Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring Instructive Physiological Signaling with the Bioelectric Tissue Simulation Engine

Bioelectric cell properties have been revealed as powerful targets for modulating stem cell function, regenerative response, developmental patterning, and tumor reprograming. Spatio-temporal distributions of endogenous resting potential, ion flows, and electric fields are influenced not only by the genome and external signals but also by their own intrinsic dynamics. Ion channels and electrical synapses (gap junctions) both determine, and are themselves gated by, cellular resting potential. Thus, the origin and progression of bioelectric patterns in multicellular tissues is complex, which hampers the rational control of voltage distributions for biomedical interventions. To improve understanding of these dynamics and facilitate the development of bioelectric pattern control strategies, we developed the BioElectric Tissue Simulation Engine (BETSE), a finite volume method multiphysics simulator, which predicts bioelectric patterns and their spatio-temporal dynamics by modeling ion channel and gap junction activity and tracking changes to the fundamental property of ion concentration. We validate performance of the simulator by matching experimentally obtained data on membrane permeability, ion concentration and resting potential to simulated values, and by demonstrating the expected outcomes for a range of well-known cases, such as predicting the correct transmembrane voltage changes for perturbation of single cell membrane states and environmental ion concentrations, in addition to the development of realistic transepithelial potentials and bioelectric wounding signals. In silico experiments reveal factors influencing transmembrane potential are significantly different in gap junction-networked cell clusters with tight junctions, and identify non-linear feedback mechanisms capable of generating strong, emergent, cluster-wide resting potential gradients. The BETSE platform will enable a deep understanding of local and long-range bioelectrical dynamics in tissues, and assist the development of specific interventions to achieve greater control of pattern during morphogenesis and remodeling.
Impact of PECS tablet computer app on receptive identification of pictures given a verbal stimulus

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this brief report was to determine the effect on receptive identification of photos of a tablet computer-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system with voice output. Methods: A multiple baseline single-case experimental design across vocabulary words was implemented. One participant, a preschool-aged boy with autism and little intelligible verbal language, was included in the study. Results: Although a functional relation between the intervention and the dependent variable was not established, the intervention did appear to result in mild improvement for two of the three vocabulary words selected. Conclusion: The authors recommend further investigations of the collateral impacts of AAC on skills other than expressive language.
Gastric Lymphoma: The Revolution of the Past Decade

Background : Gastric MALT type lymphomas are distinct lymphomas that may develop after chronic antigenic stimulation caused by infection with Helicobacter pylori. An early antigen-dependent phase precedes the development of an antigen-independent phase. Methods : Narrative review. Results : The causative relationship between a chronic H. pylori infection and gastric MALT lymphomas has been based on epidemiological, histological, experimental and therapeutic studies. H. pylori eradication leads to a histological remission in ± 70% of patients in early stage low-grade MALT lymphoma. There is no basis for therapeutic consequences in the case of persistent monoclonality. Full thickness invasion of the gastric wall and lymph node involvement and/or high-grade lymphoma denote the transition to an antigen-independent phase and calls for conventional treatment modalities. Molecular findings show a specific translocation in low-grade MALT lymphomas: t(11,18) and nuclear expression of bcl-10 that are highly indicative of the transition of the antigen-dependent into the antigen-independent phase. Other chromosomal and molecular findings are probably also involved. Conclusion : The multistep pathogenesis of chronic H. pylori gastritis into low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma and tumour progression to a higher stage and grade are characterized by multiple molecular biological events. Antigen-dependency during the early phase of this malignancy is proven by the results of H. pylori eradication.
Passive-Aggressive Sequence Labeling with Discriminative Post-Editing for Recognising Person Entities in Tweets

Recognising entities in social media text is difficult. NER on newswire text is conventionally cast as a sequence labeling problem. This makes implicit assumptions regarding its textual structure. Social media text is rich in disfluency and often has poor or noisy structure, and intuitively does not always satisfy these assumptions. We explore noise-tolerant methods for sequence labeling and apply discriminative post-editing to exceed state-of-the-art performance for person recognition in tweets, reaching an F1 of 84%.
The DNA damage/repair cascade in glioblastoma cell lines after chemotherapeutic agent treatment

Therapeutic resistance in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has been linked to a subpopulation of cells with stem cell-like properties, the glioma stem cells (GSCs), responsible for cancer progression and recurrence. This study investigated the in vitro cytotoxicity of three chemotherapeutics, temozolomide (TMZ), doxorubicin (Dox) and paclitaxel (PTX) on glioma cell lines, by analyzing the molecular mechanisms leading to DNA repair and cell resistance, or to cell death. The drugs were tested on 16 GBM cell lines, grown as neurospheres (NS) or adherent cells (AC), by studying DNA damage occurrence by Comet assay, the expression by immunofluorescence and western blotting of checkpoint/repair molecules and apoptosis. The three drugs were able to provoke a genotoxic injury and to inhibit dose- and time-dependently cell proliferation, more evidently in AC than in NS. The first cell response to DNA damage was the activation of the damage sensors (p-ATM, p-53BP1, γ-H2AX), followed by repair effectors; the expression of checkpoint/repair molecules appeared higher in NS than in AC. The non-homologous repair pathway (NHEJ) seemed more involved than the homologous one (HR). Apoptosis occurred after long treatment times, but only a small percentage of cells in NS underwent death, even at high drug concentration, whereas most cells survived in a quiescent state and resumed proliferation after drug removal. In tumor specimens, checkpoint/repair proteins were constitutively expressed in GBMs, but not in low-grade gliomas.
Diagnosis of Paratuberculosis by Fecal Culture and ELISA on Milk and Serum Samples in Two Types of Chilean Dairy Goat Herds

Fecal culture has been the primary method used to diagnose paratuberculosis in goats. It is laborious, slow, and expensive. Validation of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) on milk samples could make paratuberculosis testing more widely available for goat farmers. The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of serum and milk ELISAs for paratuberculosis, relative to fecal culture, in Chilean dairy goats. Eight dairy goat herds were selected. Feces, blood, and milk samples were collected from all female goats >2 years old. Fecal samples were cultured using Herrold egg yolk medium with mycobactin J and antibiotics. Serum and milk samples were tested using a commercial ELISA kit for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis antibody detection. A total of 383 goats were tested by ELISA and fecal culture. The sensitivity of ELISA on serum and milk relative to fecal culture was 74.3% (95% CI: 59.8-88.8) and 60% (95% CI: 43.8-76.2), respectively. The corresponding values for ELISA specificity based on the percentage of non-M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis-infected goats testing ELISA-negative were 98.6% (95% CI: 96.6-100) and 99.3% (95% CI: 97.9-100) on serum and milk, respectively. Proportions of positive results for serum and fecal samples were significantly different, whereas the proportions of positive results for milk and fecal samples were not significantly different. The milk ELISA had a moderate level of agreement with fecal culture results (Kappa = 0.57). The paratuberculosis ELISA on goat milk samples may be a cost-effective, accurate alternative to fecal culture.
Tiron protects against UVB‐induced senescence‐like characteristics in human dermal fibroblasts by the inhibition of superoxide anion production and glutathione depletion

Background/Objectives: Free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are generated by UV irradiation, may induce an irreversible growth arrest similar to senescence. Tiron, 4,5‐dihydroxy‐1,3‐benzene disulfonic acid, is a widely used antioxidant to rescue ROS‐evoked cell death. The aim of the article was to explore the effects of tiron on skin photoaging and associated mechanisms.
An Approach to the Delineation of Adult Attachment: Scale Development and Reliability

The authors present the results of a project to develop scales to measure the features of adult attachment using a construct-oriented approach. Adult attachment is defined in terms of eight features: proximity seeking, secure base effect, separation protest, feared loss of the attachment figure, reciprocity, availability, responsiveness of the attachment figure, and use of the attachment figure. Each feature was defined and a large item pool to tap all dimensions was derived from item nominations by clinicians, researchers, and lay subjects. The resultant scales were administered to a small sample for preliminary empirical testing. Analyses of internal reliability for each scale resulted in the elimination of items that detracted from reliability. After editing, all scales had satisfactory internal consistency. A discriminant-functions analysis provided suggestive evidence that this method of defining and measuring adult attachment would have relevance for identifying psychopathology.
Work/family Conflict as a Predictor of Employee Work Engagement of Extension Professionals

This study utilizes stress theory to explore the effects of work-family conflict and family-work conflict upon the work engagement outcomes of employees. Using a web-based questionnaire with a primary data sample of 2,782 full time Extension professionals in 46 states, this study incorporates the structural equation modeling analytic technique. This study confirmed the single, second order work-family conflict construct consisting of six first order constructs of work-family time, strain and behavior and family-work time, strain, and behavior. The bidirectionality of work-family conflict and family-work conflict was sustained. The structural equation modeling analysis found the following relationships: (1) a negative relationship between the antecedent work-family and the outcome employee work engagement; (2) global support and colleague support partially mediate work-family conflict and work engagement; and (3) non-work support partially mediates work-family conflict and work engagement. The hypotheses testing a partial mediating effect between work-family conflict, (1) supervisor support for work, personal, and family life and (2) non-work support, and the outcome employee engagement were not supported. Discussion and implications for researchers and practitioners
Microleakage of a universal adhesive used as a fissure sealant.

PURPOSE To evaluate the microleakage of a universal hydrophilic adhesive (OptiBond dual-cure) by itself as a pit and fissure sealant compared to that of an ionomeric product (VariGlass) and two hydrophobic sealants (Delton and Fluroshield). MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-four extracted human third molars were sealed with one of these four materials under either a conventional procedure (free of humidity) or after contamination of the etched surfaces with 3 microliters of human plasma. The sealed teeth were subjected to 1,500 thermocycles (1 min/5-55 degrees C) and to 450,000 mechanical cycles under an 8.5 kgf average load at 37 degrees C. The tooth crowns were partially coated with nail varnish, immersed in a 50% aqueous solution of AgNO3 for 2 h in darkness, washed and then developed for 8 h under fluorescent light. The teeth were sectioned and dye penetration was scored according to a 4-point scale by four trained professionals. RESULTS An ANOVA suggested that under no humidity conditions, the average score for VariGlass (1.92 +/- 0.36) was significantly higher (P = 0.0006) than that corresponding to the three remaining materials (1.28 +/- 0.20) which were considered equivalent. Under humid (plasma contaminated) conditions, there was complete loss of Delton and Fluroshield in all cases, whereas the average score for VariGlass (1.98 +/- 0.36) was slightly higher (P = 0.0444) than that for OptiBond (1.62 +/- 0.36). These results suggest that OptiBond may be used by itself as a pit and fissure sealant instead of the combination of adhesive plus sealant.
A COMPARISON OF COPING AND PERCEIVED STRESS AMONG STUDENTS BY FIRST GENERATION AND CONTINUING GENERATION STATUS, RACE/ETHNICITY, AND GENDER

Annette Morgan, A COMPARISON OF COPING AND PERCEIVED STRESS AMONG STUDENTS BY FIRST GENERATION AND CONTINUING GENERATION STATUS, RACE/ETHNICITY, AND GENDER. (Under the direction of Dr. Crystal Chambers). Department of Educational Leadership, September, 2014. While the number of first generation and racial/ethnic minority students enrolled in higher education has increased over the past several decades, the level of stress students are reporting, compared to students in previous years has increased as well. Likewise, counseling center directors have seen an increase in the number of students with mental health issues, both as a percentage of the student population and in the severity of their illnesses. Therefore this study assessed how different student populations cope with stress. Also assessed was how diverse student populations perceive their general level of stress and if perception of stress influenced how they coped with stress. This quantitative study utilized the COPE to examine coping strategies, as well as the Perceived Stress Scale-10 to measure students’ perception of stress. Research participants included 1,085 undergraduate psychology students from two southeastern universities. The sample was comprised of 38% (n=415) first generation students and 61% (n=665) continuing generation students. Participants were from six racial/ethnic groups; Black/African American, White, Hispanic of any race, American Indian/Native Alaskan, Asian, and students who self identified as being of two or more races. Statistical tests were conducted and results indicated there were more similarities between first generation and continuing generation students of different racial/ethnic groups, than there were differences in both coping and perceived stress. Results also indicated that both coping and perceived stress were not contingent on generation status and that few coping strategies were contingent on race/ethnicity and institution. However, the factor that was found to have the most significant relationship with both coping and perceived stress was gender. Possible explanations for differences as well as similarities in coping and perception of stress are discussed. This report concludes with recommendations for future research as well as implications for both college administrators and counseling center directors. A COMPARISON OF COPING AND PERCEIVED STRESS AMONG STUDENTS BY FIRST GENERATION AND CONTINUING GENERATION STATUS, RACE/ETHNICITY, AND GENDER A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education
Delayed-Release Oral Mesalamine at 4.8 g/day (800 mg tablet) for the Treatment of Moderately Active Ulcerative Colitis: The ASCEND II Trial

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Preliminary data have shown that delayed release oral mesalamine (Asacol®) dosed at 4.8 g/day provided additional efficacy benefit compared to 1.6 g/day in patients with mildly to moderately active ulcerative colitis. Additionally, Asacol dosed at 2.4 g/day has been proved to be more effective than 1.6 g/day. Whether 4.8 g/day of mesalamine (dosed with an investigational 800 mg tablet) is more effective than Asacol 2.4 g/day (dosed with a 400 mg tablet) in patients with moderately active ulcerative colitis is unknown.METHODS:A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial (ASCEND II) was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of 4.8 g/day of mesalamine in adults with active ulcerative colitis. Three hundred eighty-six patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis were randomized for treatment with mesalamine 2.4 g/day (400 mg tablet) or 4.8 g/day (800 mg tablet) for 6 wk. The primary efficacy population was 268 patients with moderately active ulcerative colitis treated with 2.4 g/day (n = 139) or 4.8 g/day (n = 129). The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients in each treatment group that achieved overall improvement (“treatment success,” defined as either complete remission or a clinical response to therapy) from baseline at week 6.RESULTS:Seventy-two percent of patients receiving 4.8 g/day of mesalamine for moderate ulcerative colitis (89/124 patients) achieved treatment success at week 6, compared with 59% of those who received 2.4 g/day (77/130 patients) (p = 0.036). Both regimens were well tolerated. Adverse events and clinically significant changes in laboratory results were similar in both treatment groups.CONCLUSIONS:Patients with moderately active ulcerative colitis treated with 4.8 g/day of mesalamine (800 mg tablet) are significantly more likely to achieve overall improvement at 6 wk compared to patients treated with 2.4 g/day.
Nervous system involvement in Fabry's disease: Clinicopathological and biochemical correlation

A detailed neuropathological and biochemical study was performed to evaluate the accmulation of ceramide trihexoside within the central and peripheral nervous systems of 2 patients with Fabry's disease. Luxol fast blue–staining lipid was noted in the leptomeninges and in the choroidal stroma; biochemical studies showed increased quantities of ceramide trihexoside in the cerebrospinal fluid. The permeable blood‐brain barrier and blood‐nerve barrier regions of the central and peripheral nervous systems contained increased quantities of ceramide trihexoside. Some central nervous system nuclei associated with autonnomic function were also noted to store lipid. Other areas of increased ceramide trihexoside accumulation included specific cortical and brainstem structures. Possible sources for this selective accumulation of ceramide trihexoside within the central and peripheral nervous systems include transport of glycolipid from the systemic vascular network and retrograde transsynaptic glycolipid transport.
Distance-based Confidence Score for Neural Network Classifiers

The reliable measurement of confidence in classifiers' predictions is very important for many applications and is, therefore, an important part of classifier design. Yet, although deep learning has received tremendous attention in recent years, not much progress has been made in quantifying the prediction confidence of neural network classifiers. Bayesian models offer a mathematically grounded framework to reason about model uncertainty, but usually come with prohibitive computational costs. In this paper we propose a simple, scalable method to achieve a reliable confidence score, based on the data embedding derived from the penultimate layer of the network. We investigate two ways to achieve desirable embeddings, by using either a distance-based loss or Adversarial Training. We then test the benefits of our method when used for classification error prediction, weighting an ensemble of classifiers, and novelty detection. In all tasks we show significant improvement over traditional, commonly used confidence scores.
Curcumin AntiCancer Studies in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. Surgical resection remains the only curative therapeutic treatment for this disease, although only the minority of patients can be resected due to late diagnosis. Systemic gemcitabine-based chemotherapy plus nab-paclitaxel are used as the gold-standard therapy for patients with advanced PC; although this treatment is associated with a better overall survival compared to the old treatment, many side effects and poor results are still present. Therefore, new alternative therapies have been considered for treatment of advanced PC. Several preclinical studies have demonstrated that curcumin, a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound, has anticancer effects against different types of cancer, including PC, by modulating many molecular targets. Regarding PC, in vitro studies have shown potent cytotoxic effects of curcumin on different PC cell lines including MiaPaCa-2, Panc-1, AsPC-1, and BxPC-3. In addition, in vivo studies on PC models have shown that the anti-proliferative effects of curcumin are caused by the inhibition of oxidative stress and angiogenesis and are due to the induction of apoptosis. On the basis of these results, several researchers tested the anticancer effects of curcumin in clinical trials, trying to overcome the poor bioavailability of this agent by developing new bioavailable forms of curcumin. In this article, we review the results of pre-clinical and clinical studies on the effects of curcumin in the treatment of PC.
Gröbner basis in algebras extended by loops

We will introduce very briefly the homogenization process in the commutative case, just to explain the main motivation of our work. In the commutative context, the Buchberger Algorithm give us a very direct strategy for computing Grobner Basis for a given ideal I ∈ k[x1, x2, . , xn]: we consider a finite set {f1, f2, . fk} of generators of I, compute the S polynomials, for any pair i,j, reduce them, and if the remainder is non zero, add this remainder to the list of the given polynomials, to make all the S polynomials reduce to zero. Although this process always finish, in the commutative case, it can be very inefficient and time consuming, by instance getting S polynomials of much higher degree that the ones we begin with. It is easy to see ( see [1]) that if we begin with a set of homogeneos polynomials this problem does not occur and the S polynomials we obtain are again homogeneous. So, lets define this process for Λ = k[x1, x2, . , xn]: Let f ∈ Λ and w a new variable. If f has total degree d then the polynomial given by f = wf(x1/w, x2/w, . . . , xn/w) ∈ k[x1, x2, . , xn, w] is a homogeneous polynomial in the extended polynomial algebra, called the homogenization of f . For an ideal I ∈ k[x1, x2, . , xn] define I to be the ideal of k[x1, x2, . , xn, w] given by I ∗ = . For any h ∈ k[x1, x2, . , xn, w], define h∗ = h(x1, x2, . . . , xn, 1) ∈ k[x1, x2, . , xn]. As we will prove, in the last section, if G is a Grobner basis for I with respect to a certain order, then the set G = {g|g ∈ G} is a Grobner Basis for the ideal I with respect to the extended order.