Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced production of mineralized nodules and collagenous proteins in vitro by calcium ascorbate supplemented with vitamin C metabolites.

BACKGROUND Vitamin C or ascorbate is important in wound healing due to its essential role in collagen synthesis. To study wound healing in the periodontium, cells adherent to expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) augmentation membranes, recovered from edentulous ridge augmentation procedures, have been established in culture in our laboratories. The objective of this study was to determine whether treatment of these cells with a calcium ascorbate, which contains vitamin C metabolites (metabolite-supplemented ascorbate), would increase the production of collagenous protein and mineralized tissue in vitro, as compared to unsupplemented calcium ascorbate (ascorbate). METHODS Cells derived from ePTFE membranes were cultured with beta-glycerophosphate and the test agents for 2 to 5 weeks, and the surface areas of the cell cultures occupied by mineralized nodules were measured using computerized image analysis. One experiment tested the effects of calcium threonate, one of the vitamin C metabolites in metabolite-supplemented ascorbate. Incorporation of radioactive proline and glycine was used as a measure of total protein (radioactivity precipitated by trichloracetic acid) and collagenase-digestible protein (radioactivity released by collagenase digestion.) Co-localization of collagen and fibronectin was examined by immunofluorescence. RESULTS In vitro treatment of these cells with metabolite-supplemented ascorbate increased the area of the cell cultures occupied by mineralized nodules after 5 weeks. Cell cultures treated with metabolite-supplemented ascorbate also exhibited significant increases in total protein. The increase in collagenous proteins in these cultures accounted for 85% of the increase in total protein. The greatest difference between treatment groups was observed in the cell-associated fraction containing the extracellular matrix. The additional collagen exhibited normal co-distribution with fibronectin. In cultures treated with ascorbate spiked with calcium threonate, the area of mineralized tissue was significantly greater than in ascorbate-treated cultures, but was less than that observed in cultures treated with metabolite-supplemented ascorbate. CONCLUSIONS In vitro treatment with ascorbate containing vitamin C metabolites enhanced the formation of mineralized nodules and collagenous proteins. Calcium threonate may be one of the metabolites influencing the mineralization process. Identifying factors which facilitate the formation of mineralized tissue has significant clinical ramifications in terms of wound healing and bone regeneration.
Predicting Activity Energy Expenditure Using the Actical® Activity Monitor

This study developed algorithms for predicting activity energy expenditure (AEE) in children (n = 24) and adults (n = 24) from the Actical® activity monitor. Each participant performed 10 activities (supine resting, three sitting, three house cleaning, and three locomotion) while wearing monitors on the ankle, hip, and wrist; AEE was computed from oxygen consumption. Regression analysis, used to create AEE prediction equations based on Actical® output, varied considerably for both children (R 2 = .45-.75; p < .001) and adults (R 2 = .14-.85; p < .008). Most of the resulting algorithms accurately predicted accumulated AEE and time within light, moderate, and vigorous intensity categories (p > .05). The Actical® monitor may be useful for predicting AEE and time variables at the ankle, hip, or wrist locations.
Practical metabolomics in drug discovery

Importance of the field: Metabolomics is increasingly becoming an important field in the pharmaceutical industry to support the discovery and development of therapeutic agents. It allows the comprehensive and simultaneous profiling of hundreds of discrete biologically important molecules, including amino acids, sugars, lipids and exogenous substances from biological fluids and tissues. Metabolomics is the ‘omics’ field that most represents the interplay of internal biological regulation and external environmental influences on disease, thereby being of particular importance to disease mitigation and management. Areas covered in this review: Technological advances in the experimental work flow, analytical detection strategies and bioinformatics tools have enabled metabolomics studies to become increasingly comprehensive, robust and informative for the understanding of disease, drug action and the development of biomarkers. This review will focus on the practical aspects of metabolomics studies as they have been applied to the study of mammalian biological systems, specifically targeted to the steps of experimental design with regard to sample preparation, sample analysis and data analysis of both polar and non-polar metabolites. What the reader will gain: The reader will gain an overview of the field of metabolomics as it applies to drug development and the practical issues involved with experimental design. We will discuss the various methods of sample preparation and analysis as they apply to different classes of metabolites and highlight recent advances in the field that illustrate these methods. Take home message: The field of metabolomics is a rapidly expanding discipline that is being applied to various aspects of drug development. The large diversity of metabolites found in nature dictates that different methods be developed for the investigation of different classes of metabolites. As the field of metabolomics continues to mature, it is likely that it will play an increasingly important role in the characterization of disease and the future development of biomarkers to assess drug efficacy and safety.
Application of Multiple Imputation in Dealing with Missing Data in Agricultural Surveys: The Case of BMP Adoption

Missing-data problems are common in farmer surveys but are often ignored in the literature. Conventional methods to address missing data, such as deletion and mean replacement, assume that data are missing completely at random, which rarely holds. This study compares these approaches to the multiple imputation method, which produces different parameter estimates. The mean replacement method increases the central tendency of data, leading to more significant but smaller coefficients than the other methods. We recommend using both the deletion and multiple imputation methods to deal with missing data; results generated by the mean replacement method may not be as reliable.
Relationship between cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation, CMV‐driven immunity, overall immune recovery and graft‐versus‐leukaemia effect in children

The interplay between immune recovery, cytomegalovirus (CMV)‐reactivation, CMV‐driven immunity and graft‐versus‐leukaemia effect (GVL) was analysed in 108 children (median age: 8 years) who underwent haematopoietic‐stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for acute leukaemia. Follow‐up was 2 years unless death or relapse occurred. CMV‐polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was programmed weekly until month +3 post‐HSCT. Immunomonitoring consisted of sequential lymphocyte subset enumerations and analyses of T‐cell proliferative and γ‐interferon responses to CMV and to adenovirus. In the 108 recipients, the 2‐year relapse rate (RR) was 25% (median time to onset 4·5 months; range: 24 d–17 months). CMV reactivation occurrence was 31% (median time to onset 26 d). Donor/recipient CMV serostatus did not influence RR. Among the 89 recipients disease‐free after day +120, i) early CMV‐reactivation before day +30 was more frequent (P = 0·01) in the relapse recipient group opposed to the non‐relapse group. ii) CD8+/CD28− and CD4+CD45RA− T‐cell expansions induced by CMV did not influence RR, iii) Recovery of anti‐CMV and also anti‐adenovirus immunity and of naïve CD4+ T‐cells was faster in the non‐relapse group (P = 0·008; 0·009 and 0·002 respectively). In contrast to adult acute myeloid leukaemia, CMV reactivation was associated with increased RR in this paediatric series. Accelerated overall immune recovery rather than CMV‐driven immunity had a favourable impact on RR.
Characterization of Trichodesmium spp. by Genetic Techniques

ABSTRACT The genetic diversity of Trichodesmium spp. from natural populations (off Bermuda in the Sargasso Sea and off North Australia in the Arafura and Coral Seas) and of culture isolates from two regions (Sargasso Sea and Indian Ocean) was investigated. Three independent techniques were used, including a DNA fingerprinting method based on a highly iterated palindrome (HIP1), denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of a hetR fragment, and sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the 16S-23S rDNA region. Low genetic diversity was observed in natural populations of Trichodesmium spp. from the two hemispheres. Culture isolates of Trichodesmium thiebautii, Trichodesmium hildebrandtii, Trichodesmium tenue, and Katagnymene spiralis displayed remarkable similarity when these techniques were used, suggesting that K. spiralis is very closely related to the genus Trichodesmium. The largest genetic variation was found between Trichodesmium erythraeum and all other species of Trichodesmium, including a species of Katagnymene. Our data obtained with all three techniques suggest that there are two major clades of Trichodesmium spp. The HIP1 fingerprinting and ITS sequence analyses allowed the closely related species to be distinguished. This is the first report of the presence of HIP1 in marine cyanobacteria.
Doping with Growth Hormone

Abstract Triggered by the Olympic games in Sydney last year, many articles in the press suggested that recombinant human growth hormone (hGH) is one of the most popular performance enhancing drugs used by athletes. However, any hard facts on hGH abuse were provided by Australian customs officers - and not by laboratory assessment. The lack of an official test for hGH doping together with the widespread rumours on its tremendous beneficial effects seem to make this compound attractive for athletes. From a scientific point of view, there are two major questions about this issue: First, as there is no controlled study demonstrating a profound effect of hGH administration on workload capacity in healthy adults, why do athletes use hGH? Second, how could the application of a substance naturally occurring in the human body be detected? Both aspects are discussed in this article.
Theophylline and Dexamethasone Induce Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ Expression in Human Eosinophils

Eosinophils are major effector cells in allergic diseases including asthma. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) is a nuclear receptor that regulates immune reaction. We have previously demonstrated that human eosinophils express PPARγ and that stimulation with a synthetic agonist for PPARγ attenuated the factor-induced eosinophil survival and chemotaxis. However, the modulator of the eosinophil PPARγ expression has not yet been studied. In this study, we investigated the effect of theophylline and dexamethasone (widely used drugs in the treatment of asthma) on PPARγ expression in eosinophils. Purified human peripheral blood eosinophils were cultured, and therapeutic concentrations of theophylline and dexamethasone were added. Subsequently, PPARγ was measured using quantitative real-time RT-PCR and flow cytometry. Theophylline and dexamethasone markedly enhanced both mRNA and protein levels of PPARγ. These findings suggest that the increase in PPARγ expression on eosinophils may play a role in the anti-inflammatory effects of theophylline and dexamethasone.
Unemployment Insurance Benefits and Income Smoothing

Economic theory predicts that top executives and lower-level employees have incentives to smooth income due to compensating wage differential costs and fear of job loss. Following Agrawal and Matsa (JFE, 2013), who rely on exogenous variations in unemployment insurance benefits to examine how unemployment concerns affect corporate leverage, we examine the link between such benefits and income smoothing. We find that when unemployment insurance benefits are higher, and hence concerns about unemployment are lower, there is less income smoothing. This relation is stronger when employees face higher unemployment risks, and it is weaker when the firms’ information and internal control environments are strong. Our paper contributes to the literature by showing that labor market policies have a significant although probably unintended externality on corporate financial reporting.
50 years on: the Shap working party on world religions in education and its publications

ABSTRACT The Shap Working Party on World Religions in Education celebrates its 50th anniversary in April 2019. In marking this event, the present article offers a summary of the history of the Shap Working Party in relation to its publications. The overview includes material published by the Shap Working Party itself and material published by members of the Shap Working Party which reflects Shap’s general approach and values. Many Shap publications and articles about Shap are available with open access, on the Shap website – http://www.shapworkingparty. org.uk/ – and more will appear in celebration of the Working Party’s 50th Anniversary. The present article is dedicated to the memory of Professor John Hinnells who had a key role in establishing the Shap Working Party and who died in 2018.
Managing Febrile Infants

The authors hypothesized that sepsis workup recommendations are associated with practice recommendations published during the physician’s residency. The first published recommendations suggesting sepsis workups for nontoxic, young, febrile infants appeared in pediatric journals from 1975-1980 and in family practice journals from 1981-1987. Data are from the Community Tracking Study (3,272 pediatricians and 2,432 family physicians). “Percentage of sepsis workups recommended” was defined by response to a vignette about the percentage of well-appearing 6-week-old children with a fever of 101°F for whom the physician would recommend a sepsis workup. Multivariable regression with piecewise linear functions evaluated workup recommendations by timing of literature recommendations during residency. Pediatricians recommended sepsis workups 81.6% of the time and family physicians 67.7% (p < .001). Increased recommendations occurred among pediatricians who completed residency from 1975-1980 (p < .05) and among family physicians who completed residency from 1981-1987 (p < .005), when specialty-specific journals published recommendations for sepsis workups for febrile infants. The association between publication of sepsis workup recommendations during a physician’s residency and increased sepsis workup recommendations suggests an unrecognized and enduring impact of such publications.
RF-MEMS-Based Bandpass-to-Bandstop Switchable Single- and Dual-Band Filters With Variable FBW and Reconfigurable Selectivity

Bandpass (BP)-to-bandstop (BS) switchable filters using radio frequency microelectromechanical system switch are presented here. The filters are implemented in both single- and dual-band versions with variable fractional bandwidth (FBW). Tuning of transmission zeros (TZs) and transmission poles (TPs) for BP filter (BPF) and BS filter (BSF), respectively, is achieved in both single- and dual-band cases leading to reconfigurable selectivity. The first odd-mode frequency of the filter is suppressed using a fixed capacitor and the second odd mode is brought closer to the first even-mode with another variable capacitor to form the passband(s). The second capacitor tunes both the second odd mode and TZs (for BPF) or TPs (for BSF) minimizing the requirement of any extra tuning element. In a single-band fabricated BPF, tuning second odd mode gives the FBW variation of 9.3%–72.7% with TZ on the lower side and 5.6%–55.6% with TZ on the higher side of the passband. The 15-dB FBW of a single-band BSF having TP on both sides of the stopband varies over 5.2%–20.7%. The two passbands of a dual-band BPF independently vary over 4.5%–24% and 4.5%–13%. Also, the 15-dB FBW of the first and second stopbands of BSF independently varies over 6.5%–13.2% and 1.5%–3.6%, respectively.
Nontraumatic spinal epidural hematomas

Purpose: Spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) is a rare clinical entity with a bleak outcome. The aim of our study was to establish the value of MR findings in the diagnosis of nontraumatic SEH. Material and Methods: Seven patients with nontraumatic SEH were examined by MR at 1.5 T. Two patients were under anticoagulation therapy with heparin, and 2 others were taking salicylic acid. One patient had lupus erythematodes with a marked thrombocytopenia. One patient had a spinal arteriovenous malformation. Results: MR imaging permitted the accurate localization of extradural intraspinal expansive lesions which exhibited the characteristic signal intensities of blood. Five patients underwent laminectomy and evacuation of the hematoma. In the acute phase, the hematomas appeared isointense when compared with the spinal cord on T1-weighted images and hyperintense on T2-weighted images. Later the hematomas were hyperintense on T1-weighted images and showed signals identical to those of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on T2-weighted images Conclusion: MR imaging established the exact diagnosis and localization of SEH in all cases. MR also can provide useful information about the age of the hematomas.
Enriching Remote Labs with Computer Vision and Drones

Avec le progres technologique, de nouvelles technologies sont en cours de developpement afin de contribuer a une meilleure experience dans le domaine de l’education. En particulier, les laboratoires distants constituent un moyen interessant et pratique qui peut motiver les etudiants a apprendre. L'etudiant peut a tout moment, et de n'importe quel endroit, acceder au laboratoire distant et faire son TP (travail pratique). Malgre les nombreux avantages, les technologies a distance dans l’education creent une distance entre l’etudiant et l’enseignant. Les eleves peuvent avoir des difficultes a faire le TP si aucune intervention appropriee ne peut etre prise pour les aider. Dans cette these, nous visons a enrichir un laboratoire electronique distant concu pour les etudiants en ingenierie et appele «LaboREM» (pour remote laboratory) de deux manieres: tout d'abord, nous permettons a l'etudiant d'envoyer des commandes de haut niveau a un mini-drone disponible dans le laboratoire distant. L'objectif est d'examiner les faces-avant des instruments de mesure electroniques, a l'aide de la camera integree au drone. De plus, nous autorisons la communication eleve-enseignant a distance a l'aide du drone, au cas ou un enseignant serait present dans le laboratoire distant. Enfin, le drone doit revenir pour atterrir sur la plate-forme de recharge automatique des batteries, quand la mission est terminee. Nous proposons aussi un systeme automatique pour estimer l'etat de l'etudiant (frustre / concentre.) afin de prendre les interventions appropriees pour assurer un bon deroulement du TP distant. Par exemple, si l'eleve a des difficultes majeures, nous pouvons lui donner des indications ou reduire le niveau de difficulte de l’exercice. Nous proposons de faire cela en utilisant des signes visuels (estimation de la pose de la tete et analyse de l'expression faciale). De nombreuses evidences sur l'etat de l'etudiant peuvent etre acquises, mais elles sont incompletes, parfois inexactes et ne couvrent pas tous les aspects de l'etat de l'etudiant. C'est pourquoi nous proposons dans cette these de fusionner les preuves en utilisant la theorie de Dempster-Shafer qui permet la fusion de preuves incompletes.
Ethanol triggers neural crest apoptosis through the selective activation of a pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein and a phospholipase Cbeta-dependent Ca2+ transient.

BACKGROUND Alcohol is a potent neurotoxin that triggers the selective apoptosis of neuronal populations in the developing fetus. For neural crest cells, clinically relevant ethanol levels (0.3%) rapidly elicit a phospholipase C (PLC)-dependent intracellular Ca2+ transient that is sufficient to activate apoptosis. We investigated the biochemical origins of this Ca2+ transient. METHODS Three somite chick embryos (stage 8-) were pretreated with agonists and antagonists of PLC signaling pathways before ethanol challenge. The resulting intracellular Ca2+ release was quantified using Fluo-3; apoptosis was assessed using vital dyes. RESULTS Pretreatment of embryos with PLC antagonists U73122 or ET-18-OCH3 confirmed that a phosphoinositide-specific PLC was required for both the ethanol-dependent Ca2+ transient and subsequent cell death. Ethanol rapidly elevated intracellular inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate [Ins(1,4,5)P3] levels in the rostral portion of the embryo that contains neural crest progenitors. The Ins(1,4,5)P3 receptor antagonist xestospongin C blocked the appearance of the ethanol-dependent Ca2+ transient. Pretreatment with the pan-Galpha protein antagonist GDPbetaS, but not with the tyrosine kinase antagonist genistein, suppressed ethanol's ability to elicit the Ca2+ transient, suggesting that a rise in PLC activity and Ins(1,4,5)P3 concentration originates from stimulation of heterotrimeric G proteins. To probe the identity of this G protein, embryos were treated with G protein antagonists. Pertussis toxin and NF023 suppressed the ethanol-induced Ca2+ transient and subsequent neural crest apoptosis, whereas suramin was weakly inhibitory. C3 exoenzyme was embryolethal over a wide concentration range, consistent with suggestions that Rho family GTPases participate in neural crest development. Galphai2 was identified by immunostaining in the neural crest cells. CONCLUSION We propose a role for Galphai/o protein activation and subsequent interaction of Gbetagamma with PLCbeta in mediating the proapoptotic effects of ethanol upon the developing neural crest.
An Improved Multi-band Speech Enhancement Utilizing Masking Properties of Human Hearing System

This paper discusses the problem of single channel speech enhancement in various noise environments and presents an improved multi-band speech enhancement using masking properties of the human hearing system to address the additive noise and remnant noise, simultaneously. The improved multi-band spectral subtraction (I-MBSS) is used for enhancing the speech degraded by real-world noises. The IMBSS uses an adaptive noise estimation approach to estimate the noise from each band without complicated speech silence detection. The noise is estimated and updated by adaptively smoothing the noisy signal power in each band. The noise estimation technique uses a smoothing parameter which is controlled by a linear function of a-posteriori SNR. Subsequently, the human hearing model is applied in the enhanced speech to compute the noise masking threshold and the subtraction parameters are adjusted according to human perception. The method is tested on speech signals with different noise types at different levels and the results are compared to classical multi-band spectral subtraction algorithm. Speech enhancement performance is evaluated using output SNR and the study of the spectrograms as well as informal listening tests with several types of real-world noises. Based on the analyzed speech signals, the proposed enhancement scheme performs better than then the classicalmulti-band spectral subtraction.