-19: The chain mediating role of social presence and sense of community

With the continuous lockdown and staying home strategies of COVID-19, both instructors and learners have met with the presence challenges in language learning. To address the complex and dynamic relationships of different presences in blended learning during COVID-19, based on the Community of Inquiry framework, 215 Chinese English learners were obtained as samples for an empirical test. SPSS 23 and PROCESS for SPSS were utilized to examine the hypotheses. Results indicate that teaching presence (TP) has a significant direct positive impact on social presence (SP), sense of community (SoC), and cognitive presence (CP). SP has a significant positive impact on CP and partially mediates the relationship between TP and CP. SoC is also found to impact CP and partially mediates the relationship between TP and CP. The findings also validate the chain mediating role of SP and SoC between TP and CP. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
Inhibition of adenylyl cyclase 1 by ST034307 inhibits IP3-evoked changes in sino-atrial node beat rate

Atrial arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation (AF), are a major mortality risk and a leading cause of stroke. The IP3 signalling pathway has been proposed as an atrial-specific target for AF therapy, and atrial IP3 signalling has been linked to the activation of calcium sensitive adenylyl cyclases AC1 and AC8. We investigated the involvement of AC1 in the response of intact mouse atrial tissue and isolated guinea pig atrial and sino-atrial node (SAN) cells to the α-adrenoceptor agonist phenylephrine (PE) using the selective AC1 inhibitor ST034307. The maximum rate change of spontaneously beating mouse right atrial tissue exposed to PE was reduced from 14.5% to 8.2% (p = 0.005) in the presence of 1 μM ST034307, whereas the increase in tension generated in paced left atrial tissue in the presence of PE was not inhibited by ST034307 (Control = 14.2%, ST034307 = 16.3%; p > 0.05). Experiments were performed using isolated guinea pig atrial and SAN cells loaded with Fluo-5F-AM to record changes in calcium transients (CaT) generated by 10 μM PE in the presence and absence of 1 μM ST034307. ST034307 significantly reduced the beating rate of SAN cells (0.34-fold decrease; p = 0.003) but did not inhibit changes in CaT amplitude in response to PE in atrial cells. The results presented here demonstrate pharmacologically the involvement of AC1 in the downstream response of atrial pacemaker activity to α-adrenoreceptor stimulation and IP3R calcium release.