Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sources of Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells Applicable for Musculoskeletal Applications - A Systematic Review of the Literature

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were first discovered by Friedenstein and his colleagues in 1976 from bone marrow. The unique property of these cells was their potential to develop into fibroblastic colony forming cells. Since Friedenstein’s discovery of these cells the interest in adult MSCs has been progressively growing. Nowadays MSCs are defined as undeveloped biological cells capable of proliferation, self renewal and regenerating tissues. All these properties of MSCs have been discovered in the past 35 years. MSCs can play a crucial role in tissue engineering, organogenesis, gene therapy, transplants as well as tissue injuries. These cells were mainly extracted from bone marrow but there have been additional sources for MSCs discovered in the laboratories including: muscle, dermis, trabecular bone, adipose tissue, periosteum, pericyte, blood, synovial membrane and so forth. The discovery of the alternative sources of MSCs helps widen the application of these cells in different areas of medicine. By way of illustration, they can be used in various therapeutic purposes such as tissue regeneration and repair in musculoskeletal diseases including osteonecrosis of femoral head, stimulating growth in children with osteogenesis imperfecta, disc regeneration, osteoarthritis and duchenne muscular dystrophy. In order to fully comprehend the characteristics and potential of MSCs future studies in this field are essential.
Radiation Associated Meningiomas:The Case for Repeat Radiotherapy.

Purpose To evaluate the circumstances relating to Radiation Associated Meningiomas (RAM) and whether repeat radiotherapy can be used. Materials and Methods In this Ethics Approved Study, databases of the Long Term Follow-Up Clinic at Sydney Children's Hospital and the Prince of Wales Cancer Centre were audited for patients who received radiotherapy to the head as a child, and subsequently developed an intracranial meningioma. Features noted were, initial diagnosis, extent of prior treatment, dose, latency to diagnosis, subsequent treatment, and outcome. Results There were 18 patients with an equal gender mix of males/females (9), the majority of patients being treated with whole brain radiotherapy for leukaemia prophylaxis. 6 patients had radiotherapy, 4 had follow-up out to 17 years with no further adverse event, and control of the meningioma. Conclusion Surgery may still be the treatment of choice, however where appropriate radiotherapy can be considered, with good prospect of benefit to the patient.
Single shot Kerr magnetometer for observing real-time domain wall motion in permalloy nanowires

Details are presented of a single shot focused magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) magnetometer which is used to capture the movement of single domain walls (DWs) in permalloy (Ni80 Fe20) nanowires (⩾400 nm width and ⩾20 nm thickness) in real time. By probing the DW motion within the 1 µm diameter laser spot of the instrument, DW velocity and pinning field distributions were obtained. An external field was ramped up linearly, and depinning of a DW from the same start position was observed at three different fields, indicating the stochastic nature of the DW motion.
Emotion rating from short blog texts

Being able to automatically perceive a variety of emotions from text alone has potentially important applications in CMC and HCI that range from identifying mood from online posts to enabling dynamically adaptive interfaces. However, such ability has not been proven in human raters or computational systems. Here we examine the ability of naive raters of emotion to detect one of eight emotional categories from 50 and 200 word samples of real blog text. Using expert raters as a 'gold standard', naive-expert rater agreement increased with longer texts, and was high for ratings of joy, disgust, anger and anticipation, but low for acceptance and 'neutral' texts. We discuss these findings in light of theories of CMC and potential applications in HCI.
Safety and Efficacy of Carbon Dioxide and Intravascular Ultrasound-Guided Stenting for Renal Artery Stenosis in Patients With Chronic Renal Insufficiency

We evaluated the feasibility, safety, and mid-term outcomes of renal artery stenting using carbon dioxide (CO2) digital subtraction angiography and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) for patients with renal insufficiency and significant atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (RAS). Eighteen consecutive patients with chronic renal insufficiency underwent renal artery stenting under the guidance of CO2 angiography and IVUS without contrast media. Renal function and blood pressure were assessed pre- and postintervention. A total of 27 de novo RAS in 18 patients (15 males; mean age: 72 ± 9 years) with renal insufficiency were treated by renal artery stenting with the combined use of the CO2 angiography and IVUS without any procedural complications. Although the mean serum creatinine concentration preprocedure and 6 months after treatment did not change (2.7 ± 1.0-2.4 ± 1.1 mg/dL), blood pressure significantly decreased 6 months after stenting (158 ± 10-147 ± 11 mm Hg, P < .01).
Predictive Behavior Within Microbial Genetic Networks

The homeostatic framework has dominated our understanding of cellular physiology. We question whether homeostasis alone adequately explains microbial responses to environmental stimuli, and explore the capacity of intracellular networks for predictive behavior in a fashion similar to metazoan nervous systems. We show that in silico biochemical networks, evolving randomly under precisely defined complex habitats, capture the dynamical, multidimensional structure of diverse environments by forming internal representations that allow prediction of environmental change. We provide evidence for such anticipatory behavior by revealing striking correlations of Escherichia coli transcriptional responses to temperature and oxygen perturbations—precisely mirroring the covariation of these parameters upon transitions between the outside world and the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. We further show that these internal correlations reflect a true associative learning paradigm, because they show rapid decoupling upon exposure to novel environments.
Determinants for inadequate glycaemic control in Chinese patients with mild-to-moderate type 2 diabetes on oral antidiabetic drugs alone.

BACKGROUND Prevalence of inadequate glycaemic control among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains high. We assessed glycaemic control in the real-life practice among people with T2DM in metropolises in China who were treated with oral antidiabetic drugs (OAD) alone and to determine factors associated with inadequate glycaemic control in this population. METHODS An observational, cross-sectional multicentre study was conducted in 16 metropolitan medical centers. People with T2DM who had been followed-up before the index visit which occurred from January to September 2007 were included in the study. All subjects were ≥ 30 years of age at the time of T2DM diagnosis and had received monotherapy or combination therapy of OAD for at least 6 months. Demographic and clinical data were collected from medical records. The main study outcome was the inadequate glucose control rate, which was calculated by the proportion of patients with haemoglobin A(1C) (HbA(1C)) ≥ 6.5% detected on the index visit. RESULTS In this cohort of 455 patients with T2DM whose mean age was 60.6 years and mean disease duration was 6.1 years, 45.5% had inadequate glycaemic control. The mean (SD) HbA(1C) was 6.7% (1.3). Multivariate Logistic regression showed that physical inactivity, disease duration > 10 years, body mass index (BMI) ≥ 24 kg/m(2), low homeostasis model assessment of β-cell function (HOMA-β) index, less frequency of medical visit and hypertriglyceridaemia were independent determinants of inadequate glycaemic control. Higher incidence of self-reported hypoglycemia experience (47.1% vs. 34.8%, P = 0.008) and more fear of hypoglycemia quantified by Worry subscale of the Hypoglycaemia Fear Survey (HFS) II were happened in subjects with good glycemic control. CONCLUSION Approximately one half of these outpatients with T2DM from the metropolitan medical centers in China had inadequate glycaemic control treated with OAD alone, which raises the need for more effective educational and therapeutic approaches on management of hypertriglycemia, enhancing physical exercise and weight control, and at the same time, lowering the hypoglycemic risk and diminishing the hypoglycemic fear of patients.
The Impact of Subscale Inhomogeneity on Oxygen A Band Cloud-Top Pressure Estimates: Using ESA's MERIS as a Proxy for DSCOVR-EPIC

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: rasmus.lindstrot@wew.fu-berlin.de;Tel. : +49-30-838-56657; Fax: +49-30-838-56664.Received: 9 May 2012; in revised form: 25 June 2012 / Accepted: 26 June 2012 /Published: 29 June 2012Abstract: Medium Spectral Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) oxygen A bandmeasurements were used as a proxy for the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC),to be launched on NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). The high spatialresolution of MERIS (1 1 km
Beyond Fear

There is much empirical evidence for modulation of attention by negative—particularly fear-relevant—emotional stimuli. This modulation is often explained in terms of a fear module. Appraisal theories of emotion posit a more general mechanism, predicting attention capture by stimuli that are relevant for the needs and goals of the organism, regardless of valence. To examine the brain-activation patterns underlying attentional modulation, we recorded event-related potentials from 20 subjects performing a dot-probe task in which the cues were fear-inducing and nurturance-inducing stimuli (i.e., anger faces and baby faces). Highly similar validity modulation was found for the PI time-locked to target onset, indicating early attentional capture by both positive and negative emotional stimuli. Topographic segmentation analysis and source localization indicate that the same amplification process is involved whether attention orienting is triggered by negative, fear-relevant stimuli or positive, nurturance-relevant stimuli. These results confirm that biological relevance, and not exclusively fear, produces an automatic spatial orienting toward the location of a stimulus.
Emerging role of multikinase inhibitors for refractory thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer incidence continues to increase, remaining the most common endocrine malignancy. The need for effective systemic therapies combined with high incidence of driver mutations and overexpression of molecular pathways make refractory thyroid cancer an ideal candidate for treatment with novel agents. Multikinase inhibitors have caused a paradigm shift in the treatment of patients with advanced iodine-refractory thyroid cancer. These agents have shown to be the most effective systemic therapy for this disease not only causing prolonged responses but also improving survival. The activity of these agents inhibiting several pathways simultaneously, such as rearranged during transfection protooncogene, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and angiogenesis, can probably explain the effectiveness in controlling the progression of this malignancy. Several of these agents are currently on clinical studies in patients with differentiated and medullary thyroid cancer and most of them are showing promising clinical activity. With the approval of vandetanib for the treatment of medullary thyroid cancer, a new era in the management of this disease has begun. The molecular rationale for the use of these drugs for thyroid cancer is discussed as well as their promising clinical results.
Practical identifiability of photophysical parameters in photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an alternative treatment for cancer that involves the administration of a photosensitizing agent, which will be activated by light at a specific wavelength. In order to compare different photosensitisers for their cytotoxic activity, photophysical parameters provide good indicators. These parameters are generally estimated one by one from in vitro dedicated experiments, but they cannot always predict the in vivo cytotoxic action. So far, the estimation of photophysical parameters from in vivo data sets has never been regarded as a system identification problem. This paper deals with the practical identifiability of photophysical parameters. Practical identifiability deals with the uniqueness of the model parameters estimates, given the experimental data. The practical identifiability approach and its application to the photoreaction model of PDT are developed in this paper. It is shown that that the photophysical parameters involved in the kinetic model of photoreactions are identifiable in a practical framework with only one measurement - the intracellular photosensitizer concentration, and a wide square pulse as irradiation signal.
Elliptic Genera of Level N and Elliptic Cohomology

Elliptic genera of level N have been defined by F. Hirzebruch, generalising the earlier notion of elliptic genus due to S. Ochanine. We show that there are corresponding elliptic cohomology theories which are naturally associated to such genera and that these are obtained from the level 1 case by algebraic extension of the coefficient rings from level 1 to level N modular forms. Introduction. In [8], F. Hirzebruch has introduced elliptic genera of level N which are (multiplicative) genera ρα : MU∗ −→ Z[1/N, ζ N ]((q N )). Here ζ N = e i /N , q = e i τ for τ ∈ H (the upper half plane), q N = e i τ/N , and α ∈ (1/N)Lτ/Lτ ⊆ C/Lτ is required to have order N as an element of the torus C/Lτ associated to the lattice Lτ = 〈τ, 1〉 ⊆ C. For any ring R, we denote by R((X)) = R[[X]][X−1] the ring of Laurent series in X over R with finitely many negative degree terms. The main purpose of the present work is to fit such genera into the framework of elliptic cohomology in a manner which generalises the original level 2 constructions. When earlier versions of this paper were written the author was unaware of the work of J.-L. Brylinski [4], who constructs higher level theories in many respects similar to ours, although he does not invert N in his level N theory. However, he does make use of deep facts from the theory of moduli schemes and in some cases this allows him to prove stronger results than ours, which only use standard facts from the theory of complex cobordism comodules. We hope to investigate further the precise relationships between these approaches in future 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. 55N22 14L05 10D05.
Stable incidence of systemic vasculitides in schleswig-holstein, Germany.

INTRODUCTION The authors present data on the incidence of primary systemic vasculitides (PSV) in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein from 1998 to 2005. METHODS Population-based study of all new cases of PSV from 1 January 1998 onward in a region with a population of 2.83 million. The sources of patient data were all hospital departments in the catchment area, including outpatient clinics; all departments of pathology; and the reference immunological laboratories serving the catchment area. RESULTS Over this eight-year period, 982 patients with newly diagnosed PSV were identified in Schleswig-Holstein, of whom 273 were diagnosed with ANCA (i.e., anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody)-associated vasculitis (AAV). The incidence of all types of PSV combined was between 38 and 54 cases per million population per year. The incidence of AAV (which includes Wegener's granulomatosis [WG], microscopic polyangiitis [MPA], and Churg-Strauss syndrome [CSS]) was between 9.5 and 16 cases per million per year. WG consistently accounted for two-thirds to three-quarters of all new cases of AAV diagnosed each year. DISCUSSION This population-based vasculitis registry designed to capture all new cases of PSV in an eight-year period in a northern German region with 2.83 million inhabitants revealed stable incidence figures for all types of PSV and for AAV. Compared to figures obtained in other studies from small regions or referral centers, the incidence rate of WG (as an illustrative type of AAV) in this study was the same as those in Norway and Sweden, lower than that in the United Kingdom, but higher than those in Spain and in Vilnius (Lithuania). It is unclear whether these differences truly reflect a north-south gradient within Europe or are merely due to methodological differences.
The AI-KU System at the SPMRL 2013 Shared Task : Unsupervised Features for Dependency Parsing

We propose the use of the word categories and embeddings induced from raw text as auxiliary features in dependency parsing. To induce word features, we make use of contextual, morphologic and orthographic properties of the words. To exploit the contextual information, we make use of substitute words, the most likely substitutes for target words, generated by using a statistical language model. We generate morphologic and orthographic properties of word types in an unsupervised manner. We use a co-occurrence model with these properties to embed words onto a 25dimensional unit sphere. The AI-KU system shows improvements for some of the languages it is trained on for the first Shared Task of Statistical Parsing of Morphologically Rich Languages.
Long-term treatment of pulmonary hypertension with aerosolized iloprost.

We are concerned about the conclusions drawn by MACHERNDL et al. [1] which appear to contradict the findings of HOEPER et al. [2] last year. The authors report on the results of nebulized iloprost therapy in 12 subjects with a dose of 100 – 150 mg for 3 – 19 months, and conclude that "inhaled iloprost in addition to conventional therapy in the presently recommended dose of 100 mg? day delivered in 8 – 10 two-hour portions is not an efficient vasodilator therapy in severe pulmonary hypertension. " We agree with GALIE [3] that uncontrolled trials can be misleading because of the methodology and it is likely that the discrepancy between these two studies is explained by significantly different subject groups. While all of the subjects in the study of HOEPER et al. [2] had a diagnosis of primary pulmonary hypertension, nine of the 12 subjects in the study of MACHERNDL et al. [1] had a diagnosis of either thromboembolic or congenital heart disease. There is still no clear evidence of a beneficial long-term response to vasodilators in these two groups of patients. The best data comes from MCLAUGHLIN et al. [4] in an uncontrolled study of intravenous prostacyclin in 33 patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension. MCLAUGHLIN et al. [4] included seven subjects with congenital heart disease, one of whom died, and reported an overall improvement in haemodynamics after an average of 12.7 months therapy. Only three subjects with thromboembolic disease were also included, of whom one also died. OLSCHEWSKI et al. [5] did not include any subjects with congenital heart disease in their study of nebulized iloprost and only two subjects with thromboembolic disease, one of whom died. The results of the 12-week randomized controlled trial of subcutaneous uniprost, which included congenital heart disease are awaited, however those with thromboembolic disease were excluded. Furthermore, of the three remaining patients in the study of MACHERNDL et al. [1], two received therapy for only 3 months. HOEPER et al. [2] reported a beneficial long-term effect of nebulized iloprost after treating all their patients with primary pulmonary hypertension ¢12 months. Although BARST et al. [6] found a significant improvement after only 12 weeks of therapy with continuous intravenous prostacyclin in primary pulmonary hypertension, this was a much larger study and comparison was made with a control group receiving conventional therapy only. The message from the study of MACHERNDL et al. [1] should not be that nebulized iloprost is ineffective, but that pulmonary hypertension due to congenital heart disease and chronic thromboembolism may not respond as well to vasodilators, and the results of treatment should be analysed separately. We agree with HIGENBOTTAM and SIDDONS [7] that a verdict on this form of therapy should await the outcome of the recently completed randomized controlled trial later this year, although unfortunately those with congenital heart disease and anatomically operable thromboembolic disease were excluded.
Antifungal agents for preventing fungal infections in non-neutropenic critically ill and surgical patients: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

OBJECTIVES This study aims to systematically identify and summarize the effects of antifungal prophylaxis in non-neutropenic critically ill adult patients on all-cause mortality and the incidence of invasive fungal infections. METHODS Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in all languages comparing the prophylactic use of any antifungal agent or regimen with placebo, no antifungal or another antifungal agent or regimen in non-neutropenic critically ill adult patients. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2005), MEDLINE (1966 to 2 September 2005) and EMBASE (1980 to week 36, 2005). We also hand-searched reference lists, abstracts of conference proceedings and scientific meetings (1998-2004) and contacted authors of included studies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. The primary outcomes assessed were all-cause mortality and proven invasive fungal infections. Two reviewers independently applied selection criteria, performed quality assessment and extracted data using an intention-to-treat approach. Data were synthesized using the random effects model and expressed as relative risk with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS Twelve unique trials (eight comparing fluconazole and four ketoconazole with no antifungal or a non-absorbable agent) involving 1606 randomized patients were included. For both outcomes of total mortality and invasive fungal infections, almost all trials of fluconazole and ketoconazole separately showed a non-significant risk reduction with prophylaxis. When combined, fluconazole/ketoconazole reduced total mortality by one-quarter (relative risk 0.76, 95% confidence interval 0.59-0.97) and invasive fungal infections by about one-half (relative risk 0.46, 95% confidence interval 0.31-0.68). No significant increase in the incidence of infection or colonization with the azole-resistant fungal pathogens Candida glabrata or Candida krusei was demonstrated, although the confidence intervals of the summary effect measures were wide. Adverse effects requiring treatment discontinuation were not more common amongst patients receiving prophylaxis. Results across all trials were homogeneous despite considerable heterogeneity in clinical and methodological characteristics. CONCLUSIONS Prophylaxis with fluconazole or ketoconazole in critically ill patients reduces invasive fungal infections by one-half and total mortality by one-quarter. Although no significant increase in azole-resistant Candida species associated with prophylaxis was demonstrated, trials were not powered to exclude such an effect. In patients at increased risk of invasive fungal infections, antifungal prophylaxis with fluconazole should be considered.