Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Directional‐Dependence in Shock‐Induced Melting of FCC Metals

Shock‐induced melting in Al, Cu and Lennard‐Jones single crystals was investigated employing large‐scale non‐equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) and constant‐stress Hugoniostat simulations. The atomic interactions in Cu and Al are modeled with embedded atom method potentials. The solid and liquid Hugoniot of these materials were generated for shock propagation along the low‐index orientations: (100),(111) and (110). It is found that within sub‐nanosecond time‐scales, shock melting occurs at lower pressures (temperatures) for (110) shocks, at intermediate pressures (temperatures) for (111) and at higher pressures (temperatures) for (100) shocks.
[Successful drug therapy in Aspergillus endocarditis].

A 74-year-old man who had a weight loss of 7 kg in three months, with fever up to 38 degrees C and anaemia (Hb 9.4 g/dl) began to have pain and blue discoloration of fingers II-V of the right hand. Echocardiography demonstrated vegetation on the aortic valve cusps and blood culture grew Aspergillus fumigatus, indicating Aspergillus endocarditis. There were no predisposing factors. Valve replacement was contraindicated because of the age of the patient, the presence of peripheral arterial disease, and previous myocardial infarction. Treatment was started with amphotericin B i.v. (dosage increasing to 50 mg daily) and 1.5 g daily of flucytosine by mouth, to a total of 1.1 g amphotericin B and 41.5 g flucytosine in five weeks. During this time there was a gradual decrease in symptoms and the valve vegetations. Nine months later there has been no recurrence.
Phytolith evidence for the terrestrial plant component at the Lapita Reber-Rakival site on Watom Island, Papua New Guinea

Analysis of phytoliths in sediments from Kainapirina (SAC) locality in the Reber-Rakival Lapita site on Watom Island, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, directly confirms and expands on the types of terrestrial plants, both domestic and natural, identified in the cultural and ashfall deposits of c. 400 cal. B.C. to A.D. cal. 650 found at the site. A significant new finding is that evidence for banana cultivation throughout that period can be associated with both former and additional confirmatory evidence for the growing of coconut and Canarium nut trees plus a range of new plants. Gardening activity alternating with fallow is also strongly suggested by the types of natural tree cover at the conclusion of that occupation sequence and the garden soils lying just below the primary seventh century A.D. Rabaul volcanic ashfall. Taken with the hypothesized existence of pig husbandry, which is based on a previous analysis of faunal remains, as well as information about diet derived from the study of stable isotopes and trace elements present in the human bones from the burials, there is a strong case that arboriculture and horticulture formed a major component of the late-Lapita and immediately post-Lapita economy at this site.
Modeling Frictional Characteristics of Water Flowing Through
 Microchannel

The present study aims at modeling the real random rough surface of a microchannel with structured rough channel of known geometric parameters. The surface of the microchannel is created by sinusoidal function using MATLAB code and 2D simulation of the model is carried out with commercial software ANSYS Fluent. The height of the channel is varied from 100 to 250 μm and length of the channel is 12.5 mm. The range of Reynolds number selected for analysis is 100 to 500 with water as the fluid medium. The roughness height is selected within the range of actual manufacturing roughness level of microchannels. The results show that channel geometry has significant influence on flow characteristics. A new non-dimensional roughness parameter β, is proposed to represent the dependence of friction factor on geometric parameters in the laminar region. A correlation for flow friction is developed as a function of roughness parameter and Reynolds number.
Use of bacteriophages as tracers for the study of removal of viruses.

Surface waters used for recharging aquifers are commonly contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. To produce safe drinking water from replenished aquifers, these pathogens need to be removed. This occurs as a result of the passage of surface water through soil if an adequate travel time (or distance) is reached. Removal of pathogenic viruses under field conditions cannot be studied directly because contamination levels after removal are too low to be measured. Also, only in exceptional situations is permission obtained to seed pathogenic viruses in the field. Therefore, model viruses, such as bacteriophages, that are not pathogenic but are representative of the transport behaviour of pathogenic viruses, are commonly used. In this paper, properties of MS2, a commonly used tracer virus, are described. Results of a field study and laboratory experiments are presented and modelled.
Advanced QoS provisioning in IP networks: the European premium IP projects

This article describes the current evolution of QoS architectures, mechanisms, and protocols in the Internet, as it is ongoing in the framework of the European Union funded research projects on premium IP networks. A short review of the proposed standard approaches to QoS (e.g., differentiated services, integrated services, and label switching technologies) is given. Then we focus on the state-of-the-art architectures, mainly based on DiffServ concepts. Several issues arise when trying to implement these architectures in the real world: QoS aspects, network monitoring of the offered QoS, and end-user control of received QoS. The article then discusses the existing results and the current direction of European research and development in these areas.
Exploring the value of a resource across business contexts

Scholars are increasingly recognizing the importance of contextual elements in determining the value of resources in business to business markets. This value, in fact, depends from how resources are used and combined within different interaction contexts. To stress this point, the concept of value in context has been recently developed; however, it is quite common that resources move from one context to another one. Given the multiplicity of contexts a resource is used this paper is aimed at identifying the key elements that determine the value in use of a resource across different contexts. Empirically, we studied the case of Gottifredi Maffioli Group (GMG), a company that operates in the business of ropes for yachting and which is moving to other business exploring new application of the rope. In particular, we made 47 interviews in the company’s business network. The study will find out that considering the value of a resource across contexts implies managing some key elements: technological aspects, meanings associated to the resource, the value for the user, and to activate the network.
COBRA: a new European research project for organic plant breeding. In: Conference Booklet - Breeding for Nutrient Efficiency - Joint Meeting of EUCARPIA Section Organic & Low-Input Agriculture and EU NUE-CROPS Project

Development of organic plant breeding and seed production will have a valuable impact on organic plant production. Breeding of plant material adapted for organic agriculture is crucial in order to cope with stresses such as climate change, weeds and seed borne diseases. Conventional varieties may not meet the specific needs of organic agriculture. The use of plant material adapted to conditions of organic agriculture will have a positive effect on the productivity and sustainability of organic crop production.
Relations between streamflow indices, rainfall characteristics and catchment physical descriptors for flash flood events

Flash flood is a very intense and quick hydrologic response of a catchment to rainfall. This phenomenon has a high spatial-temporal variability as the generating storm often hits small catchments (few km²). Given the small spatial temporal scales and high variability of flash floods, their prediction remains a hard exercise as the necessary data are often scarce. This study investigates the potential of hydrologic indices at different scales to improve understanding of flash floods dynamics and characterize catchment response in a model independent approach. These hydrologic indices gather information on hydrograph shape or catchment dynamic for instance and are useful to examine catchment signature in function of their size. Results show that for middle-size (>100 km²) catchments response shape can be correlated to storm cell position within the catchment contrarily to smaller catchments. In a multi-scale point of view, regional characteristics about catchment geomorphology or rainfall field statistics should provide useful insight to find pertinent hydrologic response indices. The combined use of these indices with a physically-based distributed modelling could facilitate calibration on ungauged catchments.
Image steganography based on digital holography and saliency map

Abstract. A gray-level intensity image can be employed as a host image for hiding a watermark image to protect information security. Past research works demonstrate that a gray-level hidden image can be embedded into the host image by a digital phase-only holography method. However, the fidelity of retrieved watermark image from the host image is not very satisfactory and the host image quality is degraded due to the insertion of external data bits, especially when observers focus on the saliency regions in the host image. To address this problem, we propose a steganography method based on digital holography and the saliency map of the host image. First, we calculate the hidden capacity (number of bits to be replaced) for each host image pixel based on the weighted sum of pixel intensity and saliency value. Next, a multilevel phase-only digital hologram of the watermark image will be calculated by the Gerchberg–Saxton method under the constraint of the hidden capacity of host image. Finally, we embedded the multilevel phase-only digital hologram into the host image by replacing a corresponding number of bits in each pixel. In this way, the host image can preserve good image fidelity for its saliency regions even if we hide a large amount of digital hologram data into the host image. The experimental results show that the quality of retrieved watermark image from the host image and the quality of saliency regions in the watermarked host image, in our proposed scheme, are superior to the state-of-the-art works reported.
Biodiversity, carbon storage and dynamics of old northern forests

Forests play a key role in the global climate system. The Nordic countries have extensive forests with large and growing tree biomass that captures substantial amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Nordic forests are also important for biodiversity, with complex ecosystems providing habitats for about half of all known native species and threatened species in Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Forests also supply the basis for the economically important forest sector. In this report we review current knowledge on the role of old forests in the carbon cycle, their natural dynamics and importance for biodiversity. Based on evidence in the literature, it is clear that old forests continue to accumulate carbon for a long time, well past the normal logging age. The carbon uptake of old forests represents an important co-benefit for the well-documented value of old forests for biodiversity.
Habitat Suitability Index Models: Ruffed Grouse

This is one of the first reports to be published in the new "Biological Repor-t" series. This technical report series, published by the Research and Deve 1opment branch of the U. S. Fi sh and Wil dl He Servi ce, replaces the "FWS/OBS" series published from 1976 to September 1984. The Biological Report series is designed for the rapid publication of reports with an application orientation, and it continues the focus of the FWS/OBS series on resource management issues and fish and wildlife needs. Habitat models are designed for a wide variety of planning applications where habitat information is an important consideration in the decision process. However, it is impossible to develop a model that performs equally well in all situations. Assistance from users and researchers is an important part of the model improvement process. Each model is published individually to facilitate updating and reprinting as new information becomes avai lable. User feedback on model performance will assist in improving habitat models for future applications. Please complete this form following apo l i ce t i on or review of the model. Feel free to include additional information that may be of use to either a model developer or model user. We also would appreciate information on model testing, modification, and application, as well as copies of modified models or test results. Please return this form to:
Testing First Order Autocorrelation: A Simple Parametric Bootstrap Approach to Improve Over the Standard Tests

SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT To test the existence of first order autocorrelation, the most commonly used method is the Durbin-Watson Test (DWT), and almost all math-stat software/packages have DWT built in them. However, it should be noted that the DWT is a very conservative test and has a very poor power performance for small to moderate sample sizes, apart from being inconclusive sometimes. On this note, we propose a parametric bootstrap (PB) approach to improve upon the DWT. It shows substantial improvements in size and power, even for small samples. It was found that our proposed PB tests perform better than the Lagrange Multiplier Test (LMT), another popular test often used in lieu of the DWT. Hopefully, this work will encourage further interest on this topic, as auto-regression models are widely used in business and economics.
Low‐income families: experiences and responses to consumer exclusion

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on low‐income families who are excluded from consumer culture. It explores their experiences and responses to material deprivation, social deprivation and stigmatization.Design/methodology/approach – Given the need for identification and calculation of exclusion thresholds to be supplemented by the voice of the excluded themselves, the study is based on qualitative analysis of 30 in‐depth interviews with low‐income families who encounter consumption constraints in the marketplace.Findings – While the harsh realities of consumer exclusion cannot be denied, findings also present a more positive outlook as excluded consumers can achieve empowerment through employment of stigma management strategies, creative consumer coping and rejection of the stigmatizing regime.Research limitations/implications – Research is based only on families with children under the age of 18; future research on older people and exclusion would prove a useful comparison.Practical implic.
MRI Glicoma Tumor Segmentation with U-NET

1. Abstract Manual tumor segmentation is labor intensive and often-times results in disagreements and mistakes among clinicians. Ideally, if a model were able to more accurately segment tumor tissue from MRI images there could be an increase in patient health and longevity in those diagnosed with glioma. The current standard for medical image segmentation is the U-NET, which is able to extract semantic information while retaining structural integrity of the image. In this project, we present an improved U-NET architecture for glioma segmentation using images from the MICCAI BraTS 2020 dataset. We expand upon the existing U-NET adding VGG16 and VGG19 structures to the existing model layout. Through this addition, data augmentation and regularization techniques, we achieve superior model performance which outperforms the Support Vector Machine and basic U-NET baseline methods. A dice score of 0.65 on the test set indicates that our model achieves promising segmentation results. Future research into elastic deformations, spatially adaptive normalization techniques, and transfer learning are necessary.
A Formal Definition of Object-Action Complexes and Examples at Different Levels of the Processing Hierarchy

In this report the authors define and describe the concept of Object-Action Complexes and give some examples. OACs combine the concept of affordance with the computational efficiency of STRIPS. Affordance is the relation between a situation and the action that it allows. OACs are proposed as a framework for representing actions, objects and the learning process that constructs such representations at all levels. Formally, an OAC is defined as a triplet, composed of a unique ID, a predition function that codes the systems belief on how the world (which is defined as a kind of global attribute space) will change after applying the OAC and a statisical measure representing the success of an OAC. The prediction function is thereby a mapping within the global attribute space. The measurement captures the accuracy of this prediction function and describes the reliability of the OAC. Therefore, it can be used for optimal decision making, predicion of the outcome of a certain action and learning.
Study on Cardiovascular and Respiratory Responses Relevant to Tactile Softness Evaluation – Based on ECG and PPG Analysis –

: The main purpose of this study is to explore physiological parameters that are usable for tactile softness differentiation. Two pillows and a cushion which were different in tactile softness (perceived compressibility and resilience) were chosen as the samples. 10 healthy students participated in the physiological test. Each of them was tested on three days, twice a day with the same sample involved. Each subject was required to keep quiet, compress the sample and keep quiet again in succession during a whole test. ECG (electrocardiography), PPG (photoplethysmography) and RSP (respiration) signals were recorded simultaneously during each physiological test. Several parameters indicating cardiovascular and respiratory reactions were calculated based on these signals. The statistical analysis results revealed that, HFnorm (normalized power of high-frequency components) calculated from the power spectrum of PWTT (pulse wave transmitting time) might be a very promising parameter which can be used for tactile softness differentiation.
Development and application of simple water balance models to understand the relationship between climate and water resources

Simple water balance models, one linear and analytic the other nonlinear and numerical, show that runoff is highly sensitive to the range of climatic change expected to be caused by increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In the southeastern quadrant of the U.S. arid places will be much more affected than humid; low flows, more than high. Water resources are more sensitive to precipitation change than to potential évapotranspiration.
Larger Posterior Mode Wavelet Thresholding and Applications

This paper explores the thresholding rules induced by a variation of the Bayesian MAP principle. The MAP rules are Bayes actions that maximize the posterior. The proposed rule is thresholding and always picks the mode of the posterior larger in absolute value, thus the name LPM. We demonstrate that the introduced shrinkage performs comparably to several popular shrinkage techniques. The exact risk properties of the thresholding rule are explored, as well. We provide extensive simulational analysis and apply the proposed methodology to real-life experimental data coming from the field of Atomic Force Microscopy.
2017 National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support

Purpose The purpose of this study is to review the literature for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) to ensure the National Standards for DSMES (Standards) align with current evidence-based practices and utilization trends. Methods The 10 Standards were divided among 20 interdisciplinary workgroup members. Members searched the current research for diabetes education and support, behavioral health, clinical, health care environment, technical, reimbursement, and business practice for the strongest evidence that guided the Standards revision. Results Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support facilitates the knowledge, skills, and ability necessary for diabetes self-care as well as activities that assist a person in implementing and sustaining the behaviors needed to manage their condition on an ongoing basis. The evidence indicates that health care providers and people affected by diabetes are embracing technology, and this is having a positive impact of DSMES access, utilization, and outcomes. Conclusion Quality DSMES continues to be a critical element of care for all people with diabetes. The DSMES services must be individualized and guided by the concerns, preferences, and needs of the person affected by diabetes. Even with the abundance of evidence supporting the benefits of DSMES, it continues to be underutilized, but as with other health care services, technology is changing the way DSMES is delivered and utilized with positive outcomes.
Harmonic Compensation Strategy for Extending the Operating Range of Cascaded H-Bridge PV Inverter

For single-phase cascaded H-bridge (CHB) photovoltaic (PV) inverters, all the PV modules are able to operate at the maximum power point, which is beneficial to energy harvesting. However, due to the stochastically variable irradiance level and ambient temperature, the unbalanced output powers among PV modules may cause the overmodulation of the H-bridges with higher power, ultimately resulting in a distorted grid current. In this paper, a novel harmonic compensation strategy is proposed. Compared to the existing methods, it can not only ensure that CHB inverter operates at unity power factor with small dc-bus voltage ripple but also keep the total harmonic distortion of grid current in acceptable range under some heavy power unbalance conditions, so it has a good overall performance. Simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.
A number of scientific and technical problems in intelligent transportation

Nowadays, the world is entering the age of informationization and intelligence. With the development of multilayer perception, artificial intelligence, the mobile Internet, and active collaboration techniques, the innovation of intelligent transportation systems is totally promoted. Intelligent transportation runs through user requirements, design and manufacture, operation, and maintenance of the entire life cycle of informatization and intelligence. The problems facing intelligent transportation include intelligent perception, mobile object control and active collaboration, transportation requirement induction and integrated travel, operation safety posture assessment, whole-lifecycle big data fusion processing, and highly reliable communication. This paper investigates the recent research regarding the development of intelligent transportation systems, and summarizes some scientific and technical problems in intelligent transportation systems.