Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Approach for Predicting the Low-Cycle-Fatigue Crack Initiation Life of Ultrafine-Grained Aluminum Alloy Considering Inhomogeneous Deformation and Microscale Multiaxial Strain

In this paper, a low-cycle-fatigue (LCF) crack initiation life prediction approach that explicitly distinguishes nucleation and small crack propagation regimes is presented for ultrafine-grained (UFG) aluminum alloy by introducing two fatigue indicator parameters (FIPs) at the grain level. These two characterization parameters, the deformation inhomogeneity measured by the standard deviation of the dot product of normal stress and longitudinal strain and the microscale multiaxial strain considering the non-proportional cyclic additional hardening and mean strain effect, were proposed and respectively regarded as the driving forces for fatigue nucleation and small crack propagation. Then, the nucleation and small crack propagation lives were predicted by correlating these FIPs with statistical variables and cyclic J-integrals, respectively. By constructing a microstructure-based 3D polycrystalline finite element model with a free surface, a crystal plasticity finite element-based numerical simulation was carried out to quantify FIPs and clarify the role of crystallographic anisotropy in fatigue crack initiation. The numerical results reveal the following: (1) Nucleation is prone to occur on the surface of a material as a result of it having a higher inhomogeneous deformation than the interior of the material. (2) Compared with the experimental data, the LCF initiation life of UFG 6061 aluminum alloy could be predicted using the new parameters as FIPs. (3) The predicted results confirm the importance of considering the fatigue behavior of nucleation and small crack propagation with different deformation mechanisms for improving the fatigue crack initiation life prediction accuracy.
Mesoporous silica/epoxy coated cotton fabric for durable oil-water separation

A simple, durable, superior UV-shielded, self-cleanable, hydrophobic/superoleophile cotton fabric was developed using SBA-15 mesoporous silica and epoxy coating (SE). The cotton fabric surfaces after coating with SE showed the highest water contact angle value of 146° and lowest surface free energy of 13.9 mN/m. As a filtration membrane, the developed SE/cotton delivered 95.8% oil–water separation efficiency with a notable flux value of 6800 L/m2h against diesel–water mixture. The presence of an epoxy and silica hybrid layer on the surfaces of cotton fabric induced self-cleaning behavior and notable durability against UV light (UPF-29), pH resistance, washing fastness, and mechanical abrasion. Hence, the present coating developed using mesoporous silica and epoxy can be applied to different types of textile substrates to construct durable low-cost membranes.
A New Capacitor-Less Buck DC-DC Converter for LED Applications

In this paper, a new capacitor-less DC-DC converter is proposed to be used as a light emitting diode (LED) driver. The design is based on the utilization of the internal capacitance of the LED to replace the smoothing capacitor. LED lighting systems usually have many LEDs for better illumination that can reach multiple tens of LEDs. Such configuration can be utilized to enlarge the total internal capacitance and hence minimize the output ripple. Also, the switching frequency is selected such that a minimum ripple appears at the output. The functionality of the proposed design is confirmed experimentally and the efficiency of the driver is 85% at full load.
A Data Quality Management Framework to Support Delivery and Consultancy of CRM Platforms

: CRM platforms heavily depend on high-quality data, where poor-quality data can negatively inﬂuence its adoption. Additionally, these platforms are increasingly interconnected and complex to meet growing needs of customers. Hence, delivery and consultancy of CRM platforms becomes highly complex. In this study, we propose a CRM data quality management framework that supports CRM delivery and consultancy ﬁrms to improve data quality management practices within their projects. The framework should also improve data quality within CRM solutions for their clients. We extract best practices for CRM data quality management by means of a literature study on data quality deﬁnition and measurement, data quality challenges, and data quality management methods. In a case study at an IT consultancy company, we investigate how CRM delivery and consultancy projects can beneﬁt from the incorporation of data quality management practices. The design of the framework is validated by means of conﬁrmatory focus groups and a questionnaire. The results translate into a framework that provides a high-level overview of data quality management practices incorporated in CRM delivery and consultancy projects. It includes the following components: Client proﬁling, project deﬁnition, preparation, migration/integration, data quality deﬁnition, assessment, and improvement.
Channel models for UWB personal area networks

The article introduces the ultra-wideband wireless technology,and,base on this,describes the standard modeling of Ultra-wideband propagation channels provided by IEEE802.15. 3a standard task group for the simulation of personal area networks. Then we discuss the model,the potential problem of it,and the possibilities for future improvements. Finally,we discuss the impact of the model on the design of the receivers.
BRITTLE CULM17, a Novel Allele of TAC4, Affects the Mechanical Properties of Rice Plants

Lodging resistance of rice (Oryza sativa L.) has always been a hot issue in agricultural production. A brittle stem mutant, osbc17, was identified by screening an EMS (Ethylmethane sulfonate) mutant library established in our laboratory. The stem segments and leaves of the mutant were obviously brittle and fragile, with low mechanical strength. Examination of paraffin sections of flag leaf and internode samples indicated that the number of cell layers in mechanical tissue of the mutant was decreased compared with the wild type, Pingtangheinuo, and scanning electron microscopy revealed that the mechanical tissue cell walls of the mutant were thinner. Lignin contents of the internodes of mature-stage rice were significantly lower in the mutant than in the wild type. By the MutMap method, we found candidate gene OsBC17, which was located on rice chromosome 2 and had a 2433 bp long coding sequence encoding a protein sequence of 810 amino acid residues with unknown function. According to LC-MS/MS analysis of intermediate products of the lignin synthesis pathway, the accumulation of caffeyl alcohol in the osbc17 mutant was significantly higher than in Pingtangheinuo. Caffeyl alcohol can be polymerized to the catechyl lignin monomer by laccase ChLAC8; however, ChLAC8 and OsBC17 are not homologous proteins, which suggests that the osbc17 gene is involved in this process by regulating laccase expression.
Bayesian penalized model for classification and selection of functional predictors using longitudinal MRI data from ADNI

ABSTRACT The main goal of this paper is to employ longitudinal trajectories in a significant number of sub-regional brain volumetric MRI data as statistical predictors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) classification. We use logistic regression in a Bayesian framework that includes many functional predictors. The direct sampling of regression coefficients from the Bayesian logistic model is difficult due to its complicated likelihood function. In high-dimensional scenarios, the selection of predictors is paramount with the introduction of either spike-and-slab priors, non-local priors, or Horseshoe priors. We seek to avoid the complicated Metropolis-Hastings approach and to develop an easily implementable Gibbs sampler. In addition, the Bayesian estimation provides proper estimates of the model parameters, which are also useful for building inference. Another advantage of working with logistic regression is that it calculates the log of odds of relative risk for AD compared to normal control based on the selected longitudinal predictors, rather than simply classifying patients based on cross-sectional estimates. Ultimately, however, we combine approaches and use a probability threshold to classify individual patients. We employ 49 functional predictors consisting of volumetric estimates of brain sub-regions, chosen for their established clinical significance. Moreover, the use of spike-and-slab priors ensures that many redundant predictors are dropped from the model.
Job Creation and Job Destruction in Newly Established, Privatized, and State-Owned Enterprises in CIS countries

The article describes newly created private firms are those that have been private since they were established, i.e. the enterprises, which were established after the transition process started. In the economic literature, they are also referred as de novo enterprises or firms. The paper reports new and unique firm level survey evidence to investigate the micro economic nature of the growth process and structural change in CIS countries. In particular, we investigate gross job creation and destruction in newly established private (de novo) firms and “traditional” ones, being state owned and privatized firms and find that the de novo private firms are the most dynamic ones in terms of job creation. As result of the research we find that state owned enterprises are not significantly different in their employment behavior from privatized firms, where mixed effects of competition on employment growth. Therefore, the result could be evidence that suggests efficiency wage payments are important for employment growth in couple of CIS countries.
Application of Grounded Theory in the Study of Land Registration Systems Usage

SUMMARY Grounded Theory method is a flexible, but systematic qualitative research method. It is suited to studying process and actions grounded in the experiences of participants. However the method has certain characteristics that distinguish it as grounded theory as opposed to other qualitative methods. Ensuring that these characteristics are present within a study can be difficult. This paper considers the difficulties encountered by the novice user and how these may be ameliorated. The discussion is confined to the context of a PhD research project investigating user behaviour, specifically the interactions of land holders with the land registration system in South Africa. Four features of grounded theory are identified: (1) the a priori exclusion of existing theory, (2) cyclical and simultaneous data collection and analysis, (3) constant comparison analysis, and (4) theoretical sampling. Once the research started in the field, these features were affected by time limitations and the research context and thus required certain adaptations. These adaptations are discussed as well as the strategies used to main the integrity of the grounded theory method.
Where does environmental sustainability fit in the changing landscapes of outdoor sports? An analysis of logics of practice in artificial sport landscapes

ABSTRACT Environmental sustainability in sport is an increasingly important issue. In this paper, we want to highlight a specific phenomenon, namely artificially constructed landscapes and the outdoor sport activities that take place therein. More specifically, we are interested in the logics that govern peoples’ practice of sport in such artificial landscapes and what challenges with regards to environmental sustainability that follow from these logics. The purpose of this paper is to identify what individual athletes perceive as meaningful logics when practicing sport in artificial landscapes and to analyse and discuss potential environmental consequences of these logics. The sports we focus on are cross-country skiing and canoe slalom, two sports that historically have been dependent on specific geographies and contexts. We build on two research questions: What logics of practice govern individual athletes’ practice of sport in artificial landscapes? And what environmental challenges are potential consequences of the logics that are expressed by the athletes? Our findings indicate that the logic of performance is dominant for the sport practitioners who train in artificial landscapes, at the expense of perspectives such as nature experience and environmental sustainability. If performance is key, then the role of the training landscape is also first and foremost to present the best possible conditions for performance. But if the athlete/exerciser see their training as a means of experiencing nature, then other values than performance and comparability can become more important. When the environmental impact of individual athletes and of the artificial landscapes in which they do their training come under increased scrutiny, the role of logics of practice in the sport and movement culture needs further attention. Being aware of nature and the environment is also a logic that could be found meaningful in the process of making sports more sustainable.
First Case of Occipital Neuralgia Treated by Fascial Hydrodissection

Patient: Female, 81-year-old Final Diagnosis: Occipital neuralgia Symptoms: Headache Medication:— Clinical Procedure: Hydrodissection Specialty: Anesthesiology • Family Medicine • General and Internal Medicine • Neurology Objective: Unknown etiology Background: The injection technique “hydrodissection” has been used to isolate the nerves from their surrounding structures, such as the fascia, to treat nerve entrapment. However, no study has reported the use of hydrodissection for the treatment of occipital neuralgia. This report presents the first case of occipital neuralgia treated by ultrasound-guided hydrodissection of the fascia. Case Report: An 81-year-old woman presented to the Emergency Department with severe, paroxysmal, stabbing pain headache lasting 4 days. Under a diagnosis of occipital neuralgia, we performed ultrasound-guided hydrodissection of the right semispinalis capitis, obliquus capitis inferior, and sternocleidomastoid muscles, wherein the trigger points were palpated using a low-dose anesthetic agent (9 mL saline and 1 mL 1% lidocaine). Her headache disappeared immediately after treatment. Subsequently, the headache would recur every few days; however, the pain intensity had decreased, and the patient could tolerate it. The same hydrodissection procedure was performed on days 2, 6, and 10 after the initial visit using 2000 mg acetaminophen and 120 mg loxoprofen per day, and the headache episodes disappeared. Treatment was discontinued 23 days after the initial visit; the patient was followed up for 4 weeks, and no headache recurrence was observed. Conclusions: We found that fascial hydrodissection was an effective treatment option for occipital neuralgia attributed to myofascial pain syndrome. The risk of local anesthetic poisoning was very low. Fascial hydrodissection is recommended as a new treatment for occipital neuralgia. Treatment with hydrodissection may be applicable to other neuralgia types.
UWB Filtering Power Divider with Two Narrow Notch-bands and Wide Stop-band

Abstract A compact filtering ultra-wideband (UWB) microstrip power divider (PD) with two sharply rejected notch-bands and wide stopband is analyzed and designed in this paper. The proposed UWB PD is based on a conventional Wilkinson power divider, while two stub loaded resonators (SLRs) are coupled into two symmetrical output ports to achieve a bandpass filtering response. The simplified composite right/left-handed (SCRLH) resonators are employed to generate the dual notched bands. Defected ground structure (DGS) is introduced to improve the passband performance. Good insertion/return losses, isolation and notch-band rejection are achieved as demonstrated in both simulation and experiment.
Fear, Hope, and COVID‐19: Emotional Elite Rhetoric and Its Impact on the Public During the First Wave of the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Research shows that emotions matter in politics, and they matter during a public health crisis. Yet, a comprehensive analysis of emotional political rhetoric during the COVID‐19 crisis is still missing. Based on parties' position in the political arena (government versus populist radical parties), I expect differences in how specific emotions are employed and in how these messages actually influence the public. To test my hypotheses, I use word embeddings and neural network classifiers to measure fear and hope appeals in social media messages of political parties in four European countries. Furthermore, I rely on more than 1,400,000 public tweets of random citizens to estimate the impact of party messages. To do so, I employ vector autoregression (VAR) analysis to compare retweet volumes of political messages to emotional expressions in public tweets. Results indicate two main findings, (1) populist radical parties communicate less about the pandemic and decrease fear and increase hope appeals while COVID case numbers are rising whereas government parties exhibit the opposite pattern; (2) increased diffusion of party tweets consistently precedes change in partisans' emotional expressions the following day. The findings can carry important implications for (affective) polarization and the level of protective behavior among the population.
Towards Image Captioning for the Portuguese Language: Evaluation on a Translated Dataset

: Automatic describing an image comprehends the representation from the scene elements to generate a con-cise natural language description. Few resources, particularly annotated datasets for the Portuguese language, discourage the development of new methods in languages other than English. Thus, we propose a new image captioning method for the Portuguese language. We provide an analysis empowered by an encoder-decoder model with an attention mechanism when employing a multimodal dataset translated into Portuguese. Our ﬁndings suggest that: 1) the original and translated datasets are pretty similar considering the measure achieve-ments; 2) the translation approach includes some dirty sentence formulations that disturb our model for the Portuguese language.
International teaching assistants’ production of English focus marking

This study investigates the realization of English focus by 18 Mandarin-speaking International Teaching Assistants (ITAs). Participants read passages containing contrastive information (e.g., The price of a train ticket is twenty dollars, while the price of a bus ticket is eleven dollars), and then responded to the experimenter’s questions (Is the price of a bus ticket twenty dollars? ). ITAs were tested within a month of their arrival in the US, and again at the end of their first semester. Overall, the productions of ITAs at both points in time were judged as less natural by native English listeners than the productions of the native speakers of English, though the naturalness of some ITA productions improved at the second sampling. Acoustic analyses of the ITA productions and comparison with the productions of 18 native English speakers revealed a good deal of interspeaker variability in the ITA productions, with several different patterns associated with the ‘unnatural’ productions: (a) failure to acce.
In Government We Trust: Implicit Political Trust and Regime Support in China

High levels of self-reported trust in government found in China has invited skepticism about the authenticity of survey results. To address this question, we examine implicit political trust, an automatic, intuitive orientation toward government. Using the Single-Target Implicit Association Test, we found that the Chinese public holds an implicit trust in government that is unrelated to self-reported, explicit trust. Whereas early political socialization processes, represented by education and urban residency, increase implicit trust they also decrease explicit trust suggesting that agents of socialization have differential effects. Furthermore, performance evaluations, income, and social desirability affect explicit trust but have no effect on implicit trust. Controlling for explicit trust, we found that implicit trust matters for understanding various types of regime support including system justification, the social credit system, and government’s ability to handle crises. Our results have important implications for understanding regime support in the world’s largest authoritarian country.
Model-based Controller Design Methods for Heating Systems

Dynamical models of heating systems are derived taking into account the multiplication of temperature difference and flow rate, arising from the heat power balances. Multilinear time-invariant (MTI) models in tensor representation are shown to be adequate for heating systems. Tensor decomposition techniques are applied for rank reduction. A method to derive multilinear approximations of nonlinear models is presented. The multilinear property is used for the controller design. Further modelbased controller designs for different heating system examples using nonlinear and switched affine models are discussed and evaluated. Dynamische Modelle von Heizungsanlagen werden erstellt, wobei die Multiplikation von Temperaturdifferenz und Volumenstrom, die in den Wärmeleistungsbilanzen auftritt, berücksichtigt wird. Heizungsanlagen können als multilineare zeitinvariante (MTI) Modelle in Tensordarstellung modelliert werden, für die Methoden der Tensordekomposition zur Reduzierung des Ranges anwendbar sind. Eine Methode um multilineare Approximationen von nichtlinearen Modellen zu erstellen wird vorgestellt. Die multilineare Eigenschaft wird für den Reglerentwurf verwendet. Weitere modellbasierte Reglerentwürfe für nichtlineare und stückweise affine Modelle unterschiedlicher Heizungsanlagen werden diskutiert und bewertet.
Association between NSAID and Statin Therapy and the Incidence of Intravitreal Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Injections and Nd:YAG Laser Treatment after Cataract Surgery in Finland

Abstract Purpose To examine the association between the use of topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) medication, systemic statin therapy, and the incidence rate of two of the most common postsurgical procedures in adult patients undergoing cataract surgery in Finland between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2016. Methods This retrospective, nationwide cohort study considered 176,052 cataract operations coded with the International Classification of Disease coding: early adult (H25.0), normal (H25.1), other senile (H25.8), pre-senile (H26.02), or other (related to trauma, other eye disease, or medication). Operations were linked to purchased and reimbursed medications using Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical codes. The incidence rate of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections, and neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum (Nd:YAG) laser treatments of posterior capsular opacification were evaluated using the Poisson regression model. Results In our registry cohort, patients with a prescription of topical NSAID (ketorolac) at the time of cataract surgery were less likely treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF injections after surgery (adjusted Poisson regression model IRR 0.3; 95% CI: 0.15–0.60, P = 0.0007), and also had reduced incidence of Nd:YAG laser (0.59, CI: 0.43–0.81, P = 0.0011) treatments. Unlike topical NSAID, the use of systemic statin therapy was not associated with these two most common surgical procedures (RR 1.04, 95% CI: 0.96–1.12, P = 0.33). Conclusion The use of topical NSAIDs is associated with reduced rates of intravitreal anti-VEGF injections and Nd:YAG laser treatments after cataract surgery. More observational and experimental studies are warranted to confirm possible benefits of topical NSAID administration after cataract surgery.