Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Anterior Vertebral Interbody Fusion Using Osteogenic Mesenchymal Stem Cells Transplanted in Collagen Sponge

Study Design:The study used a rabbit model to achieve anterior vertebral interbody fusion using osteogenic mesenchymal stem cells (OMSCs) transplanted in collagen sponge. Objective:We investigated the effectiveness of graft material for anterior vertebral interbody fusion using a rabbit model by examining the OMSCs transplanted in collagen sponge. Summary of Background Data:Anterior vertebral interbody fusion is commonly performed. Although autogenous bone graft remains the gold-standard fusion material, it requires a separate surgical procedure and is associated with significant short-term and long-term morbidity. Recently, mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow have been studied in various fields, including posterolateral spinal fusion. Thus, we hypothesized that cultured OMSCs transplanted in porous collagen sponge could be used successfully even in anterior vertebral interbody fusion. Methods:Forty mature male White Zealand rabbits (weight, 3.5–4.5 kg) were randomly allocated to receive one of the following graft materials: porous collagen sponge plus cultured OMSCs (group I); porous collagen sponge alone (group II); autogenous bone graft (group III); and nothing (group IV). All animals underwent anterior vertebral interbody fusion at the L4/L5 level. The lumbar spine was harvested en bloc, and the new bone formation and spinal fusion was evaluated using radiographic analysis, microcomputed tomography, manual palpation test, and histologic examination at 8 and 12 weeks after surgery. Results:New bone formation and bony fusion was evident as early as 8 weeks in groups I and III. And there was no statistically significant difference between 8 and 12 weeks. At both time points, by microcomputed tomography and histologic analysis, new bone formation was observed in both groups I and III, fibrous tissue was observed and there was no new bone in both groups II and IV; by manual palpation test, bony fusion was observed in 40% (4/10) of rabbits in group I, 70% (7/10) of rabbits in group III, and 0% (0/10) of rabbits in both groups II and IV. Conclusions:These findings suggest that mesenchymal stem cells that have been cultured with osteogenic differentiation medium and loaded with collagen sponge could induce bone formation and anterior vertebral interbody fusion. And the rabbit model we developed will be useful in evaluating the effects of graft materials for anterior vertebral interbody fusion. Further study is needed to determine the most appropriate carrier for OMSCs and the feasibility in the clinical setting.
The virtual university's faculty: An overview of educational agents

Much research and development work is being undertaken on educational agents. Each project, it seems, starts out from its own educational needs and theoretical bases. In this paper, an attempt is made to approach educational agents from a pedagogical view. Based on a model of learning and teaching that tries to keep its distance from individual "schools" of learning theories, it looks at educational agents as members of the faculty of a global virtual university: What is their role in the learning process and how do theyfulfill it? The paper suggests a basic distinction between pedagogic roles for agents: "simulated" vs. "emergent" roles, where the first are modeled on human educators of any kind, while the second are new and specific for virtual learning settings. We conclude that there remain many more new educational agents to invent.
Detection of human papilloma virus DNA in seven cases of focal epithelial hyperplasia in Iran.

BACKGROUND Focal epithelial hyperplasia (FEH), also known as Heck's disease, is a very rare disease of the oral cavity especially in Asia. It is a disease of children and young adults. Various causes have been implicated but in majority of cases FEH is caused by some subtypes of human papilloma virus (HPV) especially 13 and 32. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a useful tool to identify HPV in FEH as it is a rapid and sensitive method. OBJECTIVE This study was designed to determine special HPV subtypes in seven cases of Heck's disease referring to our department by using PCR analysis. METHOD Paraffin sections of seven patients clinically diagnosed as FEH with compatible histhopathological features underwent DNA extraction procedures for PCR examination. Initially, all specimens were tested for presence of HPV virus followed by specific PCR testing for 16, 18, 13, and 32 subtypes in positive samples. RESULTS Human papilloma virus was found in all samples. In five cases HPV13 and in one case HPV32 was positive. One case showed strong reactivity for HPV but none of tested subtypes were positive. All cases were negative for HPV 16 and 18. CONCLUSIONS Similar with other studies about FEH, most of our cases were associated with HPV 13 but other subtypes may also be implicated.
Wireless secret key generation exploiting the reactance-domain scalar response of multipath fading channels : RSSI interleaving scheme

A secure communication scheme that uses the random fluctuation of the natural environment of communication channels is studied and an improved scheme for the secret key generation is proposed. We have been developing a novel secret key generation and agreement scheme that uses the fluctuation of channel characteristics with an Espar (electronically steerable parasitic array radiator) antenna. This antenna consists of a single central active element surrounded by parasitic elements loaded with variable reactors. Using an Espar antenna, we can increase the fluctuation of the channel characteristics and acquire the undulated RSSI (received signal strength indicator) profile in a short time to generate a randomized secret key. We acquire more randomized and stronger secret keys generated from the interleaved RSSI values in this scheme. As a result of experiments on the prototype system in which the IEEE 802.15. 4/ZigBeetrade wireless PAN (personal area network) chip is mounted, we confirmed that the probability of success for key generation was estimated to exceed 99.998% when 128-bit secret keys are changed every two seconds and that the generated secret keys were sufficiently random to pass the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) PUB 140-2 statistical test for random numbers
Beta‐catenin and axis formation in planarians

In three recent articles it was shown that β‐catenin is crucial for the establishment and the maintenance of the overall polarity and especially for the character ‘posterior’ in planarians. If the transcription of the β‐catenin gene was silenced by RNA interference, the overall polarity is lost, and in regenerating fragments a posterior blastema displays anterior characters by forming eyes and anterior ganglia. An attempt is made to integrate these new data, well‐known older observations, and observations from other regenerating systems into an outline of a model that will clarify our current understanding as well as highlight areas still to be developed.
Title : Association between cognition and gene polymorphisms involved in thrombosis and haemostasis Running title : Thrombosis and haemostasis associations with cognition

Affiliations: [1]Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK [2]Centre for Integrative Physiology, Medical Genetics Section, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK [3]School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK [4]Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen. UK [5]Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK [6]Institute of Primary Care and Public Health, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK [7]Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
The Ly phenotype of suppressor T cells arising in mice subjected to a graft-versus-host reaction

T cells with helper and suppressor functions arising during graft-versus-host reaction (B6 vs. BDF1) have been characterized with respect to their Ly surface antigens. Helper cells were found to express the phenotype Ly 1+2- and suppressor cells the phenotype Ly 1+2+. Ly 1-2+ T cells had no suppressive effect in this system. T cells of the host did not contribute to either activity.
Inducing Disbelief in Free Will Alters Brain Correlates of Preconscious Motor Preparation

The feeling of being in control of one’s own actions is a strong subjective experience. However, discoveries in psychology and neuroscience challenge the validity of this experience and suggest that free will is just an illusion. This raises a question: What would happen if people started to disbelieve in free will? Previous research has shown that low control beliefs affect performance and motivation. Recently, it has been shown that undermining free-will beliefs influences social behavior. In the study reported here, we investigated whether undermining beliefs in free will affects brain correlates of voluntary motor preparation. Our results showed that the readiness potential was reduced in individuals induced to disbelieve in free will. This effect was evident more than 1 s before participants consciously decided to move, a finding that suggests that the manipulation influenced intentional actions at preconscious stages. Our findings indicate that abstract belief systems might have a much more fundamental effect than previously thought.
EFFECTS OF FEEDING FREQUENCY ON METABOLISM, RATE AND EFFICIENCY OF GAIN AND ON CARCASS QUALITY OF PIGS.

The effect of feeding pigs a 2000-g ration and 5000 ml water in one or 5 meals daily was determined by metabolism, growth and carcass quality measure ments. In the first experiment, with 50-kg pigs, differences in digestibility coefficients due to increased feeding frequency were negligible. The efficiency of calorie conversion to fat and protein gain, derived from nitrogen and carbon balances, was about 49% for both groups of pigs. The more frequently fed pigs eliminated more fecal but less urinary water than the pigs fed once daily. The same restricted feeding regimens used for the caged pigs in experiment 1 were applied to individually penned, 60-kg pigs in the second experiment. A higher rate of gain by the pigs fed once daily was attributed to the effect of "fill" as evidenced by lighter carcass weights and smaller carcass gains. No significant difference between the 2 groups of pigs could be shown by any of the carcass measuiements taken which included specific density. The metabolism of experimental animals may be influenced by the frequency of feed intake (1). Less body fat, but more body protein and water was stored by rats feed ing at frequent intervals ad libitum than by rats force-fed twice daily the same ra tion. Greater urinary excretion of nonprotein nitrogen and urea nitrogen by force-fed rats has also been reported (2). It has been suggested that by increasing the frequency of feeding pigs, improve ments may be obtained in efficiency of feed conversion and carcass quality (3). Few studies have been made with pigs on the effect of single or multiple feeding. Braude et al. (4) observed little or no effect on the performance and carcass quality of pigs fed once or twice daily. However, better weight gain and a tend ency towards improved feed conversion was recorded for pigs of about 50and 90-kg body weight, fed twice daily com pared with others fed 4 times daily (5). Psenicnyj (6) reported on the effects of the number of daily feedings on the digesti bility of feed and on metabolism in pigs. Pregnant and lactating sows were fed twice or 3 times daily in one test, and 8-month old fattening pigs fed either 2, 3 or 4 times daily in a second test. In both tests, the digestibility of protein and the retention of nitrogen appeared to be im proved by less frequent feeding. A de crease in the number of feedings from 4 to 2, reduced the production of carbon J. NUTRITION,83: '64 dioxide and increased the daily gain in body weight of fattening pigs. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects on the metabolism, growth rate, feed conversion and carcass quality of feeding pigs either once or 5 times daily.
Performance measurements for full wave inversion (FWI) based multistatic handheld ground penetrating radar (GPR) for landmine detection

This paper reports the results of a study to investigate the impact of antenna configuration and rough ground surface on the performance of multistatic handheld ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems for anti-personnel (AP) landmine detection. The work is a follow on to the conclusions presented in [1] which include the fact that enhanced imaging through full wave inversion (FWI) is achieved with multiple receivers in comparison to typical bistatic systems in handheld GPR. This paper seeks to address a couple of aspects of future work outlined in the aforementioned work. Specifically, the study aims to quantitatively characterise the effect of different antenna configurations and rough ground surface on the performance of small multistatic GPR systems used for FWI based subsurface imaging for demining operations. The 3D electromagnetic (EM) software CST STUDIO SUITE is used to model and simulate the GPR system and singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis is used to estimate parameter sensitivity based on the assumption of prior FWI.
Preliminary results of Galileo direct imaging of S‐L 9 impacts

Direct Galileo imaging data were obtained of the Jupiter impact sites for Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragments K, N, and W during their early, high-energy phases. Initial ∼5s-long flashes for all 3 impacts result from radiant bolides; analogous, abrupt onsets of luminosity observed by the Galileo photopolarimeter for other impacts must also be the bolide phase. The 3 bolides were dim at 0.56 or 0. 89µm (few percent of total Jupiter) and had similar amplitudes, despite huge late-stage differences observed from Earth. Subsequent, continuous luminosity lasting ∼40s for K and ∼10s for N is optical radiation as the initial bolide train erupts into a “fireball”. The K light curve may show (a) two impacts 10s apart or (b) delayed evolution of the fireball.
Innovating Collaborative Content Creation: The Role of Altruism and Wiki Technology

Wikipedia demonstrates the feasibility and success of an innovative form of content creation, namely openly shared, collaborative writing. This research sought to understand the success of Wikipedia as a collaborative model, considering both technology and participant motivations. The research finds that while participants have both individualistic and collaborative motives, collaborative (altruistic) motives dominate. The collaboration model differs from that of open source software development, which is less inclusive with respect to participation, and more "selfish" with respect to contributor motives. The success of the Wikipedia model appears to be related to wiki technology and the "wiki way" of collaboration
Development of Face Perception

This paper examines the development of face perception mainly in infancy and analyzes to what extent it does reveal a specific process. For that reason data drawn from object perception as well as from perception of one's own face will also be examined. Studying face recognition in infancy is a complex enterprise because several different abilities intervene in this phenomenon : the modes of visual exploration, the categorization ability, the ability to detect invariances, etc. Moreover the methodological paradigms that investigators have at their disposal are different enough to generally lead to divergent conclusions. This is why it is important to review the various methods used to study face perception in infants: the habituation paradigm, the preferential looking paradigm, the scanning studies and the imitation studies. Data obtained with these methods are closely examined in relation to the main distinc­ tions suggested by the investigators in that field : holistic/analytic perception; internal/external bias; featural/prototypical processing. Finally an overall assessment of face recognition development is offered in view of the various data obtained.
Applauding Mediocrity: Tl Dating and the Navajo Tree Ring Dates Revisited

In their 2002 study comparing Early Navajo period tree ring dates and thermoluminescence (TL) results from sherds and fire-altered rocks, Dykeman et al. (2002:145) applaud the “remarkable correspondence between tree-ring and thermoluminescence results. ” However, re-examination of their data suggests that the rate of certain correspondence (40%) is low, and mathematical modeling shows that a similar rate (35%) could be achieved with random guesses for dates. As the Dykeman et al. (2002) article was presented to champion the use of TL dating on sherds and fire-altered rocks, this re-examination yields a call for more extensive controlled testing of the TL method before its widespread use in North American archaeology.
Colorectal preOperative Surgical Score (CrOSS) for mortality in major colorectal surgery

Colorectal surgery carries a significant mortality risk, with reported rates of 1–6% for elective surgery and up to 22% in the emergency setting. Both clinicians and patients will benefit from being able to predict the likelihood of death before surgery. Recently, we have described and validated two risk stratification models for colorectal surgery, the Barwon Health 2012 and Association Française de Chirurgie models. However, these models are not suitable for assessment at patient's bedside. The purpose of this study is to develop a simplified preoperative model capable of predicting mortality following colorectal surgery.
Two Related but Distinct Chondroitin Sulfate Mimetope Octasaccharide Sequences Recognized by Monoclonal Antibody WF6*

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) proteoglycans are major components of cartilage and other connective tissues. The monoclonal antibody WF6, developed against embryonic shark cartilage CS, recognizes an epitope in CS chains, which is expressed in ovarian cancer and variably in joint diseases. To elucidate the structure of the epitope, we isolated oligosaccharide fractions from a partial chondroitinase ABC digest of shark cartilage CS-C and established their chain length, disaccharide composition, sulfate content, and sulfation pattern. These structurally defined oligosaccharide fractions were characterized for binding to WF6 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using an oligosaccharide microarray prepared with CS oligosaccharides derivatized with a fluorescent aminolipid. The lowest molecular weight fraction recognized by WF6 contained octasaccharides, which were split into five subfractions. The most reactive subfraction contained several distinct octasaccharide sequences. Two octasaccharides, ΔD-C-C-C and ΔC-C-A-D (where A represents GlcUAβ1-3GalNAc(4-O-sulfate), C is GlcUAβ1-3Gal-NAc(6-O-sulfate), D is GlcUA(2-O-sulfate)β1-3GalNAc(6-O-sulfate), ΔCis Δ4,5HexUAα1-3GalNAc(6-O-sulfate), and ΔDis Δ4,5HexUA(2-O-sulfate)α1-3GalNAc(6-O-sulfate)), were recognized by WF6, but other related octasaccharides, ΔC-A-D-C and ΔC-C-C-C, were not. The structure and sequences of both the binding and nonbinding octasaccharides were compared by computer modeling, which revealed a remarkable similarity between the shape and distribution of the electrostatic potential in the two different octasaccharide sequences that bound to WF6 and that differed from the nonbinding octasaccharides. The strong similarity in structure predicted for the two binding CS octasaccharides (ΔD-C-C-C and ΔC-C-A-D) provided a possible explanation for their similar affinity for WF6, although they differed in sequence and thus form two specific mimetopes for the antibody.
Homeric Values and Homeric Society

Dr Long's interest in my work (JHS xc [1970] 121–39; hereafter referred to as ‘Long’) is naturally very welcome; but it seems to me to require further comment in its turn. In order to advance the discussion, I shall be compelled to refer on a number of occasions to what I have written elsewhere in articles, and indeed on other pages of Merit and Responsibility. I shall begin with some very general points, some concerned with philosophy, some with interpretation. First, can ‘an historical reference for Homeric society’ be found ‘in the individual oikos, such that Homeric values can be seen to derive consistently from its needs’? The ‘facts of Homeric life’ to which I endeavour to relate my analysis of Homeric values are those contained in Professor M. I. Finley's admirable The World of Odysseus. My very occasional disagreements are concerned with interpretations within an agreed framework: Professor Finley's framework. I shall turn to the historicity of the society in a moment; but there seems in any case to be no prima facie absurdity in employing the tools of the social anthropologist on an overtly fictional society, say More's Utopia, with the intention, perhaps, of displaying incongruities and discrepancies: however fictional it might be, there would still be a society and values to discuss.
Movement of Viruses between Biomes

ABSTRACT Viruses are abundant in all known ecosystems. In the present study, we tested the possibility that viruses from one biome can successfully propagate in another. Viral concentrates were prepared from different near-shore marine sites, lake water, marine sediments, and soil. The concentrates were added to microcosms containing dissolved organic matter as a food source (after filtration to allow 100-kDa particles to pass through) and a 3% (vol/vol) microbial inoculum from a marine water sample (after filtration through a 0.45-μm-pore-size filter). Virus-like particle abundances were then monitored using direct counting. Viral populations from lake water, marine sediments, and soil were able to replicate when they were incubated with the marine microbes, showing that viruses can move between different ecosystems and propagate. These results imply that viruses can laterally transfer DNA between microbes in different biomes.
Effects of Physical and Personal Risk Factors on Sick Leave Due to Musculoskeletal Disorders

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of physical and personal risk factors on sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders in an Iranian car company. In this cross-sectional study, 234 workers participated and all of them had sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders in the past year. A physical risk factor checklist and personal information questionnaire were used as data-gathering tools. There was no significant relationship between physical risk factors and sick leave (p > .05). Cigarette smoking (p = .045), body mass index >30 (p = .046) and age (p = .044) showed a significant relationship with sick leave. Workers with lumbar deviation of 20°–60°(OR 1.10) and >60°(OR 1.11) were at greater risk. The ratios for workers with repetitive work (OR 1.30) and workers with force exertion (OR 1.36) were greater than for other workers. Taking preventive actions to improve the ergonomic working conditions of assembly workers and their lifestyle seems crucial.