Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Review of Veterinary Acupuncture Clinical Trials

Acupuncture has been used to treat diseases in animals for thousands of years. For the past several decades, as the use of acupuncture has increased in countries where modern Western medicine is the foundation of health care, there has been increasing scientific effort to evaluate this ancient medical treatment for objective evidence of efficacy. Clinical trials with controlled clinical conditions using either a controlled randomized or non-randomized group approach with statistical significance established for a treatment has increased among veterinary researchers. This review presents recent clinical trials involving the use of acupuncture in animals. The studies which are organized into broad categories of pain control, neurologic disease, gastrointestinal disease, disorders of sense organs and emergency medicine demonstrate its effectiveness in treating a wide range of medical conditions such as canine hip dysplasia, pain from osteoarthritis and surgery, intervertebral disc disease, seizure disorders, vomiting, inflammatory bowel disease, cardiac and respiratory depression and anxiety. key words: veterinary acupuncture, traditional Chinese veterinary medicine, veterinary clinical trials Acupuncture (AP) has been used to treat a wide range of diseases in animals for thousands of years. 1 For the past several decades, as the use of acupuncture has increased in countries where modern Western medicine is the foundation of health care, there has been increasing scientific effort to evaluate this ancient medical treatment for objective evidence of efficacy. 2-17 Clinical trials with controlled clinical conditions using either a controlled randomized or non-randomized group approach with statistical significance established for a treatment has increased among veterinary researchers. 2,13-17 The establishment of a control group has been a challenge for these studies with several approaches tried such as sham acupuncture, use of conventional therapy or non-treated animals as controls. Thus, selection criteria for papers included in this review are: 1) randomized controlled trials (mostly with sham AP or conventional therapy as controls) with adequate numbers of patients, 2) non-randomized clinical trials (mostly group comparisons) with adequate numbers of patients under similar conditions, and 3) more limited studies which shed light on therapeutic mechanisms at work in the clinical trials are included to augment the scientific evidence that is building to support the efficacy of this treatment modality. The clinical trials presented in this review represent work from a large number of countries and substantiates the worldwide interest in acupuncture and the continued movement to establish it as an effective evidence based medicine therapy.
Prey resources before spawning influence gonadal investment of female , but not male , white crappie

In this study, an outdoor pool experiment was used to evaluate the effect of prey resources during 4 months before spawning on the gonadal investments of male and female white crappie Pomoxis annularis, a popular freshwater sportfish that exhibits erratic recruitment. Fish were assigned one of three feeding treatments: starved, fed once every 5 days (intermediate) or fed daily (high). All measurements of male testes (i.e. wet mass, energy density and spermatocrit) were similar across treatments. Conversely, high-fed females produced larger ovaries than those of intermediate-fed and starved fish, and invested more energy in their ovaries than starved fish. Compared to preexperiment fish, starved and intermediate-fed females appeared to increase their ovary size by relying on liver energy stores (‘capital’ spawning). Conversely, high-fed females increased liver and gonad mass, implying an ‘income’-spawning strategy (where gonads are built from recently acquired energy). Fecundity did not differ among treatments, but high-fed fish built larger eggs than those starved. Females rarely ‘skipped’ spawning opportunities when prey resources were low, as only 8% of starved females and 8% of intermediate-fed females lacked vitellogenic eggs. These results suggest that limited prey resources during the months before spawning can limit ovary production, which, in turn, can limit reproductive success of white crappies.
THE DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS OF MARKET ACCESS ON WAGES : EVIDENCE FROM KENYA 1992-2010

This thesis analyses the heterogeneous and distributional effects of changes in transport infrastructure on city level wages in Kenya. To do this I develop a consistent theory, dichotomising industries into tradeable and non-tradeable, and adopting a sufficient statistic approach, using market access. To empirically evaluate these questions, I construct two novel data sets digitising historical Statistical Abstracts and Michelin maps between 1992 and 2010. This new data on wages by industry by year by city allows unique insights into the spatial distribution of economic activity in a Sub-Sahara African country: Kenya. I find that transport investment positively affects wages in Kenya, but that most of the impact is attributed to increases in tradeable sector wages, and thus to already relatively more developed cities. I also consider the direct effect of market access on development indicators and find consistent evidence of negative impacts. These results indicate that transport infrastructure projects may not be the silver bullet they are often purported to be. Finally, I consider a counterfactual scenario: building the proposed MombassaMalaba standard gauge railway. I find that although the project will raise wages in Kenya, it will also increase the spatial wage inequality already present, with the lion’s share of benefits going to Nairobi and Mombassa. The author would like to thank Dr. Ferdinand Rauch for excellent supervision, Sam Altmann for careful proof reading, participants of the Oxford trade seminar series for helpful comments, and Kai Xuan Ong for endless patience with my spelling and grammar. All errors remain my own.
Effect Of Cobalt-Chromium Alloy Re-Use In Dentistry On Its Castability Value.

BACKGROUND Re-use of dental casting alloy is a routine practice, which is carried out with the motive to conserve resources. There have been studies on the re-use of alloys but a controversy exists as to the proportioning ratio of fresh to used alloy and the number of time an alloy can be recast. The objective of the study was to measure the effect of addition of 50% by weight used alloy to the fresh Cobalt-Chromium alloy on the castability. METHODS In the present in-vitro experimental study A total of 20 specimens were cast by flame centrifuge, using modified Whitlock's method. The total sample size was divided into four groups of five specimens each. Group 1 was the control group with 100% fresh alloy cast once. In group 2, 3 and 4, a 50% by weight cut off of previous castings were mixed to the fresh alloy. The reused alloy for the group 2 and 3 was further aged or exposed to flame casting separately. The number of completely cast segments were counted and castability value was calculated according to the Whitlock's formula. RESULTS There was no significant difference of castability value among the entire tested group (p=0.085). CONCLUSIONS Within the limitations of the present study, it is recommended that commercial Co-Cr-Mo alloy can be re-used six times without affecting its castability, when 50% fresh alloy is added on each re-use.
Eye-head coordination during large gaze shifts.

1. Three-dimensional (3D) eye and head rotations were measured with the use of the magnetic search coil technique in six healthy human subjects as they made large gaze shifts. The aims of this study were 1) to see whether the kinematic rules that constrain eye and head orientations to two degrees of freedom between saccades also hold during movements; 2) to chart the curvature and looping in eye and head trajectories; and 3) to assess whether the timing and paths of eye and head movements are more compatible with a single gaze error command driving both movements, or with two different feedback loops. 2. Static orientations of the eye and head relative to space are known to resemble the distribution that would be generated by a Fick gimbal (a horizontal axis moving on a fixed vertical axis). We show that gaze point trajectories during eye-head gaze shifts fit the Fick gimbal pattern, with horizontal movements following straight "line of latitude" paths and vertical movements curving like lines of longitude. However, horizontal (and to a lesser extent vertical) movements showed direction-dependent looping, with rightward and leftward (and up and down) saccades tracing slightly different paths. Plots of facing direction (the analogue of gaze direction for the head) also showed the latitude/longitude pattern, without looping. In radial saccades, the gaze point initially moved more vertically than the target direction and then curved; head trajectories were straight. 3. The eye and head components of randomly sequenced gaze shifts were not time locked to one another. The head could start moving at any time from slightly before the eye until 200 ms after, and the standard deviation of this interval could be as large as 80 ms. The head continued moving for a long (up to 400 ms) and highly variable time after the gaze error had fallen to zero. For repeated saccades between the same targets, peak eye and head velocities were directly, but very weakly, correlated; fast eye movements could accompany slow head movements and vice versa. Peak head acceleration and deceleration were also very weakly correlated with eye velocity. Further, the head rotated about an essentially fixed axis, with a smooth bell-shaped velocity profile, whereas the axis of eye rotation relative to the head varied throughout the movement and the velocity profiles were more ragged. 4. Plots of 3D eye orientation revealed strong and consistent looping in eye trajectories relative to space. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Evaluation of Performance and Variability of Six Sorghum Genotypes under Salinity Stress

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) has been ranked the fifth in importance among the cereal crops. It is moderately salt tolerant and is a C4 grass that is well adapted to semi-arid and arid regions where salinity is the major problem. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance and variability of six sorghum genotypes under two salt concentrations (200 mM and 300 mM). The length, fresh and dry weight of shoot and root were measured during salt stress. The results revealed that the plant growth measurements of the six sorghum genotypes was significantly reduced at two salinity levels; however the genotypes showed tolerant to the salt concentration 200 mM more than the concentration 300 mM. On the basis of results obtained using above parameters, the genotype Milo was the most tolerant to salt stress followed by Red Mugud.
Harmonic Minimized of Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter Using PV system

This paper focusing on the harmonic minimization of 11-level cascaded H-multilevel inverter using PV systems with a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control scheme. The photo-voltaic arrays are connected to eleven level multilevel inverter through DC-DC boost converter. By implementing maximum power point tracking (P&O) algorithm are producing power from PV array. The DC power from the PV array is boosted by using the DC-DC boost converter. Which is controlled by PI controller. This methodology of simulation has been carried out and verified through the MAT LAB/SIMULINK to achieve a mitigated Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). Keywords— Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), Photo voltaic (PV) ,Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Comparison of three template preparation methods for routine detection of beak and feather disease virus and avian polyomavirus with single and nested polymerase chain reaction in clinical specimens

Direct comparisons are important when assessing the value of DNA extraction methods for diagnostic virology as the inhibitors present and the efficiency of extraction vary with the target infectious agent as well as the species and the site from which the clinical sample was obtained. Three DNA extraction methods were compared for routine polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) in whole blood and feather samples and of avian polyomavirus (APV) in feather samples. Boiling in Chelex® 100 Resin was found to be the most sensitive method for detection of BFDV or APV DNA in both feather and blood samples. In combination with nested PCR it enabled detection of BFDV DNA in 13/13 positive whole blood samples and in 22/23 positive feather samples. It also enabled detection of APV in 31/31 samples detected as positive in this study. NucleoSpin® kits enabled detection of BFDV DNA in only 9/13 blood samples and in 18/23 feather samples. The lower rate of BFDV DNA detection when using NucleoSpin® kits was not a result of inhibition of PCR in most cases. The NucleoSpin® Tissue Kit enabled detection of APV DNA in 29/31 feather samples. Inhibition of DNA amplification was observed when using the DNAzol® Direct kit. Therefore, of the methods evaluated here, Chelex® 100 Resin treatment of samples was the best option for routine testing for BFDV and APV DNA in clinical samples.
Chilled Aeration to Control Pests and Maintain Grain Quality during Summer Storage of Wheat in the North Central Region of Kansas

Abstract.Chilled aeration allows grain to be cooled, independent of ambient conditions, to “safe” temperatures at which insects, fungi, and spoilage development are reduced to a minimum. The objective of this research was to evaluate the advantages of using grain chilling to preserve the quality of grain and reduce post-harvest losses caused by insects and fungi, compared to the conventional aeration and storage strategies used during summer storage in central Kansas. The research trials were developed at a farmer’s cooperative in central Kansas in 2015 and 2016 on low-moisture wheat harvested during the summer of 2015 and 2016, respectively, and stored in two 1,350 metric ton (t) steel silos in which one was chilled and the other was used as a control managed by the cooperative. Temperature of the grain inside each silo was monitored with temperature cables. Variables evaluated were: moisture content (MC), grain and flour quality, insect-pest development and reproduction rate, insect fragments per 500 g of grain, and fungi presence. In 2015, the chilling treatment reduced the grain temperature from 28°C to 17°C in approximately 175 h, while in 2016 it took 245 h to reach about the same temperature with an initial grain temperature of 39°C. Grain temperatures below 25°C were not achieved in the control silo during the summer using ambient aeration. Minimum variation of MC was observed in the Chilled silo while ambient aeration reduced the moisture content by 0.5%. Reproduction rates of the red flour beetle and lesser grain borer were significantly reduced by chilling temperatures lower than 17°C. Lower temperatures also reduced insect populations detected in probe traps and insect damaged kernels. Insect fragments and fungi presence had no significant increase throughout the trials in either of the silos. No clear evidence of flour quality being better preserved at lower temperatures was detected. The energy cost of running the grain chiller was between 0.26-0.32 $/t higher than ambient aeration. Keywords: Ambient aeration, Grain chilling, Grain quality, Stored-product fungi, Stored-product insects, Summer storage, Wheat.
Evaluation of Seismic Earth Pressures at the Passive Side

Estimation of seismic earth pressures constitutes an important subject of research in civil engineering. Previous studies showed strong dependence of earth pressure coefficient on lateral strain constraint of the backfill, i.e., the wall displacement has a significant effect on seismic earth pressures acting against retaining structures. Besides, experimental investigations and theoretical analysis indicate that when the backfill is at the passive side, the planar sliding surface assumption will overestimate earth resistance for higher wall friction angles, which will make structures such as sheet pile walls and their anchor blocks depending on earth pressures at the passive side for support underdesgned. In this paper, based on pseudo-static analysis and the concept of “intermediate soil wedge” with curved surface, a new methodology is developed to evaluate seismic earth pressures at the passive side under any boundary strain constraint for a rigid retaining structure with translational movement. It has the advantage over the Mononobe-Okabe method since it can take into account the effect of wall displacement on lateral earth pressures and the curved sliding surface is employed in the analysis. The approach can determine the seismic earth pressure coefficient of normally consolidated cohesionless soil under any lateral deformation between the isotropic compression and the passive states. Corresponding computer program is written to calculate the seismic earth pressure of a typical retaining wall system. The results are compared with those obtained based on the assumption of a planar sliding surface.
SIMULATION OF SOUND WAVE PROPAGATION IN TURBULENT FLOWS USING A LATTICE-BOLTZMANN SCHEME

The propagation of sound waves in instationary flows is often computed in two steps, which are the determination of the instationary flow field and calculation of sound propagation in the flow. Here, a ”allin-one” approach is proposed which is based on the Lattice-Boltzmann method. Two applications are presented: The solution of a benchmark problem which is compared to the analytical solution and a twodimensional cut through an ultrasound gas flow meter. For the benchmark problem excellent agreement between theory and numerical results was obtained. For the ultrasound gas flow meter, the results clearly indicate the feasibility of such simulations. The measured transit times of a test signal agree well with rough estimations, furthermore they exhibit a lot of details which are related to the instationary flow field.
An Image Augmentation Method for Detecting Construction Resources Using Convolutional Neural Network and UAV Images

Images acquired by UAV can be analyzed for resource management on construction sites. However, analyzing the construction site images acquired by UAV is difficult due to the characteristics of UAV images and construction site images. This paper proposes an image augmentation method to improve the performance of an object detection model for construction site images acquired by UAV. The method consists of three techniques: intensity variation, image smoothing, and scale transformation. Experimental results show that the method can improve the performance of the detection model (Faster R-CNN) by achieving a recall and a precision of 53.08% and 66.76%, respectively. With future studies, the method is expected to contribute to UAV-based resource management on construction sites.
Road edge detection on 3D point cloud data using Encoder-Decoder Convolutional Network

The demand of High Definition Maps (HD-Maps) has been increasing, especially for autonomous vehicle application. Usually, HD-Map is created by scanning the road using LiDAR sensor and reconstructing the road on 3D world to capture all aspects of road properties. One of the important properties of a road is its edge or boundary. In this paper, we propose end-to-end 3D Encoder-Decoder Convolutional Network (3D-EDCN) for road edge detection on 3D point cloud data produced by LiDAR sensor. Our 3D-EDCN classifier consists of nine convolutional layers and three deconvolutional layers. For simplification, we use 3D voxel format as input and output of the classifier. Our proposed method was tested using our own 3D point cloud dataset which taken from LiDAR equipment and consisting of 103 3D point cloud data with their respective road edge ground truth. In the training process, we use combinations of Cross-Entropy loss function and Euclidean loss function to help our model converged. As a preliminary result, our proposed 3D-EDCN classifier achieves Mean Square Error (MSE) of 2.738×10−5, precision of 0.37262, and recall of 0.14432.
Design and characterization of a 2 . 4 GHz LNA in 180 nm CMOS Technology

In this paper, we present the design and characterization of a low noise amplifier (LNA) operating at 2.4 GHz and implemented in a 180 nm CMOS IBM technology. Inductive source degeneration topology is used, bec ause of its good trade-off between input matching and Noise Fig ure. Simulation results show a gain of 9.96 dB and a Noi se Figure of 2.09 dB for a power consumption of 11.7 mW. All the design steps are presented: gain optimization and bias poi nt analysis, input and output matching, insertion of a cascode s tage, stability, Noise Figure analysis and layout design. The circuit was fabricated, and we obtained a gain of 7.7 dB center d at 2.24 GHz and a bandwidth of about 700MHz. The experimenta l results are presented at the end of the paper. Keywords— Low Noise Amplifier; Characterization; Induct ive source degeneration; S-parameters.
WIND SHEAR PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR DYNAMIC SOARING WITH UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can significantly make use of wind shear to extract energy by the flight technique named dynamic soaring. Wind shear in the field is the necessary condition for dynamic soaring and has a significant impact on the performance of dynamic soaring. Thus, it is important for the on-board auto-pilot of UAV to obtain the estimates of wind shear in real-time. In order to achieve this aim, a method to estimate the wind field is proposed from a new perspective in this paper: the parameters of wind field can be treated as unknown parameters in the flight model of UAVs, and then, the problem to estimate the wind field can be transformed to estimate the unknown parameters in the flight model. For the problem to estimate the unknown parameters in the nonlinear flight model exhibiting Gaussian behavior, a particle filter is developed, and evaluated through its application on dynamic soaring. The results show that the proposed particle filter framework can estimate the unknown parameters in wind field more accurately, reliably and robustly than that of extended Kalman filter.