Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of an in vitro reproductive screening assay for novel pharmaceutical compounds

An in vitro reproductive cell‐based toxicity assay was developed using MLTC‐1 (murine Leydig tumour cell line) in order to examine the reproductive toxicity of two novel nanopharmaceutical compounds, namely ethylene glycol mono allyl ether and poly(ethylene glycol) octa‐functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane. Three commonly used cytotoxicity assays, namely the MTT [3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyl‐2H ‐tetrazolium bromide], MTS [3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐5‐(3‐carboxymethoxyphenyl)‐2‐(4‐sulfophenyl)‐2H ‐tetrazolium] and Crystal Violet assays, were compared, and the MTT assay proved to be the most accurate and reproducible for the MLTC‐1 cell line. The doubling rate of the MLTC‐1 cells was 30±3.5 h and the optimal seeding density for the MTT assay was 20000 cells per well, and the optimized MTT assay utilized a 4 h cell adherence followed by incubation with 0.5 mg/ml MTT for 1 h. The intra‐ and inter‐assay CV (coefficient of variation) values were 12.3 and 11% respectively. MLTC‐1 cells only produce the reproductive hormone progesterone in response to hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), which stimulated progesterone production dose‐dependently from 0 to 100 m.i. u. (milliinternational units)/ml (2706±1118 ng/ml). H2O2 as a negative control killed 100% of cells at 1000 μg/ml. The two nanopharmaceutical compounds were cytotoxic at concentrations ≥0.1 μg/ml, but hCG decreased cytotoxicity to ≥1000 μg/ml (P <0.001). hCG‐stimulated progesterone synthesis afforded some protection against the cytotoxic effects of the two novel nanotechnology compounds; therefore doses ≤100 μg/ml and an exposure period of 1 h would be recommended for testing in in vivo animal reproductive assays.
Tickling increases dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in adolescent rats

Adolescent rats emit 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations, a marker of positive emotion, during rough-and-tumble play or on tickling stimulation. The emission of 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in response to tickling is suggested to be mediated by dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens; however, there is no direct evidence supporting this hypothesis. The present study aimed to elucidate whether play behavior (tickling) in adolescent rats can trigger dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens with hedonic 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations. The effect of tickling stimulation was compared with light-touch stimulation, as a discernible stimulus. We examined 35–40-day-old rats, which corresponds to the period of midadolescence. Tickling stimulation for 5 min significantly increased dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (118±7% of the prestimulus control value). Conversely, light-touch stimulation for 5 min did not significantly change dopamine release. In addition, 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations were emitted during tickling stimulation but not during light-touch stimulation. Further, tickling-induced 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations were significantly blocked by the direct application of SCH23390 (D1 receptor antagonist) and raclopride (D2/D3 receptor antagonist) into the nucleus accumbens. Our study demonstrates that tickling stimulation in adolescent rats increases dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, leading to the generation of 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations.
Nitrous‐oxide Analgesia During Ambulance Transportation. Airborne Levels of Nitrous Oxide

A model experiment was performed for studying nitrous‐oxide levels in the breathing zones of the different members of an ambulance team, viz. the anesthetist, the accompanying person in the ambulance coupe, and the ambulance driver. Without a functioning local exhaust coupled to the exhalation valve, the integrated average level of nitrous oxide in the breathing zone of the anesthetist was 650‐1,700 ppm, with top concentrations up to 7,500 ppm. Under the same conditions, the accompanying person in the ambulance coupe was exposed to average concentrations of 58–280 ppm, with top concentrations up to 660 ppm. The mean exposure of the driver was 9–45 ppm (max. 81 ppm). However, the exposure to nitrous oxide was considerably decreased in all parts of the ambulance by an effective local exhaust system. A prerequisite for nitrous‐oxide analgesia in ambulances is an effective local exhaust coupled to the exhalation valve or face mask. The ambulance coupé ought to be equipped with a motor‐driven exhaust fan in the roof, the ordinary inlet fan of the ambulance should be switched on at maximum speed, and any additional heater or fan in the ambulance coupe should be placed inside the coupé and not behind the driver's seat.
Contribution of cryofixation and freeze‐substitution to analytical microscopy: A study of Tritrichomonas foetus hydrogenosomes

The hydrogenosome, an organelle that produces molecular hydrogen and ATP from the oxidation of pyruvate or malate under anaerobic conditions, presents some characteristics common to mitochondria. It is found in several trichomonad species, protists living in oxygen‐poor environments, as well as certain free‐living ciliates, rumen ciliates, and some fungi. We performed a comparative microanalytical study (energy dispersive X‐ray analysis and electron spectroscopic imaging) of different fixation methods for electron microscopy analyzing hydrogenosomes of the bovine parasite Tritrichomonas foetus. The study included the elemental composition and the mapping of calcium, phosphorus, and oxygen. A preparation of T. foetus cells, based on cryoimmobilization by high‐pressure freezing and freeze‐substitution, was compared to a second preparation based on chemical fixation followed by dehydration and routine processing. The ultrastructural preservation achieved by the cryotechnique was far superior to the chemical fixation, since it allowed the successful cryoimmobilization of intracellular ion contents. The detection of several cations (Al, Mg, Co, Ca, Fe) by X‐ray microanalysis inside the peripheral vesicle of the hydrogenosome was only possible in cryofixed cells. The presence of aluminum and cobalt ion in the hydrogenosomal vesicle was established for the first time. Electron‐spectroscopic images of calcium showed that this element, in addition to the vesicle compartment, is present in the hydrogenosome's membrane in varying concentrations, which might reflect changes in the physiology of this organelle. Microsc. Res. Tech. 53:87–92, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Modelling acute tolerance to the EEG effect of two benzodiazepines.

AIMS We studied the development of acute tolerance to the EEG effect of midazolam and the new benzodiazepine Ro 48-6791. METHODS Nine young (24-28 years) and nine elderly (67-81 years) male volunteers received midazolam and Ro 48-6791 computer-controlled, targeting linearly increasing plasma concentrations for 30 min (targeted slopes: 40 and 20 ng ml-1 min-1 for midazolam, 3 and 1.5 ng ml-1 min-1 for Ro 48-6791, for young and elderly, respectively) and a constant concentration for the following 15 min. After recovery, the same infusion scheme was repeated. Plasma concentrations of midazolam, Ro 48-6791 and its metabolite Ro 48-6792 were determined from arterial blood samples. The hypnotic effect was assessed using the median frequency of the EEG power spectrum. RESULTS The concentration-effect relationship in each infusion cycle could be described by a sigmoid Emax model. The half-maximum concentration EC50 was higher in the second infusion cycle compared with the first one (midazolam, 47% (2.3-91.6%) and 37% (5.3-69.5%); Ro 48-6791, 22% (-2.8% to 44.6%) and 43% (3.4-82.4%) for young and elderly; mean and 95% confidence interval). The complete time course of the EEG median frequency could be described by an interaction between the parent drug in an effect compartment and a hypothetical competitive drug in an additional tolerance compartment. For Ro 48-6791, the use of its metabolite Ro 48-6792 as competitive compound also gave appropriate results. CONCLUSION Midzolam and Ro 48-6791 showed acute tolerance to the EEG effect which might be caused by competitive interaction with the metabolite.
Spectral Matrix Decomposition-Based Motion Artifacts Removal in Multi-Channel PPG Sensor Signals

The intelligent wearable heart rate measurement requirement has attracted more and more attention, and the related applications of Internet of Things are emerging. However, under intensive physical exercises, motion artifacts are strong interference sources for wrist-type photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor signals, thus significantly affecting the accurate estimation of heart rate and other physiological parameters. Currently, how to effectively remove the motion artifacts from PPG sensor signals is becoming an active and challenging research realm. In this paper, we propose a multi-channel spectral matrix decomposition (MC-SMD) model to accurately estimate heart rate in the presence of intensive physical activities. Motivated by the observation that the PPG signal spectrum and the acceleration spectrum have almost the same spectral peak positions in the frequency domain, we first model the removal of motion artifacts as a spectral matrix decomposition optimization problem. After removing motion artifacts, we propose a new spectral peak tracking method for estimating heart rate. Experimental results on the well-known PPG data sets recorded from 12 subjects during intensive movements demonstrate that MC-SMD can efficiently remove the motion artifacts and retrieve an accurate heart rate using multi-channel PPG sensor signals.
Tracking objects using particle filters

This paper describes an implementation of particle filter tracker based on condensation algorithm. The filter processes measurements as they become available in a standard predict-update loop. The prediction phase uses the available dynamic model to predict the probability density function in the next time step, by applying both the deterministic and stochastic component of the model to all samples. In the update phase the new measurement is used to update the probability density function by updating the weight of each sample. The goal of this work was to investigate the possibilities of object tracking without learning a dynamic motion model. Changes to the basic algorithm have been implemented that can help to improve the tracking performance by using more than one motion model and more than one predict-update iteration per measurement.
Energy and time response of CCD X-ray detectors

An analysis of X-ray signal charge collection in charge coupled device (CCD) detectors used for X-ray imaging spectroscopy is described. It is shown that splitting of charge between pixels can be recognized, and a tradeoff between energy resolution and detection efficiency can be performed for some applications. However, this charge splitting places a constraint on the count rate limits attainable. These limits are discussed for a number of readout modes, including integrating count applications. <<ETX>>
Future prospects for smart sensor systems

The generic term “smart sensor” addresses several aspects including miniaturization, sensor communication and flexible integration in higher-level systems. It involves the use of signal processing able to eliminate influencing effects and extract high quality sensory information in order to realize a robust signal transmission. In this contribution, we will give an overview about the history of the term of “smart sensors” since its release in the 70th and categorize the main aspects involved with this term as a basis for the prognosis of future trends. In the second part of the paper we provide some up-to-date examples and future trends for important developments in this field including “energy harvesting”, “Varied Input Sensors” and novel sensors based on nanotechnology.
Mother‐to‐child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus

Transmission of HIV virus from an infected mother to her offspring is becoming the leading cause of spreading in the pediatric population. This is particularly burdensome in the pattern II countries where HIV infection has reached epidemic proportions and infection rates affect more women of childbearing age than men. During the last few years considerable effort has been directed at defining the optimal methods for identifying infants of HIV‐infected mothers who will themselves prove to be infected because conventional serological assessment is impaired due to placental transfer of maternal IgG. At present, detection of specific IgA to HIV proteins, evaluation of autochthonous antibody production in vitro from infants' lymphocytes, and gene amplification of HIV DNA/RNA by polymerase chain reaction are the most promising procedures for early diagnosis within the first 6 months of life. Nevertheless all these techniques are cumbersome when evaluating specimens from the newborn child. Many studies have been performed to identify those maternal factors affecting the risk of vertical transmission. So far, none of them has shown real prognostic value. However, evaluation of maternal antibody response to functional epitopes of HIV envelope proteins such as the principal neutralizing domain, in some epidemiological settings, seems to correlate to a reduced rate of mother‐to‐child transmission. —Rossi, P.; Moschese, V. Mother‐to‐child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus. FASEB J. 5: 2419–2426;1991.
Subconjunctival carboplatin and systemic topotecan treatment in preclinical models of retinoblastoma

The authors demonstrated previously that the combination of topotecan (TPT) and carboplatin (CBP) was more effective than current chemotherapeutic combinations used to treat retinoblastoma in an orthotopic xenograft model. However, systemic coadministration of these agents is not ideal, because both agents cause dose‐limiting myelosuppression in children.
CFO Compensation for Uplink OFDMA Systems with Conjugated Gradient

In this paper, we propose an iterative lowcomplexity carrier frequency offset (CFO) compensation algorithm based on the conjugate gradient (CG) method for uplink orthogonal frequency division multiple access systems. In general, a linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) CFO compensation algorithm is simple and efficient, but it requires an inverse operation to compute the MMSE solution of the CFOinduced inter-carrier interference (ICI) matrix whose size equals the number of subcarriers. Thus, the computational complexity becomes prohibitively high when the number of subcarriers is large. To address this issue, we employ the iterative CG method to solve linear equations whose matrix is Hermitian positivedefinite. First, we derive the eigenvalue distribution of the CFOinduced ICI matrix. Based on the distribution, we present several observations which lead to the iteration number required for the convergence. Especially, the analysis shows that for an interleaved carrier assignment scheme, the maximum iteration number to compute an exact solution is at most the same as the number of mobile units. Simulation results exhibit that the proposed scheme can yield almost the same bit error rate performance of the MMSE compensation algorithm with substantially reduced computational complexity and memory requirements.
Crowdfunding as an Alternative Method of Raising Capital

Abstract Crowdfunding is a method of financing new ventures, commercial, cultural or social, often in return for future products or actions, engaged in by many investors. Currently, it is an important element in the structure of available sources of financing for investment projects. Despite the interest of potential investors, individual social sponsors and large-scale activities of institutions promoting knowledge about the functioning of crowdfunding aimed at encouraging and promoting it as a source of capital for new ventures, there is a lack of knowledge and, consequently, experience on its development and achievement. The aim of this study is to analyze this source of financing, assess its development globally and in Poland. In the preparation of the article,. a critical analysis of foreign and Polish literature was carried out, and descriptive and comparative research methods applied. The research task undertaken in the study was to analyze the crowdfunding market globally and in Poland. The Polish crowdfunding platforms were detailed and compared in terms of value in relation to the largest global platforms. The source for analyses of crowdfunding development in Poland was available literature on the analyzed topic and secondary data from the websites of specialized internet platforms. The article depicts a new, but important, aspect of financing the activity of enterprises, which is crowdfunding. It should be emphasized that there is still insufficient knowledge about this type of institution and, as a result, the importance and role that social financing plays in the financial market.
Design and characterization of a microfluidic packed bed system for protein breakthrough and dynamic binding capacity determination

A 1.5 μL ion exchange chromatography column to accommodate resins used for biopharmaceutical processing has been designed to produce breakthrough curves and to quantify dynamic and maximum protein binding capacities. Channels within a glass chip were fabricated using photolithography and isotropic etching. The design includes a 1 cm long microfluidic column in which compressible, polydispersed porous agarose beads (70 μm mean diameter) were packed using a keystone method where particles aggregate in a narrow channel. The depth of the column is such that two bead layers exist. The fabrication technique used forms Cartesian geometries as opposed to circular cross sections found in standard columns. The voidage was therefore higher than standard values when measured by 3D confocal microscopy. In conjunction with microscopic techniques, the column allows visualization of events within the bed such as adsorption profiles that would otherwise be difficult to observe. In this work, the binding of fluorescently labeled protein during isocratic loading was used to generate breakthrough from the microcolumn. Useful breakthrough curves were achieved using mobile phase velocities from 60 to 270 cm h−1. Calculated dynamic binding capacities were compared well with previously published data on conventional scale columns. The microfluidic chromatography column described here thus allows study of process scale chromatography behavior at scales 20,000 times smaller than in current practice. The work described in this article is representative of the proof of principle of a potentially powerful tool for the generation of microfluidic process bed data for the biopharmaceutical industry. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2009
Pristane, a Non-Antigenic Adjuvant, Induces MHC Class II-Restricted, Arthritogenic T Cells in the Rat1

Pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) in rats, a model for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is a T cell-dependent disease. However, pristane itself is a lipid and unable to form a stable complex with a MHC class II molecule. Therefore, the specificity and function of the T cells in PIA are as unclear as in rheumatoid arthritis. In this study, we show that activated CD4+ αβT cells, which target peripheral joints, transfer PIA. The pristane-primed T cells are of oligo or polyclonal origin as determined by their arthritogenicity after stimulation with several mitogenic anti-TCRVβ and anti-TCRVα mAbs. Arthritogenic cells secreted IFN-γ and TNF-α (but not IL-4) when stimulated with Con A in vitro, and pretreatments of recipient rats with either anti-IFN-γ or a recombinant TNF-α receptor before transfer ameliorated arthritis development. Most importantly, we show that these T cells are MHC class II restricted, because treatment with Abs against either DQ or DR molecules ameliorates arthritis development. The MHC class II restriction was confirmed by transferring donor T cells to irradiated recipients that were syngenic, semiallogenic, or allogenic to MHC class II molecules, in which only syngenic and semiallogenic recipients developed arthritis. These data suggest that the in vivo administration of a non-antigenic adjuvant, like pristane, activates CD4+ αβT cells that are MHC class II restricted and arthritogenic.
A bi-attribute user equilibrium model considering travellers’ regret aversion

Extensive empirical evidence indicates that travellers consider a number of qualities (e.g. travel time, monetary cost, and reliability) when deciding between alternative routes. This study focused on monetary cost and travel time and reviewed two traditional user equilibrium models that incorporate both factors: the VOT-based generalised cost user equilibrium (GCUE) and the bi-objective user equilibrium (BUE). Several properties and assumptions of these models are highlighted that may not be realistic. The present paper develops a bi-attribute regret-minimisation user equilibrium (BRminUE) model, in which travellers aim to minimise their regret rather than maximizing their utility in their travel choices. The relationships between GCUE, BRminUE, and BUE were investigated and a simple example verifies the proved properties. The BRminUE model is a special case of the BUE model; however, it is more general than the GCUE model. Numerical analyses on a four-node tolled network indicate the performance of the proposed model.
Epidemiologic correlates of cervical neoplasia and risk of human papillomavirus infection in asymptomatic women in Brazil.

To investigate whether the epidemiologic correlates of cervical cancer are predictors of infection with genital human papillomavirus (HPV), we performed a prevalence survey in two metropolitan areas of Brazil, Recife and São Paulo. The data records of four randomly selected HPV-negative women were matched on the basis of age, clinic, and admission period with those of each of 136 patients with positive HPV DNA hybridizations. Anal intercourse [prevalence rate ratio (PRR) = 1.7] and current pregnancy (PRR = 2.3) were the only variables associated with HPV 6/11 infection (P less than .10). Only the frequency of gynecologic consultations was associated (negatively) with risk of HPV 16/18 infection (P = .0175). Our data failed to provide evidence for the existence of shared risk factors for genital HPV infection and cervical cancer. The frequency of mixed HPV infections was 13 times higher than expected, a finding suggestive of the existence of additional determinants of HPV infection not akin to the general behavioral characteristics of women that are probed in the study.
Image Annotation using Multi-Layer Sparse Coding

Automatic annotation of images with descriptive words is a challenging problem with vast applications in the areas of image search and retrieval. This problem can be viewed as a label-assignment problem by a classifier dealing with a very large set of labels, i.e., the vocabulary set. We propose a novel annotation method that employs two layers of sparse coding and performs coarse-to-fine labeling. Themes extracted from the training data are treated as coarse labels. Each theme is a set of training images that share a common subject in their visual and textual contents. Our system extracts coarse labels for training and test images without requiring any prior knowledge. Vocabulary words are the fine labels to be associated with images. Most of the annotation methods achieve low recall due to the large number of available fine labels, i.e., vocabulary words. These systems also tend to achieve high precision for highly frequent words only while relatively rare words are more important for search and retrieval purposes. Our system not only outperforms various previously proposed annotation systems, but also achieves symmetric response in terms of precision and recall. Our system scores and maintains high precision for words with a wide range of frequencies. Such behavior is achieved by intelligently reducing the number of available fine labels or words for each image based on coarse labels assigned to it.