Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Atlantic alliance under stress: US-European relations after Iraq

Preface Introduction Part I. The Iraq War and the Atlantic Alliance: 1. Towards transatlantic drift? Geir Lundestad 2. The dynamics of the feud over Iraq Elizabeth Pond 3. The United States and its Atlantic partners David M. Andrews Part II. National Policies within the Alliance: 4. US politics and transatlantic relations: we are all Europeans now Miles Kahler 5. Three rifts, two reconciliations: Franco-American relations during the Fifth Republic Georges-Henri Soutou 6. Security exporters: Germany, the United States and transatlantic cooperation Hubert Zimmermann 7. A bridge too far: the United Kingdom and the transatlantic relationship William Wallace and Tim Oliver 8. The richest and farthest master is always best: US-Italian relations in historical perspective Leopoldo Nuti Part III. Prospects for the Alliance: 9. The Iraq crisis and the future of the Western Alliance Marc Trachtenberg 10. Military competence or policy loyalty: Central Europe and transatlantic relations Wade Jacoby 11. Is Atlanticism dead? David M. Andrews References.
Nutrient Adequacy of Foods Eaten by Students Attending Boarding and Day Secondary Schools in Owo.

The nutrient adequacy of foods eaten by students attending boarding and day secondary schools in Owo municipal was assessed. The study was carried out among two day secondary schools and two secondary schools with boarding facilities. A total of 200 students were systematically selected from the class register. The 24-hour dietary recall procedure was used to assess food consumption and nutrients intake. The nutrient intake of the student shows that the intake of energy was 98% of RDA while that of protein was above RDA 123%. However, vitamin A, E, B6 folic Acid and vitamin C were found to be lower than RDA as intakes were 38%, 21%, 62%, 55% and 23% respectively. Also mineral intake shows that there is low consumption of calcium 43% while Iron intake exceeded RDA 127%. However, there was no significant difference in the energy intake of the day and boarding student while intake of vitamin C was higher among day students. Access to low cost healthy local foods especially fruits and vegetables in school and at home should be encouraged.
Understanding and mitigating refresh overheads in high-density DDR4 DRAM systems

Recent DRAM specifications exhibit increasing refresh latencies. A refresh command blocks a full rank, decreasing available parallelism in the memory subsystem significantly, thus decreasing performance. Fine Granularity Refresh (FGR) is a feature recently announced as part of JEDEC's DDR4 DRAM specification that attempts to tackle this problem by creating a range of refresh options that provide a trade-off between refresh latency and frequency. In this paper, we first conduct an analysis of DDR4 DRAM's FGR feature, and show that there is no one-size-fits-all option across a variety of applications. We then present Adaptive Refresh (AR), a simple yet effective mechanism that dynamically chooses the best FGR mode for each application and phase within the application. When looking at the refresh problem more closely, we identify in high-density DRAM systems a phenomenon that we call command queue seizure, whereby the memory controller's command queue seizes up temporarily because it is full with commands to a rank that is being refreshed. To attack this problem, we propose two complementary mechanisms called Delayed Command Expansion (DCE) and Preemptive Command Drain (PCD). Our results show that AR does exploit DDR4's FGR effectively. However, once our proposed DCE and PCD mechanisms are added, DDR4's FGR becomes redundant in most cases, except in a few highly memory-sensitive applications, where the use of AR does provide some additional benefit. In all, our simulations show that the proposed mechanisms yield 8% (14%) mean speedup with respect to traditional refresh, at normal (extended) DRAM operating temperatures, for a set of diverse parallel applications.
Real-time personalized content catering via viewer sentiment feedback: a QoE perspective

Multimedia content service and delivery have long been plagued by the difficulty in obtaining feedback on users' true quality of experience. Existing estimation methods do not adequately cover all relevant factors, whereas questionnaires are costly, time-consuming, and impossible to scale. In this work, we present a framework for estimating a viewer's reactions toward on-screen content in real time by capturing and analyzing his/her facial video, thus allowing up-to-date learning of the viewer's preferences to occur, enabling the content provider to serve the most desirable and relevant contents and advertisements. Experiments have shown that the proposed sentiment analysis method can predict the viewer's preferences with good accuracy.
Realising potential? : the challenges of widening participation for students, further education and higher education

This thesis, and the focus of my research, has emerged from my own practice and some of the challenges I have faced as a practitioner involved in developing widening participation initiatives and Foundation Degrees. It consists of an exploration of the value of a Professional Doctorate in enabling researching professionals to develop research in the context of their everyday practice, and how this can encourage practitioners to unsettle their taken for granted notions of their practice world. It uses both a Practice Development Project, and a research project to achieve this aim. In particular the study sought to explore whether widening participation policy and practice does realise the potential of those groups it targets, or whether it sustains the status quo of educational inequality. The study uses theoretical concepts such as habitus and sense-making in developing an understanding of the identities of nontraditional mature learners. A Complementary Purposes Model was used to interview three different groups – higher education staff, further education staff and Foundation Degree students. A number of key themes emerged concerning the way in which Foundation Degrees are seen as being ‘not quite HE’ by students and staff alike. Alongside this FD students are seen as ‘other’ and different to traditional HE students. Principally my thesis concludes that widening participation policy can be challenged in a number of ways, including the way it has been linked to the needs of the ‘knowledge economy’, and the way that it tends to be focused on individual learner deficits rather than on challenging oppressive social structures that reinforce and maintain inequality. Activity is focused on realizing individual potential rather than on the potential for learning that remains untapped within particular social groups. Unless widening participation activity is embraced by all institutions with the same level of commitment and support, the status quo will remain, and the potential to learn within certain social groups will remain untapped.
Plans as Complex Mental Attitudes

a plan for assassinating the president is shooting him, and actually planning 0 Preparation of this paper was supported by a gift from the Systems Development Foundation. The research was done as part of my doctoral thesis [19], which was supported by a gift from the Systems Development Foundation, by an IBM Graduate Fellowship, by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contract N00039-84-K-0078 and by the O ce of Naval Research under Contract N00014-855-C-0013. My sincere thanks to Barbara Grosz, and to all the others, too numerous to list here, who contributed to my thesis e ort.
The frequency of complications and the etiology of disease in patients with liver cirrhosis in erzurum.

OBJECTIVE This study included 100 patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis who presented at Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine Gastroenterology clinic and polyclinic. MATERIALS AND METHODS The etiology of liver cirrhosis and the incidence of its complications have been investigated. RESULTS The etiological classification of liver cirrhosis in our patients was as follows: 47 hepatitis B virus hepatitis, 11 hepatitis C virus hepatitis, 5 HBV+HDV hepatitis, 4 Budd Chiari syndrome, 2 chronic alcohol abuse, 2 ischemic heart disease, 1 autoimmune hepatitis, 1 sclerosing cholangitis, 1 hydatid cyst. In 26 patients we could not find any etiological condition. These patients were called cryptogenic cirrhosis patients.When we examined the complications of liver cirrhosis, it appeared that there were ascites in 83 patient. In 56 patients, esophageal variceal bleeding occurred. There was spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in 42 patients. Hepatorenal syndrome occurred in 26 patients. Finally, in 3 patients we detected hepatorenal syndrome. CONCLUSION The most common causes in the etiology of liver cirrhosis are viral, especially HBV. Many of the patients were in decompensated phase when diagnosed. We found that there was a close relation between the frequency of complications and mortality in liver cirrhosis.
Intermanual transfer and bilateral cortical plasticity is maintained in older adults after skilled motor training with simple and complex tasks

Intermanual transfer refers to the phenomenon whereby unilateral motor training induces performance gains in both the trained limb and in the opposite, untrained limb. Evidence indicates that intermanual transfer is attenuated in older adults following training on a simple ballistic movement task, but not after training on a complex task. This study investigated whether differences in plasticity in bilateral motor cortices underlie these differential intermanual transfer effects in older adults. Twenty young (<35 years-old) and older adults (>65 years) trained on a simple (repeated ballistic thumb abduction) and complex (sequential finger-thumb opposition) task in separate sessions. Behavioral performance was used to quantify intermanual transfer between the dominant (trained) and non-dominant (untrained) hands. The amplitude of motor-evoked potentials induced by single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to investigate excitability changes in bilateral motor cortices. Contrary to predictions, both age groups exhibited performance improvements in both hands after unilateral skilled motor training with simple and complex tasks. These performance gains were accompanied by bilateral increases in cortical excitability in both groups for the simple but not the complex task. The findings suggest that advancing age does not necessarily influence the capacity for intermanual transfer after training with the dominant hand.
Spectral minutiae for vein pattern recognition

Similar to biometric fingerprint recognition, characteristic minutiae points - here end- and branch points - can be extracted from skeletonized veins to distinguish individuals. An approach to extract those vein minutiae and to transform them into a fixed-length, translation and scale invariant representation where rotations can be easily compensated is presented in this paper. The proposed solution based on spectral minutiae is evaluated against other comparison strategies on three different datasets of wrist and palm vein samples. It shows a competitive biometric performance while producing features that are compatible with state-of-the-art template protection systems.
NAD(P)H Oxidase-derived Hydrogen Peroxide Mediates Endothelial Nitric Oxide Production in Response to Angiotensin II*

Recently, it has been shown that the exogenous addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) increases endothelial nitric oxide (NO⋅) production. The current study is designed to determine whether endogenous levels of H2O2 are ever sufficient to stimulate NO⋅ production in intact endothelial cells. NO⋅ production was detected by a NO⋅-specific microelectrode or by an electron spin resonance spectroscopy using Fe2+-(DETC)2 as a NO⋅-specific spin trap. The addition of H2O2 to bovine aortic endothelial cells caused a potent and dose-dependent increase in NO⋅ release. Incubation with angiotensin II (10−7 mol) elevated intracellular H2O2 levels, which were attenuated with PEG-catalase. Angiotensin II increased NO⋅ production by 2-fold, and this was prevented by Losartan and by PEG-catalase, suggesting a critical role of AT1 receptor and H2O2 in this response. In contrast, NO⋅ production evoked by either bradykinin or calcium ionophore A23187 was unaffected by PEG-catalase. As in bovine aortic endothelial cells, angiotensin II doubled NO⋅ production in aortic endothelial cells from C57BL/6 mice but had no effect on NO⋅ production in endothelial cells from p47 phox−/− mice. In contrast, A23187stimulated NO⋅ production to a similar extent in endothelial cells from wild-type and p47 phox−/− mice. In summary, the present study provides direct evidence that endogenous H2O2, derived from the NAD(P)H oxidase, mediates endothelial NO⋅ production in response to angiotensin II. Under disease conditions associated with elevated levels of angiotensin II, this response may represent a compensatory mechanism. Because angiotensin II also stimulates O 2 ⨪ production from the NAD(P)H oxidase, the H2O2 stimulation of NO⋅ may facilitate peroxynitrite formation in response to this octapeptide.
Moyamoya Disease: Treatment and Outcomes

Although the pathogenesis of moyamoya disease (MMD) has not been fully elucidated, the effectiveness of surgical revascularization in preventing stroke has been addressed by many studies. The main mechanism of surgical revascularization is augmenting the intracranial blood flow using an external carotid system by either direct bypass or pial synangiosis. This can improve resting cerebral blood flow as well as vascular reserve capacity. For direct revascularization, the superficial temporal artery is used as the donor artery in most cases, although the occipital artery may be used in limited cases. Usually, the cortical branch of the middle cerebral artery is selected as the recipient of direct anastomosis. As for indirect revascularization, various techniques using different kinds of connective tissues have been introduced. In some cases, reinforcing the anterior cerebral artery and the posterior cerebral artery territories can be considered. The effectiveness of surgical revascularization for preventing ischemic stroke had been generally accepted by many studies. However, for preventing hemorrhagic stroke, new evidence has been added by a recent randomized controlled trial. The incidence of peri-operative complications such as stroke and hyperperfusion syndrome seems to be high due to the nature of the disease and technical demands for treatment. Preventing and adequately managing these complications are essential for ensuring the benefits of surgery.
Key role of tissue plasminogen activator in neurovascular coupling

The increase in blood flow evoked by synaptic activity is essential for normal brain function and underlies functional brain imaging signals. Nitric oxide, a vasodilator released by NMDA receptor activation, is critical for the flow increase, but the factors linking NMDA receptor activity to nitric oxide-dependent hyperemia are poorly understood. Here, we show that tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a serine protease implicated in NMDA receptor signaling, is required for the flow increase evoked by somatosensory stimulation. tPA acts by facilitating neuronal nitric oxide release, but this effect does not involve enhancement of NMDA currents or the associated intracellular Ca2+ rise. Rather, the evidence suggests that tPA controls NMDA-dependent nitric oxide synthesis by influencing the phosphorylation state of neuronal nitric oxide synthase. These findings unveil a previously unrecognized role of tPA in vital homeostatic mechanisms coupling NMDA receptor signaling with nitric oxide synthesis and local cerebral perfusion.
Clinical and Histological Evaluation of Direct Pulp Capping on Human Pulp Tissue Using a Dentin Adhesive System

Objective. This study presents a clinical and histological evaluation of human pulp tissue responses after direct capping using a new dentin adhesive system. Methods. Twenty-eight caries-free third molar teeth scheduled for extraction were evaluated. The pulps of 22 teeth were mechanically exposed and randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: Single Bond Universal or calcium hydroxide. Another group of 6 teeth acted as the intact control group. The periapical response was assayed, and a clinical examination was performed. The teeth were extracted after 6 weeks, and a histological analysis was performed. The pulp status was assessed, and the thickness of the dentin bridge was measured and categorized using a histological scoring system. Results. The clinical phase was asymptomatic for Single Bond Universal patients. Patients in the calcium hydroxide group reported mild symptoms of pain, although the histological examination revealed that dentin bridges with or without limited pulpitis had begun forming in each tooth. The universal adhesive system exhibited nonsignificantly increased histological signs of pulpitis (P > 0.05) and a significantly weaker thin mineralized tissue layer (P < 0.001) compared with the calcium hydroxide group. Conclusion. The results suggest that Single Bond Universal is inappropriate for human pulp capping; however, further long-term studies are needed to determine the biocompatibility of this agent.
Does SNAP Decrease Food Insecurity? Untangling the Self-Selection Effect

Self-selection by more food-needy households into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp Program) makes it difficult to observe positive effects of the program in survey data. This study investigates self-selection and ameliorative program effects by examining households’ food security month by month for several months prior to initial receipt of SNAP benefits and for several months after joining the program. Two-year panels are constructed by matching the same households interviewed in the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement in 2 consecutive years using data from 2001 to 2006. Food security is observed to deteriorate in the 6 months prior to beginning to receive SNAP benefits and to improve shortly after. The results clearly demonstrate the self-selection by households into SNAP at a time when they are more severely food insecure. The results are consistent with a moderate ameliorative effect of SNAP—reducing the prevalence of very low food security among recent entrants by about one-third—although they do not conclusively demonstrate that extent of amelioration.
Frank Kasper Phases of Squishable Spheres and Optimal Cell Models 1

1) Selective assemblies of giant tetrahedra via precisely controlled interactions, Optimal sphere packings as models of matter date back to Kepler [1], who conjectured that hexagonally-close packed structures (e.g. FCC, HCP lattices) are maximal-density arrangements of rigid spheres. That conjecture is now proven to be correct [2] and generally accepted to explain the stability of hexagonally-close packed order in many materials, from colloids to metals. By comparison, understanding the optimal packing of highly-deformable, squishable spheres, and its implications for self-organized soft matter, remains an active area of inquiry. Consider a schematic of squishable spherical domains, self-assembled from many amphiphillic block copolymer molecules, shown in Fig. 1A. In neat systems, where solvent is unavailable to fill gaps, idealized spheres must be deformed, squished, to fill the interstitial voids and distribute mass roughly evenly throughout the volume, as is generically favored by van der Waals forces. The resulting structure is composed of self-assembled domains occupying lower symmetry cells, related to the Voronoi cells of the lattice. Finding the optimal lattice therefore reduces to problem of determining the space-filing polyhedra that minimize the free energy cost to squish the ideally-spherical assembly into the appropriate set of lower symmetry, polyhedral cells. What is that cost? In 2000, Ziherl and Kamien proposed that a natural term in that cost is proportional to the area of those cells [3], and hence, with the additional assumption of constant cell volume, that optimal soft sphere lattices can related to optimal dry foams. As a standard measure, consider the reduced area A(X) = A(X)/A Sph , where A(X) is the area of the polyhedral cells of partition X and A Sph is the area of an equal-volume sphere (such that A(X) > 1). In 1994, Weaire and Phelan showed that the equal-volume partition provided by the A15 lattice has the lowest known area with A(A15) = 1.0935 [4]. Based on Weaire and Phelan's result–which disproved Kelvin's conjecture that BCC optimizes cell area (A(BCC) = 1.0973) and stands to this day–Ziherl and Kamien developed a heuristic model to rationalize the appearance of A15 lattice in amphiphilic dendron assemblies [5]. Recent studies of a broader class of assemblies shed new light on this optimal cell shape argument and the ability of soft systems, more generally, to form lattice symmetries beyond those typically encountered in single component systems, such as FCC or BCC. A15 belongs to a class of lattices known as …
Performance measurement in business process outsourcing decisions

Purpose – Outsourcing research has identified that permanently governing and controlling the outsourcing provider is essential for a successful outsourcing engagement and has prioritised performance measurement systems as the most important tool to support governance and control. The purpose of this paper is to present four outsourcing contracts and conducts a detailed analysis of their performance measurement systems.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on case study analysis of four outsourcing projects. The performance measurement systems of these projects are analysed and interpreted against the balanced scorecard concept.Findings – Major findings of the cross‐case analysis are that almost only performance measurement systems based on the business process perspective were found. This structure is primarily determined by the underlying contract and compensation model. Links to the strategic objectives of the outsourcing project are missing.Research limitations/implications – The research is.