Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The creation of three-dimensional finite element models for simulating head impact biomechanics

A new 3 dimensional finite element representation of the human head complex has been constructed for simulating the transient occurrences of simple pedestrian accidents. This paper describes the development, features and validation of that model. When constructing the model, emphasis was placed on element quality and ease of mesh generation. As such, a number of variations of the model were created. The model was validated against a series of cadaveric impact tests. A parametric study (a High/Low study) was performed to investigate the effect of the bulk and shear modulus of the brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The influence of different mesh densities on the models and the use of different element formulations for the skull were also investigated. It was found that the short-term shear modulus of the neural tissue had the predominant effect on intracranial frontal pressure, and on the predicted Von-Mises response. The bulk modulus of the fluid had a significant effect on the contre-coup pressure when the CSF was modelled using a coupled node definition. Differences of intracranial pressure were reported that show the sensitivity of the method by which the skull is modelled. By simulating an identical impact scenario with a range of different finite element models it has been possible to investigate the influence of model topologies. We can conclude that careful modelling of the CSF (depth/volume) and skull thickness (including cortical/trabecular ratio) is necessary if the correct intracranial pressure distribution is to be predicted, and so further forms of validation are required to improve the finite element models' injury prediction capabilities.
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Modulates Liver Inflammatory Immune Response in the Pathogenesis of Liver Ischemia and Reperfusion Injury

Background Although endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been implicated in the pathophysiology of organ ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), the underlying mechanisms have yet to be fully elucidated. In particular, because tissue proinflammatory immune response is the key mediator of local IRI, how ER stress impacts liver immune cell activation cascade remains to be determined. Methods In vitro, ER stress in macrophages and hepatocytes were induced by pharmacological agents. Macrophage Toll-like receptor 4 and hepatocyte tumor necrosis factor &agr; responses were studied. In vivo, the induction of ER stress by ischemia-reperfusion and the impact of ER stress amelioration by a small molecule chaperon 4-phenylbutyric acid on liver immune response were studied in a murine partial liver warm ischemia model. Results ER-stressed macrophages generated a significantly enhanced proinflammatory immune response against Toll-like receptor 4 stimulation, whereas ER-stressed hepatocytes became more susceptible to tumor necrosis factor &agr;–induced cell death. Ischemia-reperfusion resulted in up-regulations of spliced X-box binding protein 1 and activating transcription factor 6 levels in affected livers. Mice pretreated with 4-phenylbutyric acid were protected from liver IRI, in parallel with diminished local proinflammatory gene induction program. Conclusions Our study documents a potential immune regulatory role of ER stress in the mechanism of liver IRI and provides a rationale for targeting stress response as a new therapeutic means to ameliorate tissue inflammation in organ transplant recipients.
INHALATION TOXICITY OF 1,6-HEXAMETHYLENE DIISOCYANATE HOMOPOLYMERS (HDI-IC AND HDI-BT): Results of Subacute and Subchronic Repeated Inhalation Exposure Studies

This article addresses results of two 13-wk inhalation toxicity studies in Wistar rats with aerosolized 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) homopolymers using either the isocyanurate (HDI-IC) type or biuret (HDI-BT) type. Groups of 10 rats/sex/level were exposed nose-only to breathing zone concentrations of 0.5, 3.3, and 26.4 mg HDI-IC/m3 or 0.4, 3.4, and 21.0 mg HDI-BT/m3 (MMAD = 1.4–3.3 µm). The exposure regimen was 6 h/day, 5 days/wk for 13 wk. Two control groups were used in each study; one was exposed to filtered air, and the other to the vehicle acetone. In subacute pilot studies, groups of rats were exposed under identical conditions for 3 consecutive weeks using concentrations of approximately 4, 15–18, and 77–90 mg homopolymer/m3. All studies demonstrated that adverse effects were caused by irritation-related responses occurring predominantly in the lower respiratory tract. Following subchronic exposure, compound-related effects were found only at the highest concentrations used and were confined to mild respiratory distress, marginally decreased body weights, and increased lung weights. Hematological evaluation showed a marginal increase in leukocyte counts. Pulmonary function testing revealed minimal changes indicative of increases in functional residual capacity and total lung capacity but without evidence of increased bronchial hyperreactivity to acetylcholine aerosol. Histopathology demonstrated an increased recruitment of alveolar macrophages, focal interstitial fibrosis with round-cell infiltrations, and bronchiolo-alveolar proliferations at the high-level exposure groups. The no-observable-adverse-effect levels (NOAELs) of both the 3- and 13-wk studies were in the range of 3–4 mg/m3. Appreciable differences between the two types of polyisocyanates were not observed.
Review on a Traditional Herbal Medicine, Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali): Its Traditional Uses, Chemistry, Evidence-Based Pharmacology and Toxicology

Eurycoma longifolia Jack (known as tongkat ali), a popular traditional herbal medicine, is a flowering plant of the family Simaroubaceae, native to Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and also Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. E. longifolia, is one of the well-known folk medicines for aphrodisiac effects as well as intermittent fever (malaria) in Asia. Decoctions of E. longifolia leaves are used for washing itches, while its fruits are used in curing dysentery. Its bark is mostly used as a vermifuge, while the taproots are used to treat high blood pressure, and the root bark is used for the treatment of diarrhea and fever. Mostly, the roots extract of E. longifolia are used as folk medicine for sexual dysfunction, aging, malaria, cancer, diabetes, anxiety, aches, constipation, exercise recovery, fever, increased energy, increased strength, leukemia, osteoporosis, stress, syphilis and glandular swelling. The roots are also used as an aphrodisiac, antibiotic, appetite stimulant and health supplement. The plant is reported to be rich in various classes of bioactive compounds such as quassinoids, canthin-6-one alkaloids, β-carboline alkaloids, triterpene tirucallane type, squalene derivatives and biphenyl neolignan, eurycolactone, laurycolactone, and eurycomalactone, and bioactive steroids. Among these phytoconstituents, quassinoids account for a major portion of the E. longifolia root phytochemicals. An acute toxicity study has found that the oral Lethal Dose 50 (LD50) of the alcoholic extract of E. longifolia in mice is between 1500–2000 mg/kg, while the oral LD50 of the aqueous extract form is more than 3000 mg/kg. Liver and renal function tests showed no adverse changes at normal daily dose and chronic use of E. longifolia. Based on established literature on health benefits of E. longifolia, it is important to focus attention on its more active constituents and the constituents’ identification, determination, further development and most importantly, the standardization. Besides the available data, more evidence is required regarding its therapeutic efficacy and safety, so it can be considered a rich herbal source of new drug candidates. It is very important to conserve this valuable medicinal plant for the health benefit of future generations.
Introducing a New Mechanism for Construction of an Efficient Search Model

Search engine has become an inevitable tool for retrieving information from the WWW. Web researchers introduce lots of algorithms to modify search engine based on different features. Sometimes those algorithms are domain related, sometimes they are Web page ranking related, and sometimes they are efficiency related and so on. We are introducing such a type of algorithm which is multiple domains as well as efficiency related. In this paper, we are providing multilevel indexing on top of Index Based Acyclic Graph (IBAG) which support multiple Ontologies as well as reduce search time. IBAG contains only domains related pages and are constructed from Relevant Page Graph (RPaG). We have also provided a comparative study of time complexity for the various models.
Quality Control and Flux Sampling Problems for Tower and Aircraft Data

Abstract A series of automated tests is developed for tower and aircraft time series to identify instrumentation problems, flux sampling problems, and physically plausible but unusual situations. The automated procedures serve as a safety net for quality controlling data. A number of special flags are developed representing a variety of potential problems such as inconsistencies between different tower levels and the flux error due to fluctuations of aircraft height. The tests are implemented by specifying critical values for parameters representing each specific error. The critical values are developed empirically from experience of applying the tests to real turbulent time series. When these values are exceeded, the record is flagged for further inspection and comparison with the rest of the concurrent data. The inspection step is necessary to either verify an instrumentation problem or identify physically plausible behavior. The set of tests is applied to tower data from the Riso Air Sea Experiment and.
STUDIES ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASES OF MORPHOGENESIS IN FUNGI

The interconversions of mycelial and yeast-like forms (M ⇌ Y) in Blastomyces dermatitidis and in Blastomyces brasiliensis are characterized as examples of thermal dimorphism since the phenomena are apparently dependent only on the temperature of incubation of these two species. The change in morphology consequent upon Y → M conversion is considered to result from the selective inhibition of cell division, without the simultaneous inhibition of growth. Such selective inhibition is viewed in a wider context as an example of the differential operation of the physicochemical apparatus of the cell in the control of form development by an organism. To analyze this differential operation, which is here dependent only on temperature, we have studied the effect of temperature on oxygen consumption by each of the dimorphic forms. In the absence of external substrate the yeast forms consume 5 to 6 times more oxygen per unit dry weight than do the M forms.The Y forms exhibit an exogenous oxidation of acetate and of glucose, as well as an oxidative assimilation of these substrates, whereas the M forms exhibit no exogenous metabolism in either a resting or starved condition. A study of the effect of a wide range of temperatures on oxygen consumption by the M forms indicates the operation of two rate-limiting processes: (a) one with an activation energy of 13,250 calories/gm. molecule over the range 5–30°, and (b) reversible enzyme inactivation; the latter process assuming importance in the higher temperature range. On abrupt, large changes in temperature the balance between these two rate-limiting reactions (which it is suggested characterizes the steady state) is apparently disrupted as a result of a lag in the assumption of a rate of reversible enzyme inactivation characteristic of the new temperature. This disruption of balance is evidenced in overshoot phenomena. The effect of an analogous disruption of balance, and of increasing enzymic inactivation; on a competition between enzyme systems, competing for substrate for cell elongation and for cell division, is considered in explanation of the observed dependence of the cell division mechanism on the maintenance of an elevated temperature.
Analysis of the LS estimation error for a MIMO system on a Rician fading channel

Coherent detection techniques require the channel information for the symbol detection and such techniques are reported to have better performance than the non coherent ones. Method of Least Squares (LS) is a popular technique for performing channel estimation. The LS Estimation method requires the channel to be constant through out the estimation period. In reality, the wireless channel is time varying and we will always get an estimation error when we estimate the channel with block techniques like the LS Estimation. Moreover, the channel is affected by noise and this will also add some error in estimation. MIMO system, which offers gain in capacity, is an area of recent interest. Analysis of LS estimation error for SISO Rayleigh channel is available in literature. Approximate analytical expressions for the variance of the error for a Rician fading channel for a MIMO system is presented here. The validity of the expression has been checked through computer simulation.
Combining Control and Data Abstraction in the Verification of Hybrid Systems

This paper addresses the verification of hybrid systems built as the composition of a discrete software controller interacting with a physical environment exhibiting a continuous behavior. The goal is to attack the problem of the combinatorial explosion of discrete states that may happen if a complex software controller is considered. It proposes as a solution to extend an existing abstract interpretation technique, namely dynamic partitioning, to hybrid systems described in a symbolic formalism. Dynamic partitioning allows us finely tune the tradeoff between precision and efficiency in a reachability analysis. It shows the effectiveness of the approach by a case study that combines a nontrivial controller specified in the synchronous dataflow programming language Lustre with its physical environment.
On the State of the Art of Coupling and Cohesion Measures for Service-Oriented System Design

Service-oriented computing has encountered an increasing importance for enterprises over the last years. With Web services, the major underlying technical basis is already in an advanced state. The service design area, on the other hand, still provides several research gaps such as the field of service identification and in particular the determination of an optimal granularity level for services. Granularity, assessed through coupling and cohesion considerations, is yet a rather unexplored domain when it comes to service-orientation, although several results from earlier design principles are available. In this paper we summarize the current state of the art in granularity measures and identify the implications emerging for practice and research. As we reveal, several existing measures for other paradigms, which might be adapted for service-orientation, are left unconsidered. Further research gaps, as the mainly missing empirical evaluation or a tighter inclusion in the development process, are also detected.
Smarter Groups - Reasoning on Qualitative Information from Your Desktop

This paper explores the possibilities and core technologies of the ongoing development towards the SemanticWeb for desktop application enhancement. It demonstrates how an ontology-based software can provide refined support for personal information organization. The Web Ontology Language and reasoning mechanisms based on Description Logics (DL) are analyzed as enabler technologies for semantic enrichments. We report on our prototype that realizes the enhancement of Apple's Address Book application by DL-based smart groups.
A qualitative study exploring how social norms and empowerment influence female leaders related to represent organizations externally

Qualitative methods; seven in depth interviews among leaders in an chosen organization and two focus groups were chosen for this research to get as profoundly insight as possible when it comes to their perceptions of female leaders that represent organizations externally and how or if social norms in the society or/ and organization influence them. There were not found any large differences among the different leaders nor the focus groups. Old prejudices and stereotypes, such as perceive men as having stereotypical leader attributes, or by Eagly and Karau (2002); called agentic attributes, and women as having stereotypical communal attributes as being sensitive, caring, good in social relationships, and etc., also seems to be the view among the participants in this research. When asked to describe a person who represents an organization externally, the participants also gave this person typical agentic attributes, at the same time as gender was not believed to be important; they were more concerned about age. Therefore one might assume that a female leader who is representing an organization externally acts or becomes more agentic than communal when having this role; she must leave her gender role as a woman. Empowerment was seen as something positive among all the participants. Some of them also believed that this could contribute to gender equality, or as Attanapola (2005) claims: Helps women to be become more secure. Everybody also believed that there have to be some guidelines when representing an organization externally. And since gender was not mentioned or given any importance, one can assume that the participants believe that everybody; both men and women who are representing organizations externally need to have some guidelines and therefore none have the opportunity to act freely, at the same time as empowerment is apparent. "#$#%&! "'()*+! ),*(-(! 0
Drosophilaas a Model Host forPseudomonas aeruginosaInfection

ABSTRACT Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as model host, we have identified mutants of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa with reduced virulence. Strikingly, all strains strongly impaired in fly killing also lacked twitching motility; most such strains had a mutation in pilGHIJKL chpABCDE, a gene cluster known to be required for twitching motility and potentially encoding a signal transduction system. The pil chp genes appear to control the expression of additional virulence factors, however, since the wild-type fly-killing phenotype of a subset of mutants isolated on the basis of their compact colony morphology indicated that twitching motility itself was not required for full virulence in the fly.
Heterologous Expression of sahH Reveals That Biofilm Formation Is Autoinducer-2-independent in Streptococcus sanguinis but Is Associated with an Intact Activated Methionine Cycle*

Background: AI-2 is a by-product of the LuxS-mediated reaction within the activated methionine cycle (AMC). Results: The biofilm phenotype of a S. sanguinis luxS mutant was restored by SahH expression but not by AI-2 supplementation. Conclusion: The luxS mutant biofilm phenotype is not caused by lacking AI-2 but by an AMC defect. Significance: The SahH bypass is essential for further studies on AI-2 utilizing luxS mutants. Numerous studies have claimed deleterious effects of LuxS mutation on many bacterial phenotypes, including bacterial biofilm formation. Genetic complementation mostly restored the observed mutant phenotypes to WT levels, leading to the postulation that quorum sensing via a family of molecules generically termed autoinducer-2 (AI-2) is essential for many phenotypes. Because LuxS mutation has dual effects, this hypothesis needs to be investigated into the details for each bacterial species. In this study we used S. sanguinis SK36 as a model biofilm bacterium and employed physiological characterization and transcriptome approaches on WT and luxS-deficient strains, in combination with chemical, luxS, and sahH complementation experiments. SahH enables a direct conversion of SAH to homocysteine and thereby restores the activated methionine cycle in a luxS-negative background without formation of the AI-2 precursor 4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione. With this strategy we were able to dissect the individual contribution of LuxS and AI-2 activity in detail. Our data revealed that S. sanguinis biofilm formation is independent from AI-2 substance pools and is rather supported by an intact activated methyl cycle. Of 216 differentially transcribed genes in the luxS mutant, 209 were restored by complementation with a gene encoding the S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase. Only nine genes, mainly involved in natural competence, were directly affected by the AI-2 quorum-sensing substance pool. Cumulatively, this suggested that biofilm formation in S. sanguinis is not under control of AI-2. Our study suggests that previously evaluated LuxS mutants in other species need to be revisited to resolve the precise contribution of AI-2 substance pools and the methionine pathways.
Fine-Mapping and Analysis of Cgl1, a Gene Conferring Glossy Trait in Cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata)

Cuticular waxes covering the outer plant surface impart a whitish appearance. Wax-less cabbage mutant shows glossy in leaf surface and plays important roles in riching cabbage germplasm resources and breeding brilliant green cabbage. This is the first report describing the characterization and fine-mapping of a wax biosynthesis gene using a novel glossy Brassica oleracea mutant. In the present paper, we identified a glossy cabbage mutant (line10Q-961) with a brilliant green phenotype. Genetic analyses indicated that the glossy trait was controlled by a single recessive gene. Preliminary mapping results using an F2 population containing 189 recessive individuals revealed that the Cgl1 gene was located at the end of chromosome C08. Several new markers closely linked to the target gene were designed according to the cabbage reference genome sequence. Another population of 1,172 recessive F2 individuals was used to fine-map the Cgl1 gene to a 188.7-kb interval between the C08SSR61 simple sequence repeat marker and the end of chromosome C08. There were 33 genes located in this region. According to gene annotation and homology analyses, the Bol018504 gene, which is a homolog of CER1 in Arabidopsis thaliana, was the most likely candidate for the Cgl1 gene. Its coding and promoter regions were sequenced, which indicated that the RNA splice site was altered because of a 2,722-bp insertion in the first intron of Bol018504 in the glossy mutant. Based on the FGENESH 2.6 prediction and sequence alignments, the PLN02869 domain, which controls fatty aldehyde decarbonylase activity, was absent from the Bol018504 gene of the 10Q-961 glossy mutant. We inferred that the inserted sequence in Bol018504 may result in the glossy cabbage mutant. This study represents the first step toward the characterization of cuticular wax biosynthesis in B. oleracea, and may contribute to the breeding of new cabbage varieties exhibiting a brilliant green phenotype.
The Profitability of European Banks: A Cross-Sectional and Dynamic Panel Analysis

The profitability of European banks during the 1990s is investigated using cross-sectional, pooled cross-sectional time-series and dynamic panel models. Models for the determinants of profitability incorporate size, diversification, risk and ownership type, as well as dynamic effects. Despite intensifying competition there is significant persistence of abnormal profit from year to year. The evidence for any consistent or systematic size-profitability relationship is relatively weak. The relationship between the importance of off-balance-sheet business in a bank's portfolio and profitability is positive for the UK, but either neutral or negative elsewhere. The relationship between the capital-assets ratio and profitability is positive. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester, 2004.