Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Padrões morfológicos na venação alar de espécies de Tetragona Lepeletier & Serville, 1828 do grupo clavipes (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)

Tetragona Lepeletier & Serville, 1828 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) is a genus of stingless bees widely distributed in Brazil. It has 15 species distributed in the Neotropics, from Mexico to Uruguay, nine of which are found in Brazil. However, Tetragona elongata (Lepeletier & Serville, 1828), a species known only from the Southeast region and which had been synonymized with Tetragona clavipes (Fabricius, 1804), was revalidated without any justification. The aim of this study was to test whether the morphometrics analysis of the wings is efficient in the diagnosis of the species of this genus, in addition to testing the validity of the revalidation mentioned above. This technique was applied by accessing the right forewings of 660 workers of T. clavipes, T. elongata e T. quadrangula (Lepeletier, 1836), from five Brazilian collections. For the geometric morphometric analysis, 12 landmarks were selected. The software MorphoJ version 1.6 was used to do Discriminant Function analysis (1000 replications) and Canonical Variation Analysis (CVA). Between T. clavipes and T. elongata, there was a 100% variance between species (canonical variation analysis), suggesting that it may be an indication of speciation. Even though T. elongata has been revalidated, it still has overlapped with T. clavipes, which indicates to be the same species. Taxonomic studies are needed to synonymize them.
Effects of 12 Weeks of Strength Training and Gluten-Free Diet on Quality of Life, Body Composition and Strength in Women with Celiac Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease characterized by gluten-induced intestinal inflammation. Dietary restrictions and symptoms may have a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life, body composition (BC), and strength. This study was designed to assess the impact of an isocaloric gluten free diet and resistance exercise in women. A total of 28 Spanish women, aged 40 years old or more, took part in a randomized controlled trial. Each group received a different intervention: group 1, gluten-free nutrition plan + exercise (GFD + E); group 2, gluten-free nutrition plan (GFD); group 3, celiac controls (NO-GFD); and group 4, non-celiac controls (CONTROL). The variables studied were quality of life, BC and isometric hand strength. After 12 weeks of intervention, celiac women that followed a gluten-free diet and exercise showed higher scores on the psychological health scale than celiac women without intervention. The women in group 1 were the only ones who presented improvements in BC variables; fat mass, BMI, and fat-free mass. Negative correlations were found between the perception of quality of life and age, however a positive correlation between quality of life and isometric strength test results was found. In addition to a gluten-free diet, resistance training is essential to improve BC, strength, and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Dosimetric Evaluation of a Set of Specifically Designed Grids for Treating Subcutaneous Superficial Tumor with 6 and 18 MeV Electron Beam External Radiotherapy

Background: Conventional electron beam radiotherapy used for treating superficial cancer tumors suffers from the disadvantage of low skin sparing effect. Furthermore, increasing electron energy for treating deeper-seated tumors leads to significant increase of skin dose. To overcome this, various grids are recommended for electron beam radiotherapy of subcutaneous tumors. However, appropriate grids are required to be designed for decreasing skin dose while delivering uniform high doses to deep-seated superficial tumors. Our goal was to design, examine and propose appropriate grid(s) for optimum electron beam radiotherapy of subcutaneous tumors with the best skin sparing with 6 and 18 MeV energies.Materials and Methods: Relevant dosimetric characteristics were determined and analyzed for five grids manufactured from dry lead having various cavity diameters (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 cm) and shielded areas (0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 cm) among the cavities but the same fraction of cavity/open (68%) and shielded/closed (38%) areas under the grid plates. Isodose distributions and dose profiles resulted from the grids were investigated using EDR2 films and MATLAB software. Results: The grids with 2 and 2.5 cm diameter cavities and 0.4 and 0.5 cm shielded areas were the most appropriate grids for 6 and 18 MeV radiotherapy, respectively. With these grids, the 100% PDDs (percentage depth doses) located at 1.25 and 2.5 cm for an open filed (without the grids) were moved down to 1.87 and 5.4 cm for 6 and 18 MeV energies, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed grids provided the least peak to valley dose variations hence the most uniform doses delivered at their relevant depths of treatment. Conclusions: To decrease the skin dose in 6 and 18 MeV electron beam radiotherapy of superficial subcutaneous tumors, various home-made grids were designed and investigated. The most appropriate grids (having 2 and 2.5 cm cavity diameters for 6 and 18 MeV, respectively) provided the optimum dose delivery for superficial subcutaneous tumors locating around 1.5 and 5 cm depth for 6 and 18 MeV energies. Our comprehensive study provides reliable results that could be considered and developed more for a wider range of MeV electron grid therapies in routine clinical practices.
Pedestrian wind conditions at outdoor platforms in a high-rise apartment building: generic sub-configuration validation, wind comfort assessment and uncertainty issues

CFD is applied to evaluate pedestrian wind comfort at outdoor platforms in a high-rise apartment building. Model validation is focused on generic building sub-configurations that are obtained by decomposition of the actual complex building geometry. The comfort study is performed during the design stage, which allows structural design changes to be made for wind comfort improvement. Preliminary simulations are performed to determine the effect of different design modifications. A full wind comfort assessment study is conducted for the final design. Structural remedial measures for this building, aimed at reducing pressure short-circuiting, appear to be successful in bringing the discomfort probability estimates down to acceptable levels. Finally, the importance of one of the main sources of uncertainty in this type of wind comfort studies is illustrated. It is shown that the uncertainty about the terrain roughness classification can strongly influence the outcome of wind comfort studies and can lead to wrong decisions. This problem is present to the same extent in both wind tunnel and CFD wind comfort studies when applying the same particular procedure for terrain relation contributions as used in this paper.
A new approach to the design of complex heat transfer systems: notebook-size computer design

A new approach for solving heat-transfer problems in geometrically complex systems has been developed. The purpose of this new approach is to develop a methodology whereby the packaging designers is freed from the task of performing detailed numerical analysis. The approach utilizes templates of components and electric devices rather than working on actual components, without simulation of the detailed complex geometry. By varying the template dimensions, the effects of geometrical configurations on cooling airflow and heat-transfer can be studied systematically. The approach is applicable to heat-transfer analysis of portable computers. Available numerical analysis tools, such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes, are used to create heat-transfer databases from which fast design codes can be developed.
Stability detection of melt pool in laser cladding based on enhanced mask R-CNN

Stability detection of melt pool has become a challenging task in laser cladding, due to the high temperature and brightness during laser cladding. In this paper, an enhanced mask R-CNN for object instance segmentation of melt pool is proposed to boost the performance of detection. In order to enrich the dataset and improve the generalization of the neural network, the data enhancement method of elastic deformations is used to simulate the irregular deformation of melt pool topography caused by the interference of the external environment. Meanwhile, the MobilenetV2 structure is introduced into mask R-CNN to solve the problem of a large number of parameters and slow running speed of network model, and transformer model was used to replace the classifier of the original network. Experimental results show that the proposed method can improve testing speed by 14.7% without decreasing the segmentation accuracy. Finally, a dynamic stability detection method of melt pool is proposed in this paper.
Elucidation of the Roles of Ionic Liquid in CO2 Electrochemical Reduction to Value-Added Chemicals and Fuels

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2ER) is amongst one the most promising technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions since carbon dioxide (CO2) can be converted to value-added products. Moreover, the possibility of using a renewable source of energy makes this process environmentally compelling. CO2ER in ionic liquids (ILs) has recently attracted attention due to its unique properties in reducing overpotential and raising faradaic efficiency. The current literature on CO2ER mainly reports on the effect of structures, physical and chemical interactions, acidity, and the electrode–electrolyte interface region on the reaction mechanism. However, in this work, new insights are presented for the CO2ER reaction mechanism that are based on the molecular interactions of the ILs and their physicochemical properties. This new insight will open possibilities for the utilization of new types of ionic liquids. Additionally, the roles of anions, cations, and the electrodes in the CO2ER reactions are also reviewed.
Threshold voltage, field effect mobility, and gate-to-channel capacitance in polysilicon TFTs

Based on experimental and theoretical studies of n- and p-channel polysilicon thin film transistors with gate W/L ratios from 0.3 to 3.3, we have demonstrated that the threshold voltage extracted from gate to channel capacitance data results in field effect mobility parameters which are independent of device geometry. The parameters extracted using this V/sub t/ allow us to reproduce the I-V characteristics of the n- and p channel TFTs over wide ranges of bias voltages and gate sizes. The C/sub gc/-V/sub GS/ characteristics of polysilicon TFTs are strongly affected by the trapping and de-trapping of carriers. As a result, the measured C/sub gc/ characteristic is a function of measurement frequency and gate length. However, we demonstrate that to the first order, the frequency dispersion of the C/sub gc/ curve can be related to the effective carrier transit time determined using the V/sub GS/ dependent field effect mobility.
Red Quinoa Bran Extract Prevented Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease via Increasing Antioxidative System and Repressing Fatty Acid Synthesis Factors in Mice Fed Alcohol Liquid Diet

Alcohol is metabolized in liver. Chronic alcohol abuse results in alcohol-induced fatty liver and liver injury. Red quinoa (Chenopodium formosanum) was a traditional staple food for Taiwanese aborigines. Red quinoa bran (RQB) included strong anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory polyphenolic compounds, but it was usually regarded as the agricultural waste. Therefore, this study is to investigate the effect of water and ethanol extraction products of RQB on the prevention of liquid alcoholic diet-induced acute liver injury in mice. The mice were given whole grain powder of red quinoa (RQ-P), RQB ethanol extract (RQB-E), RQB water extract (RQB-W), and rutin orally for 6 weeks, respectively. The results indicated that RQB-E, RQB-W, and rutin decreased alcoholic diet-induced activities of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase, and the levels of serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, and hepatic triglyceride. Hematoxylin and eosin staining of liver tissues showed that RQB-E and RQB-W reduced lipid droplet accumulation and liver injury. However, ethanol extraction process can gain high rutin and antioxidative agents contents from red quinoa, that showed strong effects in preventing alcoholic fatty liver disease and liver injury via increasing superoxide dismutase/catalase antioxidative system and repressing the expressions of fatty acid synthesis enzyme acetyl-CoA carboxylase.
An intelligent guidance and control system for ship obstacle avoidance

An intelligent guidance and control system using a neurofuzzy network multi-step ahead predictor model is introduced and applied to ship obstacle avoidance, which uses only observed input/output data generated by on-board and external sensors, and a data fusion algorithm to generate the desired way points. A simple and effective way-point guidance scheme based on line of sight is derived for a data-based ship model. A neurofuzzy network predictor, based on using rudder deflection angle for the control of ship heading angle, is utilized on the simulation of an ESSO 190 000 dwt tanker model to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system. The approach is generic and extendable to aircraft and missile control and guidance problems where the vehicle dynamics change significantly during flight in a manner dependent upon operational use, the only requirement for implementation being observed data to construct sensor and vehicle models.
Heavy ion and proton-induced single event multiple upset

Individual ionizing heavy ion events are shown to cause two or more adjacent memory cells to change logic states in a high density CMOS SRAM. A majority of the upsets produced by normally incident heavy ions are due to single-particle events that causes a single cell to upset. However, for grazing angles a majority of the upsets produced by heavy-ion irradiation are due to single-particle events that cause two or more cells to change logic states. Experimental evidence of a single proton-induced spallation reaction that causes two adjacent memory cells to change logic states is presented. Results from a dual volume Monte-Carlo simulation code for proton-induced single-event multiple upsets are within a factor of three of experimental data for protons at normal incidence and 70 degrees.
Freestream Disturbance Effects on an Airfoil Pitching at Constant Rate

Effects of freestream disturbances on the dynamic stall process of an NACA 0012 airfoil undergoing ramp-type pitching motion from 0-30 deg were studied using measurements of unsteady surface pressures. A thin circular cylinder was located upstream of the test airfoil and was offset vertically between -0.133 and 0.133 chord lengths with respect to the airfoil pitching axis to provide the freestream disturbances. The measurements were carried out at a constant chord Reynolds number of 8 x 10 4 for a relatively low reduced pitch-rate range k = 0.01-0.04. As compared with the undisturbed flow case, the imposed freestream disturbances were able to produce a significant increase in absolute magnitude of the peak suction pressure near the leading edge, resulting in a noticeable phase delay in stall process. The growth of the leading-edge suction peak caused by insertion of the upstream rod was found to be sensitive to its vertical offset position. Nevertheless, the pressure variation caused by the freestream disturbances was appreciable only in the forward 20% chord from the leading edge, bringing a lower effect on the airfoil lift and momentum coefficients
A crowdsourced dynamic repositioning strategy for public bike sharing systems

Public bike sharing systems have become the most popular shared economy application in transportation. The convenience of this system depends on the availability of bikes and empty racks. One of the major challenges in operating a bike sharing system is the repositioning of bikes between rental sites to maintain sufficient bike inventory in each station at all times. Most systems hire trucks to conduct dynamic repositioning of bikes among rental sites. We have analyzed a commonly used repositioning scheme and have demonstrated its ineffectiveness. To realize a higher quality of service, we proposed a crowdsourced dynamic repositioning strategy: first, we analyzed the historical rental data via the random forest algorithm and identified important factors for demand forecasting. Second, considering 30-minute periods, we calculated the optimal bike inventory via integer programming for each rental site in each time period with a sufficient crowd for repositioning bikes. Then, we proposed a minimum cost network flow model in a time-space network for calculating the optimal voluntary rider flows for each period based on the current bike inventory, which is adjusted according to the forecasted demands. The results of computational experiments on real-world data demonstrate that our crowdsourced repositioning strategy may reduce unmet rental demands by more than 30% during rush hours compared to conventional trucks.
Optimizing the Use of Electric Vehicles in a Regional Car Rental Fleet

The use of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is increasing in household vehicle fleets and carsharing systems. However, the car rental industry has only timidly adopted this technology. This paper presents a mathematical model for optimal trip assignment of electric and conventional vehicles (CVs) in a regional car rental company. The model was built by using a time-space network, and all BEV charging constraints were part of the formulation. The model needed to satisfy all existing demand, and two objectives were considered: maximizing the number of trips by BEVs and maximizing profit. The model was applied to the Portuguese central region, and the conclusion was that BEVs were considerably less profitable than CVs, because BEVs were less useful for intercity trips. Even if the costs and revenues were the same as for CVs, BEVs were still outperformed by CVs because the recharging time was a drawback in some trips. However, BEVs do not necessarily imply a financial loss for the companies, and a cost-benefi.
On the fundamentals of the virtual source method

The virtual source method VSM has been proposed as a practical approach to reduce distortions of seismic images caused by shallow, heterogeneous overburden. VSM is demanding at the acquisition stage because it requires placing downhole geophones below the most complex part of the heterogeneous overburden. Where such acquisition is possible, however, it pays off later at the processing stage because it does not require knowledge of the velocity model above the downhole receivers. This paper demonstrates that VSM can be viewed as an application of the KirchhoffHelmholtz integral KHI with an experimentally measured Green’s function. Direct measurement of the Green’s function ensures the effectiveness of the method in highly heterogeneous subsurface conditions.
Using Podcasts in a High School Advanced Placement Statistics Course to Encourage a Higher Achieving Learning Environment

The purpose of this paper is to discuss an instructional design project to determine the effectiveness of implementing podcasts as a supplemental online resource on probability in Moodle, an online course management system. Eighteen high school seniors in AP Statistics at a private school in Honolulu, Hawaii, used podcasts to review information previously learned in a traditional classroom atmosphere four months prior to the review. The collected data was used to determine the effectiveness of the module and to analyze the students' attitudes toward hybrid or online learning. Results between a paper-based pre-test and an online post- test showed a general improvement in understanding the content in probability. Student feedback from an attititudinal survey showed a more positive attitude for the convenient resource and the ability to review concepts that were forgotten. Results from the project will guide teachers towards a better understanding of student success in an AP course.
Effect of detector scatter on the decoding accuracy of a DOI detector module

Monte Carlo simulation was used to study the effect detector scatter has on the decoding accuracy of a depth of interaction (DOI) detector module and on the quantitative imaging characteristics of a DOI detector system, The detector module consisted of a 4/spl times/4 array of detector units. Each unit consisted of a 2/spl times/2 block of 2/spl times/2/spl times/20 mm LSO crystals. The detector units use light sharing and ratio information to estimate DOI. The detector system consisted of 24 detector modules. Positioning methods using different criteria to select the first interaction point in a detector module to improve decoding accuracy were investigated (e.g., maximum energy, second maximum, minimum DOI). Selecting the detector unit corresponding to the minimum DOI provided the best decoding accuracy for photons entering perpendicular to the detector. However, for photons entering at large angles of incidence (e.g., 30 degrees) the maximum energy selection criterion performed the best. The average DOI offset due to scatter within a detector unit was 1.7 mm. Detector scatter did not affect the image resolution of the simulated DOI detector system; however, it did affect quantitative recovery of small regions of interest.
Broad-Crested Weirs with Rectangular Compound Cross Sections

A series of laboratory experiments was performed in order to investigate the effects of width of the lower weir crest and step height of broad-crested weirs of rectangular compound cross section on the values of the discharge coefficient, the approach velocity coefficient, and the modular limit. For this purpose, nine different broad-crested weir models with rectangular compound cross sections and a model with a rectangular cross section were tested in a horizontal laboratory flume of 11.0 m length, 0.29 m width, and 0.70 m depth for a wide range of discharges. The compound cross sections were formed by a combination of three sets of step heights and three sets of lower weir crest widths. The sill-referenced heads at the approach channel and at the tailwater channel were measured in each experiment. The dependence of the discharge coefficient, approach velocity coefficient, and modular limit values on model parameters was investigated, and these quantities were compared with those of the broad-crested weir models with a rectangular cross section.
Durability Optimization of Fiber Grating Hydrogen Sensor Based on Residual Stress

In this paper, in order to improve the durability of optical fiber grating hydrogen sensors, an optical fiber grating hydrogen sensor with high precision, stability, and durability is prepared. Based on the simplified two-dimensional model and finite element analysis, the effects of film thickness, coating speed, and coating times on the residual Mises equivalent stress between the sensor film and substrate were studied, and the optimum coating parameters were determined. The finite element analysis results show that the residual equivalent stress between the film and the substrate increases with the increase in the film thickness between 50 and 150 nm. The range of 200–250 nm is relatively stable, and the value is small. The coating speed has almost no effect on the residual equivalent stress. When the thickness of the film is 200 nm, the residual equivalent stress decreases with the increase in coating times, and the equivalent force is the lowest when the film is coated three times. The best coating parameters are the thickness of 200 nm, the speed of 62.5 μm/s, and the times of coating three times. The results of finite element analysis are verified by the hydrogen sensitivity test and durability test.