Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anatomical features of the occipital artery on CTA and differences between patients with/without stenosis and occlusion of the internal carotid artery

The understanding of the basic anatomy of the occipital artery (OA) is crucial, and computed tomography angiography is an effective tool for this purpose. In the present study, a comparison between healthy subjects and patients with internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis and occlusion was made. The following parameters were measured: Age, sex, diameters and lengths of the OA in different locations, distance from the edge of the foramen magnum to the OA and the distance from the midline to the OA at the level of the superior nuchal line. A total of 205 participants who met the inclusion criteria were selected for further investigation. In addition, 50 healthy subjects (100 sides, left and/or right) were selected as the control group. A total of 155 patients (180 sides, left and/or right) were selected as the stenosis and occlusion groups, including the mild and moderate ICA stenosis group (50 sides, left and/or right), severe ICA stenosis group (80 sides, left and/or right) and the ICA occlusion group (50 sides, left and right). General information, measured parameters and statistical analysis results are provided for these groups. No significant differences were observed in the anatomical parameters of the OA among these groups. Thus, in addition to providing anatomical data, the present study demonstrates that stenosis and the occlusion of the ICA do not significantly alter the anatomy of the OA.
Varying Presentations of EBV-associated Clinical Entities with Emphasis on EBV-Associated T- and NK-cell Lymphoproliferative Disorders of Childhood

The Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is an endemic human herpesvirus, with 90% of people demonstrating serological evidence of prior exposure to EBV. In most cases, primary infections of EBV generate mild or asymptomatic clinical courses, but may present as infectious mononucleosis if contracted during young adulthood. In a small percentage of cases, EpsteinBarr virus infection may manifest as a noncanonical reaction, yielding a wide variety of clinical manifestations.
Tariff revenues matter for democratization: Theory and evidence from the First Wave of Globalization

Do tariff revenues affect democratization? We argue that tariff revenues have two theoreticallyrelevant effects: i) A rapacity effect: they generate incentives to control government, ii) A redistributive effect: they impact the returns to the factors of production changing the distribution of power between politically-relevant groups. If ruling elites benefit from redistribution, this discourages a challenge to their rule. If elites lose from redistribution, they may share power to avoid expropriation. We test these claims during the First Wave of Globalization, where ruling elites were often landed. We find causal evidence that tariff revenues reduce democratization in land-abundant economies because ruling elites strengthen via the redistributive effect, as the return to land increases, and the windfalls bolster the rapacity effect. In contrast, in capitalabundant economies the return to land falls, thus the redistributive effect offsets the rapacity effect. Congruently, we find no effect for tariff revenues in this case. *The comments of Melissa Lee, Didac Queralt, Pablo Querubin, Peter Rosendorff, Cyrus Samii, Emily Sellars, David Stasavage and of the participants at Yale’s Politics and History Workshop, International Political Economy Society, NYU’s Graduate Students’ and IR Seminars are specially acknowledged. †Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University. 19 West 4th St., 2nd floor. New York, USA. Corresponding author at: cfb310@nyu.edu. ‡Empirical Studies of Conflict & School of Public & International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University. Email: rduran@princeton.edu.
Determination of a crop coefficient for evapotranspiration in a sparse sorghum field

The FAO basal crop coefficient Kcb and the soil evaporation coefficient Ke for a sparse sorghum field in one growing season were estimated using the compartment model (Shuttleworth–Wallace model; S–W model), which separately estimates transpiration from crops and evaporation from the soil. The Kcb had a low value of 0.10 (Kcb, ini) during the initial period, increased rapidly to a maximum of 0.98 (Kcb, mid) at midseason, and decreased rapidly to 0.53 (Kcb, end) by the end of the growing season. The Kcb increased with increasing leaf area index (LAI) rapidly and slowly, respectively, below and above an LAI of 1.0. The Ke showed a positive relationship to increasing soil water content (SWC) at a depth of −15.0 cm, but the soil water content indicated a negative relationship to increasing LAI. Using the dual crop coefficients derived by their relationships to the LAI and soil water content, the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) was estimated and compared to the ETa derived by the Bowen ratio energy budget (BREB) method. The root mean square error (RMSE) of the ETa obtained from the simulated crop coefficient to the ETa obtained by the BREB method was 0.84 mm day−1. Thus, the adjusted relationship of Kcb and Ke allowed a good estimation of the evapotranspiration in an irrigated field with sparse vegetation cover. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A GEOMETRICAL MODEL FOR THE REPRESENTATION OF SEAT-BELT FITTING PROBLEMS

The planar development method of representing seat-belt fit was proposed in an earlier paper, which applied it to a geometrical representation of the shoulder area. The present paper extends this method by giving a geometrical representation of the lap area, and by extending the geodesic principle to cope with complex belt installations in which the webbing does not run simply from anchorage to anchorage. With the earlier paper, the present work enables problems of seat bell fit to be studied by a computer model. The paper also discusses the modelling of a multi-dimensional population, with consequent improvement over the use of the percentile concept, widely used in anthropometry, to describe such a population.
Analysis of the Stiffness of Hirth Couplings in Rod-Fastened Rotors Based on Experimental Modal Parameter Identification

Hirth couplings are widely used to transport torque between discs in turbine machinery for the advantages of precise centering, reliable positioning and excellent structural stability. However, the stiffness of the rotor segment with Hirth couplings is less than that of the integrated structure because it is weaken in the discontinuous structure. For the rotor segment with Hirth couplings, there are two types of contact status depending on the relationship between the separate stress and the compression stress. The first type is that the whole zone of Hirth couplings is in contact, where all of the Hirth couplings make contribution to the stiffness of the rotor segment. The second type of contact status is that some zones of the Hirth couplings are separated, where the equivalent stiffness of the rotor segment is only determined by the zones which are in contact. Obtaining accurate stiffness of Hirth couplings is of great significance in rotor dynamic performance analysis. In this study, the flexural stiffness of Hirth couplings of a gas turbine was calculated by three dimensional (3D) nonlinear contact Finite Element Method (FEM), and based on which the natural frequencies of a rod-fastened rotor were investigated. The stiffness modifying method which modifies the elasticity modulus of the material in the connection segment was used to conduct modal analysis in order to evaluate the effect of the stiffness weakening of the Hirth couplings. One experimental rotor with Hirth couplings and a central tie rod was designed to verify the theoretical and numerical analysis results. According to the results, the stiffness coefficient is constant when the load factor γ is less than 1.0, which means the stiffness of the Hirth couplings segment is almost constant when the pre-tightening force is large enough to keep the whole zone of the Hirth couplings in contact. The stiffness coefficient constant is about 0.32 (specific for the investigated model). And the stiffness coefficient drops dramatically when the load factor γ exceeds 1.0, which indicates that the stiffness of the Hirth couplings segment decreases dramatically since the pre-tightening force is insufficient and the Hirth couplings are separated. The Hirth couplings segment stiffness obtained by experimental modal parameter identification turned out to be consistent with the calculated results by FEM. The modified stiffness of the Hirth couplings segment were applied on the dynamic performance analysis of a real gas turbine rotor and the accuracy of calculating results was improved.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Title of Dissertation: THE GATING MECHANISM OF THE LARGE MECHANOSENSITIVE CHANNEL IN Escherichia coli AND EFFECTS OF GAIN-OF-FUNCTION MUTAIONS

Title of Dissertation: THE GATING MECHANISM OF THE LARGE MECHANOSENSITIVE CHANNEL IN Escherichia coli AND EFFECTS OF GAIN-OF-FUNCTION MUTAIONS Chien-Sung Chiang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Sergei Sukharev, Associate Professor Department of Biology The mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) in Escherichia coli is perhaps the best-characterized mechanosensitive protein. The structure of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis ortholog has been solved recently by X-ray crystallography, but the structural rearrangements associated with gating remain obscure. Based on the crystal structure, a homology model of E. coli MscL had been built and the gating process was proposed (Sukharev et al., 2001). I experimentally verified these working models. The result demonstrates that the iris-like expansion of M1 helixes does occur during the gating transition. In addition to the hydrophobic M1 gate, the S1 segments unresolved in the original crystal structure were easily cross-linked with pairs of cysteines and prevented opening, consistent with the proposed function of a second gate. Although the early models predicted a wide-open conformation with cytoplasmic S3 domains separated, the current data strongly suggest that S3 domains are in fact stably associated in both closed and open conformations. The open-state model predicts an in-plane expansion of the channel protein of about 23 nm. The analysis of multiple MscL dose-response curves, accounting for nonhomogeneity of channels in a population, (i.e. variable energy or area changes for individual channels), estimated the total channel expansion ~20 nm and the transition energy ~52 kT, consistent with molecular models of the open state. Gain-of-function (GOF) mutants with hydrophilic or charged substitutions in the main hydrophobic gate stably occupy low-conducting substates. The character of perturbations introduced in the main gate by GOF substitutions strongly supports the two-gate mechanism in which the first sub-transition (C S) can be viewed as the opening of the M1 gate formed by the first transmembrane domains, resulting in an expanded leaky conformation (S). The second sub-transition (S O) can be attributed to the separation of the N-terminal (S1) gate resulting in the fully conductive channel THE GATING MECHANISM OF THE LARGE MECHANOSENSITIVE CHANNEL IN Escherichia coli AND EFFECTS OF GAIN-OF-FUNCTION MUTATIONS
Passive Force-Deflection Curves for Skewed Abutments

The passive force-deflection relationship for abutment walls is important for bridges subjected to thermal expansion and seismic forces, but no test results have been available for skewed abutments. To determine the influence of skew angle on the development of passive force, laboratory tests were performed on a wall with skew angles of 0, 15, 30, and 45°. The wall was 1.26 m wide and 0.61 m high, and the backfill consisted of dense compacted sand. As the skew angle increased, the passive force decreased substantially, with a reduction of 50% at a skew of 30°. An adjustment factor was developed to account for the reduced capacity as a function of skew angle. The shape of the passive force-deflection curve leading to the peak force transitioned from a hyperbolic shape to a more bilinear shape as the skew angle increased. However, the horizontal displacement necessary to develop the peak passive force was still between 2 and 4% of the wall height. In all cases, the passive force decreased after the peak value, which would be expected for dense sand; however, at higher skew angles, the drop in resistance was more abrupt. The residual passive force was typically 40% lower than the peak force. For nearly all skew angles, the transverse shear resistance exceeded the applied shear force on the wall so that transverse movement was minimal. Computer models using the plane strain friction angle were able to match the measured force for the no skew case as well as for skewed cases when the proposed adjustment factor was used.
Fluoxetine May Enhance VEGF, BDNF and Cognition in Patients with Vascular Cognitive Impairment No Dementia: An Open-Label Randomized Clinical Study

Purpose Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) enhance angiogenesis and neurogenesis. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) play an important role in neurogenesis and angiogenesis. However, the effect of SSRIs on cognition and serum BDNF and VEGF in patients with vascular cognitive impairment no dementia (VCIND) is largely unknown. Patients and Methods It was an open label study. Fifty VCIND patients were randomly allocated to receive fluoxetine (20 mg/d; n = 25) or no fluoxetine (control group; n = 25) for 12 weeks. VCIND patients received fluoxetine 20 mg/d and secondary prevention of stroke for 12 weeks in the fluoxetine group, whereas the control group received only secondary prevention of stroke for 12 weeks. The primary outcome and secondary outcome were of assessment of Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) score, Ten Point Clock drawing test score (TPC), Verbal Fluency Test (VFT), Trail Making Test form a (TMTa), Trail Making Test form b (TMTb) and Digit Span Test score at baseline and week 12 in the both groups. And serum concentration of BDNF and VEGF was also tested at baseline and week 12 in both groups. Results After 12 weeks, TPC scores increased more significantly in the fluoxetine group than in the control group, while TMTa score and TMTb score were decreased more significantly in the fluoxetine group than in the control group. We also found that the serum concentration of BDNF and VEGF in the fluoxetine group increased more significantly than in the control group. However, we found no significant differences in mean change from baseline between fluoxetine and control group in ADAS-Cog score, Digit Span Test score and VFT score. Conclusion Fluoxetine may enhance cognition in certain cognitive domains and serum concentration of BDNF and VEGF in patients with VCIND.
Protective Effect of Pomegranate Peel Powder Against Gastric Ulcer in Rats

Gastric ulcer is a serious health problem that affects more than 10% of the World's population. Aspirin is the most common drug causes gastric ulcer also, most of the ulcer drugs have harmful side effects, so studies have focused on finding an alternative natural solution. This work provides a natural solution to protect the gut against ulcers, especially aspirin, by using a diet supplemented with pomegranate peel powder in rats. Levels of active components in pomegranate peel powder were detected using the certified methods. For the biological evaluation, 21 male rats (weight, 140-170 g) were used in three groups, group (1) is a control, group (2) ulcer group, and group(3) (ulcer supplemented group). The duration of the evaluation was 4 weeks. Gastric ulcer was produced by aspirin water suspension (500 mg/kg rat weight). The gene expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) were determined by RT-PCR. Pomegranate peel powder (10 % w/w) reduced the gastric ulcer area and ulcer index, gastric juice volume, and acidity. Pomegranate powder recovers gastric mucus content and gastric tissue at the histological level. Plasma nitric oxide production was raised while plasma TNF-α level was diminutive by pomegranate peel powder. The gastric mucosal TNF-α and COX-2 gene expression were significantly (p≤ 0.05) down-regulated (2.4 and 12.5 fold-change, respectively) using the pomegranate peel powder. This study introduces pomegranate peel powder (10%) as a protective food supplement against gastric ulcers.
Comparative Analysis Between Constructivism Methods and Modelling Methods on Skills Write Student Poetry

The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze comparatively the use of constructivism methods with modelling methods on students' poetry writing skills. This research is quantitative research using experimental method through treatment by level 2 x 2 design. The sample of this research was taken through the cluster random sampling technique. Data collection techniques used, among others: interviews, observation, documentation, and tests. The data analysis technique used in this study is the technique of analysis of variance and two paths (ANOVA) at a significance level of a=0.05 and then analyzed using the Tukey test. The results showed that: there was a significant difference based on the results of the study there was a significant difference between the use of constructivism learning methods and modelling methods on students' poetry writing skills with the average score in the experimental group reaching 81.57 while in the control class it reached 78.14. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that students who were given the constructivism method were more creative than students who were taught through the use of modelling methods.
Entrepreneurship education, academic major, and university students’ social entrepreneurial intention: the perspective of Planned Behavior Theory

ABSTRACT This study draws on the Theory of Planned Behavior to empirically examine the relationships between attitude toward behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control and university students’ social entrepreneurial intentions, while also examining the moderating roles of entrepreneurship education and academic major. Through multiple linear regression analysis, we tested our hypotheses on a sample of 832 college students for their social entrepreneurial intentions. Results indicate that all aspects of the Theory of Planned Behavior have a positive and significant impact on social entrepreneurial intention. More interestingly, the positive effects of attitude toward behavior and perceived behavioral control on social entrepreneurship intention are strengthened when students attend a university entrepreneurship program and have a non-business major. On the basis of three-way interaction analysis, our findings suggest that college students’ social entrepreneurship intention is highest for non-business majors with a favorable attitude towards behavior, have strong behavioral control, and receive entrepreneurship education. This paper elucidates behavioral mechanisms that determine university students’ intention to engage in social enterprises.
Morphological and biochemical changes in shoot and root organs of common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) after exposure to drought stress

Morphological and biochemical responses of shoot and root organs of post-drought stress vetch plant were investigated. Vetch seedlings were exposed to drought stress (100 g/l PEG6000) under in vitro conditions. Parameters were measured on 14-day-old seedlings. Under drought stress, shoot and root length, fresh weight, and water content were decreased. The dry matter ratio (DMR) increased in both the root and the shoot, and an increase in root dry weight was detected. Moreover, drought induced changes in activities of antioxidant enzymes including catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase (GR) in both organs. Enzymes analysis revealed a reverse association between CAT and SOD with APX and GR activities. The inverse relationship between these antioxidant enzyme activities may depend on the plant’s growth period. An increase in proline and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents was detected. Overall, the increase in morphological and biochemical parameters indicates that the root organ had a stronger response than the shoot organ under drought stress. The basic scientific knowledge obtained from this study could benefit future studies, such as breeding, in vetch plants.
Ambushes Leading Cause of Officer Fatalities - When Every Second Counts: Analysis of Officer Movement from Trained Ready Tactical Positions

Recently, the threat of ambush assaults to police officers has dangerously increased. These assaults can occur very rapidly, and to be better prepared to respond, it is important to understand the speed of officer responses and any advantages officers may gain from various tactical techniques. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand and examine officer movement times from various finger-indexing positions as well as the speed at which officers can fire their weapons from various starting positions. In the first experiment, officers (n = 52) fired their weapons from four trained finger-index positions to measure their time to fire. In the second experiment, officers (n = 68) fired their weapons from various starting, or tactically ready, positions to measure the speed of movement to weapon discharge. Results of Part One showed that contrary to training, all indexing positions were similar in time to contact the trigger, except indexing high on the slide. Part Two revealed that point shooting was significantly faster than aimed shooting as well as that the Low-Ready position was the fastest from which to fire, and the High-Guard ready position was the slowest. These results may provide analytical and training implications to improve the safety of officers.
Mapping prion pathology in mice using quantitative imaging: an MRI study

Human prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders which cause cognitive impairment and neurological deficits. Additional measures of tissue status are necessary for improving the sensitivity and specificity of clinical diagnosis as in many cases clinical forms of prion disease are commonly mistaken for other forms of dementia. To that effect, we developed a set of quantitative magnetic resonance-based tools, including magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) and quantitative T1 and T2 imaging to study the course of the disease in an animal model of prion disease. Using in vivo MTR, significant changes were detected in the cortex and thalamus of late-stage prion -infected mice as compared to littermates. In addition, we found a significant increase of MTR in thalamus and cortex of 80 dpi healthy mice when compared with 160 dpi healthy mice suggestive of changes occurring during the development of the brain. Using quantitative T2 mapping, significantly higher values were measured in thalamus of prion mice at all stages of the disease (T2=40ms) while T1 was found to be significantly higher in cortex (T1=1.89s) and hippocampus, albeit only in late-stage prion mice as compared to aged-matched controls (T1=1.67s). Using quantitative MRS significant changes were detected in glutamate (Glu) and myo-inositol (Ins) at all stages of prion disease when compared with the control group. NAA, Cr, Lactate and Lipids were only found to be significantly different at early and late stages of the disease while Taurine (Tau) was only significantly increased in the asymptomatic stage without any significant change at early and late stages of the disease. These changes in MRI and MRS signals, which precede clinical signs of disease, could provide insights into the pathogenesis of this disease and may enable early detection of pathology.