Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation, Characterization, Cryopreservation of Human Amniotic Stem Cells and Differentiation to Osteogenic and Adipogenic Cells

Human stem cells and progenitor cells can be used to treat cancer and replace dysfunctional cells within a tissue or organ. The objective of this study was to identify the appropriate cells type in regenerative medicine and targeted therapy. As an alternative to embryonic and bone marrow stem cells, we examined human amniotic fluid stem cells (hAFSCs), one of the potential source of multipotent stem cells isolated from both cell pellet (using single-stage method), and supernatant of human amniotic fluid. Source of isolation and unique property of the cells emphasize that these cells are one of the promising new tools in therapeutic field. Double sources for isolation and availability of the left over samples in diagnostic laboratory at the same time have less legal and ethical concerns compared with embryonic stem cell studies. Cells were isolated, cultured for 18th passage for 6 months and characterized using qPCR and flow cytometry. Cells showed good proliferative ability in culture condition. The cells successfully differentiated into the adipogenic and osteogenic lineages. Based on these findings, amniotic fluid can be considered as an appropriate and convenient source of human amniotic fluid stem cells. These cells provide potential tools for therapeutic applications in the field of regenerative medicine. To get a better understanding of crosstalk between Oct4/NANOG with osteogenesis and adipogenesis, we used network analysis based on Common Targets algorithm and Common Regulators algorithm as well as subnetwork discovery based on gene set enrichment. Network analysis highlighted the possible role of MIR 302A and MIR let-7g. We demonstrated the high expression of MIR 302A and low expression of MIR let7g in hAFSCs by qPCR.
A multi‐resolution census algorithm for calculating vortex statistics in turbulent flows

Summary. The fundamental equations that model turbulent flow do not provide much insight into the size and shape of observed turbulent structures. We investigate the efficient and accurate representation of structures in two‐dimensional turbulence by applying statistical models directly to the simulated vorticity field. Rather than extract the coherent portion of the image from the background variation, as in the classical signal‐plus‐noise model, we present a model for individual vortices using the non‐decimated discrete wavelet transform. A template image, which is supplied by the user, provides the features to be extracted from the vorticity field. By transforming the vortex template into the wavelet domain, specific characteristics that are present in the template, such as size and symmetry, are broken down into components that are associated with spatial frequencies. Multivariate multiple linear regression is used to fit the vortex template to the vorticity field in the wavelet domain. Since all levels of the template decomposition may be used to model each level in the field decomposition, the resulting model need not be identical to the template. Application to a vortex census algorithm that records quantities of interest (such as size, peak amplitude and circulation) as the vorticity field evolves is given. The multiresolution census algorithm extracts coherent structures of all shapes and sizes in simulated vorticity fields and can reproduce known physical scaling laws when processing a set of vorticity fields that evolve over time.
The affirmative inclination of the shì-bù-shì+VP question and its typological significance

It is found in this paper that the shi-bu-shi + VP question, different from other affirmative-negative questions, has, semantically, obvious affirmative inclination. A comparison between the shi-bu-shi + VP question and other affirmative-negative question, and the yes-no question with ba at the end in the degree of doubt shows that the shi-bu-shi + VP question is one that is consultative in nature. An analysis was made to find the pragmatic categories of this formula and the differences in the degree of doubt of the subcategories. Finally we made a chronological investigation of this formula and concluded it has a twofold origin: the contraction of shi + VP+ bu-shi and the transposition of VP +shi-bu-shi. The reason for this development lies in the fact that this formula is cognitively superior to the original ones, or probably in the influence of the dialectical formula V + bu + VO in the South. This phenomenon is significant in linguistic typology.
Asynchronous iterative solution for state-based performance metrics

Solution of large sparse fixed-point problems, Mline over x = over x and Mline over x + line over b = over x, may be seen as underpinning many important performance-analysis calculations. These calculations include steady-state, passage-time and transient-time calculations in discrete-time Markov chains, continuous-time Markov chains and semi-Markov chains. In recent years, much work has been done to extend the application of asynchronous iterative fixed-point solution methods to many different contexts. This work has been motivated by the potential for faster solution, more efficient use of the communication channel and/or access to memory, and simplification of task management and programming. In this paper, we present theoretical developments which allow us to extend theapplication of asynchronous iterative solution methods to solve for the key performance metrics mentioned above-such that we may employ the full breadth of Chazan and Miranker's classes of asynchronous iterations.
Road Recognition Using Fuzzy Classifiers

Current learning approaches to computer vision have mainly focussed on low-level image processing and object recognition, while tending to ignore higher level processing for understanding. We propose an approach to scene analysis that facilitates the transition from recognition to understanding. It begins by segmenting the image into regions using standard approaches, which are then classified using a discovered fuzzy Cartesian granule feature classifier. Understanding is made possible through the transparent and succinct nature of the discovered models. The recognition of roads in images is taken as an illustrative problem. The discovered fuzzy models while providing high levels of accuracy (97%), also provide understanding of the problem domain through the transparency of the learnt models. The learning step in the proposed approach is compared with other techniques such as decision trees, naive Bayes and neural networks using a variety of performance criteria such as accuracy, understandability, and efficiency.
Scaling drug indication curation through crowdsourcing

Motivated by the high cost of human curation of biological databases, there is an increasing interest in using computational approaches to assist human curators and accelerate the manual curation process. Towards the goal of cataloging drug indications from FDA drug labels, we recently developed LabeledIn, a human-curated drug indication resource for 250 clinical drugs. Its development required over 40 h of human effort across 20 weeks, despite using well-defined annotation guidelines. In this study, we aim to investigate the feasibility of scaling drug indication annotation through a crowdsourcing technique where an unknown network of workers can be recruited through the technical environment of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). To translate the expert-curation task of cataloging indications into human intelligence tasks (HITs) suitable for the average workers on MTurk, we first simplify the complex task such that each HIT only involves a worker making a binary judgment of whether a highlighted disease, in context of a given drug label, is an indication. In addition, this study is novel in the crowdsourcing interface design where the annotation guidelines are encoded into user options. For evaluation, we assess the ability of our proposed method to achieve high-quality annotations in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner. We posted over 3000 HITs drawn from 706 drug labels on MTurk. Within 8 h of posting, we collected 18 775 judgments from 74 workers, and achieved an aggregated accuracy of 96% on 450 control HITs (where gold-standard answers are known), at a cost of $1.75 per drug label. On the basis of these results, we conclude that our crowdsourcing approach not only results in significant cost and time saving, but also leads to accuracy comparable to that of domain experts. Database URL: ftp://ftp.ncbi. nlm.nih. gov/pub/lu/LabeledIn/Crowdsourcing/.
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What Is Implicit Self-Esteem, and Does it Vary Across Cultures?

Implicit self-esteem (ISE), which is often defined as automatic self-evaluations, fuses research on unconscious processes with that on self-esteem. As ISE is viewed as immune to explicit control, it affords the testing of theoretical questions such as whether cultures vary in self-enhancement motivations. We provide a critical review and integration of the work on (a) the operationalization of ISE and (b) possible cultural variation in self-enhancement motivations. Although ISE measures do not often vary across cultures, recent meta-analyses and empirical studies question the validity of the most common way of defining ISE. We revive an alternative conceptualization that defines ISE in terms of how positively people evaluate objects that reflect upon themselves. This conceptualization suggests that ISE research should target alternative phenomena (e.g., minimal group effect, similarity-attraction effect, endowment effect) and it allows for a host of previous cross-cultural findings to bear on the question of cultural variability in ISE.
Mechanical responses to two-tone distortion products in the apical and basal turns of the mammalian cochlea.

Mechanical responses to one- and two-tone acoustic stimuli were recorded from the cochlear partition in the apical turn of the chinchilla cochlea, the basal turn of the guinea pig cochlea, and the hook region of the guinea pig cochlea. The most sensitive or "best" frequencies (BFs) for the sites studied were approximately 500 Hz, 17 kHz, and 30 kHz, respectively. Responses to the cubic difference tone (CDT), 2F1 - F2 (where F1 and F2 are the frequencies of the primary stimuli), were characterized at each site. Responses to the quadratic difference tone (QDT), F2 - F1, were also characterized in the apical turn preparations (QDT responses were too small to measure in the basal cochlea). The observed responses to BF QDTs and CDTs and to BF CDTs at each site appeared similar in many ways; the relative magnitudes of the responses were highest at low-to-moderate sound pressure levels (SPLs), for example, and the absolute magnitudes grew nonmonotonically with increases in the level of either primary (L1 or L2) alone. The peak effective levels of the CDT and QDT responses were also similar, at around -20 dB re L1 and/or L2. In other respects, however, the responses to CDTs and QDTs and to BF CDTs at each site behaved quite differently. At low-to-moderate SPLs, for example, most CDT phase leads decreased with increases in either L1 or L2, whereas most QDT phase leads increased with increasing L1 and varied little with L2. Most CDT responses also varied monotonically with equal-level primaries (i.e., when L1 = L2), whereas most QDT responses varied nonmonotonically. Different responses also varied in different ways when F1 and F2 were varied. Apical turn QDT responses were observed over a very wide F1/F2 range (F1 = 1-12 kHz), but were usually largest for stimuli <2-4 kHz. Apical turn CDT levels decreased (at rates of approximately 40-80 dB/octave) only when the frequency ratio F2/F1 increased beyond approximately 1.4-1.5. In the basal turn and hook regions, the CDT levels depended nonmonotonically on F2/F1 with the eventual rates of decrease being approximately 200 dB/octave. Optimal frequency ratios for the CDT increased from (F2 < 1.1F1) to (F2 approximately 1.2F1) with increasing SPL in the basal turn, but were stable at around F2/F1 approximately 1.05 in the hook region. CDT phase leads tended to increase with increasing F2/F1 in all three regions of the cochlea, particularly at low-to-moderate SPLs. These findings are discussed in relation to previous studies of cochlear mechanics, physiology, and psychophysics.
Multimodality in own communication management

This study studies how gestures (here defined in a wide sense, including all body movements which have a communicative function) are used for Own Communication Management (OCM), an interesting and not completely well described part of the language system. OCM concerns how a speaker continuously manages the planning and execution of his/her own communication and is a basic function in face-to-face interaction. It has two main functions, i.e. "choice" and "change". The study investigates how much of OCM involves gestures and whether there is a difference between choice and change OCM in this respect. It also concerns what kinds of gestures are used in OCM and what the relation is between vocal and gestural OCM. Some of the main findings are that roughly 50% of all speech based OCMcooccurs with gestures and that most of the OCM involving gestures (about 90%) is choice directed. Gestures occurring with OCM can illustrate the content of a sought after word, but also more generally induce word activation. They can also signal to an interlocutor that the speaker needs time. Gestures are often multifunctional and, thus, both choice and change are often integrated with more interactive functions. A final observation is that gestural OCM either precedes or occurs simultaneously with verbal OCM.
Pathways to resilience: how drawings reveal pre-service teachers’ core narratives underpinning their future teacher-selves

ABSTRACT For this study of teacher-identity, which is part of a larger research project on teacher resilience, preservice teachers were invited to draw “the kind of teacher you hope to become”. In this, our study recognises drawing as a semiotic system of meaning-making and communication. The drawings were examined in terms of the “stories” they told. Using an emergent design approach to the data, drawings were synthesised into categories that were distilled into theme clusters. A hermeneutic reading revealed the core identity narrative underpinning each teacher-identity story. This story was told in sociocultural terms, or constructed around functioning at work or couched in terms of personal validation and achievement. These core identity narratives signal what “matters” to preservice teachers’ sense of their teacher-selves. Since there is an observed correlation between teacher-identity and resilience, knowing what matters is a helpful basis for building resilience.
Association of p62/SQSTM1 Excess and Oral Carcinogenesis

p62/SQSTM1 (sequestosome1) has never been evaluated in oral epithelium. In order to clarify the role of p62/SQSTM1 in carcinogenesis in oral epithelium, both p62/SQSTM1 and Nrf2 were immunohistochemically evaluated in 54 carcinomas and 14 low grade dysplasias. p62/SQSTM1 knockdowns were also designed in oral cancer cells, and we analyzed the Nrf2 pathway, GSH contents and ROS accumulation. The association between p62/SQSTM1 excess and prognosis was addressed in a clinical cohort of oral carcinoma cases. p62/SQSTM1 excess was more obvious in carcinomas, but Nrf2 was abundant in almost all samples of the oral epithelium. In oral carcinoma cells, p62/SQSTM1 knockdown did not affect the Nrf2-Keap1 pathway but did significantly reduce GSH content with subsequent ROS accumulation, and caused cell growth inhibition in the irradiated condition. Finally, p62/SQSTM1 excess was associated with poor prognosis in a clinical cohort. In oral epithelial carcinogenesis, p62/SQSTM1 excess played a role in GSH induction rather than Nrf2 accumulation, and may cause resistance to cytotoxic stresses such as radiation or chemotherapy. Immunohistochemical evaluation of p62/SQSTM1 may be a potential significant marker to identify early carcinogenesis, chemo-radiotherapeutic resistance or poor prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinomas.
The Impact of Product Line Extensions and Consumer Goalson the Formation of Price Image

How do vertical product line extensions influence a retailer’ sprice image? Conventional wisdom suggests that adding an upscale or downscale item to a product line has a directionally consistent impact on price image, such that upscale extensions increase price image and downscale extensions decrease price image. In contrast, this research argues that vertical extensions can have the opposite effect, such that upscale extensions can decrease rather than increase price image, and vice versa for downscale extensions. The authors further propose that the impact of vertical extensions on price image is a function of consumer goals and, in particular, whether consumers have the intent of browsing or buying. The authors test these predictions in a series of five empirical studies that offer converging evidence in support of the proposed theory.
The mass and luminosity functions and the formation rate of DA white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Aims. The SDSS Data Release 1 includes 1833 DA white dwarfs (WDs) and forms the largest homogeneous sample of WDs. This sample provides the best opportunity to study the statistical properties of WDs. Methods. We adopt a recently established theoretical model to calculate the mass and distance of each WD using the observational data. Then we adopt a bin-correction method to correct for selection effects and use the 1/V weight-factor method to calculate the luminosity function, the continuous mass function and the formation rate of these WDs. Results. The SDSS DA WD sample is incomplete and suffers seriously from selection effects. After corrections for the selection effects, only 531 WDs remain. From this final sample we derive the most up-to-date luminosity function and mass function, in which we find a broad peak of WD masses centered around 0.58 M ⊙ . The DA WD space density is calculated as 8.81 x 10 -5 pc -3 and the formation rate is 2.579 × 10 -13 pc -3 yr -1 . Conclusions. The statistical properties of the SDSS DA WD sample are generally in good agreement with previous observational and theoretical studies, and provide us information on the formation and evolution of WDs. However, a larger and more complete all-sky WD sample is still needed to explain some subtle disagreements and unresolved issues.
The metal abundance of circumnuclear star-forming regions in early-type spirals. Spectrophotometric observations

We have obtained long-slit observations in the optical and near infrared of 12 circumnuclear HII regions (CNSFR) in the early type spiral galaxies NGC 2903, NGC 3351 and NGC 3504 with the aim of deriving their chemical abundances. Only for one of the regions, the [SIII] 6312 A was detected providing, together with the nebular [SIII] lines at 9069, 9532 A, a value of the electron temperature of Te([SIII])= 8400 +4650 1250K. A semi-empirical method for the derivation of abundances in
Optimal Placement of A Relay Node with Controllable Mobility in Wireless Networks Considering Fairness

Since the capacity of a wireless link depends on the distance between its transmitter and receiver nodes, the optimal placement of nodes in the wireless network is important to improve the system efficiency. We study this issue in this paper considering a wireless network that consists of multiple nodes that do not have controllable mobility and a relay node that has controllable mobility. We model the capacity of a wireless link between node and relay node as a function of the distance between them. We then formulate the optimization problem that aims at maximizing the weighted throughput of a node that achieves the lowest weighted throughput among all nodes. Unfortunately, the problem is inherently non-convex, which is in general difficult to solve. However, in this paper, we develop the algorithm for the optimal placement of the relay node based on duality theories in optimization. We also show that the optimal position of the relay node obtained by our algorithm is in fact the weighted max-min fair position.
Automatic car detection in high resolution urban scenes based on an adaptive 3D-model

This article introduces a new approach to automatic car detection in monocular high resolution aerial images. The extraction is based on a 3D-model that describes the prominent geometric features of cars by a wireframe representation. Furthermore, vehicle color, windshield color, and intensity of a car's shadow area are included as radiometric features. During extraction, the model automatically adapts the expected saliency of these features depending on vehicle color measured from the image and the actual illumination direction given a priori. Car extraction is carried out by matching the model "top-down" to the image and evaluating the support found in the image. In contrast to most of the related work, our approach neither relies on external information like digital maps or site models, nor it is limited to one single vehicle model. Various examples illustrate the applicability of this approach. However, they also show the deficiencies which clearly define the next steps of our future work.
The long noncoding RNA MALAT1 promotes tumor-driven angiogenesis by up-regulating pro-angiogenic gene expression

Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumor during early childhood. One of the key features of neuroblastoma is extensive tumor-driven angiogenesis due to hypoxia. However, the mechanism through which neuroblastoma cells drive angiogenesis is poorly understood. Here we show that the long noncoding RNA MALAT1 was upregulated in human neuroblastoma cell lines under hypoxic conditions. Conditioned media from neuroblastoma cells transfected with small interfering RNAs (siRNA) targeting MALAT1, compared with conditioned media from neuroblastoma cells transfected with control siRNAs, induced significantly less endothelial cell migration, invasion and vasculature formation. Microarray-based differential gene expression analysis showed that one of the genes most significantly down-regulated following MALAT1 suppression in human neuroblastoma cells under hypoxic conditions was fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). RT-PCR and immunoblot analyses confirmed that MALAT1 suppression reduced FGF2 expression, and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays revealed that transfection with MALAT1 siRNAs reduced FGF2 protein secretion from neuroblastoma cells. Importantly, addition of recombinant FGF2 protein to the cell culture media reversed the effects of MALAT1 siRNA on vasculature formation. Taken together, our data suggest that up-regulation of MALAT1 expression in human neuroblastoma cells under hypoxic conditions increases FGF2 expression and promotes vasculature formation, and therefore plays an important role in tumor-driven angiogenesis.