Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fatigue strengthening of cracked steel plates with bonded Fe‐SMA strips

Prestressed fatigue strengthening of steel structures has been proven effective by numerous investigations. Bonded iron‐based shape memory alloy (Fe‐SMA) strengthening has shown a great potential in this regard, however, with limited corroborating studies. Moreover, a proper model for fatigue analysis of systems that are retrofitted with bonded Fe‐SMA strengthening is missing. In this study, an analytical model, coupling prestress analysis and fatigue analysis, is proposed. Four steel plates with central through‐thickness cracks were strengthened with use of bonded Fe‐SMA strips, and subsequently tested under fatigue loading after generating prestress via heating and cooling. The fatigue behavior predicted by the proposed model lies in excellent agreement with the fatigue testing results.
Projection of landscape ecological risk and exploration of terrain effects in the Qilian Mountains, China

The development of a reasonable landscape ecological risk (LER) assessment system is the key means to establish an eco‐safety early warning mechanism, promote ecological protection, and achieve sustainable management of regional ecosystems. Based on the Cellular Automaton‐Markov (CA‐Markov) model, we predicted the land use/cover changes (LUCC) in 2026 and 2034 in the typical arid and semiarid mountainous area of the Qilian Mountains. We constructed an LER model to analyze the spatial–temporal changes in LER, quantified the driving mechanism, and synthesized the constraining effect of terrain features. The results showed that the study area was dominated by ecologically stable areas in 1980–2000 and 2010–2018. Ecologically improved and deteriorated areas in the central and northwest expanded in 2000–2010 and 2018–2036, which was attributed to ecological restoration policies (returning farmland to forest and grassland, closing mountains to forest and grassland, etc.) and economic development (livestock and mineral development, etc.). Due to the frequent interference of human activities in flat and complex terrain areas, the degree of landscape fragmentation, separation, and vulnerability is enhanced, and the ecological conditions of bare land and snow cover are relatively fragile, resulting in high ecological risk. Therefore, we could focus on zoning management and rational land use planning. This study provides a new framework for controlling LER in the Qilian Mountains, and will provide a scientific reference for the formulation of risk mitigation strategies in other arid and semiarid mountains worldwide.
Noisytalk.Com: Broadcasting Opinions in a Noisy Environment

We analyze a model where an altruistic sender, who may or may not be informed, broadcasts one of a finite set of messages to rational receivers. If broadcasting is costless and the sender is rational, there is an informationally efficient equilibrium, but this equilibrium is not necessarily unique nor symmetric. If the sender is overconfident, he tends to exaggerate, and in equilibrium extreme messages are sent more frequently. While overconfidence reduces informativeness in some cases, it may also eliminate less informative equilibria. We also show that overconfidence can improve informativeness when broadcasting is costly.
Airborne observations and numerical modeling of fetch-limited waves in the Gulf of Tehuantepec

We present airborne observations of fetch-limited waves generated during strong offshore winds, ranging between 10 and 25 m s⁻¹, in the Gulf of Tehuantepec. The measurements were collected over a wide range of fetches, from young to fully-developed seas, and include one- and two-dimensional wavenumber spectra, wind velocities, and atmospheric turbulent fluxes. The observed evolution of the wave field is compared to numerical simulations using a recently proposed wave dissipation formulation. In particular, we compare the observed and computed evolution of the directional spectra for fetch-limited conditions under realistic wind forcing. The thesis is composed of two main chapters, both of which are self contained and can be read independently of one another. The first chapter focuses on the analysis of the wind and wave measurements collected in the Gulf of Tehuantepec during February, 2004. It provides a description of the environmental conditions, the instrumentation, as well as the techniques used in the analysis for the characterization of the wind-wave spectrum with respect the wave age or fetch. The results are discussed in the context of previous observations and current numerical wind-wave prediction models. The second chapter describes the comparison of the measured wavenumber spectra with numerical simulations using state- of-the-art wind-wave models. It provides general background information on the physics and the development of numerical wind-wave models. The model is first implemented and tested under the idealized conditions of spectral evolution in one spatial direction with stationary uniform winds. The two-dimensional simulations are carried out over the Gulf of Tehuantepec for two research flights with the assumed steady wind forcing based on the airborne wind measurements, QuikSCAT scatterometer winds, and reanalysis model winds from NCEP/ NARR. The computed wave spectra are directly compared to the airborne observations over a wide range of wave ages. The comparison between the observations and the numerical simulations highlights some of the issues associated with the source term balance in the tail of the spectrum. The performance of the model suggests that the Alves and Banner (2003) dissipation is a good first step for realistic simulations of the wind-wave spectrum. The possible reasons for differences between the measurements and the simulations are discussed
Helical equilibrium magnetohydrodynamic flow effects on the stability properties of low-n ideal external-infernal modes in weak shear tokamak configurations

The impact of equilibrium helical flows on the stability properties of low shear tokamak plasmas is assessed. The corrections due to such helical flow to the equilibrium profiles (mass density, pressure, Shafranov shift, magnetic fluxes) are computed by minimising order by order the generalised Grad–Shafranov equation. By applying the same minimisation procedure, a set of three coupled equations, suitable for the study of magnetohydrodynamic perturbations localised within core or edge transport barriers is derived in circular tokamak geometry. We apply these equations to modelling the impact of strong poloidal flow shear in the edge region caused by a radial electric field on the stability of edge infernal modes retaining vacuum effects. Due to the poloidal flow shearing, the effect of plasma rotation is not simply a Doppler shift of the eigenfrequency. Stabilisation is found even for weak flow amplitude.
On equitable partition of matrices and its applications

ABSTRACT A partition of a square matrix A is said to be equitable if all the blocks of the partitioned matrix have constant row sums and each of the diagonal blocks are of square order. A quotient matrix Q of a square matrix A corresponding to an equitable partition is a matrix whose entries are the constant row sums of the corresponding blocks of A. A quotient matrix is a useful tool to find some eigenvalues of the matrix A. In this paper we determine some matrices whose eigenvalues are those eigenvalues of A which are not the eigenvalues of a quotient matrix of A. Using this result we find eigenvalue localization theorems for matrices having an equitable partition. In particular, we find eigenvalue localization theorems for stochastic matrices and give a suitable example to compare with the existing results.
Master of Science

We study two problems in which the goal is to reduce the maximum s-t flow in a flow network, while paying the minimum cost. In the first problem, only one edge can be removed, and the goal is to remove an edge with the minimum cost whose removal decreases the maximum s-t flow. This problem is in P, and we give an algorithm with a running time of O(|V |) max flow computations to solve it. The second problem is more general. Any subset of edges may be removed and the goal is to find the subset with the minimum total cost whose removal decreases the maximum s-t flow to at most a given threshold k. This problem is NP-hard, and we give two approximation algorithms for it. The first algorithm is a greedy |E|-approximation. The second algorithm is a bi-criteria approximation. Given > 0, it outputs either a solution with a cost of at most (1+ ) times that of the optimal solution that decreases the maximum flow to at most k, or a solution with a cost of at most that of the optimal solution that decreases the maximum flow to at most (1 + 1 )k.
HUMAN ACTIVITY CLASSIFICATION WITH DEEP LEARNING USING FMCW RADAR

HUMAN ACTIVITY CLASSIFICATION WITH DEEP LEARNING USING FMCW RADAR Mert Ege M.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Advisor: Ömer Morgül September 2022 Human Activity Recognition (HAR) has recently attracted academic research attention and is used for purposes such as healthcare systems, surveillance-based security, sports activities, and entertainment. Deep Learning is also frequently used in Human Activity Recognition, as it shows superior performance in subjects such as Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing. FMCW radar data is a good choice for Human Activity Recognition as it works better than cameras under challenging situations such as rainy and foggy conditions. However, the work in this field does not progress as dynamically as in the camera-based area. This can be attributed to radar-based models that do not perform as well as camera-based models. This thesis proposes four new models to improve HAR performance using FMCW radar data. These models are CNN-based, LSTM-based, LSTMand GRU-based, and Siamese-based. For feature extraction, the CNN-based model uses CNN blocks, the LSTM-based model uses LSTM blocks, and the LSTMand GRU-based model uses LSTM and GRU blocks in parallel. Furthermore, the Siamese-based model is fed in parallel from three different radars (multi-input). Due to the Siamese Network nature, parallel paths will have the same weight. On the other hand, after feature extraction, all models use dense layers to classify human motion. To our best knowledge, the Siamese-based model is used for the first time in multi-input data for the classification of human movement. This model outperforms the state-of-the-art models by using various features of radars operating at different frequencies in terms of classification accuracy. All codes and their
PHYSICAL AND THERMAL DISTURBANCE AND PROTECTION OF PERMAFROST

This report is based on a review paper presented at the Third International Conference on Permafrost held in July 1978 at Edmonton, Canada. It reviews the literature covering 1974-1978 and covers subjects related to natural and human induced disturbance of terrain underlain by permafrost. Subjects included regard investigations undertaken in conjunction with oil and gas pipelines, terrain mapping, methods for estimating terrain sensitivity, methods of protecting terrain, and the thermal effects of off road transportation, oil spills, fire, removal of the surface soil layers, snow conditions, mining and other construction practices. Methods of protecting and restoring permafrost in the USSR are presented in tabular form. An appendix summarizes results of modeling and microclimatic investigation, and the distribution and properties of subsea, land-based, and alpine permafrost. /Authors/
Descriptions of six new Caribbean fish species in the genus Starksia (Labrisomidae)

Extensive collecting efforts using rotenone sampling throughout the Caribbean over the past four decades have vastly increased the numbers of specimens of cryptic fishes in museum collections. Among these specimens, we discovered representatives of six new cryptic fish species belonging in the Starksia fasciata and S. sluiteri species complexes. Descriptions are provided herein for the following new species: S. teucovitta from Navassa Island; S. melasma from Mona Island, Puerto Rico, and Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix; S. multilepis from Fernando de Noronha Island and Atol das Rocas, Brazil; S. rava from Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago; S. sella from Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago, all in the S. sluiteri complex; and in the S. fasciata complex, S. smithvanizi from Buck Island Reef National Monument (St. Croix), Navassa Island, St. Barthelemy, and Dominica. Starksia fasciata is restricted in distribution to the Bahamas and northern Cuba. We provide an identification key and diagnostic characters for the 21 western Atlantic species (those species in the S. ocetlata complex are diagnosed only in the key). The descriptions herein bring the total number of recognized western Atlantic species of Starksia to 21.
Association for the Promotion of African Studies

Human existence would have been a farce without the environment just as without human beings, there would be nothing known as the environment. In fact without the environment, there wouldn’t be a place where human beings can exist and without human beings tending and caring for the environment, it would have been a waste land without any benefit. The environment and human beings complement each other. This work attempts to bring to the fore the fact that one cannot talk about human beings and the environment without giving religion its pride of place especially with regards to the vital role God played in creation. In most parts of the world especially in Nigeria, the environment have been polluted due largely to the activities of the same human beings who ought to, and is expected to preserve it. The method used in data gathering is basically the secondary source of data collection while the descriptive phenomenological approach of data analysis was adopted. Our findings revealed that religion has solution to every challenge human beings face in the world including environmental problems. The study proved that religion provides the most viable means through which effective environmental management can be achieved in Nigeria, since the three main religions practiced in Nigeria are rooted in environmental ethics and values. This work therefore maintains and concludes that managers and policy makers, government and non-governmental agencies; collaborating with religious leaders should lay more emphasis on religious values to achieve the sustenance of the environment for the good of humanity at large.
The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Asset pricing models with atomistic agents typically relax assumptions concerning rationality and/or homogenous information in order to track endogenous bubbles. In this model, identically informed rational agents hold a Perceived Law of Motion (PLM) for a single new technology asset at IPO, yet they differ with respect to risk aversion. By mapping risk preferences to strategies, we use marginal supply and demand functions to solve for the PLM if REE holds. By relaxing the assumption of complete knowledge of agent's tastes and wealth, post-IPO bubbles emerge where the Actual Law of Motion is an amplification (bubble) of the price processes vs. the PLM.
Unions and ADR: The Relationship between Labor Unions and Workplace Dispute Resolution in U.S. Corporations

Acknowledgements: The authors are deeply indebted to Kathy Bryan, President of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR), and Thomas Stipanowich, Director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University, for their support of this project. Their advice and counsel at every stage of the project are greatly appreciated. Harry Katz, Dean of the ILR School at Cornell, provided financial support for this study, and we express our sincerest thanks to him. We are also grateful to John Bickerman, not only for his financial support of the research but also for his advice throughout the project. We express our sincerest thanks to Sally Klingel for her invaluable assistance in developing the survey instrument used in this study. As always, we are grateful to Yasamin Miller, Director of the Survey Research Institute (SRI) at Cornell University, for her advice and her expert supervision of the administration of the survey; Darren Heam, Manager of SRI, also provided valuable advice and assistance. We want to thank several Cornell students who assisted in the collection and coding of the data used in this study, including Azadeh Sakizadeh and Derya Akbaba. We are grateful to Michael Maffie for his able assistance in the preparation of this paper. WonJoon Chung, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, also assisted us, and we express our thanks to him. As always, we are grateful to Missy Harrington for her excellent assistance.
Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics Volume VII Number 3 , 2015 Evaluation of Capital Structure of Agricultural Cooperatives

One of the major factors, which affect the economic effectiveness, is suitable capital facilities of enterprises. In case of correct adjustment of capital structure, more precisely the ratio of equity capital and foreign capital, it is necessary take into account a number of factors which operate on the structure of capital, for example a variety of funding sources. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the development of the capital structure and capital disparity across the farmers' cooperatives from fourteen regions of the Czech Republic for time series 2009 – 2013. For this analysis is used the debt leverage indicators and method of comparative statics. Data are obtained and processed from the database of enterprises of Albertina. The financial and economic crisis lowered the debt to equity ratio and debt to assets ratio and the profitability ratios as well and the indicators reports V-shaped trend. The disparity of the ratio values among regions at the end of the monitored period seems not to be changed. Usually Prague as the region with the highest GDP per capita during the monitored period reports usually the extreme values in most ratios and higher deviations in debt ratios and lower deviations in profitability ratios. Also the impact of capital structure indicators on the profitability of cooperatives seems to be not significant during the monitored period.
Extracellular Vesicles Long RNA Profiling Identifies Abundant mRNA, circRNA and lncRNA in Human Bile as Potential Biomarkers for Cancer Diagnosis.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are bilayered membrane vesicles produced by living cells and secreted into the extracellular matrix. Bile is a special body fluid that is secreted by the liver cells, and extracellular vesicles long RNAs (exLRs) has not been explored in bile. In this study, exLR sequencing (exLR-seq) was performed on 19 bile samples from patients with malignant cancer or patients with biliary stones. A total of 8649 mRNAs, 13823 circRNAs and 1105 lncRNAs were detected. The KEGG pathway analysis revealed that differentially expressed exLRs were enriched in mTOR and AMPK signaling pathway. We identified five mRNAs (EID-2, LLPH, ATP6V0A2, RRP9, and MTRNR2L10), three lncRNAs (AC015922.2, AL135905.1, and LINC00921) and six circRNAs (circASH1L, circATP9A, circCLIP1, circRNF138, circTIMMDC1 and circANKRD12) were enriched in bile EV samples with cancer, and these exLRs may be potential markers used to distinguish malignant cancers from benign biliary diseases. Moreover, the tissue/cellular source components of EVs were analyzed using the EV-origin algorithm. The absolute abundance of CD4_naive and Th1 cell source in bile EVs from cancer patients were significantly increased. In summary, our study presented abundant exLRs in human bile EVs and provides some basis for the selection of tumor diagnostic markers.
Health Literacy Training Critical for Medical Residency Transformation in the United Arab Emirates

Health Literacy Training Critical for Medical Residency Transformation in the United Arab Emirates To the Editor: The recent publication of the article, “Improving Health Equity Through Health Literacy Education,” (Nepps et al., 2023) advances the health literacy mission in a bold and balanced manner. Inadequate health literacy is known to be a stronger predictor of poor health outcomes than all other sociodemographic variables, including ethnicity (Levic et al., 2023). Given the lack of an exact estimation of population health literacy levels in various countries, the global health care work force is oblivious to the perils of poor health literacy (Zimmerman & Woolf, 2014). Health care providers lack adequate knowledge and skills to work effectively with patients who possess limited health literacy, especially in countries with multiethnic, multicultural populations (Nair, Sreedharan, et al., 2023). Among the Gulf cooperation council countries, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have reported adequate health literacy rates for patients ranging from 24% to 44% (Nair, Al Saraj, et al., 2023). Recently, two studies assessing health literacy have reported adequate health literacy among 14.3% of patients with cardiovascular diseases, and 11% among patients with type 2 diabetes in the United Arab Emirates (Nair, Al Saraj, et al., 2023; Nair, Sreedharan, et al., 2023). These studies also noted alarmingly low patient health literacy levels in older adult patients. It is noteworthy that less than 10% of the total population in the United Arab Emirates are citizens; most residents are immigrants from various parts of the world, many are unskilled workers from southeast Asia. Incidentally, there are no published reports of health literacy training for medical resident trainees in the United Arab Emirates. Health system reforms are essential, given the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, and their association with low health literacy levels in the United Arab Emirates. Transformation of medical residency programs to routinely integrate health literacy best practices in all patient encounters, as well as restructuring of medical education to focus on disease prevention and biopsychosocial models of care, whether in the United Arab Emirates or elsewhere, are essential reforms required for sustainable health equity.
Threshold effect of systemic immune inflammatory index on hypertension in American adults (NHANES 2017–2020)

Background and aims: Research reports on the relationship between systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) and hypertension are limited. We aim to evaluate the possible relationship between SII and hypertension. Methods and results: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of adults from the National Nutrition and Health Database from 2017 to 2020. In this study, 13 742 participants were included. The exposure variable in this study was the systemic inflammatory state as defined by SII and an outcome was hypertension. There is a nonlinear association between SII and hypertension. Two piecewise logistic regression models were used to analyze the relationship between them and calculated the cut-off point of SII to be 501.2. We found that SII on the left side of the cut-off point has nothing to do with the prevalence of hypertension. However, in patients with SII at least 501.2, the prevalence of hypertension increased with the increase of SII (odds ratio, 3.13; 95% confidence interval, 2.04–4.81). The nonlinear association between LgSII and hypertension still existed stably in the subgroups of sex, age, BMI, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (P for interaction > 0.05). Conclusion: A cross-sectional analysis reported the threshold effect of SII on and hypertension and calculated the turning point of SII to be 501.2.