Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unified Design Method for Flexure and Debonding in RC Beam Retrofitting

Flexural retrofitting of RC beams using FRP plate is a common way to increase the flexural capacity. As yet there is no method to determine where the strengthening plate can safely be curtailed. As a result, retrofitted beams commonly fail by debonding of the FRP plate, which occurs well before the target flexural capacity. Debonding prevention has been accounted-for empirically in most design approaches so far. The Global Energy Balance Approach (GEBA) using fracture mechanics has been proposed to determine the debonding load of an FRP-RC beam that is affected by the plate curtailment location. The GEBA results for various FRP-RC beams can be summarised using debonding contours on plots of moment capacity against the safe plate curtailment locations, and the debonding contours constructed in this way for the beams with the same ratio of depth to fracture energy are virtually the same. This paper shows how GEBA can be incorporated into the design process to prevent premature debonding of the FRP plate. The method makes use of the debonding contours and derives from these simplified design charts that could be made available to designers. The retrofitting design consideration and the theoretical background of this unified design method are first explained, followed by the derivation of the conceptual design charts. Numerically correct design charts are then constructed for a wide range of design cases. Finally, a worked example is used to explain the way to apply the unified design method using design charts.
An evaluation of vivado HLS for efficient system design

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools are hailed as one of the most promising ways to bridge the design productivity gap, especially for reconfigurable systems. These tools increase designer productivity at a possible performance and/or silicon cost, although the designer can play a significant role in the minimisation of both. Currently, one of the key challenges for the designer is to efficiently use the vendor-defined methodology and the design guidelines of the HLS tool. Hence, this work aims at assisting designers in taking full advantage and making optimal use of the official HLS methodology when implementing three fundamental algorithms used in a variety of video and image processing applications. One is a sorting algorithm while the other two are algorithms used in traversing tree/graph data structures. The work presented here concerns a highly popular HLS tool, namely Vivado HLS, and the experiences and analysis of the authors helps in the efficient use of the toolset, which can significantly increase design productivity when compared to the naive datasheet-based approach; the performance of all the resulting synthesisable models is also provided for completeness.
The Nature of Economic Turbulence: The Power Destructing Economies, with Application to Shipping

Studying the history of “economic turbulence”, we ended up with the certainty that the statistical methods used so far, by economists, are unsuitable to model it. We have mainly the methods of Normal distribution and Random Walk in mind. Moreover, the picture of reality we get from time series depends on the time-frame of the data used… Different time-frame data, different reality… In addition, econometricians provided a whole family of econometric models to approach reality, starting in early 1980s, with “autoregressive models—AR” combined or not with MA (moving averages). But even its 1986 flagship, the GARCH, with its many variations, cannot cope with a number of characteristics, one of which is leptokurtosis (small alpha, higher peaks and long tails), though some argue that it can cater for outliers. Economic turbulence, low or high—despite its characterization by Science as rare—became frequent since 1987 (Black Monday). In late 1990s e.g. the global financial system underwent 6 crises—which have been called “near turbulences”—over a number of countries, including Russia in 1998. The next turbulence will not be one generation apart—we reckon. This paper is an attempt to invite writers to write a “theory of economic turbulence”. Turbulence is a nightmare, which wakes people up suddenly, and unexpectedly, but it is something people wish to forget… till it strikes again: turbulence stroke in 1929 on (Black) Tuesday, then in 1987 on (Black) Monday and in end-2008, the Great Recession—on 29th September. In Black Monday stock markets around the world crashed losing a huge value in a matter of very short time (Hong Kong, Europe, and USA). The Dow fell ~23%. At that time OPEC collapsed in 1986 and the price of oil doubled… The dry cargo shipping sector entered a turbulent situation since 1989, which has been deteriorated since 2015 reaching finally an alpha equal to ~1.43 < 1.70 by 2035…
Surface modification of polystyrene beads using RF atmospheric pressure plasma jet

The present work investigates the opportunity of using a cold RF plasma jet generated at atmospheric pressure for surface modification of polymeric materials with complex shapes, focusing on the modification of polystyrene (PS) spherical beads and flat surfaces. An enhanced wettability corroborated to increase in surface roughness and modification of surface chemical composition was demonstrated upon plasma exposure.
Subcellular compartmentalization of two calcium binding proteins, calretinin and calbindin-28 kDa, in ganglion and amacrine cells of the rat retina

Purpose Intracellular free calcium ions (Ca2+) are an important element in retinal ganglion cell response. Two major EF-hand (E-helix-loop-F-helix-hand) calcium binding proteins in the retina, calretinin and calbindin-28 kDa, are important buffers of intracellular free Ca2+ in neurons, and may also serve as Ca2+-dependent regulators of enzymes and ion channels. Methods This study used immunohistochemistry to investigate the subcellular expression patterns of calretinin and calbindin-28 kDa, in the soma, dendrites, and the axonal compartment of rat retinal ganglion cells. Results Antibodies for calretinin and calbindin-28 kDa labeled different cell populations in the retinal ganglion cell layer. In this layer, calretinin labeled a larger number of cells compared to calbindin-28 kDa, many, but not all, of which were displaced amacrine cells. The calbindin-28 kDa immunopositive neurons were distinct in that their somata were peripherally encircled by microtubule associated protein 1 (MAP-1) or neurofilament-200 kDa subunit (NF-200 kDa) immunofluorescence. Although somata of retinal ganglion cells contained these calcium binding proteins, neither protein was found in the dendrites or initial segments of the axons. However, both were expressed in the ganglion cell axons in nerve fiber layer. Calretinin and calbindin-28 kDa staining overlapped in some fibers and not in others. Calretinin immunofluorescence was concentrated in discrete axonal regions, which showed limited staining for calbindin-28 kDa or for NF200 kDa, suggesting its close proximity to the plasma membrane. Conclusions There is a clear compartmentalization of calbindin-28 kDa and calretinin distribution in retinal ganglion cells. This suggests that the two calcium binding proteins perform distinct functions in localized calcium signaling. It also indicates that rather than freely diffusing through the cytoplasm to attain a homogeneous distribution, calbindin-28 kDa and calretinin must be bound to cellular structures through interactions that are likely important for their functions.
History dependence without unstable steady state

In this paper, a non-di¤erentiability is identi ed as a new mechanism that creates history dependence in dynamic economic models. A unique characteristic is that this occurs although no unstable steady state exists. This is shown by studying a capital accumulation model in which the revenue function exhibits a kink. It can be expected that history dependence will occur in other models with non-di¤erentiabilities as well. JEL #: C62, D92
Supervised-learning link recommendation in the DBLP co-authoring network

Currently, link recommendation has gained more attention as networked data becomes abundant in several scenarios. However, existing methods for this task have failed in considering solely the structure of dynamic networks for improved performance and accuracy. Hence, in this work, we present a methodology based on the use of multiple topological metrics in order to achieve prospective link recommendations considering time constraints. The combination of such metrics is used as input to binary classification algorithms that state whether two pairs of authors will/should define a link. We experimented with five algorithms, what allowed us to reach high rates of accuracy and to evaluate the different classification paradigms. Our results also demonstrated that time parameters and the activity profile of the authors can significantly influence the recommendation. In the context of DBLP, this research is strategic as it may assist on identifying potential partners, research groups with similar themes, research competition (absence of obvious links), and related work.
Laminar Organization of the NMDA Receptor Complex within the Postsynaptic Density

The NR2 subunit is an essential component of the NMDA receptor. Recent biochemical research has identified a number of molecules that can bind directly or indirectly to its cytoplasmic tail. These postsynaptic density (PSD) proteins play a role in intracellular signal transduction, and are implicated in synaptic plasticity and memory mechanisms. We performed systematic electron microscopic immunogold analysis in rat neocortex to determine the spatial organization of NR2, in relation to six other proteins thought to be involved in the NMDA receptor complex. Peak concentrations of each protein were within the PSD but in different “layers” of the density. In the axodendritic axis, gold particles coding for PSD-95 lay an average of 12 nm cytoplasmic to the extracellular face of the plasma membrane, very close to the C terminal of NR2. Nitric oxide synthase lay 18 nm inside the membrane; the scaffolding proteins guanylate kinase-associated protein and Shank lay 24–26 nm inside the membrane; and CRIPT and dynein light chain, proteins that may link the complex to cytoskeletal elements, lay on the cytoplasmic side of the PSD, 29–32 nm inside the plasma membrane and extending into the spine cytoplasm. The supramolecular organization of these molecules may modulate intracellular transduction of NMDA-mediated signals.
Efficacy Of A Structured Free Recall Intervention To Improve Rating Quality In Performance Evaluations

This experiment investigated the effects of a rater training on halo errors and accuracy during performance evaluations. 408 participants were randomly assigned to three groups (n=136) where they were either presented with a structured free recall intervention (SFRI), frame of reference training (FoRT), or no training. The purpose of this study was to further investigate the efficacy of SFRI against prominent training methods and no training at all. Results were not significant, and did not support previous finding in the literature. Further explanations are offered and a discussion is presented as to why these results were obtained. EFFICACY OF A STRUCTURED FREE RECALL INTERVENTION TO INCREASE RATING QUALITY IN PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS by MAXIMUM MGRDICH-ARARAT SIRABIAN 2017 Advisor: Dr. Boris B. Baltes Major: Psychology (Industrial and Organizational) Degree: Master of Arts
Subspace based blind multiuser detection asynchronous MC-CDMA systems

Firstly, this paper extends the subspace based intersymbol decorrelating (IS-DEC) detector for code division multiple access (CDMA) system to multicarrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) system. Secondly, a modified projection approximation subspace tracking deflation (M-PASTd) algorithm is proposed and developed elaborately. Then, the M-PASTd algorithm is applied to the blind adaptive implementation of IS-DEC detector for uplink of MC-CDMA systems. Simulation results show that the IS-DEC detector implemented by M-PASTd has good similarity with the optimal decorrelating detector, and provides better bit error rate (BER) performance.
New Hotel Locations in the City of Irbid using 'Local Economies' and GIS Models

This study determines the best location of a new hotel in the city of Irbid based on the geographic location, price, capacity and services of established ones. With data on 11 hotels operating in the city of Irbid, a mathematical and GIS models were constructed to test the new location against agglomeration and differentiation economies. The findings of the study suggest that the new location may benefit from agglomeration but to a larger extent on differentiation. The GIS model suggests the southern part of the city as the best location for the new hotel. However, the provided services should be unique compared to rivals and at the same time at a comparable cost.
Energy consumption patterns of mobile applications in android platform: a systematic literature review

Studies related to resource consumption of mobile devices and mobile applications have been brought to the fore lately as mobile applications depend largely on their resource consumption. The study aims to identify the key factors and holistic understanding of how a factor influences Consumption Pattern (CP) effectiveness for an android platform mobile application. The study presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on existing studies that examined factors influencing the effectiveness of CP for android mobile application and measured the effectiveness of CP. Therefore, the current SLR is conducted to answer the following questions: (1) What is the evidence of CP factors that drain the battery of a mobile device? (2) What are the energy conservation techniques to overcome all the factors that drain battery life? and (3) How can developers measure the effectiveness of an energy conservation technique? The SLR investigated factors affecting the effectiveness of CP for android platform mobile application. The analyses of forty papers were used in our synthesis of the evidence related to the research questions above. Therefore, the analyses showed 22 studies that investigated how to measure the energy conservation technique effectiveness while 18 studies focused on better understanding of how the resources of mobile devices are actually spent. In this sense, 2 studies show the effectiveness of early analysis of software application design. Additionally, five factors i.e., architecture, interface, behavior of the application, resources, and network technologies that affect CP effectiveness were identified. This study investigated a SLR targeting at studies of CP effectiveness in android platform. The total of 40 studies were identified and selected for result synthesis purpose in this work (SLR). The evidences show there are five factors affecting the CP’s effectiveness. Three of them have received a little attention among developers regarding choosing the most suitable: software architecture, application interface and behavior of the application in terms of resource consumption.
A ug 2 01 5 Emphatic TD Bellman Operator is a Contraction

Recently, Sutton et al. (2015) introduced the emphatic temp oral differences (ETD) algorithm for off-policy evaluation in Markov decision pro cesses. In this short note, we show that the projected fixed-point equation that un derlies ETD involves a contraction operator, with a √ γ-contraction modulus (where γ is the discount factor). This allows us to provide error bounds on the approx imation error of ETD. To our knowledge, these are the first error bounds for an off-p licy evaluation algorithm under general target and behavior policies.
O-007 Deceleration movements performed during FA Premier League soccer matches

OBJECTIVE Deceleration (DCL) of high intensity movements in soccer has been related to cause of muscle damage (Reilly, 1990), which may be related to injury. Time-motion analysis can identify a breakdown of match time between different locomotive movements (LM). However, previous studies have not included deceleration as a movement classification and as a result such information has not been reported. The purpose of the current investigation was to characterise the nature of DCLs performed during elite soccer competition.
An efficient method for video summarization using moving object information

Video surveillance system captures continuous video for the purpose of security, monitoring, investigating and so on. It requires huge memory space to store as well as enormous time to retrieve important information manually from this high volume of videos. In this paper, we propose a novel video summarization scheme using moving object information by considering area of moving objects extracted from dynamic background modeling and frame-to-frame object motion. Through this scheme we rank all frames according to the importance of being key frame by combining moving object features through a fusion method so that users can select desired length of videos for summary. The experimental results show that the proposed method provides better video summary compared to the state-of-the-art method using a publicly available benchmark BL-7F video surveillance dataset.
THE STATISTICS OF TOPIC MODELLING A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Statistics

6 A Selected Glossary. 7 Introduction . 10 Digital Humanities . 10 Topic Modelling. 11 Philpapers . 13 Research Objectives . 14 Thesis Structure . 14 Literature Review. 15 What is Topic Modelling? 18 A Step-by-Step Introduction . 20 Latent Dirichlet . 23 The Generative Model . 24 The Posterior Distribution. 28 Latent Dirichlet Allocation . 31 Approximate Posterior Inference . 32 Gibbs Sampling . 32 What is a Topic? 36 How to do a Topic Model . 38 Dataset. 38 Software . 39 Mallet . 40 R . 40 Gensim . 41 LDA-C . 41 GibbsLDA++ . 42 Running an Analysis . 42 Analysis of a Topic Model . 44 Dataset. 44 Software . 45 R . 45 Mallet . 45 Running an Analysis . 46 An Overview of the Dataset . 47 Foreign Languages . 50 Philosophy of Action . 51 Analysis of Single Topics . 52 Discussion. 56 Bibliography . 59 Appendices . 65 Appendix A: Science Fiction Novels . 66 Appendix B Stop Words . 67 Appendix C R Code . 76
Bub 3 gene disruption in mice reveals essential mitotic spindle checkpoint function during early embryogenesis

Bub3 is a conserved component of the mitotic spindle assembly complex. The protein is essential for early development in Bub3 gene-disrupted mice, evident from their failure to survive beyond day 6.5–7.5 postcoitus (pc). Bub3 null embryos appear normal up to day 3.5 pc but accumulate mitotic errors from days 4.5–6.5 pc in the form of micronuclei, chromatin bridging, lagging chromosomes, and irregular nuclear morphology. Null embryos treated with a spindle-depolymerising agent fail to arrest in metaphase and show an increase in mitotic disarray. The results confirm Bub3 as a component of the essential spindle checkpoint pathway that operates during early embryogenesis.
Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of Oct-4 expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct-4) has been identified to participate in the tumorigenicity and malignancy of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, its definite prognostic roles in NSCLC still remain a debate. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of Oct-4 expression in NSCLC and its relationship to some major clinicopathological characteristics. METHODS A comprehensive literature retrieval was performed in PubMed, EMBASE and the Web of Science to identify the full-text articles that met our eligibility criteria. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) severed as the summarized statistics for clinicopathological assessments, and hazard ratio (HR) with 95% CI served as the summarized statistics for prognostic assessments. Q-test and I(2)-statistic were used to evaluate the level of heterogeneity. Potential publication bias was detected by both Begg's test and Egger's test. RESULTS There were 16 retried articles with 1,363 NSCLC cases included into this meta-analysis. Oct-4 expression was found to be significantly associated with the unfavorable outcomes for differentiation degree (OR: 3.065; 95% CI: 1.568-5.957; P=0.001), TNM stage (OR: 3.695; 95% CI: 2.252-6.063; P<0.001) and lymphatic metastasis (OR: 2.372; 95% CI: 1.504-3.742; P<0.001), but not associated with the histological subtypes, gender, age and smoking status. Oct-4 expression was also significantly associated with the poor prognosis of NSCLC (HR: 3.030; 95% CI: 2.283-4.021; P<0.001). The prognostic roles of Oct-4 expression in NSCLC still remained statistically reliable in the subgroups stratified by statistical analysis, patients' origins, positively-stained sites and histological subtypes. CONCLUSIONS Our meta-analysis indicates that Oct-4 can serve as a strong biomarker predicting the poor clinicopathological and prognostic characteristics of NSCLC. More high-quality studies based on a large sample size will be very helpful to further validate and modify our findings in the future.
The impact of hospital accreditation on quality of care: perception of Lebanese nurses.

BACKGROUND In developing countries, accreditation is increasingly being used as a tool for government regulation to guarantee quality of care. Although Lebanon is the first country in the East Mediterranean Region to develop and implement accreditation standards, little is known yet on its impact on quality of care. OBJECTIVE To assess the perceived impact of accreditation on quality of care through the lens of health care professionals, specifically nurses. This paper also investigates the perceived contributing factors that can explain change in quality of care. METHODS A cross-sectional survey design where all hospitals that successfully passed both national accreditation surveys (I and II) were included. A total of 1048 registered nurses from 59 hospitals were sampled. The survey tool, assessing quality of care and contributing factors, includes nine scales and subscales rated on five-point Likert scale. RESULTS The high score for the variable 'Quality Results' indicates that nurses perceived an improvement in quality during and after the accreditation process. Predictors of better Quality Results were Leadership, Commitment and Support, Use of Data, Quality Management, Staff Involvement and hospital size. The variable Quality Management, as measured by the scale Quality Management, had the greatest impact in medium-sized hospitals while the subscale measuring Staff Involvement had the greatest impact in small-sized hospitals. CONCLUSION According to Lebanese nurses, hospital accreditation is a good tool for improving quality of care. In order to ensure that accreditation brings effective quality improvement practices, there is a need to assess quality based on patient outcome indicators.
Manipulation benchmark tasks for physical robotic systems : A proposed approach

One of the main goals in robotics research consists on creating intelligent systems with a high degree of autonomy, such that they can be used in home or industrial environments. While there has been important research done in the areas of perception, manipulation and control of robotic systems, little attention has been given to develop formal evaluation tools to benchmark the performance of these systems as a whole integrated unit. What capabilities are the minimum required for a system to be considered intelligent? How far are we still from a truly autonomous robot aide? Should requirements for home and industrial robots be the same? In this short paper, we propose a set of benchmark tasks to evaluate and compare the performance of manipulation policies applied in physical robotic systems.