Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevascular Structures Promote Vascularization in Engineered Human Adipose Tissue Constructs upon Implantation

Vascularization is still one of the most important limitations for the survival of engineered tissues after implantation. In this study, we aim to improve the in vivo vascularization of engineered adipose tissue by preforming vascular structures within in vitro-engineered adipose tissue constructs that can integrate with the host vascular system upon implantation. Different cell culture media were tested and different amounts of human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ASC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were combined in spheroid cocultures to obtain optimal conditions for the generation of prevascularized adipose tissue constructs. Immunohistochemistry revealed that prevascular structures were formed in the constructs only when 20% ASC and 80% HUVEC were combined and cultured in a 1:1 mixture of endothelial cell medium and adipogenic medium. Moreover, the ASC in these constructs accumulated lipid and expressed the adipocyte-specific gene fatty acid binding protein-4. Implantation of prevascularized ASC/HUVEC constructs in nude mice resulted in a significantly higher amount of vessels (37 ± 17 vessels/mm2) within the constructs compared to non-prevascularized constructs composed only of ASC (3 ± 4 vessels/mm2). Moreover, a subset of the preformed human vascular structures (3.6 ± 4.2 structures/mm2) anastomosed with the mouse vasculature as indicated by the presence of intravascular red blood cells. Our results indicate that preformed vascular structures within in vitro-engineered adipose tissue constructs can integrate with the host vascular system and improve the vascularization upon implantation.
Cultural similarities and differences in user-defined gestures for touchscreen user interfaces

As the first phase of a two-phase project, the International Usability Partners (IUP; http://www.international-usability-partners.com/) conducted a study in nine different countries to identify cultural similarities and differences in the use of gestures on small, handheld, touchscreen user interfaces. A total of 340 participants in the study were asked to define their own gestures for 28 common actions like "zoom" and "copy" on a custom-constructed gesture recorder that simulated a handheld touchscreen device. Actions were described pictorially by showing participants a "before" screen and an "after" screen to clarify the exact context for each action. Initial analysis suggests four primary findings. The first is that there is generally a high level of agreement across cultures. One exception, however, is the use of symbolic gestures; Chinese participants created significantly (p < .01) more symbolic gestures (e.g. letters, question mark, check mark) than participants from other countries. The second finding is that experience with gesture-enabled devices influenced the gestures that participants created for the following actions: back, forward, scroll up, and scroll down. The third finding is that when a gesture to elicit an action was not immediately identifiable, participants generally tapped on the screen to bring up a menu. The final finding is that there is higher agreement on actions that can be performed through direct manipulation and lower agreement scores on actions that are more symbolic in nature. Phase two of this research effort will be to present the most common three to five user-defined gestures for each action to a large number of participants and ask them to select the gesture that they believe to be the most intuitive gesture for that action.
Is induction therapy still needed in heart transplantation?

Purpose of reviewInduction therapy has continued to be a subject of controversy in heart transplantation for more than 20 years. The benefits and safety of this approach as a universal strategy have been studied during the past decade with disparate results. This report reviews the challenges in induction therapy during the past decade, describes the recent reports, and explores the pitfalls and benefits of using this strategy in heart transplantation. Recent findingsRecent developments in induction therapy have paved the way for new approaches how to use antibodies in this setting. Alemtuzumab, a new monoclonal antibody against the CD52 antigen on mature lymphocytes, was successfully tested in cardiac transplant patients, showing significantly less rejection incidence with low infection rates. Long-term examinations of antithymocyte globulin induction showed lower rejection rates and no increase of posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disease risk. However, higher infection rates were found. Patient groups have been selected who might have particular benefit form induction therapy. These groups consist of patients with a high risk to develop cellular or antibody rejection, patients with impaired renal function in who introduction of calcineurin inhibitor therapy should be delayed and patients with calcineurin inhibitor-free therapy. SummaryInduction therapy still has its place in the immunosuppressive armamentarium after cardiac transplantation. New antibody generations and the selection of special patient groups demonstrate that induction therapy is effective and well tolerated in its use.
Patterns of dispersal in Sumatran siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus): preliminary mtDNA evidence suggests more frequent male than female dispersal to adjacent groups

Gibbons of both sexes have been observed emigrating from their natal groups, but the consequences of dispersal in gibbons are poorly understood, and it is unclear whether these are the same for both sexes. I sequenced a 350‐bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA from 18 adults in seven siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) groups at the Way Canguk Research Station in southern Sumatra to assess patterns of matrilineal relatedness among and within siamang groups, and to assess their fit with different patterns of sex‐specific dispersal. A total of 11 haplotypes were identified in the seven study groups; 50% of adult males in five contiguous groups shared a haplotype with a member of an immediately adjacent group, whereas only 16.7% of females shared a haplotype with a neighbor. The apparent difference persisted if only same‐sex individuals were considered (37.5% of males vs. 0% of females). Four of the seven study groups contained two adult males and a single adult female. In three multimale groups, the three adults all had different haplotypes, suggesting that neither male was the retained adult offspring of the female, whereas in the fourth group, the haplotype of one male was identical with that of the adult female. The high diversity of haplotypes and the absence of clustering among female haplotypes in the study neighborhood suggest that female dispersal to territories adjacent to the natal group may be relatively rare. The presence of some clustering of male haplotypes suggests that shorter dispersal distances may be more common in males. Am. J. Primatol. 69:692–698, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The ‘Red Queen’ Dilemma – Running to Stay in the Same Place: Refections on the Evolutionary Vector of HBV in Humans

Background Estimates for the evolutionary rate of HBV until now have been interpreted as showing that HBV is a relatively recent acquisition for mankind. The existence of defined HBV genotypes is thought to represent past founder effects. We have explored virus mutation in a group of 48 persistently infected blood donors sampled at two points in time and suggest otherwise. Methods HBV-infected donors were detected by hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) screening and staged by hepatitis B e markers. Serum DNA from those persistently infected with HBV was characterized by consensus sequencing and the amino acid sequences inferred. These were compared against consensus genotype sequences and divergence measured at two points in time. Results Rates of viral mutation were higher across both HBsAg and hepatitis B core antigen in the group of donors seropositive for hepatitis B e antibody (1.36x10-3 and 1.54x10-3 changes per residue per year, respectively) than in those seropositive for hepatitis B e antigen (4.59x10-4 and 6.62x10-4 changes per residue per year, respectively). Codon mutations reverting to the genotype consensus were commonly seen. Codon changes were clustered close to the C-terminal region of HBsAg and were accommodated in overlapping polymerase by synonymous substitutions. Conclusions It is suggested that in vivo HBV behaves as a self-normalizing meme and mutational rates, although high, do not lead to significant change over time in a persistent infection. This would be compatible with co-evolution within its human host and introduction within humans being an ancient occurrence.
Creative Cities and the Concept of Diversity

This paper presents a review on theories and empirical studies relevant for the concept of diversity of people in the creative cities literature. The upcoming question enquires which role diversity plays in creative cities. The paper aims to summarize and compare key diversity components considered in research. Based on the review, conclusions are drawn to the attention of policy makers that soft location factors, such as the diversity of people, matter for urban development.
The effects of sleep on the neural correlates of pattern separation

Effective memory representations must be specific to prevent interference between episodes that may overlap in terms of place, time, or items present. Pattern separation, a computational process performed by the hippocampus, overcomes this interference by establishing nonoverlapping memory representations. Although it is widely accepted that declarative memories are consolidated during sleep, the effects of sleep on pattern separation have yet to be elucidated. We used whole‐brain, high‐resolution functional neuroimaging to investigate the effects of sleep on a task that places high demands on pattern separation. Sleep had a selective effect on memory specificity and not general recognition memory. Activity in brain regions related to memory retrieval and cognitive control demonstrated an interaction between sleep and delay. Surprisingly, there was no effect of sleep on hippocampal activity using a group‐level analysis. To further understand the role of the hippocampus on our task, we performed a representational similarity analysis, which showed that hippocampal activation was biased toward pattern separation relative to cortical activation and that this bias increased following a delay (regardless of sleep). Cortical activation, conversely, was biased toward pattern completion and this bias was preferentially enhanced by sleep.
BEYOND THE MACROECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF SOVEREIGN CREDIT RATINGS IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS CONSIDERING DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

Sovereign credit ratings play an important role in determining the terms and the extent to which countries have access to international capital markets, mainly for developing countries. With this in mind, this study analyzes the determinants of sovereign ratings of developing countries given by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch for the period 1994-2013. Regarding the econometric model, besides usual OLS method for panel data analysis, we make use of dynamic panel data framework (D-GMM and S-GMM). Our findings show that there is a basic set of macroeconomic variables that affect sovereign ratings: GDP growth, per capita GDP, inflation, foreign reserves, government budget balance and external debt. Moreover, the adoption of the inflation targeting, greater financial openness and democratic accountability enhance the ratings of three agencies, while exchange rate stability, law and order and less corruption increase the ratings of at least one agency.
Dental implant treatment for two adjacent missing teeth in the maxillary aesthetic zone: a comparative pilot study and test of principle.

AIM The aim of this prospective comparative pilot study was to evaluate hard and soft peri-implant tissues in patients with a missing adjacent central and lateral upper incisor treated with either one implant and an implant crown with a cantilever or two implants with solitary implant crowns up to 1 year after functional loading. MATERIAL AND METHODS In the "Implant-cantilever group", five patients were treated with one dental implant in the region of the central incisor (NobelReplace Groovy Regular Platform). In the "Implant-implant group", five patients were treated with two adjacent dental implants: at the position of the central incisor (NobelReplace Groovy Regular Platform) and at the position of the lateral incisor (NobelReplace Groovy Narrow Platform). Implant survival, pocket probing depth, papilla index, marginal bone level and patient satisfaction were assessed during a 1-year follow-up period. RESULTS No implants were lost during the 1-year follow-up. Mean pocket probing values of the implants were comparable between the two groups. Papilla index scores in both groups were relatively low, pointing towards a compromised papilla. Marginal bone loss was minimal and comparable between the groups. Patient satisfaction was very high in both groups. CONCLUSION In this 1-year prospective comparative study, no large differences in hard- and soft-tissue levels could be shown between patients with a missing central and lateral upper incisor treated with either one implant and an implant crown with a cantilever or two implants with solitary implant crowns.
Is RapidArc more susceptible to delivery uncertainties than dynamic IMRT?

PURPOSE Rotational IMRT has been adopted by many clinics for its promise to deliver treatments in a shorter amount of time than other conventional IMRT techniques. In this paper, the authors investigate whether RapidArc is more susceptible to delivery uncertainties than dynamic IMRT using fixed fields. METHODS Dosimetric effects of delivery uncertainties in dose rate, gantry angle, and MLC leaf positions were evaluated by incorporating these uncertainties into RapidArc and sliding window IMRT (SW IMRT) treatment plans for five head-and-neck and five prostate cases. Dose distributions and dose-volume histograms of original and modified plans were recalculated and compared using Gamma analysis and dose indices of planned treatment volumes (PTV) and organs at risk (OAR). Results of Gamma analyses using passing criteria ranging from 1%-1 mm up to 5%-3 mm were reported. RESULTS Systematic shifts in MLC leaf bank positions of SW-IMRT cases resulted in 2-4 times higher average percent differences than RapidArc cases. Uniformly distributed random variations of 2 mm for active MLC leaves had a negligible effect on all dose distributions. Sliding window cases were much more sensitive to systematic shifts in gantry angle. Dose rate variations during RapidArc must be much larger than typical machine tolerances to affect dose distributions significantly; dynamic IMRT is inherently not susceptible to such variations. CONCLUSIONS RapidArc deliveries were found to be more tolerant to variations in gantry position and MLC leaf position than SW IMRT. This may be attributed to the fact that the average segmental field size or MLC leaf opening is much larger for RapidArc. Clinically acceptable treatments may be delivered successfully using RapidArc despite large fluctuations in dose rate and gantry position.
High dietary intake of phytosterol esters decreases carotenoids and increases plasma plant sterol levels with no additional cholesterol lowering Published, JLR Papers in Press, May 16, 2004. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M400074-JLR200

The objective of this study was to measure the effects on serum lipids and plasma phytosterols of 6.6 g/day phytosterols from three foods (bread, breakfast cereal, and spread) consumed for 12 weeks compared with a diet that was not enriched with phytosterols. Thirty-five subjects undertook a nonrandomized, single-blind study consisting of a 2 week baseline period, 6 weeks on high-phytosterol intake, 6 weeks on high-phytosterol intake plus increased fruit and vegetable intake, and a final 2 week washout period. Serum total cholesterol decreased by 8.3% from 6.59 to 6.04 mmol/l, and LDL cholesterol decreased by 12.6% from 4.44 to 3.88 mmol/l. Plasma phytosterol levels increased by 45% (sitosterol) and 105% (campesterol). Cholesterol-adjusted plasma α- and β-carotene levels decreased by 19–23%, lutein by 14%, and lycopene by 11%. Levels of α-carotene and lutein increased with extra fruit and vegetables. Only lycopene failed to increase during the washout phase. There were no significant changes in biochemical parameters. Serum LDL cholesterol lowering with 6.6 g/day ingested phytosterols was in the range seen with 1.6–3.2 g/day phytosterols. Lowering of plasma carotenoids was greater than that seen with lower phytosterol intake and was partially reversed by increased fruit and vegetable intake.
Social skills assessment of children with autism in free-play situations

Poor social functioning and limited play are characteristic of children with autism. Increasingly, education for children with autism is provided within mainstream settings, but given their particular difficulties, the adequate provision of educational services in such settings is challenging. This study presents observational data of the play behaviour and social interaction patterns of 10 children with autism in mainstream kindergartens and primary school playgrounds. The target children differed significantly in terms of their play and social interactions from typically developing children in the same settings. The adequacy of the provision of services for children with autism in mainstream provision is discussed.
Strategic infarct location for post-stroke cognitive impairment: A multivariate lesion-symptom mapping study

Lesion location is an important determinant for post-stroke cognitive impairment. Although several ‘strategic’ brain regions have previously been identified, a comprehensive map of strategic brain regions for post-stroke cognitive impairment is lacking due to limitations in sample size and methodology. We aimed to determine strategic brain regions for post-stroke cognitive impairment by applying multivariate lesion-symptom mapping in a large cohort of 410 acute ischemic stroke patients. Montreal Cognitive Assessment at three to six months after stroke was used to assess global cognitive functioning and cognitive domains (memory, language, attention, executive and visuospatial function). The relation between infarct location and cognition was assessed in multivariate analyses at the voxel-level and the level of regions of interest using support vector regression. These two assumption-free analyses consistently identified the left angular gyrus, left basal ganglia structures and the white matter around the left basal ganglia as strategic structures for global cognitive impairment after stroke. A strategic network involving several overlapping and domain-specific cortical and subcortical structures was identified for each of the cognitive domains. Future studies should aim to develop even more comprehensive infarct location-based models for post-stroke cognitive impairment through multicenter studies including thousands of patients.
Atrial amyloid deposits in the failing human heart display both atrial and brain natriuretic peptide‐like immunoreactivity

Atrial amyloid deposits are common in the ageing human heart and contain α‐atrial natriuretic peptide (proANP99–126) immunoreactivity. However, atrial myocytes secrete both amino and carboxy terminal fragments of the ANP prohormone (proANP1–126) and also express an homologous, but separate brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). Characteristic amyloid deposits were identified in the atria of 9/22 patients (26–63 years of age) with end‐stage heart failure. Amyloid fibrils displayed immunoreactivity for both amino and carboxy terminal fragments of proANP1–126 and for the distinct BNP sequence. As in other endocrine organs, both mature and precursor peptide sequences appear to be constituents of amyloid fibrils. Whilst immunoreactivity for cardiac peptide hormones is co‐localized in atrial amyloid deposits, it is uncertain whether the increase in natriuretic peptide expression which accompanies cardiac failure contributes to the incidence of isolated atrial amyloidosis.
Intramyocellular triglyceride content in man, influence of sex, obesity and glycaemic control.

OBJECTIVE It remains unknown whether sex impacts on intramyocellular triglyceride (IMTG) in obesity, as has been shown in non-obese subjects, and, if so, whether this may have implications on the association between IMTG and insulin sensitivity. SUBJECT AND METHODS A muscle biopsy from vastus lateralis was obtained in 27 obese women (body mass index (BMI)=35.5+/-0.8 kg/m(2); mean+/-s.e. m. , percentage of body fat (PBF)=44+/-1, n=7 impaired fasting glucose, n=7 type 2 diabetes), 20 obese men (BMI=35.8+/-0.8 kg/m(2); PBF=33+/-1, n=4 impaired-fasting-glucose; n=6 type 2 diabetes) and 12 lean sedentary healthy individuals (controls; n=7 women, BMI=21.8+/-0.7 kg/m(2), PBF=20+/-2; n=5 men, BMI=23.6+/-0.5 kg/m(2), PBF=13+/-2). IMTG was determined by chromatography. RESULTS IMTG was increased twofold in obese women compared to obese men, lean men and lean women respectively (21.9+/-2.4 mg/g wet weight, 10.9+/-1.5, 9.8+/-2.1 and 10.9+/-2.4 mg/g, P<0.001). Among obese subjects of either gender IMTG did not increase along with reduced glycaemic control in terms of impaired fasting glucose and diabetes. Plasma insulin levels, which were similar among obese women with different glycaemic control levels, but much lower in lean women, paralleled the changes in IMTG among women. PBF was associated with IMTG in all subjects (P<0.001). In a linear model, sex (P<0.05) and PBF (P<0.05) independently explained variation in IMTG. Plasma free fatty acids (FFA) correlated with IMTG in all subjects (P<0.005). CONCLUSION Obese women display twice as much IMTG as obese men matched for BMI. Increased IMTG could be a pathophysiological element or a mere physiological phenomenon in feminine obesity ensuing prior to impaired glycaemic control, but associated with increased body fat, circulating FFA and insulin.
Diagnosis of appendicitis in adults by ultrasonography or computed tomography: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: The use of ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) in the diagnosis of appendicitis in adult patients was compared. Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis of current evidence in two clinical situations: unselected nonpregnant, adult patients with symptoms of appendicitis, and more selective use in only those patients who still have an equivocal diagnosis subsequent to routine clinical investigations. Results: Meta-analysis of eligible studies shows CT to have better sensitivity and specificity than ultrasound in both clinical situations. Conclusions: Application of these findings in clinical practice and/or policy would need to evaluate the better diagnostic performance of CT against its cost and availability. In addition, it is imperative that future studies be conducted in patient populations that are well-defined with respect to prior investigations. Sequelae of false-negative and false-positive diagnoses should also be evaluated.