Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mixed-mode (I/II) crack initiation direction for elastic-plastic materials based on crack-tip plastic zone

In this paper, crack-initiation direction for an elastic-plastic material (interstitial free steel) under mixed-mode (I/II) load is studied based on crack-tip plastic zone under monotonic load. The feasibility of using the minimum plastic zone radius (MPZR) criterion for elastic-plastic materials is also examined. The shape and size of crack-tip plastic zones have been estimated by elastic-plastic finite element analysis in a plane stress single edge notch tensile (SENT) specimen under mixed-mode (I/II) loading according to von Mises yield criteria. The results show that the minimum plastic zone sizes were not clearly identified; indicating MPZR criterion is not suitable for the analysis of elastic-plastic materials. It is shown that the crack initiation direction for elastic-plastic materials depends on the path of the maximum plastic zone size. The variation of crack initiation angle is also studied with respect to mode mixity factor and the results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results available in the literature.
Circulating Exosomal miRNAs as Biomarkers for the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the gastrointestinal tract. It is a multifactorial disease that involves environmental factors, genetic factors, and lifestyle factors. Due to the absence of specific and sensitive biomarkers, CRC patients are usually diagnosed at an advanced stage and consequently suffer from a low 5-year overall survival rate. Despite improvements in surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy, the prognosis of patients with CRC remains unfavorable due to local and distant metastases. Several studies have shown that small noncoding RNAs, such as microRNAs packed in exosomes, are potential biomarkers in various types of cancers, including CRC, and that they can be detected in a stable form in both serum and plasma. In this review, we report the potential of circulating exosomal miRNAs to act as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of CRC.
THE IMPACTS OF ROADS ON EURASIAN OTTERS (Lutra lutra)

The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) has made a dramatic and very welcome recovery to many of the river systems within the UK, following its decline in the 1950s. This new expanding otter population is now seen to be under a threat from a range of anthropogenic causes and one such threat could be the increasing number of otter road casualties found on an ever expanding road network. Although roads kill many tens of otters in this country each year, evidence of otters recolonising new areas would imply that road casualties do not negatively affect the otter population as a whole. Road casualty otters are presumed to be highly visible and many are collected and submitted for post mortem. This data reveals a great deal about these otters but some animals may not be examined, and others missed entirely, due to non-recognition or complete destruction of the carcass by road traffic. Furthermore, data from road traffic casualties may be mis- leading in terms of population dynamics. This paper discusses what impacts these casualties may actually have on the population of otters in the UK. This paper was originally presented at the Mammal Society's Roads and Mammals Symposium, held at the Zoological Society of London in November 2003.
Interpoint distance distribution analysis

We implement the commands mstat and mtest to perform inference based on the M statistic, a statistic that can be used to compare the interpoint distance distribution across groups of observations. The analyses are based on the study of the interpoint distances between n points in a k-dimensional setting to produce a one-dimensional real-valued test statistic. The locations are distributed in a region of the plane. When we consider all ` n 2 ́ interpoint distances, the dependencies among them are difficult to express analytically, but their distribution is informative, and the M statistic can be built to summarize one aspect of this information. The two commands can be used on a wide class of datasets to test the null hypothesis that two groups have the same (spatial) distribution. mstat and mtest return the exact M test statistic. Moreover, mtest executes a Monte Carlo–type permutation test, which returns the empirical p-value together with its confidence interval. This is the command to use in most situations, because the convergence of M to its asymptotic chi-squared distribution is slow. Both commands can be used to obtain graphical output of the empirical density function of the interpoint distance distributions in the two groups and the twodimensional map of the n observations in the plane. The descriptions of the commands are accompanied by examples of applications with real and simulated data. We run the test on the Alt and Vach grave site dataset (Manjourides and Pagano, forthcoming, Statistics in Medicine) and reject the null hypothesis, in contradiction to other published analyses. We also show how to adapt the techniques to discrete datasets with more than one unit in each location. Finally, we report an extensive application on breast cancer data in Massachusetts; in the application, we show the compatibility of the M commands with Pisati’s spmap package.
How well do students really understand plagiarism ?

Plagiarism is an issue that faces all institutions and is often regarded with a strong sense of moral outrage by academics. The Internet is widely credited with destroying the respect students traditionally are meant to have for intellectual property and it is commonly accepted that the web now provides students with a convenient and diverse source of material both for research and for plagiarism. We present an exploration of student attitudes, perceptions and understandings of intellectual property, particularly plagiarism and violations of copyright. We use scenarios to explore contextual factors that may influence the regard students have for intellectual property and the seriousness of plagiarism, and that may affect their own behaviours.
Public Policy and Some-Day Smoking Among Adults

While much is known about the impact of public policy on current cigarette smoking among adults, very little is known about the determinants of some-day smoking. This paper investigates the impact of cigarette prices, clean indoor air laws, and other socioeconomic factors on adult cigarette demand. Special emphasis is placed on examining the determinants of some-day smoking among adults. The estimates from this study clearly indicate that increasing the price of cigarettes, will decrease the number of people who currently smoke, will decrease the number of every-day smokers, and will decrease the number of cigarettes smoked on average among some-day smokers. Finally, clean indoor air laws are found to have a limited impact on current and some-day smoking.
QuaSE: Sequence Editing under Quantifiable Guidance

We propose the task of Quantifiable Sequence Editing (QuaSE): editing an input sequence to generate an output sequence that satisfies a given numerical outcome value measuring a certain property of the sequence, with the requirement of keeping the main content of the input sequence. For example, an input sequence could be a word sequence, such as review sentence and advertisement text. For a review sentence, the outcome could be the review rating; for an advertisement, the outcome could be the click-through rate. The major challenge in performing QuaSE is how to perceive the outcome-related wordings, and only edit them to change the outcome. In this paper, the proposed framework contains two latent factors, namely, outcome factor and content factor, disentangled from the input sentence to allow convenient editing to change the outcome and keep the content. Our framework explores the pseudo-parallel sentences by modeling their content similarity and outcome differences to enable a better disentanglement of the latent factors, which allows generating an output to better satisfy the desired outcome and keep the content. The dual reconstruction structure further enhances the capability of generating expected output by exploiting the couplings of latent factors of pseudo-parallel sentences. For evaluation, we prepared a dataset of Yelp review sentences with the ratings as outcome. Extensive experimental results are reported and discussed to elaborate the peculiarities of our framework.
Use of Single Systems in Lesions of the

Most current anterior stabilization system s involve the placement of two screws in each vertebra, and connecting these using a rod or plate. In this study, we present findings from patients who were treated with single vertebral body screw (SVBS) rod or plate systems. Our aim was to determine whether these fixation systems adequately stabilize the thoracic spine. Over the past 4 years at our cIinic, 13 patients (8 men and 5 women) of mean age 51 years (range 32-71 years), underwent stabilization of the thoracic spine with these fixation systems. The lesions were burst fractures (n=2), metastatic tumors (n=8), infections (n=2) and primary tumor (n=l). We achieved stabilization using a bone graft or methylmethacrylate, and applying screwrod (n=7) or screw-plate (n=S) fixation. In one patient, both fixation devices were used together. The average foIIowup period was 16 months. Ten patients experienced pain relief. Of 12 patients with preoperative neurological deficits, 7 (58 %) completely recovered, 4 (33 %) partiaIIy improved, and 1 (8 %) remained unchanged. Neither iatrogenic neurological damage, nor complications related to instrumentation were observed. Our results showed that, due to specific anatomical features of this region adequate stabiIization of the middle and lower thoracic spine can be achieved using SVBS-rod or plate fixation systems.
Insight Study on the Comparison between Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Its Bulk Impact on Reproductive Performance, Antioxidant Levels, Gene Expression, and Histopathology of Testes in Male Rats

Background: Despite the beneficial effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on different biomedical applications, including their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ones, it might have cytotoxic and genotoxic impacts on the male reproductive system. Objective: The current study compares the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles and their bulk form, at different doses, on male rats’ reproductive performance, testicular antioxidants, gene expression, and histopathology. Materials and Methods: Thirty male rats were randomly allocated equally in five groups. The control one was injected with Tween 80 (10%). The zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnONP) groups received ZnONPs < 50 nm, specifically, 5 mg/kg (ZnONP-1) and 10 mg/kg (ZnONP-2). The bulk zinc oxide (BZnO) groups were administered 5 mg/kg (BZnO-1) and 10 mg/kg (BZnO-2), correspondingly. Rats were injected intraperitoneally with the respected materials, twice/week for eight consecutive weeks. Finally, the male rats’ sexual behavior and their pup’s performance were determined in a monogamous mating system. Rats were then anesthetized and sacrificed for semen characteristics evaluation and tissue collection for antioxidant and hormones analysis, gene expression, and histopathological examination. Results: It was shown that ZnONP-1 improved sexual behavior, semen characteristics, and pup’s performance compared to its bulk form. Similarly, the testicular antioxidants activity, glutathione (GSH), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) increased with a decrease in the malonaldehyde (MDA), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) levels. It also improves the reproductive hormone levels and mRNA expression of different steroidogenesis-associated genes and anti-apoptotic genes. Conclusion: It can be concluded that zinc oxide nanoparticles, administered at 5 mg/kg, had the most beneficial effect on male reproductive performance, while 10 mg/kg could have a detrimental effect.
Assessment of Preventative Measures Practice among Umrah Pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, 1440H-2019

Background: Annually, approximately 10 million pilgrims travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for Umrah from more than 180 countries. This event presents major challenges for the Kingdom’s public health sector, which strives to decrease the burden of infectious diseases and to adequately control their spread both in KSA and pilgrims home nations. The aims of the study were to assess preventative measures practice, including vaccination history and health education, among Umrah pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross sectional survey was administered to pilgrims from February to April 2019 at the departure lounge at King Abdul Aziz International airport, Jeddah city. The questionnaire comprised questions on sociodemographic information (age, gender, marital status, level of education, history of vaccinations and chronic illnesses), whether the pilgrim had received any health education and orientation prior to coming to Saudi Arabia or on their arrival, and their experiences with preventative practices. Results: Pilgrims (n = 1012) of 41 nationalities completed the survey. Chronic diseases were reported among pilgrims (n = 387, 38.2%) with cardiovascular diseases being the most reported morbidity (n = 164, 42.3%). The majority of pilgrims had been immunized prior to travel to Saudi Arabia (n = 770, 76%). The most commonly reported immunizations were influenza (n = 514, 51%), meningitis (n = 418, 41%), and Hepatitis B virus vaccinations (n = 310, 31%). However, 242 (24%) had not received any vaccinations prior to travel, including meningitis vaccine and poliomyelitis vaccine, which are mandatory by Saudi Arabian health authorities for pilgrims coming from polio active countries. Nearly a third of pilgrims (n = 305; 30.1%) never wore a face mask in crowded areas during Umrah in 2019. In contrast, similar numbers said they always wore a face mask (n = 351, 34.6%) in crowded areas, while 63.2% reported lack of availability of face masks during Umrah. The majority of participants had received some form of health education on preventative measures, including hygiene aspects (n = 799, 78.9%), mostly in their home countries (n = 450, 44.4%). A positive association was found between receiving health education and practicing of preventative measures, such as wearing face masks in crowded areas (p = 0.04), and other health practice scores (p = 0.02). Conclusion: Although the experiences of the preventative measures among pilgrims in terms of health education, vaccinations, and hygienic practices were at times positive, this study identified several issues. These included the following preventative measures: immunizations, particularly meningitis and poliomyelitis vaccine, and using face masks in crowded areas. The recent COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for further studies that focus on development of accessible health education in a form that engages pilgrims to promote comprehensive preventative measures during Umrah and Hajj and other religious pilgrimages.
The biogeochemistry of cobalt in the Mediterranean Sea

The soluble (sCo < 0.02 µm), dissolved (DCo < 0.2 µm), colloidal (cCo, as DCo minus sCo), and the particulate (pCo > 0.2 µm) fractions of cobalt were investigated along the GEOTRACES‐A04 section. Our results show that sCo was the predominant form (90%) of the DCo in the Mediterranean Sea and that cCo and pCo generally followed the same distribution, suggesting a biogeochemical link between these two fractions. In the Mediterranean Sea, DCo displayed an overall scavenged‐like profile in the different sub‐basins, with high concentrations (up to 350 pM) in surface and quasi‐uniformed low concentrations of DCo (~45 pM) in the deep sea. However, the decoupling between the surface and the deep reservoirs suggested that the transfer of Co from dissolved to particulate pools during the sink of particles may not be the only process governing DCo distribution. High‐surface Co inputs, stabilization of DCo in a soluble form, and the extremely high regeneration rate of biogenic pCo all lead to the accumulation of DCo in surface. Conversely, low pCo export from the surface waters, low remineralization of biogenic pCo, and slow but efficient removal of DCo by scavenging including colloid aggregation into particles prevented its accumulation in the intermediate and deep sea. Moreover, Mediterranean circulation prevented the exchanges between the DCo‐rich surface and the DCo‐poor deep layers enhancing the scavenged‐like profile of DCo. Finally, tentative DCo budgets were balanced at basin scale and showed the strong imprint of the surface inputs at Gibraltar Strait on the Mediterranean cobalt biogeochemistry.
Identifying the theory of dark matter with direct detection

Identifying the true theory of dark matter depends crucially on accurately characterizing interactions of dark matter (DM) with other species. In the context of DM direct detection, we present a study of the prospects for correctly identifying the low-energy effective DM-nucleus scattering operators connected to UV-complete models of DM-quark interactions. We take a census of plausible UV-complete interaction models with different low-energy leading-order DM-nuclear responses. For each model (corresponding to different spin–, momentum–, and velocity-dependent responses), we create a large number of realizations of recoil-energy spectra, and use Bayesian methods to investigate the probability that experiments will be able to select the correct scattering model within a broad set of competing scattering hypotheses. We conclude that agnostic analysis of a strong signal (such as Generation-2 would see if cross sections are just below the current limits) seen on xenon and germanium experiments is likely to correctly identify momentum dependence of the dominant response, ruling out models with either “heavy” or “light” mediators, and enabling downselection of allowed models. However, a unique determination of the correct UV completion will critically depend on the availability of measurements from a wider variety of nuclear targets, including iodine or fluorine. We investigate how model-selection prospects depend on the energy window available for the analysis. In addition, we discuss accuracy of the DM particle mass determination under a wide variety of scattering models, and investigate impact of the specific types of particle-physics uncertainties on prospects for model selection.
Developmental Origins of Kidney Disease: Why Oxidative Stress Matters?

The “developmental origins of health and disease” theory indicates that many adult-onset diseases can originate in the earliest stages of life. The developing kidney has emerged as being particularly vulnerable to adverse in utero conditions leading to morphological and functional changes, namely renal programming. Emerging evidence indicates oxidative stress, an imbalance between reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) and antioxidant systems, plays a pathogenetic role in the developmental programming of kidney disease. Conversely, perinatal use of antioxidants has been implemented to reverse programming processes and prevent adult-onset diseases. We have termed this reprogramming. The focus of this review is twofold: (1) To summarize the current knowledge on oxidative stress implicated in renal programming and kidney disease of developmental origins; and (2) to provide an overview of reprogramming effects of perinatal antioxidant therapy on renal programming and how this may prevent adult-onset kidney disease. Although early-life oxidative stress is implicated in mediating renal programming and adverse offspring renal outcomes, and animal models provide promising results to allow perinatal antioxidants applied as potential reprogramming interventions, it is still awaiting clinical translation. This presents exciting new challenges and areas for future research.
Methane emissions at farm and regional scales: Origin, magnitude and spatio-temporal variability

Atmospheric methane (CH4) is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2) and hence, an in-depth knowledge of methane sources and their emission strengths is of key importance for formulating mitigation strategies. Although the global methane budget is relatively well constrained, emission estimates by source sector are still substantially uncertain. As atmospheric methane originates from a variety of natural and anthropogenic sources, which in addition are spatially heterogeneously distributed, reliable emission estimates would require a dense measurement network. This is yet not achieved and methane emission estimates, hence, rely primariliy on model approaches, i.e., top-down and bottom-up approaches, which include only few direct measurements. Model estimates, however, do not only lack an experimental validation, but also do not take into account possible temporal variations of methane emissions, increasing overall estimation uncertainty. Particularly inventory emission estimates of agricultural methane, using a bottom-up approach based on livestock census data and default emission factors, are associated with high uncertainty levels. It is therfore crucial to experimentally investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of atmospheric methane, in order to constrain methane budets and validate model estimates. This thesis aims to improve the understanding of the spatio-temporal pattern of atmospheric methane and its impact on the regional methane budget, with the main focus on methane emissions from agriculture. We calculated methane budget fluxes from a typical farmstead in Switzerland from vertical concentration profiles in the nocturnal boundary layer (NBL) and compared them to inventory emission estimates of di↵ering spatial resolution. The mean nocturnal budget flux of 1.59 ± 0.22 μg CH4 m 2 s 1 showed a good agreement with local inventory estimates of 1.29 ± 0.47 and 1.74 ± 0.63 μg CH4 m 2 s 1 for 2011 and for 2012, respectively, using current livestock numbers of the farmstead and default emission factors. Less agreement was found with the national inventory estimates and a spatially explicit inventory, due to the disaggregation of the emissions to di↵erent spatial scales. However, the results showed that the bottom-up approach used for inventory estimates is a valuable instrument to assess livestock methane emissions. Spatially highly resolved near-surface transect measurements, conducted at the