Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short Cyclic Regimen With Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) Results in Prolonged Anabolic Effect Relative to Continuous Treatment Followed by Discontinuation in Ovariectomized Rats

Despite the potent effect of intermittent parathyroid hormone (PTH) treatment on promoting new bone formation, bone mineral density (BMD) rapidly decreases upon discontinuation of PTH administration. To uncover the mechanisms behind this adverse phenomenon, we investigated the immediate responses in bone microstructure and bone cell activities to PTH treatment withdrawal and the associated long‐term consequences. Unexpectedly, intact female and estrogen‐deficient female rats had distinct responses to the discontinuation of PTH treatment. Significant tibial bone loss and bone microarchitecture deterioration occurred in estrogen‐deficient rats, with the treatment benefits of PTH completely lost 9 weeks after discontinuation. In contrast, no adverse effect was observed in intact rats, with sustained treatment benefit 9 weeks after discontinuation. Intriguingly, there is an extended anabolic period during the first week of treatment withdrawal in estrogen‐deficient rats, during which no significant change occurred in the number of osteoclasts, whereas the number of osteoblasts remained elevated compared with vehicle‐treated rats. However, increases in number of osteoclasts and decreases in number of osteoblasts occurred 2 weeks after discontinuation of PTH treatment, leading to significant reduction in bone mass and bone microarchitecture. To leverage the extended anabolic period upon early withdrawal from PTH, a cyclic administration regimen with repeated cycles of on and off PTH treatment was explored. We demonstrated that the cyclic treatment regimen efficiently alleviated the PTH withdrawal‐induced bone loss, improved bone mass, bone microarchitecture, and whole‐bone mechanical properties, and extended the treatment duration. © 2021 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).
Lateral-field-excitation acoustic resonators for monolithic oscillators and filters

This paper describes a high-frequency acoustic resonator built on a low-stress silicon nitride cantilever for monolithic filters and oscillators at above 1 GHz. The unique features of our resonator include (1) usage of lateral electric field (rather than thickness-direction field) to excite bulk acoustic wave in piezoelectric ZnO film and (2) usage of surface micromachining to fabricate the resonator on silicon wafer. Our resonator is measured to have a resonant frequency of 531 MHz with Q of 738 and figure-of-merit of 207.
Electronic animal identification and organic farming

Traceability of meat and meat products is becoming increasingly important to consumers and producers, especially with regard to strengthening domestic and international customers’ confidence in the integrity of organic producers and products. The electronic identification of animals (eID) has gained in importance over the last years. Its implementation on a wider scale (obligatory and voluntary official animal identification) will improve the current traceability system for animals and food products (e.g. beef) by making it faster and more accurate. The implementation of eID is being discussed controversially, mainly because direct costs and benefits are not balanced along the production chain. For the past five years electronic animal identification has been the focus of a number of research projects at vTI (formerly FAL) including a cost-benefit analysis of cattle eID in Germany, the tolerance of eID devices in goats and additional benefits of eID (e.g. transponders with integrated temperature sensors).
The pregnant women’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review

Backgrounds: Pregnancy is a normal physiological process experienced by women. During this COVID-19 pandemic, pregnant women have atypical experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic also instigates psychological problems in the form of anxiety and depression in pregnant women. Supports are exceedingly needed by pregnant women, especially during the current pandemic. They can take several measures during their pregnancy to reduce their level of anxiety.Objective of the study: To review evidence related to pregnant women’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.Review methods: This scoping review method begins with identifying scoping review questions using PEO framework; identifying relevant articles chosen based on inclusion and exclusion criteria; searching for articles using databases, namely EBSCO, PubMed, Science Direct, and Wiley Online Library; selecting articles of which search flow is described through PRISMA Flowchart; performing data charting and critical appraisal; and compiling and reporting results.Results: Based on 8 chosen articles, 7 articles are marked grade A in quantitative research design non-randomized (5), quantitative descriptive (1), qualitative (1), and 1 article is marked grade B in quantitative descriptive research design. Furthermore, there are 3 obtained themes, including psychological conditions, coping strategies and the pregnant women's needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic affects the pregnant women’s experiences due to the emergence of psychological responses in the form of anxiety, depression and fear. One of coping strategies carried out by pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic is by doing physical activities such as exercising, doing their hobbies, thinking positively and finding out information. Social supports and accurate information obtained help pregnant women to overcome their anxiety.
Overall Media Use and ADHD-Related Behaviors Among Children in China: A Meta-Analysis

There are several theoretical reasons to believe that overall media use might be related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or ADHD-related behaviors (i.e., attention problems, hyperactivity, and impulsivity). Although studies on media-ADHD relationship have accumulated, they have yielded inconsistent results, especially those from different countries. Therefore, it is still undisclosed whether children’s overall media use and ADHD-related behaviors are related to region and culture. A meta-analysis has been performed on three empirical studies investigating the relationship between overall media use and ADHD-related behaviors in children and adolescents from China. The results indicated significant relationship between overall media use and ADHD-related behaviors, OR = 2.597.
High frequency switched capacitor FIR filters using parallel cyclic type circuits

A novel transversal FIR switched capacitor circuit, called the parallel cyclic type, for high-frequency with low power consumption is presented. The circuit is constructed with several sublocks without an operational amplifier in parallel and a summing operational amplifier, in which a single active subblock moves from one subblock to another cyclically. The circuit has a significantly improved high-frequency performance. Consideration is given to the reduction of the number of capacitors and extension of the filter operating frequency range to a higher frequency. Experimental results are given. <<ETX>>
The impact of sliding motion and current load on the deterioration of tin-coated contact terminals

The deterioration of tin-coated connectors is mainly caused by macro wear during insertion/withdrawal and fretting during operation. The focal point of this macro-wear study is the increase in the contact resistance when the pure-tin layer is removed and the rider slides on the hard and uneven intermetallic compound, which is referred to as Stage II. Stage II has been divided into two "sub-stages", referred to as Stage IIa and Stage IIb, with the transition point between the two defined by a sharp rise in the magnitude of the voltage drop. The transition between Stages Ila and IIb ranged between 70-130 mV, independent of current load. The upper and lower ends of this range correspond to the softening and melting voltage of tin respectively. The sliding speed has a significant effect on the deterioration during Stage IIa, while the current load does not significantly influence the deterioration as long as the electrically-induced heat is low. In this study an outline of an oxidation model is proposed for describing the deterioration during Stage IIa, and to determine an oxidation constant. Furthermore, the length of duration of Stage IIa can be derived and expressed simply as the inverted value of the oxidation constant.
Towards virtual prototyping of complex-shaped multi-layered apparel

Cloth virtual prototyping has recently become a topic of increasing interest both in computer graphics and computer aided design for industrial fabric or apparel production. Aiming at an accurate garment shape simulation, this paper presents a physics-based system for virtual cloth design and simulation specifically conceived for design purpose and targeted to clothing industry. This environment should allow the designer/modelist to validate her/his style and design options through the analysis of garment virtual prototypes and simulation results in order to reduce the number and role of physical prototypes. To this end, it has been defined a complete physics-based model for complex apparel incorporating aspects related to garment shape and structure (e.g., 2D profiles of basic patterns and multi-layered parts), mechanical/physical properties of fabric and multi-layered parts, and design and manufacturing processes (e.g., ironing, starching). The garment physic-based model has been developed upon the particle-based model embedded in constrained Newtonian dynamics and collision management. The system has been validated within European and national projects simulating several female and male garments with different levels of design complexities and directly provided from involved clothing companies.
Multi-Targeted Approaches and Drug Repurposing Reveal Possible SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is unprecedented in recent memory owing to the non-stop escalation in number of infections and deaths in almost every country of the world. The lack of treatment options further worsens the scenario, thereby necessitating the exploration of already existing US FDA-approved drugs for their effectiveness against COVID-19. In the present study, we have performed virtual screening of nutraceuticals available from DrugBank against 14 SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Molecular docking identified several inhibitors, two of which, rutin and NADH, displayed strong binding affinities and inhibitory potential against SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Further normal model-based simulations were performed to gain insights into the conformational transitions in proteins induced by the drugs. The computational analysis in the present study paves the way for experimental validation and development of multi-target guided inhibitors to fight COVID-19.
From Semantics to Types: the Case of the Imperative lambda-Calculus

We propose an intersection type system for an imperative lambda-calculus based on a state monad and equipped with algebraic operations to read and write to the store. The system is derived by solving a suitable domain equation in the category of omega-algebraic lattices; the solution consists of a filter-model generalizing the well-known construction for ordinary lambda-calculus. Then the type system is obtained out of the term interpretations into the filter-model itself. The so obtained type system satisfies the"type-semantics"property, and it is sound and complete by construction.
Storm Surge Prediction Based on Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network in the East China Sea

As an area frequently suffering from storm surge, the Yangtze River Estuary in the East China Sea requires fast and accurate prediction of water level for disaster prevention and mitigation. Due to storm surge process being affected by the long-term and short-term correlation of multiple factors, this study attempts to introduce a data-driven idea into the water level prediction during storm surge. By collecting the observed meteorological data and water level data of 12 typhoons from 1986 to 2016 at the Lusi tidal station of Jiangsu Province, China near the north branch of the Yangtze River Estuary, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network model was constructed by using multi-factor time series to predict the water level during the storm surge period. This study concludes that the LSTM model performs precisely for 1 h prediction of water level during the storm surge period and it can provide a 15 h prediction of water level within a limited error, and the prediction performance of the LSTM model is visibly superior to the four traditional ML models by 41% in terms of Accuracy Coefficient.
Building Plane Segmentation Based on Point Clouds

Planes are essential features to describe the shapes of buildings. The segmentation of a plane is significant when reconstructing a building in three dimensions. However, there is a concern about the accuracy in segmenting plane from point cloud data. The objective of this paper was to develop an effective segmentation algorithm for building planes that combines the region growing algorithm with the distance algorithm based on boundary points. The method was tested on point cloud data from a cottage and pantry as scanned using a Faro Focus 3D laser range scanner and Matterport Camera, respectively. A coarse extraction of the building plane was obtained from the region growing algorithm. The coplanar points where two planes intersect were obtained from the distance algorithm. The building plane’s optimal segmentation was then obtained by combining the coarse extraction plane points and the corresponding coplanar points. The results show that the proposed method successfully segmented the plane points of the cottage and pantry. The optimal distance thresholds using the proposed method from the uncoarse extraction plane points to each plane boundary point of cottage and pantry were 0.025 m and 0.030 m, respectively. The highest correct rate and the highest error rate of the cottage’s (pantry’s) plane segmentations using the proposed method under the optimal distance threshold were 99.93% and 2.30% (98.55% and 2.44%), respectively. The F1 score value of the cottage’s and pantry’s plane segmentations using the proposed method under the optimal distance threshold reached 97.56% and 95.75%, respectively. This method can segment different objects on the same plane, while the random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm causes the plane to become over-segmented. The proposed method can also extract the coplanar points at the intersection of two planes, which cannot be separated using the region growing algorithm. Although the RANSAC-RG method combining the RANSAC algorithm and the region growing algorithm can optimize the segmentation results of the RANSAC (region growing) algorithm and has little difference in segmentation effect (especially for cottage data) with the proposed method, the method still loses coplanar points at some intersection of the two planes.
Assisted interpretation of infrastructure facilities from aerial imagery

The evaluation of a country's critical infrastructure requires a detailed analysis of facilities such as airfields, harbors, communication lines and heavy industry. To improve the interpretation process, an interactive support system for the interpretation of infrastructure facilities from aerial imagery is developed. The aim is to facilitate the training phase for beginners, increase the flexibility in the assignment of interpreters and improve the overall quality of the interpretation. An analysis of the approach chosen by professional interpreters has been the basis to identify critical steps which can be effectively supported by a software system. To evaluate the benefit of the system, an experimental setup is proposed.
Understanding the smartphone usage of Chinese outbound tourists in their shopping practices

ABSTRACT Chinese outbound tourist shopping was a prominent phenomenon in many destinations worldwide before the COVID-19 pandemic, but smartphone usage in it had rarely been addressed. This study draws upon social practice theory and the theory of affordances to examine how Chinese tourists use smartphones during their shopping process in Australia. Based on a combination of participant observations and semi-structured interviews, the study argues that Chinese outbound tourists use smartphones not only to improve their shopping competences but also to regulate the meaning making of their shopping practices. Further, these links are made through the actualized affordances of smartphones including, among others, looking for products based on stored images, accessing product information in Chinese, and communicating with others at home on shopping for them. This study unravels the entanglement of smartphones, Chinese outbound tourists and their shopping practices, and provides directions for maximizing the value of smartphones in shopping-related tourism management and marketing, especially to the Chinese market.
Sensing sheet: the sensitivity of thin-film full-bridge strain sensors for crack detection and characterization

Increasing concerns regarding the conditions of civil structures and infrastructure give rise to the need for efficient strategies to identify and repair structural anomalies. ‘Sensing sheets’ based on large-area electronics consist of a dense array of unit strain sensors. These are an effective and affordable structural health monitoring tool that can identify and continuously monitor the growth of cracks in structures. This paper presents a study on the quantitative relationship between crack width and strain, the latter measured by an individual sensor that would be part of a sensing sheet. We investigate the sensitivity of thin-film full-bridge strain sensors to concrete cracks by conducting laboratory experiments in temperature-controlled settings. The results show a distribution of near-linear relationships with an average sensitivity of 31 µε µm−1. Experiments were also conducted to investigate the effect of crack position and orientation with respect to the sensor, and it appears that both variables affect the sensitivity of strain sensors to cracks. Overall, this study confirms that full-bridge resistive strain sensors can successfully detect and quantify cracks in structural materials and are therefore appropriate as part of a dense array of sensors on a sensing sheet.
Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are important pathogen-carrying vectors that broadly exhibit similar habitat suitability, but that differ at fine spatial scales in terms of competitive advantage and tolerance to urban driven environmental parameters. This study evaluated how spatial and temporal patterns drive the assemblages of these competing species in cemeteries of New Orleans, LA, applying indicators of climatic variability, vegetation, and heat that may drive habitat selection at multiple scales. We found that Ae. aegypti was well predicted by urban heat islands (UHI) at the cemetery scale and by canopy cover directly above the cemetery vase. As predicted, UHI positively correlate to Ae. aegypti, but contrary to predictions, Ae. aegypti, was more often found under the canopy of trees in high heat cemeteries. Ae. albopictus was most often found in low heat cemeteries, but this relationship was not statistically significant, and their overall abundances in the city were lower than Ae. aegypti. Culex quinquefasciatus, another important disease vector, was also an abundant mosquito species during the sampling year, but we found that it was temporally segregated from Aedes species, showing a negative association to the climatic variables of maximum and minimum temperature, and these factors positively correlated to its more direct competitor Ae. albopictus. These findings help us understand the mechanism by which these three important vectors segregate both spatially and temporally across the city. Our study found that UHI at the cemetery scale was highly predictive of Ae. aegypti and strongly correlated to income level, with low-income cemeteries having higher UHI levels. Therefore, the effect of excessive heat, and the proliferation of the highly competent mosquito vector, Ae. aegypti, may represent an unequal disease burden for low-income neighborhoods of New Orleans that should be explored further. Our study highlights the importance of considering socioeconomic aspects as indirectly shaping spatial segregation dynamics of urban mosquito species.
New perturbation technique to generate split modes in electromagnetically coupled notch filters using different ring resonators

A new method for generating split modes in ring resonators, used as notch filters with three geometries (square, triangular, and circular), is introduced by varying the feed position of electromagnetically coupled feed line. The resonators are fabricated (all at 2.4 GHz nominally) on TMM4 (εr = 4.5, h = 0.762 mm) substrates and coupled electromagnetically to a 50 Ω microstrip feed line on separate TMM4 substrate. Only the latter has ground plane under it. The offset distance between the center of feed line and center of resonator is varied and changes in the resonant (notch) frequency, rejection (S21) of single and split modes are recorded at each offset position for all resonators. Experimental results are found to agree with simulated results to a greater degree for square and lesser for other two geometries. Frequency variations have much more disagreements. The angle of crossing between feed line and ring edges appears to be a critical factor. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 1747–1752, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23483
Electro-thermally actuated microgrippers with integrated force-feedback

Microfabricated grippers and tweezers are promising tools for manipulation of micro- and nanoscale objects. As with ordinary macroscale grippers, the ability to sense the forces involved in grabbing would be advantageous for controlling the operation as well as for measuring the mechanical properties of the grabbed object. A simple design is presented for an electro-thermally actuated microfabricated gripper capable of providing a piezoresistive read-out of the gripper deflection, which can be used to measure the forces applied to the grabbed object. Measurements of actuation of test devices are presented and found to be in reasonable agreement with expected values. Finally, piezoresistive measurements of the gripper deflection are demonstrated.
Strategies of portfolio investment with estimates of bull and bear markets

The financial market has non-linear patterns, with different return behavior in bull versus bear markets. This article uses multivariate model estimates to study portfolios in changing conditions, and develops investment strategies for portfolios in light of uncertainty about the bear or bull status of the stock market. Portfolios were optimized for the main stocks listed on the Brazilian market index Ibovespa. The portfolios proposed with estimates of changing market status outperformed others over the analyzed period, with rebalancing adjustments made either weekly or monthly.