Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Earthquake Insurance in California, USA: What Does Community-Generated Big Data Reveal to Us?

California has a high seismic hazard, as many historical and recent earthquakes remind us. To deal with potential future damaging earthquakes, a voluntary insurance system for residential properties is in force in the state. However, the insurance penetration rate is quite low. Bearing this in mind, the aim of this article is to ascertain whether Big Data can provide policymakers and stakeholders with useful information in view of future action plans on earthquake coverage. Therefore, we extracted and analyzed the online search interest in earthquake insurance over time (2004–2021) through Google Trends (GT), a website that explores the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. We found that (1) the triggering of online searches stems primarily from the occurrence of earthquakes in California and neighboring areas as well as oversea regions, thus suggesting that the interest of users was guided by both direct and vicarious earthquake experiences. However, other natural hazards also come to people’s notice; (2) the length of the higher level of online attention spans from one day to one week, depending on the magnitude of the earthquakes, the place where they occur, the temporal proximity of other natural hazards, and so on; (3) users interested in earthquake insurance are also attentive to knowing the features of the policies, among which are first the price of coverage, and then their worth and practical benefits; (4) online interest in the time span analyzed fits fairly well with the real insurance policy underwritings recorded over the years. Based on the research outcomes, we can propose the establishment of an observatory to monitor the online behavior that is suitable for supporting well-timed and geographically targeted information and communication action plans.
Three-dimensional nonlinear aerostatic stability analysis of long-span suspension bridges under skew wind

Based on the aerostatic force model under skew wind, considering the nonlinear and three-dimensional effects of aerostatic forces and also structural geometric nonlinearity, a method of three-dimensional nonlinear aerostatic stability analysis under skew wind is presented, and the corresponding computational procedure (SNAA-SW) is developed. By taking a suspension bridge- the Runyang suspension bridge over the Yangtze River as example, 3D nonlinear aerostatic stability analysis of the bridge under skew wind is conducted, and the skew wind effect on the aerostatic stability of long-span suspension bridges is ascertained. The results show that the skew wind effect does not change the aerostatic instability mode of suspension bridges, which shows a spatial bending-torsion coupled instability mode as the same as normal wind case. The skew wind has positive and negative effects on the aerostatic stability of suspension bridge under different wind attack angles, and the evolutions of critical wind speed of aerostatic instability with wind yaw angle are completely different from the cosine rule as proposed by the skew wind decomposition method, for most cases, the lowest critical wind speed of aerostatic instability occurs under skew wind. With the increase of wind yaw angle, the skew wind effect on the critical wind speed of aerostatic instability becomes more prominent, and the influence is between −10.7% and 8.1%. Therefore, the skew wind effect needs to be accurately considered in the aerostatic stability analysis of long-span suspension bridges in particular at large wind yaw angles.
Combination Strategies Involving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Tyrosine Kinase or BRAF Inhibitors in Aggressive Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer is the most common (~90%) type of endocrine-system tumor, accounting for 70% of the deaths from endocrine cancers. In the last years, the high-throughput genomics has been able to identify pathways/molecular targets involved in survival and tumor progression. Targeted therapy and immunotherapy individually have many limitations. Regarding the first one, although it greatly reduces the size of the cancer, clinical responses are generally transient and often lead to cancer relapse after initial treatment. For the second one, although it induces longer-lasting responses in cancer patients than targeted therapy, its response rate is lower. The individual limitations of these two different types of therapies can be overcome by combining them. Here, we discuss MAPK pathway inhibitors, i.e., BRAF and MEK inhibitors, combined with checkpoint inhibitors targeting PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4. Several mutations make tumors resistant to treatments. Therefore, more studies are needed to investigate the patient’s individual tumor mutation burden in order to overcome the problem of resistance to therapy and to develop new combination therapies.
Multi-level deep neural network for efficient segmentation of blood vessels in fundus images

The exact blood vessel trees segmented from fundus images provide important information required for screening and following-up of diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. The trained deep neural network presents an automated prediction of the blood vessels in retinal fundus camera images in the publicly DRIVE database with accuracy up to 0.9533 and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve up to 0.9752, which is better than manual recognition by expert human eyes. A resizing technique is introduced and applied to the multi-level network combining dropout and spatial-dropout layers to obtain more generalised training. The proposed model has the potential for the classification of other types of images.
The Relationship between Urban Public Art and Regional Environment Based on Wireless Network Technology

The relationship between urban public art and regional environment based on wireless network technology is studied. Combining domestic specific cases and referring to sociology, art, and design thinking, combing about the relationship between the city's public art and the regional environment, and further integration of its relationship components, at the same time, the planning study of Changning district, Shanghai, and the actual operation of the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, which incorporates the regional mesolevel background, are examples for case analysis. In reference cases and practical cases, they are deduced in sequence, starting from the environmental context of urban areas to the evolution model of public art. Moreover, the specific event background also constitutes a special opportunity period for the sudden growth of public art.
Gecko-inspired dry adhesives for heritage conservation – tackling the surface roughness with empirical testing and finite element modelling

Abstract Gecko-inspired dry adhesives (GDAs) have been developed in an attempt to replicate in polymer material the natural ability of some gecko lizards to attach to nearly any surface. Geckos achieve this with nano-sized structures on their feet that facilitate van der Waals's interactions with the surfaces. The conservation of cultural heritage is an area that could benefit greatly from the introduction of a versatile and easily reversible adhesive. However, the multitude of surface types and various surface textures encountered in this field make the adaptation of GDAs difficult. In this research two types of GDAs, with flat tips and with mushroom-shaped tips have been assessed using pull-off tests on three substrate materials. These are based on real heritage objects’ surfaces (copper and ceramic) with different levels of surface roughness from The Hunterian collection. Adhesive strength varied between different GDAs and as expected adhesive strength reduced with increased substrate roughness. The finite Element Modelling (FEM) of the pull-off tests closely matched empirical results and showed how different behaviours on the microlevel can affect the GDA behaviour on rough surfaces. It helped to understand the microscale behaviour of two different types of GDAs tested. The research has shown the necessary direction for experimental and theoretical research on GDAs which will enable them to be adopted more widely in heritage conservation.
Bioactive Loaded Novel Nano-Formulations for Targeted Drug Delivery and Their Therapeutic Potential

Plant-based medicines have received a lot of attention in recent years. Such medicines have been employed to treat medical conditions since ancient times, and in those times only the observed symptoms were used to determine dose accuracy, dose efficacy, and therapy. Rather than novel formulations, the current research work on plant-based medicines has mostly concentrated on medicinal active phytoconstituents. In the past recent decades, however, researchers have made significant progress in developing “new drug delivery systems” (NDDS) to enhance therapeutic efficacy and reduce unwanted effects of bioactive compounds. Nanocapsules, polymer micelles, liposomes, nanogels, phytosomes, nano-emulsions, transferosomes, microspheres, ethosomes, injectable hydrogels, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, and other innovative therapeutic formulations have all been created using bioactive compounds and plant extracts. The novel formulations can improve solubility, therapeutic efficacy, bioavailability, stability, tissue distribution, protection from physical and chemical damage, and prolonged and targeted administration, to name a few. The current study summarizes existing research and the development of new formulations, with a focus on herbal bioactive components.
Novel Gene Rearrangements in the Mitochondrial Genomes of Cynipoid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea)

Cynipoidea is a medium-sized superfamily of Hymenoptera with diverse lifestyles. In this study, 16 mitochondrial genomes were newly sequenced, 11 of which were the first obtained mitochondrial genomes in the family Liopteridae and four subfamilies (Anacharitinae, Aspicerinae, Figitinae, and Parnipinae) of Figitidae. All of the newly sequenced mitogenomes have unique rearrangement types within Cynipoidea, whereas some gene patterns are conserved in several groups. nad5-nad4-nad4L-nad6-cytb was remotely inverted and two rRNA genes were translocated to nad3 downstream in Ibaliidae and three subfamilies (Anacharitinae, Eucoilinae, and Parnipinae within Figitidae); two rRNA genes in Aspicerinae, Figitinae, and Liopteridae were remotely inverted to the cytb-nad1 junction; rrnL-rrnS was translocated to the cytb-nad1 junction in Cynipidae. Phylogenetic inference suggested that Figitidae was a polyphyletic group, while the Ibaliidae nested deep within Cynipoidea and was a sister-group to the Figitidae. These results will improve our understanding of the gene rearrangement of the mitogenomes and the phylogenetic relationships in the Cynipoidea.
Expert Study of Engineers Solving Ill-defined Biotransport Problems: Findings to Influence Development of Student Innovation

This study compares engineering expert problem-solving on a highly constrained routine problem and an ill-defined complex problem. The participants (n=7) were recruited from two large public Research I institutions. Using a think aloud methodology, the experts solved both routine and non-routine problems. The protocols were transcribed and coded in Atlas ti. The first round of coding followed a grounded theory methodology, yielding interesting findings. Unprompted, the experts revealed a strong belief that the ill-defined problems are developmentally appropriate for PhD students while routine problems are more appropriate for undergraduate students. Additional rounds of coding were informed by previous problem solving studies in math and engineering. In general, this study confirmed the 5 Step Problem Solving Method used in previous challenged based instruction studies. There were observed differences based on problem type and background knowledge. The routine problem was more automatic and took significantly less time. The experts with higher amounts of background knowledge and experience were more likely to categorize the problems. The level of background knowledge was most apparent in the steps between conducting an overall energy balance and writing more problem specific relationships between the variables. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for improving undergraduate engineering education.
STATUS QUO OF RESEARCH AND APPLICATION FOR SOOTBLOWING OPTIMIZATION ON UTILIYTY BOILERS

In view of the low utilization factor of sootblowers, the importance and status quo of research and application for optimization of sootblower operation on utility boilers have been presented, emphatically discussing the monitoring methods of slagging and ash deposition, as well as the existing sootblowering optimization systems, having sigificance for reference to further research and use sootblowing optimization on utility boilers.
Velocities and Accelerations at the 3R Mechatronic Systems

This article presents an original method to determine the speeds and accelerations to structures MP R-3 The structure of the 3R (space) are known (required) rotation speeds of the triggers and must be determined speeds and accelerations of the endeffector M. Starting from the positions of direct kinematic system MP R-3deriving these system of relations in depending on the time, once and then a second time (the second derivation) is first obtains the speeds of the system and for the second time the accelerations endeffector point M. System on which must be resolved has three equations and three independent parameters to determine. Constructive basis is represented by a robot with three degrees of freedom (a robot with three axis of rotation). In the case where a study (analysis) a robot anthropomorphic with three axis of rotation (which represents the main movements, it is absolutely necessary), already has a system of the basis on which it can add other movements (secondary,). All calculations have been arranged and in the form of the array.
Microfluidics Temperature Compensating and Monitoring Based on Liquid Metal Heat Transfer

Microfluidic devices offer excellent heat transfer, enabling the biochemical reactions to be more efficient. However, the precision of temperature sensing and control of microfluids is limited by the size effect. Here in this work, the relationship between the microfluids and the glass substrate of a typical microfluidic device is investigated. With an intelligent structure design and liquid metal, we demonstrated that a millimeter-scale industrial temperature sensor could be utilized for temperature sensing of micro-scale fluids. We proposed a heat transfer model based on this design, where the local correlations between the macro-scale temperature sensor and the micro-scale fluids were investigated. As a demonstration, a set of temperature-sensitive nucleic acid amplification tests were taken to show the precision of temperature control for micro-scale reagents. Comparations of theoretical and experimental data further verify the effectiveness of our heat transfer model. With the presented compensation approach, the slight fluorescent intensity changes caused by isothermal amplification polymerase chain reaction (PCR) temperature could be distinguished. For instance, the probability distribution plots of fluorescent intensity are significant from each other, even if the amplification temperature has a difference of 1 °C. Thus, this method may serve as a universal approach for micro–macro interface sensing and is helpful beyond microfluidic applications.
Edible insects and research needs

The recent research interest is illustrated by the many refereed articles that appeared during the last years. Only in 2016, there were 47 articles listed in Web of Science (consulted 15 February 2017) when using ‘edible insects’ compared to only 25 during the entire five-year period 2006-2010. At the start of 2017 there are close to 200 start-up companies worldwide (http://tinyurl.com/zyotzcy). In 2016, a number of organisations made predictions about how the global edible insect market will grow. With an increased interest, what are the research challenges ahead of us? Where should we be focussing on? What are the bottlenecks to be solved to make it a viable sector?
Quantifying training load and intensity in elite male ice hockey according to game-related contextual variables

We aimed to quantify training load (TL) and intensity during practice sessions according to game-related contextual variables (game outcome, opponent standard, game location) in an elite male ice hockey team. Practice data were collected using a wearable 200-Hz accelerometer, heart rate (HR) recording, and session-rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE) throughout 23 sessions (n = 306 files). The reference team performed a greater number of accelerations, decelerations, spent longer time > 85% maximum HR (t85%HRmax) and reported greater s-RPE after losing a game compared to a win (r = 0.13–0.19). Moreover, a lower number of accelerations, decelerations, t85%HRmax and s-RPE (r = 0.15–0.45) were found before playing against a top-ranked opponent. In contrast, more accelerations, decelerations, longer t85%HRmax and greater s-RPE were observed after playing against a top-ranked team opponent (r = 0.15–0.41). The players performed more accelerations/min, spent more t85%HRmax and reported greater s-RPE before playing an away game (r = 0.13–0.22). Weekly TL seems to slightly increase after losing a game, when preparing a game against a weaker opponent, after playing against a stronger opponent, and when preparing an away game. On the other hand, training intensity seems not to be affected by game-related contextual variables. Thus, ice hockey practitioners involved with TL monitoring should consider the interplay of the numerous variables that influence the volume of prescribed training and the actual training responses in each individual player.
Distress and Sensitization as Main Mediators of Severity in Women with Fibromyalgia: A Structural Equation Model

We aimed to explore a path model identified using a structural equation model (SEM) which best explains the multivariate contributions of sensitization, sensitivity, and emotional variables to clinical severity in women with FMS. Pain features, the Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI), painDETECT, S-LANSS, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), the Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire (PVAQ), the 11-item Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK-11), and pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) were collected from 113 women with FMS. Four latent variables were created: severity (clinical pain features), sensitivity (PPTs), sensitization (S-LANSS, CSI, painDETECT), and distress (HADS-A, HADS-D, PCS, PVAQ, TSK-11). Data fit for the measurement model were considered excellent (RMSEA = 0.043, CFI = 0.966, SRMR = 0.067, and NNFI = 0.960). Distress had a significant relationship with the mediators of sleep (β = 0.452, p = 0.031) and sensitization (β = 0.618, p = 0.001). The only mediator with a significant effect (β = 1.113, p < 0.001) on severity was sensitization. A significant indirect effect of sensitization (β = 0.687, p = 0.001) that explained the relationship between distress and severity was also identified. The proposed model suggests that distress and sensitization, together with poor sleep, have a complex mediating effect on severity in women with FMS. The identified path model can be leveraged in clinical trials investigating treatment approaches for FMS.
Spatial Distribution and Climate Warming Impact on Abies kawakamii Forest on a Subtropical Island

Species distribution modeling (SDM) is currently the primary tool for predicting suitable habitats for species. In this study, we used Abies kawakamii, a species endemic to Taiwan. Being the only Abies species distributed in high mountains, it acts as an ecological indicator on the subtropical island. We analyzed a vegetation map derived from remote sensing and ground surveys using SDM. The actual distribution of A. kawakamii in Taiwan has a total area of 16,857 ha distributed at an altitude of 2700–3600 m, and it often forms a monodominant forest at 3100–3600 m with the higher altitude edge as a forest line. Exploring the potential distribution of A. kawakamii through MaxEnt showed that the suitable habitat was 73,151 ha under the current climate. Under the scenarios of temperature increases of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 °C, suitable habitat for A. kawakamii will gradually decrease to 70.2%, 47.1%, 30.2%, and 10.0% of this area, respectively, indicating that A. kawakamii will greatly decline under these climate warming scenarios. Fire burning disturbance may be the most significant damage to A. kawakamii at present. Although A. kawakamii has been protected by conservation areas and its natural regeneration is in good condition, it rarely has the opportunity to migrate upwards during climate warming. We suggest that in the future, research on the natural regeneration and artificial restoration of A. kawakamii should be emphasized, especially in the forest line ecotone.
GDPR-Compliant Social Network Link Prediction in a Graph DBMS: The Case of Know-How Development at Beekeeper

The amount of available information in the digital world contains massive amounts of data, far more than people can consume. Beekeeper AG provides a GDPR-compliant platform for frontline employees, who typically do not have permanent access to digital information. Finding relevant information to perform their job requires efficient filtering principles to reduce the time spent on searching, thus saving work hours. However, with GDPR, it is not always possible to observe user identification and content. Therefore, this paper proposes link prediction in a graph structure as an alternative to presenting the information based on GDPR data. In this study, the research of user interaction data in a graph database was compared with graph machine learning algorithms for extracting and predicting network patterns among the users. The results showed that although the accuracy of the models was below expectations, the know-how developed during the process could generate valuable technical and business insights for Beekeeper AG.
Targeted Non-Pharmacological Interventions for People Living with Frailty and Chronic Kidney Disease

Frailty is highly prevalent within people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is associated with the increased risk of falls, hospitalisation, and mortality. Alongside this, individuals with CKD report a high incidence of depression and reduced quality of life. The identification of frailty within nephrology clinics is needed to establish comprehensive management plans to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life for people with CKD. Current research exploring the role of non-pharmacological management has primarily focussed on exercise and physical activity interventions in the frail CKD population. However, there is a growing evidence base and interest in this area. This review provides an up-to-date overview of the literature into frailty assessment in CKD and subsequent non-pharmacological treatment approaches.