Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Multifactorial Contribution of Publications in Plastic Surgery Journals in Microsurgery Education.

BACKGROUND Microsurgery is one of the most complex operative skills. Recent restrictions on residents' working hours challenge residency program directors to ensure skill acquisition with scant time dedicated to microsurgery practice. We aimed to summarize the contribution of plastic surgery journals in microsurgical education. METHODS A comprehensive literature search was performed. RESULTS We observed an increasing number of publications on microsurgery education over the years. This could be due to the adoption of new technologies developed in the last 2 decades, the concerns about quality of resident training in the context of reduced work hours, the well-described benefit of medical simulations in other specialties, and the pressure on trainees to be proficient before operating on patients. The variety of aspects addressed in plastic surgery publications is broad: simulators, courses, skills assessment, national surveys, and technology trends. CONCLUSION There is an upward trend in the number of publications and plastic surgery journals, demonstrating a remarkable contribution to microsurgery training.
Optimization of a fast screening method for the assessment of low molecular weight thiols in human blood and plasma suitable for biomonitoring studies

Abstract An adequate level of low molecular weight thiols (LMW-SH, especially glutathione (GSH)) protects cellular macromolecules against toxic agents, and is used as a sensitive biomarker of exposure to toxic compounds. During sample collection, storage and preparation, non-enzymatic and enzymatic oxidation of LMW-SH can occur leading to analytical inaccuracy. The aim of this study was to optimize a fast and reliable screening method for the determination of LMW-SH, mainly GSH, in blood and plasma samples as well as to investigate the impact of storage conditions on the LMW-SH stability. Based on our results, the described spectrophotometric method allows fast and reliable determination of LMW-SH in blood and plasma samples. Results on incubation of samples at 37 °C imply that synthesis of LMW-SH (probably GSH) as well as dynamic interexchange among various thiols forms can be induced in blood cells in in vitro conditions. Importantly, the level of LMW-SH in blood and plasma stored at −20 °C was constant, indicating that they can be stored at −20 °C for at least 30 days. Therefore, the method is suitable for assessment of LMW-SH in long-term human biomonitoring as well as environmental field studies, especially those involving a large number of samples such as epidemiological studies.
STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING OF PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT

Productivity has often been cited as a key factor in industrial performance, and actions to increase it are said to improve profitability and the wage earning capacity of employees. Improving productivity is seen as a key issue for survival and success in the long term. This paper focuses on examining key factors of productivity enhancement, and investigating the causal relationships among those key factors to better understand and plan for productivity improvement. The results prove 5 key productivity factors, including ‘leadership’, ‘strategic quality planning’, ‘people’, ‘data and information’, and ‘process management’, leading to a conceptual model. ‘Leadership’ is found to be the main driver to productivity enhancement. The strong commitment of a leader is thus crucial in improving productivity. ‘Leadership’ strongly influences ‘strategic quality planning’ and ‘process management’, and indirectly influences ‘people’ through ‘data and information’ and ‘strategic quality planning’. ‘People’ also plays a key role in the success of productivity enhancement. Additionally, there are direct and indirect relationships between ‘data and information’ and ‘people’ and between ‘data and information’ and ‘process management’, respectively.
Temperature Dependence of the Neutron Lifespan

Current precision big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) studies motivate us to revisit the neutron lifespan in the plasma medium of the early universe. The mechanism we explore is the Fermi-blocking of decay electrons and neutrinos by plasma. As result, neutrons live longer and we find a significant 6.4\% modification of neutron abundance in the BBN era arising from in plasma modification of the neutron lifetime. This effect can influence the final abundances of the light elements in BBN.
Purine DNA Lesions at Different Oxygen Concentration in DNA Repair-Impaired Human Cells (EUE-siXPA)

Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) is a DNA repair disease characterized by nucleotide excision repair (NER) malfunction, leading to photosensitivity and increased incidence of skin malignancies. The role of XP-A in NER pathways has been well studied while discrepancies associated with ROS levels and the role of radical species between normal and deficient XPA cell lines have been observed. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry we have determined the four 5’,8-cyclopurines (cPu) lesions (i.e., 5′R-cdG, 5′S-cdG, 5′R-cdA and 5′S-cdA), 8-oxo-dA and 8-oxo-dG in wt (EUE-pBD650) and XPA-deficient (EUE-siXPA) human embryonic epithelial cell lines, under different oxygen tension (hyperoxic 21%, physioxic 5% and hypoxic 1%). The levels of Fe and Cu were also measured. The main findings of our study were: (i) the total amount of cPu (1.82–2.52 lesions/106 nucleotides) is the same order of magnitude as 8-oxo-Pu (3.10–4.11 lesions/106 nucleotides) in both cell types, (ii) the four cPu levels are similar in hyperoxic and physioxic conditions for both wt and deficient cell lines, whereas 8-oxo-Pu increases in all cases, (iii) both wt and deficient cell lines accumulated high levels of cPu under hypoxic compared to physioxic conditions, whereas the 8-oxo-Pu levels show an opposite trend, (iv) the diastereoisomeric ratios 5′R/5′S are independent of oxygen concentration being 0.29 for cdG and 2.69 for cdA for EUE-pBD650 (wt) and 0.32 for cdG and 2.94 for cdA for EUE-siXPA (deficient), (v) in deficient cell lines Fe levels were significantly higher. The data show for the first time the connection of oxygen concentration in cells with different DNA repair ability and the levels of different DNA lesions highlighting the significance of cPu. Membrane lipidomic data at 21% O2 indicated differences in the fatty acid contents between wild type and deficient cells, envisaging functional effects on membranes associated with the different repair capabilities, to be further investigated.
An Energy-Efficient Collaborative Caching Scheme for 5G Wireless Network

CCN (Content-centric network) has emerged as a promising architecture for future 5G network due to its in-network caching capability and receiver-driven content retrieval paradigm. Recently, the explosive increase in energy consumption driven by the rapid growth of network traffic has become a fundamental issue in CCN and caused widespread academic concern. In this paper, we proposed an energy-efficient scheme for the future 5G network. The aim of our scheme is to minimize the energy consumption by considering some important constraints, including limited storage, content popularity, placement and access to contents. Our proposed scheme provides efficient utilization of hotspot cache, minimizing transportation cost by using Zipf and knapsack which ensure local availability of cache contents and minimizing energy consumption. Finally, simulation results reveal that our proposed scheme outperform in term of saving energy, the impact of content popularity, cache size, placement, and device-to-device communication.
Original scientific paper 10.7251/AGSY1404051T IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON CROP EVAPOTRANSPIRATION AND IRRIGATION REQUIREMENTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE COUNTRIES OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

High resolution climate database developed within the WASSERMed (EU-FP7-ENV) project, are used to estimate the expected changes in agricultural water requirements in the countries of former Yugoslavia. The climate data, based on A1B SRES scenario, referred to the actual situation (year 2000) and the future climate (year 2050). The results indicated that the air temperature increase could go from 1.3°C in Slovenia to 1.7°C in FYROM, while the precipitation is expected to decrease from 30-40 mm year -1 in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia to about 80 mm year -1 in Montenegro and FYROM. The precipitation could remain unchained in Croatia, while in Slovenia a slight increase of 10 mm year -1 is expected. Evapotranspirative demand is foreseen to increase from 35 mm year -1 in Slovenia to 84 mm year -1 in FYROM. By the mid of this century, the increase of air temperature could contribute to the anticipation and shortening of crop growing cycle for most crops. Hence, crop evapotranspiration and irrigation requirements could decrease especially for the winter-spring crops. However, the perennial crops water requirements could remain the same or even increase due to reduction of precipitation. Overall water requirements of agricultural sector could be slightly lower or remain almost the same as today because the shortening of the growing cycle could counterbalance the increase of evaporative demand and decrease of precipitation in the region. In any case, the impact of climate change could be distributed in a dissimilar way throughout the region due to spatial and temporal variation of future precipitation pattern and air temperature trend.
Synthesis and Antiviral Activity of Novel 1,3,4-Thiadiazole Inhibitors of DDX3X

The human ATPase/RNA helicase X-linked DEAD-box polypeptide 3 (DDX3X) emerged as a novel therapeutic target in the fight against both infectious diseases and cancer. Herein, a new family of DDX3X inhibitors was designed, synthesized, and tested for its inhibitory action on the ATPase activity of the enzyme. The potential use of the most promising derivatives it has been investigated by evaluating their anti-HIV-1 effects, revealing inhibitory activities in the low micromolar range. A preliminary ADME analysis demonstrated high metabolic stability and good aqueous solubility. The promising biological profile, together with the suitable in vitro pharmacokinetic properties, make these novel compounds a very good starting point for further development.
Number 3 On the in uence of the parameterization of lateral boundary layers on the thermohaline circulation in coarse-resolution ocean models

Because of the  rst order geostrophic balance in the ocean interior, the parameterizationof lateral boundary layers has more in uence than the parameterization of viscosity on the thermohaline overturning and the deep water properties in coarse-resolution ocean circulation models. Different formulationsof momentum dissipationand associatedboundary conditionsare implementedwithin a planetary-geostrophic ocean circulation model for a Cartesian coordinate,  at-bottomed, b -plane, with restoringboundary conditionsfor the surface density and zero wind stress.TraditionalLaplacian friction with a no-slip boundary condition produces an interior circulation in good agreement with geostrophy and the Sverdrup balance, but generates very large vertical (diapycnal) transports at lateral boundaries, especially upwelling in the western boundary current and downwelling in the northeast corner. The meridional and zonal overturning are thus enhanced, but drive to depth surface waters that are not as cold as the ones in the deep convection regions. Rayleigh friction with various frictional closures for the alongshorevelocities within a no-normal ow boundary condition framework efficiently reduces the diapycnal vertical transports along the boundaries, by allowing horizontal recirculation of geostrophic currents impinging into coasts. Hence, these parameterizations induce weaker overturnings, with colder deep water and a sharper thermocline resulting in higher poleward heat transports. We suggest that the upwelling along the boundaries is a consequence of the coarse-resolution dynamics and not only horizontal diffusion (termed the ‘‘Veronis effect,’’ horizontal diffusion 1. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada. 2. Present address: Geophysical Fluid Dynamic Laboratory, Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, Forrestal Campus/Route 1, Princeton, New Jersey 08542, U.S.A. email: tnh@gfdl.gov 3. Laboratoire de Physique des Océans, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, B.P. 809, 29285 Brest Cedex, France. Journal of Marine Research, 57, 387–426, 1999
An assessment of khat consumption habit and its linkage to household economies and work culture: The case of Harar city

Background This study investigates khat consumption habits and its linkage to the economy of a household and works culture in its ‘homeland,’ Harar. Khat consumption habit includes practices that are performed before, during, and after consuming khat. In Harar, it has permeated the local economy, social, political and spiritual lives. To evaluate how khat consumption habit is related to the economy of a household, this study compares the living standard and characteristics of khat consumers and non-consumers. Methods Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. Cluster sampling and lottery methods were used to identify respondents. Data were gathered through individual interviews and non-participant observation. Results The results of the study indicate that khat consumption habit affects the economy of the consumer household by negatively influencing their income usage and time management. Consumer households have significant, additional burdens on their income and time. The average monthly expenditure of a household on khat ceremonies is 1,800 ETB (30% of their income) and consumers spend an average of 112.5 hours monthly on khat related activities only. The habit of khat consumption also negatively associated with the work culture of consumers, as they leave for lunch break early and come back to work late. Conclusion Khat consumption habit does have a linkage to the bad economic situation of consumer households. It places a significant financial and time burdens on individuals, and as a result society. The work and saving culture of khat consumers are negatively affected. Khat consumption forces many into a cycle of borrowing and indebtedness. Concerned bodies should not underestimate the impacts of khat consumption on individuals and society.
Spectrum Handoff based on Imperfect Channel State Prediction Probabilities with Collision Reduction in Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

The spectrum handoff is highly critical as well as challenging in a cognitive radio ad hoc network (CRAHN) due to lack of coordination among secondary users (SUs), which leads to collisions among the SUs and consequently affects the performance of the network in terms of spectrum utilization and throughput. The target channel selection mechanism as part of handoff process can play an enormously significant role in minimizing the collisions among the SUs and improving the performance of a cognitive radio network (CRN). In this paper, an enhanced target channel selection scheme based on imperfect channel state prediction is proposed for the spectrum handoff among the SUs in a CRAHN. The proposed scheme includes an improved frame structure that increases coordination among the SUs in the ad hoc environment and helps in organizing the SUs according to the shortest job first principle during channel access. Unlike the existing prediction-based spectrum handoff techniques, the proposed scheme takes into account the accuracy of channel state prediction; the SUs affected due to false prediction are compensated by allowing them to contend for channel access within the same transmission cycle and thus enabling them to achieve higher throughput. The proposed scheme has been compared with the contemporary spectrum handoff schemes and the results have demonstrated substantial improvement in throughput and extended data delivery time by virtue of the reduced number of collisions.
Simulation of aerospace components fabricated using additive manufacturing

Additively manufactured metal components require rigorous qualification before use in aerospace applications. Electron beam and laser powder bed processes have become popular for production of aerospace parts because of the ability to increase geometric complexity and support overhangs. The development of qualification standards such as A/B bases is currently prohibitive for metal melting additive manufacturing processes due to the costs and complexity of data creation. The large quantity of variables in additive manufacturing, such as process parameters, scan strategies, heat source surface input, build orientation and support structure variations affect the final outcome of the mechanical properties such as uniaxial tensile strengths and cyclic fatigue life. In-situ process monitoring suffers from insufficient spatiotemporal resolution to capture multi-scale material transformations and thus they are used primarily as a way of checking for thermal and distortion anomalies on the top surfaces. In this paper, an overview of 3DSIM’s thermomechanical solver technologies is presented. This solver can predict thermomechanical distributions, surface roughness, porosities, residual stress and force distributions to aid in the selection of process parameters, scan strategies, heat source surface input and optimized support structure density distributions, with the goal of successful qualification of additively manufactured parts.
Analysis of Parameters Influence on the Characteristics of Thomson Coil Type Actuator of Arc Eliminator Using Adaptive Segmentation Equivalent Circuit Method

A Thomson coil type actuator is applied as the driving unit in an arc eliminator system. To eliminate the arc efficiently, the speed of the actuator is required as fast as possible with certain limit of the exciting current. Therefore, the dynamic characteristics of the Thomson coil type actuator should be analyzed in an effective way. In this paper, a novel solving technique has been developed based on the equivalent circuit model which is set up by dividing the conducting plate into multi segments. To guarantee the calculation accuracy and improve the calculation efficiency, an adaptive refinement algorithm is suggested based on the field continues condition. The proposed method has been verified by the FEM calculation and experiment. The influence of circuit and plate parameters to the performance of the actuator is also investigated, from which a reasonable set of parameters can be found.
Comparative Vector Efficiency of Two Prevalent Mosquito Species for Dog Heartworm in North Carolina

Abstract The dog heartworm, Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy) (Spirurida: Onchocercidae), is a devastating parasite of domestic and wild canines vectored by a multitude of mosquito species. Although many species are implicated as vectors, not all contribute equally to disease transmission, with demonstrated variation in vector efficiency between and within species. We investigated the vector efficiency of mosquitoes derived from wild-caught North Carolina populations of two known heartworm vectors: a native species, Aedes triseriatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae), and an invasive species, Aedes albopictus (Skuse). We compared the parasite developmental times within the mosquito, mosquito longevity and fecundity, and the vector efficiency index between the two species. We found that the tested composite North Carolina population of Ae. triseriatus was an efficient vector of D. immitis under laboratory conditions, whereas the local composite population of Ae. albopictus was a competent but relatively poor vector. Compared with Ae. triseriatus, Ae. albopictus showed a longer time for parasite development, lower infection rates, and lower vector efficiency. Additionally, Ae. albopictus was the sole species to exhibit significant parasite-induced mortality. These results are in contrast to prior studies of populations of Ae. albopictus from locations outside of North Carolina, which have implicated the species as a highly competent heartworm vector. The variation seen for different strains of the same species emphasizes the heritable nature of D. immitis vector competence and highlights the need for local infection studies for accurate transmission risk assessment in a particular locale.
Inﬂuence of voxel size on the accuracy of linear measurements taken in CBCT images

Objectives: Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) has brought innovation to imaging examination methods, and has shown great potential in the maxillofacial area. The aim of this study was to evaluate the infl uence of different resolution values on the accuracy of linear measurements performed using a CBCT system. Methods: Seven pig mandibles were used in this study. Measurements were taken of the mesiodistal distance of the right and left fi rst molars. The mandibles were scanned using an iCAT CBCT apparatus and different voxel sizes, namely 0.125 and 0.25 mm. The images thus obtained were visualized using Xoran CT software, and the linear measurements were taken at different times by two examiners who used the software’s electronic ruler. A digital caliper was used to perform the measurements on the anatomical specimens. The data were analyzed statistically. Results: The results indicated no statistically signifi cant difference between the measurements obtained by both examiners. As for the methods used in this study, no statistically signifi cant difference was observed between the measurements obtained with the digital caliper and those obtained using CBCT. Similarly, no signifi cant difference was observed between the measurements obtained using the different CBCT protocols. Conclusion: There is no signifi cant difference between linear measurements obtained from CBCT images with 0.125 or 0.25 mm voxel sizes.
A closed‐form equation for effective stress in unsaturated soil

We propose that the recently conceptualized suction stress characteristic curve represents the effective stress for the shear strength behavior of unsaturated soil. Mechanically, suction stress is the interparticle stress called tensile stress. The working hypothesis is that the change in the energy of soil water from its free water state is mostly consumed in suction stress. We demonstrate that the suction stress lies well within the framework of continuum mechanics where free energy is the basis for any thermodynamic formulation. Available experimental data on soil water characteristic curves and suction stress characteristic curves are used to test the hypothesis, thus validating a closed‐form equation for effective stress in unsaturated soil. The proposed closed‐form equation is intrinsically related to the soil water characteristic curve by two pore parameters: the air entry pressure and pore size spectrum number. Both semiquantitative and quantitative validations show that the proposed closed‐form equation well represents effective stress for a variety of earth materials ranging from sands to clays. Of important practical implications are (1) the elimination of the need for any new shear strength criterion for unsaturated soil, (2) the elimination of the need for determining the Bishop's effective stress parameter χ because the new form of effective stress is solely a function of soil suction, and (3) the ready extension of all classical soil mechanics work on limit equilibrium analysis to unsaturated soil conditions.