Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Post-Disaster Structural Health Assessment System Using Personal Mobile-Phones

Author(s): Alzughaibi, Ahmed Ali M | Advisor(s): Eltawil, Ahmed | Abstract: In the aftermath of a natural disaster, reconnaissance is typically conducted by teams of engineers tasked with tagging buildings according to their damage state. Tagging (red, yellow, or green) conveys information about the condition of the building (unsafe, needs further evaluation, or safe, respectively). While thorough, the process can take several days to weeks to be completed. Automated assessment is an attractive alternative to manual inspection but requires deploying a dense network of sensors at the granularity of each structure. Such a network was deemed to be impractical with respect to cost or deployment time. However, with the advent of the Internet of things (IoT) era, a massive network of citizen-owned smart devices such as tablets and smart-phones that contain vibration sensors (e.g. accelerometers) is already deployed. The objective of this work is to develop a framework that can crowd-source relatively low-quality readings from distributed smart citizen owned devices and distill that information into actionable information. This information can be provided to public safety personnel within minutes of an event, in the form of a disaster map, with buildings tagged by their most likely damage state. This paper reports on the development of an application running on a mobile phone to collect readings and coupled to a cloud-based server used to generate the necessary tags.
Dynamics and Localization of Activin A Expression in Rat Gastric Ulcers

Background: Activin A, the homodimer of the activin/inhibin βA subunit, has been shown to participate in cutaneous wound healing. In this study we intended to determine its part in gastric ulceration. Methods: Activin A expression was studied by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization in acetic-acid-induced chronic gastric ulcers in rat. The dynamics of this process were also assessed by quantitative real time RT-PCR and RNase protection assays (RPA). The effects of different doses of this cytokine on epithelial and mesenchymal cell proliferation were quantitated in vitro. Results: Low amounts of activin A and its mRNA were expressed by epithelia, endothelia and fibroblasts in intact gastric tissue. Granulation tissue of gastric ulcers and gastric glands adjacent to the ulcer rim expressed markedly increased amounts of activin protein as well as activin/inhibin βA mRNA. RPA and RT-PCR studies revealed a more than 3-fold increase in the relative abundance of this mRNA. Activin A did not affect the proliferation rate of fibroblasts and epithelial cells in vitro. Conclusions: Activin A participates in gastric ulcer healing in a similar fashion as in cutaneous wounding. Its expression on protein and mRNA level is markedly increased in ulcer base and rim.
Some future scenarios for ‘in the wild’ visualisations

Migration from desktop-based to alternative out of the desk visualisations, could help to overcome some of the issues that are related to traditional screen representation problems. But simultaneously, it represents a challenge in which many technical and ethical questions have yet to be answered. In the following sections some thoughts about how visualisation outside the desktop could be applied are presented through three different categories: common objects, large scale augmented reality and natural devices.
Management and outcome after internal carotid artery laceration during surgery of the paranasal sinuses

Abstract Conclusions. The injury to the cavernous portion of the internal carotid artery (ICA) during endonasal sinus surgery is a potentially fatal complication, which can be prevented by systematic analysis of preoperative CT imaging in order to exclude vascular malformations. Immediate management is critical and requires interdisciplinary cooperation between the otolaryngologist and interventional neuroradiologist. Objective. The purpose of this article is to present two cases of injury to the cavernous portion of the ICA during routine endonasal sinus surgery for chronic sinusitis and to review the management and outcome of this vascular emergency. Patients and methods. A database of all patients surgically treated for chronic sinusitis between 1994 and 2004 was reviewed retrospectively. Additionally a review of the literature for all published case reports of ICA injury was performed. Results. We report two cases of ICA lacerations that occurred during routine endoscopic sinus surgery. Both patients were successfully treated by employing neuroradiological procedures including balloon and/or coil occlusion of various portions of the cavernous ICA. According to the literature the outcome depends on the presence or absence of vascular anomalies or aneurysm of the ICA with a very poor prognosis in cases of laceration of a pre-existing and unrecognized aneurysm.
Total Quality Management Implementation in the Healthcare Industry: Findings from Libya

The study researches the applied principles to achieve Total Quality Management (TQM) at healthcare institutions. Main elements elaborated in accordance with field specialists and international standards. These principles, elements, and the associated processes were reflected on the healthcare industry and the specific requirements of its operations, management, and customers. In order to apply the literature study into the field, a case study of the healthcare industry in Libya is adopted. The research method was to survey hospital staff from all levels and in several institutions about the basic principles of TQM at their workplace. The participants were also asked about the work methods, their awareness about the importance of TQM, the usage of modern technology by their institutions, utilization of resources, and the problems that may hinder the implementation of TQM the hospitals. The analysis of the survey indicated that the implementation of quality at Libyan hospitals is estimated at 33.6% with a significant lack of awareness about quality. A set of recommendation is then provided for hospital leadership for study and implementation.
Clinical effect of postconditioning in ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical effect of postconditioning on patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). MethodsRandomized controlled trials were identified by searching relevant databases published up to April 2nd, 2014. A meta-analysis of eligible studies was performed by Stata 12.0 and Review Manager 5.2 with a fixed-effect model.ResultsTen studies providing adverse cardiac events in a total of 1346 STEMI patients treated with primary PCI were identified. The occurrence of heart failure was significantly reduced in patients treated with postconditioning compared with usual care (risk ratio (RR) 0.533; 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.368–0.770), whereas non-fatal reinfarction slightly increased in the postconditioning group (RR 2.746; 95% CI 1.007–7.488). No significant difference in total major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) was observed between the two groups (RR 0.876; 95% CI 0.671–1.144). ConclusionsPostconditioning in STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI significantly reduces the risk of heart failure, but fails to decrease the incidence of total MACEs and the risk of non-fatal reinfarction. 摘要目的探讨后适应对接受直接经皮冠状动脉介入(PCI)治疗的急性ST段抬高性心肌梗死(STEMI)患者心血管不良事件的影响。 创新点进一步明确后适应处理对STEMI患者临床预后的影响。 方法对符合入选标准的随机对照临床试验进行meta分析。 结论缺血后适应显著降低ST段抬高性心肌梗死患者心衰风险。
Solder volume effects on fatigue life of BGA structure Cu/Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu/Cu interconnects

The influence of solder volume on fatigue life of BGA structure Cu/Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu/Cu interconnects of different standoff heights under displacement cyclic loading conditions was studied by finite element (FE) simulation. The geometry of BGA structure solder interconnect was predicted according to the minimum energy principle by FE analysis, and simulation results reveal that the influence of gravity on the geometry of BGA structure solder interconnects can be reasonably ignored when the diameters of solder balls used are less than 0.76 mm. Darveaux's methodology based on plastic strain energy density was employed to predict the fatigue life of solder interconnects of different volumes by FE method. The simulation results show that the decreasing standoff height (i.e., solder volume) of joints can obviously increase the fatigue life of BGA structure solder interconnects, and the value and distribution of accumulated equivalent plastic strain play critical roles in determining the fatigue life of BGA structure solder interconnects.
Morphologic-Cytogenetic Analysis of Dedifferentiated Liposarcomas with an Extensive Misleading Leiomyosarcomatous Component

This report describes two cases of recurrent retroperitoneal dedifferentiated liposarcoma characterized by an extensive leiomyomatous component that prevented the correct diagnosis before the last recurrence. Strong immunoreactivity with smooth muscle and desmin antibodies and ultrastructural features consistent with leiomyosarcoma were observed in the spindle-cell and/or myxoid-like components in all four recurrences in case 1, and in the spindle-cell component of the primary tumor and the first recurrence in case 2. In case 1, the correct diagnosis was suggested by the cytogenetic evidence of ring markers, a hallmark of well-differentiated/dedifferentiated liposarcoma. In case 2, tumor type was yielded mainly by the morphology of the second recurrence, which consisted entirely of a well-differentiated liposarcoma, a sclerosing inflammatory variant, as confirmed by the karyotype. Reevaluation of the first two surgical specimens of each case revealed small areas consistent with well-differentiated liposarcoma that had been previously overlooked. Despite the smooth-muscle antigen profile, both cases retained an mdm2+/p53+/cdk4+ immunophenotype consistent with the genotype.
Thermal dependence of cardiac function in arctic fish: implications of a warming world

SUMMARY With the Arctic experiencing one of the greatest and most rapid increases in sea temperatures in modern time, predicting how Arctic marine organisms will respond to elevated temperatures has become crucial for conservation biology. Here, we examined the thermal sensitivity of cardiorespiratory performance for three closely related species of sculpins that inhabit the Arctic waters, two of which, Gymnocanthus tricuspis and Myoxocephalus scorpioides, have adapted to a restricted range within the Arctic, whereas the third species, Myoxocephalus scorpius, has a wider distribution. We tested the hypothesis that the fish restricted to Arctic cold waters would show reduced cardiorespiratory scope in response to an increase in temperature, as compared with the more eurythermal M. scorpius. As expected from their biogeography, M. scorpioides and G. tricuspis maximised cardiorespiratory performance at temperatures between 1 and 4°C, whereas M. scorpius maximised performance over a wider range of temperatures (1–10°C). Furthermore, factorial scope for cardiac output collapsed at elevated temperature for the two high-latitude species, negatively impacting their ability to support aerobically driven metabolic processes. Consequently, these results concurred with our hypothesis, suggesting that the sculpin species restricted to the Arctic are likely to be negatively impacted by increases in ocean temperatures.
Social Networks as a Learning and Teaching Environment and Security in Social Networks

Technology is in a constantly evolving and changing structure since the existence of mankind. Because of this dynamic structure, technology fulfills a number of functions such as facilitating people's lives, time, profit from work, profit from cost, making life more enjoyable. At the same time, technology is used in all areas of life, and it also causes changes and transformations in these areas. Education is one of these areas, perhaps the most important, that technology affects. The hunter society, written with nails, made an important step with the paper's invention, and the written documents were moved from the stones to the books. The invention of computers and the internet has also opened an important milestone in human history and education. In the beginning, the course contents loaded on storage units such as floppy disks, CDs, DVDs were used by the students and teachers, computers were included in the education systems. During periods when we have not yet met with the internet, computer-assisted education has found a large place in many educational institutions and in the curriculum of education level. The development of information Technologies led to widespread use of the internet over time, and shortly thereafter examples of use in education began to increase. Computer-assisted education has also led to the rapid transition of education through internet-supported education, along with the different demands of the network society's individuals. Users are not satisfied with the internet environments where only reading authority is available, and more and more active and interacting requests have come to the agenda. Beyond reading, social networks that make it possible to comment, create content, upload/share/view images, upload video/audio files, and make video, text and voice calls have become popular for users. Social networking platforms where users interact with the environment or with other users in the environment have been attracted by the diversity of user profiles, the usage rates and durations, and the easy and versatility of accessibility. Because of these features, studies on the use of social networks in the field of education to support learning and teaching have also been accelerated and diversified. Social networks can also contain some security issues because they are huge platforms where billions of users are together. Having information about security issues as little as possible, what to do when they are encountered is important for the continuity of learning and teaching. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the importance of social networks, education, learning and teaching influences, possible security threats to be encountered in social networks, and measures to be taken. It is hoped that working in this context will shed light on the work of learners, teachers and decision makers on the subject.
New genetic loci that control susceptibility and symptoms of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in inbred mice.

Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), the principal animal model of multiple sclerosis, is a genetically determined phenotype. In this study, analyses of the cumulative disease frequencies in parental, F1 hybrid, and F2 mice, derived from the EAE-susceptible SJL/J strain and the EAE-resistant B10.S/DvTe strain, confirmed that susceptibility to EAE is not inherited as a simple Mendelian trait. Whole genome scanning, using 150 informative microsatellite markers and a panel of 291 affected and 390 unaffected F2 progeny, revealed significant linkage of EAE susceptibility to marker loci on chromosomes 7 (eae4) and 17, distal to H2 (eae5). Quantitative trait loci for EAE severity, duration, and onset were identified on chromosomes 11 (eae6, and eae7), 2 (eae8), 9 (eae9), and 3 (eae10). While each locus reported in this study is important in susceptibility or disease course, interactions between marker loci were not statistically significant in models of genetic control. One locus, eae7, colocalizes to the same region of chromosome II as Orch3 and Idd4, susceptibility loci in autoimmune orchitis and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, respectively. Importantly, eae5 and eae7 are syntenic with human chromosomes 6p21 and 17q22, respectively, two regions of potential significance recently identified in human multiple sclerosis genome scans.
Module dynamique et frottement intérieur dans le bois : mesures sur poutre flottantes en vibrations naturelles

Le bois, en raison de sa structure particuliere et de sa composition polymerique, est regarde comme un materiau orthotrope cylindrique et viscoelastique lineaire, dans le domaine des petites perturbations. Ce memoire presente une methode experimentale de mesure du module dynamique d'un materiau, basee sur l'interpretation du spectre des frequences en vibrations naturelles d'une poutre. En flexion, l'influence de la deformabilite en cisaillement etant prise en compte lors du de��pouillement, la procedure s'applique de maniere fiable et reproductible a toute poutre droite de section rectangulaire, y compris les eprouvettes normalisees pour les essais mecaniques sur le bois et ses derives. L’amortissement des memes vibrations naturelles fait l'objet d'une seconde procedure experimentale. La grandeur caracteristique des frottements interieurs est le decrement logarithmique, qui est calcule par ajustement sur l'enveloppe d'un mouvement propre. La chaine d'acquisition commune aux deux procedures est composee d'un enregistreur numerique de transitoires, couple a un micro-ordinateur type PC, pour lequel des programmes specifiques ont ete developpes
New predictive factors of poor response to therapy in autoimmune hepatitis: role of mean platelet volume

Background and objectives The response to immunosuppressive therapy in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a matter of debate. The aim of this work is to identify the histological, biochemical, and clinical predictive factors of incomplete response/treatment failure to the standard treatment (prednisone with or without azathioprine) in a well-characterized series of AIH Egyptian patients. Patients and methods Of 49 AIH patients, only 36 patients completed this retrospective cohort study. The immunological, biochemical, histopathological, and clinical characteristics of patients were evaluated at diagnosis and during follow-up. Results Patients were classified into two groups; group A showed a complete response to therapy (n=22; 61%) and group B showed partial response/treatment failure (n=14; 39%). In a multivariate analysis, we observed that age at diagnosis up to 22 years [odds ratio (OR): 23.22; confidence interval (CI): 3.978–135.549; P<0.001], serum albumin up to 3.2 g/dl (OR: 5.36; CI: 1.237–23.209; P=0.025), mean platelet volume (MPV) of at least 10.75 fl (OR: 16.5; CI: 3.093–88.037; P<0.001), and presence of cirrhosis at diagnosis (OR: 8.44; CI: 1.682–42.392; P=0.001) were independent variables that can predict partial response/treatment failure. MPV correlated positively with stages of fibrosis/cirrhosis and grades of activity in liver biopsy at diagnosis and correlated inversely with serum albumin and age at presentation. During therapy, group B showed a fluctuation in MPV levels, however, group A showed a progressive decline until the end point. Conclusion Our study confirmed that younger age, hypoalbuminemia, increased MPV, and cirrhosis at diagnosis were all independent predictors of incomplete response/treatment failure in AIH patients. MPV may reflect the response to therapy.
Do We Live in the Best of All Possible Worlds? The Fine-Tuning of the Constants of Nature

Our existence depends on a variety of constants which appear to be extremely fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life as we know it. These include the number of spatial dimensions, the strengths of the forces, the masses of the particles, the composition of the Universe, and others. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the death of G.W. Leibniz, we discuss the question of whether we live in the “Best of all possible Worlds”. The hypothesis of a multiverse could explain the mysterious fine tuning of so many fundamental quantities. Anthropic arguments are critically reviewed.
The Role of Biological Anthropology in Easter Island Research

Introduction Given the intense archaeological study of Easter Island over the past forty years, it is surprising that very little research has been conducted on the biological aspects of the prehistoric Rapanui. The lack of research is doubly surprising since the origins of the Rapanui have been debated since the earliest archaeologists visited the island. However, thanks to the large database assembled by George W. Gill and associates at the University of Wyoming as well as recent mtDNA research conducted by Erika Hagelberg, the field of biological anthropology is beginning to take a more prominent position in Easter Island research. This paper reviews previous bioanthropological studies and explores some current research directions. The study of the prehistoric Rapanui is important for two primary reasons. First, by examining the prehistoric Rapanui a better understanding of Easter Island prehistory will be attained. The best indicators of Rapanui origins are the prehistoric Rapanui themselves. Second, Easter Island presents an ideal setting to gain a better understanding of the processes of human evolution, including drift, bottlenecks, selection, mutation and gene flow. This is due to tbe isolation of Easter Island, located approximately 1,400 miles from Pitcairn Island and 2,400 miles from Rapa in the west and 2,300 miles from the South American continent in the east. Assuming these distances restricted return voyaging, the isolatIOn of Easter Island should have served to severely restrict gene flow from outside sources after initial colonization. In addition, relatively uniform environmental conditions throughout the island should have limited the effects of differential selection; the geography of the island ensures that no physical barriers exist to limit gene flow from one group on the island to another (Easter Island is only about 62 sq. miles and with a maximum elevation of 1,674 feet); and there is a relatively large database available for analysis. All theoretical expectations would suggest that the Rapanui should represent a homogeneous population, while any deviation from this would indicate that some cultural or biological differentiation or gene flow from outside sources occurred.
Particle Swarm Optimization Performance for Unconstrained Optimization Problems

Particle swarm Optimization (PSO) is mainly inspired by social behavior patterns of organisms that live and interact within large groups. The term PSO refers to a relatively new family of algorithms that is used to find optimal or near to optimal solutions to numerical and qualitative problems. It is an optimization paradigm that simulates the ability of human to process knowledge. The capability of PSO method to address the maximization and minimization unconstrained problems is investigated through numerous experiments on different test problems. Results obtained are reported. The two variants PSO-IW (Inertia Weight) and PSO-IC (Inertia weight and Constriction factor) are used for the experiments. Conclusions are derived. These variants exhibit different performance for different test problems.
Molecular biology of the pituitary gonadotropins.

Introduction THE pituitary gonadotropins, LH and FSH, play a central role in the mammalian reproductive process. Synthesized in the gonadotropes of the pituitary, the gonadotropins bind to receptors in the gonads leading to effects on steroidogenesis and gametogenesis (Fig. 1). Because these hormones are responsible for sexual maturation and normal reproductive function, the regulation of their synthesis and secretion is essential for the preservation of a species. In recent years, a great deal has been learned about the regulation of synthesis of the gonadotropins using the tools of molecular biology. Before we can fully appreciate these new insights, however, it is important to understand the complex structure of the gonadotropins and to summarize what is known about the regulation of their secretion. In this review, we will discuss the structure of the gonadotropin subunits, the structure of the genes that encode them, and the regulation of their secretion and synthesis.