Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A heuristic method to identify optimum seismic retrofit strategies for critical infrastructure systems

Retrofitting critical components of a critical infrastructure system to improve its seismic performance has been considered as the most frequently used mitigation strategy in both literature and practice. This article mainly studies this mitigation strategy and formulates the seismic retrofit optimization problem for critical infrastructure systems under a limited retrofit budget in a general form, and then proposes a heuristic method to solve the problem efficiently in terms of the optimality gap and the computational cost. The proposed method mainly includes three steps: (1) generates a limited number of component damage scenarios to reformulate the problem as an approximated model; (2) adopts a component importance‐based method to reduce the solution space and applies the integer L‐shaped method to solve the approximated model; (3) employs the sample average approximation method to enhance the solution quality. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, it is applied to identify the optimal retrofit strategies for the Shelby power transmission system, the IEEE 14‐bus test system, and the IEEE 118‐bus test system and also compared with several existing methods. Results show that the proposed method is significantly more efficient than those existing methods. For the IEEE 14‐bus test system, the proposed method gets almost exact solutions, with errors less than 0.29%; for the other two systems, it returns the best solutions among all methods under various retrofit budgets.
Efficient Electrocatalytic Upgrading of Furan-Based Biomass: Key Roles of Two-Dimensional Mesoporous Heterostructure and Ternary Electrolyte

Development of high-performance electrocatalytic systems for efficient conversion of biomass to value-added chemicals under mild conditions and understanding of their mechanisms are of profound significance, but have remained a great challenge. Here, we report the first development of two-dimensional mesoporous electrocatalyst for biomass conversion. The electrocatalyst (meso-PA/PmPD/GO) consists of phytic acid (PA)-doped mesoporous poly(m-phenylenediamine) layers coated on graphene oxide nanosheets. Meanwhile, a high-performance ternary electrolyte containing 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BmimBF4), acetonitrile and H2O is developed. The combination of meso-PA/PmPD/GO and the ternary electrolyte realizes highly efficient conversion of two important biomass derivatives at room temperature. One involves a hardly achieved oxidation of furfuryl alcohol to 6-hydroxy-2,3-dihydro-6H-pyrano-3-one with high faradic efficiency (FE: 83.7%) and selectivity (87.9%). The other involves the oxidation of furfural to 5-hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone with record-high FE (98.9%) and selectivity (93.6%). Mechanism study including DFT calculations unveils that N-heterocyclic carbenes (Bmim*) generated from BmimBF4 act as the reaction-determining active species. Additionally, the synergistic effect of the PA doping, mesoporous structure and p-n heterojunction interface in meso-PA/PmPD/GO favors the mass transport and the transfer of generated holes to the outer layers, thus boosting the catalytic performance.
Constraints on Space-Time-Matter Theory in the Framework of the Standard-Model Extension

We use experimental limits on Lorentz violation within the framework of the Standard-Model Extension to derive quantitative constraints on Space-Time-Matter theory, a version of Kaluza–Klein theory in which the cylinder condition is relaxed so that four-dimensional physics can in principle depend on the extra coordinates. The extra dimensions are not necessarily compact or length-like. We find that the associated variation in fundamental quantities such as rest mass must occur slowly, on cosmological scales.
Reduction in Riverine Freshwater Supply Changes Inorganic and Organic Carbon Dynamics and Air‐Water CO2 Fluxes in a Tropical Mangrove Dominated Estuary

Reduction in riverine freshwater supply due to climate change as well as anthropogenic activities are documented throughout the globe. How river discontinuity in upstream reaches and the subsequent reduction in freshwater influx alter inorganic and organic carbon dynamics in downstream estuaries adjacent to mangroves has been rarely reported. We investigated the dynamics of the inorganic carbon system and organic matter (OM) in two Indian estuaries near mangroves; riverine freshwater supply to the Matla Estuary was reduced and that to the Dhamra Estuary was uninterrupted. Seasonal sampling was conducted over an annual cycle. We used elemental and stable isotope signatures to delineate the sources of OM and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). We found that compared to the Dhamra, the reduced riverine freshwater supply to the Matla increased the marine influence in the estuary on the OM degradation pathways and decreased CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. In the Dhamra, higher seasonal variability in biogeochemical pathways, facilitated high internal carbonate buffering capacity; in contrast in the Matla, the greater marine influence increased the carbonate buffering capacity, resulting in retention of higher DIC concentrations and low CO2 emissions. Dissolved and particulate organic carbon concentrations were higher in the Dhamra than the Matla, indicating higher riverine supply of these. The present study can contribute an overlooked effect of long‐term changes in riverine freshwater supply on the carbon dynamics of mangrove‐dominated estuaries, which might help to improve the understanding of coastal carbon budgets in a changing world.
Locality Sensitive Hardware Signature Variants for Hardware Transactional Memory

Lock based techniques have its own limitations like priority inversion, convoying, and deadlock. Lock free techniques overcome those mentioned limitations. Transactional memory (TM) is one leading lock free technique used in recent multi core processors like Intel Haswell and IBM BlueGene/Q. TM has to do data versioning and conflict detection. For conflict detection probabilistic data structure called Bloom Filters are used. Bloom filter based hardware signatures are used in TM. In TM shared memory conflicts like RAW, WAR, and WAW hazards are handled by Bloom Filter (BF). Hardware signatures store memory addresses in hashed form on Bloom filters. Bloom filters are easy to use, performance efficient data structures lead to false positive but never support false negative. Locality sensitive hardware signatures reduce filter occupancy by sharing bits for the contiguous memory addresses, in turn reduces the false positive rate. This paper implements existing H3 – HS and LS – HS proposed by Ricardo Quislant et al. [13]. Also this paper proposes RS – HS, CS – HS, and RO – HS. RO – HS equally spreads addresses among bloom filters thereby reduces filter occupancy. In turn reduced filter occupancy leads to better False Positive Rate.
Advanced System Control with Traffic Handling for Secure Communication in IoT Routing Protocol

The Internet of Things (IoT) can simply be referred to as the network of things comprising software, sensors, electronics, allowing data to be collected and transmitted. The next step in the field of technology is the Internet of Things, bringing tremendous improvements to manufacturing, medicine, environmental treatment, and urban growth. In shaping this vision, multiple challenges need to be faced, such as technology interoperability problems, protection and data confidentiality standards and, last but not least, the implementation of energy efficient management systems. These devices with minimal human interference are capable of producing, sharing and consuming data. The networking of related as well as heterogeneous devices is often known to be IoT. The Internet of Things allows things to connect and interact with each other, thus minimizing human involvement in simple daily tasks. Addressing protection at all times or at any position for many users, companies, governments, and enterprises is really necessary and responsive. In this paper a secure IOT architecture for routing in a network with RPL Rapid Node Link Routing (RNLR) Model is proposed that performs traffic management and traffic analysis for secure communication using IoT routing protocol. It mainly aims to locate the malicious users in a IOT routing protocols. the proposed mechanism is compared with the state of the art work and compared results shows the proposed work performs well.
Genetic Diversity and Similarity of Asian and European Pears (Pyrus Spp.) Revealed by Genome Size and Morphological Traits Prediction

ABSTRACT Pears (Pyrus spp.) mainly are divided into two main groups of Asian and European species with a wide diversity or similarity in fruit and morphological traits. In this study, flow cytometry was performed to evaluate the genome size of 37 cultivars and genotypes of Asian, European, and Iranian indigenous pears. Besides, the relationship between cytological and morphological traits was investigated for the first time. Morphological traits were measured based on the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) descriptor. There were positive relationships between genome size, the fruit pedicel length, and the length to fruit diameter ratio. Although, as the genome size was increased, the fruit diameter and size were decreased. Increasing 1.6 pg of the genome size causes a reduction of one cm in the pear fruit diameter. Moreover, with a larger genome size by 1.1 pg, there was an increase in fruit pedicel by one cm. The obtained results revealed that most of the Iranian native genotypes were similar in shape to European pears, but some of them were also oriented to Asian pear cultivars. Most studied cultivars originated between different regions were diploid (2n = 34) and their genome size varied between 0.99 and 1.99 pg. The average genome size of European and Iranian pears was 1.29 pg and Asian’s was 1.32 pg. The principal component analysis (PCA) result showed that the Asian and European genotypes were distinctly separated. Also, according to the cluster analysis, the indigenous cultivars of Iran can be located in the European pear group species. There was a relationship between the East Asian and European pear origins because of the possible gene flow between two major pear culture regions in the past. In general, Iran can be considered as an important region and pathway of gene flow transfer and a rich center of genetic variation of pears. Therefore, this study provided essential information and a useful tool for genetic diversity or similarity assessment of pears through genome size and some morphological traits prediction. Further research on wider fruit tree species in the different fruit-growing regions of the world will warrant the use of genome size as a novel prediction tool for the important morphological traits with specific commercial breeding objectives.
Effect of N2 and CO2 on shale oil from pyrolysis of Estonian oil shale

ABSTRACT A kukersite oil shale sample from Estonia was pyrolyzed using a Fischer assay method under N2, N2/steam, CO2 and CO2/steam environments. The thermal behavior of the oil shale sample was also studied using TGA and DSC with similar conditions. Also, several properties of produced oils were measured and FTIR analysis was carried out to compare the molecular structure of the derived oils. The presence of steam increased the liquid and gaseous yields, and also caused a greater weight loss in the oil shale. The pyrolysis tests in both the CO2 and N2 atmospheres produced oils with relatively similar properties however, the molecular structure was different.
Much.Matter.in.Motion: learning by modeling systems in chemistry and physics with a universal programing platform

ABSTRACT This paper presents the design and initial learning research with the MMM modeling platform, seeking to advance middle school students’ learning through constructing computational models of complex physical and chemical systems. A complexity-based structure of an MMM interface is introduced. It suggests that a complex system can be described and modeled by defining entities, their actions, interactions with each other, and interactions with their environment. MMM applies to a wide range of phenomena, targeting learning transfer and generalization. Design principles of MMM are presented and discussed based on a study with seventh-grade students. The study is a quasi-experimental, pretest-intervention-posttest control-comparison-group design. Findings from a quantitative analysis of the questionnaires show that engaging students with the construction of models using MMM significantly promoted students’ conceptual learning and enhanced their systems’ thinking compared with a comparison group who followed a normative curriculum. Students’ responses to the worksheets showed mutual effects between improving the practice of modeling and promoting conceptual understanding and systems thinking. A qualitative analysis of screen-capture movies of one pair of students and their log files revealed that, in a later construction activity, their constructed models grew in sophistication and they articulated their thinking and learning in depth, using more sophisticated relationships between concepts.
A Trimming Design Method Based on Bio-Inspired Design for System Innovation

The application of design knowledge determines the innovativeness of a technical scheme obtained by trimming (a tool for problem analysis and solving in TRIZ). However, limitations in the knowledge, experience and expertise of designers constrain the range of design knowledge that they can apply, thus reducing the effectiveness of trimming. In this paper, biological strategies are introduced to the trimming process to compensate for limitations imposed by the insufficient professional knowledge of designers, thereby improving design innovation. Therefore, this paper proposes a new design method that combines the trimming method and bio-inspired design (BID). First, a trimming analysis of the target system is carried out. Taking the missing functions of the trimmed system as a potential breakthrough point, a keyword search mode based on “V(verb)O(object)P(property) + the effect/features of the associated function” is used to search for biological prototypes in the biological knowledge base. Second, a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to analyze the biological prototypes from three dimensions, namely, compatibility, completeness and feasibility, and the best-matching biological prototype is selected. Finally, the biological solution is transformed into an engineering design scheme through a resource derivation process based on structure–function–attribute analogies. The proposed method can expand the range of design solutions by adding biological strategies as a new resource to solve trimming problems. The feasibility and effectiveness of the method are verified by redesigning a steel tape armoring machine.
Evaluation of Genotoxic And Biochemical Stress Response To Mercuric Chloride In Erythrocytes of Freshwater Fish Channa Punctatus

Experiments were conducted to evaluate health of fish, Channa punctatus inhabiting mercuric chloride. Acute toxicity bioassays were performed to calculate 96h LC50 value and it was found to be 1.38mg/L. Chronic toxicity assay to investigate genotoxic effects on the erythrocytes of fish by comet assay and micronucleus assay along with alterations in blood biochemistry were evaluated. Results showed concentration and duration dependent significant DNA damage as observed by comet assay and micronucleus assay. The frequency of nuclear aberrations along with appearance of micronuclei were observed after 30 and 60 days of exposure. The blood biochemistry was studied by recording changes in levels of various biochemical parameters in blood serum and results showed the significant (p < 0.05) variations among levels of biochemical constituents such as Glucose, Lipids, Proteins, Bilirubin, Urea, Creatinine, Cholesterol, ALP, Albumin, SGOT, SGPT and Total Glycerides. The resultsindicated the stress response of specimen towards toxicant. The present study highly recommends the use of genotoxicity and blood biochemical analysis as the useful biomarker to assess toxicity in the aquatic water and hence to safeguards the surrounding ecosystem.
The effect of external N and K concentrations on the leaf content of monovalent cations and their forms in capsicum plants.

Capsicum plants (Capsicum annuum L. cv. Lamuyo) were grown in controlled greenhouse conditions. The crop underwent fertirrigation with different levels of N and K, with a complement of other essential nutrients. The plants were sampled periodically to determine leaf levels of total and soluble K and Na. Both nutrients can be used for the diagnosis of physiologically active endogenous levels. Endogenous levels may or may not depend on the exogenous level. Soluble Na showed low levels in the N group with the lowest rhizospheric N levels, with a minimum when K concentrations in the growth medium were also low (T 2 ), while T 4 showed a higher leaf concentration although the presence of N and K in the rhizosphere was not significant. Total Na levels were more closely linked to doses applied, with the minimum leaf level occurring when the external concentration was lowest and the maximum when it was highest, although with the lowest K concentration. Soluble K was very closely related to external K levels, rather than to the amounts of N applied. The soluble K+soluble N and soluble K/soluble Na ratios confirmed the total dominance of univalent cations in treatments with high levels of K, regardless of how much N was applied. Soluble forms of the two cations showed the differences between treatments more clearly than the total forms, as did the ratios. This would suggest that the sum and its ratio provide a discriminatory system which enables the characteristics of the effect of fertilizer to be accurately determined, as individual study of both cations would not be possible. In the present study Na levels were not particularly high, in comparison with the K levels obtained.
Increase associated risk of gynaecological cancer due to long-term exposure to high concentration of atmospheric SO2 industrial pollutant

A cohort case–control study was conducted in XiangYa Hospital, Changsha, China, which involved 305 patients and 399 healthy women, from June 2010 to December 2018, to evaluate the association between Chinese women’s short- and long-term exposure to industrial air pollutant, SO2 and gynaecological cancer (GC). We obtained personal and family information from the XiangYa Hospital electronic computer medical records. Using data obtained from the air quality monitoring stations in Changsha, we estimated each woman’s exposure to the industrial air pollutant, sulphur dioxide (SO2), for different time windows, including the past 1, 5, 10 and 15 years before diagnosis of the disease. A multiple logistic regression model was used to assess the association between GC and SO2 exposure. GC was significantly associated with long-term SO2 exposure, with adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.56 (1.10–2.21) and 1.81 (1.07–3.06) for a per interquartile range increase in the past 10 and 15 years, respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed that different groups reacted in different ways to long-term SO2 exposure. We concluded that long-term exposure to high concentration of industrial pollutant, SO2 is associated with the development of GC. This finding has implications for the prevention and reduction of GC.
Interactions of the influences of habitat protection, habitat heterogeneity, and periodic flooding on waterbirds of the lower Paraná River, Argentina

How waterbirds respond to environmental characteristics of river systems is of interest because of the high biodiversity of waterbirds in these systems, their ecological roles, and the importance of waterbirds in hunting for sport or sustenance. We studied the influence of natural factors (water‐level fluctuations and environmental heterogeneity) and human‐related factors (habitat protection, which primarily excludes cattle grazing and hunting) on waterbirds in the Pre‐Delta region of the Paraná River system during three years. Our objectives were to evaluate the environmental factors that influence the assemblages of waterbirds and whether these variables explain differences in waterbird assemblages between protected and non‐protected areas. Both species richness and abundance of waterbirds per point count increased with the diversity of land cover categories at count spots. Species richness also increased with the surface of open water. The larger surface of open water in the non‐protected area contributed to explaining the higher species richness and abundance of waterbirds, including species with hunting pressure, in this area. During floods, the protected area maintained a high abundance of waterbirds, probably because the higher proportion of trees and aquatic vegetation in this area provided perches and foraging sites. We recommend enlarging protected areas in the Pre‐Delta region because of their role of sheltering waterbirds during floods. Protected and non‐protected areas serve complementary functions in providing habitat for waterbirds; therefore, it is important to maintain both of these management types in the landscape.
Epigenetics and Prognostic Survival Analysis of Muc Gene Family in Breast Cancer Based on Bioinformatics Analysis

Background: To explore the epigenetic and biological functions of muc members in breast cancer. Results: Mutation analysis showed that most of the muc members had missense mutations and the breast cancer patients with muc13 had a poor prognosis. Methylation analysis showed that the methylation expression of muc1, muc4, muc5AC and muc13 was related closely. The differentially expressed muc1, muc13 and muc15 had a poor prognosis and were related to immune infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer microenvironment. Conclusions: The epigenetic basis and biological functions of muc members are closely related to the occurrence and development of breast cancer.
Effectiveness of Using Social Media for Preaching During Covid-19 Lockdown

This study explored the use of social media as an approach to understand its effectiveness in preaching the Christian gospel by church leaders during the pandemic lockdown implemented in many countries across the world. In the technologically driven world of today, social networking sites have turned out to be an avenue where people extend their interactions by sharing their personal experiences and opinions to a wider audience. Social media (SM) is defined as “the various electronic tools, technologies, and applications that facilitate interactive communication and content exchange, allowing the user to move back and forth easily between the roles of the audience and content producers” (Hysenlika, 2012: 3). The term social media is fast becoming such an integral part of everyday life, as well as business operations, that its use has now become an everyday term for launching products, developing consumer loyalty and sharing news. It is recommended that churches that wish to stay connected and evangelize need to promote the use of and purchase relevant equipment. To be prepared, this requires identifying or recruiting talents and also the offering of rigorous training on being savvy on the ins and outs of technology use. The purpose of adopting an innovation needs to be clarified, well defined and aligned with the vision and mission of the organisation as well as its set goals. Sustenance for the future will require support for the team as they work to meet, plan, strategize, and brainstorm on trends to promote the gospel.