Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental Study on the Bending Behavior of Timber-steel Composite Box Beams

The mechanical properties of timber, a traditional green engineering material, are greatly affected by timber grain, thus limiting the application of timber structures in modern engineering. This study aimed to broaden the engineering application of timber structures and fully exploit the tensile and compressive properties of timber along the grain by proposing a box-section timber-steel composite beam with larch plywood as the upper and lower flanges and welding cold-formed thin-wall channel as the web, and these materials were connected using bolts. Three timber-steel composite box beams and one plywood box beam were separately subjected to bending loading tests by stepwise loading. For the composite and plywood box beams, mechanical properties such as ultimate bending capacity and flexural stiffness were analyzed by observing the strain variation, deflection evolution, failure process, and shape of their flanges and webs under load effect. The shear lag coefficient and effective distribution width of the timber-steel composite box beam flanges were calculated according to the lateral flange strain distribution. Further, based on the computational formula of steel-concrete composite beams and considering the slip effect, the mid-span deflection and ultimate bearing capacity of the timber-steel composite box beams were quantitatively analyzed. Results show that the flanges and web of the composite box beams have good combination performance, and all the specimens undergo typical tensile and compressive failures accompanied by local buckling of steel and local splitting of timber. Plywood box beams are damaged via shear web failure along the grain. Steel web of composite box beams has better shear resistance than timber, subsequently, the ultimate bending capacity of the composite box beams increase with an average of 30.3% compared to the plywood box beams, although the initial stiffness decrease by 34.8% on average. The calculations of the bearing capacity are in good agreement with the experimental results and meet the requirements of practical engineering applications. This study provides significantly references and new insights into widening the modern engineering application of timber structures.
Featured Collection Introduction: National Flood Interoperability Experiment I

The ribbon cutting ceremony in May of 2015 of the National Weather Service’s (NWS) new National Water Center (NWC) provided the necessary facilities for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to carry out its vision for a weather-ready nation (OWP, 2016). The idea of a national center was to compliment the 13 existing River Forecast Centers (RFCs) by transforming the national capability for hydrologic prediction with a seamless national water model that could enhance both temporal and spatial forecasting resolution. The NWC provides a hub, whereby the NWS can engage the academic community and other federal institutions involved in the variety of data, modeling, visualization, and dissemination of forecast products activities. Of the NWC Dr. Kathryn Sullivan said, “The National Water Center will bring researchers, forecasters, and stakeholders together to accelerate progress towards the improved water forecasts needed to manage our precious water resources wisely. ” This research-to-operations mentality is what led to the idea of a National Flood Interoperability Experiment or NFIE as an inaugural event at the NWC. Proposed by Dr. David Maidment (Maidment et al., 2014) as a way to kick start activities in support of the NWS vision, it also intends to train a new generation of scientists who can contribute to it. OVERVIEWS
The acquisition and transfer of knowledge of electrokinetic-hydrodynamics (EKHD) fundamentals: an introductory graduate-level course

ABSTRACT Relevant engineering applications, such as bioseparation of proteins and DNA, soil-cleaning, motion of colloidal particles in different media, electrical field-based cancer treatments, and the cleaning of surfaces and coating flows, belongs to the family of ‘Applied Field Sensitive Process Technologies’ requiring an external field to move solutes in a fluid within a fibrous (or porous) domain. This field incorporates an additional variable that makes the analysis very challenging and can create for the student a number of new problems to solve. A graduate-level course, based on active-learning approaches and High Performance Learning Environments, where transfer of knowledge plays a key role, was designed by the Chemical Engineering Department at Tennessee Technological University. This course, where the fundamentals principles of EKHD were taught to science, engineering and technology students was designed by the Chemical Engineering Department at the Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN. An important number of these students were able to grasp the tools required to advance their research projects that led to numerous technical presentations in professional society meetings and publications in peered-reviewed journals.
Comparative Study between Bone Marrow- mesenchymal Stem Cells and Adipose Tissue- mesenchymal Stem Cells in Restoration of Male Fertility

Background: Male infertility is considered a major cause of couple infertility as it represents 25- 50 % of infertility cases. In addition, non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) represents 10% of all infertile men.There is no definite curable treatment for such cases. Aim of Work: The purpose of this research was to assess the efficacy of BM-MSCs and AT-MSCs in treating busulfan-induced azoospermia in wistar rats. Materials and Methods: BM-MSCs were extracted from the femur bones of five adult Wistar rats and AT-MSCs from preperitoneal adipose tissue. They were then evaluated for morphology, MSC markers, osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation. To produce azoospermia in male Wistar rats, two doses of busulfan (15 mg/kg and 30 mg/kg) were administered intraperitoneally during a 21-day period. The seminiferous tubules of each testis were injected with 2.5106 MSCs 35 days after the second busulfan injection. 12 weeks after cell therapy, the testes were examined histopathologically and histomorphometrically. Results: Like the control group, the seminiferous tubules treated with BM-MSCs demonstrated normal spermatogenesis in compared to the busulfan-induced azoospermic testes. In contrast to the busulfan-induced azoospermic testes, the seminiferous tubules treated with AT-MSCs exhibited a practically typical look of spermatogenesis. Conclusion: BM-MSCs and AT-MSCs were shown to be beneficial in treating azoospermia in the wistar rat model, restoring fertility to busulfan-induced azoospermic animals after MSC transplantation. As a result, this discovery may pave the way for the future use of MSCs in the treatment of human azoospermia, although more research should be conducted to confirm the findings.
Unique Chemistry, Intake, and Metabolism of Polyamines in the Central Nervous System (CNS) and Its Body

Polyamines (PAs) are small, versatile molecules with two or more nitrogen-containing positively charged groups and provide widespread biological functions. Most of these aspects are well known and covered by quite a number of excellent surveys. Here, the present review includes novel aspects and questions: (1) It summarizes the role of most natural and some important synthetic PAs. (2) It depicts PA uptake from nutrition and bacterial production in the intestinal system following loss of PAs via defecation. (3) It highlights the discrepancy between the high concentrations of PAs in the gut lumen and their low concentration in the blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, while concentrations in cellular cytoplasm are much higher. (4) The present review provides a novel and complete scheme for the biosynthesis of Pas, including glycine, glutamate, proline and others as PA precursors, and provides a hypothesis that the agmatine pathway may rescue putrescine production when ODC knockout seems to be lethal (solving the apparent contradiction in the literature). (5) It summarizes novel data on PA transport in brain glial cells explaining why these cells but not neurons preferentially accumulate PAs. (6) Finally, it provides a novel and complete scheme for PA interconversion, including hypusine, putreanine, and GABA (unique gliotransmitter) as end-products. Altogether, this review can serve as an updated contribution to understanding the PA mystery.
Multiplicity and concentration of solutions to a fractional p-Laplace problem with exponential growth

In this paper, we study the Schrödinger equation involving \(\frac{N}{s}\)-fractional Laplace as follows \(\varepsilon^{N}(-\Delta)_{N/s}^{s}u+V(x)|u|^{\frac{N}{s}-2}u=f(u)\) in \(\mathbb R^{N}\), where \(\varepsilon\) is a positive parameter, \(N=ps\), \(s\in (0,1)\). The nonlinear function \(f\) has the exponential growth and potential function \(V\) is a continuous function satisfying some suitable conditions. Our problem lacks of compactness. By using the Ljusternik-Schnirelmann theory, we obtain the existence, multiplicity and concentration of nontrivial nonnegative solutions for small values of the parameter.
Physics-based modeling of homogeneous charge compression ignition engines with exhaust throttling

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines create a more efficient power source for either stationary power generators or automotive applications. Due to the absence of direct actuation of ignition, HCCI based combustion control is quite challenging. For the purpose of control synthesis and design, a crank-angle based dynamic model of an HCCI engine with internal exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is proposed in this paper. The HCCI autoignition timing is controlled by the amount of internal EGR induced by the cost effective exhaust throttling strategy. The zero dimensional single zone model is developed based on conservation of mass and energy and ideal gas law. The model is comprised of five subsystems: cylinder volume, intake, and exhaust runners along with combustion and heat-transfer models. Inputs to the model include engine speed, intake temperature, fueling rate, intake, and exhaust throttle positions. Outputs of the model contain the pressure, temperature, mass and burned gas fraction in the intake, exhaust and cylinder, air-to-fuel ratio (AFR), heat release rate, combustion phasing, and the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). The model is developed based on MATLAB/Simulink and validated against experimental data under steady-state and transient conditions at various intake temperatures, fueling levels, and exhaust throttle positions. Results demonstrate that by changing the exhaust throttle position, the pressure in the exhaust runner is regulated. As a result, the residual gas fraction is altered, leading to changes in mixture temperature and thus control of the HCCI combustion phasing. In the end, closed loop simulation is conducted with a linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller applied to the crank-angle based model for regulation of combustion timing CA50 using exhaust throttle during load (fueling level) changes. In the future, this model can be utilized for control development and hardware in the loop (HIL) simulation.
Permanent magnet synchronous motor drives

The aim of the chapter is to enable the power electronics community to address emerging (but proven) topics in electrical drives, with special emphasis on permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. Among the many alternatives, the collected material was classified according to the type of control, further detailed when necessary for the specific motor topology. The applications (automotive, industry, mechatronics and so forth) are impressively various, and they will be timely cited as soon as they either justify, enrich or aid the comprehension of a particular control technique. Section 10.2 reports the state of the art in sensorless control for PMSM, with the special target of highlighting the delicate connections between any theoretical algorithm and its implementation in the power electronic converter. With the same critical sensibility, Section 10.3 illustrates the direct torque control (DTC) and the model predictive control (MPC), reporting a selected example of application, as bright and promising trend in multi-object, energy-efficient control techniques for PMSM drives.
Non-linear forced vibration control for a vertical wing-plate with sustainable perturbation by using internal model control mechanism

This article studies the non-linear vibration control problem for a vertical wing-plate with sustainable perturbation by using piezoelectric actuator. For the vertical wing-plate system with hysteresis non-linearity, the operator-based robust right coprime factorisation approach is considered to ensure the stability of the non-linear system. After, for compensating the sustainable perturbation and hysteresis non-linearity to improve the non-linear vibration control performance, the non-linear internal model control scheme that includes the designed internal closed-loop model and the compensator is considered. Finally, simulation and experimental examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed control system.
Investigating antibiotic resistance in enterococci in Gabonese livestock

Background and Aim: The emergence of antibiotic resistance is a major problem worldwide. Antibiotics are often used to prevent or treat infections in livestock. This study aimed to investigate antibiotic resistance in enterococci in Gabonese livestock. Materials and Methods: We collected 174 animal samples (46 laying hens, 24 swine, 62 cattle, and 42 sheep) from farms in four provinces of Gabon. Bacterial strains belonging to the genus Enterococcus were obtained using selective media and polymerase chain reaction targeting the tuf gene. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined by the disk diffusion method on Mueller-Hinton agar. Results: Enterococci were present in 160 of the samples (97%), distributed as follows: laying hens (100%, 41/41), swine (100%, 22/22), small ruminants (88%, 37/42), and cattle (100%, 60/60). Resistance to cephalothin/cephalexin, streptomycin, and rifampicin (RIF) was high, and resistance to vancomycin (VAN), erythromycin, and tetracycline was moderate. A high diversity of resistance was found in Haut-Ogooué and Estuaire provinces. Laying hens and swine showed moderate levels of resistance to ciprofloxacin and penicillin, while sheep and cattle had high levels of resistance to RIF. All species showed a high level of resistance to VAN. We found various patterns of multiple resistances in the isolates, and the multiple resistance indexes ranged from 0.2 to 0.8. Conclusion: This study shows that livestock in Gabon can be considered potential reservoirs of resistance.
Classification of Surface Electromyogram Signals Acquired from the Forearm of a Healthy Volunteer

Surface EMG (sEMG) signals from the palmaris longus, flexor carpi radialis and flexor carpi ulnaris muscles were recorded using an in-house developed EMG signal acquisition system. The bandwidth of the acquisition system was 1500 Hz. The extracted sEMG signal was processed using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The features of the extracted and the wavelet processed signals were determined and were used for probable classification using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A classification efficiency of more than 90% was achieved using ANN classifiers. The results suggested that the sEMG may be successfully used for designing efficient control system
Untargeted Metabolomics Reveals the Potential Antidepressant Activity of a Novel Adenosine Receptor Antagonist

Depression is the most common mental illness, affecting approximately 4.4% of the global population. Despite many available treatments, some patients exhibit treatment-resistant depression. Thus, the need to develop new and alternative treatments cannot be overstated. Adenosine receptor antagonists have emerged as a promising new class of antidepressants. The current study investigates a novel dual A1/A2A adenosine receptor antagonist, namely 2-(3,4-dihydroxybenzylidene)-4-methoxy-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-one (1a), for antidepressant capabilities by determining its metabolic profiles and comparing them to those of two reference compounds (imipramine and KW-6002). The metabolic profiles were obtained by treating male Sprague-Dawley rats with 1a and the reference compounds and subjecting them to the forced swim test. Serum and brain material was consequently collected from the animals following euthanasia, after which the metabolites were extracted and analyzed through untargeted metabolomics using both 1H-NMR and GC-TOFMS. The current study provides insight into compound 1a’s metabolic profile. The metabolic profile of 1a was similar to those of the reference compounds. They potentially exhibit their antidepressive capabilities via downstream effects on amino acid and lipid metabolism.
A reconfigurable frequency-selective surface for dual-mode multi-band filtering applications

ABSTRACT A reconfigurable single-layer frequency-selective surface (FSS) with dual-mode multi-band modes of operation is presented. The proposed structure is printed on a compact 10 × 10 mm2 FR4 substrate with the thickness of 1.6 mm. A simple square loop is printed on the front side while another one along with two defected vertical arms is deployed on the backside. To realise the reconfiguration, two pin diodes are embedded on the backside square loop. Suitable insertion of conductive elements along with pin diodes yields in dual-mode multi-band rejection of applicable in service frequency ranges. The first operating mode due to diodes’ ‘ON’ state provides rejection of 2.4 GHz WLAN in 2–3 GHz, 5.2/5.8 GHz WLAN and X band in 5–12 GHz, and a part of Ku band in 13.9–16 GHz. In diodes ‘OFF’ state, the FSS blocks WLAN in 4–7.3 GHz, X band in 8–12.7 GHz as well as part of Ku band in 13.7–16.7 GHz. As well, high attenuation of incident waves is observed by a high shielding effectiveness (SE) in the blocked frequency bands. Also, a stable behaviour against different polarisations and angles of incidence is obtained. Comprehensive studies are conducted on a fabricated prototype to assess its performance from which encouraging results are obtained.
The Effects of Omni-Channel Retailing on Promotional Strategy

The objective of this study is to ascertain the effects of omni-channel retailing on the promotional strategy of retail organisations in order to better understand how to alter the promotional strategy in accordance with the ever-changing needs of customers and ultimately provide the customer with a seamless experience. This research is based on a critical systematic literature review of articles related to the topics of ‘omni-channel retailing’ and ‘promotional strategy’. The analysis made evident that most literature is focused on developing an understanding of omni-channel retailing; uncovering consumer behaviours in omni-channel retailing; and ways to adapt promotional strategies related to merchandising, sales promotion, selling, and word of mouth. Past research is quite fractured and does not represent a holistic picture of the implications of omni-channel retailing for promotional strategy. The analysis provided in this paper provides a general guideline for researchers and practitioners concerning promotional strategies that can be adopted in omni-channel retailing.
Prevalence of Joint Hypermobility in Adolescent Females

The joint hypermobility syndrome is a condition that characterises joints that are mobile past the range expected for that particular joint. Hypermobility has a significant impact on quality of life of affected individuals. Hypermobile individuals may be more susceptible to musculoskeletal maladies and orthopaedic problems [1] like joint effusions, pain, joint subluxations [2] and alterations in joint proprioception. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of generalized joint hypermobility in school going adolescent females (13-18 years). A cross sectional observational study was undertaken with a sample size of 1827 adolescent females studying in schools of Haryana. Generalised joint hypermobility was assessed using a cut-off Beighton score of ≥5 in accordance with the 2017 International Classification of EDS criteria. Selective joint hypermobility was classified on scores from 1-4/9. Score 0/9 was taken as no hypermobility at all. Adolescent females in the age group of 13-18 years who were not injured were chosen as subjects because young females are more likely to have generalised joint hypermobility. The point prevalence of hypermobility was 28.51 percent whereas prevalence of selective joint mobility was 56.10 percent. 15.59% percent females were not hypermobile according to Beighton’s score in 13-18 year old females. In this population of youngsters, predominantly women, localized hypermobility was more frequent than generalized hypermobility. The fifth metacarpophalangeal joint is the most commonly affected joint, followed by thumb, elbow, spine and then knee joint. Left side showed more hypermobility than right side. Upper limb joints showed more hyper-mobility than lower limb joints and spine.
Sustainability of Hiking in Combination with Coaching in Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Quality of Life

Although strong evidence shows that physical inactivity and sedentary behavior are associated with many negative health outcomes, inactive lifestyles are still increasing. Consequently, new approaches must be developed to increase adherence to an active lifestyle and hence a longer life. Green exercise and health coaching could be effective ways to induce long-lasting lifestyle changes geared towards more physical activity. In this randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effects of mountain hiking and psychological coaching on adults with a sedentary lifestyle. The coaching group (n = 26) participated in a 7-day guided hiking program with three personal coaching sessions, whereas the hiking group (n = 32) received no coaching. The effects on aerobic capacity, spirometry and quality of life were assessed at baseline (day 0), after the intervention week (day 7) and after 80 days. Fully nonparametric statistical analysis revealed a gender-based effect for aerobic capacity—the female participants of the coaching group showed a greater improvement (p = 0.03) than the hiking group. No significant effects were found for spirometry. Quality of life parameters improved in both groups. In conclusion, both green exercise and health coaching are capable of inducing improvements in health-related quality of life and cardiorespiratory fitness. No superior effects of health coaching were found.
COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights of Newspaper Trends

Our study aims to analyze the change in coverage of health issues awareness, printed on the front page of Indian E-Papers (The Hindustan Times and The Times of India) for the pre-and- peri coronavirus period. The collected news articles are examined by performing the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm. The sentiment analysis is performed to analyze the change in the emotions aroused from news articles. The outcome regarding the pre-coronavirus period reveals that the focus of the e-papers was mostly on politics, crime, and economy whereas, in the peri-coronavirus period, the e-papers are focusing more (i.e. 40 % topics) on publishing the news related to disseminating the awareness about the Coronavirus disease. The priority of news topics includes the active number of cases, medical facilities, COVID-19 testing. The outcome regarding sentiment analysis reveals that negative sentiments are prominent in the peri-coronavirus period due to fear of the outbreak of the virus.