Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuromodulatory nerve regeneration: Adipose tissue‐derived stem cells and neurotrophic mediation in peripheral nerve regeneration

Peripheral nerve injury requiring nerve gap reconstruction remains a major problem. In the quest to find an alternative to autogenous nerve graft procedures, attempts have been made to differentiate mesenchymal stem cells into neuronal lineages in vitro and utilize these cellular constructs for nerve regeneration. Unfortunately, this has produced mixed results, with no definitive procedure matching or surpassing traditional nerve grafting procedures. This review presents a different approach to nerve regeneration. The literature was reviewed to evaluate current methods of using adipose‐derived stem cells (ADSCs) for peripheral nerve regeneration in in vivo models of animal peripheral nerve injury. The authors present cited evidence for directing nerve regeneration through paracrine effects of ADSCs rather than through in vitro nerve regeneration. The paracrine effects rely mainly, but not solely, on the elaboration of nerve growth factors and neurotrophic mediators that influence surrounding host cells to orchestrate in vivo nerve regeneration. Although this paradigm has been indirectly referred to in a host of publications, few major efforts for this type of neuromodulatory nerve regeneration have been forthcoming. The ADSCs are initially “primed” in vitro using specialized controlled medium (not for neuronal differentiation but for sustainability) and then incorporated into a hydrogel base matrix designed for this purpose. This core matrix is then introduced into a natural collagen‐based nerve conduit. The prototype design concepts, evidence for paracrine influences, and regulatory hurdles that are avoided using this approach are discussed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
High‐dose ibuprofen is not associated with increased biomarkers of kidney injury in patients with cystic fibrosis

High‐dose ibuprofen (IBU) may slow the decline of lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), but its use has been limited due to concerns over renal and gastrointestinal toxicity. In this pilot study, we examined the association of IBU with markers of acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with CF. The effect of aminoglycoside (AG) exposure on AKI biomarkers was also examined. The AKI markers, kidney injury molecule‐1 (KIM), N‐acetyl‐β‐glucosaminidase (NAG) and urine protein, normalized for creatinine, were chosen as they are more sensitive indicators of kidney injury than changes in serum creatinine. Urine samples from 52 patients, 26 from patients who were treated with IBU, were analyzed. There was no significant association between IBU treatment and KIM‐1, NAG or protein levels, compared to patients never treated with IBU. While there was an association between AG courses and KIM‐1 levels, there were no differences in biomarker levels between IBU and non‐IBU groups with respect to AG courses. These preliminary results suggest that IBU treatment in patients with CF may be safe with respect to renal toxicity. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2014; 49:148–153. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Genetic variations at loci involved in the immune response are risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma

Primary liver cancer is the third most common cause of cancer‐related death worldwide, with a rising incidence in Western countries. Little is known about the genetic etiology of this disease. To identify genetic factors associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver cirrhosis (LC), we conducted a comprehensive, genome‐wide variation analysis in a population of unrelated Asian individuals. Copy number variation (CNV) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were assayed in peripheral blood with the high‐density Affymetrix SNP6.0 microarray platform. We used a two‐stage discovery and replication design to control for overfitting and to validate observed results. We identified a strong association with CNV at the T‐cell receptor gamma and alpha loci (P < 1 × 10−15) in HCC cases when contrasted with controls. This variation appears to be somatic in origin, reflecting differences between T‐cell receptor processing in lymphocytes from individuals with liver disease and healthy individuals that is not attributable to chronic hepatitis virus infection. Analysis of constitutional variation identified three susceptibility loci including the class II MHC complex, whose protein products present antigen to T‐cell receptors and mediate immune surveillance. Statistical analysis of biologic networks identified variation in the “antigen presentation and processing” pathway as being highly significantly associated with HCC (P = 1 × 10−11). SNP analysis identified two variants whose allele frequencies differ significantly between HCC and LC. One of these (P = 1.74 × 10−12) lies in the PTEN homolog TPTE2. Conclusion: Combined analysis of CNV, individual SNPs, and pathways suggest that HCC susceptibility is mediated by germline factors affecting the immune response and differences in T‐cell receptor processing. (HEPATOLOGY 2010)
Respiratory Constraints in Verbal and Non-verbal Communication

In the present paper we address the old question of respiratory planning in speech production. We recast the problem in terms of speakers' communicative goals and propose that speakers try to minimize respiratory effort in line with the H&H theory. We analyze respiratory cycles coinciding with no speech (i.e., silence), short verbal feedback expressions (SFE's) as well as longer vocalizations in terms of parameters of the respiratory cycle and find little evidence for respiratory planning in feedback production. We also investigate timing of speech and SFEs in the exhalation and contrast it with nods. We find that while speech is strongly tied to the exhalation onset, SFEs are distributed much more uniformly throughout the exhalation and are often produced on residual air. Given that nods, which do not have any respiratory constraints, tend to be more frequent toward the end of an exhalation, we propose a mechanism whereby respiratory patterns are determined by the trade-off between speakers' communicative goals and respiratory constraints.
Molecular Characterization of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Isolates from Cystic Fibrosis Patients and the Hospital Environment

Objectives. To ascertain whether cystic fibrosis (CF) patients are colonized or infected with unique or multiple strains of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia; to understand whether some strains colonize or infect more than 1 patient, indicating clonal spread; and to explore the molecular heterogeneity of hospital water isolates and their correlation with clinical isolates. Setting. The regional CF center of Policlinico “Umberto I” of Rome, Italy. Methods. The study was carried out on a random sample of S. maltophilia isolates (n = 110) collected from CF patients (n = 50) during the period 2002–2005 and on 24 water isolates obtained during a monitoring program in the first 6 months of 2005. Home environmental samplings were not performed. All isolates, which were recovered from cultures of specimens obtained in both inpatient and outpatient settings, were genotyped with DNA macrorestriction analysis with the restriction enzyme Xbal and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Results. One-third of the patients with repeated episodes of S. maltophilia infection or colonization hosted more than 1 strain. A potential transmission, defined as the isolation of the same strain in 2 or more patients, occurred 5 times, showing a frequency of potential transmission episodes slightly higher than previously reported. Water, taps, and sinks of the different rooms of the CF center tended to be persistently colonized with the same strain of S. maltophilia, with no correlation between clinical and water-associated isolates. Conclusions. The study does not provide sufficient data to conclude definitively that isolation of colonized or infected CF patients and control of hospital water systems contamination would be beneficial infection control measures. Epidemiologic analytical studies that correlate the presence of S. maltophilia with clinical outcomes are strongly needed.
Oral lipid-based nanoformulation of tafenoquine enhanced bioavailability and blood stage antimalarial efficacy and led to a reduction in human red blood cell loss in mice

Tafenoquine (TQ), a new synthetic analog of primaquine, has relatively poor bioavailability and associated toxicity in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficient individuals. A microemulsion formulation of TQ (MTQ) with sizes <20 nm improved the solubility of TQ and enhanced the oral bioavailability from 55% to 99% in healthy mice (area under the curve 0 to infinity: 11,368±1,232 and 23,842±872 min·μmol/L) for reference TQ and MTQ, respectively. Average parasitemia in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice was four- to tenfold lower in the MTQ-treated group. In vitro antiplasmodial activities against chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum indicated no change in half maximal inhibitory concentration, suggesting that the microemulsion did not affect the inherent activity of TQ. In a humanized mouse model of G6PD deficiency, we observed reduction in toxicity of TQ as delivered by MTQ at low but efficacious concentrations of TQ. We hereby report an enhancement in the solubility, bioavailibility, and efficacy of TQ against blood stages of Plasmodium parasites without a corresponding increase in toxicity.
Analysis on the resistive forces acting on the bucket of a Load-Haul-Dump machine and a wheel loader in the scooping task

In order to automate the scooping task, it is desirable that the resistive force acting on the bucket is obtained before the scooping is performed. The objective of this study is to derive theoretically the resistive forces acting on the bucket during scooping of piled rock fragments. First, the changes in the shape of the rock pile due to the lifting of the bucket are modeled. Based on this model, the resistive forces acting on the bucket are considered theoretically. Finally, it is confirmed that the calculated results obtained using the model agree well with the experimental results.
The long and the short of interferon‐gamma–inducible protein 10 in hepatitis C virus infection

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a major medical problem. Antiviral treatment is only partially effective and a vaccine does not exist. Development of more effective therapies has been hampered by the lack of a suitable small animal model. Although xenotransplantation of immunodeficient mice with human hepatocytes has shown promise, these models are subject to important challenges. Building on the previous observation that CD81 and occludin comprise the minimal human factors required to render mouse cells permissive to HCV entry in vitro, we attempted murine humanization via a genetic approach. Here we show that expression of two human genes is sufficient to allow HCV infection of fully immunocompetent inbred mice. We establish a precedent for applying mouse genetics to dissect viral entry and validate the role of scavenger receptor type B class I for HCV uptake. We demonstrate that HCV can be blocked by passive immunization, as well as showing that a recombinant vaccinia virus vector induces humoral immunity and confers partial protection against heterologous challenge. This system recapitulates a portion of the HCV life cycle in an immunocompetent rodent for the first time, opening opportunities for studying viral pathogenesis and immunity and comprising an effective platform for testing HCV entry inhibitors in vivo.
An enhanced Co-scheduling method using reduced MS-state diagrams

Instruction scheduling methods based on the construction of state diagrams (or automata) have been used for architectures involving deeply pipelined function units. However, the size of the state diagram is prohibitively large, resulting in high execution time and space requirement. We present a simple method for reducing the size of the state diagram by recognizing unique paths of a state diagram. Our experiments show that the number of paths in the reduced state diagram is significantly lower-by 1 to 3 orders of magnitude-compared to the number of paths in the original state diagram. Using the reduced MS-state diagrams, we develop an efficient software pipelining method. The proposed software pipelining algorithm produced efficient schedules and performed better than R.A. Huff's (1993) Slack Scheduling method, and the original Co-scheduling method, in terms of both the initiation interval (II) and the time taken to construct the schedule.
Detection of Meningococcal Carriage by Culture and PCR of Throat Swabs and Mouth Gargles

ABSTRACT The standard method for detecting meningococcal carriage is culture of throat swabs on selective media, but the levels of carriage determined depend heavily on the skills of the individuals taking the swab and interpreting the cultures. This study aimed to determine the most sensitive detection method for meningococcal carriage. Throat swabs and saline mouth gargles, obtained from 89 university students, were processed in parallel by conventional culture and TaqMan ctrA PCR. Carriage of meningococci, as detected by the combined methods, was 20%. The sensitivities of throat swab culture, throat swab PCR, gargle culture, and gargle PCR were 72, 56, 56, and 50%, respectively, and the probabilities that these techniques would correctly identify the absence of carriage (negative predictive value [NPV]) were 93.4, 89.9, 89.9, and 88.8%. Culturing both throat swabs and gargles increased the NPV to 98.6%. The further addition of throat swab PCR increased this to 100%. Testing gargles by both culture and PCR was as sensitive as testing throat swabs by both methods, suggesting that gargles may be a suitable alternative for large-scale screening studies when throat swabs are difficult to obtain, although they required more lengthy laboratory processing. PCR was a useful adjunct to culture for detecting nasopharyngeal carriage, but it failed to detect some nongroupable strains. For maximum sensitivity, a combination of techniques was required. This study indicates the confidence with which health care professionals involved in meningococcal screening can regard laboratory results.
Disaster Strikes

What do you do to start reading disaster strikes? Searching the book that you love to read first or find an interesting book that will make you want to read? Everybody has difference with their reason of reading a book. Actuary, reading habit must be from earlier. Many people may be love to read, but not a book. It's not fault. Someone will be bored to open the thick book with small words to read. In more, this is the real condition. So do happen probably with this disaster strikes.
Experimental Studies of Ultraslow Magnetisation Dynamics

The present thesis reports the study of ultraslow magnetisation dynamics in the vicinity of magnetic phase transitions. Namely, low-temperature magnetisation processes in the pyrochlore oxide Yb 2 Ti 2 O 7 , spin wave excitations and dispersions in the archetypal ferromagnet iron, and spin relaxation processes in the spin-glass Fe x Cr 1-x . The spin dynamics in these systems were addressed by means of vibrating coil magnetometry and neutron resonance spin echo spectroscopy.
Application of near-infrared spectroscopy in clinical neurology

http://www.e-acn.org pISSN 2508-691X eISSN 2508-6960 Copyright © 2018 The Korean Society of Clinical Neurophysiology This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Application of near-infrared spectroscopy in clinical neurology
Fitting optical source counts with an infrared-defined model: insights into galaxy evolution

In order to improve the fit to the optical counts, the recent multiwavelength source count model of Rowan-Robinson is improved in two ways. First, density evolution is incorporated to correspond to the mergers in hierarchical models of galaxy formation. Secondly, the evolution of dust opacity is taken into account. The luminosity and density evolution parameters and the characteristic opacity of the Local Universe are allowed to vary freely and the best overall fit to the B band is determined. This parameter set is then translated to other wavebands, showing significant improvement of goodness of fit in the optical, ultraviolet and near-infrared bands, whilst retaining the goodness of fit in the far-infrared and submillimetre bands of the original model. A significant fraction of the improvement of fit is shown to be due to the introduction of optical depth history. The mean value of AV in the Local Universe for the best-fitting model is 0.4. The goodness of fit to available star formation history data is not significantly altered, and the form of the evolution of the luminosity function is shown to be consistent with a semi-analytic, forward evolution model.
Interconnections between Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Multilayer Nanolaminate TiAlN/Ag and Al2O3/Ag Coatings

Multilayer nanolaminate TiAlN/Ag and Al2O3/Ag metal-insulator-metal (MIM) coatings with thicknesses of individual layers from a few to several hundreds of nanometers were fabricated by direct current magnetron sputtering. Their optical transmittance and reflectance spectra were measured for photon energies 1–5 eV (1240–248 nm). The spectra were non-monotonous as their transmission and reflection bands were strongly dependent on the coating architecture. A set of advanced electron spectroscopy methods was used to analyse the electronic structure of the coatings controlling optical properties. Energies of plasmons peaks and the distribution of their intensities are functions of the Ag layers thickness as well as the composition and thickness of the dielectric nanolayers in the MIM nanocomposite. Statistical analysis established the cross-correlations between geometrical parameters of the coatings, transmissions and reflection bands on the optical spectra and parameters of the electronic structure. Particularly, the blue side of the transmittance band is controlled by plasmons while the dielectric band gap determines the transmittance of the red side. The obtained experimental results allowed us to fulfil the computed architectural design of a multilayer Al2O3/Ag coating with a narrow bandwidth in the visible light region and strong reflection in the infrared and ultraviolet regions.
Distributed Control of Situated Assistance in Large Domains with Many Tasks

This paper tackles the problem of building situated prompting and assistance systems for guiding a human with a cognitive disability through a large domain containing multiple tasks. This problem is challenging because the target population has difficulty maintaining goals, recalling necessary steps and recognizing objects and potential actions (affordances), and therefore may not appear to be acting rationally. Prompts or cues from an automated system can be very helpful in this regard, but the domain is inherently partially observable due to sensor noise and uncertain human behaviours, making the task of selecting an appropriate prompt very challenging. Prior work has shown how such automated assistance for a single task can be modeled as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). In this paper, we generalise this to multiple tasks, and show how to build a scalable, distributed and hierarchical controller. We demonstrate the algorithm in a set of simulated domains and show it can perform as well as the full model in many cases, and can give solutions to large problems (over 1015 states and 109 observations) for which the full model fails to find a policy.
On-Court Endurance and Performance Testing in Competitive Male Tennis Players

Abstract Baiget, E, Fernández-Fernández, J, Iglesias, X, Vallejo, L, and Rodríguez, FA. On-court endurance and performance testing in competitive male tennis players. J Strength Cond Res 28(1): 256–264, 2014—The aims of this study were (a) to establish a specific endurance test procedure for competitive tennis players, combining performance, physiological and technical parameters and (b) to determine the relationship between these parameters and their competitive levels. Thirty-eight competitive male tennis players (age, 18.2 ± 1.3 years; height, 180 ± 0.08 cm; body mass, 72.7 ± 8.6 kg; mean ± SD) performed a specific endurance field test. Performance (level achieved), physiological (heart rate, maximum oxygen uptake (V[Combining Dot Above]O2max), and ventilatory thresholds (VT1, VT2), and technical parameters (technical effectiveness [TE]) were assessed. Bivariate and multivariate models for predicting performance level were developed. Technical effectiveness was 63.1 ± 9.1%, with 3 identified phases throughout the test (adaptation, maximum effectiveness, and steady decline). Low to moderate correlations were found between performance (final stage), physiological (VT1, VT2) and TE, and competitive performance (r = 0.35–0.61; p = 0.038–0.000). Technical effectiveness explained 37% of variability in competitive performance (r = 0.61; p = 0.001). Using TE combined with VT2 or predictability increased explaining approximately 55% (p < 0.05) of the variance in competitive performance. The present study showed the usefulness of a field test including physiological and performance elements in high-caliber tennis players, and VT2 values combined with TE were good predictors of tennis performance.
Vitamin D and Cardiovascular Disease

Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency has been observed worldwide at all stages of life. It has been characterized as a public health problem, since low concentrations of this vitamin have been linked to the pathogenesis of several chronic diseases. Several studies have suggested that vitamin D is involved in cardiovascular diseases and have provided evidence that it has a role in reducing cardiovascular disease risk. It may be involved in regulation of gene expression through the presence of vitamin D receptors in various cells, regulation of blood pressure (through renin-angiotensin system), and modulation of cell growth and proliferation including vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes. Identifying correct mechanisms and relationships between vitamin D and such diseases could be important in relation to patient care and healthcare policies.
Predicting Depression of Social Media User on Different Observation Windows

Depression has become a public health concern around the world. Traditional methods for detecting depression rely on self-report techniques, which suffer from inefficient data collection and processing. This paper built both classification and regression models based on linguistic and behavioral features acquired from 10,102 social media users, and compared classification and prediction accuracy respectively among models built on different observation windows. Results showed that users' depression can be predicted via social media. The best result appears when we make prediction in advance for half a month with a 2-month length of observation time.