Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An assessment of conspicuous traffic signals: mast arms

Traffic signal conspicuity is likely to be a factor behind difficulties in detecting traffic signals. There is increasing interest in South Australia in providing mast arm mounted traffic signals at intersections to increase traffic signal conspicuity and reduce specific crash types. This report aims to review best practice principles in the conspicuity of traffic signals and determine the extent to which poor conspicuity of traffic signals contributes to crashes at signalised intersections. Without any recent Australian studies, it is difficult to determine the extent to which crashes result from a failure to detect traffic signals. According to best practice principles, the installation of additional traffic signals on mast arms at intersections has potential to improve traffic signal conspicuity. The second aim of this report is to attempt to quantify any road safety benefits in terms of crash reductions for installing additional signals, specifically traffic signals on mast arms at intersections. Research evidence from a number of evaluations shows that the installation of mast arms at intersections is associated with effects ranging from an estimated 89 per cent reduction in the total number of crashes to a 21 per cent increase in crashes. The greatest crash reductions were reported for right angle crashes (15-100%) while left turn crashes (equivalent to right turn in Australia) were associated with small crash reductions. Although this review shows that mast arms were associated with some crash reductions, it is important to note that these findings are not conclusive as many of the evaluations suffered from poor methodological design. 31 pages: http://casr.adelaide. edu.au/casrpubfile/754/CASR042.pdf
Electro-optic effect in He+-implanted optical waveguides in LiNbO3

The electro-optic coefficient r13 of LiNbO3 has been measured at DC, using a phase modulator fabricated using He+ ion implantation, and has produced a mean value for r13 of (8.13 ± 0.4)×10? 12 mV? 1, which is ~20% lower than previously reported values measured using modulators fabricated using other waveguide technologies.
Genetic diversity in Capsicum and Solanum genotypes based on morphoagronomic characters

: The genus Capsicum displays a wide genetic variability and studies focusing on diversity among genotypes are used in breeding programs. This study aimed to estimate the genetic variability based on morphoagronomic descriptors of pepper genotypes. The experiment was installed in a completely randomized design with 12 treatments and five replicates. The genotypes were evaluated for nine morphological and horticultural traits. The analysis of genetic divergence among the genotypes was determined by multivariate techniques, based on principal components and cluster analysis, via hierarchical grouping with average linkage (Unweighted Pair-Group Method using Arithmetic Mean - UPGMA). All quantitative descriptors were significant at 1 and 5% by the F-test. Principal component analysis showed that the first two major components accumulated 70% of the total variance. The UPGMA grouping method delineated five distinct groups, indicating the existence of genetic variability among the studied genotypes. The genotypes that gathered attributes of relevant ornamental value were ‘Pirâmide ornamental’, ‘Tabasco’ and ‘Malagueta’. The most promising genotypes for fresh consumption were ‘Dedo de moça’, ‘Rocoto vermelha’, ‘Rocoto amarela’ and ‘Jalapeño’. These genotypes present the potential to be used in breeding programs of pepper plants for ornamental purposes.
1-(4-Methoxyphenyl)-3-(3-phenoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one: A Diphenyl Chalcone Derivative with Potent Antitumor Activity Via Up-Regulation of p21 Gene

Background and Aim: Cancer is a disease of complex aetiology and is characterised by uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. It is a major worldwide health problem. Many natural and synthetic chalcone or their derivatives showed anticancer activities. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the anticancer activity of novel chalcone derivatives and also to establish possible mechanism of action. Materials and Methods: A series of chalcones 3-(3-phenoxyphenyl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one (2a); 1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(3-phenoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one (2b); 1-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-(3-phenoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one (2c); 1-(4-Nitro-phenyl)-3-(3-phenoxy-phenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (2d); 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(3-phenoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one(2e) were evaluated for the cytotoxic activity both in vitro and in vivo. The in vivo antitumor activity of these compounds was estimated on Daltons Ascites Lymphoma induced solid tumor model. The effect of promising compound was further analysed by flow cytometer and RT- PCR analysis. Results and Conclusion: 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(3-phenoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one and 1-(4- chlorophenyl)-3-(3-phenoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one was showed in vitro cytotoxic activity, DNA damage and antiproliferative activity. DLA induced solid tumor model suggested that 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(3- phenoxy phenyl) prop-2-en-1-one significantly reduced the tumor volume, increase the percentage tumor inhibition and reverse the haematological parameters. Flow cytometry analysis concluded that the compound induces cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase due to the over expression of p21. 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(3- phenoxy phenyl) prop-2-en-1-one may be a potential agent for cancer treatment.
Chrysin ameliorates STZ-induced diabetes in rats: possible impact of modulation of TLR4/NF-κβ pathway

Background and purpose: Growing evidence advocates that upregulation of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) has been suggested as a causative influence in the development and complications of diabetes mellitus. We aimed to study the antidiabetic activity of chrysin against streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes via down-regulation of TLR4/nuclear factor (NF-κβ)/heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) pathway as well as modulation of clusters of differentiation 4 (CD4+) in rats. Experimental approach: Fifty rats were divided into five groups (n = 10). Group I, normal rats received a single intraperitoneal injection of buffer citrate; group II, STZ-induced diabetic rats; groups III-V, diabetic rats received glimepiride (0.5 mg/kg; p.o.) or chrysin (40 and 80 mg/kg; p.o.) respectively, for 10 days. Serum samples were extracted to determine nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), and reduced glutathione (GSH), insulin, CD4+, TLR4, and NF-κβ. Pancreatic tissue samples were extracted to determine glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2). Part of the pancreas was kept in formalin for pathological studies. Findings/Results: An elevation in blood glucose, NO, and MDA serum levels and a reduction of pancreatic GLUT2 content, insulin, and GSH serum levels were observed in diabetic rats. STZ injection, also, showed an increase in serum TLR4, NF-κβ, and HSP70 levels and a reduction in serum CD4+ levels with pancreatic cells necrosis. These biochemical and histological changes were reversed in glimepiride and chrysin groups. Conclusion and implications: The present study proved that chrysin has a potent anti-diabetic effect through the elevation of insulin and GLUT2 levels, the reduction of oxidative stress, and the inflammatory pathways TLR4/NF-κβ/HSP70 with the regulation of CD4+.
8.1.4 Military and civil logistic support of humanitarian relief operations

As a result of a higher frequency of crisis situations, and due to the fact that societies become more and more vulnerable, the expenditures for humanitarian relief operations are growing. The currently available knowledge concerning humanitarian relief operations and relief logistics can be used more effective. Much knowledge is available in the humanitarian relief society and in military organizations involved in relief operations in crisis situations. The current base of knowledge is not interrelated or evaluated enough in respect to relief system effectiveness. If knowledge concerning humanitarian relief operations would be reengineered following a systems engineering, system logistics, and a more coordinative approach, humanitarian relief operations might be more effective for the same or even less money. One solutions that could benefit from integrated civil and military relief logistics knowledge and coordination of civil and military relief operations is the establishment of several relief‐hubs for one the Netherlands might prove a good location.
Burden of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Sicily, Italy: Estimates from the Regional Point Prevalence Surveys 2016–2018

An assessment of the burden of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) is useful for comparing and ranking HAIs and to support infection prevention and control strategies. We estimated the burden of healthcare-associated pneumoniae (HAP), bloodstream infection (HA BSI), urinary tract infection (HA UTI), and surgical site infection (SSI) in Sicily, Italy. We used data from 15,642 patients aged 45 years and above, identified during three repeated point prevalence surveys (PPSs) conducted from 2016 to 2018 according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control protocol. The methodology of the Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe project was employed. The selected HAIs accounted for 8424 DALYs (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 7394–9605) annually in Sicily, corresponding to 344 DALYs per 100,000 inhabitants aged 45 years and above (95% UI: 302–392). Notably, more than 60% of the burden was attributable to HAP, followed by HA BSI, SSI, and HA UTI. The latter had the lowest burden despite a relatively high incidence, whereas HA BSI generated a high burden even through a relatively low incidence. Differences between our estimates and those of European and Italian PPSs encourage the estimation of the burden of HAIs region by region.
Planar antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides as sensors for liquid substances

In this paper, we present the use of planar antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) as sensor for liquid substances. With a suitable design, a strong variation of the waveguide attenuation can be obtained by simply varying the refractive index of the cover cladding. In this configuration the waveguide acts like a vertical interferometer and can be used as an integrated refractometer. Fabrication of the device is accomplished using a silicon substrate and a process technology (PECVD) that is fully compatible with bipolar and CMOS IC processes. Preliminary measurements, performed using a flow cell clamped onto the surface of the sensor and filled with the analyte, show the validity of the approach.
A Measurement of Vehicle Attitude Using Single Tri-Axial Acceleration Transducer Based on ANN

Vehicle bodywork attitude measurement has been important in automotive technology. This paper presents a non-gyro bodywork attitude measurement program. Using a three-axis acceleration sensor output real-time body posture through BP neural network. Program skillfully made physical model and the algorithm simple according to the characteristics of motor cars. Taking advantage of the nonlinear function learning and generalization ability of ANN, the system made the input three-axis inertial acceleration values of harmful components filtered so as to mapoutput Attitude. And finally, it presents the data of experiments. By taking full advantage of ANN which precessing in parallel, and good at dealing with problem uncertainty, this program provides a solution of calculating real-time bodywork attitude, while with minimal hardware overhead.
Performance Measurement System for Sustainable Supply Chain Management

In recent years the topic of sustainable supply chain has received dramatic attention and become an important research area. These days there are some new challenges which companies should consider them such as climate changes, the negative effect of downturn, face the growing attention of people to ecology. In order to evaluate the sustainability performance measurement system becomes an important tool to assess the sustainability on environmental, social and economy aspect of supply chain management. For making the business case for sustainability issues in supply chain, it is critical to call for effective performance measurement system and metrics development.
Pulse ratio modulator design via sliding mode approach

In this paper a sliding mode approach is proposed to analyze and design two different switching schemes: the pulse ratio modulator and the hysteresis current regulator. The problem of the possible presence in the voltage modulator of a low bandwidth transducer, is overcome by means of a suitable feedback compensation. A current regulator scheme which needs the knowledge of only the fundamental current harmonic is also presented and compared with the usual hysteresis one. Several simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. <<ETX>>
The Estimate Model Improvement of Software Cost Based on Fuzzy Matrix Technology

Combining the current situation of China's domestic software enterprises, the cost driving factors of COCOMO model is improved to enhance the the accuracy of the estimate results by the fuzzy matrix method in this paper. In virtue of fuzzy matrix and fuzzy linear transformation, not only the fuzzy comprehensive ablity’s quantitative value is got, but also sigle fuzzy ability’s quantitative value is got. The type of software personnel can be distinguished by comparing the fuzzy integrated ability assessing valur of software personnel with pre-set threshold, enhancing the the accuracy of the estimate results.
Sulfur Isotope Constraints on the Petrogenesis of the Kimberley Kimberlites

Cretaceous kimberlites in southern Africa have been suggested to host deeply subducted material in their mantle sources based on radiogenic isotope systematics. However, potential subducted material contributions to the volatile budget, including sulfur, of these kimberlites is unclear. Here we report new petrographic, geochemical, and isotopic data on sulfides and sulfates in sub‐volcanic kimberlites from Kimberley, South Africa. The examined kimberlites were divided into four groups based on their sulfide mineralogy, sulfur contents, and isotopic compositions. None of these groups exhibit clear signs of mass‐independent fractionation. Three samples contain sphalerite, have moderate bulk‐sulfide S concentrations (203–329 μg/g) and highly negative bulk‐sulfide δ34S values (−10 to −13‰). Four samples have moderate‐to‐high bulk‐sulfide S contents (220–745 μg/g), positive δ34Ssulfide values (+0.2 to +14‰), and contain galena, pyrite or secondary Cu‐sulfides as the dominant sulfides. These groups of S‐rich kimberlites were probably contaminated by fluids sourced from local country rocks. The remaining eight samples contain negligible amounts of crustal sulfides (e.g., sphalerite, galena), have lower bulk‐sulfide S concentrations (≤111 μg/g), and display a different δ34Ssulfide range (−5.7 to +1.1‰) compared to the S‐rich groups. By considering only the five samples with fresh primary Cu‐Fe‐Ni sulfides, the δ34S range contracts to between −5.7 and −3.4‰, which is considered representative of the mantle source composition. This range indicates the presence of a deeply recycled sedimentary component in the melt source. The combination of detailed sulfide petrography and S isotope geochemistry in fresh kimberlite rocks provides a further tool to investigate mantle chemical geodynamics through time.
A Principal Component Analysis Based Fault Detection Method in Etch Process of Semiconductor Manufacturing

A Principal Component Analysis based Fault Detection method is proposed here to detect faults in etch process of semiconductor manufacturing. The main idea of this method is to calculate the loading vector and build the fault detection model according to training data. Using this model, the main information of fault data can be obtained immediately and easily. Also the principal component subspace and residual subspace can be constructed. Then, faults are detected by calculating Squared Prediction Error. Finally, an industrial example of Lam 9600 TCP metal etcher at Texas Instruments is used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed PCA-based method in fault detection, and the results show that it has such advantages as simple algorithm and low time cost, thus especially adapts to the real time fault detection of semiconductor manufacturing.
Towards A Robust Meta-Reinforcement Learning-Based Scheduling Framework for Time Critical Tasks in Cloud Environments

Container clusters play an increasingly important role in cloud computing for processing dynamic computing tasks. The resource manager (i.e., orchestrater) of the cluster automates the scheduling of the dynamic requests, effectively manages the resources' utilization across distributing infrastructure resources. For many applications, the requests to the cluster are often with restricted deadlines. The scheduling of container clusters is often tricky, especially when the cluster's size is large and the load of the requests is dynamically changing. Machine learning-based approaches such as reinforcement learning have attracted lots of research attention during the past years; However, those approaches suffer from low robustness when the requests in an operational environment are changing and different from the training data sets. This paper investigates this problem by quantifying the robustness and proposing meta-gradient reinforcement learning to improve the robustness of classical reinforcement learning-based approaches. The proposed approach can lead to better deadline guarantees and faster adaptation for time-critical task scheduling under dynamic environments. We then empirically test the benefits of our method using both real-world and synthetic data sets. The evaluation results show that the proposed method outperforms the compared RL methods in scheduling performance and robustness.
Effects of Guanidinoacetic Acid Supplementation on Productive Performance, Pectoral Myopathies, and Meat Quality of Broiler Chickens

Simple Summary Genetic selection for rapid growth is accompanied with challenges in meat quality such as pectoral myopathies, which lead to downgrading of breast muscle and economic losses for slaughterhouses. This experiment evaluated the effects of guanidinoacetic acid supplementation at rate of 0%, 0.06%, and 0.12% on the productive performance and meat quality of broiler chickens. Result showed that wooden breast was manifested by low creatine and high ultimate pH, and more associated with heavy birds. Guanidinoacetic acid supplementation increased muscle glycogen, reduced the ultimate pH, and reduced the incidence of wooden breast severity. In conclusion, guanidinoacetic acid can be used in broiler diets to improve the productive performance without exacerbating pectoral myopathy or affecting meat quality. Abstract The effects of guanidinoacteic acid (GAA) supplementation on productive performance, pectoral myopathies, and meat quality of broilers were studied. Treatments consisted of corn/soybean-based diets with a GAA supplement (0%, 0.06%, and 0.12%). A total of 546 one-day-old Ross-308 males were randomly allocated to 42 floor pens with 14 replicates (13 birds/pens) for each treatment. The results showed that GAA at doses of 0.06% and 0.12% improved feed conversion, increased the percentage of normal breast, and decreased the severity of wooden breast. Breast muscle myopathy severity was positively correlated with heavy birds and negatively correlated with breast muscle creatine and glycogen. Breast muscle creatine and glycogen correlated positively with normal, less severe pectoral myopathies and meat quality. In conclusion, GAA supplementation improved broiler performance without exacerbating pectoral myopathy or affecting meat quality.
Lupus Vasculitis: An Overview

Lupus vasculitis (LV) is one of the secondary vasculitides occurring in the setting of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in approximately 50% of patients. It is most commonly associated with small vessels, but medium-sized vessels can also be affected, whereas large vessel involvement is very rare. LV may involve different organ systems and present in a wide variety of clinical manifestations according to the size and site of the vessels involved. LV usually portends a poor prognosis, and a prompt diagnosis is fundamental for a good outcome. The spectrum of involvement ranges from a relatively mild disease affecting small vessels or a single organ to a multiorgan system disease with life-threatening manifestations, such as mesenteric vasculitis, pulmonary hemorrhage, or mononeuritis multiplex. Treatment depends upon the organs involved and the severity of the vasculitis process. In this review, we provide an overview of the different forms of LV, describing their clinical impact and focusing on the available treatment strategies.
Increased Expression of PDGFA and RAF1 in Tumor-Derived Exosomes in Human Colorectal Cancer

Background: Overexpression of tumor markers in Extracellular vesicles (EV), especially in tumor-derived exosomes (TDEs), is implicated in metastasis. However, identifying the specific content of Ev's roles in CRC diagnosis or prognosis requires further validation by bioinformatics and clinical investigations. Methods: In the current study, we explored molecular markers shared between TDEs and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood of cancer patients to identify candidate genes involved in CRC metastasis. Common markers were analyzed in gene expression profiles of two studies (GSE31023 and GSE72577). Results: In blood samples from 20 CRC patients, the expression of candidate genes was assessed by real-time PCR in CTC, TDEs, and microvesicles (MVs), and the expression levels were correlated with clinicopathological features. To further confirm, the expression of candidate genes was investigated in exosomes derived from the parental HT-29 colorectal cancer cell line (HT-29-EXOs), and CSC-enriched spheroids (CSC-EXOs) derived thereof. Gene ontology (GO) analysis suggested platelet-derived growth factor A (PDGFA) and proto-oncogene, Serine/Threonine kinase Raf-1 (RAF1) as new CRC candidate markers in CTCs and TDEs. According to real-time PCR, expression of PDGFA (P=0.0086) and RAF1 (P=0.048) were upregulated in TDEs but significantly decreased (P=0.0001) in MVs. Furthermore, expression in CSC-EXOs (P=0.0004) was increased compared to HT-29-EXOs. Conclusion: PDGFA and RAF1 mRNA are higher in CSC-EXOs than in HT-29-EXOs, which correlates with higher expression in CSC than the primary tumor. Notably, as no increase was observed in MVs, PDGFA and RAF1 mRNA appear to be actively recruited into TDE.