Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PF127 Hydrogel-Based Delivery of Exosomal CTNNB1 from Mesenchymal Stem Cells Induces Osteogenic Differentiation during the Repair of Alveolar Bone Defects

Pluronic F127 (PF127) hydrogel has been highlighted as a promising biomaterial for bone regeneration, but the specific molecular mechanism remains largely unknown. Herein, we addressed this issue in a temperature-responsive PF127 hydrogel loaded with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs)-derived exosomes (Exos) (PF127 hydrogel@BMSC-Exos) during alveolar bone regeneration. Genes enriched in BMSC-Exos and upregulated during the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs and their downstream regulators were predicted by bioinformatics analyses. CTNNB1 was predicted to be the key gene of BMSC-Exos in the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs, during which miR-146a-5p, IRAK1, and TRAF6 might be the downstream factors. Osteogenic differentiation was induced in BMSCs, in which ectopic expression of CTNNB1 was introduced and from which Exos were isolated. The CTNNB1-enriched PF127 hydrogel@BMSC-Exos were constructed and implanted into in vivo rat models of alveolar bone defects. In vitro experiment data showed that PF127 hydrogel@BMSC-Exos efficiently delivered CTNNB1 to BMSCs, which subsequently promoted the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs, as evidenced by enhanced ALP staining intensity and activity, extracellular matrix mineralization (p < 0.05), and upregulated RUNX2 and OCN expression (p < 0.05). Functional experiments were conducted to examine the relationships among CTNNB1, microRNA (miR)-146a-5p, and IRAK1 and TRAF6. Mechanistically, CTNNB1 activated miR-146a-5p transcription to downregulate IRAK1 and TRAF6 (p < 0.05), which induced the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs and facilitated alveolar bone regeneration in rats (increased new bone formation and elevated BV/TV ratio and BMD, all with p < 0.05). Collectively, CTNNB1-containing PF127 hydrogel@BMSC-Exos promote the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs by regulating the miR-146a-5p/IRAK1/TRAF6 axis, thus inducing the repair of alveolar bone defects in rats.
Dissipation, enstrophy and pressure statistics in turbulence simulations at high Reynolds numbers

Abstract We use data from well-resolved direct numerical simulations at Taylor-scale Reynolds numbers from 140 to 1000 to study the statistics of energy dissipation rate and enstrophy density (i.e. the square of local vorticity). Despite substantial variability in each of these variables, their extreme events not only scale in a similar manner but also progressively tend to occur spatially together as the Reynolds number increases. Though they possess non-Gaussian tails of enormous amplitudes, ratios of some characteristic properties can be closely linked to those of isotropic Gaussian random fields. We present results also on statistics of the pressure Laplacian and conditional mean pressure given both dissipation and enstrophy. At low Reynolds number intense negative pressure fluctuations are preferentially associated with rotation-dominated regions but at high Reynolds number both high dissipation and high enstrophy have similar effects.
Novel 68Ga-Labeled Pyridine-Based Fibroblast Activation Protein-Targeted Tracers with High Tumor-to-Background Contrast

Compared to quinoline-based fibroblast activation protein (FAP)-targeted radiotracers, pyridine-based FAP-targeted tracers are expected to have faster pharmacokinetics due to their smaller molecular size and higher hydrophilicity, which we hypothesize would improve the tumor-to-background image contrast. We aim to develop 68Ga-labeled pyridine-based FAP-targeted tracers for cancer imaging with positron emission tomography (PET), and compare their imaging potential with the clinically validated [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04. Two DOTA-conjugated pyridine-based AV02053 and AV02070 were synthesized through multi-step organic synthesis. IC50(FAP) values of Ga-AV02053 and Ga-AV02070 were determined by an enzymatic assay to be 187 ± 52.0 and 17.1 ± 4.60 nM, respectively. PET imaging and biodistribution studies were conducted in HEK293T:hFAP tumor-bearing mice at 1 h post-injection. The HEK293T:hFAP tumor xenografts were clearly visualized with good contrast on PET images by [68Ga]Ga-AV02053 and [68Ga]Ga-AV02070, and both tracers were excreted mainly through the renal pathway. The tumor uptake values of [68Ga]Ga-AV02070 (7.93 ± 1.88%ID/g) and [68Ga]Ga-AV02053 (5.6 ± 1.12%ID/g) were lower than that of previously reported [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 (12.5 ± 2.00%ID/g). However, both [68Ga]Ga-AV02070 and [68Ga]Ga-AV02053 showed higher tumor-to-background (blood, muscle, and bone) uptake ratios than [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04. Our data suggests that pyridine-based pharmacophores are promising for the design of FAP-targeted tracers. Future optimization on the selection of a linker will be explored to increase tumor uptake while maintaining or even further improving the high tumor-to-background contrast.
PML Absorbing Boundaries

It has been previously demonstrated that no reflection is generated when elastic (or electromagnetic) waves enter a region with Perfectly Matching Layer (PML) absorbing conditions in a continuous medium. The practical application of PMLs, however, is in numerical modeling, where the medium is discretized by either a finite-element or a finite-difference scheme thus introducing a reduced amount of reflection. In such a case what is the practical and quantitative efficiency of PML absorbing boundaries? Assuming a regular spatial mesh, we start by evaluating analytically the reflection of body waves introduced by the discrete transition toward PML properties, under variable angle of incidence and wavelength. We then extend our evaluation with numerical tests for both body and Rayleigh waves. Surprisingly enough, the absorption remains equally efficient at wavelengths far larger than the PML thickness itself. As a consequence, the PML thickness can be kept minimal even for studies involving relatively low frequencies, and no rescaling with model size is required. Another pleasant feature is that it is all the more efficient at shallow angles of incidence. Finally, we show through numerical examples that a major advantage of using PMLs is their efficiency in absorbing Rayleigh waves at the free surface, a point where more classical methods perform rather poorly. Although previous authors essentially limited the description of their discrete implementation to 2D, we develop to some level of detail a 3D finite-difference scheme for PMLs and provide numerical examples.
Fractional model of thermoelasticity for a half‐space overlaid by a thick layer

In this work, we apply the fractional order theory of thermoelasticity to a 1D problem for a half‐space overlaid by a thick layer of a different material. The upper surface of the layer is taken to be traction free and is subjected to a constant thermal shock. There are no body forces or heat sources affecting the medium. Laplace transform techniques are used to eliminate the time variable t. The solution in the transformed domain is obtained by using a direct approach. The inverse Laplace transforms are obtained by using a numerical method based on Fourier expansion techniques. The predictions of the fractional order theory are discussed and compared with those for the generalized theory of thermoelasticity. We also study the effect of the fractional derivative parameters of the two media on the behavior of the solution. Numerical results are computed and represented graphically for the temperature, displacement and stress distributions.
On multi-dimensional annealing problems

In [1] Chan and Williams considered a one-dimensional diffusion of the form where F is a strictly increasing continuous function with F(0) = 0 and ε is a decreasing deterministic function such that ε(0) is finite and ε(t) ↓ 0 as t↑ ∞, and gave necessary and sufficient conditions for Yt →0 a.s. as t→∞.
Nicotine Exerts a Stronger Immunosuppressive Effect Than Its Structural Analogs and Regulates Experimental Colitis in Rats

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an intractable disease that causes persistent colonic inflammation. Numerous studies have reported that smoking can afford clinical benefits in UC. This study aimed to elucidate whether nicotine, the main component in cigarettes, can exert pharmacological effects against experimental UC. To achieve this objective, we compared the effects of nicotine with those of structural nicotine analogs in a UC rodent model (Slc: Wistar rats, male, 9-week-old, and 220–250 g/rat). Nicotine, or a respective structural analog (nornicotine, cotinine, anabasine, myosmine, and anatabine), was administered intraperitoneally daily to rats (n = 6/group) exhibiting dextran sulfate sodium-induced experimental colitis. Examining the colon tissues of model rats, we compared disease severity, cytokine secretion, and α7 nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAChR7) expression. We observed that nicotine administration induced weight loss at 2.35% in 10 days. Notably, the reduction in histological severity (score) of UC was more pronounced in rats treated with nicotine (score = 4.83, p = 0.042) than in untreated rats (score = 8.17). Nicotine administration increased nAChR7 expression 6.88-fold (p = 0.022) in inflammatory sites of the colon, mainly by suppressing the production of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6. Moreover, the secretion of these cytokines was suppressed in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated rat macrophages (MΦ) treated with nicotine. In conclusion, nicotine better alleviates experimental UC than the examined structural analogs by activating nAChR7 expression and suppressing proinflammatory cytokines in MΦ.
Surface Observations in the Hurricane Environment

Abstract Composite analyses of marine surface observations from 37 hurricanes between 1975 and 1998 show that the difference between the sea surface temperature and the surface air temperature significantly increases just outside the hurricane inner core. This increase in the sea–air contrast is primarily due to a reduction in surface air temperature and is more likely to occur when sea temperatures are at least 27°C. Results show that 90% of the observed cooling occurs 3.25°–1.25° latitude from the hurricane center, well outside the region of strongest surface winds. Since surface pressure only decreases 3 mb over this interval, the ∼2°C drop in air temperature is not a result of adiabatic expansion. For the subset of observations that contained moisture measurements, surface specific humidity decreased 1.2 g kg−1 4.5°–1.75° latitude from the storm center. This finding suggests that the observed reduction in surface air temperature is not simply a result of near-surface evaporation from sea spray or prec.
Modeling Gas Plasma-Tissue Interactions in 3D Collagen-Based Hydrogel Cancer Cell Cultures

Gas plasma jet technology was recently identified as a potential adjuvant in the fight against cancer. Here, the partial ionization of gas yields the local formation of an exceptional variety of highly reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS) species, which are considered the main actors of plasma-induced antitumor effects. Yet, fundamental knowledge in preclinical plasma research relies on the predominant use of two-dimensional cell culture systems, despite causing significant shifts in redox chemistries that largely limit translational relevance. So far, the intricacy of studying complex plasma–tissue interactions causes substantial knowledge gaps concerning the key mechanisms and therapeutical limitations of plasma treatment in a living organism. Identifying physiologically relevant yet simplified tissue models is vital to address such questions. In our study, a side-by-side comparison of conventional and pre-established hydrogel models emphasized this discrepancy, revealing a marked difference in plasma-induced toxicity related to species distribution dynamics. Chemically embedded, fluorescent reporters were further used to characterize reactive species’ fingerprints in hydrogels compared to liquids. In addition, a thirteen cell-line screening outlined the widespread applicability of the approach while indicating the need to optimize growth conditions dependent on the cell line investigated. Overall, our study presents important implications for the implementation of clinically relevant tissue culture models in preclinical plasma medicine in the future.
Effect of Fermented Rapeseed Meal in Feeds for Growing Piglets on Bone Morphological Traits, Mechanical Properties, and Bone Metabolism

Simple Summary Strong and healthy bones allow for efficient locomotion and overall functioning of the musculoskeletal system of pigs. This is the first study to provide information on the effect of including fermented rapeseed meal as a partial wheat replacement in the diet on bone quality in weaner piglets. Abstract Quality feed is essential for correct bone development and proper functioning of animals. Post-weaned piglets experience a radical change in eating behaviour that can influence their feed intake. For this reason, functional feed additives and ingredients that can be used in post-weaning feeds are needed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of partially replacing wheat with rapeseed meal fermented using Bacillus subtilis strain 87Y on overall bone quality and bone metabolism in weaner piglets. From the 28th day of life, barrows were fed either a standard wheat-based diet or a diet containing 8% fermented rapeseed meal (FRSM) with or without a feed additive containing enzymes, antioxidants, probiotics, and prebiotics. The experimental period lasted 60 days, after which femur quality indices were assessed. Differences in bone length and weight were observed, but there were no changes in bone mineralization or bone mid-diaphysis morphometrical traits between treatments. FRSM inclusion reduced bone mid-diaphysis biomechanical properties, but these changes were dependent on feed-additive supplementation. Analysis of the levels of serum bone turnover markers suggests the intensification of bone resorption in FRSM-fed groups as deoxypyridinoline levels increase. The results obtained warrant further research on what the disturbances in bone mechanical properties and metabolism observed in FRSM-fed weaners means for the subsequent fattening period.
Circuit Learning: From Decision Trees to Decision Graphs

Circuit learning has gained significant attention due to machine learning advancements and approximate synthesis applications. The task is to learn a circuit to model an unknown Boolean function subject to different design constraints. When circuit size is hard constrained, decision-tree-based learning plays a crucial role in state-of-the-art methods. However, it can be ineffective due to its structural restriction. This work proposes graph learning to overcome the limitation, provide tradeoffs between circuit size and accuracy, and enrich the portfolio of circuit learning tools. Experimental results show the superiority of our approach to prior work in accuracy, training time, and circuit size.
Acceptability and determinants of using male hormonal contraceptives: a systematic review from a gender perspective

ABSTRACT The development of male hormonal contraceptives (MHCs) is underway, and they may be available soon. Gender norms in family planning and predictors of use of MHCs need to be considered when addressing MHC promotion and adherence strategies. An evaluation of the acceptability factors of MHC methods in the population is carried out from a gender perspective. A systematic review following the PRISMA 2009 checklist has been performed. Articles indexed in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science and CUIDEN databases were included. Twenty-nine original articles were evaluated. Most evidence comes from Europe and North America. There is a high acceptability of MHCs in both sexes (reaching more than 70%). There are differences between countries and cultures. The main factors influencing willingness to use MHCs are: side effects; route of administration (MHC pill preferred by most men and injections by most women); frequency of administration (influenced by the previous factors); level of education and health behaviours; religion; perception of shared responsibility; perception of masculinity; and impaired sexual function/desire. Efficacy has not been sufficiently explored. Gender-dependent attitudes towards contraceptive responsibility need to be further explored, so that policies that favour equal reproductive rights can be formulated once MHCs are marketed.
Comment on "Stress Propagation and Arching in Static Sandpiles" by J.P. Wittmer et al. About the Scaling Hypothesis of the Stress Field in a Conic Sandpile

This paper is a short comment about the paper "stress propagation and arching in static sandpiles" by Wittmer, Cates and Claudin iii. It concern8 the validity of the radial stress field (RSF) scaling assumption used to calculate the stress distribution in a conic granular material and its agreement with different experimental data.
Transition structure in longitudinal thin film magnetic media

A two-dimensional micromagnetic model of longitudinal thin-film media is developed using a self-consistent technique. The model is used to investigate the effects of thickness and alignment of easy axes upon hysteresis properties and transition width. The model predicts hysteresis properties close to those observed in real media and shows that in the track direction the transition can be considered to be a smooth function (either arctangent or error function) with superimposed noise. Further results support a widely used relationship for the variation of transition width with media properties and indicate that variations in media properties in the vicinity of the transition can have significant effects on the transition parameter. >
Development of a topic‐related sentence corpus for speech perception research

A large sentence corpus has been developed for use in speech recognition research. Sentences (n=881, three scoring words per sentence) were developed under 23 topics. In the first phase of development subjects rated each individual scoring word for relatedness to its given topic on a Likert scale. Next, two groups of young, normal‐hearing listeners (n=16/group) listened and responded to the recordings of the sentences (spoken by a female talker) presented with one of two types of maskers: steady‐state noise (S:N=−13 dB) or two other females speaking random sentences (S:N=−8 dB). Each subject responded to half of the sentences with topic supplied and half with no topic supplied. Data analyses focused on addressing two questions: whether supplementation of topic would be more important in the presence of the speech masker versus the noise masker, and how the degree of relatedness of each key word to the topic influenced the effect of topic on recognition. The data showed little difference in how beneficial .
Monolayer Graphene Terahertz Detector Integrated with Artificial Microstructure

Graphene, known for its high carrier mobility and broad spectral response range, has proven to be a promising material in photodetection applications. However, its high dark current has limited its application as a high-sensitivity photodetector at room temperature, particularly for the detection of low-energy photons. Our research proposes a new approach for overcoming this challenge by designing lattice antennas with an asymmetric structure for use in combination with high-quality monolayers of graphene. This configuration is capable of sensitive detection of low-energy photons. The results show that the graphene terahertz detector-based microstructure antenna has a responsivity of 29 V·W−1 at 0.12 THz, a fast response time of 7 μs, and a noise equivalent power of less than 8.5 pW/Hz1/2. These results provide a new strategy for the development of graphene array-based room-temperature terahertz photodetectors.
Cones and Vietoris-Begle type theorems

Infinite cone constructions are exploited to yield diverse generalizations of the Vietoris-Begle theorem for paracompact spaces and Abelian group sheaves. The constructions suggest natural space, map classifications designated as almost p-solid. The methods are extended to upper semicontinuous closed multivalued maps and homotopies and culminate in a disk fixed point theorem for possibly nonacyclic point images. Introduction. The central position of the Vietoris-Begle theorem in various developments is the impetus for the extensions and generalizations in this paper. Some of the results connect with earlier work by the author and expand and sharpen the methods used. The underlying technique is that of smoothing out certain point antecedents under mappings by introducing covering cones sticking out in diverse directions [1]. These cones are introduced as quotient spaces, but may be developed as subspaces of intermediate spaces. There are difficulties, when too many cones enter, as regards assurance that the space so fortified is still Hausdorff, and that the natural extensions of the maps are continuous. For this reason the author introduced certain space map pairs in [21 and [31 under the designation of almost p-solid. Though the author's earlier results were for compact spaces and an Abelian coefficient group, the results are established here for paracompact spaces (or more generally for paracompactifying support families) and for coefficient sheaves of Abelian groups or modules. Attention may also be called to the work of Sklyarenko [5]. While his completely different methods yield results overlapping some of those given both here and in the author's earlier cited articles, neither set of such results includes the other. If the initial space is both compact and metric, Sklyarenko's results are stronger, but if either restriction is dropped our results may be more powerful, as shown by examples. An understanding of the relation of these differing viewpoints is, perhaps, furnished by the observation that in [51 the Presented to the Society, January 20, 1972 under the title Set valued transformations; received by the editors April 2, 1971 and, in revised form, August 16, 1971 and January 28, 1972. AMS (MOS) subject classifications (1970). Primary 55B30, 54B17, 54C60, 54H25.
Frequency-reconfigurable TM010-mode reentrant cylindrical cavity for microwave material processing

This paper proposes a frequency-reconfigurable microwave reactor based on the reentrant cylindrical resonant cavity. It works with the TM010-associated mode and is able to resonate at every frequency in the range of 500–950 MHz, i.e., 62% tunable relative bandwidth. Considering the practical requirements of microwave processing, especially for the single processing capacity and the wide frequency bandwidth, the theory and design formula for the existing reentrant cylindrical resonant cavity are no longer applicable. Consequently, a new method to control the resonant frequency is proposed. The corresponding approximate design formulas are derived to show the relationship between cavity’s dimension and its electric properties (resonant frequency and quality factor). Their correctness is validated by the full-wave simulation. Furthermore, an effective feed method is developed to achieve good matching over a wideband frequency band. Within a volume of 502 mm3, relatively homogeneous -field can be generated at every operation frequency with the strength more than 105 V/m, while the single processed capacity keeps unchanged. Most of the microwave energy is concentrated within the processed region to achieve a high efficiency. This microwave reactor presents an excellent candidate in the application of a frequency-reconfigurable microwave processing system to recognize the optimal absorbent frequency for a special microwave reaction.