Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intracerebral Implantation of NGF-Releasing Biodegradable Microspheres Protects Striatum against Excitotoxic Damage

Intrastriatal implantation of genetically modified cells synthesizing nerve growth factor (NGF) constitutes one way to obtain a long-term supply of this neurotrophic factor and a neuronal protection against an excitotoxic lesion. We have investigated if NGF-loaded poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres could represent an alternative to cell transplantations. These microspheres can be implanted stereotaxically and locally release the protein in a controlled and sustained way. In order to test this paradigm, the NGF release kinetics were characterized in vitro using radiolabeled NGF, immunoenzymatic assay, and PC-12 cells bioassay and then in vivo after implantation in the intact rat striatum. These microspheres were thus implanted into the rat striatum 7 days prior to infusing quinolinic acid. Control animals were either not treated or implanted with blank microspheres. The extent of the lesion and the survival of ChAT-, NADPH-d-, and DARPP-32-containing neurons were analyzed. In vitro studies showed that microspheres allowed a sustained release of bioactive NGF for at least 1 month. Microspheres implanted in the intact striatum still contained NGF after 2.5 months and they were totally degraded after 3 months. After quinolinic acid infusion, the lesion size in the group treated with NGF-releasing microspheres was reduced by 40% when compared with the control groups. A marked neuronal sparing was noted, principally concerning the cholinergic interneurons, but also neuropeptide Y/somatostatin interneurons and GABAergic striatofuge neurons. These results indicate that implantation of biodegradable NGF-releasing microspheres can be used to protect neurons from a local excitotoxic lesion and that this strategy may ultimately prove to be relevant for the treatment of various neurological diseases.
Body shape characteristics body cathexis and apparel fit preferences and problems of African and Caucasian women

iii LIST OF TABLES . xii LIST OF FIGURES . xiii LIST OF ADDENDA . xv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . xvi CHAPTER 1: THE STUDY IN PERSPECTIVE . 1 1.1 A SYNOPSIS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN APPAREL INDUSTRY . 1 1.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND . 2 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT . 9 1.4 PRIMARY OBJECTIVES AND SUB-OBJECTIVES . 11 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY . 12 1.5. 1 Significance for apparel manufacturers and retailers . 12 1.5. 2 Contribution to the existing knowledge base . 13 1.6 OUTLINE OF THE STUDY . 14 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 16 2.
INSTRUCTORS ’ PERCEPT IONS OF INFLUENCING FACTORS

A multitude of factors influence interpersonal interaction between students and instructors in an online course. This study examines perceptions of six experienced online instructors to determine factors they believe increase interaction among their students and between the students and instructor of online courses. The end result is an inventory of strategies that can be used by novice and experienced online instructors alike to impact interpersonal interaction in online courses. Factors include group work, course environment, model use, community, discussion question type and assessment, feedback type and medium, immediacy behaviors, discourse guidelines, and instructor participation.
Interaction-based user interface redesign

This paper demonstrates a general framework to restyle UI widgets, in order to adapt them to the user behavior. Different implementation examples illustrate its feasibility. The value of this methodology comes from the fact that it is suited to any application language or toolkit supporting structured data hierarchies and style sheets; e.g., interfaces created in HTML, XUL, Flex/AIR (ActionScript), or Java. As described in the paper, an explicit end user intervention is not required, and changes are gradually applied so that they are not intrusive for the user.
Ethnocentrism in the low countries: A comparative perspective

Abstract This study explores differences of ethnocentrism and related phenomena in The Netherlands and Flanders on the basis of two comparable surveys conducted in 1990 and 1991. The explanatory models derived from theories of ethnocentrism are largely confirmed. People in Flanders subscribe more strongly to both components of ethnocentrism (i.e. to an unfavourable attitude towards out‐groups and to a favourable attitude towards the in‐group) as well as to a number of its predictors such as authoritarianism, anomie, and social cultural localism. The interpretations of these findings involve historical processes, intergroup tensions, economic fluctuations, and the organisational embeddedness of right‐wing extremism in The Netherlands and in Flanders.
Voltage limiter calculation method for fast torque response of IPMSM in overmodulation range

In this paper, a voltage limiter calculation method for the fast torque response of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) when an inverter operates in the overmodulation range is considered. The relation between torque response of an IPMSM and voltage phase angle in the overmodulation range is analyzed, and based on this relation, the optimal voltage limiter calculation method that can be realized by real time calculation is proposed. By using the proposed method, torque response of an IPMSM can be improved as fast as twice the conventional methods. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by simulation and experimental results.
Tomato Polyphenol Oxidase B Is Spatially and Temporally Regulated during Development and in Response to Ethylene

Plant polyphenol oxidases (PPOs) are ubiquitous plastid-localized enzymes. A precise analysis of PPO function in plants has been complicated by the presence of several family members with immunological cross reactivity. Previously we reported the isolation of genomic clones coding for the seven members of the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) PPO family (A, A’, B, C, D, E, and F). Here we report the complex spatial and temporal expression of one of the members, PPO B. The PPO B promoter was sequenced and subjected to homology analysis. Sequence similarities were found to nucleotide sequences of genes encoding enzymes/proteins active in the following systems: phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, signal transduction and responsiveness to hormones and stresses, fruit and seed proteins/enzymes, and photosynthesis. Chimeric gene fusions were constructed linking PPO B 5′ flanking regions to the reporter gene, β-glucuronidase (GUS). The resultant transgenic plants were histochemically analyzed for GUS activity in various vegetative and reproductive tissues, and evaluated for PPO B responsiveness to ethylene induction. It was shown that PPO B expression was tissue specific, developmentally regulated, ethylene induced, and localized predominantly to mitotic or apoptotic tissues.
Information Integration as a Matter of Market Agents

In the modern society, information has become an im portant resource. While the overall amount of offer ed information is steadily growing as more and more sources are av ailable through the Internet world-wide, accessing, valuing, and processing information continue to be a hard work. Integration architectures offer a solution for this problem and provide a unified access to a variety of sources. However, tr aditional approaches have their limits in a dynamic and aggressive environment. Under the premise of the development o f world-wide information markets, the dynamism of o pen electronic markets cannot be ignored. In this paper, we presen t a solution for the problem of information integra tion in a dynamic environment in the form of a community of market ag ents. The application domain are markets of scienti f c literature.
Novel Likelihood Ratio Tests for Screening Gene‐Gene and Gene‐Environment Interactions With Unbalanced Repeated‐Measures Data

There has been extensive literature on modeling gene‐gene interaction (GGI) and gene‐environment interaction (GEI) in case‐control studies with limited literature on statistical methods for GGI and GEI in longitudinal cohort studies. We borrow ideas from the classical two‐way analysis of variance literature to address the issue of robust modeling of interactions in repeated‐measures studies. While classical interaction models proposed by Tukey and Mandel have interaction structures as a function of main effects, a newer class of models, additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) models, do not have similar restrictive assumptions on the interaction structure. AMMI entails a singular value decomposition of the cell residual matrix after fitting the additive main effects and has been shown to perform well across various interaction structures. We consider these models for testing GGI and GEI from two perspectives: likelihood ratio test based on cell means and a regression‐based approach using individual observations. Simulation results indicate that both approaches for AMMI models lead to valid tests in terms of maintaining the type I error rate, with the regression approach having better power properties. The performance of these models was evaluated across different interaction structures and 12 common epistasis patterns. In summary, AMMI model is robust with respect to misspecified interaction structure and is a useful screening tool for interaction even in the absence of main effects. We use the proposed methods to examine the interplay between the hemochromatosis gene and cumulative lead exposure on pulse pressure in the Normative Aging Study.
A Point-of-Care Immunosensor for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin in Clinical Urine Samples Using a Cuneated Polysilicon Nanogap Lab-on-Chip

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a glycoprotein hormone secreted from the placenta, is a key molecule that indicates pregnancy. Here, we have designed a cost-effective, label-free, in situ point-of-care (POC) immunosensor to estimate hCG using a cuneated 25 nm polysilicon nanogap electrode. A tiny chip with the dimensions of 20.5 × 12.5 mm was fabricated using conventional lithography and size expansion techniques. Furthermore, the sensing surface was functionalized by (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane and quantitatively measured the variations in hCG levels from clinically obtained human urine samples. The dielectric properties of the present sensor are shown with a capacitance above 40 nF for samples from pregnant women; it was lower with samples from non-pregnant women. Furthermore, it has been proven that our sensor has a wide linear range of detection, as a sensitivity of 835.88 μA mIU-1 ml-2 cm-2 was attained, and the detection limit was 0.28 mIU/ml (27.78 pg/ml). The dissociation constant Kd of the specific antigen binding to the anti-hCG was calculated as 2.23 ± 0.66 mIU, and the maximum number of binding sites per antigen was Bmax = 22.54 ± 1.46 mIU. The sensing system shown here, with a narrow nanogap, is suitable for high-throughput POC diagnosis, and a single injection can obtain triplicate data or parallel analyses of different targets.
Confocal imaging of dendritic Ca2+ transients in hippocampal brain slices during simultaneous current‐ and voltage‐clamp recording

Changes in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) within CA1 hippocampal pyramidal neurons were imaged using confocal laser scanning microscopy in conjunction with Ca2+ ‐sensitive fluorescent indicators. The imaging was performed in thick hippocampal brain slices while simultaneously measuring or controlling electrical activity with sharp microelectrodes or whole‐cell patch‐clamp electrodes. The combination of imaging and electrophysiology was essential for interpreting the changes in [Ca2+]i. We compared the increases in [Ca2+]i produced by either of two methods–direct depolarization of the cell via the somatic electrode or high‐frequency stimulations of synaptic inputs. The increases in [Ca2+]i in the soma and proximal dendrites caused by both methods were of comparable magnitude and they always decayed within seconds in healthy cells. However, the spatial patterns of distal Ca2+ increases were different. Separate sets of synaptic inputs to the same cell resulted in different spatial patterns of [Ca2+]i transients. We isolated and observed what appeared to be a voltage‐independent component of the synaptically mediated [Ca2+]i transients. This work demonstrates that the combination of neurophysiology and simultaneous confocal microscopy is well suited for visualizing and analyzing [Ca2+]i within neurons throughout the CNS and it raises the possibility of routinely relating subcellular [Ca2+]i changes to structural and functional modifications. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
What Happens After Menopause? (WHAM): protocol for a prospective, multicentre, age-matched cohort trial of risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy in high-risk premenopausal women

Introduction Women at high inherited risk of ovarian cancer are advised to undergo risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (RRBSO) at age 40–45 years or when their families are complete. Most women are premenopausal at this age, so RRBSO will induce surgical menopause. Despite the clear benefits of RRBSO for cancer risk reduction, much less is known about the impact on non-cancer outcomes that contribute to health and well-being and inform surveillance and management strategies. Methods and analysis This will be a multicentre, prospective cohort study of 105 premenopausal high-risk women undergoing RRBSO and an age-matched comparison group of 105 premenopausal women not planning oophorectomy or pregnancy in the next 2 years. The aim of this study is to measure the impact of RRBSO on sexual function (primary outcome) at 24 months in high-risk premenopausal women compared with the comparison group. Secondary outcomes include menopausal symptoms and menopause-related quality of life, mood, sleep quality, markers of cardiovascular disease and pre-diabetes, bone density and markers of bone turnover, and the impact of hormone replacement therapy use on these outcomes. Data analysis methods will include logistic and linear regression using general estimating equations accounting for the repeated outcome measurements within each participant. Ethics and dissemination The study has been approved by institutional ethics committees at each participating centre. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations, and national and international networks of centres managing high-risk women, and will inform national and international clinical guidelines. Trial registration number The pre-results protocol for this trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (anzctr.org.au; registration no: ACTRN12615000082505).
Shigella Infections in Household Contacts of Pediatric Shigellosis Patients in Rural Bangladesh

To examine rates of Shigella infections in household contacts of pediatric shigellosis patients, we followed contacts and controls prospectively for 1 week after the index patient obtained care. Household contacts of patients were 44 times more likely to develop a Shigella infection than were control contacts (odds ratio 44.7, 95% CI 5.5–361.6); 29 (94%) household contacts of shigellosis patients were infected with the same species and serotype as the index patient’s. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that 14 (88%) of 16 with infected contacts had strains that were indistinguishable from or closely related to the index patient’s strain. Latrine area fly counts were higher in patient households compared with control households, and 2 patient household water samples were positive for Shigella. We show high susceptibility of household contacts of shigellosis patients to Shigella infections and found environmental risk factors to be targeted in future interventions.
Shape from silhouette in space, time and light domains

This paper presents an image segmentation approach for obtaining a set of silhouettes along with the Visual Hull of an object observed from multiple viewpoints. The proposed approach can deal with mostly any type of appearance characteristics such as textured or textureless, shiny or lambertian surface reflectance, opaque or transparent objects. Compared to more classical methods for silhouette extraction from multiple views, for which certain assumptions are made on the object or scene, neither the background nor the object's appearance properties are modeled. The only assumption is the constancy of the unknown background at a given camera viewpoint while the object is under motion. The principal idea of the method is the estimation of the temporal evolution of each pixel over time which leads to the ability to estimate the background likelihood. Furthermore, the object is captured under different lighting conditions in order to cope with shadows. All the information from the space, time and lighting domains is merged based on a MRF framework and the constructed energy function is minimized via graph cuts.
A 0.44fJ/conversion-step 11b 600KS/s SAR ADC with semi-resting DAC

A 0.3V 600KS/s 11b SAR ADC with semi-resting (SR) DAC, cascade-input (CI) comparator, and double rail-to-rail input range is implemented in 90nm CMOS. The SR DAC consumes only 6-13.5% switching energy of the state-of-the-art works. The CI comparator consumes only 49% of power and 66% of decision time with an ×3 front-stage gain boost. The prototype achieves a SNDR of 58.7dB, an ENOB of 9.46b, a power of 187nW, and a resulting FoM of 0.44fJ/conv. -step.
A Method for Customer Demands Groups Segmentation in Product Design Based on Fuzzy Clustering and Trigonometric Functions

Customer involvement become more and more important in product design and the most important problem is how to turn the customer demands into design knowledge, which makes the customer demands segmentation a hot topic in academic. A method for customer demands segmentation based on fuzzy clustering and trigonometric functions was proposed. Firstly, a customer-classified framework based on fuzzy clustering was presented. Then, 7 steps for partitioning clustering customer demand based on trigonometric functions were designed. Finally, an example of customer demands groups segmentation in stroller design was given to verify the feasibility and advantages of the method.
Taxonomic Approaches to Studying Strategy: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues

Taxonomic inquiry is emerging as an important type of research in the field of strategy. This paper builds a case for strategy taxonomy-building and addresses selected conceptual and methodological issues for researchers interested in such investigations. Among the issues discussed are the following: choosing variables to classify, framing the domain of the taxonomy, developing longitudinal taxonomies, manipulating variables, and incorporating organizational performance into strategic taxonomies. Drawing from the literature and from my own experiences in taxonomic studies, this paper is intended as a special supplement to more generic and technically detailed treatments of numerical classification.
Novel Rotavirus VP7 Typing Assay Using a One-Step Reverse Transcriptase PCR Protocol and Product Sequencing and Utility of the Assay for Epidemiological Studies and Strain Characterization, Including Serotype Subgroup Analysis

ABSTRACT Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe dehydrating gastroenteritis in infants. To date, 10 different serotypes of rotavirus have been identified in human stools. While four or five serotypes dominate, serotype circulation varies with season and geography. Since our laboratory has been involved in the development of a multivalent rotavirus vaccine, it is important to identify the serotypes of rotavirus encountered during our clinical trials. We have developed methodologies for the molecular identification of rotavirus strains based on VP7 gene segment sequence. A 365-bp reverse transcriptase PCR product was generated from the VP7 gene segment using a pair of novel degenerate primers. All serotypes tested (both animal and human) yielded an identically sized product after amplification. Sequencing of these products is performed using truncated versions of the original primers. The sequence generated is compared against a database of rotavirus VP7 sequences, with the G type determined, based on the sequence homology. Using this assay, we have correctly identified human VP7 strains from a panel of available serotypes, as well as numerous animal strains. The assay was qualified using rotavirus positive stool samples, negative stool samples, and rotavirus-spiked stool samples. In addition, samples from cases of acute gastroenteritis collected at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have been evaluated and indicate that the assay is able to discriminate subtle differences within serotypes. The assay has been utilized in the testing of >3,000 antigen-positive (enzyme immunoassay) samples collected during clinical trials of a rotavirus vaccine (RotaTeq) and identified a serotype in ∼92% of samples (3, 17, 19).
Colon capsule endoscopy: European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) Guideline

PillCam colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) is an innovative noninvasive, and painless ingestible capsule technique that allows exploration of the colon without the need for sedation and gas insufflation. Although it is already available in European and other countries, the clinical indications for CCE as well as the reporting and work-up of detected findings have not yet been standardized. The aim of this evidence-based and consensus-based guideline, commissioned by the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) is to furnish healthcare providers with a comprehensive framework for potential implementation of this technique in a clinical setting.
Sub-10 nm particle growth by vapor condensation – effects of vapor molecule size and particle thermal speed

Abstract. The growth of freshly formed nanoparticles has been investigated. A new analytical expression based on a recently developed exact solution for the condensational growth rate has been derived. Based on the new growth rate, a new approximate but accurate analytical expression for growth time has been derived. The expression includes transition regime effects on growth, molecule size effects on the collision cross section and particle thermal speed effects on the relative collisional speeds – the last two of which are typically neglected, but may have significant effects when dealing with the growth of freshly nucleated particles. To demonstrate the use of the derived expressions, the contribution of sulphuric acid and organic compounds on sub 3 nm and sub 10 nm particle growth rates has been studied. For sulphuric acid also the effect of hydration as function of relative humidity has been taken into account. According to the new expression the sulphuric acid concentration needed for 1 nm/h growth in sub 3 nm range is ca. 1.5×107 cm−3, which is a factor of 1.5 smaller than values typically used in aerosol physics based on standard model in kinetic regime.
Entity and Aspect Extraction for Organizing News Comments

News websites give their users the opportunity to participate in discussions about published articles, by writing comments. Typically, these comments are unstructured making it hard to understand the flow of user discussions. Thus, there is a need for organizing comments to help users to (1) gain more insights about news topics, and (2) have an easy access to comments that trigger their interests. In this work, we address the above problem by organizing comments around the entities and the aspects they discuss. More specifically, we propose an approach for entity and aspect extraction from user comments through the following contributions. First, we extend traditional Named-Entity Recognition approaches, using coreference resolution and external knowledge bases, to detect more occurrences of entities in comments. Second, we exploit part-of-speech tag, dependency tag, and lexical databases to extract explicit and implicit aspects around discussed entities. Third, we evaluate our entity and aspect extraction approach, on manually annotated data, showing that it highly increases precision and recall compared to baseline approaches.