Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aggregate Size Optimization in Microwells for Suspension-based Cardiac Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Cardiac differentiation of human pluripotent stems cells (hPSCs) is typically carried out in suspension cell aggregates. Conventional aggregate formation of hPSCs involves dissociating cell colonies into smaller clumps, with size control of the clumps crudely controlled by pipetting the cell suspension until the desired clump size is achieved. One of the main challenges of conventional aggregate-based cardiac differentiation of hPSCs is that culture heterogeneity and spatial disorganization lead to variable and inefficient cardiomyocyte yield. We and others have previously reported that human embryonic stem cell (hESC) aggregate size can be modulated to optimize cardiac induction efficiency. We have addressed this challenge by employing a scalable, microwell-based approach to control physical parameters of aggregate formation, specifically aggregate size and shape. The method we describe here consists of forced aggregation of defined hPSC numbers in microwells, and the subsequent culture of these aggregates in conditions that direct cardiac induction. This protocol can be readily scaled depending on the size and number of wells used. Using this method, we can consistently achieve culture outputs with cardiomyocyte frequencies greater than 70%.
Investigation Wind Speed Characterization Over West Lampung Area For Wind Power Potential Application

Lampung it’s a one province in Sumatera who have wind power potential especially over west lampung area. The observation potential wind speed has been studied to assess wind power potential. However, the wind speed observation over local area is limited due to transportation access. Thus, in this study aimed to characterize wind speed over West Lampung area using MTSAT observation and lognormal model. The wind data observation taken from local observation, NOAA and NASA website to investigate wind speed characterization. Result shows West Lampung, Sumatera have potential wind power potential over Krui, Lampung area with strong correlation (R-sq value) 0.71 and 0.77 with 12 m/s of wind speed (local observation), and 13.5 m/s of lognormal wind speed model over 5.8m from above mean sea levels (AMSL), respectively. Based on the result we found the best location to install wind turbine in near future over Krui, West Lampung, Sumatera, Indonesia.
The Benthic Exchange of O2, N2 and Dissolved Nutrients Using Small Core Incubations

The measurement of sediment-water exchange of gases and solutes in aquatic sediments provides data valuable for understanding the role of sediments in nutrient and gas cycles. After cores with intact sediment-water interfaces are collected, they are submerged in incubation tanks and kept under aerobic conditions at in situ temperatures. To initiate a time course of overlying water chemistry, cores are sealed without bubbles using a top cap with a suspended stirrer. Time courses of 4-7 sample points are used to determine the rate of sediment water exchange. Artificial illumination simulates day-time conditions for shallow photosynthetic sediments, and in conjunction with dark incubations can provide net exchanges on a daily basis. The net measurement of N2 is made possible by sampling a time course of dissolved gas concentrations, with high precision mass spectrometric analysis of N2:Ar ratios providing a means to measure N2 concentrations. We have successfully applied this approach to lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, wetlands and storm water ponds, and with care, this approach provides valuable information on biogeochemical balances in aquatic ecosystems.
Cellulose based composites : new green nanomaterials

Preface SECTION I: Cellulose Nanofiber- and Macrofiber Based Composites CELLULOSE-NANOFIBER-BASED MATERIALS Introduction The Percolation and Entanglement Phenomena of Cellulose Nanofibers Cellulose-Nanofiber-Based Materials Extraction of Cellulose Nanofibers Cellulose-Nanofiber-Based Materials for Structural and Semistructural Applications Optically Transparent Materials Reinforced with Cellulose Nanofibers Green Cellulose-Nanofiber-Based Materials Future Prospects FABRICATION AND EVALUATION OF CELLULOSE-NANOFIBER-REINFORCED GREEN COMPOSITES Introduction Cellulose Nanofiber Preparation of Cellulose Nanofibers Fabrication of Cellulose-Nanofiber-Reinforced Composites Properties of Cellulose-Nanofiber-Reinforced Composites Summary CELLULOSE MICROFIBRILS ISOLATED FROM MUSACEAE FIBROUS RESIDUES Introduction Vascular Bundles Isolation and Purification of Cellulose Microfibrils from Vascular Bundles Chemical Characterization of Cellulose Microfibrils Structure and Morphology of Cellulose Microfibrils Thermal Behavior of Cellulose Microfibrils Conclusions Materials and Methods NANOCOMPOSITES BASED ON MATRICES EXTRACTED FROM VEGETABLE OILS AND BACTERIAL CELLULOSE Introduction Vegetable Oils Bacterial Cellulose Bacterial and Plant-Based Cellulose Nanocomposites with Polymer Matrices Applications NANO- AND MICROFIBER COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH CELLULOSE NANOCRYSTALS Introduction Cellulose Nanocrystals Electrospinning Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNs) for the Production of Composites Electrospun Nanofibers Reinforced with CNs Applications of CN-Based Composites Conclusions HYDROLYTIC DEGRADATION OF NANOCOMPOSITE FIBERS ELECTROSPUN FROM POLY(LACTIC ACID)/CELLULOSE NANOCRYSTALS Introduction Experiments Results and Discussion Conclusions SECTION II: Cellulose-Fiber-Based Composites ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY "GREEN" RESINS AND ADVANCED GREEN COMPOSITES Introduction Experimental Results and Discussion Conclusions TOUGHENING AND STRENGTHENING OF NATURAL FIBER GREEN COMPOSITES Introduction Preloading Effect Effect of Alkali Treatment Conclusion COMPOSITES OF NANOCELLULOSE AND LIGNIN-LIKE POLYMERS Introduction Experimental Results and Discussion Conclusions BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER MATERIALS FROM PROTEINS PRODUCED BY THE ANIMAL COPRODUCTS INDUSTRY: BLOODMEAL Introduction Materials and Experimental Procedures Results and Discussion Conclusions SECTION III: Cellulose and Other Nanoparticles BIOCOMPOSITES MADE FROM BOVINE BONE AND CRYSTALS OF SILVER AND PLATINUM Introduction Bovine Bone - Platinum Composites Bovine Bone - Silver Composites Conclusions BIO-INSPIRED SYNTHESIS OF METAL NANOPARTICLES USING CELLULOSIC SUBSTRATES AS NATURE TEMPLATES Introduction Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Using Wood as a Template Summary CONFORMAL COATING OF ANTIMICROBIAL SILVER NANOPARTICLES ON CATIONIC AND ANIONIC CELLULOSIC SUBSTRATES Introduction Preparation of Anionic and Cationic Cotton Fabrics Results and Discussion Conclusions WOOD/BIOPOLYMER/NANOCLAY COMPOSITES Biopolymers PLA/Clay Nanocomposites PLA/Wood Flour Composites PLA/Clay/Wood Composites Conclusions Index
Genetic Analysis of 779 Advanced Differentiated and Anaplastic Thyroid Cancers

Purpose: To define the genetic landscape of advanced differentiated and anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) and identify genetic alterations of potential diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic significance. Experimental Design: The genetic profiles of 583 advanced differentiated and 196 ATCs generated with targeted next-generation sequencing cancer-associated gene panels MSK-IMPACT and FoundationOne were analyzed. Results: ATC had more genetic alterations per tumor, and pediatric papillary thyroid cancer had fewer genetic alterations per tumor when compared with other thyroid cancer types. DNA mismatch repair deficit and activity of APOBEC cytidine deaminases were identified as mechanisms associated with high mutational burden in a subset of differentiated thyroid cancers and ATCs. Copy number losses and mutations of CDKN2A and CDKN2B, amplification of CCNE1, amplification of receptor tyrosine kinase genes KDR, KIT, and PDGFRA, amplification of immune evasion genes CD274, PDCD1LG2, and JAK2, and activating point mutations in small GTPase RAC1 were associated with ATC. An association of KDR, KIT, and PDGFRA amplification with the sensitivity of thyroid cancer cells to lenvatinib was shown in vitro. Three genetically distinct types of ATCs are proposed. Conclusions: This large-scale analysis describes genetic alterations in a cohort of thyroid cancers enriched in advanced cases. Many novel genetic events previously not seen in thyroid cancer were found. Genetic alterations associated with anaplastic transformation were identified. An updated schematic of thyroid cancer genetic evolution is proposed. Clin Cancer Res; 24(13); 3059–68. ©2018 AACR.
L‐carnosine as an adjuvant to fluvoxamine in treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder: A randomized double‐blind study

Dysregulation of glutamate is implicated in the pathogenesis of obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). Consistently, glutamate‐modulating agents, such as riluzole and memantine have been used in OCD treatment. Previous research has identified some neuroprotective role for L‐carnosine potentially via its modulatory effect on glutamate. Here, we assessed the efficacy of L‐carnosine as adjuvant to fluvoxamine in OCD treatment.
End-to-End DNN Training with Block Floating Point Arithmetic

DNNs are ubiquitous datacenter workloads, requiring orders of magnitude more computing power from servers than traditional workloads. As such, datacenter operators are forced to adopt domain-specific accelerators that employ half-precision floating-point (FP) numeric representations to improve arithmetic density. Unfortunately, even these representations are not dense enough, and are, therefore, sub-optimal for DNNs. We propose a hybrid approach that employs dense block floating-point (BFP) arithmetic on dot product computations and FP arithmetic elsewhere. While using BFP improves the performance of dot product operations, that compose most of DNN computations, allowing values to freely float between dot product operations leads to a better choice of tensor exponents when converting values to back BFP. We show that models trained with hybrid BFP-FP arithmetic either match or outperform their FP32 counterparts, leading to more compact models and denser arithmetic in computing platforms.
EMPIRE Registry, Czech Part: Impact of demographics, pulmonary function and HRCT on survival and clinical course in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Prognostic factors of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) currently recognized include changes in vital capacity and radiologic findings. However, most of the prognostic studies in IPF are based on clinical studies with preselected IPF populations. Therefore, we decided to analyze the factors influencing IPF prognosis based on the real‐practice data from our IPF registry.
Inactivation of Cellobiose Dehydrogenases Modifies the Cellulose Degradation Mechanism of Podospora anserina

ABSTRACT Conversion of biomass into high-value products, including biofuels, is of great interest to developing sustainable biorefineries. Fungi are an inexhaustible source of enzymes to degrade plant biomass. Cellobiose dehydrogenases (CDHs) play an important role in the breakdown through synergistic action with fungal lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs). The three CDH genes of the model fungus Podospora anserina were inactivated, resulting in single and multiple CDH mutants. We detected almost no difference in growth and fertility of the mutants on various lignocellulose sources, except on crystalline cellulose, on which a 2-fold decrease in fertility of the mutants lacking P. anserina CDH1 (PaCDH1) and PaCDH2 was observed. A striking difference between wild-type and mutant secretomes was observed. The secretome of the mutant lacking all CDHs contained five beta-glucosidases, whereas the wild type had only one. P. anserina seems to compensate for the lack of CDH with secretion of beta-glucosidases. The addition of P. anserina LPMO to either the wild-type or mutant secretome resulted in improvement of cellulose degradation in both cases, suggesting that other redox partners present in the mutant secretome provided electrons to LPMOs. Overall, the data showed that oxidative degradation of cellulosic biomass relies on different types of mechanisms in fungi. IMPORTANCE Plant biomass degradation by fungi is a complex process involving dozens of enzymes. The roles of each enzyme or enzyme class are not fully understood, and utilization of a model amenable to genetic analysis should increase the comprehension of how fungi cope with highly recalcitrant biomass. Here, we report that the cellobiose dehydrogenases of the model fungus Podospora anserina enable it to consume crystalline cellulose yet seem to play a minor role on actual substrates, such as wood shavings or miscanthus. Analysis of secreted proteins suggests that Podospora anserina compensates for the lack of cellobiose dehydrogenase by increasing beta-glucosidase expression and using an alternate electron donor for LPMO.
Effect of Attention Training in Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients with Subcortical Vascular Changes: The RehAtt Study

Background and Objective: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients with small vessel disease (SVD) are at high dementia risk. We tested the effects of cognitive rehabilitation in these patients using the Attention Process Training-II (APT-II) program in a single-blinded, randomized clinical trial. Methods: Patients were randomized to APT-II or standard care and evaluated at baseline, 6, and 12 months with functional, quality of life, cognitive tests, and resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI). Results: Forty-six patients were enrolled and 43 (mean±SD age 75.1±6.8) completed the study. No change was seen in functionality and quality of life between treated and non-treated patients. However, the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test immediate recall showed a significant improvement in treated compared to non-treated group (change score 6 versus 12 months: 1.8±4.9 and –1.4±3.8, p = 0.021; baseline versus 12 months: 3.8±6.1 and 0.2±4.4, p = 0.032). A higher proportion of treated patients had stable/better evaluation compared to non-treated group on Visual search test (6 versus 12 months: 95% versus 71%, p = 0.038) and Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure copy (6 versus 12 months: 95% versus 67%, p = 0.027). RsfMRI, performed in a subsample, showed that the difference between follow-up and baseline in synchronization of activity in cerebellar areas was significantly greater in treated than in non-treated patients. Conclusion: We were unable to show a significant effect in quality of life or functional status in treated patients with MCI and SVD. However, APT-II produces some beneficial effects in focused attention and working memory and seems to increase activity in brain circuits involved in cognitive processes.
Neural Fine-Grained Entity Type Classification with Hierarchy-Aware Loss

The task of Fine-grained Entity Type Classification (FETC) consists of assigning types from a hierarchy to entity mentions in text. Existing methods rely on distant supervision and are thus susceptible to noisy labels that can be out-of-context or overly-specific for the training sentence. Previous methods that attempt to address these issues do so with heuristics or with the help of hand-crafted features. Instead, we propose an end-to-end solution with a neural network model that uses a variant of cross-entropy loss function to handle out-of-context labels, and hierarchical loss normalization to cope with overly-specific ones. Also, previous work solve FETC a multi-label classification followed by ad-hoc post-processing. In contrast, our solution is more elegant: we use public word embeddings to train a single-label that jointly learns representations for entity mentions and their context. We show experimentally that our approach is robust against noise and consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art on established benchmarks for the task.
Responsibility Centers, Decision Rights, and Synergies

We consider the optimal allocation of decision rights over noncontractible specific investments. Risk-averse business unit managers each engage in general (stand-alone) operations and invest in joint projects that benefit their own and other divisions. Which of the managers should have the authority to choose these investments? With scalable investments, we show that decision rights should be bundled in the hands of the manager facing the more volatile environment. With discrete (lumpy) investments, on the other hand, decision rights should be split between the managers, provided they face comparable levels of uncertainty in their general operations. Splitting decision rights better leverages the inherent investment complementarity, counter to conventional wisdom. Our model generates empirical predictions for the equilibrium association of organizational structure and managers' incentive contracts: bundling of decision rights results in pay-performance sensitivity (PPS) divergence across divisions; splitting them results in PPS convergence. JEL Classifications: M41; D23; D86.
Computational study on a branch decomposition based exact distance oracle for planar graphs

We present a simple exact distance oracle for the point-to-point shortest distance problem in planar graphs. Given an edge weighted planar graph G of n vertices, we decompose G into subgraphs by a branch-decomposition of G, compute the shortest distances between each vertex in a subgraph and the vertices in the boundary of the subgraph, and keep the shortest distances in the oracle. Let bw(G) be the branchwidth of G. Our oracle has O(bw(G)) query time, O(bw(G)n logn) size and O(n2 logn) pre-processing time. Computational studies show that our oracle is much faster than Dijkstra’s algorithm for answering point-to-point shortest distance queries for several classes of planar graphs.
Security Games With Unknown Adversarial Strategies

The security community has witnessed a significant increase in the number of different types of security threats. This situation calls for the design of new techniques that can be incorporated into security protocols to meet these challenges successfully. An important tool for developing new security protocols as well as estimating their effectiveness is game theory. This game theory framework usually involves two players or agents: 1) a protector and 2) an adversary, and two patterns of agent behavior are considered: 1) selfish behavior, where each of the agents wants to maximize his payoff; and 2) leader and follower behavior, where one agent (the leader) expects that the other agent (the follower) will respond to the leader's strategy. Such an approach assumes that the agents agree on which strategy to apply in advance. In this paper, this strong assumption is relaxed. Namely, the following question is considered: what happens if it is unknown a priori what pattern of behavior the adversary is going to use, or in other words, it is not known, what game he intends to play? Using a simple game-theoretic model, it is shown that the protector can lose if he does not take into account the possibility that the adversary can play a game other than the one the protector has in mind. Further considered is a repeated game in which the protector can learn about the presence of an adversary, and the behavior of belief probabilities is analyzed in this setting.
Neurotoxic effects of subchronic intratracheal Mn nanoparticle exposure alone and in combination with other welding fume metals in rats

Abstract Manganese (Mn) is a toxic heavy metal exposing workers in various occupational settings and causing, among others, nervous system damage. Metal fumes of welding, a typical source of Mn exposure, contain a complex mixture of metal oxides partly in nanoparticle form. As toxic effects of complex substances cannot be sufficiently understood by examining its components separately, general toxicity and functional neurotoxicity of a main pathogenic welding fume metal, Mn, was examined alone and combined with iron (Fe) and chromium (Cr), also frequently found in fumes. Oxide nanoparticles of Mn, Mn + Fe, Mn + Cr and the triple combination were applied, in aqueous suspension, to the trachea of young adult Wistar rats for 4 weeks. The decrease of body weight gain during treatment, caused by Mn, was counteracted by Fe, but not Cr. At the end of treatment, spontaneous and evoked cortical electrical activity was recorded. Mn caused a shift to higher frequencies, and lengthened evoked potential latency, which were also strongly diminished by co-application of Fe only. The interaction of the metals seen in body weight gain and cortical activity were not related to the measured blood and brain metal levels. Fe might have initiated protective, e.g. antioxidant, mechanisms with a more general effect.
Relationship of troponin to incident atrial fibrillation occurrence, recurrence after radiofrequency ablation and prognosis: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression

Abstract Objective: To explore the association between the levels of troponin (Tn) and incident atrial fibrillation (AF) occurrence, AF recurrence after radiofrequency ablation (RFA), and the risk trend of AF related prognosis (stroke, major bleeding and mortality). Methods: Twenty-seven studies were included after a systematic search in PubMed from 2005 to 2017, including 13 associated with incident AF occurrence, 8 associated with AF recurrence after RFA and 6 studies evaluating the risk trend of AF-related prognosis with increased Tn levels. Results: Compared with ‘no incident AF occurrence’ patients, the incident AF occurrence group had similar baseline troponin I (TnI) levels (standardized mean differences [SMD] = 0.42, 95% CI: −0.02–0.86, p = 0.06; I2 = 87.0%, N = 6), but higher troponin T (TnT) levels (SMD = 3.77, 2.13–5.42, p <0.001; I2=99.7%, N = 8). AF recurrence patients had similar peri-ablation TnI levels, but higher peri-ablation TnT levels compared to the ‘no AF recurrence’ group with pooled SMD. (TnI: SMD: −0.61, −1.22to 0, p = 0.049; I2 = 87.1%; TnT: 0.38, 0.14–0.62, p = 0.002; I2 = 64.7%). On meta-regression, there was an increased risk trend for stroke/systemic embolism (SE) (r2 = 0.93, p = 0.04) or major bleeding (r2 = 0.99, p < .0001) with the increasing TnT levels. Mortality was not significantly related to TnI (r2 = 0.09, p = 0.25) or TnT (r2 = 0.20, p = 0.31), and stroke/SE (r2 = 0.02, p = 0.74) or major bleeding (r2 = 0.002, p = 0.92) was non-significantly related to increasing TnI levels. Conclusions: In our systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression, TnT was associated with both incident AF occurrence and AF recurrence after RFA, as well as stroke/SE and major bleeding. In contrast, TnI was not associated with incident AF occurrence, AF recurrence after RFA or prognosis (stroke/SE, major bleeding).
Progress in Research on Solid-template Methods Preparing Hollow Inorganic Spheres

Hollow inorganic spheres of defined shape and composition and with tailored properties are of fascinating potential application. This paper systematically highlights solid-template methods preparing hollow inorganic spheres based on colloid or capsule template, and sets forth the different principles of forming shell in homogeneous or inhomogeneous mother solution, summarizes the involved applications and the hot headway.