Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The clinical anatomy of the maxillary artery in the pterygopalatine fossa.

PURPOSE The purposes of this study were to delineate the maxillary artery and its branching arteries and to develop a classification of the various branching patterns by means of serial cadaver dissections of the pterygopalatine fossa region. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifteen Korean adult cadavers were used; 2 sides of each cadaver were examined, for a total of 30 sides. Before dissection of the pterygopalatine region, computed tomography scan was taken of 20 cadaver heads. Sectioned specimens of 9 sides of the cadaver heads in 3.0-mm thickness were made for this study. Then we dissected 21 sides of fresh cadavers under the microscope. In this investigation, we observed branching patterns of the third portion of the maxillary artery, a relationship of the terminal branches of the maxillary artery to the pterygomaxillary junction, and the course of descending palatine artery. Then we classified the branching patterns of the maxillary artery in the pterygopalatine fossa. RESULTS From the pterygomaxillary junction to the pterygopalatine fossa region, the maxillary artery was usually branched into 5 arteries in the following order: posterior superior alveolar artery, infraorbital artery, artery of the pterygoid canal, descending palatine artery, and sphenopalatine artery. Of 21 cadavers, 18 showed this order (85.7%). There were 2 types of branching patterns of the posterior superior alveolar artery and the infraorbital artery. The average distance from the most inferior point of the pterygomaxillary junction to the posterosuperior alveolar artery, infraorbital artery, and descending palatine artery was 15.2, 32.2, and 24.8 mm, respectively. In most cases (95.2%), the greater and lesser palatine arteries were divided from the short descending palatine artery. According to the contours of the third portion of the maxillary artery, we classified them into 5 types: the "Y" type (19%), "intermediate" type (33.3%), "T" type (23.8%), and "M" type (14.3%). CONCLUSION The results of this investigation show the common patterns of the maxillary artery.
Defective Hand1 phosphoregulation uncovers essential roles for Hand1 in limb morphogenesis

The morphogenesis of the vertebrate limbs is a complex process in which cell signaling and transcriptional regulation coordinate diverse structural adaptations in diverse species. In this study, we examine the consequences of altering Hand1 dimer choice regulation within developing vertebrate limbs. Although Hand1 deletion via the limb-specific Prrx1-Cre reveals a non-essential role for Hand1 in mouse limb morphogenesis, altering Hand1 phosphoregulation, and consequently Hand1 dimerization affinities, results in a severe truncation of proximal-anterior limb elements. Molecular analysis reveals a non-cell-autonomous mechanism that causes widespread cell death within the embryonic limb bud. In addition, we observe changes in proximal-anterior gene regulation, including a reduction in the expression of Irx3, Irx5, Gli3 and Alx4, all of which are upregulated in Hand2 limb conditional knockouts. A reduction of Hand2 and Shh gene dosage improves the integrity of anterior limb structures, validating the importance of the Twist-family bHLH dimer pool in limb morphogenesis. Summary: Altering Hand1 phosphoregulation, and consequently Hand1 dimerization affinities, results in a severe truncation of anterior-proximal limb elements in mice.
Costs Associated with Implementation of Computer-Assisted Clinical Decision Support System for Antenatal and Delivery Care: Case Study of Kassena-Nankana District of Northern Ghana

Objective This study analyzed cost of implementing computer-assisted Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) in selected health care centres in Ghana. Methods A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in the Kassena-Nankana district (KND). CDSS was deployed in selected health centres in KND as an intervention to manage patients attending antenatal clinics and the labour ward. The CDSS users were mainly nurses who were trained. Activities and associated costs involved in the implementation of CDSS (pre-intervention and intervention) were collected for the period between 2009–2013 from the provider perspective. The ingredients approach was used for the cost analysis. Costs were grouped into personnel, trainings, overheads (recurrent costs) and equipment costs (capital cost). We calculated cost without annualizing capital cost to represent financial cost and cost with annualizing capital costs to represent economic cost. Results Twenty-two trained CDSS users (at least 2 users per health centre) participated in the study. Between April 2012 and March 2013, users managed 5,595 antenatal clients and 872 labour clients using the CDSS. We observed a decrease in the proportion of complications during delivery (pre-intervention 10.74% versus post-intervention 9.64%) and a reduction in the number of maternal deaths (pre-intervention 4 deaths versus post-intervention 1 death). The overall financial cost of CDSS implementation was US$23,316, approximately US$1,060 per CDSS user trained. Of the total cost of implementation, 48% (US$11,272) was pre-intervention cost and intervention cost was 52% (US$12,044). Equipment costs accounted for the largest proportion of financial cost: 34% (US$7,917). When economic cost was considered, total cost of implementation was US$17,128–lower than the financial cost by 26.5%. Conclusions The study provides useful information in the implementation of CDSS at health facilities to enhance health workers' adherence to practice guidelines and taking accurate decisions to improve maternal health care.
Extensive methylation of hMLH1 promoter region predominates in proximal colon cancer with microsatellite instability.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Methylation of the hMLH1 promoter region has been suggested to cause microsatellite instability (MSI) in sporadic colorectal carcinoma (CRC). We studied the methylation profile in a wide region of the hMLH1 promoter and compared with the hMLH1 protein expression and MSI status in 88 cases of sporadic CRC. METHODS Na-bisulfite treatment and polymerase chain reaction single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis was performed using 5 sets of polymerase chain reaction primers spanning the promoter region of the hMLH1 to examine methylation status. Results were compared with immunostaining using anti-hMLH1 monoclonal antibody and MSI status of the tumor samples. RESULTS Methylation status was classified as full or partial methylation. Full methylation indicates the methylation of all CpG sites in the examined regions. Methylation of the hMLH1 promoter was observed in 88.9% (16 of 18) of CRCs showing high frequency MSI (MSI-H), among which 89% (14 of 16) had full methylation with reduced hMLH1 protein expression. All cases showing full methylation were proximal colon tumors with MSI-H. In cases with partial methylation, only the upstream region of the hMLH1 promoter was methylated. Partial methylation was also shown in 33.3% (6 of 18) of the normal mucosa of MSI-H cases. Frequencies of methylation were significantly correlated with female gender (P = 0.0009) and aging (P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS Full methylation of the hMLH1 promoter region and subsequent gene inactivation may play a crucial role in the carcinogenesis of MSI-H CRCs in the proximal colon. Methylation upstream of the hMLH1 promoter appears to be an early event in the carcinogenesis of MSI-H tumors.
Perfectionism in India Compared to America: A Cross-Cultural Internet-Based Assessment

Perfectionism is conceptualized as a multidimensional personality construct, but has not been extensively studied cross-culturally. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) lets users complete online questionnaires, collecting data that can provide an international sample, taking advantage of MTurk as a cross-cultural research tool. Indians represent the second-largest proportion of MTurk users behind Americans and presented a unique opportunity to examine cross-cultural differences. India represents a growing and increasingly influential global economy. The current study assessed perfectionism in Indians via MTurk and compared scores on multidimensional perfectionism scales to an American sample. Mean differences on perfectionism subscales indicated that Indians scored higher than Americans on Concern Over Mistakes, Perceived Parental Pressure, and Striving for Excellence, while Americans scored higher than Indians on Planfulness and Need for Approval. Neither sample was nationally representative, as the Indian sample overrepresented males, urban citizens, and individuals with higher education and income, and the American sample overrepresented Caucasians and females. Scale score differences were influenced by disparities in demographic variable distributions such as gender, education, income, and religious affiliation. Future studies would likely benefit from considering more representative samples as well as the latent structure of perfectionism in Indian samples.
The Combination of BH3-Mimetic ABT-737 with the Alkylating Agent Temozolomide Induces Strong Synergistic Killing of Melanoma Cells Independent of p53

Metastatic melanoma has poor prognosis and is refractory to most conventional chemotherapies. The alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ) is commonly used in treating melanoma but has a disappointing response rate. Agents that can act cooperatively with TMZ and improve its efficacy are thus highly sought after. The BH3 mimetic ABT-737, which can induce apoptosis by targeting pro-survival Bcl-2 family members, has been found to enhance the efficacy of many conventional chemotherapeutic agents in multiple cancers. We found that combining TMZ and ABT-737 induced strong synergistic apoptosis in multiple human melanoma cell lines. When the drugs were used in combination in a mouse xenograft model, they drastically reduced tumor growth at concentrations where each individual drug had no significant effect. We found that TMZ treatment elevated p53 levels, and that the pro-apoptotic protein Noxa was elevated in TMZ/ABT-737 treated cells. Experiments with shRNA demonstrated that the synergistic effect of TMZ and ABT-737 was largely dependent on Noxa. Experiments with nutlin-3, a p53 inducer, demonstrated that p53 induction was sufficient for synergistic cell death with ABT-737 in a Noxa-dependent fashion. However, p53 was not necessary for TMZ/ABT-737 synergy as demonstrated by a p53-null line, indicating that TMZ and ABT-737 together induce Noxa in a p53-independent fashion. These results demonstrate that targeting anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 members is a promising method for treating metastatic melanoma, and that clinical trials with TMZ and Bcl-2 inhibitors are warranted.
An Approach to Image Segmentation using K-means Clustering Algorithm

This paper presents a new approach for image segmentation by applying k-means algorithm. In image segmentation, clustering algorithms are very popular as they are intuitive and are also easy to implement. The K-means clustering algorithm is one of the most widely used algorithm in the literature, and many authors successfully compare their new proposal with the results achieved by the k-Means. This paper proposes a color-based segmentation method that uses K-means clustering technique . The k-means algorithm is an iterative technique used to partition an image into k clusters. The standard K-Means algorithm produces accurate segmentation results only when applied to images defined by homogenous regions with respect to texture and color since no local constraints are applied to impose spatial continuity. At first, the pixels are clustered based on their color and spatial features, where the clustering process is accomplished. Then the clustered blocks are merged to a specific number of regions. This approach thus provides a feasible new solution for image segmentation which may be helpful in image retrieval. The experimental results clarify the effectiveness of our approach to improve the segmentation quality in aspects of precision and computational time. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is promising.
Effects of Acute Carbohydrate Administration on Central and Peripheral Hemodynamic Responses to Mental Stress

Essential hypertension is closely related to conditions with impaired glucose tolerance and hyperinsulinemia. To evaluate a possible interaction between the sympathetic nervous system and carbohydrate ingestion on the circulatory responses to psychosocial stress, we compared the hemodynamic effects of an oral glucose challenge with those observed after placebo in 10 glucose-tolerant, normotensive young men at rest and during standardized mental stress. After glucose, resting cardiac output increased by 20% (p<0.05), which was mainly due to an increased heart rate (+14%; p<0.001). Since total peripheral resistance decreased by 13% (p<0.02), mean arterial pressure was unaffected by glucose. In spite of this, glucose loading was associated with a slight increase in systolic blood pressure and a gradual decrease of diastolic blood pressure. Resting forearm blood flow was unaffected by glucose. The stress response after placebo was characterized by the expected increase in cardiac output and mean arterial pressure, and an unchanged total peripheral resistance. By contrast, in the postprandial state the pressor response to stress was solely dependent on an increased systemic vascular resistance, and cardiac output was unaffected by stress. After glucose, the stress-induced muscular vasodilation in the forearm was reduced to 40% of that observed after placebo (p<0.01). Thus, acute carbohydrate administration has significant hemodynamic effects in humans. Furthermore, during the postprandial period there is a marked alteration of the pattern of the circulatory responses to psychosocial stress, characterized by attenuated muscular vasodilation and a rise in systemic vascular resistance.
Removal of Cu2+ and Ag+ from aqueous solution on a chemically-carbonized sorbent from date palm leaflets

A chemically-carbonized sorbent was prepared from date palm leaflets by sulphuric acid treatment at 170°C. Carbonization took place via the dehydration effect of the hot sulphuric acid producing a carbon with reduction property. Sorption of Cu2+ and Ag+ from aqueous solution was investigated in terms of pH, contact time, metal concentration and temperature. A peculiar behaviour was found for the sorption of the two metals on the produced carbon. Sorption of Cu2+ was fast, reaching equilibrium within ∼2 h, whilst Ag+ sorption was slow and required ∼60 h to reach equilibrium. Activation energy (E a ) for Cu2+ sorption was ∼16.1 kJ/mol indicating a diffusion-controlled ion exchange process; however, E a for Ag+ sorption was ∼44.3 kJ/mol indicating a chemically controlled process. Equilibrium sorption data were tested for the Langmuir and Freundlich equations. Sorption capacity appears to be much higher for Ag+ than for Cu2+ with increased uptake, for both metals, when increasing the temperature (25–45°C). Ag+ was reduced to elemental silver on the sorbent surface and this was confirmed using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray powder diffraction; however, no reduction processes were involved in Cu2+ sorption. This paper discusses the sorption mechanism.
Why don't present-biased agents make commitments?

Present-biased preferences engender a demand for commitment. Commitment is a problematic prediction, since we see so little of it. I quantitatively explore the reasons for the "missing" commitment. Extending the procrastination model in Carroll et al. (2009), I show how equilibrium commitment is related to (i) the standard deviation of the opportunity cost of time, (ii) the cost of delay, (iii) the degree of partial naivete, and (iv) the direct cost of commitment. The calibrated model demonstrates that the perceived benefits of commitment are often overwhelmed by the costs of commitment. Demand for commitment is a special case rather than the general case.
El-maati Ouhabaz: Analysis of Heat Equations on Domains

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Measuring the Chemical and Cytotoxic Variability of Commercially Available Kava (Piper methysticum G. Forster)

Formerly used world-wide as a popular botanical medicine to reduce anxiety, reports of hepatotoxicity linked to consuming kava extracts in the late 1990s have resulted in global restrictions on kava use and have hindered kava-related research. Despite its presence on the United States Food and Drug Administration consumer advisory list for the past decade, export data from kava producing countries implies that US kava imports, which are not publicly reported, are both increasing and of a fairly high volume. We have measured the variability in extract chemical composition and cytotoxicity towards human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cancer cells of 25 commercially available kava products. Results reveal a high level of variation in chemical content and cytotoxicity of currently available kava products. As public interest and use of kava products continues to increase in the United States, efforts to characterize products and expedite research of this potentially useful botanical medicine are necessary.
Conjugated polymer-based organic solar cells.

The need to develop inexpensive renewable energy sources stimulates scientific research for efficient, low-cost photovoltaic devices.1 The organic, polymer-based photovoltaic elements have introduced at least the potential of obtaining cheap and easy methods to produce energy from light.2 The possibility of chemically manipulating the material properties of polymers (plastics) combined with a variety of easy and cheap processing techniques has made polymer-based materials present in almost every aspect of modern society.3 Organic semiconductors have several advantages: (a) lowcost synthesis, and (b) easy manufacture of thin film devices by vacuum evaporation/sublimation or solution cast or printing technologies. Furthermore, organic semiconductor thin films may show high absorption coefficients4 exceeding 105 cm-1, which makes them good chromophores for optoelectronic applications. The electronic band gap of organic semiconductors can be engineered by chemical synthesis for simple color changing of light emitting diodes (LEDs). 5 Charge carrier mobilities as high as 10 cm2/V‚s6 made them competitive with amorphous silicon.7 This review is organized as follows. In the first part, we will give a general introduction to the materials, production techniques, working principles, critical parameters, and stability of the organic solar cells. In the second part, we will focus on conjugated polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells, mainly on polyphenylenevinylene (PPV) derivatives/(1-(3-methoxycarbonyl) propyl-1-phenyl[6,6]C61) (PCBM) fullerene derivatives and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/PCBM systems. In the third part, we will discuss the alternative approaches such as polymer/polymer solar cells and organic/inorganic hybrid solar cells. In the fourth part, we will suggest possible routes for further improvements and finish with some conclusions. The different papers mentioned in the text have been chosen for didactical purposes and cannot reflect the chronology of the research field nor have a claim of completeness. The further interested reader is referred to the vast amount of quality papers published in this field during the past decade.
Different land-use intensities and their susceptibility to soil erosion

Adaptation is the most important strategy to reduce the effect of climate change and soil erosion. During this process adequate, rational land use is necessary to ensure climate resilience. Therefore, the main objective in this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of different land use intensities (arable land and grassland) to soil erosion. The rainfall simulation method is a good tool to measure and estimate soil erosion in situ. The comparative measurements were carried out in the field with a Shower Power-02 simulator on 6 m2 plots in Gerézdpuszta, where the slope angles were ~8% and the simulated rainfall events had high intensities (~70-96 mm h−1). The runoff and soil loss were significantly higher from arable land. The runoff-infiltration ratio and runoff coefficient showed lower infiltration capacity in the case of arable land. On average, the suspended sediment loads were tenfold higher under intensive land use. In the case of grassland a moderate increase in infiltration was observed due to higher rainfall intensity, as also reported in the literature. The rainfall simulation method provides good data for soil loss estimations.
Enhancing service productivity in acute care inpatient settings using a collaborative clinical education model.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Exposure of physical therapy students to acute inpatient settings is difficult to achieve because of staff shortages and 1:1 supervision. The purpose of this study was to examine the productivity effects of the 2:1 teaching model in the acute inpatient clinical setting. Changes in patient throughput and the amount of care provided were the measures used to define productivity. SUBJECTS The work load measurement statistics of 8 Clinical Instructors (CIs) and 16 physical therapy students were examined. METHODS The productivity of each CI during a control period was compared with the productivity of the CI-student team. RESULTS Each CI-student team's mean productivity was greater during the clinical placement than during the control period when the CI worked independently. Even when the students' productivity measures were prorated by 0.6, the productivity was greater during the student placement than during the control period. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION The study demonstrates that students make positive contributions to clinical service units that can exceed normal productivity levels of the CI. The 2:1 model has the potential to increase productivity while increasing the numbers of placements for academic programs in limited specialty areas.
Classical history theory of vector fields

We consider the extension of classical history theory to the massive vector field and electromagnetism. It is argued that the action of the two Poincare groups introduced by Savvidou suggests that the history fields should have five components. The extra degrees of freedom introduced to make the fields five dimensional result in an extra pair of second class constraints in the case of the massive vector field, and in an extended gauge group in the case of electromagnetism. The total gauge transformations depend on two arbitrary parameters, and contain “internal” and “external” U(1) gauge transformations as subgroups.