Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CHARACTERISTICS OF VERTICAL SPECTRUM IN NEAR-FIELD REGION AND INVESTIGATION OF ITS EFFECTS ON THE DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF BRIDGES

Recently, the characteristics of horizontal ground motions in near field regions have been widely studied and it is time for the vertical excitations to be considered as well. Excluding the vertical component of motion in the analysis of structures, especially bridges, in current design practice was the major reason to investigate the vertical spectrum in near field and their effects on dynamic responses of bridges in this paper. The average and total average spectra for each earthquake are obtained in determined boundaries. In order to make a comparison between vertical and horizontal spectra, the same process is carried out to obtain the horizontal spectra. In addition, the ratio of vertical to horizontal spectra is computed and compared to the assumed value of 2/3 in some code provisions. Moreover, the vertical average spectra are compared to Uniform Building Code’s vertical specification and Eurocode’s vertical spectrum. Finally, the results of the response spectrum analyses of six different bridges subjected to vertical excitations are presented.
Applied nutritional investigation Effect of milk tripeptides on blood pressure: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Objective: To better understand and summarize the relation between milk peptide intake and blood pressure (BP), we conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to assess the effects of the milk-derived tripeptides isoleucine-proline-proline and valine-proline-proline on BP in prehy- pertensive and hypertensive subjects. Methods: Nine studies including 12 trials published between 1996 and 2005 with a total of 623 participants were included. Two researchers independently extracted data from the original publi- cations. A fixed-effects model was used for meta-analysis because of the homogeneity among trials. Results: Significant decreases of 4.8 mmHg (95% confidence interval 3.7-6.0) in systolic BP and 2.2 mmHg (95% confidence interval 1.3-3.1) in diastolic BP were found after the pooling of these trials. When trials were separated by BP status, hypotensive effects appeared to be larger in hypertensive subjects than in prehypertensive subjects. As a trend, the hypotensive effects became more obvious as the intervention lengthened. Conclusion: Our analysis provided evidence that milk-derived tripeptides have hypotensive effects in prehypertensive and hypertensive subjects. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF COMBINED RADIAL AND AXIAL FLUX PERMANENT MAGNET SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR FOR TORQUE PROFILE IMPROVEMENT

The prime requirement of the today’s market potential for high torque density and minimum ripple performance has been successfully achieved by the proposed Combined Radial and Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (CRAFPMSM) presented in this paper. The model combines the features of both Axial Flux and Radial Flux machine in a single unit. One Torous slotted stator and the combined rotor have been designed using Finite Element Method based on 3D modelling. Rotor design, which has been adopted pertains Radial and Axial sections. End winding encumbrances is totally eliminated in the model. The torque generated by both sections and resultant torque has been analytically evaluated. The results obtained show significant improvement in specific torque at a higher speed in comparison to traditional models of the same size. The influence of pole geometry, as well as the pole arc ratio of both the sections, are explored for minimum ripple factor that leads to better torque profile of the machine. The conventional skewing techniques for both radial and axial sections are adopted and skew angle investigations are very much useful in smoothing the output torque of the machine. The torque ripple minimization has been achieved significantly. The proposed model is more compact and cost-effective. The quiet operation of the machine endows with the peculiarity of application prerequisite, particularly in electric vehicles.
General position statement of the ZKBS on frequently carried out genetic engineering operations based on the criteria of comparability: Stable and transient gene expression using γ-retroviral and lentiviral vectors

 Transfer plasmid: pBR-derived plasmid with one or more foreign genes which does not encode an envelope protein (potentially under the control of an eukaryotic or viral promoter) and non-coding nucleic acid segments of one or more murine γ-retrovirus or lentivirus; the non-coding nucleic acid segments include the 5' and 3' LTR, the packaging signal Ψ (potentially including an overlapping portion of gag), the PPT, and potentially lentiviral RRE (including an overlapping portion of env) and/or the lentiviral cPPT/cTS (including an overlapping portion of pol); potentially additional viral or cellular nucleic acid segments for expression regulation or enhancement (e.g. USE, IRES, 2A-peptide sequence, microRNA target sequences) are included; nucleic acid segments, encoding a complete retroviral protein, are not included
Mobilität als Gemeinschaftsaufgabe – Assistenztechnologie zur Bewäl- tigung von Mobilitätsbarrieren Mobility through Collaboration – Assistive Technology to Overcome Mobility Barriers

We present the Neighborhood Mobility Platform MoNA which supports outdoor mobility of seniors. MoNA's focus is to support mobility in the neighborhood and nearer region. Special features of MoNA are that mobility is considered as a community task and that it aims at overcoming information barriers. MoNA is developed in close cooperation with a company offering home care for seniors to support independent living. In the contribution the following aspects are covered: (1) Presentation of a prototypical scenario of the service workflow of the company in which MoNA is to be integrated; (2) description of the main results of an empirical survery from which requirements of the system were derived; (3) introduction of the system architecture; (4) discussion of the two central components of MoNA which are a match making service to establish mobility partnerships and a GeoWiki to present information about temporal and permanent mobility barriers.
“Mixed” Drinking Motivations: A Comparison of Majority, Multiracial, and Minority College Students

Social exclusion is associated with substance use, but the specific link between majority and minority racial group membership and substance use is unknown. We examined how social exclusion among racial majority (White), Multiracial, and racial minority (Native American, Latino, Asian, and Black) college students relates to self-reported alcohol use and motivations. Using the AlcoholEdu for College™ survey, Study 1a reports five factors related to motives for initiating or inhibiting alcohol use. Study 1b analyzes majority, Multiracial, and minority college students’ comparative endorsement of these motivations. Study 2 compares these factors with established belonging scales using a separate undergraduate sample. White, Multiracial, Native American, and Latino students displayed the highest proportion of problematic alcohol use. White students endorsed belonging-based drinking motivations, while Multiracial and Asian students endorsed motivations similar to both majority and minority groups. Native American, Latino, and Black students endorsed abstaining motivations more than other groups.
Phonetically Based Extraction of Japanese Synonyms from Rakuten Ichiba’s Item Titles

This paper presents a method for the phonetically based extraction of Japanese synonyms from item titles of Rakuten Ichiba. In general, synonyms are words with the same or similar meaning in a semantic sense; however, we focus here on those synonyms which appear as transliterations between English and Japanese, using Katakana, Hiragana, Kanji and a mixture of these scripts. The method consists of three parts: generation of the candidate word pairs using phrase detection (collocation) at the preprocessing stage; mapping similar sounds using Soundex and a cross-language sound group; measuring the similarity based on the Levenshtein and stochastic distances; and ranking the synonym pairs using fuzzy matching in the post-processing stage. We carry out two experiments based on two different sound mapping datasets, each of which measures the similarity scores from two different algorithms. The results from the baseline and cross-language models achieve precision values of 0.9208 and 0.9983, respectively. Our method is applicable to various fields of linguistic research, for example building a thesaurus/new name entity lookup for a search engine, machine translation and natural language generation, and improving output of voice recognition systems.
Climate Change Impacts on Global Agricultural Trade Patterns: Evidence from the Past 50 Years

Climate variability affects the specialization and portfolio of production and trade in agricultural markets. Previous studies suggest that climate change has a negative impact on economic growth and production patterns, and in particular it significantly alters yields and commodity prices. This paper investigates the impacts of climate change on agricultural trade using detailed estimates of temperature and precipitation for 67 countries from 1962 to 2014. This study controls for national income, comparative advantage in land, technology and productivity, climatic zone differences, estimates of agricultural nominal rates of assistance, and trade membership. Utilizing Prais-Winsten Panel Corrected regressions, the study produces aggregate and sectoral estimates at the global, regional, and income level. Findings suggest that climate change, over the period considered, has a significant impact on agricultural exports at all levels. Rising temperature significantly reduces agricultural exports from Asia and Africa, while it benefits Australia-New Zealand. Exports of grains, oil seeds, livestock, and dairy and eggs, are found significantly vulnerable to temperature changes. Developing economies show a larger reduction in agricultural exports due to increases in temperature. The findings provide a detailed evidence of how agricultural export patterns are vulnerable to variations in climatic conditions, and they could be used in further projections considering climate change as a determinant of agricultural production and trade.
WINTER DIETS AND SEED SELECTION OF GRANIVOROUS BIRDS IN SOUTHWESTERN NEW MEXICO

We examined the diet of granivorous sparrows in winter through stomach and crop contents and compared seed consumption with availability, on grasslands of southwestern New Mexico during January–March 2003. We collected diet samples from 18 species of sparrows at fi ve sites. Over 65 seed species were detected in diets. Despite high seed diversity in diets, fi ve seed species accounted for 80% of seeds consumed. The most abundant seed species detected were perennial grasses sand and spike dropseed (Sporobolus spp.), annual grasses feather fi ngergrass (Chloris virgata), stinkgrass (Eragrostis cilianensis), and annual forbs amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), and carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata). The soil seed bank at these sites was also diverse with >90 species detected. The dominant seeds in the soil seedbank samples included feather fi ngergrass, stinkgrass, and carpetweed. Diets of coexisting species (Chipping Sparrow [Spizella passerina], Brewer’s Sparrow [Spizella breweri], Vesper Sparrow [Pooecetes gramineus], Savannah Sparrow [Passerculus sandwichensis], and White-crowned [Zonotrichia leucophrys]) differed within the most diverse site and among sites. Dropseed seeds were the preferred seed type of the smaller-bodied Spizella sparrows and the larger-bodied Vesper Sparrow. Where present, dropseed was important in the diets of all sparrow species. Depending on location, cupgrass, amaranth, and dropseed were preferred by Savannah Sparrow while Vesper Sparrow preferred cupgrass, goosefoot (Chenopodium spp.), dropseed, and knotweed (Polygonum spp.). Small-bodied sparrows specialized on small-sized seeds whereas larger-bodied sparrows exhibited preferences for seeds representing a diversity of sizes. The importance of the perennial dropseed grasses in sparrow diets emphasizes the need to examine the infl uence of management practices on seed production for this grassland type.
Little Evidence of Zika Virus Infection in Wild Long-Tailed Macaques, Peninsular Malaysia

Acknowledgments We thank Antonio Lo Polito, Maria Luigia Prencipe, and Fabio Gisoldo for their valuable technical support. We also thank Gabriella Di Francesco, Alessio Lorusso, Daniela Malatesta, and Guendalina Zaccaria for their valuable support in performing histopathological, immunohistochemical, and biomolecular analyses as well as for their greatly appreciated contribution to fruitful and insightful discussions on the data reported in the manuscript.
International Journal of Instruction

Successful teaching depends on many factors, including the application of effective instructional strategies. However, teacher perception of instructional strategy application in the classroom is of paramount importance. Empirical research conducted by Marzano and others showed that there are instructional strategies that improve teaching outcomes. Based on his pedagogical research, Marzano suggested nine instructional strategies that teachers could use for effective teaching. The present study investigated teachers’ reported use and implementations of those instructional strategies in their own classes. The study participants included 512 teachers from K-12 schools in the United Arab Emirates. The differences between participants concerning their reported utilization of Marzano’s strategies were also investigated. The results of the study showed that teachers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are very much aware of and familiar with Marzano’s instructional strategies. Other results also demonstrate that UAE schools’ teachers have already been practicing Marzano’s instructional learning strategies in addition to the contextual common practice strategies that they have been trained to use and have adapted in their own classes. However, differences between teachers’ reported use were not prevalent. Recommendations are provided and the implications of the study’s findings are discussed.
Evaluation of the relative feed value of indigenous savanna forage shrub species in Ghana

Animal performance mainly depends on the quantity and quality of forage available as feed and animal feed represents one of the major costs in animal production. This research was conducted in the Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment Experimental Field at University for Development Studies, Nyankpala Campus to evaluate the relative feed value of four indigenous savanna forage shrubs. These shrubs were cultivated and their leaves harvested at 7, 10 and 13 weeks after establishment. Harvested leaves were pulverized to determine ash, crude fat, crude fiber, crude protein, neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF). Metabolisable energy, dry matter (DM), digestible dry matter (DDM), dry matter intake (DMI) and relative feed values (RFV) were also estimated. Ash, crude fat, crude fibre, CP, ADF and NDF contents ranged from 7.56 to 11.22%, 1.924 to 2.812%, 9.33 to 16.11%, 4.598 to 4.960%, 20.73 to 27.22% and 33.47 to 53.06%, respectively. The DDM, DMI and RFV ranged from 67.70 to 74.84%, 2.27 to 3.66% and 120.2 to 212.6%, respectively. The NDF, ADF contents of Tephrosia purpurea was significantly higher than those for Cajanus cajan (L), Stylosanthes mucronata and Securinega virosa (P < 0.05). The DDM and RFV of S. virosa and S. mucronata were significantly higher than those for C. cajan and T. purpurea. The DMI in S. virosa and S. mucronata was significantly higher than those for other shrubs. The carbohydrate contents of S. virosa were significantly higher than the other shrubs. In conclusion all the species studied offered considerable potential as high quality forage for ruminants during the acute periods of the year when the quantity and quality of forages are limited. Key words: Relative feed value, indigenous shrubs, plant maturity, dry matter, livestock.
ATR-dependent phosphorylation and activation of human CHFR in response to DNA damage

ATR –dependent phosphorylation and activation of human CHFR in response to DNA damage Jae-Eun Kim School of Biological Sciences The Graduate School Seoul National University CHFR is an E3 ubiquitin ligase and checkpoint protein that regulates cell cycle progression and tumorigenesis. Recently, it has been reported that CHFR is involved in cellular responses to DNA damage and plays a role in maintaining genome integrity. Functions of CHFR as a cell cycle checkpoint have been revealed by studies of its downstream targets such as PLK1, Aurora A and HDAC1. However, it still remains elusive how CHFR is regulated. In this study, I showed that CHFR is phosphorylated by ATR in response to DNA damage. ATR is a new CHFR-interacting protein and CHFR is phosphorylated by ATR in vitro. ATR is the master regulator of DNA damage response including cell cycle arrest, DNA repair and apoptosis. ATR activates the signaling pathway in response to DNA damage and replication stress. Therefore, I examined whether CHFR is phosphorylated upon DNA damage. In response to UV irradiation and doxorubicin treatment, CHFR is phosphorylated in vivo and it is ATR-dependent. There are five ATR consensus motifs (SQ or TQ) on CHFR. In order to narrow down the phosphorylation site, in vitro kinase assay was performed using CHFR deletion mutants. It was shown that the N-terminal region of CHFR is responsible for the phosphorylation. In addition, I found that CHFR is phosphorylated at threonine 130 in vivo upon UV irradiation. Furthermore, ATR-mediated phosphorylation of CHFR affects its checkpoint function. The phosphorylation-deficient mutant of CHFR does not exert anti-proliferative activity upon UV irradiation. Taken together, these results indicate that ATR-dependent phosphorylation is a new regulatory mechanism of CHFR for its checkpoint activity in response to DNA damage.
DASON: Dependability Assessment Framework for Imperfect Distributed SDN Implementations

In Software Defined Networking (SDN), network programmability is enabled through a logically centralized control plane. Production networks deploy multiple controllers for scalability and reliability reasons, which in turn rely on distributed consensus protocols to operate in a logically centralized manner. However, bugs in distributed control plane can have disastrous effects on the data plane, e.g., losing traffic by installing paths containing blackholes. In this paper we study the prevalence of issues in state-of-the-art distributed frameworks in SDN, by analyzing 500+ issues reported in two of the largest open source SDN controller platforms: Open Network Operating System (ONOS) and OpenDaylight (ODL), during the period between 2014-2019. We identify system vulnerabilities, localize dependability bottlenecks, and provide stochastic models for a holistic assessment of system dependability.
Late careers and socio-economic structures in Europe

In this paper we investigate the effects of demographic, economic and labour-market structures on labour-force participation and transition to retirement for older males in eleven European countries. Theoretically, our analysis is guided by considerations of intragenerational competition and intergenerational substitution. Following Easterlin’s hypothesis that intragenerational competition rises with cohort size, we assume a negative effect of cohort size on labour-force participation and a positive effect on early retirement. Taking into account that different cohorts are substitutes at least to a certain extent, we assume that the probability for early retirement will be reduced by a high intergenerational exchange ratio in favour of older workers. Thus, labour-force participation is both influenced by the populations’ age structure when entering the labour-force and during the career. Moreover, low shares of graduates in older cohorts are expected to reduce older workers’ chances of being employed. Next to demographic structures, general economic conditions like GDP per capita and its development during working life force or hamper employment of older workers. Additionally, labour-market structures like unemployment rates, the extent of part-time work or the amount of service jobs influence individual labourforce participation and transition to retirement. To test these hypotheses, we use merged data from the first two waves of SHARE and macro-level indicators. We estimate a two-level random-incept logit-model which allows to determine the share of variance in international late careers that can be attributed to country‐specific factors and to quantify the relative impact of specific socio-demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds.Our results imply that cross-national variation in labour-force participation is mainly driven by the instance of long-term unemployment and the share of highly educated older men. While our analyses confirm the hypothesis on intragenerational competition, we do not find evidence for intergenerational competition forcing early retirement.
Payday Lending

The payday advance industry makes small, very short-term consumer loans through an extensive network of storefront shops. Customer demand for this product appears to be very strong, and the industry has grown dramatically over the past decade. Yet many observers view the industry with suspicion. The fees charged on payday advances convert to very high annualized rates of interest (APRs). And the media (and others) circulate anecdotes about payday borrowers who renew their loans frequently and become burdened by the high associated fees. Some analysts claim that the industry could not survive without these chronic troubled borrowers. Yet it is difficult to understand the determinants of the industry’s profitability because researchers have had very limited access to micro level data about payday advance firms. Using proprietary store-level data provided by two large payday lenders, we study store costs and profitability. We examine how profitability is related to the borrowing patterns of payday advance customers, default losses, and store characteristics. We also ask how profitability varies with local economic and demographic conditions. We find that fixed operating costs and loan loss rates do justify a large part of the high APRs charged on payday advance loans and that a store’s loan volume is a key determinant of its profitability. However, we do not find that loan renewals or loans from frequent borrowers are more profitable than other loans per se, although they certainly contribute to a store’s loan volume. Finally, controlling for loan volume, we also do not find that economic and demographic conditions in the neighborhoods where stores are located have much of an effect on profitability, although they do slightly influence default losses.