Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of Smaller Artificial Ventricles and Valves Made by Vacuum Forming

Implantable prosthetic ventricles and trileaflet valves made by vacuum forming have been developed and implant tested. All components are made from Pellethane®. Recognizing the need for smaller as well as larger ventricles, designs with effective stroke volumes of 50, 85, 100 and 130 cc have been tested with several valve types. The pneumatically driven Utah ventricular assist device (UVAD) can be used as a total artificial heart (TAH) or ventricular assist device (VAD) by using the appropriate inflow and outflow adapters. In vitro durability testing has demonstrated ventricular lifetime beyond two years and valve lifetime to nearly one and one half years. The polymer valves have lower regurgitation than mechanical valves. Animal implantation experience includes 21 TAH implants and 16 left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantations. TAH survival ranges from 2 to 210 days. LVAD animals have lived up to 116 days before elective termination. The animal were healthy and grew normally. The devices exhibit a “Starling's Law” response. One TAH animal survived 72 days before successful explantation followed by transplantation. At autopsy, this animal had no renal infarcts. Hematology data has demonstrated the existence of little or no intravascular hemolysis (PF Hb < 5 mg%). The “Philadelphia” version of the UVAD vacuum formed ventricles are small enough to be implanted without thrombus provoking connectors. Eight animals have received this TAH and survived up to 120 days. Vacuum forming offers a rapid and inexpensive way to produce reliable and effective total artificial hearts and valves for widespread, temporary clinical application in any size adult human.
Reversal of myopic anisometropic amblyopia with phakic intraocular lens implantation.

PURPOSE To report a case of reversal of myopic anisometropic amblyopia with phakic intraocular lens implantation. METHODS A 6-year-old boy with anisometropic amblyopia with spherical equivalent refraction of right eye: -14.00 -3.00 x 100 degrees, left eye: -0.50 -3.25 x 90 degrees, was treated for 2 years with occlusion to the left eye, with poor results. Refractive surgery was planned because of contact lens intolerance at age 8 years. A -15.00-D iris claw Artisan intraocular lens (IOL) was implanted. RESULTS Following surgery, treatment of the amblyopia and spectacle correction of -4.00 D cylinder at 85 degrees in the right eye and -3.50 D cylinder at 90 degrees in the left eye was necessary. Visual acuity 6 months after surgery was 20/25 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left eye, and has remained stable 18 months after surgery. CONCLUSION Myopic anisometropic amblyopia in an 8-year-old boy was treated successfully with implantation of an Artisan iris claw phakic anterior chamber IOL, combined with occlusion therapy, and resulted in reversal of amblyopia.
The effects of conventional and unconventional monetary policy: A new approach

We propose a new approach to analyze economic shocks. Our new procedure identifies economic shocks as exogenous shifts in a function; hence, we call the "functional shocks". We show how to identify such shocks and how to trace their effects in the economy via VARs using a procedure that we call "VARs with functional shocks". Using our new procedure, we address the crucial question of studying the effects or monetary policy by identifying monetary policy shocks as shifts in the whole term structure of government bond yields in a narrow window of time around monetary policy announcements. Our identification sheds new light on the effects of monetary policy shocks, both in conventional and unconventional periods, and shows that traditional identification procedures may miss important effects. We find that, overall, unconventional monetary policy has similar effects to conventional expansionary monetary policy, leading to an increase in both output growth and inflation; the response is hump-shaped; peaking around one year to one year and a half after the shock. The new procedure has the advantage of identifying monetary policy shocks during both conventional and unconventional monetary policy periods in a unified manner and can be applied more generally to other economic shocks.
A systematic technology forecasting approach for New and Emerging Science and Technology: Case study of nano-enhanced biosensors

This paper addresses the topic of anticipating likely development paths for a particular “New and Emerging Science & Technology” (NES&T). Characteristics of NES&T - technological uncertainty and contextual dynamics - pose challenges for technology management and forecasting practices. Researchers, technologists, R&D managers, staff in funding agencies and policy makers “need to know” future prospects. This requires better ways to capture NES&T development patterns, within their socio-economic context, as well as likely innovation opportunities. A new technology forecasting framework for NES&Ts is presented, supported by a case study of nano-enhanced biosensors.
Efficient query bundling mechanism in a DHT network

A distributed hash table (DHT) network can be used for many distributed services and systems. In DHT networks, it takes logN look-up steps to search for required data where N is the number of nodes. However, the look-up process is redundant in the IP network because each look-up process generates a lot of communication among nodes. In massive data management such as sensor and web information management, this results in high network load even if each the search process takes only logN look-up steps. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient query bundling mechanism that makes it possible to bundle multiple queries by using range information. Range information consists of ID space information kept by a node. When a source node receives range information from a destination node, the source node matches all queries for the range information and forwards queries matching the range information to the destination node directly. This effectively reduces the number of look-up processes and the network load for the IP network. In addition, our mechanism can be implemented into conventional DHT networks and can easily be combined to effective DHT routing algorithms such as Chord, Kademlia, and Pastry. In evaluation, we implement our mechanism into DHT networks and compare its performance with that of conventional query bundling mechanisms. The results show that our mechanism reduces by up to 75% the total number of forwarding operations to put data compared with other mechanisms. In addition, our mechanism realizes the reduction of the number of forwarding operations per look-up process by up to 85% compared to other mechanisms.
Interactome and interface protocol (2IP): A novel strategy for high sensitivity topology mapping of protein complexes

A few well‐characterized protein assemblies aside, little is known about the topology and interfaces of multiconstituent protein complexes. Here we report on a novel indirect strategy for low‐resolution topology mapping of protein complexes. Following crosslinking, purified protein complexes are subjected to chemical cleavage with cyanogen bromide (CNBr) and the resulting fragments are resolved by 2‐D electrophoresis. The side‐by‐side comparison of a thus generated and a 2‐D CNBr fragment map obtained from uncrosslinked material reveals candidate gel spots harboring crosslinked CNBr fragments. In‐gel trypsinization and MALDI MS analysis of these informative spots identify the underlying crosslinked CNBr fragments based on unmodified tryptic peptides. Matching the cumulative theoretical molecular mass and predicted pI of these crosslinked CNBr fragments with original gel spot coordinates is required for confident crosslink assignment. The above strategy was successfully validated with the Escherichia coli RNA polymerase (RNAP) core complex and subsequently applied to query the quaternary structure of components of the yeast Skp1‐Cdc53/Cullin‐F box (SCF) ubiquitin ligase complex. This protocol requires low picomole sample quantities, can be applied to multisubunit protein complexes, and does not rely on specialized data mining software.
Impact of osmoregulatory agents on the recovery of collagen conformation in decellularized corneas

The process of decellularization of the cornea leads to the removal of cells and antigens. However, during decellularization the ultrastructure of the corneal matrix is usually damaged and a secondary conformation of the collagen fibrils is modulated resulting in altered transparency and physical properties. The strategy for recovering modulation in collagen conformation may help to attain the native physical properties and transparency of the cornea. Decellularized corneas were treated with varied concentrations of glycerol and dextran, and the collagen conformation was monitored by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopic analysis. The peak at ~4 Å in XRD established the presence of transitional conformations that decreased with the application of osmoregulatory agents, but could not be completely eliminated. This was validated by the results of ATR-FTIR and Raman analysis. Importantly, the mechanism of this loss and the regaining of transparency has been proposed on the basis of the detachment of decorin molecules from the collagen triple helices, due to the change in collagen conformation during decellularization, and the subsequent partial reversal due to the desiccation effect of the osmoregulatory agents on collagen molecules. Taken together, collagen conformational transition can be considered as an indexing tool for the development of improved decellularization techniques.
Applying an Artificial Neural Network to Predict Total Body Water in Hemodialysis Patients

Background: Estimating total body water (TBW) is crucial in determining dry weight and dialytic dose for hemodialysis patients. Several anthropometric equations have been used to predict TBW, but a more accurate method is needed. We developed an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict TBW in hemodialysis patients. Methods: Demographic data, anthropometric measurements, and multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (MF-BIA) were investigated in 54 patients. TBW measured by MF-BIA (TBW-BIA) was the reference. The predictive value of TBW based on ANN and five anthropometric equations (58% of actual body weight, Watson formula, Hume formula, Chertow formula, and Lee formula) was evaluated. Results: Predictive TBW values derived from anthropometric equations were significantly higher than TBW-BIA (31.341 ± 6.033 liters). The only non-significant difference was between TBW-ANN (31.468 ± 5.301 liters) and TBW-BIA (p = 0.639). ANN had the strongest Pearson’s correlation coefficient (0.911) and smallest root mean square error (2.480); its peak centered most closely to zero with the shortest tails in an empirical cumulative distribution plot when compared with the other five equations. Conclusion: ANN could surpass traditional anthropometric equations and serve as a feasible alternative method of TBW estimation for chronic hemodialysis patients.
Differential interaction of the transcription factor PrfA and the PrfA‐activating factor (Paf) of Listeria monocytogenes with target sequences

The interaction of the purified PrfA transcription factor with the regulatory sequences located upstream of the PrfA‐dependent listeriolysin (hly) and internalin (inlA) genes was studied in the presence and in the absence of Paf (PrfA‐activating factor)‐containing extracts. It is shown that PrfA protein is able to bind, independently of additional factors, to a 109 bp DNA fragment including the entire hly promoter sequence with the anticipated PrfA binding site (‘PrfA‐box’). PrfA alone, but not in combination with Paf, can also bind to a shorter target sequence of 28 bp comprising essentially the PrfA‐box of the hly promoter. The addition of a Paf‐containing extract does not lead to significant protein binding to these two hly target sequences in the absence of PrfA but converts the complex (CIII) consisting of PrfA and the 109 bp hly DNA fragment to a slower migrating PrfA–Paf–DNA complex (CI). Incubation of cell‐free extracts of wild‐type Listeria monocytogenes with the 109 bp DNA fragment leads to the formation of CI. The addition of polyclonal PrfA antibodies causes a supershift of CIII. Purified PrfA and PrfA–Paf also bind to a DNA fragment containing the PrfA‐dependent promoter P2 of inlA, albeit at a lower rate when compared with the corresponding hly sequence. In contrast to the hly target DNA, the inlA promoter sequence efficiently binds Paf alone, and this Paf binding reduces that of PrfA and PrfA–Paf to the inlA target DNA. DNase I footprint experiments show that purified PrfA protects sequences of dyad symmetry previously proposed as PrfA binding sites in the hly and in the inlA promoter regions.
Effect of ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate on glutamine pools in burn injury: evidence of component interaction.

BACKGROUND Ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate (OKG) has proved to be efficient in restoring glutamine (Gln) pools which are strongly depleted in hypercatabolic patients. Since its two components, alpha-ketoglutarate (alphaKG) and ornithine (Orn), give rise to glutamate (Glu), they are both considered as Gln precursors. The aim of this study was to assess the relative contributions of Orn and alphaKG to Gln generation in a rat model of burn injury. METHODS Forty-eight young Wistar rats were scalded to give a 20% burn surface area. They were fasted for 24 h and then refed by enteral nutrition for 48 h by gavages with Osmolite (Abbott-Ross, 210 kcal/kg day(-1), 1.18 N/kg day(-1)) supplemented with either 5 g OKG/kg day(-1) (B-OKG), Orn (isomolar to OKG; B-Orn), alphaKG (isomolar to OKG; B-KG) or glycine (as an isonitrogenous control; B-Gly). Rats in the B-KG group also received glycine to make all the groups isonitrogenous. Amino acid concentrations were determined in plasma, muscles, jejunal mucosa and liver. RESULTS The alpha-KG-enriched diet had no effect on plasma Glu content or plasma and muscle Gln content compared with the burn-injured controls. The Orn-enriched diet significantly increased (p<0.01) muscle Glu and Gln contents but not plasma Gln content. In OKG-treated animals, plasma Gln as well as muscle Glu and Gln were significantly higher than in the control (p<0.01), alpha-KG-treated (p< 0.01) and Orn-treated (p<0.05 for muscle Gln and p<0.01 for plasma Gln) animals. CONCLUSION OKG was more efficient than Orn or alphaKG alone in restoring Gln pools in plasma and muscle, which is evidence of metabolic interaction between the two components of this molecule.
Distinctive Gene Transduction Efficiencies of Commonly Used Viral Vectors in the Retina

The transduction efficiency and cell tropism of viral vectors rAAV2/1, rAAV2, Ad5, Ad5/F35, and Lentivirus were evaluated in retina. All viral vectors achieved efficient transduction in living rat retina. However, each vector showed distinctive efficiency in vitro especially for rAAV2/1, which displayed poor transduction in cultured retinal cells. Distinctive cell-specific GFP expression was observed in vivo and in vitro for the same viral vector. The cell-specific tropism was not strictly correlated with the correspondent distribution of viral receptors in retina. These results provided important insights into the selection of appropriate vectors when specific retinal diseases are considered for gene therapy.
Derivation, characterization and differentiation of a new human embryonic stem cell line from a Chinese hatched blastocyst assisted by a non-contact laser system

Currently worldwide attention has focused on the derivation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for future therapeutic medicine. However, the majority of existing hESCs are directly or indirectly exposed to non-human materials during their derivation and/or propagation, which greatly restrict their therapeutic potential. Besides the efforts to improve culture systems, the derivation procedure, especially blastocyst manipulation, needs to be optimized. We adopted a non-contact laser-assisted hatching system in combination with sequential culture process to obtain hatched blastocysts as materials for hESC derivation, and derived a hESC line ZJUhES-1 of a Chinese population without exposure to any non-human materials during blastocyst manipulation. ZJUhES-1 satisfies the criteria of pluripotent hESCs: typically morphological characteristics; the expression of alkaline phosphatase, human telomerase reverse transcriptase and multiple hESC-specific markers including SSEA-3, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60, TRA-1-81, OCT-4, Nanog, Rex-1, Sox-2, UTF-1, Connexins 43 and 45, TERF-1 and TERF-2, Glut-1, BCRP-1/ABCG-2, GDF3, LIN28, FGF4, Thy-1, Cripto1/TDGF1, AC133 as well as SMAD1/2/3/5; extended proliferative capacity; maintenance of a stable male karyotype after long-term cultivation; and robust multiple-lineage developmental potentials both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, ZJUhES-1 has distinct identity revealed from DNA fingerprinting. Our xeno-free blastocyst manipulation procedure may promote the progression toward clinical-grade hESC derivation.
Bank capital regulation: A comparison of risk measurements based on the GVAR model

Risk measures are the core indicator of risk management and a proper risk assessment model is essential for successful financial institutions. Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall are the two most popular and acceptable risk measurement methods presently employed to assess risks in the financial market. In the past few years, researchers have attempted to demonstrate that Expected Shortfall performs better against the traditional Value at Risk method. However, the lack of elicitability and difficult backtesting of this method suggest that the popularisation of ES might be gradual. This thesis will present a comparison of these two methods not only from a traditional perspective, such as the measurement of tail risk, but also form the perspective of risk capital requirement. Through Historical Simulation and Filtered Historical Simulation, it concludes that switching from Value at Risk to Expected Shortfall method would reduce risk capital requirement and enhance financial leverage of organisations. Additionally, this research also combines macroeconomic elements, the financial market and central banks, and analyses the influence of a positive leverage shock on the macro-economy through a Global Vector Autoregression model.
Novel reluctance axis shifted machines with hybrid rotors

This paper proposes a novel reluctance axis shifted (RAS) machine with hybrid rotors, i.e., permanent magnet (PM) and synchronous reluctance parts, respectively. The proposed design is geometrically characterized by two axially parallel rotors, which enables the full utilization of reluctance and magnet torque components for torque improvement. In the proposed design, the reluctance axis coincides in phase with the magnet axis by shifting the rotor in the PM-free synchronous reluctance machine (SynRM) part. Hence, the magnet and reluctance torque components reach the maximum in the same current phase so as to maximize the output torque. Meanwhile, the surface-mounted PM (SPM) configuration can well address the manufacturing, torque ripple and mechanical vibration issues existing in the conventional PM-assisted SynRMs and other conventional interior PM (IPM) machines. Moreover, the dual parts can be autonomously designed, which gets rid of the severe cross-coupling effect in those IPM machines. In this paper, the machine structure and torque maximization mechanism are described, respectively. In addition, the proportioning of the PM and SynRM parts is optimized to maximum the average torque. Finally, the electromagnetic performance of the optimized structure is compared with that of a conventional Prius 2010 IPM machine to highlight the advantages of the proposed design.
Perceived Social Consensus Can Reduce Ideological Biases on Climate Change

It is well established that conservatives in the United States are substantially less likely than liberals to accept that climate change is happening and is human caused and are less supportive of policies to limit climate change. However, it is likely that ideological differences in climate change beliefs, attitudes, and policy preferences are smaller when people have close friends and family members who care about climate change. Here, we use nine nationally representative survey samples (total N = 16,168) to evaluate this claim and test if perceived social consensus predicts a smaller difference in climate change beliefs between liberals and conservatives. We find that social consensus plays an important role in climate change beliefs, attitudes, and policy preferences for people across the ideological spectrum, but especially among conservatives. These findings provide important insights on how to bridge ideological divides in large social dilemmas such as climate change.
Starvation Induced Cell Death in Autophagy-Defective Yeast Mutants Is Caused by Mitochondria Dysfunction

Autophagy is a highly-conserved cellular degradation and recycling system that is essential for cell survival during nutrient starvation. The loss of viability had been used as an initial screen to identify autophagy-defective (atg) mutants of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but the mechanism of cell death in these mutants has remained unclear. When cells grown in a rich medium were transferred to a synthetic nitrogen starvation media, secreted metabolites lowered the extracellular pH below 3.0 and autophagy-defective mutants mostly died. We found that buffering of the starvation medium dramatically restored the viability of atg mutants. In response to starvation, wild-type (WT) cells were able to upregulate components of the respiratory pathway and ROS (reactive oxygen species) scavenging enzymes, but atg mutants lacked this synthetic capacity. Consequently, autophagy-defective mutants accumulated the high level of ROS, leading to deficient respiratory function, resulting in the loss of mitochondria DNA (mtDNA). We also showed that mtDNA deficient cells are subject to cell death under low pH starvation conditions. Taken together, under starvation conditions non-selective autophagy, rather than mitophagy, plays an essential role in preventing ROS accumulation, and thus in maintaining mitochondria function. The failure of response to starvation is the major cause of cell death in atg mutants.
Development of myenteric cholinergic neurons in ChAT‐Cre;R26R‐YFP mice

Cholinergic neurons are the major excitatory neurons of the enteric nervous system (ENS), and include intrinsic sensory neurons, interneurons, and excitatory motor neurons. Cholinergic neurons have been detected in the embryonic ENS; however, the development of these neurons has been difficult to study as they are difficult to detect prior to birth using conventional immunohistochemistry. In this study we used ChAT‐Cre;R26R‐YFP mice to examine the development of cholinergic neurons in the gut of embryonic and postnatal mice. Cholinergic (YFP+) neurons were first detected at embryonic day (E)11.5, and the proportion of cholinergic neurons gradually increased during pre‐ and postnatal development. At birth, myenteric cholinergic neurons comprised less than half of their adult proportions in the small intestine (25% of myenteric neurons were YFP+ at P0 compared to 62% in adults). The earliest cholinergic neurons appear to mainly project anally. Projections into the presumptive circular muscle were first observed at E14.5. A subpopulation of cholinergic neurons coexpress calbindin through embryonic and postnatal development, but only a small proportion coexpressed neuronal nitric oxide synthase. Our study shows that cholinergic neurons in the ENS develop over a protracted period of time. J. Comp. Neurol. 521:3358–3370, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.