Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Construction Considerations for Low-Cost Earth Brick Shells

Earthen shells are typically designed as pure-compression structures; however, some issues associated with construction practice, fixity, and certain actions (i.e., loading), which induce tensile stress, are often overlooked. Thus, cracking is not uncommon in unreinforced earthen shells. Cracking is particularly undesirable in these shells due to issues associated with the durability of earthen building materials. Moisture, in particular, may significantly compromise the strength and longevity of earthen masonry. In this paper, conventional and contemporary techniques utilised for the construction of earthen shells are reviewed. Furthermore, construction concerns with several methodologies are identified based on case study investigations and lessons learnt from several shells designed, built and monitored by the authors. An important finding is that fixity generated during construction with formwork can lead to significant cracking in earthen shells.
Unscented filtering for directly observed exoplanet orbits

We present a new method for exoplanet orbit fitting from direct observations, based on the unscented Kalman filter and a new set of orbital elements. These elements are nonsingular, and every possible set of values describes an elliptic orbit, making them well-suited to an unconstrained filter; they combine features of the Cohen-Hubbard nonsingular elements, as well as the Thiele-Innes constants. To obtain higher accuracy, we apply multiple filter passes with the same measurements, and we use a seventh-order Gaussian cubature rule to generate the sample points. We test this method using simulations of an exoplanet’s orbit and astrometric measurements.
Single-cell resolution reveals RalA GTPase expanding hematopoietic stem cells and facilitating of BCR-ABL1-driven leukemogenesis in a CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing mouse model

BCR-ABL oncogene-mediated Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is suggested to originate from leukemic stem cells (LSCs); however, factors regulating self-renewal of LSC and normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are largely unclear. Here, we show that RalA, a small GTPase in the Ras downstream signaling pathway, has a critical effect on regulating the self-renewal of LSCs and HSCs. A RalA knock-in mouse model (RalARosa26-Tg/+) was initially constructed on the basis of the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas9 (CRISPR/Cas9) assay to analyze normal hematopoietic differentiation frequency using single-cell resolution and flow cytometry. RalA overexpression promoted cell cycle progression and increased the frequency of granulocyte-monocyte progenitors (GMPs), HSCs and multipotent progenitors (MPPs). The uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) plot revealed heterogeneities in HSCs and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and identified the subclusters of HSCs and GMPs with a distinct molecular signature. RalA also promoted BCR-ABL-induced leukemogenesis and self-renewal of primary LSCs and shortened the survival of leukemic mice. RalA knockdown prolonged survival and promoted sensitivity to imatinib in a patient-derived tumor xenograft model. Immunoprecipitation plus single-cell RNA sequencing of the GMP population confirmed that RalA induced this effect by interacting with RAC1. RAC1 inhibition by azathioprine effectively reduced the self-renewal, colony formation ability of LSCs and prolonged the survival in BCR-ABL1-driven RalA overexpression CML mice. Collectively, RalA was detected to be a vital factor that regulates the abilities of HSCs and LSCs, thus facilitating BCR-ABL-triggered leukemia in mice. RalA inhibition serves as the therapeutic approach to eradicate LSCs in CML.
Modeling and Fabrication Aspects of Cu- and Carbon Nanotube-Based Through-Silicon Vias

ABSTRACT This paper discourses the variations in methods of fabrication and modeling of Through-Silicon Vias (TSVs) in chronological order. Three-dimensional (3D) integration is an emerging technology that forms multi-functioning high-performance ICs by vertically stacking of disparate technologies and components altogether. TSV has the potential to become an essential component in integration and packaging of 3D ICs. However, the limited information about TSV technologies brings the challenge in selecting the appropriate filler material of TSVs. This review paper overviews the copper (Cu)- and carbon nanotube (CNT)-based TSVs and their pros and cons to be established as suitable filler material for 3D TSVs. The equivalent electrical models of both Cu and CNT-based TSVs are discussed addressing their advantages and disadvantage to reason out the most promising method for the modeling of TSVs.
Permeability Enhancement Technology for Soft and Low-Permeability Coal Seams Combined with Hydraulic Perforation and Hydraulic Fracturing

The No. 21 coal seam in the Zhengzhou mining area is a soft, three-layer, low-permeability coal seam prone to outbursts. The three-layer structure includes the coal seam and the roof and floor layers, which exhibit high gas contents and poor permeability. The dynamic hazards caused by coal and gas outbursts are very serious. A new permeability-increasing fracturing technique that combines hydraulic perforation and hydraulic fracturing was developed specifically for the geologic conditions of the gas-bearing No. 21 coal seam. Numerical simulations were developed to study the influence of the technique on the stress distribution and permeability of the coal around the borehole. In addition, the extracted borehole gas concentrations and extraction amounts at multiple sites were investigated before and after using the technique. The study shows that the permeability-increasing fracturing technique destroys the concentrated stress coal pillars via the development of fractures between boreholes in exposed hydraulically perforated coal. The coal stress within the zone with an effective increase in permeability decreased by 30%. Furthermore, the permeability in this zone increased by three times, and the average extracted gas concentration increased by over six times. The gas pressure in the No. 21 coal seam decreased from 1.1 MPa to 0.4 MPa, and the gas content decreased from 15.96 m3/t to 5.6 m3/t. All outburst prediction indexes measured on site did not exceed their respective limits. The technique not only effectively eliminated the dynamic hazards caused by coal and gas outbursts but also achieved efficient gas extraction in the Zhengzhou mining area.
The performance analysis of modified generic model for Lithium-ion batteries

Battery technology has been widely used in various applications such as electric vehicles, smart grids, renewable energy systems, and sustainable power applications in recent years. The type, rating, and operating characteristics of batteries vary from one application to another. For example, Electric Vehicles (EVs) need lightweight batteries capable of producing fast energy and withstanding frequent charge/discharge cycles. Renewable energy applications require batteries that can store large energy in the time of excessive electric power generation and can substitute renewable energy sources to supply power in times of non-generation. As batteries are an electro-chemical phenomenon and are generally expensive, it is essential to establish an effective battery model to analyze its behavior under different operating conditions. In this regard, this paper presents a comprehensive study of various battery modeling approaches widely used for the characterization of batteries employed as energy sources for electric vehicles. A simple modified generic battery model is developed and simulated for the ANR26650M1 Li-ion battery in a MATLAB-Simulink environment. The modified generic model includes a polarization voltage term to represent the open-circuit voltage accurately and the polarization resistance term is slightly modified. The model parameters are deduced from the data sheet provided by the battery manufacturers. The discharge curve obtained through simulation is validated with the one given in the datasheet.
How Microalgae is Effective in Oxygen Deficiency Aggravated Diseases? A Comprehensive Review of Literature

Abstract Hypoxia can aggravate the conditions of many oxygen-deficiency-aggravated diseases (ODAD), such as cancer, ischemic heart disease, and chronic wounds. Photosynthetic microalgae can alleviate the hepatotoxicity of the local microenvironment by producing oxygen. In addition, microalgae extracts have antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant effects. These properties make them attractive candidates for developing methods to treat ODAD. Although researchers have exploited the advantages of microalgae and developed a variety of microalgae-based biomaterials to treat ODAD, a comprehensive review of this topic has not been presented previously. Therefore, in this review, we summarize the development and progress made in the field of developing microalgae-based biomaterials toward the treatment of ODAD. The challenges and prospects of this field are also discussed.
Frailty Status Improvement after 5-Month Multicomponent Program PROMUFRA in Community-Dwelling Older People: A Randomized Controlled Trial

A study was made of the effect of the PROMUFRA multicomponent frailty program upon physical frailty, kinanthropometry, pain and muscle function parameters in frail and pre-frail community-dwelling older people. Eighty-one participants were randomly allocated to the intervention group (IG) or control group (CG). The IG performed PROMUFRA for 20 weeks, using six strength exercises with three series of 8–12 repetitions until muscular failure, and seven myofascial exercises, with one set of 10 repetitions. The CG continued their routine. The frailty criteria number (FCN), kinanthropometric parameters and muscle function were measured at baseline and after the program. Between-group differences were found in the interaction for FCN, muscle mass, fat mass, skeletal muscle mass index, knee flexion range of motion (ROM), hip flexion with knee straight ROM, maximum isometric knee extension, maximum isotonic knee extension, maximum leg press and hand grip strength. , and also on post-intervention frailty status. The IG showed a statistical trend towards decreased pain. In conclusion, the PROMUFRA program is a potential training approach that can bring benefits in physical frailty status, body composition, ROM and muscle function among frail or pre-frail community-dwelling older people.
A Lightweight Sea Surface Object Detection Network for Unmanned Surface Vehicles

For unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), perception and control are commonly performed in embedded devices with limited computing power. Sea surface object detection can provide sufficient information for USVs, while most algorithms have poor real-time performance on embedded devices. To achieve real-time object detection on the USV platform, this paper designs a lightweight object detection network based on YOLO v5. In our work, an improved ShuffleNet v2 based on the attention mechanism was adopted as a backbone network to extract features. The depth-wise separable convolution module was introduced to rebuild the neck network. Additionally, the fusion method was changed from Concat to Add to optimize the feature fusion module. Experiments show that the proposed method reached 32.64 frames per second (FPS) on the Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier and achieved a mean average precision (mAP) of 93.1% and 93.9% on our dataset and Singapore Maritime Dataset, respectively. Moreover, the number of model parameters of the proposed network was only 25% of that of YOLO v5n. The proposed network achieves a better balance between speed and accuracy, which is more suitable for detecting sea surface objects for USVs.
Accounting for unobserved heterogeneity in on-street parking crash frequency

Abstract On-street parking provides an efficient means of parking for customers because it occupies less land per parking space compared to off-street parking. Nevertheless, there are safety concerns. The objectives of the present study are to investigate the possibility of unobserved heterogeneity across different roadway types where on-street parking is available and the effects of roadway geometrics and traffic factors on on-street parking crash frequency. Past studies related to on-street parking crash analysis have not considered this possibility, and the present article has documented that 66.7% of the estimated parameters varied significantly across observations. The estimated results indicate the presence of a shoulder along a roadway segment reduces the likelihood of an on-street parking crash for 62.17% of the roadway segments. The presence of a median along a roadway segment reduces the likelihood of an on-street parking crash for 68.44% of the roadway segments. The presence of a one-way drive indicator reduces crashes for 95.91% of the roadway segments. The results of the present article indicate that not capturing the possibility of estimated parameters varying across observations will result in inaccurate inferences. The findings would allow policy makers to evaluate the risks of the identified factors, based on their distributions, and use them in the decision matrix to facilitate the determination of locations in urban areas where on-street parking can be relatively efficient and safer.
A Comparison of EQ-5D-3L, EQ-5D-5L, and SF-6D Utilities of Patients with Musculoskeletal Disorders of Different Severity: A Health-Related Quality of Life Approach

This study compares EQ-5D-3L, EQ-5D-5L, and SF-6D utilities in patients with different musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders, also differing in disease severity as defined by valid clinical indexes. Utilities were measured from a cross-sectional sample of rheumatoid arthritis (N = 114), psoriatic arthritis (N = 57), ankylosing spondylitis (N = 49), and osteopenia/osteoporosis (N = 95) patients. For the first three groups, disease activity (severity) was measured with the DAS-28, DAPSA, and BASDAI clinical indexes, respectively. Mean differences and effect sizes were measured, and agreement between utilities was estimated with the intraclass correlation coefficient and Bland–Altman plots. Higher agreement was observed between EQ-5D-5L and SF-6D, compared to EQ-5D-3L and SF-6D, in all MSK disorder groups and severity levels. In groups with moderate to high severity, agreement between EQ-5D-3L/SF-6D and EQ-5D-5L/SF-6D was between low and fair, and both EQ-5D-3L and 5L utilities were lower than SF-6D (p < 0.001). On the other hand, in remission or low activity groups, agreement was excellent, and SF-6D utilities were again typically higher than EQ-5D-3L/5L, but not significantly. In more severe patients, SF-6D generated significantly higher utilities than EQ-5D-3L and 5L, which is consistent with most previous studies. Such discrepancies could have implications on economic evaluations of interventions targeting patients with MSK disorders.
Vehicle sensor data-based analysis on the driving style differences between operating indoor simulator and on-road instrumented vehicle

Abstract Indoor simulator and on-road instrumented vehicle are the most popular ways to analyze driving behaviors by using collected Vehicle Sensor Data (VSD). However, for a same driver, the driving performance could be different in the real world and in the simulated world. Even though many studies have been conducted to discover the differences of driving behaviors in these two circumstances, little research has focused on analyzing the differences in driving style, which can provide more integrated knowledge of a driver from the natural structure, stimulus–response mechanism, of driving behaviors. Therefore, in this paper, the driving styles in both the real world and the simulated world are extracted by implementing the nonnegative matrix factorization method on the collected VSD data. Through this analysis, the driving style differences can be quantitatively described and discussed in detail. It is found that the drivers tend to be more unstable and sometimes aggressive when driving the simulator and the deviation in the perception of temporal gap in two circumstances is also discovered. The research findings are particularly valuable to calibrate the driving simulator and construct more reliable driving behavior models.
Success factors in information technology projects

Failure of IT projects has been a major problem over decades. The previous study have found that big IT projects overran 45% of cost, 7% of schedule and produced 56% less profit than expected (Mckinsey 2012). Today, the situation has not been changed significantly. It is crucial to explore critical success factors to enable software companies avoid risks in project development across various industries. These factors should cover more organizational aspects among different customer businesses as IT projects are more challenging and diverse with high level of novelty. The main aim of this thesis is to research organizational aspects in different software firms which can moderately impact on IT project success and how these factors influence in total project performance as IT projects have failed with many reasons over years. The study was analyzed on empirical data from the IT barometer 2014 data set of Finnish Data Processing Association. All senior managers were asked whether they agree or disagree that specified critical factors can impact on IT project success by selecting the respective scale. The study results found three the most important factors which moderately impact on the IT project success. IT architecture, enterprise architecture and selection of IT solution can enable software firms gain business objectives and expected IT project outcomes during implementation phase to meet market demands and customer satisfaction. In addition, only IT architecture and enterprise architecture can help project team run development project on time to gain product leadersip and competitive advantages. There are other critical factors can enable IT projects gain success of expected project outcomes during the implementation phase. In total project performance aspect, the study findings show that IT architecture can improve project timeliness better than achievement of business objective to gain good market share. Further, enterprise architecture has a moderate correlation with project time-to-market and achievement of business objective to enhance project success against fierce rivalry among competitors within the software industry. The study found that selection of IT solution can only enable project team to increase project competency in order to gain business objectives during development time. Hence, senior managers should consider importance of these success factors during development phases to gain project success as expection and improve total project performance for surpassing competitors on the market for profits and competitive advantages.
Antitumor Effect of Si-Jun-Zi Decoction on SGC7901 Gastric Cancer Cells by CMTM2 Activation

The Si-Jun-Zi decoction (SJZ), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula, is used clinically against multiple malignancies, including gastric cancer (GC). In previous study, we have shown that SJZ plays an anticancer role in SGC7901 cell xenograft mice models. However, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect and mechanism of SJZ on the proliferation, migration, invasion, and cancer stem cell-like properties of GC cells. High-throughput mRNA sequencing analysis was performed to investigate the global alterations in gene expression in xenograft tumors, and 56 significantly differentially expressed genes (43 upregulated and 13 downregulated genes) were identified between the SJZ group and the Model group totally. We focused on CMTM2, which was significantly increased after SJZ intervention, as a candidate target gene of SJZ. The results indicated that CMTM2 expression was elevated in SJZ-treated SGC7901 cells and knocking-down CMTM2 expression partially hampered the inhibitory effects of SJZ on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of GC cells. Moreover, SJZ treatment repressed the spheroid and colony-forming capacity in GC cells, accompanied by downregulation of stem cell markers including SOX2, NANOG, and CD44. CMTM2 knockdown antagonized the effects of SJZ on the cancer stem cell-like properties of SGC7901 cells. Thus, SJZ effectively suppressed the proliferation, migration, invasion, and cancer stem cell-like properties of GC cells in vitro by upregulating CMTM2 expression.
Integrated Modeling Approach for Non-Motorized Mode Trips and Fatal Crashes in the Framework of Transportation Safety Planning

In recent decades, considerable efforts have been made to incorporate traffic safety into long-term transportation plans (LTTPs), a process which is often termed transportation safety planning (TSP). Although some researchers have attempted to integrate transportation plans and safety by adopting transportation planning data (e.g., trip generation) for estimating traffic crash frequency at the macroscopic level, no studies have attempted to develop trip and safety models in one structure simultaneously. A Bayesian integrated multivariate modeling approach is suggested for estimating trips and crashes of non-motorized modes (i.e., walking and cycling). American Housing Survey (AHS) data were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau and were used for the proposed approach. In the first part of the proposed model, the probabilities of choosing walking and cycling modes were estimated, and the estimated probabilities were converted to trips by multiplying the number of sampled households. In the second part, the estimated trips were fed into crash prediction models (or safety performance functions) as an exposure variable. The modeling result revealed many contributing factors for pedestrian/bicycle trips and crashes. Possible shared unobserved features between pedestrian and bicycle trips, and between pedestrian and bicycle crashes, were accounted for by adopting a multivariate structure. In addition, it was found that the crash models with the estimated exposures outperform those with the observed exposures. It is expected that the integrated modeling approach for trips and crashes in this study will provide great insights into the future directions of TSP.
Lifestyle Screening Tools for Children in the Community Setting: A Systematic Review

Screening of children’s lifestyle, including nutrition, may contribute to the prevention of lifestyle-related conditions in childhood and later in life. Screening tools can evaluate a wide variety of lifestyle factors, resulting in different (risk) scores and prospects of action. This systematic review aimed to summarise the design, psychometric properties and implementation of lifestyle screening tools for children in community settings. We searched the electronic databases of Embase, Medline (PubMed) and CINAHL to identify articles published between 2004 and July 2020 addressing lifestyle screening tools for children aged 0–18 years in the community setting. Independent screening and selection by two reviewers was followed by data extraction and the qualitative analysis of findings. We identified 41 unique lifestyle screening tools, with the majority addressing dietary and/or lifestyle behaviours and habits related to overweight and obesity. The domains mostly covered were nutrition, physical activity and sedentary behaviour/screen time. Tool validation was limited, and deliberate implementation features, such as the availability of clear prospects of actions following tool outcomes, were lacking. Despite the multitude of existing lifestyle screening tools for children in the community setting, there is a need for a validated easy-to-administer tool that enables risk classification and offers specific prospects of action to prevent children from adverse health outcomes.