Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Large‐scale compatible methods for the preservation of human embryonic stem cells: Current perspectives

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and hESC‐derived cells are of great interest, not only because of their therapeutic potential but also their prospective uses in in vitro drug and toxicity screening. The ability to preserve these cells is critical, allowing for the generation of quality‐controlled stocks of cells, transport of cells between sites, and avoiding the need for expensive and time‐consuming continuous culture. Current methodologies, namely conventional slow freezing and vitrification, can successfully preserve hESCs and their differentiated progeny, retaining the key characteristics of the cells. However, there is a significant gap between the number of cells potentially needed to either treat patients or run a high‐throughput drug screen and how many cells can be preserved using these techniques. Therefore, this review focuses on the scalability of slow freezing and vitrification, identifying key barriers to success and whether they can be overcome. Given the precedent with other mammalian cells in using slow freezing to successfully preserve large quantities of cells and its compatibility with current and emerging culture methods for hESCs, it is likely to become the method of choice for cryopreserving these cells at scale. However, issues other than scale still exist; therefore, alternatives to cryopreservation should also be explored. Here, the potential to lyophilize hESCs for long‐term storage is considered as one such alternative. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2011
The anatomic correlate of prosopagnosia in semantic dementia

Objective: To determine the anatomic correlate of prosopagnosia in subjects with semantic dementia. Methods: We identified all subjects who had been evaluated by an experienced behavioral neurologist, met criteria for semantic dementia, and had completed a volumetric head MRI scan. In all subjects, historical records were reviewed and subjects in which the presence (n = 15) or absence (n = 12) of prosopagnosia was specifically ascertained by the neurologist were identified. Voxel-based morphometry was used to assess patterns of gray matter atrophy in subjects with and without prosopagnosia compared to a group of age and gender-matched normal controls, and compared to each other. Results: Compared to controls, both groups showed prominent temporal lobe volume loss. Those with prosopagnosia showed bilateral loss but with greater involvement of the right temporal lobe, while those without prosopagnosia showed predominantly left anterior temporal lobe loss. On direct comparison, subjects with prosopagnosia showed greater loss predominantly in the right amygdala, hippocampus, fusiform gyrus, and anterior temporal pole than those without prosopagnosia. No regions were involved to a greater degree in those without prosopagnosia, compared to those with prosopagnosia. Conclusions: Prosopagnosia appears to be associated with volume loss of the right temporal lobe, particularly medial temporal lobe, fusiform gyrus, and anterior temporal pole, although in semantic dementia it is occurring in the context of bilateral temporal lobe volume loss.
High Cycle Fatigue Damage Model for Delamination Crack Growth in CF/Epoxy Composite Laminates

This article presents the development of a fatigue damage model which helps to carry out simulation of the evolution of delamination in the laminated composite structures under cyclic loadings. A classical interface damage evolution law, which is commonly used to predict the static debonding process, is modified further to incorporate fatigue delamination effects due to high cycle loadings. An improved formulation is also presented to incorporate the ‘R’ ratio effects. The proposed fatigue damage model is identified using fracture mechanics tests like double cantilever beam, end-notched-flexure and mixed-mode bending. Then a non-monotonic behavior is used to predict the fatigue damage parameters able to carry out delamination simulations for different mode mixtures. Linear Paris plot behaviors of the above-mentioned fracture mechanics tests are successfully compared with available experimental data on HTA/6376C and AS4/PEEK unidirectional materials.
Time to explain the nature of hypnosis

Time distortion is a well known phenomenon of hypnosis. Perhaps less well known are the distortions to temporal judgement that are exhibited by patients with Parkinson's disease or schizophrenia. Both these classes of patient also suffer from hallucinations, which of course can be induced in hypnosis. It is argued that these are not chance parallels; they can all be accommodated by Gray's (1995) account of the neurophysiology underpinning consciousness. Recognizing that patients with hallucinations have their consciousness altered, it is concluded that hypnosis too represents an altered state of consciousness. The degree of alteration is shown to be correlated with the magnitude of time distortion experienced. In contrast with many studies, it is also reported that distortion is significantly greater in those who are highly susceptible to hypnosis. Copyright © 2006 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Graphs and Spatial Relations in the Generation of Referring Expressions

When they introduced the Graph-Based Algorithm (GBA) for referring expression generation, Krahmer et al. (2003) flaunted the natural way in which it deals with relations between objects; but this feature has never been tested empirically. We fill this gap in this paper, exploring referring expression generation from the perspective of theGBAand focusing in particular on generating human-like expressions in visual scenes with spatial relations. We compare the originalGBAagainst a variant that we introduce to better reflect human reference, and find that although the originalGBAperforms reasonably well, our new algorithm offers an even better match to human data (77.91% Dice). Further, it can be extended to capture speaker variation, reaching an 82.83% Dice overlap with human-produced expressions.
Effect of Heat Treatment on Sorption Properties and Dimensional Stability of Wood

This research was performed in order to determine how the heating process affects sorption properties and dimensional and shape stability of oak, lime and birch wood. By subjecting specimens to 3 hours heating at 130, 160, 190 and 220 oC temperatures, a decrease in volume, density and mass was observed in proportion to the applied temperature. It was established that when oak wood specimens underwent heating at 220 oC temperature, the decline of mass was 1.2 times higher than in the case of birch specimens. Both heated and unheated specimens underwent moistening in air at 25 oC ±1 oC temperature for 3 weeks with relative humidity being 85 % ±1 % and were soaked in water at room temperature for 4 hours. It was found that after applying high temperature heating, specimens absorbed smaller amounts of moisture. It was demonstrated that during the soaking process, the volume of unheated specimens was 3 times higher than in the case of specimens heated at 220 oC temperature. The change in the volume of unheated oak was 1.27 times smaller than in the case of lime specimens and 1.16 times larger than in the case of birch specimens, which underwent heating at 220 oC temperature. In addition, specimens that were exposed to heat had more stable measurements and shapes. It was noticed that the heating process caused significant changes in moisture and dimensional stability of specimens, when higher temperatures ranging from 190 oC to 220 oC were used. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.ms.19.3. 5239
Antisense RNA Targeting of Primase Interferes with Bacteriophage Replication in Streptococcus thermophilus

ABSTRACT The putative primase gene and other genes associated with the Sfi21-prototype genome replication module are highly conserved in Streptococcus thermophilus bacteriophages. Expression of antisense RNAs complementary to the putative primase gene (pri3.1) from S. thermophilus phage κ3 provided significant protection from κ3 and two other Sfi21-type phages. Expression of pri3.10-AS, an antisense RNA that covered the entire primase gene, reduced the efficiency of plaquing (EOP) of κ3 to 3 × 10−3 and reduced its burst size by 20%. Mutant phages capable of overcoming antisense inhibition were not recovered. Thirteen primase-specific antisense cassettes of different lengths (478 to 1,512 bp) were systematically designed to target various regions of the gene. Each cassette conferred some effect, reducing the EOP to between 0.8 and 3 × 10−3. The largest antisense RNAs (1.5 kb) were generally found to confer the greatest reductions in EOP, but shorter (0.5 kb) antisense RNAs were also effective, especially when directed to the 5′ region of the gene. The impacts of primase-targeted antisense RNAs on phage development were examined. The expression of pri3.10-AS resulted in reductions in target RNA abundance and the number of phage genomes synthesized. Targeting a key genome replication function with antisense RNA provided effective phage protection in S. thermophilus.
Childhood videotaped social and neuromotor precursors of schizophrenia: a prospective investigation.

OBJECTIVE The authors examined videotaped behaviors of children who developed schizophrenia as adults and of comparison subjects to disclose possible social and neuromotor deficits foreshadowing later development of schizophrenia. METHOD In 1972, a sample of 265 11-13-year-old Danish children were filmed under standardized conditions while they were eating lunch. The examination was part of a larger study investigating early signs of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Many of the subjects had a parent with schizophrenia, leaving them at high risk for developing a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. In 1991, adult psychiatric outcome data were obtained for 91.3% (N=242). This study systematically analyzed the videotapes to determine whether the children who developed schizophrenia as adults evidenced greater social and/or neuromotor deficits than children who did not develop a psychiatric disorder and children who developed other psychiatric disorders. RESULTS The findings from this study suggest that the brief videotaped footage of children eating lunch was able to discriminate between the individuals who later developed schizophrenia and those who did not. Specifically, the preschizophrenia children evidenced differences on measures of sociability and general neuromotor functioning (among boys) from the children who developed other psychiatric disorders and the children who did not develop a psychiatric disorder. CONCLUSIONS Social and neuromotor deficits specific to children who develop schizophrenia in adulthood provide further support for a neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia.
‘Theory of mind’ in the brain. Evidence from a PET scan study of Asperger syndrome

THE ability to attribute mental states to others (‘theory of mind’) pervades normal social interaction and is impaired in autistic individuals. In a previous positron emission tomography scan study of normal volunteers, performing a ‘theory of mind’ task was associated with activity in left medial prefrontal cortex. We used the same paradigm in five patients with Asperger syndrome, a mild variant of autism with normal intellectual functioning. No task-related activity was found in this region, but normal activity was observed in immediately adjacent areas. This result suggests that a highly circumscribed region of left medial prefrontal cortex is a crucial component of the brain system that underlies the normal understanding of other minds.
Real-time polymerase chain reaction assays for the detection of members of the Mycoplasma mycoides cluster

Abstract AIM: To develop real-time PCR assays for the detection and differentiation of members of the Mycoplasma mycoides cluster. METHODS: Five real-time PCR assays were designed to allow differentiation of members of the M. mycoides cluster: an assay for detection of the M. mycoides subspecies, viz M. mycoides subsp mycoides large colony (MmmLC), M. mycoides subsp capri (Mmc), and M. mycoides subsp mycoides small colony (MmmSC); one for the detection of the M. capricolum subspecies, viz M. capricolum subsp capricolum (Mcc), M. capricolum subsp capripneumoniae (Mccp), and Mycoplasma sp bovine group 7 (BG7); and three for the specifi c detection of MmmSC, Mccp, and BG7. A panel of 74 Mycoplasma isolates from various geographical origins and a panel of 21 other bacterial isolates were used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the assays. RESULTS: The assays displayed 100% analytical sensitivity in detecting all target Mycoplasma isolates. The analytical detection limit for the assays to detect the M. mycoides subspecies, M. capricolum subspecies, and MmmSC was determined to be 100 fg of genomic DNA, while the Mccp and BG7 assays had a detection limit of 100 fg and 10 fg of genomic DNA, respectively. The M. mycoides subspecies assay had a detection limit of 103 (SD 102) cfu/ml milk, 104 (SD 104) cfu per swab, and 103 (SD 103) cfu/g lung in inoculated samples. The assays displayed 100% specificity when applied to non-target bacterial isolates and to 110 culture-negative milk samples. CONCLUSIONS: The assays were highly sensitive and specific, and provide accurate detection and differentiation of the members of the M. mycoides cluster.
Semi-Stochastic Gradient Descent Methods

In this paper we study the problem of minimizing the average of a large number ($n$) of smooth convex loss functions. We propose a new method, S2GD (Semi-Stochastic Gradient Descent), which runs for one or several epochs in each of which a single full gradient and a random number of stochastic gradients is computed, following a geometric law. The total work needed for the method to output an $\varepsilon$-accurate solution in expectation, measured in the number of passes over data, or equivalently, in units equivalent to the computation of a single gradient of the loss, is $O((\kappa/n)\log(1/\varepsilon))$, where $\kappa$ is the condition number. This is achieved by running the method for $O(\log(1/\varepsilon))$ epochs, with a single gradient evaluation and $O(\kappa)$ stochastic gradient evaluations in each. The SVRG method of Johnson and Zhang arises as a special case. If our method is limited to a single epoch only, it needs to evaluate at most $O((\kappa/\varepsilon)\log(1/\varepsilon))$ stochastic gradients. In contrast, SVRG requires $O(\kappa/\varepsilon^2)$ stochastic gradients. To illustrate our theoretical results, S2GD only needs the workload equivalent to about 2.1 full gradient evaluations to find an $10^{-6}$-accurate solution for a problem with $n=10^9$ and $\kappa=10^3$.
A new surgical technique for deep stromal, anterior lamellar keratoplasty

AIMS To describe a new surgical technique for deep stromal anterior lamellar keratoplasty. METHODS In eye bank eyes and sighted human eyes, aqueous was exchanged by air, to visualise the posterior corneal surface−that is, the “air to endothelium” interface. Through a 5.0 mm scleral incision, a deep stromal pocket was created across the cornea, using the air to endothelium interface as a reference plane for dissection depth. The pocket was filled with viscoelastic, and an anterior corneal lamella was excised. A full thickness donor button was sutured into the recipient bed after stripping its Descemet’s membrane. RESULTS In 25 consecutive human eye bank eyes, a 12% microperforation rate was found. Corneal dissection depth averaged 95.4% (SD 2.7%). Six patient eyes had uneventful surgeries; in a seventh eye, perforation of the lamellar bed occurred. All transplants cleared. Central pachymetry ranged from 0.62 to 0.73 mm. CONCLUSION With this technique a deep stromal anterior lamellar keratoplasty can be performed with the donor to recipient interface just anterior to the posterior corneal surface. The technique has the advantage that the dissection can be completed in the event of inadvertent microperforation, or that the procedure can be aborted to perform a planned penetrating keratoplasty.
Autonomous Voltage Unbalance Compensation in an Islanded Droop-Controlled Microgrid

1 Abstract —Recently, there is an increasing interest in using distributed generators (DGs) not only to inject power into the grid, but also to enhance the power quality. In this paper, a stationary-frame control method for voltage unbalance compensation in an islanded microgrid is proposed. This method is based on the proper control of DGs interface converters. The DGs are controlled to compensate voltage unbalance autonomously while share the compensation effort and also active and reactive power, properly. The control system of the DGs mainly consists of active and reactive power droop controllers, virtual impedance loop, voltage and current controllers and unbalance compensator. The design approach of the control system is discussed in detail and simulation and experimental results are presented. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in compensation of voltage unbalance.
Introducing visual cues in acoustic-to-articulatory inversion

The contribution of facial measures in a statistical acoustic-to- articulatory inversion has been investigated. The tongue contour was estimated using a linear estimation from either acoustics or acoustics and facial measures. Measures of the lateral movement of lip corners and the vertical movement of the upper and lower lip and the jaw gave a substantial improvement over the audio-only case. It was further found that adding the corresponding articulatory measures that could be extracted from a profile view of the face; i.e. the protrusion of the lips, lip corners and the jaw, did not give any additional improvement of the inversion result. The present study hence suggests that audiovisual-to-articulatory inversion can as well be performed using front view monovision of the face, rather than stereovision of both the front and profile view.
Mental imagery in program design and visual programming

There is widespread anecdotal evidence that expert programmers make use of visual mental images when they are designing programs. This evidence is used to justify the use of diagrams and visual programming languages during software design. This paper reports the results of two studies. In the first, expert programmers were directly questioned regarding the nature of their mental representations while they were engaged in a design task. This investigative technique was used with the explicit intention of eliciting introspective reports of mental imagery. In the second, users of a visual programming language responded to a questionnaire in which they were asked about cognitive processes. The resulting transcripts displayed a considerable number of common elements. These suggests that software design shares many characteristics of more concrete design disciplines. The reports from participants in the two studies, together with previous research into imagery use, indicate potential techniques for further investigation of software development support tools and design strategies.
23-Hour observation solely for identification of missed injuries after trauma: is it justified?

BACKGROUND The use of an observation period to identify missed injuries in trauma patients has gained favor in recent years. This study was undertaken in a population of patients with minimal or no identified injuries to determine the following: whether a period of in-patient observation identifies missed injuries; demographic factors associated with missed injuries; and morbidity of missed injuries. METHODS Over 4 years at a Level I trauma center, 4,738 patients were observed for 23 hours. Of these patients, 630 were converted to full admission and were reviewed. All medical records were reviewed for reason for observation, reason for conversion to full admission, and presence of missed injury. RESULTS In the 4,738 patients observed, 35 had a missed injury identified. No clinical factors studied were associated with identifying a missed injury. Of the 35 patients that had a missed injury, 21 did not have clinically relevant injuries, whereas the 14 remaining patients did. All of the 14 required prolonged hospital admissions and 9 underwent invasive procedures. CONCLUSION Of over 4,700 observed trauma patients, less than 0.5% remained hospitalized for significant missed injuries. No factors were identified that predicted missed injuries. Twenty-three-hour observation for the purpose of identifying missed injuries after thorough emergency department evaluation may not be justified.
The quest for the African dummy: explaining African post‐colonial economic performance revisited

Cross-sectional studies of growth in post‐colonial Africa have overwhelmingly focussed on explaining the failure of growth in Africa. This prompting stylised fact has its qualifications and when these are taken into consideration the explanations of African economic growth appear incoherent. The notion of a chronic African growth failure has diverted attention from the process of economic growth and left important questions unaddressed. The quest for the African dummy has delivered transferable conclusions with a strong impact on the writing of African economic history. This critical survey of the literature argues that African economic performance needs to be evaluated from a different perspective. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mating-type switching by chromosomal inversion in methylotrophic yeasts suggests an origin for the three-locus Saccharomyces cerevisiae system

Significance Saccharomyces cerevisiae undergoes a programmed DNA rearrangement to switch between mating types a and alpha. The origins of this complex and multifaceted process, which requires three copies of the mating-type (MAT) locus (with two silenced), have remained unknown. In this study we present a mechanism for mating-type switching in methylotrophic yeasts that shares a common origin with the well-characterized system in S. cerevisiae but has simpler components. This system requires only two copies of the MAT locus, with one copy transcriptionally repressed by proximity to centromeric or telomeric chromatin. Switching between the mating types occurs by recombination between inverted-repeat sequences flanking the MAT loci. This system suggests an ancestral mechanism for mating-type switching in yeasts. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a complex system for switching the mating type of haploid cells, requiring the genome to have three mating-type (MAT)–like loci and a mechanism for silencing two of them. How this system originated is unknown, because the three-locus system is present throughout the family Saccharomycetaceae, whereas species in the sister Candida clade have only one locus and do not switch. Here we show that yeasts in a third clade, the methylotrophs, have a simpler two-locus switching system based on reversible inversion of a section of chromosome with MATa genes at one end and MATalpha genes at the other end. In Hansenula polymorpha the 19-kb invertible region lies beside a centromere so that, depending on the orientation, either MATa or MATalpha is silenced by centromeric chromatin. In Pichia pastoris, the orientation of a 138-kb invertible region puts either MATa or MATalpha beside a telomere and represses transcription of MATa2 or MATalpha2. Both species are homothallic, and inversion of their MAT regions can be induced by crossing two strains of the same mating type. The three-locus system of S. cerevisiae, which uses a nonconservative mechanism to replace DNA at MAT, likely evolved from a conservative two-locus system that swapped genes between expression and nonexpression sites by inversion. The increasing complexity of the switching apparatus, with three loci, donor bias, and cell lineage tracking, can be explained by continuous selection to increase sporulation ability in young colonies. Our results provide an evolutionary context for the diversity of switching and silencing mechanisms.