Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Experimental Investigation of the Mechanical Behavior and Particle Crushing Characteristic of Volcanic Soil

Volcanic soil is a special soil that is well-known for its distinctive texture, vesicular nature, and particle fragility. The fragility characteristic of volcanic soil is the main factor affecting the foundation stability in road engineering. This study focuses on the mechanical properties and particle crushing characteristics of volcanic soil retrieved from Northeast China. A series of triaxial consolidation and drainage shear tests are performed on volcanic coarse-grained soil (5 mm > d > 0.075 mm) under different initial relative densities and effective confining pressures. Results show the peak friction angle of volcanic soil significantly decreases with the increase of confining pressure. The particle crushing degree of volcanic soil increases with the increase of confining pressure, particle size, and relative density. The relative breakage rate of the same particle size group has a good linear relationship with a fractal dimension. Moreover, for the same particle size, the relationship between plastic work and relative breakage rate can be fitted by a power function, which is not significantly affected by relative density or effective confining pressure. From an engineering view, in addition to increasing the compaction degree of volcanic soil, volcanic soil with fine particles used as a roadbed filler can significantly reduce the deformation of the roadbed and improve the bearing capacity of the foundation.
Use of Focus Groups to Inform a New Community-Based Youth Diabetes Prevention Program

There have been few youth-led diabetes prevention programs. Our objective was to conduct focus groups to explore peer influences on adolescent lifestyle behaviors and strategies for implementing a youth peer education model for diabetes prevention. We conducted six focus groups with 52 youth (ages 13–22; 62% male, 38% female; 64% Hispanic, 36% non-Hispanic Black) from East Harlem, NYC. We used a Thematic Analysis approach to identify major themes, compared findings, and resolved differences through discussion and consensus. Three dominant themes arose: (1) Adolescents generally encounter more unhealthy peer influences on diet and more healthy peer influences on physical activity; (2) Adolescents endorse youth-led diabetes prevention strategies and describe ideal qualities for peer leaders and methods to support and evaluate leaders; (3) Adolescents prefer text messaging to monitor behaviors, track goals, and receive personalized guidance. Using study findings, our Community Action Board developed a peer-led diabetes prevention program for prediabetic adolescents.
Using school-based assessments to advance the integration of sustainable development competences by capitalising on the practice of teaching to the test

Abstract History has shown that despite favourable changes in policy and perception, undesirable or ineffective educational practices in the Caribbean have remained largely unchanged, or superficially or inadequately changed. It has also shown that high stakes summative assessment wields considerable influence on the content to which students are exposed and the teaching and assessment methodologies used in the classroom through the widespread practice of teaching to the test. It is against this background that this paper purports that the integration of sustainable development competences (SDCs) can be advanced through high stakes assessments by capitalizing on the widespread practice of teaching to the test. By focusing specifically on the school-based assessment (SBAs) component of the summative, high stakes examinations used by the Caribbean Examinations Council, the paper examines how SBAs can be optimized to measure and thereby advance the integration of SDCs. The paper opines that through its allowance for formative assessment, integrated assessment, inquiry-based projects and group work, SBAs are optimal for assessing and furthering SDC development.
The rising burden of inflammatory bowel disease in Denmark over two decades: a nationwide cohort study.

BACKGROUND Shifts in epidemiological stages of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) carry implications towards understanding IBD etiology and managing clinical care. We conducted a temporal analysis of the epidemiology of IBD between 1995 and 2016 in the Danish nationwide cohort. METHODS We used the Danish registers to obtain data on demographics and IBD-related outpatient and inpatient contacts between 1995 and 2016. IBD diagnosis was defined as having ≥2 Crohn's disease (CD)- or ulcerative colitis (UC)-related registrations within a two-year period. We estimated overall and annual incidence rates and prevalence of CD and UC standardized with respect to age and sex. RESULTS A total of 47,830 individuals met the criteria for IBD diagnosis, of which 33% and 67% were diagnosed with CD and UC, respectively. Between 1995 and 2016, the incidence rate (95% confidence interval) per 100,000 person years rose from 9.1 (8.3, 10.0) to 17.8 (16.8, 19.0) for CD, and from 21.0 (19.8, 22.3) to 28.4 (27.0, 29.8) for UC. The highest increase in CD and UC incidence rates occurred in children and young adults, respectively. The prevalence of IBD doubled from 1995 to 2016; the greatest increase (2.5-fold) was in UC prevalence among individuals >40 years of age. During this period, the median age of the IBD population increased by 6-7 years. CONCLUSION In Denmark, the incidence and prevalence of IBD have increased over the last two decades. The IBD population is shifting towards an older age. These findings have implications towards understanding environmental shifts as well as preparing healthcare systems for an aging IBD population.
Overcoming Memory Capacity Wall of GPUs With Heterogeneous Memory Stack

We propose to overcome the memory capacity limitation of GPUs with a Heterogeneous Memory Stack (HMS) that integrates Storage Class Memory (SCM) and DRAM in a 3D memory stack. By effectively utilizing the DRAM as a cache, the HMS addresses the latency, bandwidth, and energy challenges of the SCM. For workloads that mandate memory oversubscription, the HMS can capture a larger fraction of the memory footprint compared to an HBM, providing a significant performance uplift. To enable a performant DRAM cache architecture, we propose a DRAM cache bypass mechanism that avoids DRAM cache thrashing by 100,000 s of GPU threads. Furthermore, we propose a Tag Cache which uses part of L2 cache to hold tags of DRAM cachelines and reduce DRAM cache probe traffic, while enabling adjustment of L2 cache capacity used for Tag Cache. In addition, our DRAM cache organization enables fetching all DRAM cacheline tags in a row with a single column access, avoiding excessive DRAM cache probe traffic from Tag Cache misses. Our results show that the HMS outperforms the baseline HBM system under memory oversubscription by up to 9.8× (2.8× on average).
Nonlinear vibrations of Timoshenko nanobeam using stress driven nonlocal theory

As properties of nonlinear systems can introduce particular responses not present in linear systems, results from linear models can be inaccurate or misleading. Therefore, studying nonlinear vibrations is of extreme importance in structural vibration analysis. Nonlinear vibrations of a Timoshenko nanobeam were analyzed for the first time using the stress driven nonlocal theory (SDM) and the strain gradient theory (SGT). Nonlinear equations of motion were solved for simply supported- simply supported, clamped-clamped and clamped- simply supported beams using the homotopy analysis method. The results indicated that as the dimensionless characteristic parameter increased, the nonlinear natural frequency increased accordingly. High agreement was observed between the results from a linear frequency of Timoshenko beam model based on the SGT and those from previous research.
A Cycle by Cycle FSK Demodulator With High Sensitivity of 1% Frequency Modulation Index for Implantable Medical Devices

This paper presents a cycle by cycle Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) demodulator, able to demodulate a FSK signal with 1% frequency modulation index (MI), in a single cycle. Based on the proposed demodulation scheme, a high rate data transmission link can be established through a high-Q inductive coupling link, breaking the basic tradeoff between the power transfer efficiency (PTE) and data rate in single carrier wireless power and data transfer systems. Designed and simulated with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.18\mu m$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS process, the proposed FSK demodulator, detects successfully a 5Mbps data with a carrier frequency of 5MHz. A test chip is fabricated in 180nm CMOS technology. Measurement results shows that the demodulator is able to demodulate the cycle-by-cycle modulated FSK signals with low modulation index of 2.5%, with a BER of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.24\times 10^{-5}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.
Robust Registration Algorithm for Optical and SAR Images Based on Adjacent Self-Similarity Feature

Because optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are complementary, their registration has received extensive attention in joint applications. However, robust optical and SAR image registration is challenging due to substantial geometric and radiometric differences. To address this problem, we propose a fast and robust registration algorithm for optical and SAR images based on a novel feature type known as the adjacent self-similarity (ASS). The ASS feature of the pixelwise feature representation is defined to quickly and finely capture the structural features of the image. The ASS feature is extracted by using an optimized offset mean filtering method in a neighborhood of the unit pixel radius to accelerate and refine calculations and the local statistics weighted difference operation to suppress coherent speckles. Based on the ASS feature, we extract the minimum self-similarity map (SSM) and the index map, which are robust against radiometric differences and speckles. Then, based on the excellent characteristics of the two maps, we propose a feature detector based on suppressing the local nonmaximum on the minimum SSM and a novel feature descriptor based on calculating the distribution histogram of the index map in a log-polar grid. In addition, we design a rotation invariance enhancement method for the descriptor to improve the rotation invariance robustness of the algorithm. We conduct experiments with both synthetic and real image pairs. The registration results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has good scale and rotation invariance, as well as good antinoise ability, and that the algorithm performs better than existing state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of registration robustness, accuracy, and efficiency. The registration results on two real optical and SAR image pairs with complex image scenes show the adaptability of the proposed algorithm.
A Novel Data-driven Approach to Examine Children’s Movements and Social Behaviour in Schoolyard Environments

Social participation in schoolyards is crucial for children’s development. Yet, schoolyard environments contain features that can hinder children’s social participation. In this paper, we empirically examine schoolyards to identify existing obstacles. Traditionally, this type of study requires huge amounts of detailed information about children in a given environment. Collecting such data is exceedingly difficult and expensive. In this study, we present a novel sensor data-driven approach for gathering this information and examining the effect of schoolyard environments on children's behaviours in light of schoolyard affordances and individual effectivities. Sensor data is collected from 150 children at two primary schools, using location trackers, proximity tags, and Multi-Motion receivers to measure locations, face-to-face contacts, and activities. Results show strong potential for this data-driven approach, as it allows collecting data from individuals and their interactions with schoolyard environments, examining the triad of physical, social, and cultural affordances in schoolyards, and identifying factors that significantly impact children’s behaviours. Based on this approach, we further obtain better knowledge on the impact of these factors and identify limitations in schoolyard designs, which can inform schools, designers, and policymakers about current problems and practical solutions.
Towards Generalizing the Information Theory for Neural Communication

Neuroscience extensively uses the information theory to describe neural communication, among others, to calculate the amount of information transferred in neural communication and to attempt the cracking of its coding. There are fierce debates on how information is represented in the brain and during transmission inside the brain. The neural information theory attempts to use the assumptions of electronic communication; despite the experimental evidence that the neural spikes carry information on non-discrete states, they have shallow communication speed, and the spikes’ timing precision matters. Furthermore, in biology, the communication channel is active, which enforces an additional power bandwidth limitation to the neural information transfer. The paper revises the notions needed to describe information transfer in technical and biological communication systems. It argues that biology uses Shannon’s idea outside of its range of validity and introduces an adequate interpretation of information. In addition, the presented time-aware approach to the information theory reveals pieces of evidence for the role of processes (as opposed to states) in neural operations. The generalized information theory describes both kinds of communication, and the classic theory is the particular case of the generalized theory.
Effect of Aronia Extract on Collagen Synthesis in Human Skin Cell and Dermal Equivalent

The regulation of collagen synthesis, which occurs in fibroblasts in the dermal layer, is a key process in dermis regeneration and skin reconstruction. Herein, we investigated whether Aronia melanocarpa extract affects the human skin condition. We focused on type I collagen synthesis using two different types of model systems: a monolayer of cells and a bioprinted 3D dermal equivalent. The Aronia extract showed no cytotoxicity and increased cell proliferation in neonatal human dermal fibroblasts. Treatment with Aronia extract increased the transcription of COL1A1 mRNA in direct proportion to the extract concentration without causing a decrease in COL1A1 mRNA degradation. Additionally, the Aronia extract inhibited the expression of MMP1 and MMP3, and an increase in type I collagen was observed along with a decrease in MMP1 protein. We also fabricated dermal equivalents from type I collagen (the major component of the dermis) and dermal fibroblasts by bioprinting. In the 3D dermis model, the compressive modulus directly affected by collagen synthesis increased in direct proportion to the Aronia extract concentration, and expression levels of MMP1 and MMP3 decreased in exactly inverse proportion to its concentration. The findings that the Aronia extract increases synthesis of type I collagen and decreases MMP1 and MMP3 expression suggest that this extract may be useful for the treatment of damaged or aged skin.
Design of Biocompatible Chitosan/Polyaniline/Laponite Hydrogel with Photothermal Conversion Capability

In recent years, multifunctional hydrogels have received a great deal of attention because they are biocompatible and can mimic the extracellular matrix. Herein, we prepared hydrogels of biocompatible cross-linked networks with photothermal properties. In this study, a chitosan/polyaniline/laponite (COL) hydrogel with photothermal conversion capability was designed. Polyaniline was firstly grafted onto chitosan and its solution was mixed with oxidized dextran, which was then cross-linked into a hydrogel via a Schiff base reaction. Furthermore, an aluminosilicate clay material, laponite (LAP), was incorporated into the hydrogel. The swelling ratio of the COL hydrogel in various solutions was greater than 580%, and it showed good degradation ability (the mass–loss ratio was over 45% after 28 days). This composite hydrogel was demonstrated to have good photothermal conversion properties and biocompatibility at both the cell (cell viability was over 97%) and animal levels. The COL hydrogel showed a photothermal conversion efficiency of 23.7% under the irradiation of a near-infrared laser. Coupled with the osteogenic differentiation-inducing potential of LAP, the COL hydrogel has the potential to kill tumors via hyperthermia or serve as scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration.
Can National Registries Contribute to Predict the Risk of Cancer? The Cancer Risk Assessment Model (CRAM)

Simple Summary Early identification of individuals with an increased risk of cancer is an important challenge. Danish administrative registers may be useful in this respect because they cover the entire population and include comprehensive and consistently coded long-term data. We aimed to develop a predictive model based on Danish administrative registers to facilitate the automated identification of individuals at risk of any type of cancer. In addition to age, almost all the included factors contributed statistically significantly, but also only marginally, to the prediction models, which means that we have not overlooked obvious information available in the register. Future prediction studies should focus on specific cancer types where more precise risk estimations might be expected. It is our ultimate ambition that an effective model can be used at the point of care, integrated into electronic patient record systems to alert physicians of patients at a high risk of cancer. Abstract Purpose: To develop a predictive model based on Danish administrative registers to facilitate automated identification of individuals at risk of any type of cancer. Methods: A nationwide register-based cohort study covering all individuals in Denmark aged +20 years. The outcome was all-type cancer during 2017 excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer. Diagnoses, medication, and contact with general practitioners in the exposure period (2007–2016) were considered for the predictive model. We applied backward selection to all variables by logistic regression to develop a risk model for cancer. We applied the models to the validation cohort, calculated the receiver operating characteristic curves, and estimated the corresponding areas under the curve (AUC). Results: The study population consisted of 4.2 million persons; 32,447 (0.76%) were diagnosed with cancer in 2017. We identified 39 predictive risk factors in women and 42 in men, with age above 30 as the strongest predictor for cancer. Testing the model for cancer risk showed modest accuracy, with an AUC of 0.82 (95% CI 0.81–0.82) for men and 0.75 (95% CI 0.74–0.75) for women. Conclusion: We have developed and tested a model for identifying the individual risk of cancer through the use of administrative data. The models need to be further investigated before being applied to clinical practice.
College Students and “Interracial” Relationships: How Our Measures Matter

We use data from a random sample of students collected at two large public universities, one in the Midwestern region and one in the Southeastern region of the U.S., to document the prevalence of self-reported “interracial” romantic relationships (SR-IRRs) and the extent to which self-identifications differ from researcher-defined categorizations that label as “interracial/interethnic” all partnerships that cross racial or Latino/Hispanic ethnic boundaries (RD-IRRs). Our findings show that a substantial percentage of students in relationships that cross racial/ethnic lines do not identify them as “interracial. ” As a result, measures of SR-IRR and RD-IRR produce very different prevalence figures for cross-group relationships (SR-IRR = 18% of respondents; RDIRR = 24%). The disjuncture between self-reports and researcher-defined categorizations is particularly pronounced for Hispanics and, to a lesser degree, non-Hispanic Whites. The consistency with which relationships that include non-Hispanic Black individuals are labeled, however, stands out as unique: every instance of racial/ethnic boundary crossing that involved an individual from this group was labeled as “interracial. ” Multivariate analyses identify significant predictors of SR-IRRs and RDIRRs and how race/ethnicity, nativity status, and university location interact to shape relationship engagement and the likelihood of self-identifying relationships as “interracial. ” Our discussion concludes with implications and suggestions for future research.
The Hamburg / ESO Survey

Bright quasars, in particular at high redshift, are an important tool of extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. Quasars can be used as light sources which probe intervening matter at cosmological distances and offer thereby a means to study the physical properties of distant gas clouds (abundances, ionising radiation) by high-resolution spectroscopy of absorption-line systems and of the Lyα forest. Notice that even with UVES at the VLT, a high-resolution spectrum of a 16th-magnitude QSO will require 10 hours integration time to reach a signal-to-noise ratio of 100. Such bright QSOs are also required for studies of absorption lines at z > 2 in the UV with the Hubble Space Telescope. Here we have to meet the additional
A Joint Hybrid Precoding/Combining Scheme Based on Equivalent Channel for Massive MIMO Systems

Due to its inherent ability in reducing hardware cost and power consumption while maintaining high system capacity, hybrid precoding is deemed as one of the key technologies in the upcoming 5G/6G millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. However, it is challenging to design high performance hybrid precoders/combiners with low computational complexity. In this paper, based on the singular value decomposition (SVD) technique and the concept of equivalent channel, joint hybrid precoding strategies with high spectral-efficiency and low complexity are proposed for both single-user and multi-user massive MIMO systems. Specifically, for single-user massive MIMO scenarios, after transforming the design of hybrid beamforming into the problem of maximizing the square of sum eigenvalues for an equivalent channel, a two-stage successive method is conceived to design the analog precoder and combiner jointly, and the corresponding equivalent channel is constructed. Then, the digital precoding and combining operations are realized directly by applying the SVD technique to the matrix of equivalent channel. Meanwhile, the hybrid precoding strategy is extended to the multi-user scenario for achieving high performance resultant from multi-user diversity. Extensive simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the precoding/combing schemes. The results show that our proposed schemes can achieve superior performance with lower complexity compared to the existing ones.