Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flandrian and Eemian Shore Levels in Finland and Adjacent Areas—a Discussion

Abstract. Die flandrischen und Eem-zeitlichen Bewegungen der Erdkruste uberwiegend innerhalb Fennoskandias werden verglichen. Die flandrischen Entwicklungsphasen der Ostsee und die mit ihnen verbundenen Bewegungen sind in groben Zugen bekannt. Vorherrschender Faktor der Strandlinien-Verschiebungen im nordlichen Teil der Ostsee ist dabei die Landhebung gewesen. Sie verlief unmittelbar nach dem Abschmelzen des Eises sehr rasch, verlangsamte sich aber im fruhen Holozan erheblich. Das Zentrum der Landhebung liegt nahe dem fur die ausklingende Weichsel-Kaltzeit angenommenen Zentrum des Eisschildes. Uber die Bewegungen der Erdkruste wahrend des Eem-Interglazials liegen nur bruchstuckhafte Informationen vor. Die untersuchten Ablagerungen schienen aber darauf hinzudeuten, das wahrend des Eem keine Strandlinien-Verschiebungen von dem fur das Weichsel-Spatglazial und das Holozan ermittelten Typ stattgefunden haben. Deshalb mussen sich die isostatischen Krustenhebungen damals offensichtlich grundsatzlich vom postglazialen Bewegungsmuster unterschieden haben. Diese Unterschiede fuhrt man hauptsachlich darauf zuruck, das sich ein Grosteil der Eem-zeitlichen Landhebung unter dem rasch schmelzenden, in seiner Dicke reduzierten und uber weite Areale stagnierenden Saale-Eisschild vollzogen haben durfte. Auserdem hat das Zentrum des Eisschildes gegen Ende der Saale-Vereisung (Warthe-Stadium) wahrscheinlich bedeutend weiter ostlich gelegen als dasjenige des Weichsel-Eises. Dies wurde bedeuten, das sich die isostatische Depression und die ihr entsprechende Wiederaufwolbung der Erdkruste sowohl raumlich als auch zeitlich von den Ereignissen in postglazialer Zeit unterschieden haben.
Preliminary results of a randomized, equivalence trial of fluoroscopic caudal epidural injections in managing chronic low back pain: Part 2--Disc herniation and radiculitis.

BACKGROUND The pathophysiology of lumbar radicular pain is a subject of ongoing research. The prevalence of sciatica or radiculitis ranges from 1.2% to 43%. Epidural injections are one of the most commonly performed interventions in the United States in managing chronic low back and lower extremity pain secondary to disc herniation and radiculitis. There is a paucity of evidence with contemporary methodology used in performing epidural injections under fluoroscopy and based on pain relief and functional status improvement. STUDY DESIGN A randomized, double-blind, equivalence trial. SETTING An interventional pain management practice, a specialty referral center, a private practice setting in the United States. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of caudal epidural injections with or without steroids in managing chronic low back and lower extremity pain secondary to disc herniation or radiculitis in providing effective and long-lasting pain relief and evaluate the differences between local anesthetic with or without steroids. METHODS Patients were assigned to one of 2 groups; Group I patients received caudal epidural injections with an injection of local anesthetic (lidocaine 0.5%), whereas, Group II patients received caudal epidural injections with 0.5% lidocaine 9 mL mixed with 1 mL of steroid. Randomization was performed by computer-generated random allocations sequence by simple randomization. OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT Multiple outcome measures were utilized which included the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), the Oswestry Disability Index 2.0 (ODI), employment status, and opioid intake with assessment at 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months post-treatment. Significant pain relief was defined as 50% or more, whereas significant improvement in disability score was defined as a reduction of 40% or more. RESULTS The percentage of patients with significant pain relief of 50% or greater at 12 months was 79% in Group I and 81% in Group II. Reduction of Oswestry scores of at least 40% was seen in 83% of the patients in Group I and 91% in Group II. The overall average procedures per year were 3.9 +/- 1.26 in Group I and 3.6 +/- 1.08 in Group II with an average total relief per year of 35.2 +/- 17.18 weeks in Group I and 35.9 +/- 15.34 weeks in Group II over a period of 52 weeks. LIMITATIONS The results of this study are limited by lack of a placebo group and a preliminary report of 42 patients in each group. CONCLUSION Caudal epidural injections with or without steroids may be effective in patients with disc herniation or radiculitis with between 79% to 91% of patients showing significant pain relief and improvement in functional status.
The effect of structure and rate variation on key-finding

While substantial evidence suggests that key perception depends in part on the statistical distribution of pitch classes in a given piece, it has also been suggested that structural factors may play an important role. To further the understanding of what such structural factors might be, we conducted two experiments using statistically ambiguous yet structurally unambiguous stimuli that consisted of a uniform distribution of diatonic pitches drawn from the union of two neighboring keys, sequenced to clearly imply one particular key. In Experiment 1, subjects with substantial music theory training were asked to listen to melodic sequences and identify the key. The results indicate that purely structural factors can greatly influence key perception when statistical information about overall key profile is highly ambiguous. In Experiment 2, we examined the temporal psychophysics of structurally-based key induction by systematically varying the tempo of a subset of the statistically ambiguous/structurally unambiguous materials presented in Experiment 1 at rates ranging from 7 BPM to 3400 BPM. Twenty-two musically trained subjects were asked to indicate whether each sequence sounded resolved (ending on an implied tonic) or unresolved (ending on an implied dominant). The results agree strongly with those from Experiment 1 and show a preferred range of tempi in which participants provide robust key judgments (30 BPM 400 BPM). This suggests that structurally-based key-finding can be accurately computed by trained listeners in as little as 150ms per note or 1.2s for an entire sequence of eight notes.
Output Constraint Control on Path Following of Four-Wheel Independently Actuated Autonomous Ground Vehicles

The path-following problem for four-wheel independently actuated autonomous ground vehicles is investigated in this paper. A novel output constraint controller is proposed to deal with the lateral offset control in path following and maintain the vehicle lateral stability in the presence of tire sliding effects. The innovations of this work lie in the following two aspects: 1) A novel output constraint control strategy, namely, the hyperbolic projection method, is proposed to strictly bound the lateral offset to prevent the vehicle from transgressing the safety bound in path following; 2) an adaptive and robust linear quadratic regulator controller is adopted to obtain the optimal active front-wheel steering and direct yaw-moment control inputs with vehicle lateral stability consideration and to eliminate the effect of parameter uncertainties. CarSim-Simulink joint simulation results indicate that the proposed controller can compactly bound the lateral offset to avoid transgressing the safe boundary during path following, particularly in extreme driving conditions, in the presence of tire sliding effects and system uncertainties.
Stanniocalcin2 acts as an anorectic factor through activation of STAT3 pathway

The regulation of food intake and body weight has been hotly investigated. In the present study, we show that stanniocalcin2 (STC2), a cytokine ubiquitously expressed and especially upregulated in many types of human cancers, has a regulatory role in food intake and weight loss. Systemic treatment of C57BL/6 mice with recombinant STC2 protein resulted in decreased food intake and body weight, whereas energy expenditure was not affected. Similarly, STC2 treatment also induced anorexia in hyperphagic leptin-deficient mice, leading to a significant reduction in body weight and improvement of blood glucose levels. Furthermore, intracerebroventricular administration of STC2 to mice led to an acute decrease in food intake, which was mediated, at least in part, by activation of STAT3 pathway. Taken together, our results revealed the importance of STC2 in the regulation of feeding behavior as well as body weight.
Methods of state estimation resilient against sensor attacks and robust against exogenous disturbances

Control systems that are resilient against malicious attacks have recently become one of the important research topics. This is due to the fact that many critical infrastructures in our society such as power grid, nuclear facility, and public transportation, rely on feedback control technology, and that malfunction of said systems due to attack could be disastrous. Malicious attacks on control systems indeed occurred in recent years. The problem of resilient state estimation against sensor attacks, which is concerned of correctly estimating plant state despite of sensor attacks, have been previously addressed. Existing methods, however, lose the accuracy of the estimation if external disturbance exists. In this paper, we investigate the problem of resilient state estimation that are robust against external disturbance. Specifically, unknown input observer based state estimation has been developed to eliminate the effect of external disturbance on the state estimation that are resilient against malicious attacks on sensors. Associated design conditions have been derived. Additionally, disturbance observer based state estimation method has been developed. Validation of the proposed methods is provided through experiments.
Cultural Continuity from Pre-Dorset to Dorset in the Eastern Canadian Arctic Highlighted by Bone Technology and Typology

Since the 1920s, two main cultural entities are distinguished in the eastern Canadian Arctic, namely Pre-Dorset and Dorset, with the latter being considered as originating from the former. This assertion has, however, been challenged for the past 30 years. To get new insights about the filiations of the Pre-Dorset and Dorset, technological and typological analyses of bone artifacts were performed on collections from five type sites located in the northern Foxe Basin and on the southern shore of the Hudson Strait. Jørgen Meldgaard’s excavations in the Igloolik area (1950s–1960s) have been revisited, as well as those of William E. Taylor Jr. (1958) and the Avataq Cultural Institute (2001–2006) at the Tayara site. New elements of change and continuity through time were observed that permit refinement of the definitions of the Late Pre-Dorset, Early Dorset, and Middle Dorset phases. In the studied areas, clear filiations are seen from Pre-Dorset to Dorset that probably arose in situ. Based on technological and typological criteria, a reassessed relative chronology is proposed for the eastern Canadian Arctic.
Electrohydrodynamics and electrorotation of a drop with fluid less conductive than that of the ambient fluid

In this article, we investigated the electrohydrodynamic responses of a deformable fluid drop in another immiscible fluid under the action of a dc electric field. Both the ambient and drop fluids considered here were incompressible Newtonian and all of the drop phases were less conductive than their ambient fluids. Under these circumstances, the drops experienced the so-called electrorotation owing to the reverse dipole generated by the external electric field when the electric field strength exceeded a certain threshold value. The experimental observation showed that the threshold electric field strength was dependent on the drop size as well as the viscosity ratio. Also noted was the effect of the electrorotation on both the deformation behavior and the mode of the drop breakup. Specifically, we determined the critical electric capillary number beyond which the steady-state drop shape did not exist and the drop eventually broke up. Finally, the validity of Taylor’s leaky dielectric theory was discussed .
Non-Separable and Planar Graphs.

Introduction. In this paper the structure of graphs is studied by purely combinatorial methods. The concepts of rank and nullity are fundamental. The first part is devoted to a general study of non-separable graphs. Conditions that a graph be non-separable are given; the decomposition of a separable graph into its non-separable parts is studied; by means of theorems on circuits of graphs, a method for the construction of non-separable graphs is found, which is useful in proving theorems on such graphs by mathematical induction.
Leishmania TDR1 structure, a unique trimeric glutathione transferase capable of deglutathionylation and antimonial prodrug activation

Thiol-dependent reductase I (TDR1), an enzyme found in parasitic Leishmania species and Trypanosoma cruzi, is implicated in deglutathionylation and activation of antimonial prodrugs used to treat leishmaniasis. The 2.3 Å resolution structure of TDR1 reveals a unique trimer of subunits each containing two glutathione-S-transferase (GST) domains. The similarities of individual domains and comparisons with GST classes suggest that TDR1 evolved by gene duplication, diversification, and gene fusion; a combination of events previously unknown in the GST protein superfamily and potentially explaining the distinctive enzyme properties of TDR1. The deglutathionylation activity of TDR1 implies that glutathione itself has regulatory intracellular roles in addition to being a precursor for trypanothione, the major low mass thiol present in trypanosomatids. We propose that activation of antiparasite Sb(V)-drugs is a legacy of the deglutathionylation activity of TDR1 and involves processing glutathione adducts with concomitant reduction of the metalloid to active Sb(III) species.
Retinal Vessel Segmentation in Fundoscopic Images with Generative Adversarial Networks

Retinal vessel segmentation is an indispensable step for automatic detection of retinal diseases with fundoscopic images. Though many approaches have been proposed, existing methods tend to miss fine vessels or allow false positives at terminal branches. Let alone under-segmentation, over-segmentation is also problematic when quantitative studies need to measure the precise width of vessels. In this paper, we present a method that generates the precise map of retinal vessels using generative adversarial training. Our methods achieve dice coefficient of 0.829 on DRIVE dataset and 0.834 on STARE dataset which is the state-of-the-art performance on both datasets.
Is continuing professional development different for older nurses ? A literature review exploring 5 conceptualisations of age

The nursing workforce is aging. When people age changes occur in biological, psychological and social functioning. Little is known about the effects of these changes on nurses’ continuing professional development (CPD). A literature review was conducted to investigate if older and younger nurses’ CPD differs, in what respect and which age-related factors might explain these differences. Given the limited research among nurses, also studies among workers in general were included. Five operationalisations of age were used: chronological, functional, psychosocial, organizational and life span age. The review revealed 26 relevant studies, examining age differences in motivation for, participation in and learning outcomes of CPD. In general older workers seemed less likely to participate in CPD, especially when considering formal CPD activities and workers in late career (older than 50/55 years). No clear age patterns were found for motivation and learning outcomes. Results were equivocal due to conceptual diversity. Reviewing the factors that influenced age differences, it seemed that psychosocial and organizational age were negatively associated with motivation for and participation in CPD. The effect of functional age and life span age were less studied and therefore less clear. This paper gives input for further research in this field.
Analysis, modeling and compensation of bias drift in MEMS inertial sensors

Inertial sensors have a broad field of applications and are especially essential for localization. One of the most severe errors of MEMS inertial sensors is bias drift. In this paper bias drift is mathematically modeled as a combination of time and temperature dependent behaviors which are fused together allowing online bias compensation. The example presented indicates an almost perfect estimation resulting in elimination of more than 99% of bias. In this paper, also, a novel technique for modeling systems with hysteresis is presented.
Effects of Oral Prednisone Administration on Serum Cystatin C in Dogs

Background Oral administration of glucocorticoid alters serum cystatin C (sCysC) concentration in humans. Objective To determine if oral administration of prednisone alters sCysC in dogs without pre‐existing renal disease. Animals Forty six dogs were included: 10 dogs diagnosed with steroid responsive meningitis arteritis (SRMA; group A), 20 dogs diagnosed of pituitary‐dependent hyperadrenocorticism (PDH; group B), and 16 healthy control dogs (group C). Methods Retrospective observational study. SRMA diagnosed dogs were administered prednisone 4 mg/kg/24 h PO 7 days, reducing the dose to 2 mg/kg/24 h 7 days before medication withdrawal. In group A, sampling was performed at days 0, 7, 14 and a final control at day 21. Blood and urine samples were collected in the 3 groups, and in group A, sampling was performed at all time points (days 1, 7, 14, and 21). Results In group A, sCysC was significantly higher at day 7 compared to the control group (0.4 ± 0.04 mg/L vs. 0.18 ± 0.03 mg/L mean ± SEM respectively P < 0.01); sCysC values decreased to basal at day 14 when the dose was decreased and after 1 week of withdrawal of prednisone (0.27 ± 0.03 mg/L for group A at day 14 and 0.15 ± 0.02 mg/L at day 21; P > 0.05). Dogs with PDH included in group B did not have significant differences in sCysC (0.22 ± 0.03 mg/L) compared to control (P > 0.05). Conclusions and Clinical Importance Oral administration of prednisone unlike altered endogenous glucocorticoid production, increases sCysC in dogs in a dose‐dependent fashion.
A technological crossroads: Exploring diversity in the pressure blade technology of Mesolithic Latvia

A long-standing debate in archaeology concerns the sources of technological diversification among prehistoric hunter-gatherers. This includes the study of the emergence and spread of pressure blade technology in Northern Europe during the Early Holocene. Until now, there has been little technological study of lithic collections from the East Baltic region, and our knowledge of the development and spread of this technology in the area is inadequate. This article presents for the first time a technological analysis of lithic assemblages from seven Early and Middle Mesolithic sites in the territory of present-day Latvia, offering new possibilities for discussing pressure blade technology and research objectives connected with it. Furthermore, variation in technological elements of this technology is explored in relation to raw-material characteristics through experimental flint knapping. Finally, the factors influencing diversity in craft traditions, as well as large-scale communication and shifting spheres of interaction within Northern Europe during the Mesolithic are discussed.
Reproductive biology of PMSG-primed immature female rats.

The reprodutive performance of PMSG-pnimed immature female rats (8 lU PMSG at 30 days of age)was studiedto determinewhether theyaresuitablemodelsorsubstitutes foradultanimalsin studies of reproduction. Pseudopregnancy, induced by cervical stimulation on day 33, lasted 12 days as indicated by leukocytic vaginal smears. Decidual cell reaction was elicited by uterine trauma on day 5 of pseudopregnancy, and resulted in a fifteen-fold increase in the mean weight of the traumatized horn within 4 days. PMSG-treated immature rats can conceive, maintain viable fetuses to term, and deliver live pups in a normal mannner (mean length of gestation: 24.2 days; mean litter size: 7.1 pups). Serum levels of progesterone, 20o-dihydroprogesterone (20�-DHP), LH, and FSH were measured by radioimmunoassay in samples taken at 3-day intervals between days 6 and 21 of pregnancy. Progesterone decreased from 86.7 ng/ml on day 6 to 69.7 ng/ml on day 9, was elevated to 111.4 ng/ml on day 12, and decreasedto 64.4ng/mlon day 21.20a-DHP increasedfrom 7.2ng/mlon day 6 to a peak of 14.5 ng/ml on day 15, and decreased significantly to 5.8 ng/ml on day 18. Serum LU and FSH did not vary significantly. These hormone profiles are similar to those reported by others in adult pregnant rats. Implantation was delayed in PMSG-pnimed pregnant rats by bilateral ovariectomy on day 3 and
PS 05-40 PLASMA APELIN LEVELS, BLOOD PRESSURE AND CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS IN A COASTAL CHINESE POPULATION

Objective: To describe the relationship of plasma apelin levels with blood pressure in a coastal Chinese population. Design and Method: This cross-sectional study included a total of 1031 subjects from the coastal areas of China. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear trend test, Pearson's correlation analysis, as well as multivariate linear regression analysis were used to evaluate the association between plasma apelin levels and blood pressure. Results: Plasma apelin levels dropped with increasing quartiles of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) (all P < 0.001). SBP, DBP, and MABP values decreased as the apelin levels increased within the quartiles. After adjusting for age and gender, the significant differences in SBP, DBP, and MABP between the groups within the apelin quartiles remained (all P < 0.05). A significant negative correlation between SBP, DBP, as well as MABP and apelin levels was observed (all P < 0.01); even after adjusting for cardiovascular confounding factors, this negative correlation remained (all P < 0.001). Conclusions: A negative correlation between plasma apelin levels and blood pressure was found in this 1000-population-based epidemiological study. Apelin may become a potential therapeutic target of anti-hypertensive treatment.