Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors that influence short-term homing of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in a xenogeneic animal model

Human mesenchymal stem cells are potential agents for tissue regeneration, enhancing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and delivering genes of therapeutic interest. This study shows that tissue homing of systemically administered mesenchymal stem cells can be increased by enforced expression of CXCR4, at least in irradiated hosts. Background Human mesenchymal stem cells are potential agents for tissue regeneration, enhancing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and delivering genes of therapeutic interest. To implement any of these strategies successfully, we need a better understanding of factors that influence the tissue distribution of systemically administered mesenchymal stem cells. Design and Methods The present study was designed to investigate the short-term tissue homing of mesenchymal stem cells in immunodeficient mouse models, exploring the effects of animal age, duration of ex vivo expansion of mesenchymal stem cells, lentiviral transduction and CXCR4 over-expression. Dye-labeled mesenchymal stem cells (1.5–2.0×106/animal) were injected via the tail vein into unconditioned β2m/NOD/SCID animals. Animals were sacrificed 20–24 hours later and cell suspensions from tissues were examined by flow cytometry for the presence of PKH-positive cells. Results PKH-positive cells were readily detected in the bone marrow, spleen, liver and lungs at 20–24 hours after infusion. The homing of systemically infused mesenchymal stem cells to the bone marrow and spleen of unconditioned β2m/NOD/SCID animals was significantly (>2-fold, p<0.001) higher in younger (<10 weeks) animals, and was reduced with increasing passage number. Despite low surface CXCR4 expression, human mesenchymal stem cells migrated to SDF-1 in vitro, and this was enhanced by over-expression of CXCR4 using lentiviral transduction. Over-expression of CXCR4 by lentiviral transduction (>80%) did not alter the bone marrow homing of mesenchymal stem cells in unconditioned animals, but caused a significant (p<0.05) increase in homing to bone marrow and spleen of animals that had received prior irradiation. Conclusions Tissue homing of systemically administered mesenchymal stem cells is influenced by host factors such as age, is diminished by prolonged in vitro culture, and can be increased by enforced expression of CXCR4, at least in irradiated hosts.
Estimating the incidence of occupational asthma and rhinitis from laboratory animal allergens in the UK, 1999–2000

We report a survey of the number of persons handling laboratory animals in the UK in 1999–2000. This estimate has allowed us to calculate annual incidence rates of allergic asthma and rhinitis attributable to laboratory animals, insects, and birds using numerators derived from cases reported to a national surveillance scheme (SWORD). The number of exposed employees has almost halved since the early 1980s. From these data, the estimated annual incidence rate of occupational asthma among persons working with small mammals is 1.56/1000 employees. Although reported cases are rare, estimated incidence rates of asthma attributable to birds (23.9/1000/year) and insects (2.35/1000/year) are high.
Ultra morphological changes of root canal dentin induced by 940 nm diode laser: An in-vitro study

Aim: The aim of this in-vitro study was to investigate the ultra-morphological changes of the root canal dentin after irradiation with 940 nm diode laser along with 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and 17% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) irrigation. Materials and Methods: Ten freshly extracted human permanent mandibular premolar teeth were selected. Teeth were decoronated and the working length was established. Cleaning and shaping was performed using protaper rotary system and the canals were enlarged up to F3 size. Canals were irrigated with 2.5% NaOCl between each instrument change and later with a final flush of 5 ml of 17% EDTA for 1 min. All the prepared teeth were then longitudinally grooved and split into two halves. One-half of each tooth (Group A) ( n = 10) was analyzed without laser irradiation and other half (Group B) ( n = 10) was analyzed after irradiation with 1.5 W continuous wave of 940 nm diode laser. Samples from both groups A and B were then subjected to scanning electron microscope analysis. Photomicrographs were taken at 2 mm, 7 mm, and 12 mm from the apex representing the apical, middle, and coronal regions at 2000Χ. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis of the same samples was done under EDX analyzer to assess the calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P) and magnesium content and to determine the Ca P ratio. Results: Examination of the surface of the root canals revealed that, at middle and apical thirds smear layer removal was better with laser irradiated group. However, in the coronal third there was no statistically significant difference between both the groups. There was a mild variation in values when both group A and group B were compared to Ca, P, magnesium content, and the Ca phosphorous ratio but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: 940 nm diode laser irradiation of root dentin along with NaOCl and EDTA irrigation, resulted in better removal of smear layer without significant additional loss of mineral content.
Sensitivity of Monthly Heart Rate and Psychometric Measures for Monitoring Physical Performance in Highly Trained Young Handball Players

Abstract The aim of the present study was to examine whether monthly resting heart rate (HR), HR variability (HRV) and psychometric measures can be used to monitor changes in physical performance in highly-trained adolescent handball players. Data were collected in 37 adolescent players (training 10±2.1 h.wk−1) on 11 occasions from September to May during the in-season period, and included an estimation of training status (resting HR and HRV, the profile of mood state (POMS) questionnaire), and 3 physical performance tests (a 10-m sprint, a counter movement jump and a graded aerobic intermittent test, 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test). The sensitivity of HR and psychometric measures to changes in physical performance was poor (< 20%), irrespective of the training status markers and the performance measures. The specificity was however strong (> 75%), irrespective of the markers and the performance measures. Finally, the difference in physical performance between players with better vs. worse estimated training status were all almost certainly trivial. The present results highlight the limitation of monthly measures of resting HR, HRV and perceived mood and fatigue for predicting in-season changes in physical performance in highly-trained adolescent handball players. This suggests that more frequent monitoring might be required, and/or that other markers might need to be considered.
Lower Level Mediation in Multilevel Models

Multilevel models are increasingly used to estimate models for hierarchical and repeated measures data. The authors discuss a model in which there is mediation at the lower level and the mediational links vary randomly across upper level units. One repeated measures example is a case in which a person's daily stressors affect his or her coping efforts, which affect his or her mood, and both links vary randomly across persons. Where there is mediation at the lower level and the media-tional links vary randomly across upper level units, the formulas for the indirect effect and its standard error must be modified to include the covariance between the random effects. Because no standard method can estimate such a model, the authors developed an ad hoc method that is illustrated with real and simulated data. Limitations of this method and characteristics of an ideal method are discussed. Multilevel models for hierarchical and repeated measures data are becoming increasingly common These models assume that there are at least two levels in a data set, an upper level, or Level 2, and a lower level, or Level 1. The Level 1 units are nested within the Level 2 units. In some applications, the upper level refers to persons and the lower level refers to observations or repeated measurements. For example, a researcher might collect daily diary (repeated measures) data over several weeks on people's exposure to daily stressors, their coping efforts, and their emotional states (e. In other applications, the upper level refers to groups and the lower level refers to persons who are members of those groups. For example, a researcher may collect demographic background, parenting practices, and educational achievement data on all schoolchildren in a sample of schools (e.g., Raudenbush & Bryk, 1986). In this example , schools are the groups, and schoolchildren are the persons nested within those groups. A basic multilevel model for the repeated measures data might specify that at Level 1, the repeated measures level, a person's mood on a given day is a function of a baseline mood level that is common across all days, a stressor reactivity effect that reflects whether or not he or she has experienced a stressor that day, and a Level 1 residual effect that varies randomly from day to day but whose average value is zero. At Level 2, the between-person level, the model might specify that people differ in how …
Real-time Stereo-Image Stitching using GPU-based Belief Propagation

Image stitching or mosaicing is a challenging vision problem, especially when considering aspects like high definition content, real-time, and proper compensation of the parallax error of objects at different distances to the camera system. Today many approaches to image stitching exist, most of them deal with medium resolution images, offline processing, or are restricted to objects at similar distance. Our approach is based on calculation of disparities between corresponding points in stereo images by employing standard belief propagation. Instead of computing depth-maps like in previous approaches, we compute stitch-maps modifying cost functions in the underlying Markov random field model, which makes further projection steps dispensable and thereby overall computation more efficient. Our GPU-based implementation is real-time capable, allowing to stitch high definition images at constant frame rates. We show exemplary results from our system to demonstrate the quality of the merged images.
Flavin and pyridine nucleotide oxidation-reduction changes in perfused rat liver. I. Anoxia and subcellular localization of fluorescent flavoproteins.

Abstract Flavin and pyridine nucleotide fluorescence was continuously monitored from the surface of the hemoglobin-free, perfused rat liver with the use of a new double fluorometer. In response to anoxia or after addition of inhibitors of the respiratory chain, the fluorescence intensity excited at 436 mµ decreased, while that excited at 366 mµ increased, representing reduction of flavin and pyridine nucleotides, respectively. Subsequent reoxidation of pyridine nucleotides in the cytosol by the addition of pyruvate was not accompanied by a change in flavin fluorescence. Maximal flavin reduction could be achieved by complete inhibition of the respiratory chain in the presence of oxygen. Titration with acetoacetate showed that mitochondrial pyridine nucleotides were in equilibrium with the fluorescent flavoproteins. Microsomal oxidation-reduction reactions appeared to be reflected by small changes in pyridine nucleotide fluorescence, but not by changes of flavin fluorescence. It is concluded, therefore, that the flavin signal is predominantly due to mitochondrial flavoproteins with approximately equal contributions from flavin pools located on both the substrate and the oxygen side of the rotenone block. The continuous monitoring of flavin and pyridine nucleotide fluorescence as an experimental approach for studies of compartmentation of oxidation-reduction systems is discussed.
ROS in gastrointestinal inflammation: Rescue Or Sabotage?

The intestine is composed of many distinct cell types that respond to commensal microbiota or pathogens with immune tolerance and proinflammatory signals respectively. ROS produced by mucosa‐resident cells or by newly recruited innate immune cells are essential for antimicrobial responses and regulation of signalling pathways including processes involved in wound healing. Impaired ROS production due to inactivating patient variants in genes encoding NADPH oxidases as ROS source has been associated with Crohn's disease and pancolitis, whereas overproduction of ROS due to up‐regulation of oxidases or altered mitochondrial function was linked to ileitis and ulcerative colitis. Here, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of how maintaining a redox balance is crucial to preserve gut homeostasis.
Estimating replicability of classifier learning experiments

Replicability of machine learning experiments measures how likely it is that the outcome of one experiment is repeated when performed with a different randomization of the data. In this paper, we present an estimator of replicability of an experiment that is efficient. More precisely, the estimator is unbiased and has lowest variance in the class of estimators formed by a linear combination of outcomes of experiments on a given data set.We gathered empirical data for comparing experiments consisting of different sampling schemes and hypothesis tests. Both factors are shown to have an impact on replicability of experiments. The data suggests that sign tests should not be used due to low replicability. Ranked sum tests show better performance, but the combination of a sorted runs sampling scheme with a t-test gives the most desirable performance judged on Type I and II error and replicability.
AFRA: A low cost high performance reliable routing for 3D mesh NoCs

Three-dimensional network-on-chips are suitable communication fabrics for high-density 3D many-core ICs. Such networks have shorter communication hop count, compared to 2D NoCs, and enjoy fast and power efficient TSV wires in vertical links. Unfortunately, the fabrication process of TSV connections has not matured yet, which results in poor vertical links yield. In this work, we address this challenge and introduce AFRA, a deadlock-free routing algorithm for 3D mesh-based NoCs that tolerates faults on vertical links. AFRA is designed to be simple, high performance, and robust. The simplicity is achieved by applying ZXY and XZXY routings in the absence and presence of fault, respectively. Furthermore, AFRA, as will be proved, is deadlock-free when all vertical faulty links have the same direction. This enables the routing to save virtual channels for performance rather than scarifying them for deadlock avoidance. Finally, AFRA provides robustness, which means supporting connection for all possible pairs of communicating nodes in high fault rates. AFRA is evaluated, though cycle accurate network simulation, and is compared with planar adaptive routing. Results reveal that AFRA significantly outperforms planar adaptive routing in both synthetic and real traffic patterns. In addition, the robustness of AFRA is calculated analytically.
The role of ClC‐3 in volume‐activated chloride currents and volume regulation in bovine epithelial cells demonstrated by antisense inhibition

1 A chloride current with mild outward rectification was induced in the native bovine non‐pigmented ciliary epithelial (NPCE) cells by a 23 % hypotonic solution. The current showed no or little inactivation at depolarized steps. 2 ATP blocked 88 and 61 % of the outward and inward components of the volume‐activated chloride current (ICl,vol) with an IC50 of 5.3 and 9.6 mM, respectively. 3 The volume‐activated chloride current was decreased and the activation of the current was delayed by inhibiting endogenous ClC‐3 expression using a ClC‐3 antisense oligonucleotide. The inhibition of the current as a function of antisense concentration was asymptotic with a maximum about 60 %. The remaining current was probably not derived from ClC‐3 and was inhibited by ATP. 4 ClC‐3 expression in the bovine NPCE cells was verified by immunofluorescence studies. ClC‐3 immunofluorescence was distributed throughout the cells but with the predominant location within the nucleus. The expression of ClC‐3 protein was diminished by the ClC‐3 antisense oligonucleotide with the greatest diminution occurring in the nuclear region. 5 The size of the volume‐activated chloride current was positively correlated with the ClC‐3 immunofluorescence level. 6 Regulatory volume decrease of the NPCE cells was reduced by ClC‐3 antisense oligonucleotide. 7 We conclude that endogenous ClC‐3 is associated with the volume‐activated chloride current and is involved in cell volume regulation, but that it can only contribute towards a proportion of the current in NPCE cells. 8 The nuclear predominance of ClC‐3 immunofluorescence in NPCE cells, the absence of basal activity of chloride current and the marked pharmacological differences between IClC‐3 and ICl,vol argue against ClC‐3 being the only, or even the main, volume‐activated chloride channel in NPCE cells.
The Structure of G Protein-coupled Receptor Kinase (GRK)-6 Defines a Second Lineage of GRKs*

We describe the 2.6-Å crystal structure of human G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK)-6, a key regulator of dopaminergic signaling and lymphocyte chemotaxis. GRK6 is a member of the GRK4 subfamily of GRKs, which is represented in most, if not all, metazoans. Comparison of GRK6 with GRK2 confirms that the catalytic core of all GRKs consists of intimately associated kinase and regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) homology domains. Despite being in complex with an ATP analog, the kinase domain of GRK6 remains in an open, presumably inactive conformation, suggesting that G protein-coupled receptors activate GRKs by inducing kinase domain closure. The structure reveals a putative phospholipid-binding site near the N terminus of GRK6 and structural elements within the kinase substrate channel that likely influence G protein-coupled receptor access and specificity. The crystalline GRK6 RGS homology domain forms an extensive dimer interface using conserved hydrophobic residues distinct from those in GRK2 that bind Gαq, although dimerization does not appear to occur in solution and is not required for receptor phosphorylation.
Formulation and Evaluation of Matrix Type Transdermal Patches of Glibenclamide

Matrix type transdermal patches containing Glibenclamide were prepared using three different polymers by solvent evaporation technique. Aluminium foil cup method was used as a substrate. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 was used as plasticizer and Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as penetration enhancer. The physicochemical parameters like weight variation, thickness, folding endurance, drug content, % moisture absorption and % moisture loss were evaluated. In vitro drug release studies and skin permeation studies were carried out using Franz diffusion cell. Cumulative amount of drug released in 12 hours from the six formulations were 55.467, 52.633, 47.157, 53.394, 49.139 and 45.597 %, respectively. The corresponding values for cumulative amount of drug permeated for the said formulation were 43.013, 40.429, 37.793, 41.522, 37.450 and 34.656 %, respectively. On the basis of in vitro drug release and skin permeation performance, formulation HP-1 was found to be better than other formulations and it was selected as the optimized formulation.
The dual nature of time preparation: neural activation and suppression revealed by transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex

Single‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulations (TMSs) of the motor cortex (M1) were performed in order to decipher the neural mechanisms of time preparation. We varied the degree to which it was possible to prepare for the response signal in a choice reaction time (RT) task by employing either a short (500 ms) or a long (2500 ms) foreperiod in separate blocks of trials. Transcranial magnetic stimulations were delivered during these foreperiods in order to study modulations in both the size of the motor evoked potential (MEP) and the duration of the silent period (SP) in tonically activated response agonists. Motor evoked potential area and silent period duration were assumed to reflect, respectively, the excitability of the cortico‐spinal pathway and the recruitment of inhibitory cortical interneurons. Shorter reaction times were observed with the shorter foreperiod, indicating that a better level of preparation was attained for the short foreperiod. Silent period duration decreased as time elapsed during the foreperiod and this decrement was more pronounced for the short foreperiod. This result suggests that time preparation is accompanied by a removal of intracortical inhibition, resulting in an activation. Motor evoked potential area decreased over the course of the short foreperiod, but not over the long foreperiod, revealing that time preparation involves the inhibition of the cortico‐spinal pathway. We propose that cortico‐spinal inhibition secures the development of cortical activation, preventing erroneous premature responding.
Some Like It Hot - Visual Guidance for Preference Prediction

For people first impressions of someone are of determining importance. They are hard to alter through further information. This begs the question if a computer can reach the same judgement. Earlier research has already pointed out that age, gender, and average attractiveness can be estimated with reasonable precision. We improve the state of-the-art, but also predict - based on someone's known preferences - how much that particular person is attracted to a novel face. Our computational pipeline comprises a face detector, convolutional neural networks for the extraction of deep features, standard support vector regression for gender, age and facial beauty, and - as the main novelties - visual regularized collaborative filtering to infer interperson preferences as well as a novel regression technique for handling visual queries without rating history. We validate the method using a very large dataset from a dating site as well as images from celebrities. Our experiments yield convincing results, i.e. we predict 76% of the ratings correctly solely based on an image, and reveal some sociologically relevant conclusions. We also validate our collaborative filtering solution on the standard MovieLens rating dataset, augmented with movie posters, to predict an individuals movie rating. We demonstrate our algorithms on howhot.io which went viral around the Internet with more than 50 million pictures evaluated in the first month.