Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The peritoneal cavity as a bioreactor for tissue engineering visceral organs: bladder, uterus and vas deferens

Our objective was to produce avascular, myofibroblast‐rich tissue capsules for use as autologous grafts for hollow, smooth muscle‐walled visceral organs–bladder, uterus and vas deferens. To produce tissue for grafting, templates of the appropriate shape were implanted in the peritoneal cavities of rats or rabbits. After 2–3 weeks, the templates were removed, the encapsulating myofibroblast‐rich tissue harvested and grafted to replace resected segments of bladder, vas deferens or uterus of the same animals in which the tissue was grown. Bladder grafts showed 100% patency after 14 months and had developed a morphology similar to normal bladder. Tubes of myofibroblast tissue grafted unilaterally into resected rabbit vasa deferentia developed a morphology resembling native tissue, with sperm in the ejaculate indicative of normal function. At 12 weeks after grafting, uterine graft tissue had increased in thickness and developed the morphology of normal uterus, with endometrium overlying several layers of smooth muscle cells (myometrium‐like) which were interspersed with collagen fibrils; grafted uterine horns supported embryos to the late stages of gestation. This study shows that myofibroblast tissue produced in the peritoneal cavity is sufficiently plastic to permit differentiation of cells into bladder, vas deferens or uterine smooth muscle. As a method for producing autologous graft material for repair/replacement of these organs, this approach has many benefits over conventional and current tissue‐engineering strategies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Role of transcription at centromeres in budding yeast

Centromeres are specialized chromosomal loci that are essential for proper chromosome segregation. Recent data show that a certain level of active transcription, regulated by transcription factors Cbf1 and Ste12, makes a direct contribution to centromere function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here, we discuss the requirement and function of transcription at centromeres.
Effects of α-Synuclein Overexpression in Transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans Strains

The neural protein α-synuclein aggregates both in vivo and in vitro to form insoluble fibrils that are involved in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis. We have generated α-synuclein/fluorescent-protein fusion constructs overexpressed in muscle cells of the nematode, Caenorhabdtis elegans. Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) variants, Cerulean (C) or Venus (V), were fused to the C-terminus of human α-synuclein (S); the resultant fusion genes were designated SV and SC, plus a CV fusion as well as S, C and V singly. The aggregation behavior of the purified fusion proteins (expressed in E. coli) will be described elsewhere. These constructs were fused to a C. elegans unc-54 myosin promoter, and integrated transgenic lines generated by microinjection, γ-irradiation, and outcrossing of fluorescent progeny. All transgenic lines expressing α-synuclein showed significant reductions (p < 0.05) in lifespan, motility and pharyngeal pumping, as compared to wild-type worms or lines expressing CFP and/or YFP only. We showed that CFP and YFP labels colocalised in granular inclusions throughout the body wall in transgenic lines expressing both SC and SV fusions (SC+SV), whereas SV+C worms displayed YFP-labelled inclusions on a diffuse CFP background. These findings implied that the α-synuclein moieties of these fusion proteins still aggregated together in vivo, whereas CFP or YFP moieties alone did not. This in turn suggested that Foerster Resonanace Energy Transfer (FRET) between CFP and YFP labels in α-synuclein aggregates could allow the extent of aggregation to be quantified. Accordingly, we also showed that net FRET signals increased 2-fold between L4 and adult SC+SV worms.
Using Reinforcement Learning for Autonomic Resource Allocation in Clouds: towards a fully automated workflow

Dynamic and appropriate resource dimensioning isa crucial issue in cloud computing. As applications go more andmore 24/7, online policies must be sought to balance performancewith the cost of allocated virtual machines. Most industrialapproaches to date use ad hoc manual policies, such as thresholdbasedones. Providing good thresholds proved to be tricky andhard to automatize to fit every application requirement. Researchis being done to apply automatic decision-making approaches,such as reinforcement learning. Yet, they face a lot of problemsto go to the field: having good policies in the early phasesof learning, time for the learning to converge to an optimalpolicy and coping with changes in the application performancebehavior over time. In this paper, we propose to deal with theseproblems using appropriate initialization for the early stages aswell as convergence speedups applied throughout the learningphases and we present our first experimental results for these.We also introduce a performance model change detection onwhich we are currently working to complete the learning processmanagement. Even though some of these proposals were knownin the reinforcement learning field, the key contribution of thispaper is to integrate them in a real cloud controller and toprogram them as an automated workflow.
Automatic and Precise Dimensional Analysis

The loss of NASA's Mars climate orbiter (5) is evidence of the importance of units of measurement as a safety policy for software in gen- eral and for scientific applications in particular. In this paper we present a static analysis technique that detects violations of the unit policy. The technique relies on domain-specific unit annotations inserted in the code, either manually or automatically with the support of a tool, which are verified conservatively, i.e., all runtime unit errors are detected statically using an automatic theorem prover. This paper informally compares our approach with others, describes the technique in detail, and evaluates a benchmark built of standard programs for unit analysis and important fragments of NASA's SCRover project code.
Broadband and economic growth: a reassessment

ABSTRACT The principal question addressed by this study is: is broadband network penetration a robust determinant of economic growth? We employ a dynamic panel data threshold model with fixed effects to allow for variation in the parameters by income groups to investigate the impact of broadband speed and its interaction with penetration on growth. We find that penetration is statistically insignificant with speed (positively) and its interaction with penetration (negatively) significantly impacting on growth. An additional insight is that for a generic shock experienced by LIC, on average, 40% of the total impact is accomplished immediately, with about 80% occurring within four quarters. The results are intended to inform governments that increased speed is more important for countries with lower penetation, the returns expected from these ambitious targets are neither immediate nor universally assured; and critically the magnitude of the benefit relies on the initial level of national economic development.
Is There Information in the Local Portfolio Choices of Individuals ?

We use calendar-time portfolios and transaction-level data to test if individual investors have any value-relevant information. Individual investors are poor at picking stocks. Stocks bought over the past twelve months under-perform stocks sold by 2.18% per annum (1.38% on a riskadjusted basis). We divide each individual’s portfolio into local and remote stocks. Portfolios of local stocks do not significantly outperform portfolios of remote stocks. At times, local portfolios actually under-perform remote portfolios. Our results are robust to one-, three-, and five-year holding periods; equaland value-weighted portfolio formation methods; and the consideration of non S&P 500 stocks. There is simply no evidence that individuals have information about the local stocks in their portfolios. Our results differ from previous studies of individual investor geography because we correctly account for the fact that stock returns are contemporaneously correlated.
Making sense of Lanthanide Luminescence

The luminescence of trivalent lanthanide ions has found applications in lighting, lasers, optical telecommunications, medical diagnostics, and various other fields. This introductory review presents the basics of organic and inorganic luminescent materials containing lanthanide ions, their applications, and some recent developments. After a brief history of the discovery, purification and early spectroscopic studies of the lanthanides, the radiative and nonradiative transitions of the 4f electrons in lanthanide ions are discussed. Lanthanide-doped phosphors, glasses and crystals as well as luminescent lanthanide complexes with organic ligands receive attention with respect to their preparation and their applications. Finally, two recent developments in the field of luminescent materials are addressed: near-infrared luminescent lanthanide complexes and lanthanide-doped nanoparticles.
Organic versus conventional dairy farming – studies from the Öjebyn Project

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. A study (the Ojebyn Project) was conducted to determine differences between organic and conventional dairy farming systems. Comparisons of feed intake, milk production, live weight (LW), feed efficiency and animal health were conducted, based on records from 145 dairy cows (238 parities). A lower daily metabolisable energy (ME) intake, lower milk yield and a higher protein content were recorded in the organic herd during the first ten weeks of lactation. No differences were recorded between the systems in either average total DM intake or efficiency of feed conversion, calculated as MJ of feed/kg of energy-corrected milk (ECM). There were a trend to lower LW change and better health in the organic herd. Most differences between the systems were recorded during the early lactation period.
Distributed Averaging in Sensor Networks Based on Broadcast Gossip Algorithms

In this paper, we propose a new decentralized algorithm to solve the consensus on the average problem on sensor networks through a gossip algorithm based on broadcasts. We directly extend previous results by not requiring that the digraph representing the network topology be balanced. Our algorithm is an improvement with respect to known gossip algorithms based on broadcasts in that the average of the initial state is preserved after each broadcast. The nodes are assumed to know their out-degree anytime they transmit information.
Composites of rigid polyurethane foam and cellulose fiber residue

Rigid polyurethane composite foams were prepared with cellulose fibers as a filler. The cellulose fibers were an industrial residue of blanched cellulose pulp production. The influence of the cellulose fiber concentration on the structural, thermal, mechanical, and morphological properties of the foams was investigated. We also studied the influence of the cellulose fibers on the foam's resistance to fungal attack by placing a suspension of known fungus in contact with the surface of the foam and following the morphological evolution as a function of time (for 60 days). The increase in the cellulose filler concentration in the foams, up to 16% w/w with respect to the polyol, changed their properties as follows: (1) the cell size decreased, (2) the thermooxidative stability and mechanical properties remained approximately constant, (3) the thermal conductivity decreased slightly, and (4) fungal growth was observed. Therefore, a cellulosic fibrous industrial residue was rationally valorized as a filler in classical rigid polyurethane foams; this yielded materials with mechanical resistance and a susceptibility to fungi in a wet environment. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010
Obstetric ultrasound aids prompt referral of gestational trophoblastic disease in marginalized populations on the Thailand–Myanmar border

ABSTRACT Background: The use of obstetric ultrasound in the diagnosis of gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) in high-income settings is well established, leading to prompt management and high survival rates. Evidence from low-income settings suggests ultrasound is essential in identifying complicated pregnancies, but with limited studies reviewing specific conditions including GTD. Objective: The aim of this study is to review the role of ultrasound in diagnosis and management of GTD in a marginalized population on the Thailand–Myanmar border. Antenatal ultrasound became available in this rural setting in 2001 and care for women with GTD has been provided by Thailand public hospitals for 20 years. Design: Retrospective record review. Results: The incidence of GTD was 103 of 57,004 pregnancies in Karen and Burmese women on the Thailand–Myanmar border from 1993–2013. This equates to a rate of 1.8 (95% CI 1.5–2.2) per 1000 or 1 in 553 pregnancies. Of the 102 women with known outcomes, one (1.0%) died of haemorrhage at home. The median number of days between first antenatal clinic attendance and referral to hospital was reduced from 20 (IQR 5–35; range 1–155) to 2 (IQR 2–6; range 1–179) days (p = 0.002) after the introduction of ultrasound. The proportion of severe outcomes (death and total abdominal hysterectomy) was 25% (3/12) before ultrasound compared to 8.9% (8/90) with ultrasound (p = 0.119). A recurrence rate of 2.5% (2/80) was observed in the assessable population. The presence of malaria parasites in maternal blood was not associated with GTD. Conclusions: The rate of GTD in pregnancy in this population is comparable to rates previously reported within South-East Asia. Referral time for uterine evacuation was significantly shorter for those women who had an ultrasound. Ultrasound is an effective method to improve diagnosis of GTD in low-income settings and an effort to increase availability in marginalized populations is required.
Ruminal Fermentation and Fill Change with Season in an Arctic Grazer: Responses to Hyperphagia and Hypophagia in Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus)

We studied castrated adult muskoxen fed a standard diet of grass hay and supplement throughout the year to determine seasonal changes in digesta passage, fill, and fermentation without the confounding effects of reproductive demands or changes in food quality. Although food intake increased by 74% between spring and autumn, mean retention times of fluid and particulate digesta markers were maintained between seasons in both the rumen (9–13 h) and the intestines (27–37 h). The rumen contained 84.5% of digesta and accounted for 79% of dry matter digestion in the whole digestive tract. Ruminal fluid space and whole‐gut digesta fill increased by 31%–34%, while ruminal rates of in situ degradation increased by more than 100% between spring and autumn for cellulose and hemicellulose. Hyperphagia in autumn was accompanied by increased bacterial counts in ruminal fluid (30%), declines in ruminal pH, and increases in the concentration of fermentation acids (16%) when compared with spring hypophagia. Consumption of fresh hay and supplement increased the concentrations of acids most markedly during winter and spring when bacterial counts were low. Low food intakes in winter and spring may limit the microbial population, whereas hyperphagia in autumn may foster a much more active microflora that requires consistent supplies of substrate. Plasticity of fill and fermentation in muskoxen minimizes winter costs and maximizes nutrients and energy gained from coarse forages in small home ranges throughout the year.
On the convergence behavior of the LMS and the normalized LMS algorithms

It is shown that the normalized least mean square (NLMS) algorithm is a potentially faster converging algorithm compared to the LMS algorithm where the design of the adaptive filter is based on the usually quite limited knowledge of its input signal statistics. A very simple model for the input signal vectors that greatly simplifies analysis of the convergence behavior of the LMS and NLMS algorithms is proposed. Using this model, answers can be obtained to questions for which no answers are currently available using other (perhaps more realistic) models. Examples are given to illustrate that even quantitatively, the answers obtained can be good approximations. It is emphasized that the convergence of the NLMS algorithm can be speeded up significantly by employing a time-varying step size. The optimal step-size sequence can be specified a priori for the case of a white input signal with arbitrary distribution. >
Mini-Bucket Heuristics for Improved Search

The paper is a second in a series of two papers evaluating the power of a new scheme that generates search heuristics mechanically. The heuristics are extracted from an approximation scheme called mini-bucket elimination that was recently introduced. The first paper introduced the idea and evaluated it within Branch-and-Bound search. In the current paper the idea is further extended and evaluated within Best-First search. The resulting algorithms are compared on coding and medical diagnosis problems, using varying strength of the mini-bucket heuristics. Our results demonstrate an effective search scheme that permits controlled tradeoff between preprocessing (for heuristic generation) and search. Best-first search is shown to outperform Branch-and-Bound, when sup plied with good heuristics, and sufficient memory space.
Semi-Automatic Assessment of Unrestrained Java Code: A Library, a DSL, and a Workbench to Assess Exams and Exercises

Automated marking of multiple-choice exams is of great interest in university courses with a large number of students. For this reason, it has been systematically implanted in almost all universities. Automatic assessment of source code is however less extended. There are several reasons for that. One reason is that almost all existing systems are based on output comparison with a gold standard. If the output is the expected, the code is correct. Otherwise, it is reported as wrong, even if there is only one typo in the code. Moreover, why it is wrong remains a mystery. In general, assessment tools treat the code as a black box, and they only assess the externally observable behavior. In this work we introduce a new code assessment method that also verifies properties of the code, thus allowing to mark the code even if it is only partially correct. We also report about the use of this system in a real university context, showing that the system automatically assesses around 50% of the work.
Reading Anxiety, Classroom Anxiety, Language Motivation, Reader Self-Perception, and Arabic Achievement of Arab-American Students Learning Arabic as a Second Language

The present study assessed the relations between reading anxiety, classroom anxiety, language motivation, and readers' self-perception for a sample of Arab-American students in Arabic classes. The effects of sex, grade, and years studying Arabic on academic achievement were examined as well. Measures were administered to 118 middle school students (56 boys, 62 girls; M age = 13.0 yr., SD = 0.8), and teachers reported academic grades in Arabic. Reading anxiety was significantly correlated with classroom anxiety and reader self-perception. Classroom anxiety scores were significantly correlated with motivation and reader self-perception. Significant positive correlations were found between language motivation and reader self-perception scores, and between years studying Arabic and reader self-perception scores. Boys in the second year of Arabic had significantly lower classroom anxiety than girls, and students in Grade 7 had higher reader self-perception than those in Grade 8. Classroom anxiety, language motivation, and reader self-perception significantly predicted Arabic achievement. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
The response of macroinvertebrate community taxa and functional groups to pollution along a heavily impacted river in Central Europe (Bílina River, Czech Republic)

Macroinvertebrate communities were investigated along a gradient of heavy industrial and municipal pollution in the highland Bílina River (Czech Republic). Physico-chemical determinants and ions were monitored and community analysis performed focusing on taxonomic composition, ecological functioning (feeder and dweller guilds) and water quality metrics, including saprobity index, BMWP and diversity. Impacted sites differed significantly from reference and from recovered stretches. Chemical data revealed two main pollution factors, (1) a “salinity determinant”, described best by conductivity and SO42−, and (2) an “organic pollution determinant”, represented best by O2 concentrations and NO2−, all varying locally and temporally. Some metrics and taxa showed significant correlations to abiotic parameters. Functional communities showed a stronger relationship to the “organic pollution determinant”, suggesting that elevated organic pollution had a dominating influence on functional community metrics; though other variables may also have an influence in this multistress environment. On the other hand, there were indications that the taxonomic community was more influenced by ion concentrations (“salinity determinant”). The gradient from reference sites to polluted sites was weaker in the final sampling campaign. The results presented here can be used as a reference for assessing future changes in environmental impact from pollution, being finer and more detailed than assessment according to the EU’s WFD.
Transmit pulse shaping for molecular communications

This paper presents a method for shaping the transmit pulse of a molecular signal such that the diffusion channel's response is a sharp pulse. The impulse response of a diffusion channel is typically characterised as having an infinitely long transient response. This can cause severe inter-symbol-interference, and reduce the achievable reliable bit rate. We achieve the desired chemical channel response by poisoning the channel with a secondary compound, such that it chemically cancels aspects of the primary information signal. We use two independent methods to show that the chemical concentration of the information signal should be ∝ δ(t) and that of the poison signal should be ∝ t-3/2.