Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bearing Capacity of a Geotextile-Reinforced Unpaved Road as a Function of Deformation: A Model Study

An experimental investigation has been carried out to study the bearing capacity of a geotextile-reinforced unpaved road as a function of its deformation. A number of model footing tests were performed on compacted granular fill overlying an artificially sedimented kaolinite layer. The test bed was instrumented to determine the vertical stresses at the fill-subgrade interface. The test results were used to estimate the bearing capacity factors of the foundation as a function of footing deformation. A load transfer mechanism has been proposed to explain the improvement in bearing capacity of the geotextile-reinforced soil models.
Impact of plot length on the effectiveness of different soil-surface covers in reducing runoff and soil loss by water

Covering the soil surface by rock fragments, organic mulches or vegetation is often done to reduce runoff and soil loss by water erosion compared to a bare soil treatment. The runoff or erosion-reducing effectiveness of these soil surface covers has been investigated for a range of plot lengths under different environmental conditions. Recent research indicates that the effectiveness of soil surface covers in reducing runoff and soil loss by water erosion may be affected by the size of the laboratory or field plots (ie, spatial scale). Therefore, the main objective of this review is to explore to what extent the impact of plot length on the effectiveness of different surface covers (ie, rock fragments, organic mulch and vegetation) in reducing runoff and soil loss by water erosion emerges from a worldwide data set. Furthermore, it is investigated whether there is a significant difference in runoff or erosion-reducing effectiveness between rock fragments, organic mulches and vegetation. Data from 65 experimental studies, investigating the impact of surface cover by rock fragments, organic mulch or vegetation on runoff or soil loss, are collected and analysed in this review. The results indicate that for plot lengths <11 m there is a large variation in the runoff and erosion-reducing effectiveness of a soil cover, depending on various factors and on the larger number of studies conducted on these plots compared to longer field plots. However, with an increasing plot length (up to 50 m) this variation is reduced and surface covers by rock fragments, organic mulches and vegetation become on average more effective in reducing runoff or soil loss by water erosion. A vegetation cover is significantly more effective in reducing runoff rate compared to a rock fragment cover. No other significant differences in runoff or in erosion-reducing effectiveness between the studied soil surface covers are observed. Finally, two equations are proposed describing the possible effect of plot length and cover by rock fragments, organic mulches and vegetation on relative runoff and soil loss by water erosion. These findings have important consequences for the design of runoff and erosion plots, for modelling runoff and soil erosion rates and for scaling up plot data.
An Analysis of Volume Decorrelation in Polarimetric SAR Interferometry

Volume decorrelation is an aspect of SAR interferometry that is nowadays being actively investigated. It stems from the distribution in height of the backscattering cross-section above the chosen reference plane in the imaged scene and it widely affects interferometric coherence images, for example, in presence of forests or buildings. The interest in its reduction lies on the fact that "resolving" the volume decorrelation and fixing the exact position of the scattering centres in the resolution cell could lead to an estimation of the height of the observed distributed scatterers. In this paper, we will study the behaviour of volume decorrelation due to random volumes and stationary distributed targets, in particular considering the response of such targets to different polarizations by applying some decompositions of the scattering matrix measurements.
Emplacement of the lyngdal granodiorite (SW Norway) at the brittle-ductile transition in a hot crust.

The 1.0–0.9 Ga plutons of the HBG suite (Hornblende-Biotite Granitoids) associated with the Rogaland anorthosites belong to the Sveconorwegian post-collisional magmatism in southwestern Norway. The comparison between experimental and natural phase equilibria indicates that the Lyngdal granodiorite (HBG suite) crystallized between 4 and 2 kbar, the magma having 6 wt% H2O in melt at early stages and an fO2 in the range NNO/NNO+1 (Bogaerts et al., 2002).
The Importance of Pressurized Subglacial Water in Separation and Sliding at the Glacier Bed (Abstract only)

The effect of pressurized sub-glacial water on the sliding process is quantified by calculating a “bed separation index”. The water pressure distribution i s calculated assuming the existence of a Rothlisberger channel at the bed. Kamb's formulation is used to describe the variation of normal stress over periodic bed undulations. The hypothesis is that as either basal shear stress or water pressure is increased the extent of ice-bedrock separation (on the down-glacier side of undulations) increases and enhanced sliding occurs Data from three glaciers of widely varying size are used to test this hypothesis. For Columbia Glacier and “Ice Stream B” the importance of including the effects of water pressure in any “sliding law” are pronounced. More complete data from the third test case, Variegated Glacier, are used to compare a number of possible formulations of sliding law which encompass the above hypothesis. A modified Weertmantype law appears to be most preferable while while some possibilities, including Budd's lubrication factor hypothesis, are tentatively rejected. Consideration of the temporal variations of the “bed separation index” reemphasize that, especially in the short time scale, variations of water pressure can dominate the sliding process. An order of magnitude increase in water discharge causes a hundred fold transient increase in the water pressure. This paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Glaciology
Asthenosphere readjustment and the earthquake cycle

A simple two-dimensional model of the earthquake cycle (preearthquake strain accumulation, coseismic strain release, and postseismic readjustment) has been constructed from the Nur-Mavko solution for a screw dislocation in an elastic plate (lithosphere) overlying a viscoelastic substrate (asthenosphere). The deformation at the free surface is calculated for an earthquake cycle imposed by prescribed slip on a transform fault. This deformation is compared to that produced by a similar cycle in an elastic half space so that the effects of viscoelastic relaxation in the asthenosphere may be isolated. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The surface deformation produced by viscoelastic relaxation in the asthenosphere can be duplicated identically by a reasonable distribution of slip at depth on a vertical fault in an elastic half space. Thus differentiation of two possible modes of postearthquake readjustment will be difficult. (2) The effect of asthenosphere relaxation is important only if the depth of the seismic zone is comparable to the thickness of the lithosphere. If the seismic zone is 15 km deep and the lithosphere is 75 km thick, as commonly estimated for the San Andreas fault zone, asthenosphere relaxation is not particularly significant in determining surface deformation. (3) In a periodic sequence of earthquakes the principal observable effects of viscoelasticity in the asthenosphere are to produce a rapid postearthquake deformation and to concentrate strain accumulation and relaxation even closer to the fault than in the elastic half-space model.
Episodes of surface westerly winds as observed from islands in the western tropical Pacific

We describe the characteristics of surface westerly wind episodes in the tropical Pacific between mid-1957 and 1980, as they can be determined from a collection of daily average wind records from islands. Several types of frequency of occurrence and duration statistics are presented; events in which the maximum westerly anomalies exceed 7 m s−1 are not common, but are prominent in the records. There is strong seasonal and geographical variation in frequency of occurrence. Four types of westerly episodes are found; we call them types N, C, S, or FS, according to whether the maximum westerly wind is found north of, centered on, south of, or “far south” of the equator near the international date line. Sixteen, 45, 47, and 47 events of type N, C, S, and FS are identified, respectively. The strongest westerly winds are associated with type C and S events; maximum daily average values can exceed 20 m s−1. Only type C and S events are found to have substantial equatorial zonal wind anomalies. Several examples of type C and S events are presented. Composite events of each type have been computed, and their characteristics are described. In order to explore relationships between equatorial westerly events and cyclones, all of the named tropical cyclones within a region encompassing the near-date line islands have been identified; various statistics are presented, but no absolute relationships have been identified. The similarity between the composite type C and S anomaly patterns and patterns of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation monthly mean zonal wind anomaly previously documented in the literature is striking; evidently, the westerly events often dominate in the monthly average anomaly.
Cancer-related lymphedema

Lymphedema is an inflammatory condition caused by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid due to damage to the lymphatic system. There are 2 classifications of lymphedema: primary, which is caused by malformation of lymph vessels or nodes, and secondary, which is due to trauma, chronic lymphatic system overload, or cancer and its treatments. This article focuses on cancer-related lymphedema, which can develop within weeks, months, or years following oncologic treatments.1 Herein we present an overview of epidemiology, risk factors, history and physical examination for clinical diagnosis, as well as criterion-standard management for this condition in the primary care setting.
A New Species of Crawfordia (Strepsiptera: Stylopidae) from Texas, with an Annotated Checklist of the Species of Crawfordia and their Hosts

ABSTRACT: Crawfordia hadrovena n. sp. is described from specimens hosted by bee species Protandrena aethiops and P. rugosa from Central Texas. While these host species overlap in their geographical distribution in this region, their flight times and adult presence in the environment are isolated temporally. The description of males of C. hadrovena represents only the second males known in the genus of now nine species. Females have been described for all species but the description of species only using females has not used consistent characters. Thus, taxonomic characters are discussed with the shape of the cephalothorax, nature of the cephalothoracic basal band, nature of the brood canal, and shape of mandibles being important characters for species identification. The lateral portions of the brood canal that were previously thought to be sutures between head and thorax of the cephalothorax or cord-like extensions of the brood canal are now shown to be the lateral sides of the brood canal. A checklist of all species of Crawfordia and their hosts is provided.
An Antarctic Circumpolar Current driven by surface buoyancy forcing

Simulations of an idealised, but eddy‐resolving, channel model of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) are used to investigate the sensitivity of ACC transport to wind and surface buoyancy forcing. The results are consistent with theoretical predictions of the eddy‐saturated limit, where transport is independent of wind stress. In this parameter regime, buoyancy forcing provides the primary control over ACC transport.
Tapirira guianensis is Selectively Cytotoxic, Induces Apoptosis to the Glioblastoma and Decreases Tumor Growth and Angiogenesis in vivo

Abstract Glioblastoma is the most frequent primary malignant brain tumor without effective treatment, which makes this work extremely relevant. The study of the bioactive compounds from medicinal plants plays an important role in the discovery of new drugs. This research investigated the constituents of Tapirira guianensis and its antitumor potential ( in vitro and in vivo) in glioblastoma. The T. guianensis extracts were characterized by mass spectrometry. The ethyl acetate partition (01ID) and its fractions 01ID-F2 and 01ID-F4 from T. guianensis showed potential antitumor treatment evidenced by selective cytotoxicity for GAMG with IC50 14.1 µg/mL, 83.07 µg/mL, 59.27 µg/mL and U251 with IC50 25.92 µg/mL, 37.3 µg/mL and 18.84 µg/mL. Fractions 01ID-F2 and 01ID-F4 were 10 times more selective when compared to TMZ and 01ID for the two evaluated cell lines. T. guianensis also reduced matrix metalloproteinases 2 – 01ID-F2 (21.84%), 01ID-F4 (29.6%) and 9 – 01ID-F4 (73.42%), ID-F4 (53.84%) activities, and induced apoptosis mainly through the extrinsic pathway. Furthermore, all treatments significantly reduced tumor size (01ID p < 0,01, 01ID-F2 p < 0,01 and 01ID-F4 p < 0,0001) and caused blood vessels to shrink in vivo . The present findings highlight that T. guianensis exhibits considerable antitumor potential in preclinical studies of glioblastoma. This ability may be related to the phenolic compounds and sesquiterpene derivatives identified in the extracts. This study deserves further in vivo research, followed by clinical investigation.
Impact de l’apprentissage multi-labels actif appliqué aux transformers

L’Apprentissage Actif (AA) est largement utilisé en apprentissage automatique afin de réduire l’effort d’annotation. Bien que la plupart des travaux d’AA soient antérieurs aux transformers, le succès récent de ces architectures a conduit la communauté à revisiter l’AA dans le contexte des modèles de langues pré-entraînés. De plus, le mécanisme de fine-tuning, où seules quelques données annotées sont utilisées pour entraîner le modèle sur une nouvelle tâche, est parfaitement en accord avec l’objectif de l’AA. Nous proposons d’étudier l’impact de l’AA dans le contexte des transformers pour la tâche de classification multi-labels. Or la plupart des stratégies AA, lorsqu’elles sont appliquées à ces modèles, conduisent à des temps de calcul excessifs, ce qui empêche leur utilisation au cours d’une interaction homme-machine en temps réel. Afin de pallier ce problème, nous utilisons des stratégies d’AA basées sur l’incertitude. L’article compare six stratégies d’AA basées sur l’incertitude dans le contexte des transformers et montre que si deux stratégies améliorent invariablement les performances, les autres ne surpassent pas l’échantillonnage aléatoire. L’étude montre également que les stratégies performantes ont tendance à sélectionner des ensembles d’instances plus diversifiées pour l’annotation.
What shall we read : the article or the citations? - A case study on scientific language understanding

The number of scientific articles is increasing tremendously across all domains to such an extent that it has become hard for researchers to remain up-to-date. Evidently, scientific language understanding systems and Information Extraction (IE) systems, with the advancement of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, are benefiting the needs of users. Although the majority of the practices for building such systems are data-driven, advocating the idea of “The more, the better”. In this work, we revisit the paradigm - questioning what type of data : text (title, abstract) or citations, can have more impact on the performance of scientific language understanding systems.
Islet Like Cells Induced from Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Neonatal Bovine Pancreatic Mesenchymal Exosomes for Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract To investigate the safety and efficacy of the islet-like cell (cell) induced from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (UCMSC) with different methods for the treatment of diabetic animal model. UCMSCs were induced to βcells with cytokines (CY) and neonatal bovine pancreatic mesenchymal cell exosomes (Ex) combined with CY (EX+CY). The insulin secretion of UCMSC and βcell was measured with ELISA when the cells were growing in different concentrations of glucose media for different times. UCMSCs (4×105) and the same number of cells prepared with two methods were transplanted to type I diabetic rat models. UCMSCs could be induced into islet βcells by CY or EX+CY in vitro. The insulin secretion of the prepared β cells growing in 25.0 mM glucose medium was over 5-fold of that in 6.0 mM glucose. The transplantation of the βcells to type I diabetic rat models could reduce the blood glucose and prolong the survival time. The β cells induced by EX+CY had much more significant effects on decreasing blood glucose and increasing survival time (p<0.01). The cells did not affect blood sugar level and had no serious side-effects in human health. UCMSC could be induced to islet βcells with either CY or EX+CY. The transplantation of the induced islet βcells could reduce blood glucose and prolong the survival time of diabetic animal models. Although the cells induced with EX+CY had more significant effects on diabetic rats, they did not affect blood glucose level and had no serious side-effects in human health.
Stereo vision-based obstacle detection using dense disparity map

In this paper, we propose stereo vision-based obstacle detection method on the road using a dense disparity map. We use the dense disparity map to detect obstacles robustly in real traffic situations. Our method consists of three stages, namely road feature extraction, column detection, obstacle segmentation. First, we extract a road feature from a v- disparity map calculated from a dense disparity map. And we perform a column detection using the extracted road feature as a criterion that decides whether obstacles exist or not. Finally, we perform a segmentation using a bird's-eye view mapping to divide the merged obstacle into each obstacle accurately. We conduct experiments to verify our method in the real traffic situations.
Subset of retinoblastoma tumours is associated with BRCA1/2 mutations

Background We investigated the potential association between pathogenic BRCA1/2 variants and retinoblastoma pathogenicity. Methods In this single-centre, retrospective case series, we performed hereditary cancer panel tests using blood samples for patients with retinoblastoma diagnosed between March 2017 and October 2021. Bioinformatics prediction tools were then used to conduct in silico pathogenicity assessments for patients with BRCA1/2 family variants, in addition to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) variant classification. One patient with a germline BRCA1 variant was analysed with whole-genome sequencing (WGS), mutational signature analysis and methylation analysis for RB1 and BRCA using the patient’s tumour and blood samples. Results Of 30 retinoblastoma patients who underwent panel sequencing, six (20%) were found to carry germline variants in the BRCA1/2 or BRIP1 genes. Among these six patients, two had pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants as per the ACMG variant classification. Additionally, three patients showed potential pathogenic BRCA1/2 family variants through further analysis with alternative bioinformatics prediction tools. In the WGS analysis of a tumour from a patient with a germline likely pathogenic BRCA1 variant in one allele, we observed the loss of one RB1 allele due to a large deletion. No somatic non-synonymous mutations or frameshift indels were detected in the RB1 locus of the remaining allele. This sample also showed BRCA1 gene promoter hypermethylation in the tumour, indicating additional epigenetic silencing. Conclusion This study demonstrated that some retinoblastoma patients harboured germline BRCA1/2 family variants, which may be associated with the development of retinoblastoma along with RB1 mutations.
Player-Guided AI outperforms standard AI in Sequence Alignment Puzzles

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained widespread popularity across different fields, it is essential to recognize that AI systems, while impressive, do not consistently exhibit robust generalization, particularly for difficult problems such as the Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA). In this study, we focus on bridging this performance gap by integrating human solutions into AI training. To illustrate these principles, we leverage data from Borderlands Science, a popular citizen science game in which small instances of the MSA problem are represented as puzzles. Our goal is to leverage the collective intelligence of human players to enhance the capabilities of AI agents. To achieve this, we have developed a Player-guided AI system that enables the AI model to learn from both standard training processes and the solutions provided by players. Our findings demonstrate that incorporating human-annotated information into the AI model improves its performance on puzzle tasks. Furthermore, the Player-guided AI model shows a decrease in noise compared to a pure AI model. This advancement allows for leveraging the model to align new sequences with improved accuracy and effectiveness. Moreover, this research brings attention to the potential of integrating AI and human expertise to address other challenges where the performance of AI models may be unsatisfactory.
Exploring Distributed Synthesis: In-Progress Findings from Guided Tours of Scholarly Knowledge Synthesis Work Practices with A Distributed Lens

Synthesis — the construction of a new conceptual whole that advances understanding — is critical for research progress. Its current practice is also extremely laborious and costly. In this paper, we explore what fresh ideas CSCW might have to offer for making effective synthesis less painful and more commonplace. In particular, we draw on CSCW ideas around distributed sensemaking and integrated crowdsourcing to explore the idea of distributed synthesis: systems for sharing and reusing intermediate synthesis materials such as annotations and notes to kickstart and accelerate the synthesis process. We report in-progress findings from our analysis of in-depth guided tours of scholarly synthesis work practices, to bridge the gap between distributed sensemaking and integrated crowdsourcing (which has not yet been studied in the setting of scholarly synthesis) and scholarly synthesis workflows (which have not yet been analyzed from a distributed lens).
Assessing Security, Privacy, User Interaction, and Accessibility Features in Popular E-Payment Applications

Mobile payment applications facilitate quick digital transactions; thus, evaluating these applications for security, privacy, user interaction, and accessibility is crucial. In our study, we analyzed the most downloaded 50 mobile payment applications on Google Play Store. Thereafter, we used three open-source tools (MobSF, AndroBugs, and RiskInDroid) to assess their security and privacy features. We then employed Microsoft’s Accessibility Insights for accessibility analysis and evaluated 1,886,352 Google Play Store reviews, specifically 90,494 with negative sentiments [score < = 0], to understand user interaction issues. Our analysis shows that at least one security vulnerability, such as those associated with SSL, digital certificates, third-party libraries, weak encryption methods, and network configurations, exists in each application. We also find that both user-reported and tool-detected issues compromise privacy protection principles, such as data minimization, transparency, and purpose limitation. Additionally, we identify 2,768 accessibility issues, mainly relating to touch input sizes, accessible names of view objects, and meaningful alternative text for images. Also, of privacy and security concerns originate from user account access issues, while of usability concerns stem from app options not functioning as expected. Based on our findings, we propose recommendations to improve the overall robustness of these applications.