Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERFORMANCE OF EXTERIOR BEAM-COLUMN JOINTS UNDER SEISMIC TYPE LOADING

The objective of the present study is to compare the behaviour of exterior beam-column joint subassemblages with transverse reinforcements detailed as per IS 456 and IS 13920. A six-storeyed RC building in the zone III is analyzed, and one of the exterior beam-column joints at an intermediate storey is designed. The earthquake analysis and design are carried out by incorporating all the modifications as per the latest revisions of IS 1893 and IS 13920. Four one-third scaled specimens, two detailed as per IS 456 and SP 34 and the other two as per IS 13920, were tested under a reverse cyclic loading. The specimens were tested under two different axial loads to evaluate the effect of axial load on the behaviour of joints. The test results indicate that the latest revisions for joint design assure the beam failure to take place before the joint failure. Enhancements in the performance of beam-column joints detailed as per IS 13920 in the reversal of loading were also observed.
Personal Verification and Identification Using Hand Geometry

This research proposes a study of personal verification and identification using hand geometry. Hand geometry used in this research consists of the lengths and widths of fingers and the width of a palm. Users can place their hands freely without the need for pegs to fix the hand placement. In this research, systems using six different distance functions were tested and compared. Test data are from 96 users. Among the six different distance functions, S1 gives the best results in both verification and identification.
Recognition of Pathogenic Free-Living Amoebae in the Surface Water in Shiraz, Iran

Background: There are many genera of free-living amoeba in the environment, but members of only four genera (Naegleria, Acanthamoeba, Balamuthia and Sappinia) have an association with human infection. Water, soil and air are main sources of infective types of these pathogenic organisms for human. Methods: Totally, 30 samples were collected from the surface water sources of Shiraz city, the capital of Fars province, during July and August 2009. The samples were filtered and their sediments were cultured on non-nutrient agar medium and seeded with non-pathogen Escherichia coli. Then, they were incubated at three different temperatures, 22˚C, 37˚C, and 44˚C. The media were checked with invert microscopy and amoebae were recognized by phase–contrast microscopy and observed by light microscopy after Trichrome staining. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed for molecular detection. Results: Of the 30 samples, 29 were recognized morphologically as Acanthamoeba, the characteristics of 20 of which were confirmed by PCR. The growth rate of amoeba in 22˚C was more than 37˚C. Eight of the samples grew at 44˚C, but flagellate forming test and PCR were negative for Naegleria fowleri. Two of them were identified morphologically as Balamuthia and Sappinia. Conclusion: Since Fars province is located in the subtropical region where there are a lot of parks and green areas with surface water, the potential risk of diseases caused by free-living amoebae should be considered. Further investigations about various aspects of these important opportunistic protozoa are recommended especially for establishment of appropriate prevention tools. Please cite this article as: Mohammadi-Ghalehbin B, Hatam GR, MohammadPour I, Ghobakhloo N, Foroughi-Parvar F. Recognition of Pathogenic Free-Living Amoebae in the Surface Water in Shiraz, Iran. J Health Sci Surveillance Sys. 2014;2(4):164-167.
Developing Global Cellular Information Retrieval System with Minimum Reporting Guidelines on Cellular Data for Regenerative Medicine

A wide range of stem cell research towards regenerative medicine has been conducted in a large number of domains in the world over the years. However, those produced data and information are not fully utilized and sometimes causes failure to be reproduced among laboratories or cell banks due to a lack of standardization of cellular assay reporting formats. To maximize a value placed on the information in stem cell and derivative cell research, we have proposed reporting guidelines for describing cellular assay data to pursue the facilitation of practical regenerative medicine named ‘Minimum Information About a Cellular Assay for Regenerative Medicine (MIACARM)’. MIACARM has been developed based on the existing Minimum Information About a Cellular Assay (MIACA) with defined taxonomy of human cell types, which allows for the description of advanced cellular experiments. MIACARM is applicable for exchanging data from not only for basic cellular assay, but also stem cell assay data that are produced and provided by cell banks, registries, or other academic institutions all over the world. And here we would like to introduce our recent progress that is developing stem cell data retrieval system based on MIACARM.
Assessment for Learning: Turkey Case.

Why do we test students? To label them or teach them better? Labeling students is one of the most common errors of educators. If we don't want to fall into that error, then we should use those scores more useful. Marking pupils and focusing on the next examination is not the right approach for humanitarian systems. Then, what should we do? Constructivist approach claims that all activities should focus on learning. Thus, assessing students can be seen as opportunity to enhance learning. Using assessment for learning enhances students' motivation and academic success, decreases the anxiety for examinations. Especially, the countries, that use central examinations to promote students to higher education steps, should see assessment activities for a learning opportunity.
Theoretical Paradigm on Bank Capital Regulation and its Impact on Bank-Borrower Behavior

Bank equity plays an important role in the credit allocation process of financial intermediaries. Financial institutions with higher level of equity are in better position to absorb losses and repay deposits in a timely manner. This relates to the bank capital channel of monetary policy transmission mechanism stating that banks having sound financial health could contribute significantly in transmitting monetary impulses to the real sector. Considering the important role that bank equity plays in shaping the risk taking behavior of financial intermediaries, central banks set the minimum paid-up capital requirement for banks and financial institutions. Though this regulatory requirement is aimed at ensuring the smooth financial intermediation, this could become costlier in extending loans particularly in the times of business cycle fluctuations. A higher capital requirement might also constrain the lending capacity of a bank. Given the conflicting theoretical assumptions on the role of equity capital on financial stability and economic growth, this paper develops a theoretical model examining the relationship between bank equity and its effect on bank-borrower behavior. The theoretical model recommends that higher level of bank equity might be helpful in ensuring financial stability by altering the behavior of the bank and borrower.
Türkiye’de Yüksek Öğretim Finansmanı: Mezun-Kitle Fonlamalı Öğrenci Kredi Fonu “A-CSDF” Modeli

This study presents an innovative and sustainable system for mobilizing Turkish university alumni to contribute to a crowdfunded pool repackaged as a student debt instrument with an elaborate performance tracking tool, various payoff structures and income-contingent repayment schedules. The ultimate aim is to offer a remedy for the conspicuous global shortage of alternative finance sources and various forms of aid to higher education students in the short-term, and, through enabling equitable and egalitarian access to quality higher education, transforming society and enhancing economic development in the longer-term. The model rests upon a six-dimensional framework and its infrastructure is facilitated by a newly emerged form of digitally enhanced financing, “crowdfunding”. The research method involves content analysis and data triangulation for validation purposes to determine the sub-themes surrounding the higher education problem in Turkey. The theme-driven keywords are searched for on Turkey’s first original social network, Eksi Sozluk, to uncover trends and biases towards student loans, debt repayment and associated concepts. Subsequently, the same keywords are utilized in a Google Trends search volume analysis, and are finally validated by a focus group discussion. The theoretical framework to explain students’ attitudes towards borrowing and loan repayment and the motivation behind alumni and charitable giving, rests mainly on behavioral economics. The A-CDSF Model uniquely addresses the higher education finance problem in Turkey and offers an easily implementable original solution for institutions and policy makers.
0 Human Sensing in Crowd Using Laser Scanners

Human sensing is a critical technology to achieve surveillance systems, smart interfaces, and context-aware services. Although various vision-based methods have been proposed (Aggarwal & Cai, 1999)(Gavrila, 1999)(Yilmaz et al., 2006), tracking humans in a crowd is still extremely difficult. Figure 1 shows a snapshot of a railway station during rush hour, which is one of the hardest examples of human sensing.
β‐Hairpin conformation of fibrillogenic peptides: Structure and α‐β transition mechanism revealed by molecular dynamics simulations

Understanding the conformational transitions that trigger the aggregation and amyloidogenesis of otherwise soluble peptides at atomic resolution is of fundamental relevance for the design of effective therapeutic agents against amyloid‐related disorders. In the present study the transition from ideal α‐helical to β‐hairpin conformations is revealed by long timescale molecular dynamics simulations in explicit water solvent, for two well‐known amyloidogenic peptides: the H1 peptide from prion protein and the Aβ(12–28) fragment from the Aβ(1–42) peptide responsible for Alzheimer's disease. The simulations highlight the unfolding of α‐helices, followed by the formation of bent conformations and a final convergence to ordered in register β‐hairpin conformations. The β‐hairpins observed, despite different sequences, exhibit a common dynamic behavior and the presence of a peculiar pattern of the hydrophobic side‐chains, in particular in the region of the turns. These observations hint at a possible common aggregation mechanism for the onset of different amyloid diseases and a common mechanism in the transition to the β‐hairpin structures. Furthermore the simulations presented herein evidence the stabilization of the α‐helical conformations induced by the presence of an organic fluorinated cosolvent. The results of MD simulation in 2,2,2‐trifluoroethanol (TFE)/water mixture provide further evidence that the peptide coating effect of TFE molecules is responsible for the stabilization of the soluble helical conformation. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Affective Approaches to Environmental Education: Going beyond the Imagined Worlds of Childhood?

This paper explores the claims of recent research that suggests that more affective forms of environmental education, drawing upon the contributions of the arts (e.g. creative writing, poetry, art, music and photography), can engage with children's emotions more directly than can approaches based on scientific knowledge. This, in turn, may provide a better route for encouraging individuals to engage in more environmentally sustainable behaviours. The paper challenges some of these claims by considering the ways in which they draw upon socially constructed notions of childhood and nature. The development of environmental education in the UK provides the primary context within which the influence of these social constructions on affective approaches to environmental education is illustrated. These findings suggest that further research and practice are required to develop approaches to environmental education that better reflect a range of children's own environmental experiences.
Régressions par machines à vecteurs supports pour la prédiction de séries chaotiques.

Nous nous interessons a la prediction de series temporelles chaotiques a partir de regressions realisees a l'aide de machines a vecteurs supports (SVM). Apres avoir rappele le principe de ces regressions par SVM, nous detaillons le schema de prediction. Nous illustrons ses performances par une mise en oeuvre, d'une part, sur des donnees synthetiques produites par le systeme dynamique de Henon et, d'autre part, sur des donnees experimentales issues de la base de donnees de Santa Fe communement utilisees comme reference dans les problemes de predictions de series temporelles. Nous comparons positivement nos resultats a ceux proposes anterieurement dans la litterature.
A near-global eddy-resolving OGCM for climate studies

Abstract. Eddy-resolving global ocean models are highly desired for spatially-improved climate studies, but this is challenging because they require careful configuration and substantial computational resources. Model drift, partially related to insufficient model spin-up, imperfect model physics or bias in surface forcing, can be problematic, leading to contamination of climate change signals. In this study, we adapt a near-global eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model, originally developed for short-range ocean forecasting, for climate studies. The Ocean Forecasting Australia Model version 3 (OFAM3) is spun up for 20 years, with repeated year 1979 forcing and adaptive relaxation (Newtonian nudging) of temperature and salinity in the deep ocean to an observation-based climatology. In addition, surface heat fluxes from the JRA-55 atmospheric reanalysis are adjusted during the spin-up experiment to minimise excessive net heat uptake in the ocean. In the historical experiment, spanning 1979–2014, a non-adaptive relaxation is applied by repeating the same relaxation rates derived from the last five years of the spin-up experiment, and the surface heat flux adjustment diagnosed during the spinup experiment is also maintained. We demonstrate that the historical experiment driven by the JRA-55 reanalysis does not have significant drifts (e.g., as shown by simulated global ocean heat content), and also provides an eddy-resolving simulation of the global ocean circulation over the period 1979–2014. Decadal changes, such as the strengthening of the subtropical gyre circulation, are also reasonably simulated. A biogeochemical model is coupled with OFAM3 to produce patterns of primary productivity and carbon fluxes that are consistent with observations. Experiences gained from our numerical experiments will be helpful to other modelling groups who are interested in running global eddy-resolving OGCMs for climate studies.
Behavioral Changes and Immune Responses in Response to Stress Separation in Wistar Rats

This study is part of a research program on the effect of separation of mother and offspring applied to male rats for 5 minutes; 30 minutes and one hour, studying the consequences of stress on the behavior of Wistar rats revealed by tests and open Field maze. And immune system. The observed time lag argue in favor of an anxiogenic effect induced separation. The exploration of the open arms was significantly lower than the control and confirms a probable depression. Also valued through rates lymphocytes immunosuppression indicates an immune alteration compared to the control.
Comparison of conventional methods and deep belief networks for isolated word recognition

A comparative analysis of the use of conventional methods and Deep Belief Networks (DBN) for speaker independent Isolated Word Recognition on small vocabulary is discussed in this paper. The conventional methods of speech recognition include HMM/GMM framework and Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs). Features from the speech frames are used to train MLPs using back-propagation. The features that are extracted are 12th order LPCs and 39 dimensional MFCCs for each frame. The stacked Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM) constitute a Deep Belief Networks (DBNs). The DBN learning procedure undergoes a pre-training stage and a fine-tuning stage. DBNs gave a higher performance as compared with the conventional methods with an accuracy of approximately 93% for Isolated Word Recognition using MFCC features.
A phytopharmaceutical survey of Abaco Island, Bahamas

A total of 43 species of higher plants have been collected from Abaco Island, Bahamas. The plants have been extracted and the extracts screened for cytotoxic activity and for antimicrobial activity. Of the 31 extracts tested for cytotoxic activity, 12 were active ( 90% kill at 100 μg/mL, while 17 of 50 extracts showed antibacterial (MIC  39 μg/mL) activity. None of the extracts tested showed antifungal activity. Thus, of the 43 species collected, 18 were active in one or more of the assays, representing a “hit rate” of 42%.
Analysis of the role of the p47 GTPase IIGP1 in Resistance against Intracellular Pathogens

IIGP1 is a member of the p47 GTPase family of IFNγ-induced proteins, which are among the most potent presently known mediators of cell-autonomous resistance against intracellular bacterial and protozoan pathogens in the mouse. From all studied members of this family IIGP1 is the best characterized with respect to biochemical characteristics and enzymatic activity in vitro, as well as membrane binding properties and dynamic behavior in cells. The role of the protein in intracellular defense was however, unknown and this study was set as an initial attempt to reveal it. This thesis describes the generation of an IIGP1 deficient mouse and analysis of the susceptibility of this animal to pathogens from protozoan and bacterial origin, which employ diverse strategies for host cell invasion and intracellular survival and replication. Despite having intact adaptive immune system, the IIGP1 deficient mice showed higher incidence of development of cerebral malaria after infection with Plasmodium berghei sporozoites. In addition, IIGP1 deficient astrocytes exhibited a partial loss of IFNγ-induced inhibition of Toxoplasma gondii growth. IIGP1 deficient animals were not susceptible to infection with Leishmania major, Listeria monocytogenes, Chlamydia trachomatis and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. From the analysis of the obtained data in the context of the intracellular lifestyle of the pathogens involved in this study, we concluded that IIGP1 seems to be specifically involved in defense against protozoan parasites, which like Pl. berghei and T. gondii reside in non-fusigenic parasitophorous vacuoles after entering cells. The mechanisms of IIGP1-dependent protection of cells against these pathogens remain to be studied.
LARGE SCALABLE WORKSHOP FOR INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

This paper describes several years of experience in planning and implementing an interdisciplinary Workshop for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WOFIE) where design students develop new solutions and business plans in collaboration with graduate students from social sciences, human sciences and other technical discipline. The project is a strategic initiative with the aim of strengthening the university students’ ability to develop new products and business models in relation to societal and environmental needs and challenges. The paper describes tools and methods to handle such projects with many pedagogical, cross-disciplinary, logistic and administrative challenges in executing such a large scale workshop on multiple locations with students from different disciplines. Until now, the Workshop has been carried out using a strict sequential phase-orientated pedagogical approach which analyses of the evaluations has pointed out as a problem. On that basis it has been decided that future Workshops will be based on an activity-orientated pedagogical approach, where activities are executed when it is relevant regarding contribution to the result for the individual group. The development of the WOIFE methodology has been done under the following dogmas: 1) Asynchronous process between the groups; 2) a qualified progress outlined for supervisors and Location Leaders. The author of this paper has been part of a development group restructuring the approach into an activity-based matrix combining a sequential perspective with a semi-autonomous asynchronous supervision perspective with the possibility to adapt and iterate where necessary.
Cutting-Plane Algorithm for Solving Linear Semi-infinite Programming in Fuzzy Case

This paper introduces a cutting-plane algorithm for solving semi-infinite linear programming problems in fuzzy case; the problem contains a crisp objective linear function and the infinite number of fuzzy linear constraints. In the first step; the designed algorithm solves a LP problem, which was created by the ranking function method based on a fuzzy sub-problem of the original one. In each iteration of the proposed algorithm, a cutting is created by adding a fuzzy constraint of the original problem to the fuzzy sub-problem. The convergence of the algorithm is proved and some numerical examples are given.
The tropical diazotrophic phytoplankter Trichodesmium: biological characteristics of two common species

The 2 tropical cyanobactenal specles Trichodesmium thiebautii and 7: erythraeum had simlar photosynthetic characteristics in the southwestern Sargasso Sea and Canbbean Sea, with mean rates of hght saturated photosynthesis (uslng O2 electrode) of 42 (SD = 21.3) and 37 (SD = 18.4) mg 0, mg chl a ' h' at 1410 FE m-2 S-', respectively over a 1300 n mlle cruise track. Rates of dark respiration were high, and the compensation point for both specles was 150 FE m-2 S' (ca 55 m, mdday) . Estimates of carbon doubllng times (using photosynthetic quotient) were from 3.0 to 3.8 d based on expected photosynthetic rates in the water column. The mean rate of nltrogenase actlvlty at 300 pE m-2 S-' by T thiebautu averaged 0.45 nmol ethylene colony-' h ' , 1.6 times that of 7: erythraeum (p < 0.01) as observed from samples collected on 3 cruises (64 paired observations). Furthermore, in a comparison of nltrogenase actlvitles, at light intensities between ca 500 and 2500 FE m-2 S-', 7: thiebautii was about t w ~ c e as actlve as T erythraeum. The phycoerythrin content of 7: erythraeum averaged 260 ng colony-', 4.4 times that of T thiebautii, and the mean PE : chl a ratios were 3.2 and 1.2, respectively Other pigments: (p-carotene, zeaxanthin, myxoxanthophyll, echinenone, and trace pigments) were s i d a r between the 2 specles. The organization of subcellular inclusions was distinctly different in these 2 species. The high abundance of T thiebautii relative to T erythraeum in many tropical seas may be due to higher rates of N2 fixation and a previously reported neurotoxin in the former specles.