Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Systematic Review of the Use of Platelet-Rich Plasma in Sports Medicine as a New Treatment for Tendon and Ligament Injuries

Objective:To evaluate, through a systematic review of the current literature, the evidence-based outcomes of the use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for the treatment of tendon and ligament injuries. Data Sources:A search of English-language articles was performed in PubMed and EMBASE using keywords “PRP,” “platelet plasma,” and “platelet concentrate” combined with “tendon” and then “ligament” independently. The search was conducted through September 2010. Study Selection:Search was limited to in vivo studies. Nonhuman studies were excluded. Tissue engineering strategies, which included a combination of PRP with additional cell types (bone marrow), were also excluded. Articles with all levels of evidence were included. Thirteen of 32 retrieved articles respected the inclusion criteria. Data Extraction:The authors reviewed and tabulated data according to the year of study and journal, study type and level of evidence, patient demographics, method of PRP preparation, site of application, and outcomes. Data Synthesis:The selected studies focused on the application of PRP in the treatment of patellar and elbow tendinosis, Achilles tendon injuries, rotator cuff repair, and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Seven studies demonstrated favorable outcomes in tendinopathies in terms of improved pain and functional scores. In 3 studies on the use of PRP in ACL reconstruction, no statistically significant differences were seen with regard to clinical outcomes, tunnel widening, and graft integration. One study examined the systemic effects after the local PRP application for patellar and elbow tendinosis. Conclusions:Presently, PRP use in tendon and ligament injuries has several potential advantages, including faster recovery and, possibly, a reduction in recurrence, with no adverse reactions described. However, only 3 randomized clinical trials have been conducted.
Falls and Physical Activity in Persons With Mild to Moderate Dementia Participating in an Intensive Motor Training: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Physical activity is beneficial in people with dementia. As physical activity increases risk exposure for falls, safety concerns arise. Prior exercise trials in people with dementia have not measured physical activity. Falls in relation to exposure time rather than person-years as outcome measure has been promoted but not investigated in people with dementia. Methods: Patients with mild to moderate dementia (n=110) were randomized to an intensive, progressive strength and functional training intervention or to a low-intensity group training for 12 weeks each. Physical activity was measured with a standardized questionnaire. Falls were documented prospectively by calendars for 12 months. Results: During the intervention, physical activity was significantly higher in the intervention group (P<0.001) without an increased fall rate (intervention group vs. control group: 2.89 vs. 1.94; incidence rate ratio, 1.49; 95% confidence interval, 0.66-3.36; P=0.333). In the subgroup of multiple fallers, the number of falls per 1000 hours of activity was significantly lower in the intervention group (8.85 vs. 18.67; P=0.017). Conclusions: Increased physical activity during exercise intervention was safe in people with mild to moderate dementia. Fall rate adjusted for physical activity is a useful and sensitive outcome measure in addition to fall rate per person-years.
Altered expression of calreticulin during the development of fibrosis

Tissue damage following injury leads to inflammation and fibrosis. To understand the molecular mechanisms and the proteins involved in the fibrotic process, we used the well‐established unilateral ureteric obstruction rat model and we analyzed the alterations at early and late time intervals using a classical proteomic approach. Data analysis demonstrates a correlation between calreticulin up‐regulation and progression of fibrosis. Calreticulin is involved in Ca++ homeostasis but has not been previously implicated in animal models of fibrosis. Proteomic analysis consistently revealed up‐regulation of calreticulin in both early and late time intervals. These findings were further confirmed by biochemical and morphological approaches. Next, animal models of lung fibrosis (bleomycin‐induced) and heart fibrosis (desmin‐null) were examined. In the lung model, calreticulin expression was up‐regulated from early time intervals, whereas in the heart model no change in the expression of calreticulin was observed. In addition, TGF‐β, a well known major contributing factor in several fibrotic processes, was found to up‐regulate calreticulin in cultured human proximal tubule epithelial cells. The above observations suggest that calreticulin might be involved in fibrotic processes; however the mechanism(s) underlying its possible involvement are yet unresolved.
The Economics of Personal Data and the Economics of Privacy

We provide an overview of the economic analysis of the protection and revelation of personal data. In particular, we (1) describe the evolution of the economic theory of privacy, (2) examine privacy-related trade-offs for data subjects and data holders, and (3) highlight the current economic debate on privacy protection. ∗Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA; acquisti@andrew.cmu. edu.
Dynamic processes and mechanisms for collision to post‐orogenic extension in the Western Dabie Orogen: Insights from numerical modeling

Post‐orogenic extension is the last stage of a tectonic process towards the end of each Wilson cycle in both ancient and modern continental collisional zones, but their dynamics, controlling factors, and roles for the post‐orogenic extension processes remain debatable. We present the first two‐dimensional thermo‐mechanical numerical model of double sutures inspired by the Western Dabie Orogen to investigate the dynamics of post‐orogenic extension. Our results indicate that the pro‐continent re‐subduction can delay or stop regional extensional deformation and subsequent voluminous magmatic activity caused by slab breakoff in the collision zone. After the end of the collision stage, the re‐subduction slab under the residual lithosphere in the model with lower convergence, as a strong unit, can maintain the gravitational balance of the whole post‐orogen system, whether crust eclogitization is considered or not. If the oceanic crust and micro‐continental crust eclogitization are applied to the model with medium convergence, the lower crust and the residual lithospheric mantle in the collision zone will be completely removed by the gravitational instability and upwelling of asthenospheric mantle. The lithospheric architecture of this model with the medium convergence and crust eclogitization is very similar to the present‐day tomography. However, in the model with higher convergence, lithosphere delamination can occur only by upwelling of asthenosphere, whether crustal eclogitization is considered or not. On the basis of a comparison of numerical results with field data from the Western Dabie Orogen, we suggest that the dynamics of post‐orogenic extension in the Western Dabie Orogen is controlled by re‐subduction of the North China Block and crustal eclogitization after high pressure/ultrahigh pressure collision. Thus, the observed regional extensional deformation and voluminous magmatic activity in the Western Dabie Orogen can be self‐consistently explained by interactions between the two sutures and crustal eclogitization.
A social network model for the labor productivity in different European countries

This paper uses firm-level data recorded in the Amadeus database to investigate the distribution of labor productivity in different European countries. We find that the upper tail of the empirical productivity distributions follows a decaying power-law, whose exponent α is obtained by a semi-parametric estimation technique recently developed by Clementi et al. (2006). The emergence of “fat tails” in productivity distribution has already been detected in Di Matteo et al. (2005) and explained by means of a model of social network. Here we show that this model is tested on a broader sample of countries having different patterns of social network structure. These different social attitudes, measured using a social capital indicator, reflect in the power-law exponent estimates, verifying in this way the existence of linkages among firms’ productivity performance and social network. Finally, we study the relationships of aggregate productivity growth with social capital and the tail exponents.
The Solvent-Inaccessible Cys67 Residue of HLA-B27 Contributes to T Cell Recognition of HLA-B27/Peptide Complexes1

Crystallographic studies have suggested that the cysteine at position 67 (Cys67) in the B pocket of the MHC molecule HLA-B*2705 is of importance for peptide binding, and biophysical studies have documented altered thermodynamic stability of the molecule when Cys67 was mutated to serine (Ser67). In this study, we used HLA-B27.Cys67 and HLA-B27.Ser67 tetramers with defined T cell epitopes to determine the contribution of this polymorphic, solvent-inaccessible MHC residue to T cell recognition. We generated these HLA-B27 tetramers using immunodominant viral peptides with high binding affinity to HLA-B27 and cartilage-derived peptides with lower affinity. We demonstrate that the yield of refolding of HLA-B27.Ser67 molecules was higher than for HLA-B27.Cys67 molecules and strongly dependent on the affinity of the peptide. T cell recognition did not differ between HLA-B27.Cys67 and HLA.B27.Ser67 tetramers for the viral peptides that were investigated. However, an aggrecan peptide-specific T cell line derived from an HLA-B27 transgenic BALB/c mouse bound significantly stronger to the HLA-B27.Cys67 tetramer than to the HLA-B27.Ser67 tetramer. Modeling studies of the molecular structure suggest the loss of a SH … π hydrogen bond with the Cys→Ser substitution in the HLA-B27 H chain which reduces the stability of the HLA-B27/peptide complex. These results demonstrate that a solvent-inaccessible residue in the B pocket of HLA-B27 can affect TCR binding in a peptide-dependent fashion.
dbSNO 2.0: a resource for exploring structural environment, functional and disease association and regulatory network of protein S-nitrosylation

Given the increasing number of proteins reported to be regulated by S-nitrosylation (SNO), it is considered to act, in a manner analogous to phosphorylation, as a pleiotropic regulator that elicits dual effects to regulate diverse pathophysiological processes by altering protein function, stability, and conformation change in various cancers and human disorders. Due to its importance in regulating protein functions and cell signaling, dbSNO (http://dbSNO.mbc.nctu.edu.tw) is extended as a resource for exploring structural environment of SNO substrate sites and regulatory networks of S-nitrosylated proteins. An increasing interest in the structural environment of PTM substrate sites motivated us to map all manually curated SNO peptides (4165 SNO sites within 2277 proteins) to PDB protein entries by sequence identity, which provides the information of spatial amino acid composition, solvent-accessible surface area, spatially neighboring amino acids, and side chain orientation for 298 substrate cysteine residues. Additionally, the annotations of protein molecular functions, biological processes, functional domains and human diseases are integrated to explore the functional and disease associations for S-nitrosoproteome. In this update, users are allowed to search a group of interested proteins/genes and the system reconstructs the SNO regulatory network based on the information of metabolic pathways and protein-protein interactions. Most importantly, an endogenous yet pathophysiological S-nitrosoproteomic dataset from colorectal cancer patients was adopted to demonstrate that dbSNO could discover potential SNO proteins involving in the regulation of NO signaling for cancer pathways.
Study of Induction Times of Various Anaesthetic Techniques

The aims and objectives of our study is to analyse the time taken by the anaesthetist for induction during general, spinal, combined spinal epidural and ultrasound guided brachial plexus block ,comparing these with benchmark values and find reasons for delay. Present prospective case study aims at measurement of anaesthesia induction times during a period of two months. Overall 231 patients had induction of anaesthesia combining surgery and orthopaedics cases. Of these 77 received general anaesthesia, 95 patients were given spinal anaesthesia, 39 patients received ultrasound guided brachial block in procedure room and 20 patients received combined spinal epidural anaesthesia. Mean anaesthesia induction time in cases of general anaesthesia was 14.8 minutes, in spinal anaesthesia was 18.5 minutes, for combined spinal epidural was 24 minutes, and for brachial block in procedure room was 30 minutes. These were within benchmark limits . 25% of inductions were delayed. The results show that anaesthesia induction times are fairly within accepted limits. Reasons for delay were due to emergency surgeries, preparation for difficult intubation, fibreoptic intubation, hypotension, arrhythmias after induction, bronchospasm, anaphylactic reaction to anaesthetic agents and, inadequate effect of regional anaesthesia. Benchmark values of anaesthesia induction times are mandatory for optimal functioning of operation theatre schedule, however variations may occur due to complications arising during the process of induction . The anaesthetist should not be pressurized regarding induction time limits, keeping in mind that safety of the patient is the prime goal.
Experimental Software Schedulability Estimation for Varied Processor Frequencies

This paper describes a new approach to experimentally estimate the application schedulability for various processor frequencies. We use additional workload generated by an artificial high priority routine to simulate the frequency decrease of a processor. Then we estimate the schedulability of applications at different frequencies. The results of such estimation can be used to determine the frequencies and control algorithms of dynamic voltage scaling/dynamic frequency scaling (DVS/DFS) implementations. The paper presents a general problem description, the proposed schedulability estimation method, its analysis and evaluation.
Sortilin mediates the release and transfer of exosomes in concert with two tyrosine kinase receptors

ABSTRACT The transfer of exosomes containing both genetic and protein materials is necessary for the control of the cancer cell microenvironment to promote tumor angiogenesis. The nature and function of proteins found in the exosomal cargo, and the mechanism of their action in membrane transport and related signaling events are not clearly understood. In this study, we demonstrate, in human lung cancer A549 cells, that the exosome release mechanism is closely linked to the multifaceted receptor sortilin (also called neurotensin receptor 3). Sortilin is already known to be important for cancer cell function. Here, we report for the first time its role in the assembly of a tyrosine kinase complex and subsequent exosome release. This new complex (termed the TES complex) is found in exosomes and results in the linkage of the two tyrosine kinase receptors TrkB (also known as NTRK2) and EGFR with sortilin. Using in vitro models, we demonstrate that this sortilin-containing complex exhibits a control on endothelial cells and angiogenesis activation through exosome transfer.
Thermal Inactivation of Salmonella spp. in Chicken Broth, Beef, Pork, Turkey, and Chicken: Determination of D- and Z-values

The heat resistance of 35 Salmonella strains was determined at 55 to 65 °C. No correlation between the heat resistance and the origin of the Salmonella spp. could be established. D-values in chicken broth, using a linear regression, of an 8 Salmonella serotype cocktail were 4.87, 2.72, 1.30, and 0.41 min at 55, 58, 60 and 62 °C, respectively. Using a linear model, the D-values ranged from 4.86 min at 55 °C to 0.38 min at 62 °C. When the 8 Salmonella serotype cocktail was heated in meat, D-values at the common test temperatures of 58 and 60 °C calculated by both approaches were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those observed in chicken broth.
Novel mass spectrometric techniques for stable isotope measurements in atmospheric halocarbons and nitrous oxide

Understanding source and sink process of atmospheric species can help to constrain budgets of gases which contribute towards ozone destruction and warming of the Earth’s atmosphere. The use of isotope ratio analysis is a key tool in budget quantification. GC-MS techniques allowed quantification of δ(37Cl) of CFC-11, CFC-12 and CFC-113 deeper in the stratosphere than previously recorded. Isotope enrichment increased with decreasing mixing ratios for all CFCs. A maximum 37Cl enrichment in CFC-12 significantly exceeded that published to date. Apparent isotope fractionation (eApp ) varied with respect to latitude for 37Cl analysis. The first measurements of δ(13C) of CFC-11, CFC-12 and CFC-113 at stratospheric altitudes displayed increasing enrichment with altitude. Minimal correlation was observed between latitude and apparent isotope fractionation. Values of eApp are significantly lower than that given by fractionation observed in laboratory photolysis experiments. Reanalysis of samples which had undergone photolysis allowed measurements to be linked to an internationally recognised 13C scale (VPDB) allowing direct comparison between photolysis rates of CFC-12 analysed using different analytical systems. Based on the mass difference, the isotope fractionation of 17O should be approximately half as much as that of 18O, with respect to 16O. The proportion of 17O in tropospheric air is in fact higher. Identifying the source of the 17O excess would identify possible non-mass dependent fractionation in sources or sinks. The development of an IR-MS measurement system allowed for the first measurements of Δ17O in stratospheric N2O above 12 km altitude. The data suggest that photolysis and reaction with O(1D) are not the source of the 17O anomaly. The newly developed system allowed participation in an interlaboratory compatibility study. Development of a measurement system capable of analysis of 37Cl in CH3Cl allowed analysis of test gas preparations of CH3Cl in preparation for air concentrate analysis. The first steps towards the synthesis of a calibration gas of characterised isotopic composition were carried out.
ACE: a fast multiscale eigenvectors computation for drawing huge graphs

We present an extremely fast graph drawing algorithm for very large graphs, which we term ACE (for Algebraic multigrid Computation of Eigenvectors). ACE exhibits an improvement of something like two orders of magnitude over the fastest algorithms we are aware of; it draws graphs of millions of nodes in less than a minute. ACE finds an optimal drawing by minimizing a quadratic energy function. The minimization problem is expressed as a generalized eigenvalue problem, which is rapidly solved using a novel algebraic multigrid technique. The same generalized eigenvalue problem seems to come up also in other fields, hence ACE appears to be applicable outside of graph drawing too.
Tissue-Specific Evolution of Protein Coding Genes in Human and Mouse

Protein-coding genes evolve at different rates, and the influence of different parameters, from gene size to expression level, has been extensively studied. While in yeast gene expression level is the major causal factor of gene evolutionary rate, the situation is more complex in animals. Here we investigate these relations further, especially taking in account gene expression in different organs as well as indirect correlations between parameters. We used RNA-seq data from two large datasets, covering 22 mouse tissues and 27 human tissues. Over all tissues, evolutionary rate only correlates weakly with levels and breadth of expression. The strongest explanatory factors of purifying selection are GC content, expression in many developmental stages, and expression in brain tissues. While the main component of evolutionary rate is purifying selection, we also find tissue-specific patterns for sites under neutral evolution and for positive selection. We observe fast evolution of genes expressed in testis, but also in other tissues, notably liver, which are explained by weak purifying selection rather than by positive selection.
PKU in Minas Gerais State, Brazil: Mutation Analysis

This work was undertaken in order to ascertain the PKU mutational spectrum in Minas Gerais, Brazil, the relative frequency of the mutations in the State and the origin of these mutations by haplotype determination. Minas Gerais is a trihybrid population formed by miscegenation from Europeans, Africans and Amerindians. All 13 exons of the PAH gene from 78 PKU patients were analyzed, including splicing sites and the promoter region. We identified 30 different mutations and 98% of the PAH alleles were established. A new mutation (Q267X) was identified as well. The most common mutations found were V388M (21.2), R261Q (16.0%), IVS10‐11G>A (15.3%), I65T (5.8%), IVS2+5G>C (5.8%), R252W (5.1%), IVS2+5G>A (4.5%), P281L (3.8%) and L348V (3.2%). These nine mutations correspond to 80% of the PKU alleles in the state. Haplotypes were determined to characterize the origin of the PAH alleles. The majority of the mutations found, with respective haplotypes, are frequent in the Iberian Peninsula. However, there were some mutations that are rare in Europe and four previously unreported mutation‐haplotype associations. I65T and Q267X were found in association with haplotype 38 and may be African in origin or the result of miscegenation in the Brazilian population.
LncRNAs Expression Signatures of Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma Revealed by Microarray

Background Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are an important class of pervasive genes involved in a variety of biological functions. They are aberrantly expressed in many types of cancers. In this study, we described lncRNAs profiles in 6 pairs of human renal clear cell carcinoma (RCCC) and the corresponding adjacent nontumorous tissues (NT) by microarray. Methodology/Principal Findings With abundant and varied probes accounting 33,045 LncRNAs in our microarray, the number of lncRNAs that expressed at a certain level could be detected is 17157. From the data we found there were thousands of lncRNAs that differentially expressed (≥2 fold-change) in RCCC tissues compared with NT and 916 lncRNAs differentially expressed in five or more of six RCCC samples. Compared with NT, many lncRNAs were significantly up-regulated or down-regulated in RCCC. Our data showed that down-regulated lncRNAs were more common than up-regulated ones. ENST00000456816, X91348, BC029135, NR_024418 were evaluated by qPCR in sixty-three pairs of RCCC and NT samples. The four lncRNAs were aberrantly expressed in RCCC compared with matched histologically normal renal tissues. Conclusions/Significance Our study is the first one to determine genome-wide lncRNAs expression patterns in RCCC by microarray. The results displayed that clusters of lncRNAs were aberrantly expressed in RCCC compared with NT samples, which revealed that lncRNAs differentially expressed in tumor tissues and normal tissues may exert a partial or key role in tumor development. Taken together, this study may provide potential targets for future treatment of RCCC and novel insights into cancer biology.