Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adipose Mesenchymal Stromal Cell‐Based Therapy for Severe Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Phase I Dose‐Escalation Trial

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most widespread musculoskeletal disorder in adults. It leads to cartilage damage associated with subchondral bone changes and synovial inflammation, causing pain and disability. The present study aimed at evaluating the safety of a dose‐escalation protocol of intra‐articular injected adipose‐derived stromal cells (ASCs) in patients with knee OA, as well as clinical efficacy as secondary endpoint. A bicentric, uncontrolled, open phase I clinical trial was conducted in France and Germany with regulatory agency approval for ASC expansion procedure in both countries. From April 2012 to December 2013, 18 consecutive patients with symptomatic and severe knee OA were treated with a single intra‐articular injection of autologous ASCs. The study design consisted of three consecutive cohorts (six patients each) with dose escalation: low dose (2 × 106 cells), medium dose (10 × 106), and high dose (50 × 106). The primary outcome parameter was safety evaluated by recording adverse events throughout the trial, and secondary parameters were pain and function subscales of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index. After 6 months of follow‐up, the procedure was found to be safe, and no serious adverse events were reported. Four patients experienced transient knee joint pain and swelling after local injection. Interestingly, patients treated with low‐dose ASCs experienced significant improvements in pain levels and function compared with baseline. Our data suggest that the intra‐articular injection of ASCs is a safe therapeutic alternative to treat severe knee OA patients. A placebo‐controlled double‐blind phase IIb study is being initiated to assess clinical and structural efficacy.
[Prevalence of burnout syndrome in health professionals of an onco-hematological pediatric hospital].

OBJECTIVE To identify the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome in medical professionals, nurses and nursing technicians working in an Onco-Hematological Pediatric Hospital in São Paulo. METHOD An exploratory, descriptive study with cross-sectional design and quantitative approach, with a sample of 188 health professionals. Data were collected using two self-report instruments: the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS) which is a biosocial data form, and a non-participant observation guide. RESULTS High depersonalization for nurses (29.8%), low job performance for physicians (27.8%), and of nursing technicians (25.5%). High scores were identified in at least two domains of Burnout in 19.2% of nurses, 16.8% of nursing technicians, and 16.6% of doctors. CONCLUSION Health professionals are highly vulnerable to each of the dimensions of Burnout syndrome - namely emotional exhaustion, alienation, and low job performance/satisfaction- in the hospital work.
Coprophagy in a cave-adapted salamander; the importance of bat guano examined through nutritional and stable isotope analyses

During a two year population ecology study in a cave environment, 15 Eurycea (=Typhlotriton) spelaea were observed ingesting bat guano. Furthermore, E. spelaea capture numbers increased significantly during the time that grey bats (Myotis grisescens) deposited fresh guano. We investigated the hypothesis that this behaviour was not incidental to the capture of invertebrate prey, but a diet switch to an energy-rich detritus in an oligotrophic environment. Stable isotope assays determined that guano may be assimilated into salamander muscle tissue, and nutritional analyses revealed that guano is a comparable food source to potential invertebrate prey items. This is the first report of coprophagy in a salamander and in any amphibian for reasons other than intestinal inoculation. Because many temperate subterranean environments are often energy poor and this limitation is thought to select for increased diet breadth, we predict that coprophagy may be common in subterranean vertebrates where it is not currently recognized.
Regulatory T cells influence blood flow recovery in experimental hindlimb ischaemia in an IL-10-dependent manner.

AIMS Ischaemic damage is associated with up-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, as well as invasion of leucocytes and lymphocytes to the injured muscle. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) exert suppressive effects on several immune and non-immune cellular elements. We hypothesized that adoptive Treg cell transfer and depletion will influence re-establishment of flow in the hindlimb ischaemia model, and that this effect would be mediated by the cytokine interleukin (IL)-10. METHODS AND RESULTS To study the functional role of Tregs in hindlimb ischaemia, we either adoptively transferred Tregs or functionally blocked Tregs by antibodies to CD25. Initially, we showed that the number and function of Tregs is altered after the induction of ischaemia. Treg ablation resulted in reduced blood flow by laser Doppler at Day 7 that became more robust at Day 14. Adoptive Treg transfer led to a significant improvement of flow in the ligated limb. Treg-mediated improvement in flow was abolished by employing blocking anti-IL-10 antibodies. CONCLUSIONS These results show that Tregs play an important role in processes that control flow re-establishment after inducible hindlimb ischaemia, and that IL-10 plays a requisite role mediating these effects.
Primary succession in Mount Pinatubo

Vegetation structure on the east flank of Mount Pinatubo was investigated to determine the inventory of species at 15 y post-eruption, then to ascertain environmental variables that have influenced the early patterns of primary succession. Unconstrained and constrained ordination methods were used to determine the influence of spatial, elevation, and substrate patterns on vegetation. Vegetation was assigned to one of 3 habitat types. Scours were eroded flat surfaces, terraces were perched flat surfaces, and talus piles were created along the canyon edges as mass waste events. The influence of habitat type on vegetation was multifaceted because they represent different conditions and different histories. The talus piles have preferential access to colonists from the vegetation on the canyon walls above and a more benign microclimate than the exposed terrace and scour sites. Scoured sites on the valley floor exhibited the least vegetation cover, as these substrates had the least mature surfaces and the most restricted capacity for root exploration. Perched terraces exhibited greater plant dominance than did the other habitats in the early stages of succession because of the ubiquitous appearance of Parasponia rugosa as initial colonists on these relatively flat surfaces. Polynomial canonical correspondence analysis was more closely aligned with the pattern of vegetation than linear canonical correspondence analysis, and therefore more closely approximated accurate descriptions of correlations among site ordination positions and measured variables. These results confirm that a variety of statistical approaches can clarify applications for restoration ecology following landslide and volcanic disturbances or agriculture and forestry anthropogenic disturbances in the lowland tropics.
A Study of the Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version of the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale for Alcohol-Dependent Patients

Objective The Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) is a stronger predictor of subsequent drinking and relapse of alcohol dependence that can be administered more quickly and easily than other craving scales. The goal of this study was to develop the Korean version of the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS-K). Methods To examine the psychometric properties of the PACS-K, responses were chosen from 80 patients admitted to a treatment facility for alcohol dependence. Results The PACS-K possesses good psychometric properties, as assessed by Cronbach's α estimates (Cronbach's α=0.91). The test-retest reliability of the PACS-K showed high correlation (p<0.01) when the retest interval was 1 day. When the validity of the PACS-K was investigated using correlation analysis with two other craving scales (the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), high correlations were obtained between total PACS scores and total OCDS scores, and between total PACS scores and VAS scores (p<0.01, respectively). Conclusion The PACS-K is a reliable and valid measure of alcohol cravings, and it could be useful for predicting which individuals are at risk for subsequent relapse.
Assessment of primary care in health surveys: a population perspective.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to evaluate the metric properties of a selection of items of the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT) included into 2006 Catalonia Health Survey and adapted to evaluate experiences of primary care (PC) under population perspective. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study. The study population was composed of non-institutionalized residents of Catalonia over 15 years of age (n = 12,933). The instrument used was a 10-item selection of the adult user's version of the PCAT (PCAT10-AE). We assessed internal consistency, correlation between items and performed exploratory factor analysis and external validity analysis. RESULTS The instrument presented adequate internal consistency (0.72). All items showed acceptable correlation with other items that constitute the scale. The single extracted factor explained 64% of the common variance in the responses, allowing the construction of a global index for evaluation of PC. We observed an association between better evaluation of PC and more satisfaction with the health system. CONCLUSIONS Metric analysis supported the integrity and general adequacy of this very short tool included in a population health survey. The global index proposed could be a good measure for assessing and monitoring the adequacy of part of the PC experiences in first-contact care and person-focused care over time, under population perspective. On the other hand, the loss of content as a consequence of the selection of items, suggesting use of the expanded versions of the PCAT-AE whenever a global evaluation of PC is desired and it is possible.
Microcapsules Filled with a Palm Oil-Based Alkyd as Healing Agent for Epoxy Matrix

One of the approaches to prolong the service lifespan of polymeric material is the development of self-healing ability by means of embedded microcapsules containing a healing agent. In this work, poly(melamine-urea-formaldehyde) (PMUF) microcapsules containing a palm oil-based alkyd were produced by polymerization of melamine resin, urea and formaldehyde that encapsulated droplets of the suspended alkyd particles. A series of spherical and free-flowing microcapsules were obtained. The chemical properties of core and shell materials were characterized by Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis showed a glass transition around −15 °C due to the alkyd, and a melting temperature at around 200 °C due to the shell. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results showed that the core and shell thermally degraded within the temperature range of 200–600 °C. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) examination of the ruptured microcapsule showed smooth inner and rough outer surfaces of the shell. Flexural strength and microhardness (Vickers) of the cured epoxy compound were not affected with the incorporation of 1%–3% of the microcapsules. The viability of the healing reactions was demonstrated by blending small amounts of alkyd with epoxy and hardener at different ratios. The blends could readily cure to non-sticky hard solids at room temperature and the reactions could be verified by ATR-FTIR.
Pitch-based gender identification with two-stage classification

In this paper, we address the speech-based gender identification problem. Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) of voice samples are typically used as the features for gender identification. However, MFCC-based classification incurs high complexity. This paper proposes a novel pitch-based gender identification system with a two-stage classifier to ensure accurate identification and low complexity. The first stage of the classifier identifies and labels all the speakers whose pitch clearly indicates the gender of the speaker; the complexity of this stage is very low since only threshold-based decision rule on a scalar (i.e., pitch) is used. The ambiguous voice samples from all the other speakers (which cannot be classified with high accuracy by the first stage, and can be regarded as suspicious speakers or difficult cases) are forwarded to the second-stage for finer examination; the second-stage of our classifier uses Gaussian Mixture Model to accurately isolate voice samples based on gender. Experiment results show that our system is speech language/content independent, microphone independent, and robust against noisy recording conditions. Our system is extremely accurate with probability of correct classification of 98.65%, and very efficient with about 5 s required for feature extraction and classification. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Splitting of terahertz surface plasmons by polyimide films

Terahertz (THz) surface plasmons (SPs) can be effectively used in THz communication lines, information processing devices, spectroscopic measurements of submicron dielectric layers, and metal surface quality control. Such applications necessitate implementation of various optical schemes, including splitting of THz SPs on the guiding surface. This work is the first experimental demonstration of the fact that a polyimide kapton film of submillimetre thickness can effectively split THz SPs. Measurements of the transmission and reflection coefficients of SPs on gold-ZnS layer plane structures using monochromatic radiation of the Novosibirsk free-electron laser (λ = 130 μm) have shown good accordance with theoretical calculations.
A Reputation Management Approach for Resource Constrained Trustee Agents

Trust is an important mechanism enabling agents to self-police open and dynamic multi-agent systems (ODMASs). Trusters evaluate the reputation of trustees based on their past observed performance, and use this information to guide their future interaction decisions. Existing trust models tend to concentrate trusters' interactions on a small number of highly reputable trustees to minimize risk exposure. When a trustee's servicing capacity is limited, such an approach may cause long delays for trusters and subsequently damage the reputation of trustees. To mitigate this problem, we propose a reputation management approach for trustee agents based on distributed constraint optimization. It helps a trustee to make situation-aware decisions on which incoming requests to serve and prevent the resulting reputation score from being affected by factors out of the trustee's control. The approach is evaluated through theoretical analysis and within a simulated, highly dynamic multi-agent environment. The results show that it can achieve close to optimally efficient utilization of the trustee agents' collective capacity in an ODMAS, promotes fair treatment of trustee agents based on their behavior, and significantly outperforms related work in enhancing social welfare.
Effects of targeted delivery of propionate to the human colon on appetite regulation, body weight maintenance and adiposity in overweight adults

Objective The colonic microbiota ferment dietary fibres, producing short chain fatty acids. Recent evidence suggests that the short chain fatty acid propionate may play an important role in appetite regulation. We hypothesised that colonic delivery of propionate would increase peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion in humans, and reduce energy intake and weight gain in overweight adults. Design To investigate whether propionate promotes PYY and GLP-1 secretion, a primary cultured human colonic cell model was developed. To deliver propionate specifically to the colon, we developed a novel inulin-propionate ester. An acute randomised, controlled cross-over study was used to assess the effects of this inulin-propionate ester on energy intake and plasma PYY and GLP-1 concentrations. The long-term effects of inulin-propionate ester on weight gain were subsequently assessed in a randomised, controlled 24-week study involving 60 overweight adults. Results Propionate significantly stimulated the release of PYY and GLP-1 from human colonic cells. Acute ingestion of 10 g inulin-propionate ester significantly increased postprandial plasma PYY and GLP-1 and reduced energy intake. Over 24 weeks, 10 g/day inulin-propionate ester supplementation significantly reduced weight gain, intra-abdominal adipose tissue distribution, intrahepatocellular lipid content and prevented the deterioration in insulin sensitivity observed in the inulin-control group. Conclusions These data demonstrate for the first time that increasing colonic propionate prevents weight gain in overweight adult humans. Trial registration number NCT00750438.
Genetic analyses suggest no immigration of adult females and their offspring into the Sonso community of chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda

Chimpanzees are frequently used to illustrate the relationship between sex differences in dispersal and sex differences in cooperation in primates and other group‐living mammals. Male chimpanzees are highly philopatric, typically remaining in their natal communities for their entire lives to cooperate with related males in competition against less related males from other groups, whereas females typically disperse once at adolescence and cooperate with each other less frequently. However, there have been a few reports of dependent male offspring joining groups when their mothers transferred between communities as adults. Although such events are difficult to document, determining how often they actually occur is important for elucidating the links between philopatry, kinship, and cooperation in both chimpanzees and group‐living animals more generally. Here we use genetic analyses to investigate a previous report of a large‐scale transfer of many females and their offspring into the Sonso community of chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda. Using autosomal microsatellite genotypes, we assigned a Sonso father to ten of the fourteen putative immigrants, and found that the four putative immigrants for whom we could not assign a Sonso father (perhaps due to incomplete sampling of all Sonso candidate fathers) nevertheless had Y‐chromosome microsatellite haplotypes that were common in Sonso males but absent in males from four other chimpanzee communities at Budongo. These results suggest that these putative immigrant females and their offspring were probably actually long‐term residents of Sonso whose identifications were delayed by their peripheral or unhabituated status. These results are consistent with other genetic and behavioral evidence showing that male between‐community gene flow is exceedingly rare in east African chimpanzees. Am. J. Primatol. 76:640–648, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Managing demand for pathology tests: financial imperative or duty of care?

The latest laboratory workload figures have been the subject of many a corridor discussion, management meeting or national forum. Most clinical laboratories continue to see 8–10% increases in workload year on year, usually without increases in budgets to match. With the global ‘credit crunch’, it becomes even more relevant that national health service (NHS) organizations deliver evidence-based practice, provide value for money and reduce waste.
Chicken Pleiotrophin: Regulation of Tissue Specific Expression by Estrogen in the Oviduct and Distinct Expression Pattern in the Ovarian Carcinomas

Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a developmentally-regulated growth factor which is widely distributed in various tissues and also detected in many kinds of carcinomas. However, little is known about the PTN gene in chickens. In the present study, we found chicken PTN to be highly conserved with respect to mammalian PTN genes (91–92.6%) and its mRNA was most abundant in brain, heart and oviduct. This study focused on the PTN gene in the oviduct where it was detected in the glandular (GE) and luminal (LE) epithelial cells. Treatment of young chicks with diethylstilbesterol induced PTN mRNA and protein in GE and LE, but not in other cell types of the oviduct. Further, several microRNAs, specifically miR-499 and miR-1709 were discovered to influence PTN expression via its 3′-UTR which suggests that post-transcriptional regulation influences PTN expression in chickens. We also compared expression patterns and CpG methylation status of the PTN gene in normal and cancerous ovaries from chickens. Our results indicated that PTN is most abundant in the GE of adenocarcinoma of cancerous, but not normal ovaries of hens. Bisulfite sequencing revealed that 30- and 40% of −1311 and −1339 CpG sites are demethylated in ovarian cancer cells, respectively. Collectively, these results indicate that chicken PTN is a novel estrogen-induced gene expressed mainly in the oviductal epithelia implicating PTN regulation of oviduct development and egg formation, and also suggest that PTN is a biomarker for epithelial ovarian carcinoma that could be used for diagnosis and monitoring effects of therapies for the disease.
Pattern of disease after murine hepatitis virus strain 3 infection correlates with macrophage activation and not viral replication

Murine hepatitis virus strain (MHV-3) produces a strain-dependent pattern of disease which has been used as a model for fulminant viral hepatitis. This study was undertaken to examine whether there was a correlation between macrophage activation and susceptibility or resistance to MHV-3 infection. Peritoneal macrophages were isolated from resistant A/J and susceptible BALB/cJ mice and, following stimulation with MHV-3 or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), analyzed for transcription of mRNA and production of interleukin-1 (IL-1), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), mouse fibrinogen-like protein (musfiblp), tissue factor (TF), leukotriene B4, and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Macrophages from BALB/cJ mice produced greater amounts of IL-1, TNF-alpha, TGF-beta, leukotriene B4, and musfiblp following MHV-3 infection than macrophages from resistant A/J mice, whereas in response to LPS, equivalent amounts of IL-1, TNF-alpha, TGF-beta, and TF were produced by macrophages from both strains of mice. Levels of mRNA of IL-1, TNF-alpha, and musfiblp were greater and more persistent in BALB/cJ than in A/J macrophages, whereas the levels and kinetics of IL-1, TNF-alpha, and TF mRNA following LPS stimulation were identical in macrophages from both strains of mice. Levels of production of PGE2 by MHV-3-stimulated macrophages from resistant and susceptible mice were equivalent; however, the time course for induction of PGE2, differed, but the total quantity of PGE2 produced was insufficient to inhibit induction of musfiblp, a procoagulant known to correlate with development of fulminant hepatic necrosis in susceptible mice. These results demonstrate marked differences in production of inflammatory mediators to MHV-3 infection in macrophages from resistant A/J and susceptible BALB/cJ mice, which may explain the marked hepatic necrosis and fibrin deposition and account for the lethality of MHV-3 in susceptible mice.