Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age‐related changes in bone formation, osteoblastic cell proliferation, and differentiation during postnatal osteogenesis in human calvaria

We have determined the age‐related changes in the growth characteristics and expression of the osteoblast phenotype in human calvaria osteoblastic cells in relation with histologic indices of bone formation during postnatal calvaria osteogenesis. Histomorphometric analysis of normal calvaria samples obtained from 36 children, aged 3 to 18 months, showed an age‐related decrease in the extent of bone surface covered with osteoblasts and newly synthesized collagen, demonstrating a progressive decline in bone formation during postnatal calvaria osteogenesis. Immunohistochemical analysis showed expression of type I collagen, bone sialoprotein, and osteonectin in the matrix and osteoblasts, with no apparent age‐related change during postnatal calvaria osteogenesis. Cells isolated from human calvaria displayed characteristics of the osteoblast phenotype including alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, osteocalcin (OC) production, expression of bone matrix proteins, and responsiveness to calciotropic hormones. The growth of human calvaria osteoblastic cells was high at 3 months of age and decreased with age, as assessed by (3H)‐thymidine incorporation into DNA. Thus, the age‐related decrease in bone formation is associated with a decline in osteoblastic cell proliferation during human calvaria osteogenesis. In contrast, ALP activity and OC production increased with age in basal conditions and in response to 1,25(OH)2, vitamin D3, suggesting a reciprocal relationship between cell growth and expression of phenotypic markers during human postnatal osteogenesis. Finally, we found that human calvaria osteoblastic cells isolated from young individuals with high bone formation activity in vivo and high growth potential in vitro had the ability to form calcified nodular bone‐like structures in vitro in the presence of ascorbic acid and β‐glycerophosphate, providing a new model to study human osteogenesis in vitro. J. Cell. Biochem. 64:128–139. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Rare potential complications of thyroid fine needle biopsy.

UNLABELLED Thyroid fine needle biopsy (FNB) is the procedure of choice for the management of thyroid nodules. Serious complications after FNB are rare, but there is also an underestimation of complication risk because of record, selection and publication biases. HYPOTHESIS Apart from the well-documented post-FNB complications, we hypothesized that there are potential complications following FNB, albeit supported by limited evidence in the literature. According to our hypothesis, there may be five distinct expected rare complications: 1) cyst fluid leakage; 2) anaphylactic reaction; 3) pneumothorax; 4) thromboembolism and 5) needle tract seeding of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) or thyroid lymphoma. CONCLUSIONS Cyst fluid leakage and pneumothorax may be of minimal clinical significance. Needle tract seeding of MTC or thyroid lymphoma may not have significant clinical consequences, if someone considers the easiness and effectiveness of surgical removal of needle tract seeding in cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. On the contrary, anaphylactic reaction or thromboembolism may be life-threatening. The performers of thyroid FNB are hereby encouraged to publish these complications, if they ever occur, because awareness of them could render FNB even safer.
Using full‐cohort data in nested case–control and case–cohort studies by multiple imputation

In many large prospective cohorts, expensive exposure measurements cannot be obtained for all individuals. Exposure–disease association studies are therefore often based on nested case–control or case–cohort studies in which complete information is obtained only for sampled individuals. However, in the full cohort, there may be a large amount of information on cheaply available covariates and possibly a surrogate of the main exposure(s), which typically goes unused. We view the nested case–control or case–cohort study plus the remainder of the cohort as a full‐cohort study with missing data. Hence, we propose using multiple imputation (MI) to utilise information in the full cohort when data from the sub‐studies are analysed. We use the fully observed data to fit the imputation models. We consider using approximate imputation models and also using rejection sampling to draw imputed values from the true distribution of the missing values given the observed data. Simulation studies show that using MI to utilise full‐cohort information in the analysis of nested case–control and case–cohort studies can result in important gains in efficiency, particularly when a surrogate of the main exposure is available in the full cohort. In simulations, this method outperforms counter‐matching in nested case–control studies and a weighted analysis for case–cohort studies, both of which use some full‐cohort information. Approximate imputation models perform well except when there are interactions or non‐linear terms in the outcome model, where imputation using rejection sampling works well. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Spontaneous activation of hamster oocytes in vitro.

OBJECTIVES To observe the time of spontaneous activation of hamster oocytes and to find out the early signs of hamster oocytes activation. METHODS First, 63 hamster oocytes including activated and non-activated oocytes (group A) and 51 non-activated oocytes (group B) were injected with human sperm and checked for fertilization after 16-18 hours. Then, 20 hamster oocytes were cultured in vitro in medium with or without calcium and examined under light microscope every half an hour up to 9 hours. RESULTS Under light microscope, hamster oocytes activation were observed to undergo 4 stages: metaphase II stage without meiotic spindle, appearance of meiotic spindle near the first polar body, protrusion of oolemma, and complete extrusion of second polar body with pronucleus formation. After culture for 1.5 hours in vitro, 30%-40% of the oocytes demonstrated meiotic spindle; but after 9 hours, 50% showed complete activation. Culture in medium without calcium showed a little delay in the process of activation. The earliest sign of spontaneous activation in hamster oocytes was the appearance of meiotic spindle near the first polar body. Although group A and B showed no difference, the damage rate was lower in group B (19.7% +/- 16.6%) than in group A (35.9% +/- 5.7%) (P = 0.08), whereas the fertilization rate (18.3% +/- 10.9%) was higher in group B than in group A (14.2% +/- 8.7%) (P = 0.135). CONCLUSIONS Hamster oocytes may be activated spontaneously early after their removal. It is important to recognize the earliest sign of spontaneous activation and perform intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) before it happens.
The application of the Symbolic Aggregate Approximation algorithm (SAX) to radio frequency fingerprinting of IoT devices

Radio Frequency (RF) fingerprinting is the problem of identifying and authenticating an electronic device through its radio frequency emissions. These emissions contain intrinsic features of the device itself. RF fingerprinting can be used to enhance the security of wireless networks since the fingerprints provide a form of authentication complementing other measures. RF-based authentication turns out to be of practical use in security applications as long as the RF fingerprinting delivers high identification and verification accuracy, and the whole process is computationally efficient. In this paper, we investigate a novel approach to RF fingerprinting based on the application to time series of the Symbolic Aggregate Approximation algorithm (SAX). This is a compression scheme known to be time efficient and, although it has been applied to many domains, it has so far never been investigated in the problem of RF fingerprinting. We demonstrate that a SAX-based approach provides a very high identification accuracy (over 99%), and turns out to be attractive, as compared to classification without SAX, from both a computational standpoint and its robustness to noise.
Situationally dependent changes in moral values: Manipulating moral beliefs using a robotic experimenter

Moral Foundations Theory describes morality as consisting of separately measurable moral foundations. One challenge this theory faces is that moral values are non-static in reality: They differ intrasubjectively depending on context, time and events, while any single measurement of foundation values in subjects is a static snapshot. To address this challenge, the current bachelor thesis project investigates how moral values change over time by measuring them in the same subjects before and after said subjects have been put into a situation that is meant to impact their beliefs. Similar to the second experiment by Vohs & Schooler[1] that this thesis attempts to partially replicate, each subject is manipulated in one of several conditions (free will, determinism, neutral) and is asked to solve complicated problems as part of a competition during which it is possible to cheat. The Pepper robot is used as a replacement of the human experimenter and strengthens the conditions of the experiment by producing statements written from its perspective as a deterministic system. This project could not replicate findings by Vohs & Schooler(2008): The manipulation of beliefs had no significant effect on amounts of cheating. Additionally, it could not find a significant of the same manipulation on measurements of subjects’ moral values.
Identification and Characterization of a Novel Microtubule-Based Motor Associated with Membranous Organelles in Tobacco Pollen Tubes

Pollen tube growth depends on the differential distribution of organelles and vesicles along the tube. The role of microtubules in organelle movement is uncertain, mainly because information at the molecular level is limited. In an effort to understand the molecular basis of microtubule-based movement, we isolated from tobacco pollen tubes polypeptides that cosediment with microtubules in an ATP-dependent manner. Major polypeptides released from microtubules by ATP (ATP-MAPs) had molecular masses of 90, 80, and 41 kD. Several findings indicate that the 90-kD ATP-MAP is a kinesin-related motor: binding of the polypeptide to microtubules was enhanced by the nonhydrolyzable ATP analog AMP-PNP; the 90-kD polypeptide reacted specifically with a peptide antibody directed against a highly conserved region in the motor domain of the kinesin superfamily; purified 90-kD ATP-MAP induced microtubules to glide in motility assays in vitro; and the 90-kD ATP-MAP cofractionated with microtubule-activated ATPase activity. Immunolocalization studies indicated that the 90-kD ATP-MAP binds to organelles associated with microtubules in the cortical region of the pollen tube. These findings suggest that the 90-kD ATP-MAP is a kinesin-related microtubule motor that moves organelles in the cortex of growing pollen tubes.
Functionally Distinct LAG-3 and PD-1 Subsets on Activated and Chronically Stimulated CD8 T Cells1

Lymphocyte Activation Gene-3 (LAG-3) is a transmembrane protein that binds MHC class II, enhances regulatory T cell activity, and negatively regulates cellular proliferation, activation, and homeostasis of T cells. Programmed Death 1 (PD-1) also negatively regulates T cell function. LAG-3 and PD-1 are both transiently expressed on CD8 T cells that have been stimulated during acute activation. However, both LAG-3 and PD-1 remain on CD8 T cells at high levels after stimulation within tolerizing environments. Our previous data demonstrated that blockade of either LAG-3 or PD-1 using mAb therapy in combination with vaccination restores the function of tolerized Ag-specific CD8 T cells in models of self and tumor tolerance. It is unclear whether tolerized CD8 T cells coexpress PD-1 and LAG-3 or whether PD-1 and LAG-3 mark functionally distinct populations of CD8 T cells. In this study, we describe three populations of CD8 T cells activated under tolerizing conditions based on LAG-3 and PD-1 staining, each with distinct phenotypic and functional characteristics. From a mechanistic perspective, both Ag concentration and proinflammatory signals control the expression of LAG-3 and PD-1 phenotypes on CD8 T cells under activating and tolerizing conditions. These results imply that signaling through the PD-1 and LAG-3 pathways have distinct functional consequences to CD8 T cells under tolerizing conditions and manipulation of both Ag and cytokine signaling can influence CD8 tolerance through LAG-3 and PD-1.
Characterization of CAN Network Susceptibility to EFT Transient Noise

The susceptibility of controller area network (CAN) communications to electrical fast transients (EFTs) applied to the signal ports of transceivers is investigated. The impact of EFT stress is evaluated referring to IC level (IEC 62228) CAN standards. The main factors contributing to noise rejection in CAN signaling are analyzed and communication failures are highlighted. The effectiveness of measures to prevent failures during an EFT event is experimentally evaluated on several transceivers and design guidelines are proposed to improve immunity to transient noise.
Event-based detection of lapses of responsiveness

EEG spectral power has been shown to correlate with level of arousal and alertness in humans. In this paper, we assess its usefulness in the detection of lapses of responsiveness (‘lapses’) on an event, rather than state, basis. Eight non-sleep-deprived normal subjects performed two 1-hour sessions of a continuous tracking task while EEG and facial video were recorded. Lapses were identified by the presence of tracking flat spots or clear instances of behavioural microsleeps as identified by a human rater observing video recordings of the subject. Spectral power in the standard EEG bands was calculated using the Burg method on 16 bipolar derivations to form an EEG feature matrix. Linear discriminant analysis was used to form a classifier for each subject. The 8 classifiers were combined using stacked generalization with constrained-least squares fitting to create an overall detection model. Estimation of lapse-event detection performance required the development of a novel procedure to account for the variable duration of lapses. Event detection for the concatenated data from all 8 subjects yielded an overall sensitivity of 73.5%, selectivity of 25.5%, and accuracy of 61.2%. While the performance of this detector is modest, and not yet sufficient for real-time detection, the detection of lapses at such a high temporal resolution (1 s) is encouraging relative to previous studies which have generally tended to estimate changes in alertness on a minute-scale basis.
Differential Influence of Normal and Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts on the Growth of Human Epithelial Cells in an In vitro Cocultivation Model of Prostate Cancer

The prostate is composed of a number of different cell populations. The interaction between them is crucial for the development and proper function of the prostate. However, the effect of the molecular cross talk between these cells in the course of carcinogenesis is still unclear. Employing an approach wherein immortalized epithelial cells and immortalized human fibroblasts were cocultured, we show that normal associated fibroblasts (NAF) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) differentially influenced the growth and proliferation of immortalized human prostate epithelial cells. Whereas NAFs inhibited the growth of immortalized epithelial cells but promoted the growth of metastatic PC-3 cells, CAFs promoted the growth of immortalized epithelial cells but not of PC-3. Cytokine arrays revealed that NAFs secreted higher levels of tumor necrosis factor-α compared with CAFs whereas CAFs secreted higher levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) compared with NAFs. The growth-inhibiting effects of NAFs were counteracted by the addition of IL-6, and the growth-promoting effects exerted by the CAFs were counteracted by tumor necrosis factor-α. Furthermore, CAFs induced the migration of endothelial cells in an IL-6–dependent manner. Here, we show that normal fibroblast cells have a protective function at very early stages of carcinogenesis by preventing immortalized epithelial cells from proliferating and forming new blood vessels whereas CAFs aid immortalized epithelial cells to further develop. (Mol Cancer Res 2009;7(8):1212–23)
Corralling, planting density, and N fertilizer rate effect on soil properties, weed diversity, and maize yield

ABSTRACT The interaction effect of stocking density of sheep and goat corralling (SDSG), maize planting density (MPD), and N fertilizer rate (NFR) on soil properties, weed diversity, and maize yield were evaluated on-farm in a smallholder maize-livestock farming system of Northern Ghana during the 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons. A split-split plot design replicated on eight farms was used to study the effect of three SDSG (0, 70, and 140 head ha−1), three MPD (66 667, 100 000, and 133 333 plants ha−1), and three NFR (0–40-40, 60–40-40, and 90–40-40 NPK kg ha−1). The SDSG at 70 and 140 head ha−1 increased (P < 0.01) soil chemical and biological properties and weed diversity compared with the control in both cropping seasons. Maize growth, yield and yield components, and weed biomass were affected (P < 0.05) by the SDSG, MPD, and NFR interactions. Maize-livestock farmers with smaller flock size could use SDSG at 70 head ha−1 with NFR at 90 kg ha−1, whilst those with large flock size could stock at 140 head ha−1 with NFR at 60 kg ha−1 and MPD at 133 333 plants ha−1 for increased maize yield and weed management.
Identification of speech by cochlear implant recipients with the multipeak (MPEAK) and spectral peak (SPEAK) speech coding strategies II. Consonants.

OBJECTIVE The major objective of this study was to evaluate differences in consonant recognition with the Multipeak (MPEAK) and the Spectral Peak (SPEAK) speech coding strategies of the Nucleus-22 Cochlear Implant System. This objective was addressed by comparison of acoustic and electrode activation analyses of consonants with cochlear implant recipients' responses to these same consonant tokens when they used the two speech coding strategies. DESIGN Nine subjects identified 14 English consonants with the MPEAK and SPEAK speech coding strategies. These strategies were compared with an ABAB design. Evaluation occurred during two weekly sessions after subjects used each strategy for at least 3 wk in everyday life. RESULTS Group medial consonant [aCa] identification scores with the SPEAK strategy were significantly higher than with the MPEAK strategy (76.2% versus 67.5%; p < 0.001). This improvement was largely due to the significant increase in information transmitted for the place feature (p < 0.001) through accurate tracking of second formant transitions and spectrally specific stimulation patterns to differentiate [s] from [symbol see text] and [n] from [m], and the stop consonant bursts. For this reason, more nasal consonants were correctly identified with SPEAK, but there also were more non-nasal error responses when the nasal murmur was of unusually low amplitude. Consequently, significantly less information was transmitted for the nasality feature with SPEAK than MPEAK (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Electrical stimulation with the SPEAK strategy provided better spectral representation of the stop consonant bursts, tracking formant transitions into the following vowel, frication in the consonant [symbol see text], and the formants for the nasals [m] and [n] than with the MPEAK strategy. The marked improvement in recognition of the velar consonants, [g] and [k], which cannot be seen during speechreading, should allow greater ease and accuracy of communication with SPEAK than MPEAK.
Serum and Cerebrospinal Fluid Concentrations of Midazolam After Epidural Administration in Dogs

The epidural administration of midazolam has analgesic effects that might be mediated by &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptors in the spinal cord. In this study, we examined both serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of midazolam after epidural administration to investigate the possibility of midazolam entering CSF directly from the epidural space. Five male mongrel dogs had catheters inserted in a femoral artery, the epidural space at L3-4, and the intrathecal space at the atlanto-occipital region under general anesthesia. Midazolam 1 mg/kg was epidurally administered, and arterial blood and CSF samples were collected until 240 min after the midazolam administration to measure midazolam concentration. Serum midazolam concentration increased and reached a peak at 30 min after the administration (224.8 ± 30.5 ng/mL) and then decreased to 25.8 ± 6.0 ng/mL at 240 min. Midazolam concentration in the CSF was less than the detection limit at 5 min, reached a peak at 30 min after the administration (7.2 ± 4.7 ng/mL), and decreased to 3.6 ± 3.3 ng/mL at 240 min. In conclusion, epidurally administered midazolam enters CSF, but CSF concentrations are only 3% of those in the systemic circulation.
Recent strategies in the development of new human cytomegalovirus inhibitors

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is one of the most common opportunistic infections in immunucompromised individuals, such as AIDS patients and organ transplant recipients, and is the most frequent congenital viral infection in humans. Despite a reduction of the incidence of AIDS‐related opportunistic infections in patients under highly active antiretroviral treatment, attention should be paid to the HCMV risk factor in these individuals. Furthermore, HCMV may have an important role in atherosclerosis. Existing antiviral treatments for the HCMV infection suffer from poor bioavailability, toxicity, and limited effectiveness, mainly due to the development of drug resistance. Fortunately there are novel and potentially very effective new compounds undergoing pre‐clinical and clinical evaluation. This review provides an overview in the last five years of new HCMV inhibitors (chemical structures, SAR, and new mechanisms of action) with the aim to provide new clues for the development of future drugs against this opportunistic virus. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Med Res Rev, 21, No. 3, 227–244, 2001
Board Advisory Tasks: The Importance to Differentiate between Functional and Firm‐Specific Advice

In small and medium-sized organizations, boards of directors often spend most of their time providing advice to the management. As the content of advice provided has seldom been the focus of previous studies, we differentiate between functional and firm-specific advisory tasks. We examine antecedents of the two types to explain why this differentiation is important. Applying group effectiveness arguments, we study the effects board members' different knowledge bases and diversity have on the two advisory tasks, considering the mediating effects of board processes. Our results suggest that it is important to distinguish between different types of board members' knowledge and different board advisory tasks. Our findings have direct implications for research and practice. First, there is a need to go beyond the surface level understanding of what boards are doing. Second, our results emphasize the importance of organizational knowledge, and hence question the call for independent board members for advice provision.