Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preparation of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 loaded dextran-based microspheres and their characteristics

AbstractAim:To prepare new pharmaceutical forms with sustained delivery properties of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP2) for tissue engineering and guided tissue regeneration (GTR) use.Methods:rhBMP2-loaded dextran-based hydrogel microspheres (rhBMP2-MPs), which aimed to keep rhBMP2 bioactivity and to achieve long-term sustained release of rhBMP2, were prepared by double-phase emulsified condensation polymerization. The physical, chemical performances and biological characteristics of those microspheres were studied both in vitro and in vivo.Results:The microspheres' average diameter was 30.33±4.32 μm with 75.4% ranging from 20 μm to 40 μm and the drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were 7.82% and 82.25%, respectively. The rhBMP2-releasing profiles in vitro showed that rhBMP2 release could be maintained more than 10 d. The rhBMP2-MPs, with good swelling and biodegradation behavior, could be kept for 6 months at below 4°C without significant characteristic change or bioactivity loss. Cytology studies showed that rhBMP2-MPs could promote the proliferation of periodontal ligament cells (PDLCs) approximately 10 d, while the bioactivity of concentrated rhBMP2 solution could keep no more than 3 d. Scanning electron microscope showed that rhBMP2-MPs could be enchased into the porous structure of calcium phosphate ceremic (CPC) and the eugonic growth of PDLCs in CPC/rhBMP2-MPs scaffolds. Animal experiments indicated that using CPC/rhBMP2-MPs scaffolds could gain more periodontal tissue regeneration than using rhBMP2 compound firsthand with CPC (CPC/rhBMP2). Conclusion:By encapsulating rhBMP2 into dextran-based microspheres, a small quantity of rhBMP2 could achieve equivalent effects to the concentrated rhBMP2 solution and at the same time, could prolong rhBMP2 retention both in vitro and in vivo.
Emodin induces apoptosis of human osteosarcoma cells via mitochondria- and endoplasmic reticulum stress-related pathways.

AIM Emodin showed anti-cancer activity against multiple human malignant tumors by inducing apoptosis. However, the apoptotic inducing effect against human osteosarcoma and related mechanism are still not studied. This study was aimed to investigate them. METHODS Emodin was used to incubate human OS cell U2OS cells at serially diluted concentrations. Hoechst staining was used to evaluate apoptosis; flow cytometry was applied to assess the collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP); intracellular ROS generation was detected by DCFH-DA staining; endoplasmic reticulum stress activation was examined by western blotting. RESULTS Cell apoptosis of U2OS cells was induced by emodin incubation in a concentration-dependent manner; MMP collapse and ROS generation were identified at starting concentration of 80 μmol/L of emodin in a concentration-dependent manner. ER stress activation was found at beginning concentration of 40 μmol/L of emodin. The MMP collapse was inhibited while the ER stress was not inhibited by NAC administration. CONCLUSIONS Emodin induces death of human osteosarcoma cells by initiating ROS-dependent mitochondria-induced and ROS-independent ER stress-induced apoptosis.
A Hybrid RFID Protocol against Tracking Attacks

We study the problem how to construct an RFID mutual authentication protocol between tags and readers. Juels (in Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 2006) proposed an open question which asks whether there exists a fully privacy-preserving RFID authentication protocol in which the time complexity of a successful authentication phase can be done in sub-linear time $o(n)$ where $n$ is the number of tags participating in the RFID system. In this work, we answer this question positively in an amortized view. Precisely, we design a fully privacy-preserving protocol in which the amortized cost of a successful authentication phase only requires time $O(n^{3/4})$. In addition, our protocol is a hybrid from the randomized hash lock scheme of Weis et. al., the hash chain scheme of Ohkubo et. al., and the efficient identification scheme of Dimitriou. We combine them delicately to obtain the desired authentication protocol.
A revision of Rhexia (Melastomataceae)

Rhexia is a relatively small genus of the Melastomataceae, a pantropical family of approximately 150 genera and 4000 species. The members of this family are, in general, readily recognized, for in addition to their one basic type of floral structure, the leaves are characteristically opposite and have a pronounced palmate-arcuate type of venation. Consequently, in those parts of the tropics where the family is well represented, it contributes a distinctive element to the flora. None of the species of this large family is known to be of any appreciable economic importance. Although a few become large trees, their sporadic and infrequent occurrence prohibits even these from being commercially important as timber. Medicinal substances are unknown in the melastomes, and edible products are limited to the fleshy fruits of only a few species. Although some are cultivated as ornamentals, none has ever become very popular or extensively planted. The family is represented in the United States only by Rhexia and a single West Indian species, Tetrazygia bicolor (Mill.) Cogn. , which extends into southern Florida. The genus Rhexia is known only from the United States, except for the southern extension of Rhexia cubensis into the West Indies and the northern extension of Rhexia virginica into Canada. Although Rhexia has been the subject of several revisions during its history, the genus has never been adequately monographed. The limits and rank of certain taxa have continued to be a source of disagreement, and some species are little known or have never been evaluated since they were originally described. Many of the specimens cited herein were specifically collected for this study by R. B. Channell, D. Demaree, E. S. Ford, R. K. Godfrey, C. E. Wood, and the author. The majority of these collections (including those supporting experimental data) are preserved in the Herbaria of Duke University and the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station. However, most of the material examined in the course of this study was borrowed from the following institutions:2
Interpolation artefact reduction by statistical approach in mutual information-based image registration

Mutual information-based image registration has been verified to be quite effective in many clinical applications. However, when calculating the mutual information between two working images, we need to estimate the grey values of the transformed image by interpolation on the reference image, which introduces regular artefacts in the registration function. In this paper, we analyse the underling mechanism of the artefacts, and present a new statistical interpolation, which will not introduce new intensities. In addition, it also breaks the conformity of the interpolation points, which is considered as a major contributing factor to the artefacts in commonly used interpolations. These characteristics make the registration function much smoother, enabling easier convergence to a global extreme. Experimental results on clinical images verify these advantages.
Visualizing massively pruned execution traces to facilitate trace exploration

Execution traces provide precise pictures of the inner workings of software systems. They therefore support programmers in performing various maintenance tasks. However, exploring traces is difficult due to their size. They typically consist of thousands of participating functions and millions of control flow events. When exploring traces, it is particularly time-consuming to identify those time ranges within the trace that are relevant for the current maintenance task. In this paper, we propose a technique that supports programmers in exploring traces in that it first prunes less relevant calls from the trace and then provides condensed and repetition-aware visualizations that facilitate fast and accurate navigation even within very large traces. Repetitions in the trace are detected by a novel metrics to measure similarity between function calls in a fuzzy and adjustable way. The metrics helps to identify outlier calls in repetitive call sequences and guides programmers on control paths being likely relevant for their comprehension task. The technique is implemented within a prototypical analysis tool that copes with large C/C++ software systems. We demonstrate the concepts by means of a case study with our industrial partner.
Transductive segmentation Segmentation transductive

We consider a multi-zone segmentation of a single image when user-supplied seeds are provided in each region. We view this task as a statistical transductive inference, in which some pixels are already associated with given zones and the remaining ones need to be classified. Our method relies on the Laplacian graph regularizer, a powerful manifold-learning tool that is based on the estimation of variants of the Laplace-Beltrami operator and that is tightly related to diffusion processes. Our segmentation is modeled as the task of finding matting coefficients for unclassified pixels given known matting coefficients of seed pixels. The resulting segmentation procedure is simple, fast, and accurate. Comparison with other methods on natural images databases are given.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: A new antifungal labdane diterpene from the leaves of Saraca indica

A new labdane diterpene, along with 10 known sterols and flavonoids, was isolated from the hydroalcoholic extract of the leaves of Saraca indica. The chemical structure of the new compound was identified as 6,9-epoxy marrubiinic acid on the basis of spectroscopic analyses including two-dimensional NMR. The antimicrobial potential of the new compound was evaluated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as fungi. It showed a significant antifungal activity against Geotrichum candidum with MIC 0.48 μg/mL. It also showed potential cytotoxicity against human cancer cell lines with IC50 ranging from 1.07 to 1.29 μg/well.
Cigarette smoking and pancreas cancer risk: an evaluation based on a systematic review of epidemiologic evidence in the Japanese population.

OBJECTIVE Cigarette smoking has been recognized as an important risk factor for pancreas cancer, but the magnitude of the association may vary among geographical areas. Therefore, we reviewed epidemiologic studies on the association between cigarette smoking and pancreas cancer in the Japanese population. METHODS Original data were obtained from MEDLINE searched using PubMed or from searches of the Ichushi database, complemented with manual searches. Evaluation of associations was based on the strength of evidence ('convincing', 'probable', 'possible' or 'insufficient') and the magnitude of association ('strong', 'moderate', 'weak' or 'no association'), together with biological plausibility as previously evaluated by the International Agency of Research on Cancer. RESULTS We identified four cohort studies and three case-control studies. All cohort studies consistently showed positive associations between pancreas cancer and cigarette smoking, although statistical significance in each study is variable. Most of the cohort studies consistently showed that cigarette smoking had a dose-response relationship with pancreas cancer. One case-control study showed a strong positive association, but the rest did not show any association. Meta-analysis of seven studies indicated that a summary estimate for ever smoking relative to never smoking was 1.68 (95% confidence interval: 1.38-2.05). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that there is convincing evidence that cigarette smoking moderately increases the risk of pancreas cancer in the Japanese population.
High-Throughput Step Emulsification for the Production of Functional Materials Using a Glass Microfluidic Device

High-volume production of monodisperse droplets is of importance for industrial applications due to increased emulsion stability, precise control over droplet volumes, and the formation of periodic arranged structures. So far, parallelized microfluidic devices are limited by either their complicated channel geometry or by their chemically or thermally unstable embedding material. This study shows a scalable microfluidic step emulsification chip that enables production of monodisperse emulsions at a throughput of up to 25 mL h−1 in a glass device with 364 linearly parallelized droplet makers. The chemical and thermal stability of such a glass device allows for the preparation of a broad variety of functional particles and microdroplets by using any desired solvent together with nanoparticles, polymers, and hydrogels. Moreover, the microfluidic device can be stringently cleaned for nearly unlimited use and permits the alternating production of oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions. The combined high throughput, chemical and thermal stability offered by our device enables production of monodisperse functional materials for large-scale applications.
A Scheme for Real-Time Channel Establishment in Wide-Area Networks

Multimedia communication involving digital audio and/or digital video has rather strict delay requirements. A real-time channel is defined as a simplex connection between a source and a destination characterized by parameters representing the performance requirements of the client. A study is made of the feasibility of providing real-time services on a packet-switched store-and-forward wide-area network with general topology. A description is given of a scheme for the establishment of channels with deterministic or statistical delay bounds, and the results of the simulation experiments run to evaluate it are presented. The results are judged encouraging: the approach satisfies the guarantees even in worst case situations, uses the network's resources to a fair extent, and efficiently handles channels with a variety of offered load and burstiness characteristics. Also, the packet transmission overhead is quite low, and the channel establishment overhead is small enough to be acceptable in most practical cases. >
jLegends: Online game to train programming skills

Gamification and in particular game-based learning is significantly gaining ground during the latest decades. It expresses a different approach to education that is mixing education with gaming, aiming to enhance the learning experience with game mechanics and rules and to provide stronger motivations for lifelong learning. Many works have illustrated the benefits of learning while playing. This work presents such a game-based approach that has been adopted and used in the development of an online multiplayer platform game, with a purpose to teach or train programming with JavaScript. In effect it is like what is usually called a serious game, or a game with a purpose. The game, jLegends, is online and available for everyone to train and test knowledge on programming and logic, within a role-playing gaming approach. jLegends is built with source-code scalability in mind, in order to be expandable or even become open-sourced in the future.
The Effect of Front-End Processing on Cochlear Implant Performance of Children

Objective: Previous research shows that children using cochlear implants experience significant difficulty with speech perception in noisy listening situations. There are several types of input signal processing available for the cochlear implant sound processor; however, there is a paucity of research to support this technology for children. The primary objective of this study was to examine the potential benefits of 2 types of input signal processing, adaptive dynamic range optimization (ADRO) as compared with autosensitivity (ASC) plus ADRO for children using Cochlear Corporation implants. Research Design: Cross-sectional repeated-measures design. Setting: Outpatient nonprofit foundation providing audiology services and auditory-verbal therapy. Patients: Eleven children, aged 4 years 4 months to 12 years, with unilateral or bilateral Cochlear Limited implants. All children used their cochlear implant(s) for at least 1 year, had no additional disabilities, were enrolled in preschool or elementary school, and had age-appropriate receptive and expressive language. Intervention: All children used Cochlear Limited cochlear implants with either the Nucleus Freedom or Nucleus 5 cochlear implant sound processor. Performance was assessed while these children used ADRO-only input processing and ASC+ADRO input processing. Main Outcome Measures: Speech perception of PBK-50 monosyllabic words in quiet and BKB-SIN sentences in noise was measured for each child. In the noise conditions, children were using the ADRO-only or ASC+ADRO input signal processing strategies. The data in quiet were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and the conditions in noise were compared using a 1-way repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results: All children demonstrated word recognition in quiet at or above 90% correct. In noise, sentence-perception performance in the ASC+ADRO condition was significantly better than that in the ADRO-alone condition. Conclusion: The results of the study suggest substantial benefit from combining 2 types of input signal processing, ASC and ADRO, for children with unilateral and bilateral cochlear implants. Specifically, signal processing to adjust the sensitivity of the sound processor microphone automatically has substantial positive effects on speech-perception thresholds in noise.
Analyzing the “knack” of human piggyback motion based on simultaneous measurement of tactile and movement data as a basis for humanoid control

To help with care work and rescue operations, it is necessary for humanoid robots to have the ability to transport humans steadily and gently. In this research we consider “piggyback” motions for transporting humans. Most people can perform this motion, allowing us to measure and analyze piggyback motions of human subjects using tactile sensing and whole body movements to design whole body contact control. One interesting result of this investigation is that frictional forces are skillfully controlled by the carrier. In the first experiment, we study a “knack” that allows the carrier to reposition the rider. In the second experiment we verify the effectiveness of the knack in achieving the repositioning result. We also studied the principle of the repositioning motion, and found that it is similar in many ways to a jumping motion. Then we confirmed the validity of our modeling assumptions using a dynamical simulator.
Image Segmentation Using Dictionary Learning and Compressed Random Features

Image segmentation seeks to partition the pixels in images into distinct regions to assist other image processing functions such as object recognition. Over the last few years dictionary learning methods have become very popular for image processing tasks such as denoising, and recently structured low rank dictionary learning has been shown to be capable of promising results for recognition tasks. This paper investigates the suitability of dictionary learning for image segmentation. A structured low rank dictionary learning algorithm is developed to segment images using compressed sensed features from image patches. To enable a supervised learning approach, classes of pixels in images are designated using training scribbles. A classifier is then learned from these training pixels and subsequently used to classify all other pixels in the images to form the segmentations. A number of dictionary learning models are compared together with K-means/nearest neighbour and support vector machine classifiers.
An optimal RF shielding method for MR‐PET fusion system with insertable PET

An RF shielding method is proposed to preserve the resonance frequency of an RF coil regardless of the existence of a positron emission tomography (PET) detector module, so that the RF coil can effectively operate for both simultaneous MR‐PET imaging and MR stand‐alone imaging. The RF shield between the RF coil and the PET detector module was manufactured in the form of a hollow acryl cylinder wrapped with gold‐taffeta woven tape. As we adopted a double‐layer RF shield between the RF coil and the PET detector module, it was possible to maintain the resonance frequency of the RF coil and the MR image quality was similar in both cases, with and without the insertable PET detector module. Using the insertable concept of the PET system and the RF coil with an additional double‐layer RF shield, both an MR‐PET fusion system and an MR stand‐alone system were realized. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 24, 263–269, 2014
Blind signal deconvolution by spatio-temporal decorrelation and demixing

We present a simple efficient local unsupervised learning algorithm for online adaptive multichannel blind deconvolution and separation of i.i. d. sources. Under mild conditions, there exits a stable inverse system so that the source signals can be exactly recovered from their convolutive mixtures. Based on the existence of the inverse filter, we construct a two-stage neural network which consists of blind equalization and source separation. In the blind equalization stage, we employ anti-Hebbian learning in the temporal domain for decorrelation. For blind separation, we can apply any existing algorithms. Extensive computer simulations confirm the validity and high performance of our proposed learning algorithm.
More than a Feeling: The MiFace Framework for Defining Facial Communication Mappings

Facial expressions transmit a variety of social, grammatical, and affective signals. For technology to leverage this rich source of communication, tools that better model the breadth of information they convey are required. MiFace is a novel framework for creating expression lexicons that map signal values to parameterized facial muscle movements. In traditional mapping paradigms using posed photographs, naïve judges select from predetermined label sets and movements are inferred by trained experts. The set of generally accepted expressions established in this way is limited to six basic displays of affect. In contrast, our approach generatively simulates muscle movements on a 3D avatar. By applying natural language processing techniques to crowdsourced free-response labels for the resulting images, we efficiently converge on an expression's value across signal categories. Two studies returned 218 discriminable facial expressions with 51 unique labels. The six basic emotions are included, but we additionally define such nuanced expressions as embarrassed, curious, and hopeful.
A Novel Inducible Protein Production System and Neomycin Resistance as Selection Marker for Methanosarcina mazei

Methanosarcina mazei is one of the model organisms for the methanogenic order Methanosarcinales whose metabolism has been studied in detail. However, the genetic toolbox is still limited. This study was aimed at widening the scope of utilizable methods in this group of organisms. (i) Proteins specific to methanogens are oftentimes difficult to produce in E. coli. However, a protein production system is not available for methanogens. Here we present an inducible system to produce Strep-tagged proteins in Ms. mazei. The promoter p1687, which directs the transcription of methyl transferases that demethylate methylamines, was cloned into plasmid pWM321 and its activity was determined by monitoring β-glucuronidase production. The promoter was inactive during growth on methanol but was rapidly activated when trimethylamine was added to the medium. The gene encoding the β-glucuronidase from E. coli was fused to a Strep-tag and was cloned downstream of the p1687 promoter. The protein was overproduced in Ms. mazei and was purified in an active form by affinity chromatography. (ii) Puromycin is currently the only antibiotic used as a selectable marker in Ms. mazei and its relatives. We established neomycin resistance as a second selectable marker by designing a plasmid that confers neomycin resistance in Ms. mazei.