Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rotation and alignment of rods in two-dimensional chaotic flow

We study the dynamics of rod shaped particles in two-dimensional electromagnetically driven fluid flows. Two separate types of flows that exhibit chaotic mixing are compared: one with time-periodic flow and the other with constant forcing but nonperiodic flow. Video particle tracking is used to make accurate simultaneous measurements of the motion and orientation of rods along with the carrier fluid velocity field. These measurements allow a detailed comparison of the motion and orientation of rods with properties of the carrier flow. Measured rod rotation rates are in agreement with predictions for ellipsoidal particles based on the measured velocity gradients at the center of the rods. There is little dependence on length for the rods we studied (up to 53% of the length scale of the forcing). Rods are found to align weakly with the extensional direction of the strain-rate tensor. However, the alignment is much stronger with the direction of Lagrangian stretching defined by the eigenvectors of the Cauchy.
Polymer Composites in Construction: An Overview

This paper provides an overview on some of the latest advances in the applications of fiber reinforced polymeric (FRP) composites in construction. The paper focuses on three main inter related review areas, namely; (i) Repair and rehabilitation of concrete, steel, masonry and wood structures using composites, and (ii) All-composite structural applications that includes buildings and bridges, and (iii) Latest development on design codes, materials specifications, design manuals and national and international standards for composites used in civil infrastructure applications.
Resting in peace or noise: Scanner background noise suppresses default‐mode network

Studies have identified specific brain regions that increase activation during rest relative to attention‐demanding tasks; these regions subserve the “default mode of brain function”. Most of these studies have been conducted in the presence of scanner background noise (SBN). This noise has been shown to lead to altered attentional demands, and thus may modulate the default‐mode network. Twelve subjects were examined during a rest condition that was contrasted with an auditory task. Words were presented either with SBN employing a conventional acquisition or without SBN using a sparse sampling approach. The number of experimental and resting trials was equated between the designs. Selecting the images in the condition with SBN that corresponded in time with the images in the condition without SBN made a direct comparison of the default‐mode network (rest contrasted with active task) possible. There was typical activation of the default‐mode network during rest versus task for both designs. However, SBN suppressed major components of the default‐mode network, including medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and precuneus. Our results suggest that the default mode of brain function differs when assessed in the presence compared to the absence of scanner noise, with the presence of scanner noise perhaps adding attentional demands that diminish activation changes between rest and task in a nonlinear way within the default network. Further studies are needed to clarify whether the use of a sparse sampling technique might enhance clinical utilities that have been proposed for analysis of the default‐mode network. Hum Brain Mapp 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Forest Structure Estimation from a UAV-Based Photogrammetric Point Cloud in Managed Temperate Coniferous Forests

Here, we investigated the capabilities of a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetric point cloud for estimating forest biophysical properties in managed temperate coniferous forests in Japan, and the importance of spectral information for the estimation. We estimated four biophysical properties: stand volume (V), Lorey’s mean height (HL), mean height (HA), and max height (HM). We developed three independent variable sets, which included a height variable, a spectral variable, and a combined height and spectral variable. The addition of a dominant tree type to the above data sets was also tested. The model including a height variable and dominant tree type was the best for all biophysical property estimations. The root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) for the best model for V, HL, HA, and HM, were 118.30, 1.13, 1.24, and 1.24, respectively. The model including a height variable alone yielded the second highest accuracy. The respective RMSEs were 131.74, 1.21, 1.31, and 1.32. The model including a spectral variable alone yielded much lower estimation accuracy than that including a height variable. Thus, a lightweight UAV photogrammetric point cloud could accurately estimate forest biophysical properties, and a spectral variable was not necessarily required for the estimation. The dominant tree type improved estimation accuracy.
Intralesional interferon-alpha and zidovudine in epidemic Kaposi's sarcoma.

BACKGROUND Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is the most common neoplasm in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). To date, no therapy has proved to be consistently effective. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of intralesional interferon-alpha in patients with epidemic KS who were taking zidovudine. METHODS Up to five lesions in each of 14 patients entered into the study were injected with 1 million U of interferon-alpha three times weekly for 6 weeks. Sterile water was used as a placebo control. The median zidovudine dose was 500 mg/day. The median CD4 count was 23/microliters. RESULTS Of 14 patients evaluated, 13 of 14 (93%) showed a clinical complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) to therapy. Of 54 lesions injected, 41 (76%) showed a CR and 5 (9%) showed a PR, which resulted in an overall response rate of 85%. CONCLUSION Intralesional interferon-alpha produced a high response rate in injected lesions of KS, but it failed to demonstrate superior efficacy over the placebo.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Case Studies Continue to Illuminate the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory

The current ubiquity of functional neuroimaging studies, and the importance they have had in elucidating brain function, obscures the fact that much of what we know about brain–behavior relationships derives largely from the study of single-and multiple-patient cases. A major goal of the present review is to describe how single cases continue to uniquely and critically contribute to cognitive neuroscience theory. With several recent examples from the literature, we demonstrate that single cases can both challenge accepted dogma and generate hypotheses and theories that steer the field in new directions. We discuss recent findings from case studies that specify critical functions of the hippocampus in episodic memory and recollection, and clarify its role in nonmnemonic abilities. Although we focus on the hippocampus, we discuss other regions and the occurrence of new associative learning, as well as the involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal and parietal cortices in memory encoding and retrieval. We also describe ways of dealing with the shortcomings of case studies, and emphasize the partnership of patient and neuroimaging methods in constraining neurocognitive models of memory.
Involvement of the dorsal hippocampus in expression and extinction of cocaine‐induced conditioned place preference

A key aspect of substance abuse is that drug taking often occurs in a specific context. As a consequence, exposure to drug‐associated contexts can trigger cravings and relapse, even after long periods of abstinence. Although many studies have demonstrated that the hippocampus is critical for developing and retrieving contextual and spatial memories, comparatively little is known about the role of the hippocampus in acquiring and inhibiting memories involving contexts and drugs of abuse. We examined the effects of hippocampal inactivation on expression of cocaine‐induced conditioned place preference (CPP) after initial acquisition or extinction of CPP in C57BL/6 mice. During acquisition of CPP, distinct tactile cues were paired with cocaine (20 mg kg−1, intraperitoneal, CS+) and different tactile cues were paired with saline (CS−) on alternate days. Groups differed in whether the CS+ and CS− cues were presented in the same large space (one‐compartment procedure) or distinct small spaces (two‐compartment procedure), as previous findings demonstrate that a two‐compartment configuration facilitates acquisition and attenuates extinction of a cocaine‐induced CPP. Microinjection of the GABAA agonist, muscimol, into the dorsal hippocampus impaired (1) retrieval of a place preference after acquisition, (2) extinction of a place preference, and (3) retrieval of extinction. These effects differed depending on the spatial configuration during acquisition or extinction, suggesting that the dorsal hippocampus may differentially modulate drug seeking during retrieval and extinction of CPP.
A longitudinal study of the relation of vision and vision communication to venture growth in entrepreneurial firms.

The relationships among vision attributes, vision content, vision communication, and venture growth were explored in one industry using a longitudinal design. Charismatic leadership, entrepreneurship, and business strategy theory guided the formation of hypotheses that were tested with data collected from 183 entrepreneur-CEO and employee pairs. Visions were evaluated for 7 attributes that were derived from the literature and for content. Structural modeling confirmed that vision attributes and vision content affect subsequent venture growth directly and through verbal and written communication.
The impact of parenting styles on children developmental outcome: The role of academic self‐concept as a mediator

Although the importance of parenting styles directly influencing child development is well established, fewer studied have examined whether parenting styles also affect children's behavioural problems indirectly, mediated through children's academic self-concept (ASC). We examined direct and shared effects of parenting styles on behavioural problems of 199 Kurdish primary school children with a mean age of 11 years 7 months (range 11 years 5 months to 12 years 3 months). Questionnaires measured parenting styles (child version of Alabama Parenting Questionnaire), assessed children's ASC (Myself-As-Learner Scale) and identified children's behavioural problems with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). PROCESS analysis was used to perform the mediation analysis. The results revealed that positive and negative parenting composites are indirectly related to children's internalising behaviour problems. In addition, ASC partially mediated the relationship between the negative parenting composite and prosocial behaviour. However, the mediation analysis did not show the expected indirect effect of parenting styles on externalising problems as being mediated via ASC. Hence, we argue that the ASC serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between parenting styles with prosocial behaviour and internalising problems.
Geophilus arenarius , a long-misunderstood species in the still unresolved carpophagus species-complex (Chilopoda: Geophilidae)

Geophilus arenarius Meinert (Chilopoda: Geophilidae), a neglected nominal species from north-western Africa of uncertain identity, is here described in detail and its taxonomic position assessed. G. arenarius is actually a morphologically distinct species belonging to a widespread Western Palaearctic species-complex whose internal taxonomy is still largely unresolved, to the exclusion of the two British species G. carpophagus and G. easoni. G. arenarius differs from both other species mainly by lacking a transverse suture on the head, lacking peculiar integumental features (carpophagus-structures) along the trunk, and having relatively stouter antennae and forcipular coxosternite.
Large deviations of max-weight scheduling policies on convex rate regions

We consider a single server discrete-time system with K users where the server picks operating points from a compact, convex and co-ordinate convex set in R+ K. For this system we analyse the performance of a stablising policy that at any given time picks operating points from the allowed rate region that maximise a weighted sum of rate, where the weights depend upon the workloads of the users. Assuming a large deviations principle (LDP) for the arrival processes in the Skorohod space of functions that are right-continuous with left-hand limits we establish an LDP for the workload process using a generalised version of the contraction principle to derive the corresponding rate function. With the LDP result available we then analyse the tail probabilities of the workloads under different buffering scenarios.
Hyccin, the Molecule Mutated in the Leukodystrophy Hypomyelination and Congenital Cataract (HCC), Is a Neuronal Protein

“Hypomyelination and Congenital Cataract”, HCC (MIM #610532), is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by congenital cataract and diffuse cerebral and peripheral hypomyelination. HCC is caused by deficiency of Hyccin, a protein whose biological role has not been clarified yet. Since the identification of the cell types expressing a protein of unknown function can contribute to define the physiological context in which the molecule is explicating its function, we analyzed the pattern of Hyccin expression in the central and peripheral nervous system (CNS and PNS). Using heterozygous mice expressing the b-galactosidase (LacZ) gene under control of the Hyccin gene regulatory elements, we show that the gene is primarily expressed in neuronal cells. Indeed, Hyccin-LacZ signal was identified in CA1 hippocampal pyramidal neurons, olfactory bulb, and cortical pyramidal neurons, while it did not colocalize with oligodendroglial or astrocytic markers. In the PNS, Hyccin was detectable only in axons isolated from newborn mice. In the brain, Hyccin transcript levels were higher in early postnatal development (postnatal days 2 and 10) and then declined in adult mice. In a model of active myelinogenesis, organotypic cultures of rat Schwann cells (SC)/Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) sensory neurons, Hyccin was detected along the neurites, while it was absent from SC. Intriguingly, the abundance of the molecule was upregulated at postnatal days 10 and 15, in the initial steps of myelinogenesis and then declined at 30 days when the process is complete. As Hyccin is primarily expressed in neurons and its mutation leads to hypomyelination in human patients, we suggest that the protein is involved in neuron-to-glia signalling to initiate or maintain myelination.
Volume and Angle Structures on 3-Manifolds

We propose an approach to find constant curvature metrics on triangulated closed 3-manifolds using a finite dimensional variational method whose energy function is the volume. The concept of an angle structure on a tetrahedron and on a triangulated closed 3-manifold is introduced following the work of Casson, Murakami and Rivin. It is proved by A. Kitaev and the author that any closed 3-manifold has a triangulation supporting an angle structure. The moduli space of all angle structures on a triangulated 3-manifold is a bounded open convex polytope in a Euclidean space. The volume of an angle structure is defined. Both the angle structure and the volume are natural generalizations of tetrahedra in the constant sectional curvature spaces and their volume. It is shown that the volume functional can be extended continuously to the compact closure of the moduli space. In particular, the maximum point of the volume functional always exists in the compactification. The main result shows that for a 1-vertex triangulation of a closed 3-manifold if the volume function on the moduli space has a local maximum point, then either the manifold admits a constant curvature Riemannian metric or the manifold contains a non-separating 2-sphere or real projective plane.
Climate Response of Larch and Birch Forests across an Elevational Transect and Hemisphere-Wide Comparisons, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russian Far East

Kamchatka’s forests span across the peninsula’s diverse topography and provide a wide range of physiographic and elevational settings that can be used to investigate how forests are responding to climate change and to anticipate future response. Birch (Betula ermanii Cham.) and larch (Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen) were sampled at eight new sites and together with previous collections were compared with monthly temperature and precipitation records to identify their climate response. Comparisons show that tree-ring widths in both species are primarily influenced by May through August temperatures of the current growth year, and that there is a general increase in temperature sensitivity with altitude. The ring-width data for each species were also combined into regional chronologies. The resulting composite larch chronology shows a strong resemblance to a Northern Hemisphere (NH) tree-ring based temperature reconstruction with the larch series tracking NH temperatures closely through the past 300 years. The composite birch ring-width series more closely reflects the Pacific regional coastal late summer temperatures. These new data improve our understanding of the response of forests to climate and show the low frequency warming noted in other, more continental records from high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Also evident in the ring-width record is that the larch and birch forests continue to track the strong warming of interior Kamchatka.
Causes of Death Among 379 Patients With Hemophilia: A Developing Country’s Report

There are steps to achieve an optimum life for patients with hemophilia in developing countries, and awareness of the pattern of death in patients with hemophilia is a prerequisite for any health-care program. Owing to the lack of any data on the pattern of death in patients with hemophilia from developing countries, the current study was done to address common causes of death, and the spectrum of causes of death among individuals with hemophilia A and B. To address the pattern of death in northeast of Iran, we retrospectively collected demographic data regarding deceased patients with hemophilia A and B. Overall, among 379 people with hemophilia A and B, there were 46 deaths. Thirty-two deaths happened in the severe forms of the diseases. The obtained results show the patterns of death in the patients studied are not as parallel as some reports from the developed countries. Traumatic and spontaneous bleeding events were the main causes of death. The trend of death shows a decrease in the current decade post better therapeutic facilities. Evaluation of causes of death in hemophilia can be a useful indicator for managing the efficacy of health care in the current patients.
ICSV 14 Cairns • Australia 9-12 July , 2007 LARGE EDDY SIMULATION OF JET NOISE

Methods for the accurate prediction of far-field jet noise emitted by aeroengines have been under development for some time. To achieve this, one essential requirement is capture of the turbulence dominated noise sources in the jet shear layers and, for the low frequency contribution to noise, simulation of the dynamically active large eddies at the end of the jet potential core and just downstream. The method described in the present paper follows a hybrid approach, whereby an LES technique is first used to predict the unsteady characteristics of the turbulent noise sources in jet shear flows. This is then coupled to an integral method for acoustic propagation (Kirchhoff method). The nozzle geometry is included in the calculation domain and a fine mesh (~15 million cells) is used to improve resolution of the initial jet shear layer. The method is applied to a high Reynolds number (Re = 10) cold turbulent round jet issuing into stagnant surroundings. Experimental data for mean and turbulent velocity components are used to assess the accuracy of the LES predictions. The directivity pattern of the predicted far-field noise is used to assess the performance of the hybrid method and to indicate the benefit, particularly for sideline noise, of inclusion of the nozzle in the calculation.
Emergency Medical Service-based Care Coordination for Three Rural Communities

Providers in rural areas face challenges to increasing health care access, reducing costs, and improving health care quality and outcomes. One promising model is expanding paramedic roles to include non- emergency home visits to patients. Employing a comparative case study, this paper describes three Emergency Medical Services (EMS)- based care coordination programs that provide services to rural, underserved patients, who frequently use EMS/emergency departments. Across the three sites, four major themes emerged: (1) a shift in the paramedic and patient interactions from episodic, crisis- based to longer- term, ongoing relationships; (2) characteristics of rural context that both enabled and constrained paramedic care coordination programs; (3) impacts of care coordination including improvements in preventive care and disease self- management as well as peace of mind; and (4) concerns about programs’ sustainability. Emergency Medical Service- based care coordination appears to be a promising model for addressing the health and social needs of rural residents who frequently use EMS.
Simplifying Decision Trees Learned by Genetic Programming

This work is motivated by financial forecasting using genetic programming. This paper presents a method to post-process decision trees. The processing procedure is based on the analysis and evaluation of the components of each tree, followed by pruning. The idea behind this approach is to identify and eliminate rules that cause misclassification. As a result we expect to keep and generate rules that enhance the classification. This method was tested on decision trees generated by a genetic program whose aim was to discover classification rules in financial stock markets. From experimental results we can conclude that our method is able to improve the accuracy and precision of the classification.
Age-Effect Radial Growth Responses of Picea schrenkiana to Climate Change in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains, Northwest China

The climate changed from warm-dry to warm-wet during the 1960s in northwest China. However, the effects of climate change on the response of radial growth from different age-class trees have been unclear. We assessed the age-effect radial growth responses in three age-classes (ml-old: ≥200 years, ml-middle: 100–200 years and ml-young: <100 years) of Schrenk spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey.) in the eastern Tianshan Mountains. The primary conclusions were as follows: the developed chronologies of the three age-class trees contained significant climate information and exhibited high similarity as shown by calculating the statistical parameter characteristics and Gleichlaufigkeit index. The three age-class trees were consistent for annual variation trends of radial growth under climate change, showing similar fluctuations, tree-ring width chronology trends, time trends of cumulative radial growth, and basal area increment. In addition, the old and middle trees were found to be more sensitive to climate variability by analyzing Pearson correlations between radial growth from three age-class trees and climate factors. As a result, the drought caused by reduced total precipitation and higher mean temperature was a limiting factor of tree radial growth, and the trees with ages of up to 100 years were more suitable for studies on the growth-climate relationships. Thus, the studies on age-effect radial growth responses of Schrenk spruce can help not only in understanding the adaptive strategies of different-age trees to climate change, but also provide an accurate basis for climate reconstruction.