Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The measurement of internal defect in the half-grouted sleeves by low frequency ultrasonics

Half grouted sleeve connection has been widely used in the rebars connection of prefabricated concrete (PC) structure. Mostly, the implementation of grouted should be finished on site. Meanwhile, the internal defects are inevitable due to the concrete nature. Currently, there is few methods available, which can effectively and rapidly evaluate the quality of the connection. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a combination of low-frequency linear ultrasound (LUT) and nonlinear ultrasound (NLUT) to quantitatively characterize defect. The internal artificial defects are concentrated defects, and the defect content is 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% respectively. Through transmission mode was adapted for both LUT and NLUT. The UT wave propagation was distorted by different defects, which was the results of LUT. For NLUT with higher resolution, the complex distribution and different level of defect together will introduce nonlinearity. The experimental results show that the grouted defects reduce the ultrasonic energy of LUT, and increase the nonlinearity from NLUT with the increase of the defect size and randomness. The defect has a significant impact on the ultrasonic features. Therefore, Low-frequency LUT and NLUT methods are potential to realize the visualization the defects of half grouted sleeve connection.
Nonadiabatic molecular dynamics

Molecular dynamics simulation of mixed quantum-classical systems, in situations where the quantal degrees of freedom undergo transitions among states, poses a number of challenging problems. Among the difficulties are bifurcation of trajectories that evolve into different quantum states and proper treatment of quantum coherence. In this article we outline the problems and contrast the ways in which they are addressed by current methods for nonadiabatic molecular dynamics. In the course of this comparison we present a new result, the relationship between the velocity adjustment in the “surface hopping” method and the “Pechukas force,” as well as some new reflections on an old result, oscillatory yields in ion-surface scattering.
DNA detection with top–down fabricated silicon nanowire transistor arrays in linear operation regime

Silicon nanowire field‐effect transistors (SiNW‐FETs) are offering a label‐free sensing of DNA molecules based on the detection of the biomolecules’ charges. Typically, the charge accumulation at the solid–liquid interface is leading to a change in surface potential of the device. In other works, this effect is usually displayed as change in conductance of the nanowires. In this paper, we show that our topdown processed SiNW‐FET devices can be regarded as long‐channel, ion‐sensitive field‐effect transistor devices (ISFETs) and that their electronic characteristics can be fitted by an advanced MOSFET model taking narrow channel effects into account. In DNA experiments, changes in threshold voltage upon immobilization of capture DNA and hybridization with complementary target DNA were recorded as reported before. The signal amplitudes were scaling with different concentrations of electrolyte buffer as known from the commonly used Poisson–Boltzmann theory. In reports from other groups, the sensitivity of SiNW‐FETs was reported to be superior compared to ISFETs and scaling effects were observed with smaller wires having higher sensitivities. From our experiments, it seems that the immobilization of the DNA to the wire structure is leading to two effects: firstly, the threshold voltage is changing, leading to a shift in the transistors’ transfer characteristics similar to what was described for ISFET devices. In addition, upon DNA binding, a general increase in charge carrier density inside the nanowire is leading to an enhanced conductance. We assume that the latter effect is scaling with nanowire dimensions, while the surface effect is typically constant for all sensor structures.
Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on chronic disease management and patient reported outcomes in patients with pulmonary hypertension: The Pulmonary Hypertension Association Registry

Abstract To better understand the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the care of patients with pulmonary hypertension, we conducted a retrospective cohort study evaluating health insurance status, healthcare access, disease severity, and patient reported outcomes in this population. Using the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Registry (PHAR), we defined and extracted a longitudinal cohort of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients from the PHAR's inception in 2015 until March 2022. We used generalized estimating equations to model the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on patient outcomes, adjusting for demographic confounders. We assessed whether insurance status modified these effects via covariate interactions. PAH patients were more likely to be on publicly‐sponsored insurance during the COVID‐19 pandemic compared with prior, and did not experience statistically significant delays in access to medications, increased emergency room visits or nights in the hospital, or worsening of mental health metrics. Patients on publicly‐sponsored insurance had higher healthcare utilization and worse objective measures of disease severity compared with privately insured individuals irrespective of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The relatively small impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on pulmonary hypertension‐related outcomes was unexpected but may be due to pre‐established access to high quality care at pulmonary hypertension comprehensive care centers. Irrespective of the COVID‐19 pandemic, patients who were on publicly‐sponsored insurance seemed to do worse, consistent with prior studies highlighting outcomes in this population. We speculate that previously established care relationships may lessen the impact of an acute event, such as a pandemic, on patients with chronic illness.
Influence of Coupling Forces and Body Posture on the Rotational Hand–Arm Impedance in yh Direction

This manuscript investigates the rotational mechanical impedance of the human hand–arm system with respect to vibration excitation around the gripping axis of the hand under the influence of body posture, gripping force, and push force. Knowledge of rotational mechanical impedance is required for deriving models of hand–arm biodynamics. These models are used in the validation of power tools to predict further vibrational human–machine interactions. In the current state of research, such models exist for translational but not rotational vibration excitation. Consequently, this study investigates the properties of a hand–arm system with respect to rotational vibration excitation. In the study, the rotational impedance of the hand–arm systems of 13 adults was measured at various gripping and push forces applied in different body postures. The setup of the test used in this study consisted of a shaker that applied rotational vibrations at certain frequencies to the subjects’ hand–arm systems via a cylindrical handle. The results of the study indicate a spring–damper dynamic of the hand–arm system. The gripping force strongly influences the magnitude of rotational impedance across the frequency spectrum. Regarding push force and posture, no corresponding influence could be determined. The results suggest that the frictional contact between the hand and handle might confer a damping effect.
Nondestructive yield strength estimation for 3D-printed Ti-6Al-4V plates using eddy-current measurement

s study provides the development of a nondestructive yield strength estimation technique for metal 3D printed Ti-6Al-4V components using eddy-current measurement. Based on the relationship between the electrical conductivity and the grain size of the material, and the Hall-Petch relationship, the yield strength of metallic materials can be correlated by eddy-current phase value. First, a theoretical expression for the yield strength using the eddy-current phase value is explicitly derived. Then, for the experimental validation, the specimens with various yield strengths were produced by adjusting the cooling rate during the printing of each specimen. Then, the coefficients in the theoretical expression were estimated using the actual yield strength of specimens obtained via the conventional destructive tensile tests and the eddy-current phase values. Finally, the yield strength estimation performance was examined using the eddy-current signals obtained from test specimens with unknown yield strengths. The results indicate that the proposed technique can precisely estimate 3D printed Ti-6Al-4V components. The novelty of this study lies in (1) the derivation of an explicit relationship between the eddy-current phase value and the yield strength, (2) nondestructive yield strength estimation technique based on eddy-current testing, and (3) application to 3D printed Ti-6Al-4V plate specimens with various yield strengths.
Association of Kinase-Insert-Domain-Containing Receptor Polymorphisms with Glioma Susceptibility in a Chinese Population: A Hospital-Based Case-Control Study

Background Gliomas are the most common malignant tumors of the central nervous system. However, the inherited genetic variation in gliomas is presently unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the association of the rs2071559 and rs2239702 gene polymorphisms with glioma susceptibility in Chinese patients. Methods In this study, a case-control approach was used to compare and analyze whether two genes, rs2071559 and rs2239702, were associated with the risk of glioma formation. Results The cases and controls were matched for sex, smoking status, and family history of cancer using single nucleotide polymorphisms. Specific rs2071559 and rs2239702 alleles were found much more frequently in the glioma group than in the control group (P < 0.001 and P = 0.014, respectively). Conclusions These findings suggest that specific rs2071559 and rs2239702 polymorphisms are associated with a higher risk of glioma development; the risk allele is C in rs2071559 or A in rs2239702. Moreover, the kinase-insert-domain-containing receptor may act as a suppressor of tumor progression.
Cosparse regularization of physics-driven inverse problems

Inverse problems related to physical processes are of great importance in practically every field related to signal processing, such as tomography, acoustics, wireless communications, medical and radar imaging, to name only a few. At the same time, many of these problems are quite challenging due to their ill-posed nature. On the other hand, signals originating from physical phenomena are often governed by laws expressible through linear Partial Differential Equations (PDE), or equivalently, integral equations and the associated Green’s functions. In addition, these phenomena are usually induced by sparse singularities, appearing as sources or sinks of a vector field. In this thesis we primarily investigate the coupling of such physical laws with a prior assumption on the sparse origin of a physical process. This gives rise to a “dual” regularization concept, formulated either as sparse analysis (cosparse), yielded by a PDE representation, or equivalent sparse synthesis regularization, if the Green’s functions are used instead. We devote a significant part of the thesis to the comparison of these two approaches. We argue that, despite nominal equivalence, their computational properties are very different. Indeed, due to the inherited sparsity of the discretized PDE (embodied in the analysis operator), the analysis approach scales much more favorably than the equivalent problem regularized by the synthesis approach. Our findings are demonstrated on two applications: acoustic source localization and epileptic source localization in electroencephalography. In both cases, we verify that cosparse approach exhibits superior scalability, even allowing for full (time domain) wavefield interpolation in three spatial dimensions. Moreover, in the acoustic setting, the analysis-based optimization benefits from the increased amount of observation data, resulting in a speedup in processing time that is orders of magnitude faster than the synthesis approach. Numerical simulations show that the developed methods in both applications are competitive to state-of-the-art localization algorithms in their corresponding areas. Finally, we present two sparse analysis methods for blind estimation of the speed of sound and acoustic impedance, simultaneously with wavefield interpolation. This is an important step toward practical implementation, where most physical parameters are unknown beforehand. The versatility of the approach is demonstrated on the “hearing behind walls” scenario, in which the traditional localization methods necessarily fail. Additionally, by means of a novel algorithmic framework, we challenge the audio declipping problemregularized by sparsity or cosparsity. Our method is highly competitive against stateof-the-art, and, in the cosparse setting, allows for an efficient (even real-time) implementation.
Blended Glial Cell’s Spiking Neural Network

Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), the third generation of artificial neural networks, have been widely employed. However, the realization of advanced artificial intelligence is challenging due to the dearth of efficient spatiotemporal information integration models. Inspired by brain neuroscientists, this paper proposes a novel spiking neural network - Blended Glial Cell’s Spiking Neural Network (BGSNN). BGSNN introduces glial cells as spatiotemporal information processing units based on neurons and synapses, and also provides four new network dynamics connection models which extend the information processing dimension, enhance the network global information integration in the spatiotemporal domain, as well as the plasticity of neurons and synapses. In this paper, a BGSNN application - Sudoku solver is designed and implemented on the “WenTian” neuromorphic prototype. On the Easybrain dataset, the BGSNN solver achieves 100% accuracy, outperforming the same structure SNN solver by 97% at the Evil difficulty level, and has faster converges speed compared with the SOTA Sudoku solver LSGA. On the kaggle dataset, the BGSNN solver achieves over 99.99% accuracy, outperforming the publicly available optimal DNN solver under this dataset by 3.82%. In addition, BGSNN exhibits good parallelism and sparsity, decreasing computation by at least 92.9% compared to serial solvers and reducing sparsity by 88% compared to the equal fully dense DNN. BGSNN improves the expression, feedback, and regulation capabilities of neural networks while maintaining the advantages of SNN parallel sparsity, making it simpler to implement advanced artificial intelligence.
Melanic morphs of Bactrocera dorsalis possess distinct developmental time, weight, and wing size and shape

The scutum of oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae), shows a high degree of variability in its colouration, which goes from black to red‐brown. Such variation depicts different levels of melanin production in these individuals. In insects, melanization can have an effect on their fitness parameters, which could consequently impact the insect's adaptive responses. Here, we asked whether the progeny produced by B. dorsalis individuals with different scutum colouration (melanic morphs) would differ in their developmental time, weight, and wing size and shape. To address this, we followed eggs produced by each B. dorsalis melanic morph by recording their pupation time, emergence time, and larval (second instar), pupal, and adult weights. Also, using landmark‐based geometric morphometric analysis, we assessed the variation in wing size and shape of the adults obtained from each parental melanic morphs of B. dorsalis. We found that larvae produced by adults with the darkest scutum exhibited faster development and weighed more than those produced by adults with brown scutum. At the adult stage, individuals from parents with darker and brown scutum had a reduced weight and wing size (length, width, area, and centroid size) than those from parents with moderate melanin production. We also found significant wing shape variation across the four melanic morphs. Our study suggests that melanisation in the scutum of B. dorsalis has a fitness gain in the preimaginal stages of this fly. In the adult stage, however, the amount of melanin in the scutum has a fitness cost. This suggests that in B. dorsalis, there is a potential trade‐off between melanin production and fitness parameters, which could have implications for adaptive responses such as thermoregulation, flight, and dispersal, and consequently for its management.
Evaluation of the Brillouin precursor performance for ultra wide band intra-body technologies

In this letter, we describe the formation and the evolution of Brillouin precursor fields through human tissues by using a frequency-domain analysis technique and a multi-pole Cole–Cole model to characterize the dielectric properties of the human body tissues, in a frequency band designated by the FCC for ultra wide band medical applications, which extends from 0.5 to 20 GHz. A 3D representation of the human body model has been implemented by employing a discretized mesh of cuboids with a resolution of 8 mm3 in which the frequency dispersive material parameters for different tissues have been considered. The dispersive propagation is analyzed for the purposes of radar imaging and intra-body communications. The performance of a classical rectangular pulse, a Brillouin pulse and a medium-matched waveform is described. The results show the potential application of this type of communication scheme in order to improve the achievable measurement range and provide better signal to noise ratios.
EXPLORING RECIPROCITY IN GRANDPARENT-GRANDCHILDREN CARE: THE CASE OF MDLANKOMO LOCATION, LIBODE IN THE EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA

In South Africa, there appears to be a paradigm shift where the majority of the country’s children are taken care of by their grandparents. This article explores the states of reciprocity existing in grandparent-grandchildren care in Mdlankomo location, Libode of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The study utilised a qualitative approach to explore the perceptions of grandparents on reciprocity between them and their grandchildren. Nine grandparents were interviewed. The findings revealed that grandparents manifested love for their grandchildren, who also reciprocated the gesture; delinquent behaviours of grandchildren exasperated their grandparents; the conflict between grandparents and grandchildren ensued when children suspected the abuse of their children’s welfare grant by their grandparents. The researchers urge the Department of Social Development and NGOs working in the children’s domain to strengthen the programmes for the well-being of older persons and children.
The Effect of Sterilised Males on a Natural Tsetse Fly Population

The control of an isolated insect population by the release of artificially sterilised males has been successfully carried out by the Entomology Research Branch of the United States Department of Agriculture. The apparent eradication of the screw-worm [Callitroga hominivorax (Cqrl.)] from the island of Curagao was described by Baumhover et al. [1955], and Knipling [1955], in a theoretical analysis of the principle, has examined the biological and economic conditions necessary for its success. The biological prerequisites are: (i) The method of sterilization must not adversely affect the mating behaviour of the males. (ii) Adequate dispersion of the sterilized males amongst the natural female population must be obtainable. (iii) If the females mate more than once, the sperm from sterilized males must be capable of competing with that from normal males. Since the tsetse female normally only mates once, the question was raised' of the effect of this method on a natural tsetse fly population.2 The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical examination of the method, which though based on numerical data derived from the observed life cycle of the tsetse fly, is sufficiently general to indicate its application to other insect populations satisfying the above conditions. In Section 2 the necessary mathematical background is sketched. A mathematical model of the natural tsetse population is developed (Section 3) and the theoretical effect of sterilized males is considered
Repairing Annulus Fibrosus Fissures Using Methacrylated Gellan Gum Combined with Novel Silk

Intervertebral disc (IVD) herniation often causes severe pain and is frequently associated with the degeneration of the IVD. As the IVD degenerates, more fissures with increasing size appear within the outer region of the IVD, the annulus fibrosus (AF), favoring the initiation and progression of IVD herniation. For this reason, we propose an AF repair approach based on methacrylated gellan gum (GG-MA) and silk fibroin. Therefore, coccygeal bovine IVDs were injured using a biopsy puncher (⌀ 2 mm) and then repaired with 2% GG-MA as a filler material and sealed with an embroidered silk yarn fabric. Then, the IVDs were cultured for 14 days either without any load, static loading, or complex dynamic loading. After 14 days of culture, no significant differences were found between the damaged and repaired IVDs, except for a significant decrease in the IVDs’ relative height under dynamic loading. Based on our findings combined with the current literature that focuses on ex vivo AF repair approaches, we conclude that it is likely that the repair approach did not fail but rather insufficient harm was done to the IVD.
Indecomposable Positive Quadratic Forms

Abstract Let F be a formally real field. A quadratic form q is called positive if sgnp ≧ 0 for all orderings P of F. A positive q is called decomposable if there exist positive forms q1, q2 such that q = q1⊥q2. Otherwise it is called indecomposable. In a first part we ask for which F there exist indecomposable three dimensional forms over F. We show that such forms exist iff F does not satisfy the property (A) defined in (J. K. Arason, A. Pfister: Zur Théorie der quadratischen Formen über formal reellen Körpern, Math Z. 153, 289-296 (1977)). We use an indecomposable three dimensional form defined by Arason and Pfister to construct indecomposable forms of arbitrary dimension. Then we examine the question for which fields F every positive form over F represents a nonzero sum of squares.
Unknown Circovirus in Immunosuppressed Patient with Hepatitis, France, 2022

Hepatitis of undetermined origin can be caused by a wide variety of pathogens, sometimes emerging pathogens. We report the discovery, by means of routine shotgun metagenomics, of a new virus belonging to the family Circoviridae, genus Circovirus, in a patient in France who had acute hepatitis of unknown origin.