Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vivo models of angiogenesis

The process of building new blood vessels (angiogenesis) and controlling the propagation of blood vessels (anti‐angiogenesis) are fundamental to human health, as they play key roles in wound healing and tissue growth. More than 500 million people may stand to benefit from anti‐ or pro‐angiogenic treatments in the coming decades [National Cancer Institute (USA), Cancer Bulltetin, volume 3, no. 9, 2006]. The use of animal models to assay angiogenesis is crucial to the search for therapeutic agents that inhibit angiogenesis in the clinical setting. Examples of persons that would benefit from these therapies are cancer patients, as cancer growth and spread is angiogenesis‐dependent, and patients with aberrant angiogenesis in the eye, which may lead to blindness or defective sight. Recently, anti‐angiogenesis therapies have been introduced successfully in the clinic, representing a turning point in tumor therapy and the treatment of macular degeneration and heralding a new era for the treatment of several commonly occurring angiogenesis‐related diseases. On the other hand, pro‐angiogenic therapies that promote compensatory angiogenesis in hypoxic tissues, such as those subjected to ischemia in myocardial or cerebral hypoxia due to occluding lesions in the coronary or cerebral arteries, respectively, and in cases of poor wound healing, are also being developed. In this review, the current major and newly introduced preclinical angiogenesis assays are described and discussed in terms of their specific advantages and disadvantages from the biological, technical, economical and ethical perspectives. These assays include the corneal micropocket, chick chorioallantoic membrane, rodent mesentery, subcutaneous (s.c.) sponge/matrix/alginate microbead, s.c. Matrigel plug, s.c. disc, and s.c. directed in vivo angiogenesis assays, as well as, the zebrafish system and several additional assays. A note on quantitative techniques for assessing angiogenesis in patients is also included. The currently utilized preclinical assays are not equivalent in terms of efficacy or relevance to human disease. Some of these assays have significance for screening, while others are used primarily in studies of dosage‐effects, molecular structure activities, and the combined effects of two or more agents on angiogenesis. When invited to write this review, I was asked to describe in some detail the rodent mesenteric‐window angiogenesis assay, which has not received extensive coverage in previous reviews.
Innovation Networks - A Simulation Approach

A multi-agent simulation embodying a theory of innovation networks has been built and used to suggest a number of policy-relevant conclusions. The simulation animates a model of innovation (the successful exploitation of new ideas) and this model is briefly described. Agents in the model representing firms, policy actors, research labs, etc. each have a knowledge base that they use to generate 'artefacts' that they hope will be innovations. The success of the artefacts is judged by an oracle that evaluates each artefact using a criterion that is not available to the agents. Agents are able to follow strategies to improve their artefacts either on their own (through incremental improvement or by radical changes), or by seeking partners to contribute additional knowledge. It is shown though experiments with the model's parameters that it is possible to reproduce qualitatively the characteristics of innovation networks in two sectors: personal and mobile communications and biotechnology.
Does Sorokin's Data Support His Theory?: A Study of Generational Fluctuations in Philosophical Beliefs

The question was raised regarding the empirical support for Sorokin's cyclical theory of philosophical, religious, and scientific movements. Transhistorical measures of creativity and philosophical beliefs were used which spanned 122 generations (or 20-year periods) from 540 B.C. to 1900 A.D. in Western history. An analysis of non-transformed and first-differenced data indicated that (a) philosophical beliefs form two postively correlated Sensate and Ideational clusters, (b) Sensate times are associated with scientific creativity and Ideational times with religious activity, and (c) these relationships hold solely for immediate generational fluctuations since the time-wise trends for Sensate and Ideational systems are the same. An alternative explanation was proposed which may better fit the data but which casts doubt on Sorokin's forecast of a new Ideational age of religious activity.
Gender Differences in Social Relationships and Mental Health Among Veterans Affairs Patients

ABSTRACT This study explored gender differences in social relationships and associated symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 6,449 Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care patients referred for a behavioral health assessment. Patients provided demographic information, information on social relationships, and mental health symptoms. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between gender, social relationships, and symptoms, and to test moderation by gender. Women reported more social interaction and negative social exchanges than men. No gender differences were obtained in perceived social support. Social functioning difficulties were associated with greater symptom severity. Gender did not moderate the strength of these associations. Findings highlight gender differences in experiences of social relationships.
Polish Norms for the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A

Abstract The Polish version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A; Shor & Orne, 1962) was administered to 1174 participants (968 women and 206 men). Polish data were compared with other norming studies. Point-biserial item-scale correlations ranged from r = . 12 (posthypnotic suggestion item) to r = . 49. The Kuder-Richardson correlation of . 70 was within the range of the reference samples. Test-retest reliability coefficients were obtained from one group of participants tested twice in the same session (r = .69, p < .05), and another group 8 weeks apart (r = .58, p < .05). Females scored significantly higher than males.
Genetics in Keratoconus – What is New?

Background: Keratoconus is characterized as a bilateral, progressive, non-inflammatory thinning of the cornea resulting in blurred vision due to irregular astigmatism. Keratoconus has a multifactorial etiology, with multiple genetic and environmental components contributing to the disease pathophysiology. Several genomic loci and genes have been identified that highlight the complex molecular etiology of this disease. Conclusion: The review focuses on current knowledge of these genetic risk factors associated with keratoconus.
Bioactive and biomimetic restorative materials: a comprehensive review. Part I.

UNLABELLED The objective of this two-part review article is to compare and contrast the composition, properties, and performance of the calcium silicate- and calcium aluminate-based, bioactive dental materials, with an emphasis on the restorative applications of this evolving class of materials. Part I examines the development and application of the calcium silicate-based materials ranging from dental materials derived from Portland cement to more recent materials based on further modifications of calcium silicate cement chemistry. Part II will consider the development, composition, properties, and application of the bioactive calcium aluminate-based materials that have recently been developed for several indications in restorative dentistry. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Bioactive materials have evolved over the past three decades from relatively specialized, highly biocompatible, but low-strength dental materials to now emerge in product compositions for expanded clinical uses in restorative dentistry. Further developments to meet additional restorative clinical needs are anticipated in this newly emerging category of dental materials.
Apoptosis may underlie the pathology of zinc‐deficient skin

The trace element zinc is essential for the survival and function of all cells. Zinc deficiency, whether nutritional or genetic, is fatal if left untreated. The effects of zinc deficiency are particularly obvious in the skin, seen as an erythematous rash, scaly plaques, and ulcers. Electron microscopy reveals degenerative changes within keratinocytes. Despite the well‐documented association between zinc deficiency and skin pathology, it is not clear which cellular processes are most sensitive to zinc deficiency and could account for the typical pathological features. We used the cultured HaCaT keratinocyte line to obtain insight into the cellular effects of zinc deficiency, as these cells show many characteristics of normal skin keratinocytes. Zinc deficiency was induced by growing cells in the presence of the zinc chelator, TPEN, or by growth in zinc‐deficient medium. Growth of cells in zinc‐deficient medium resulted in a 44% reduction of intracellular zinc levels and a 75% reduction in the activity of the zinc‐dependent enzyme, 5′‐nucleotidase, relative to the control cells. Over a period of 7 days of exposure to zinc‐deficient conditions, no changes in cell viability and growth, or in the cytoskeletal and cell adhesion systems, were found in HaCaT cells. At 7 days, however, induction of apoptosis was indicated by the presence of DNA fragmentation and expression of active caspase‐3 in cells. These results demonstrate that apoptosis is the earliest detectable cellular change induced by zinc deficiency in HaCaT keratinocytes. Our observations account for many of the features of zinc deficiency, including the presence of degenerate nuclei, chromatin aggregates and abnormal organization of keratin, that may represent the later stages of apoptosis. In summary, a major causal role for apoptosis in the pathology of zinc deficiency in the skin is proposed. This role is consistent with the previously unexplained diverse range of degenerative cellular changes seen at the ultrastructural level in zinc‐deficient keratinocytes.
Seizure‐related cardiac repolarization abnormalities are associated with ictal hypoxemia

Purpose: Cardiac arrhythmias and respiratory disturbances have been proposed as likely causes for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Oxygen desaturation occurs in one‐third of patients with localization‐related epilepsy (LRE) undergoing inpatient video–electroencephalography (EEG) telemetry (VET) as part of their presurgical workup. Ictal‐related oxygen desaturation is accompanied by hypercapnia. Both abnormal lengthening and shortening of the corrected QT interval (QTc) on electrocardiography (ECG) have been reported with seizures. QTc abnormalities are associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac death. We hypothesized that there may be an association between ictal hypoxemia and cardiac repolarization abnormalities.
Effects of Asian Dust Storm Events on Daily Admissions for Asthma in Taipei, Taiwan

In spring, windblown dust storms originating in the deserts of Mongolia and China make their way to Taipei city. These occurrences are known as Asian dust storm (ADS) events. The objective of this study was to assess the possible associations of ADS on the hospital asthma admissions of residents in Taipei, Taiwan, during the period 1996–2001. We identified 54 dust storm episodes, which were classified as index days. Daily asthma admissions on the index days were compared with admissions on the comparison days. We selected two comparison days for each index day, 7 days before the index days and 7 days after the index days. The effects of dust storms on asthma admissions were prominent 2 days after the event (8%). However, the association was not statistically significant. There may not have been enough power to detect associations resulting from the inadequate sample size of asthma admissions on ADS events days. However, it seems worthwhile to pay more attention to the ADS events and health in the future.
Identifying individuals' preferences using games: A field experiment in promoting sustainable energy consumption

We present a novel approach to identify individuals' preferences in the context of sustainable energy consumption by letting them play a public good game (PGG). The study will be conducted using an energy-efficiency website developed by us and operated by an Austrian utility company that currently facilitates 9,929 users out of which 1,000 will be randomly selected as participants. Laboratory experiments on PGGs identified two types of cooperative behavior: free riders and conditional cooperators. While free riders tend to act unaffected by the behavior of others, conditional cooperators are stronger influenced by the perception of their peers. In our study, participants receive normative feedback on their consumption, and we investigate the moderating effects of the PGG's results on changes in energy consumption. The findings will contribute to the design of information systems to promote environmental sustainability because their effectiveness is increased if the consumption feedback provided reflects the recipient's preference.
Dynamic spectrum leasing strategies for coordinated cognitive radio networks with delay-tolerant traffic

In this paper, dynamic spectrum leasing strategies (with and without anticipated resource leasing) for coordinated cognitive radio networks with delay-tolerant (best effort) traffic are proposed and analyzed to mitigate the effects of unpredictable resource availability. To exploit the tolerance to delay a buffer for preempted secondary calls is considered. From the mathematical point of view, our contribution is to develop a teletraffic model for the performance evaluation of the proposed strategies. The tradeoff between the spectrum leasing cost and system Erlang capacity is also investigated. For a given maximum allowed number of simultaneously rented channels and Quality of Service (QoS) requirement in terms of new call blocking probability, maximum Erlang capacity is obtained for different traffic scenarios. Numerical results reveal that system performance strongly depends on the value of the mean secondary channel holding time relative to the mean primary channel holding time. Finally, the cost per capacity and mean transmission delay as a function of both the utilization factor of the primary resources and the maximum allowed number of simultaneously rented channels is evaluated. It is shown that anticipated resource leasing is an effective mechanism to increase the possibility to have available resources when needed for the secondary network.
Exploiting Cross-Linguistic Similarities in Zulu and Xhosa Computational Morphology

This paper investigates the possibilities that cross-linguistic similarities and dissimilarities between related languages offer in terms of bootstrapping a morphological analyser. In this case an existing Zulu morphological analyser prototype (ZulMorph) serves as basis for a Xhosa analyser. The investigation is structured around the morphotactics and the morphophonological alternations of the languages involved. Special attention is given to the so-called "open" class, which represents the word root lexicons for specifically nouns and verbs. The acquisition and coverage of these lexicons prove to be crucial for the success of the analysers under development. The bootstrapped morphological analyser is applied to parallel test corpora and the results are discussed. A variety of cross-linguistic effects is illustrated with examples from the corpora. It is found that bootstrapping morphological analysers for languages that exhibit significant structural and lexical similarities may be fruitfully exploited for developing analysers for lesser-resourced languages.
Suicidal Ideation in Older Adults with Osteoarthritis: Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Purpose: The study was conducted to identify factors influence suicidal ideation among older adults with osteoarthritis. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design with secondary analysis of the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Data for 174 men and 939 women who aged≥65, and were diagnosed osteoarthritis from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010~2012 were included. Suicidal idea, age, sex, education, marital status, living alone, income, body mass index, smoking and alcohol use, exercise, perceived health status, activity limitation, joint pain and stiffness, depressive mood, and perceived stress were measured. Influencing factors and odds ratios were analyzed using complex sample multivariate logistic regression. Results: In the results, 29.9% of the elderly with osteoporosis had suicidal idea. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of suicidal ideation were significantly higher among those over 80 years older (OR=2.88, 95% CI=1.49~5.58), those with depression (OR=4.01, 95% CI=2.66~6.04), and those with high levels of stress (OR=2.76, 95% CI=1.79~4.24). Conclusion: Therefore, older adults with osteoarthritis should be screened for depression and stress to decrease suicidal ideation and prevent suicide attempt.
Effects of Temperature and Dietary Lipids on Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Membrane Fluidity in Ste inernema carpocapsae 1

The phospholipid composition of Steinernema carpocapsae was studied in relation to diet and culture temperature. When reared at 18 and 27.5 C on Galleria mellonella or on an artificial diet supplemented with lard, linseed oil, or fish oil as lipid sources, nematode phospholipids contained an abundance of 20-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids, with eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5(n 3)) predominant , regardless of the fatty acid composition of the diet. Because the level of linolenic acid (18:3(n 3)) in nematode phospholipids was very low and because eicosapentaenoic acid was present even when its precursor (linolenic acid) was undetectable in the diet, S. carpocapsae likely produces n 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids by de novo biosynthesis, a pathway seldom reported in eukaryotic animals. Reduction of growth temperature from 25 to 18 C increased the proport ion of 20:5(n 3) but not other polyunsaturated fatty acids. A fluorescence polarization technique revealed that vesicles produced from phospholipids of nematodes reared at 18 C were less ordered than those from nematodes reared at 27.5 C, especially in the outermost region of the bilayer. Dietary fish oil increased fluidity in the outermost region but increased rigidity in deeper regions. Therefore, S. carpocapsae appears to modify its membrane physical state in response to temperature, and eicosapentaenoic acid may be involved in this response. The results also indicate that nematode membrane physical state can be modified dietarily, possibly to the benefit of host-finding or survival of S. carpocapsae at low temperatures.
Interracial attraction among college men

The current study integrated constructs from the fields of relationship science (i.e., similarity and familiarity) and intergroup research (i.e., racial ideologies, particularly color-blind racial ideology and multiculturalism) to explore interracial romantic attraction. Using a person-perception design, 124 Black (n = 62) and White (n =62) heterosexual college men indicated their romantic attraction to the dating profiles of three Black and three White women. Results from analyses consistent with a linear mixed-model approach supported most of the hypotheses, including participants in general were more attracted to women of the same race and that greater endorsement of multicultural ideological beliefs was associated with increased interracial attraction. For White men, greater endorsement of color-blind racial ideology was predictive of a decrease in interracial romantic attraction as hypothesized. Contrary to the hypotheses, increased interracial contact for Black men was associated with an increase in same race attraction. Results are discussed in the context of existing literature, and important next steps are also discussed.
Query Expansion by Mining User Logs

Queries to search engines on the Web are usually short. They do not provide sufficient information for an effective selection of relevant documents. Previous research has proposed the utilization of query expansion to deal with this problem. However, expansion terms are usually determined on term co-occurrences within documents. In this study, we propose a new method for query expansion based on user interactions recorded in user logs. The central idea is to extract correlations between query terms and document terms by analyzing user logs. These correlations are then used to select high-quality expansion terms for new queries. Compared to previous query expansion methods, ours takes advantage of the user judgments implied in user logs. The experimental results show that the log-based query expansion method can produce much better results than both the classical search method and the other query expansion methods.
Antigen specific quantification of sulfidoleukotrienes in patients allergic to Betalactam antibiotics.

BACKGROUND After in vitro allergen-specific stimulation, basophils become activated and release sulfidoleukotrienes LTC4, LTD4 and LTE4. This can be detected by means of the CAST assay. We assessed the positivity criteria and the reliability of antigen-specific sulfidoleukotriene production (CAST) in the in vitro diagnosis of betalactam (BL) allergic patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS We studied a sample of 67 patients (age 48.94 +/- 15.76 years) who had presented with anaphylaxis or urticaria-angioedema within the first 60 minutes after administration of Amoxicillin (54/67), Penicillin G (7/67), Cefuroxime (5/67) or Cefazoline (1/67). All of them had a positive skin test to at least one of the antigenic determinants of Penicillin. As control group 30 adults with negative skin tests who tolerated BL were included. All of them underwent skin tests, oral provocation tests, specific IgE (CAP-FEIA, Pharmacia) and CAST. RESULTS Positivity criteria were established by means of ROC curves: a sLT release induced by Betalactams of at least 100 pg/ml and greater than or equal to 3 times the basal value. The overall sensitivity of CAST is 47.7% and specificity 83.3%. Sensitivity of specific IgE is 37.8% and specificity 83.3%. CONCLUSIONS We have established validated positivity criteria for the CAST technique in patients allergic to Betalactams. This technique is a useful in vitro diagnostic method in patients with IgE-mediated allergy to Betalactam antibiotics.
Proteomics for the detection of indirect markers of steroids treatment in bovine muscle

Despite the ban by the European Union, anabolic steroids might still be illicitly employed in bovine meat production. The surveillance of misuse of such potentially harmful molecules is necessary to guarantee consumers’ health. Analytical methods for drug residue control are based on LC‐MS/MS, but their efficacy can be hindered due to undetectable residual concentrations as a result of low‐dosage treatments. Screening methods based on the recognition of indirect biological effects of growth promoters’ administration, such as the alteration of protein expression, can improve the efficacy of surveillance. The present study was aimed at identifying modifications in the muscle protein expression pattern between bulls treated with an ear implant (Revalor‐XS®) containing trenbolone acetate (200 mg) and estradiol (40 mg), and untreated animals. The analysis of skeletal muscle was carried out using a tandem mass tags shotgun proteomics approach. We defined 28 candidate protein markers with a significantly altered expression induced by steroids administration. A subset of 18 candidate markers was validated by SRM and allowed to build a predictive model based on partial least square discriminant analysis. Our findings confirm the effectiveness of the proteomics approach as potential tool to overcome analytical limitations of drug residue monitoring.