Preliminary seismic analysis of fabricated steel frame systems with pin beam-column connections and buckling restrained braces

This study aims to propose an improved fabricated high-rise steel frame system with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) and pin beam-column connections, which is applicable to seismic areas. In this system, damages to the main structural members resulted from earthquake ground motions can be prevented by BRBs which are capable of resisting all the lateral seismic loads, whilst the other structural members are mainly responsible to carry the gravity loads. Having explicit load-carrying characteristics, this system is thought to have a competitive advantage of rapid construction. In this study, a 3D finite element model of a specific fin-plate connection, a typical type of pin beam-column connections, is built and its rotational stiffness is evaluated. Subsequently, a high-rise steel frame model with both BRBs and the fin-plate connections are established. The earthquakeresistant performances of the model under different levels of seismic excitation are analyzed using the nonlinear dynamic time-history method. Numerical results indicate that the proposed system performs elastically under frequent earthquakes, whereas under severe earthquakes the main structural components are well within their capacities. Furthermore, the BRBs show significant energy dissipation capacity under severe earthquakes

Ask Question First for Enhancing Lifelong Language Learning

Lifelong language learning aims to stream learning NLP tasks while retaining knowledge of previous tasks. Previous works based on the language model and following data-free constraint approaches have explored formatting all data as "begin token (\textit{B}) + context (\textit{C}) + question (\textit{Q}) + answer (\textit{A})" for different tasks. However, they still suffer from catastrophic forgetting and are exacerbated when the previous task's pseudo data is insufficient for the following reasons: (1) The model has difficulty generating task-corresponding pseudo data, and (2) \textit{A} is prone to error when \textit{A} and \textit{C} are separated by \textit{Q} because the information of the \textit{C} is diminished before generating \textit{A}. Therefore, we propose the Ask Question First and Replay Question (AQF-RQ), including a novel data format "\textit{BQCA}" and a new training task to train pseudo questions of previous tasks. Experimental results demonstrate that AQF-RQ makes it easier for the model to generate more pseudo data that match corresponding tasks, and is more robust to both sufficient and insufficient pseudo-data when the task boundary is both clear and unclear. AQF-RQ can achieve only 0.36\% lower performance than multi-task learning.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication at COLING 202

Several Integral Estimates and Some Applications

In this paper, the authors first consider the bidirectional estimates of several typical integrals. As some applications of these integral estimates, the authors investigate the pointwise multipliers from the normal weight general function space $F(p,\mu,s)$ to the normal weight Bloch type space $\mathcal{B_{\nu}}(B_{n})$ on the unit ball $B_{n}$ of $\mathbb{C}^{n}$, where $\mu$ and $\nu$ are two normal functions on $[0,1)$. For the special normal function $\displaystyle{\mu(r)=(1-r^{2})^{\alpha}\log^{\beta}\frac{e}{1-r^{2}}}$ ($\alpha>0$, $-\infty<\beta<\infty$), the authors give the necessary and sufficient conditions of pointwise multipliers from $F(p,\mu,s)$ to $\mathcal{B_{\nu}}(B_{n})$ for all cases

Issues and challenges of reclaimed water usage: A case study of the Dragon-shaped River in the Beijing Olympic Park

Increased use of reclaimed water could be one of the solutions to Beijing’s growing water shortage, particularly for non-potable (e.g. landscaping) purposes. The ‘Dragon-shaped River’, a large artificial waterscape built on the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, offers a useful case study of the issues and challenges attendant on wastewater reclamation and reuse. Of particular interest is the use of phytoremediation techniques for bioremediation of nutrient loads. This paper presents the results of ongoing monitoring which indicates that phytoremediation is succeeding in preventing eutrophication, though some challenges, notably management of aquatic biomass, remain

FIRST: A Million-Entry Dataset for Text-Driven Fashion Synthesis and Design

Text-driven fashion synthesis and design is an extremely valuable part of artificial intelligence generative content(AIGC), which has the potential to propel a tremendous revolution in the traditional fashion industry. To advance the research on text-driven fashion synthesis and design, we introduce a new dataset comprising a million high-resolution fashion images with rich structured textual(FIRST) descriptions. In the FIRST, there is a wide range of attire categories and each image-paired textual description is organized at multiple hierarchical levels. Experiments on prevalent generative models trained over FISRT show the necessity of FIRST. We invite the community to further develop more intelligent fashion synthesis and design systems that make fashion design more creative and imaginative based on our dataset. The dataset will be released soon.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

High-mobility-group box protein 1 A box reduces development of sodium laurate-induced thromboangiitis obliterans in rats

ObjectiveHigh-mobility-group box protein 1 (HMGB1), as a late mediator of inflammation, plays a key role in inflammatory responses by inducing and extending the production of proinflammatory cytokines. The effect of HGMB1 in the inflammatory disease thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO) is unknown. We aimed to investigate the role of HMGB1 in sodium laurate-induced TAO in rats.MethodsMale Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 8 each) for treatment: normal, sham-operated, TAO model, and low-dose (15 mg/kg) or high-dose (30 mg/kg) recombinant A box (rA box) infection (administered intraperitoneally once daily for 15 days). The TAO model was induced by sodium laurate and graded by gross appearance on day 15 after femoral artery injection. Histologic changes were measured by histopathology in rat femoral arteries. Plasma levels of HMGB1, thromboxane B2, 6-keto-prostaglandin F1-α, and blood cell counts and blood coagulation levels were measured. Expression of HMGB1, receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE), interleukin-6, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 was assessed by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, Western blot analysis, and quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction.ResultsThe typical signs and symptoms of TAO were observed on day 15 after sodium laurate injection. The expression of HMGB1, RAGE, interleukin-6, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 was markedly increased in rat femoral arteries. Plasma levels of HMGB1 and thromboxane B2 were elevated, but the level of 6-keto-prostaglandin F1-α was decreased. Blood was in a hypercoagulable state, and prothrombin, thrombin, and activated partial thromboplastin times were all significantly shortened, whereas fibrinogen level was increased in TAO rats compared with sham-operated rats. These effects were terminated by the HMGB1 antagonist rA box.ConclusionsHMGB1 is involved in the inflammatory state in a model of TAO induced by sodium laurate in rats, probably via its receptor RAGE. As the antagonist of HMGB1, rA box can attenuate the development of TAO, which may be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of TAO.Clinical RelevanceThromboangiitis obliterans (TAO), or Buerger disease, is a segmental nonatherosclerotic inflammatory disorder. Patients with Buerger disease have a lower quality of life because of intermittent claudication, rest pain, ulcers, and superficial thrombophlebitis. The specific etiology and pathologic mechanisms remain not elucidated. High-mobility-group box protein 1, as a late mediator of inflammation, plays a key role in inflammatory responses to tissue injury and infection by inducing and extending the production of proinflammatory cytokines. Here, we explored the role of high-mobility-group box protein 1 in rat model of TAO, discovering a new damage marker in TAO. We also investigated the unique role of recombinant A box in the prevention and treatment of TAO