Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitigation of Seismic

Collision of two buildings which are of different dynamics characteristic is called as seismic pounding, the main reason for the seismic pounding is lack of separation gap between the buildings. This study covers the effect of structural pounding on conventional beam column system adjacent to flat slab system, in order to observe seismic pounding Time History analysis is carried out by using Elcentro earthquake data. This study also covers the mitigation techniques of pounding by introducing new Reinforced Concrete (RC) wall and Combined RC wall with steel bracings are proposed as possible mitigation techniques for pounding.
MULTILINKS Work package 5 : Short report on methodology for analysing intergenerational relationships in a comparative perspective

The MULTILINKS research project touches on several dimensions of social science, including sociology, demography, social policy and economics. At the same time, it requires use of largescale data analysis, both cross sectional and longitudinal. The key issue in the MULTILINKS project is to consider intergenerational linkages, measured in various ways, and relate them to certain outcomes of interest. As a result, appropriate use of statistical techniques becomes crucial. This short report, the first deliverable of Work Package 5, gives a summary of the issues involved and serves as a guideline for appropriate use of empirical methods.
Effects of metformin on middle cerebral artery flow velocity in newly diagnosed type 2 Diabetic patients

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major cause of cerebrovascular disease. Risk of ischemic stroke is higher in diabetic patients and it is about 2-6 times that in normal population. Atherosclerotic lesions happen early in the disease and patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Transcranial Doppler can be used for examination of cerebral arteries and it can detect early atherosclerotic changes. Metformin an old oral anti-diabetic drug but still cornerstone in the treatment guidelines of type 2 diabetes mellitus. It improves endothelial function with preferable cardiovascular effects. Twenty patients were recruited for the study. Transcranial Doppler examination done for all patients before initiation of treatment. Patients received metformin for twelve weeks and they were re-examined with transcranial Doppler. The data of present study showed that a highly significant increase in diastolic velocity and mean flow velocity after treatment with significant reduction in pulsatility index and resistive index. In conclusion, metformin treatment increases cerebral diastolic flow velocity with reduction in vascular resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes.
The Influence of Network Positions on Exploratory Innovation: An Empirical Evidence from China’s Patent Analysis

Existing studies find that exploratory innovation requires both access to heterogeneous resources for the establishment of novel knowledge combinations and high-quality cooperation to strengthen the absorption of heterogeneous knowledge. Therefore, structural holes and prominent positions exert critical effects on exploratory innovation. Few existing studies have investigated the influences of the two positions on exploratory innovation simultaneously. This study aims to identify the influence of network positions on exploratory innovation and the contingency mechanism. Basing on joint patent filing relationships identification belong to IPC Green Inventory, R&D collaboration networks in China consisted of 215 firms in the technological field of low-carbon energy were constructed. Negative binomial regression was used to analyse the influences of networks positions on exploratory innovation and the moderating effect of network density. Results reveal that network prominence and structural holes have inverted U-shaped effects on exploratory innovation. The simultaneous occupation of prominent positions and structural holes hinders exploratory innovation. Network density exerts positive and negative effects on the relationships between network prominence and exploratory innovation and between structural holes and exploratory innovation, respectively. The conclusions drawn in this study provide a reference for R&D network structural optimization toward exploratory innovation.
On the role of heterogeneity in concentrated solid-solution alloys in enhancing their irradiation resistance

Concentrated solid-solution alloys (CSAs) demonstrate excellent mechanical properties and promising irradiation resistance depending on their compositions. Existing experimental and simulation results indicate that their heterogeneous structures induced by the random arrangement of different elements are one of the most important reasons responsible for their outstanding properties. Nevertheless, the details of this heterogeneity remain unclear. Specifically, which properties induced by heterogeneity are most relevant to their irradiation response? In this work, we scrutinize the role of heterogeneity in CSAs played in damage evolution in different aspects through atomistic simulations, including lattice misfit, thermodynamic mixing, point defect energetics, point defect diffusion, and dislocation properties. Our results reveal that structural parameters, such as lattice misfit and enthalpy of mixing, are generally not suitable to assess their irradiation response under cascade conditions. Instead, atomic-level defect properties are the keys to understand defect evolution in CSAs. Therefore, tuning chemical disorder to tailor defect properties is a possible way to further improve the irradiation performance of CSAs.
Utility of Galactomannan and (1-3)-Beta-D-Glucan Assays in the Diagnosis of Invasive Aspergillosis

Objective: The utility of serum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) galactomannan (GM) and (1-3)-beta-D-glucan (BDG) assays in the diagnosis of Invasive Aspergillosis (IA) remains unclear. Variable false positive and false negative rates complicate physician understanding and proper interpretation of test results, which may contribute to overuse of empiric treatment with antifungals. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of GM and BDG assays for the diagnosis of IA. Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted of Michigan Medicine patients who had at least one GM or BDG assay completed from June 2013 to March 2016 to compare diagnostic evidence of IA as defined by EORTC/MSG guidelines to the results of the GM and BDG assays. Effects of piperacillin-tazobactam and solid organ transplants on test efficacy were also evaluated. Results: GM serum, GM BAL, BDG serum, and BDG BAL assays had a sensitivity of 47.3%, 88.0%, 80.0%, and 100%, respectively and a specificity of 87.1, 58.3%, 40.0%, and 16.7%, respectively. The specificity of the GM serum assay was 87.1% for all patients, compared to 44% in patients on piperacillin-tazobactam. The overall specificity the four assays was 75.8% in patients with a solid organ transplant, compared to 57.6% in patients without a solid organ transplant. Conclusions: This study found that GM BAL, BDG serum, and BDG BAL assays to have increased sensitivity than previously reported data but significantly lower specificity, thus suggesting that the negative predictive value of these tests is higher than previously stated. Therefore, they could be used as screening assays; however, the positive predictive value is lower than previously found, so positive results should be used cautiously. Use of piperacillin-tazobactam decreased specificity of GM serum assay, as expected. Patients with solid organ transplants had increased specificity compared to patients without transplants, which differs from previous findings.
Multi‐modal deep network for RGB‐D segmentation of clothes

In this Letter, the authors propose a deep learning based method to perform semantic segmentation of clothes from RGB-D images of people. First, they present a synthetic dataset containing more than 50,000 RGB-D samples of characters in different clothing styles, featuring various poses and environments for a total of nine semantic classes. The proposed data generation pipeline allows for fast production of RGB, depth images and ground-truth label maps. Secondly, a novel multi-modal encoder–ecoder convolutional network is proposed which operates on RGB and depth modalities. Multi-modal features are merged using trained fusion modules which use multi-scale atrous convolutions in the fusion process. The method is numerically evaluated on synthetic data and visually assessed on real-world data. The experiments demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed model over existing methods.
Enhanced inhibitor tolerance and increased lipid productivity through adaptive laboratory evolution in the oleaginous yeast Metshnikowia pulcherrima

Microbial lipid production from second generation feedstocks presents a sustainable route to future fuels, foods and bulk chemicals. The oleaginous yeast Metshnikowia pulcherrima has previously been investigated as a potential platform organism for lipid production due to its ability to be grown in non-sterile conditions and metabolising a wide range of oligo- and monosaccharide carbon sources within lignocellulosic hydrolysates. However, the generation of inhibitors from depolymerisation causes downstream bioprocessing complications, and despite M. pulcherrima’s comparative tolerance, their presence is deleterious to both biomass and lipid formation. Using either a single inhibitor (formic acid) or an inhibitor cocktail (formic acid, acetic acid, fufural and HMF), two strategies of adaptive laboratory evolution were performed to improve M. pulcherrima’s fermentation inhibitor tolerance. Using a sequential batch culturing approach, the resulting strains from both strategies had increased growth rates and reduced lag times under inhibiting conditions versus the progenitor. Interestingly, the lipid production of the inhibitor cocktail evolved strains markedly increased, with one strain producing 41% lipid by dry weight compared to 22% of the progenitor. The evolved species was cultured in a non-sterile 2L stirred tank bioreactor and accumulated lipid rapidly, yielding 6.1 g/L of lipid (35% cell dry weight) within 48 hours; a lipid productivity of 0.128 g L-1 h-1. Furthermore, the lipid profile was analogous to palm oil, consisting of 39% C16:0 and 56% C18:1 after 48 hours.
Does reduction of dietary sodium improve patient outcomes in chronic kidney disease?

sentation, or if a clear alternative diagnosis was present, such as pneumonia. The study compared a single dose of 10 mg oral dexamethasone with placebo. The primary outcome was patient report of complete resolution of sore throat at 24 hours, and the main secondary outcome was resolution of sore throat at 48 hours. No significant difference was found in resolution of symptoms at 24 hours between the dexamethasone and placebo groups (23% vs 18%, RR 1.28; 95% CI, 0.92–1.78). However, patients in the dexamethasone group were 31% more likely to have complete resolution of their symptoms at 48 hours (35% vs 27%, RR 1.31; 95% CI, 1.02–1.68), with a number needed to treat of 12. No significant differences in outcomes was found between the subgroup offered a delayed antibiotic prescription compared with those that were not offered a prescription. Only one trial-related serious adverse event was reported in the dexamethasone group (parapharyngeal abscess) compared with three in the placebo group (peritonsillar abscess, severe tonsillitis, and pneumonia). This trial had several notable limitations. Because patients requiring immediate antibiotics were excluded, a less sick populationwas likely recruited. Additionally, pediatric patients were not included. Finally, the study was underpowered to detect a small effect from the intervention on the primary outcome or to detect a difference in adverse event profiles.
Practices of German voluntary sports clubs to include refugees

Abstract In view of the current migratory movement of refugees to Europe, voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) are often regarded as important drivers in ensuring refugees’ participation in social life. As interest organisations, VSCs produce their services in order to satisfy their members’ interests. This study analyses the practices that VSCs have developed in order to make sports services accessible to refugees. In this study, 37 German VSCs were selected and analysed indepth using a qualitative research approach. The findings reveal that VSCs often develop unconventional practices to include refugees beyond the established routines of the club work and adopted diverse practices: some VSCs have built up cooperation with other organisations to provide sport services in refugee accommodations. Some club practices consist in establishing so-called ‘refugee training groups’ which operate separately from other training groups. Finally, there are VSCs that have enabled refugees to participate in regular training groups.
Molecular phylogeny of the Arabian Horned Viper, Cerastes gasperettii (Serpentes: Viperidae) in the Middle East

The Arabian Horned Viper, Cerastes gasperettii, is distributed along the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula south and east across the Arabian Peninsula to Iraq, Kuwait and western Iran comprising two subspecies: Cerastes. g. mendelssohni in the Arava valley (Israel and Jordan) and C. g. gasperettii in the Arabian Peninsula and southwestern Iran. Phylogenetic relationships based on Maximum Likelihood, Bayesian Inference, haplotype networks, and genetic divergence among different populations of C. gasperettii are analysed in this study. Two mitochondrial (12S and Cytb) and two nuclear partial genes (C-mos and MC1R) with uneven distribution among the individuals were used to infer phylogenetic relationships. Bayesian inference (BI) phylogenetic tree indicates a dichotomy separating a southern (Oman, UAE, Yemen) from a northern clade (Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Israel). Except for the first dichotomy in the BI tree, other nodes are weakly supported. The concatenated tree inferred from maximum likelihood (ML) approach shows a similar topology in the main clades. There is low variability within C. gasperettii despite its vast distribution range. Mitochondrial haplotype networks support southern and northern clades with seven haplotypes in the 12S and five haplotypes in the Cytb. The C-mos nuclear network does not support these clades with five haplotypes. The polytypic status of Cerastes gasperettii which has previously been described based on morphological observations is not supported in the molecular results and the state of Cerastes. g. mendelssohni is questioned.
Two-Stage Offloading Optimization for Energy–Latency Tradeoff With Mobile Edge Computing in Maritime Internet of Things

The ever-increasing growth in maritime activities with large amounts of Maritime Internet-of-Things (M-IoT) devices and the exploration of ocean network leads to a great challenge for dealing with a massive amount of maritime data in a cost-effective and energy-efficient way. However, the resources-constrained maritime users cannot meet the high requirements of transmission delay and energy consumption, due to the excessive traffic and limited resources in maritime networks. To solve this problem, mobile edge computing is taken as a promising paradigm to help mobile devices from edge servers via computation offloading considering the different quality of service (QoS) with the complex ocean environments, resulting in energy saving and increased transmission latency. To investigate the tradeoff between latency and energy consumption in low-cost large-scale maritime communication, we formulate the offloading optimization problem and propose a two-stage joint optimal offloading algorithm, optimizing computation and communication resource allocation under limited energy and sensitive latency. At the first stage, the maritime users make the decision on whether to offload a computation considering their demands and environments. Then, the channel allocation and power allocation problems were proposed to optimize the offloading policy which coordinates with the center cloud servers at the second stage, considering the dynamic tradeoff of latency and energy consumption. Finally, numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Conducting a Mixed Methods Study to Explore Staff Perceptions in Providing Care to Individuals With Co-Occurring Mental Health Problems and Illicit Substance Use

This case study examines key issues in designing, developing, and conducting a research study to explore the perceptions of inpatient staff to individuals with co-occurring mental health problems and illicit substance use. The use of mixed methods research is outlined and its application to this research area is reflected upon. The choices the researcher made are identified as well as what went well, the challenges along the way, and how the researcher addressed problem areas. Key learning points are summarized and in-hindsight observations discussed to support the student researcher.
Screening of Carbamate and Organophosphate Pesticides in Food Matrices Using an Affordable and Simple Spectrophotometric Acetylcholinesterase Assay

Carbamates (CMs) and organophosphates (OPs) are widely used pesticides with known neurotoxicity arising from the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). When AChE is active, in vitro, it can hydrolyze certain substrates to colored products while in the presence of an inhibitor this color development is decreased. Based on this principle, an AChE assay for CM and OP compounds was optimized and validated for carbofuran, carbofuran-3-hydroxy and dichlorvos in lettuce and strawberry extracts. The analytical performance of the assay was confirmed by an accredited liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method. The developed AChE assay achieved low limits of detection (LODs) at the part per billion (ppb) level, depending the analyte inhibitory strength, recovery rates higher than 70% and good repeatability. Moreover, the toxic unit (TU) approach was applied, for extracts containing the validated analytes, and antagonism was noticed in all cases. Overall, the developed method is rapid, simple, cost-effective and may find application as a low-cost pre-screening tool of AChE inhibitors presence. Last but not least, this study can be considered a guide on development, validation and benchmarking of bioassays in food safety, a topic, which is commonly mispresented in the available literature.
ESP Task-Based Coursebook Development for Border Guards Training

1 Ph.D., English Language Department, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. E-mail: moroznadiia29@gmail.com Abstract: In accordance with Ukrainian border guards‟ professional competences; they have to speak in English while performing border checks and border surveillance on the state border. Therefore the creation of an up-to-date ESP task-based coursebook for border guards was of vital importance to target their needs. The article reflects the key issues connected with the ESP coursebook “English without Borders” for border guards‟ development, and offers some guidelines and solutions. Such stages of the ESP coursebook creation as needs analysis, curriculum development, materials selection and coursebook design, coursebook evaluation have been analysed. The structure of the coursebook, the organizing principles of the coursebook, types of tasks, and finally the design of teacher‟s notes have been considered. The organization of units in line with the ESP taskbased approach has been discussed. The ESP task-based coursebook for border guards training includes such units: “Socializing with colleagues and counterparts”, “Checking travelers‟ documents”, “Questioning a traveler”, “Giving advice and recommendations to travelers”, ”Conducting a vehicle/train/vessel/aircraft search”, “Detaining and interviewing irregular migrants”, “Interacting effectively with international counterparts”, “Participating in joint exercises and training”. The information obtained from this paper could be of interest for coursebook writers, ESP curriculum designers, teaching material developers and foreign language teachers.
Multistep hybrid learning: CNN driven by spatial–temporal features for faults detection on metallic surfaces

Abstract. Solutions for the quality control of metallic surfaces are proposed. Specifically, we study a deflectometric apparatus based on coaxial structured light and the related algorithmic procedure, which is able to detect the faulty surface of a sample captured by a video sequence. First, by considering the metallic surface a dynamic scene illuminated under different light conditions, we develop the descriptor residuals of linear evolution of light (RLEL) that extracts the defectiveness information starting from the movement of the object without explicitly considering the physical characteristics of the light structure. Then, leveraging on RLEL, we present a hybrid learning (HL) technique capable of overcoming the data-driven approach used in classic deep learning (DL). By exploiting a multisteps training process, we combine the model-based descriptor RLEL and a classical data-driven convolutional neural network (CNN) to obtain an unconventional gray-box CNN, which exceeds the performance of popular DL solutions such as 3-D-inception and 3-D-residual DL networks. Remarkably, HL also shows its validity in comparing the performance of the same network structures trained not in a hybrid way, namely without the injection of the model-based information given by RLEL.
Impact of Remittances on Domestic Investment: A Panel Study of Six South Asian Countries

Remittances inflow to South Asian countries increased significantly and is now one of the major sources of external finance overtaking traditional capital inflows such as foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and aid. However, the role of remittances in economic development has not been examined extensively, particularly for South Asian countries. This article examines the impact of remittances on domestic investment for South Asia over 1991–2017. Advanced panel estimation methods (unit root, cointegration and causality) are employed to account for potential country-specific heterogeneity and the endogeneity problem. Results of this study suggest that remittances increase domestic investment in the short term as well as in the long run for South Asia. This indicates that remittances are used not only for consumption purposes but also for investment activities such as human and physical capital development. The panel causality results suggest the presence of uni-directional causality running from remittances to domestic investment. Therefore, the result of this study supports the theoretical argument and previous empirical studies for other developing countries JEL: C3, 01, F3, F22
Comments on “AN-Aided Secrecy Precoding for SWIPT in Cognitive MIMO Broadcast Channels”

Several gaps and errors in (B. Fang et al., “AN-aided secrecy precoding for SWIPT in cognitive MIMO broadcast channels,” IEEE Commun. Lett., vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 1632–1635, Sep. 2015) are identified. Their corrections as well as new results are reported. After these corrections in the analysis, the successive convex approximation algorithm for secrecy rate maximization with artificial noise is shown to generate an increasing, converging sequence of secrecy rates. For a degraded channel, (i) this sequence converges to the maximum secrecy rate of the channel, and (ii) it is optimal to use no artificial noise. For a reversely-degraded channel, the maximum achievable secrecy rate is zero.