Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A microfluidic chip with a U-shaped microstructure array for multicellular spheroid formation, culturing and analysis

Multicellular spheroids (MCS), formed by self-assembly of single cells, are commonly used as a three-dimensional cell culture model to bridge the gap between in vitro monolayer culture and in vivo tissues. However, current methods for MCS generation and analysis still suffer drawbacks such as being labor-intensive and of poor controllability, and are not suitable for high-throughput applications. This study demonstrates a novel microfluidic chip to facilitate MCS formation, culturing and analysis. The chip contains an array of U-shaped microstructures fabricated by photopolymerizing the poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate hydrogel through defining the ultraviolet light exposure pattern with a photomask. The geometry of the U-shaped microstructures allowed trapping cells into the pocket through the actions of fluid flow and the force of gravity. The hydrogel is non-adherent for cells, promoting the formation of MCS. Its permselective property also facilitates exchange of nutrients and waste for MCS, while providing protection of MCS from shearing stress during the medium perfusion. Heterotypic MCS can be formed easily by manipulating the cell trapping steps. Subsequent drug susceptibility analysis and long-term culture could also be achieved within the same chip. This MCS formation and culture platform can be used as a micro-scale bioreactor and applied in many cell biology and drug testing studies.
An Autoethnographic Approach to Guide Situated Ethical Decisions in Participatory Design with Teenagers

Participatory Design (PD) methods have become a widespread practice in the development of digital technologies. Even if PD is grounded on a critical and re ﬂ ective tradition, often the presence of implicit assumptions may have relevant methodological and ethical consequences, since they may unintentionally shape our way of considering or behaving with participants. To tackle this issue, we suggest that the assumptions and expectations of designers must be carefully examined. To guide this process, we propose using a self-re ﬂ exive critical practice based on autoethnography as a tool to re ﬂ ect and construct knowledge out of our subjective experience of designers involved in PD. Grounded on our experience of PD with teenagers, we report how autoethnography allowed gaining a deeper understanding of one ’ s own positions, assumptions and contradictions on aspects related to our standpoint on participatory practices, the images that we have of participants and our role in the design process. This awareness allowed taking into account emotions, personal stories and values in ethical choices, hence guiding situated decision-making on ethical and methodological aspects. Furthermore, we suggest that this approach not only contributes to unveil incongruences and strengthens the validity of the research, but also facilitates conditions for enabling a suitable space for creation and support novel forms of reporting PD experiences.
A variance based scheduling strategy for multi-user MIMO-OFDM system with generalized beamforming (GBF)

In this paper, a new user scheduling strategy is proposed for multiuser MIMO-OFDM system with a low complexity generalized beamforming (GBF) scheme. In GBF, user antenna outputs are linearly combined with the receive GBF vector to construct an equivalent MISO downlink channel for each subcarrier. The scheduler located at the base station allocates data streams to users based on the subchannel gains of their subcarriers on each spatial channel. The user with maximum variance of subchannel gains is allowed to select his best subcarrier on his best spatial channel in order to maximize the system weighted sum-rate and fairness among users. The system power is simply uniformly allocated to all the subchannels. A selection of simulation results is presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
New expression of coupling coefficient between resonators based on overlap integral of EM field

The coupled mode theory is applied to analyze the coupling between resonators. According to the theory, the coupling coefficient is, in principle, described by adding the overlap integral of the electric field of the two resonators and the magnetic counterpart regardless of the configurations. But, depending on the configurations, such as two dielectric resonators, one dielectric resonator with degenerate modes, two metallic resonators or one metallic resonator with degenerate modes, simpler expressions are obtained that is useful for numerical calculations and physical interpretations. The present paper derives the general coupling equation based on the coupled mode theory and shows some numerical results for two dielectric resonators using a derived simple overlap integral expression.
A Case of Combined Hepatocellular and Cholangiocarcinoma with Neuroendocrine Differentiation and Sarcomatoid Transformation: A Case Report

We report here on a case of combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma (CHC) with neuroendocrine differentiation and sarcomatoid transformation. A 59-year-old male who had had HBV-associated chronic liver disease presented with hepatic masses. The explanted liver showed three small masses, two in the right lobe and one in the left lobe. The largest one in the right lobe was a 2.0 cm sized binodular mass,consisting of a yellowish tan nodule and an abutting reddish brown nodule. Microscopically, the reddish brown nodule was a cholangiocarcinoma (CC) showing neuroendocrine differentiation and sarcomatoid tranformation. The yellowish tan nodule and the remaining two masses were hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)s. On immunohistochemistry, both the adenocarcinoma and spindle sarcomatoid cells were positive for pancytokeratin, but only the adenocarcinoma cells were positive for chromogranin and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Mitotic and Ki67 labeling indices as well as p53 immunopositivity were significantly increased only in the CC component. We report here on the first case of CHC in which the CC displayed neuroendocrine differentiation and sarcomatoid transformation with high mitotic and Ki67-labeling indices, as well as having p53 overexpression.
A proteasomal stress response: pre‐treatment with proteasome inhibitors increases proteasome activity and reduces neuronal vulnerability to oxidative injury

We report here that exposure to low concentrations of proteasome inhibitors (e.g. 10–100 nm MG‐132, 0.1–3 nm epoxomicin or 10–30 nmclasto‐lactacystin β‐lactone) resulted in an enhancement, rather than an inhibition, of proteasome activity in cultured neocortical neurons. Size‐fractionation chromatography confirmed that the enhanced peptide cleavage activity was associated with proteasome‐sized complexes. This sub toxic exposure reduced neuronal death caused by subsequent exposure to oxidative stress (100–200 µm H2O2 for 30 min, 24‐h exposure to 100 µm paraquat or 7.5 µm menadione), but did not alter vulnerability to excitotoxicity (5‐min exposure to 30–100 µm NMDA or 24 exposure to 12 µm NMDA). Sub toxic proteasome inhibitor exposure caused an increase in levels of proteasome core subunit proteins and mRNAs, but not in levels of potentially cytoprotective heat shock proteins (hsp70, hsp90 and hsp40). The neuroprotective effects of proteasome inhibitor pre‐treatment were blocked by coapplication of proteasome inhibitors during the oxidative insult. These findings support a model in which sublethal proteasome inhibition induces neurons to increase proteasome activity and promotes resistance to oxidative injury and suggests that enhancement of proteasome activity is a potential therapeutic target for diseases in which oxidative stress has been implicated.
Growth Factors and Cancer 1

Overview GFs3 may be defined as polypeptides that stimulate cell prolif eration through binding to specific high-affinity cell membrane receptors. These GFs differ from the well-known polypeptide hormones such as insulin and adrenocorticotropic hormone not only in the response elicited but also in the mode of delivery from the secreting to the responding cell. GFs do not usually act in an endocrine manner; they presumably diffuse short-range through intercellular spaces and act locally. Plasma contains few growth factors; several of those present in serum are presumed to be derived from platelets and are released during the clotting process (1-4). The presence of growth factors in platelets is thought to facilitate delivery of growth factors to sites of injury where they may play a major role in wound healing. Besides being found in platelets, GFs are present in a variety of tissues, both adult and embryonic, and are thought to be released by many, if not all, cells in culture (5). Membrane receptors for growth factors are also highly ubiquitous with most cells having receptors for more than one growth factor (6-8). Growth factors have differing cell type specificities; some factors such as those of the hematopoietic system (e.g., interleukin 2 or CSF-1 ) stimulate only one or a few cell types while others such as somatomedin C and EGF stimulate a wide variety of cell types, both epithelial and mesenchymal (see below). It has been demonstrated that multiple growth factors are required for max imum stimulation of specific cell types (9, 10). The requirement of nontransformed cells for more than one growth factor for proliferation is also supported by studies on the growth of cells in defined serum-free media. Unless the cells are neoplastically transformed, more than one growth factor supplement is nec essary for growth (11-13). Exposure of a cell to one growth factor can lower the threshold for mitogenicity of a second growth factor (14). Moreover, growth factors operate at different points of the cell cycle (9, 10). For instance, transient treatment of fibroblasts with PDGF will induce a stable state ("competence")
In fl uence of remote monitoring on long-term cardiovascular outcomes after cardioverter-de fi brillator implantation

Article history: Received 22 March 2016 Accepted 26 July 2016 Available online 27 July 2016 Aims:Device-based remotemonitoring (RM) has been linked to improved clinical outcomes at short tomediumterm follow-up.Whether this benefit extends to long-term follow-up is unknown.We sought to assess the effect of device-based RMon long-term clinical outcomes in recipients of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD). Methods:We performed a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients who underwent ICD implantation for primary prevention. RM was initiated with patient consent according to availability of RM hardware at implantation. Patients with concomitant cardiac resynchronization therapy were excluded. Data on hospitalizations, mortality and cause of death were systematically assessed using a nationwide healthcare platform. A Cox proportional hazards model was employed to estimate the effect of RM on mortality and a composite endpoint of cardiovascular mortality and hospital admission due to heart failure (HF). Results: 312 patients were included with a median follow-up of 37.7 months (range 1 to 146). 121 patients (38.2%) were under RM since the first outpatient visit post-ICD and 191 were in conventional follow-up. No differenceswere found regarding age, left ventricular ejection fraction, heart failure etiology or NYHA class at implantation. Patients under RM had higher long-term survival (hazard ratio [HR] 0.50, CI 0.27–0.93, p = 0.029) and lower incidence of the composite outcome (HR 0.47, CI 0.27–0.82, p = 0.008). After multivariate survival analysis, overall survival was independently associated with younger age, higher LVEF, NYHA class lower than 3 and RM. Conclusion: RM was independently associated with increased long-term survival and a lower incidence of a composite endpoint of hospitalization for HF or cardiovascular mortality. © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Improvement of complete malaria cell image segmentation

Blood smear evaluation continues to be a noteworthy method for diagnosing malaria infection. However, obtaining complete malaria cells for analysis is still a problem because the clarity and the brightness of most images are different. So, there are errors in malaria cell detection. Therefore, this study presented the method for adjusting red blood cell images to the optimum brightness level by improving the partial contrast stretching technique. Then S component in the HSI color space was used to detect the red blood cells infected with the malaria. It was also incorporated with a∗ component in CIE L∗a∗b∗ color space to obtain a complete malaria cell. In the experiment, 52 images of thin blood film were used. The results revealed that the accuracy of the detection of malaria-infected red blood cells from the S component was 80.76 percent while the accuracy of the proposed method in this study was accounted for 98.08 percent. Therefore, the proposed method was effective for malaria cell image segmentation, and complete cell images were obtained.
Bioelectronics for Amperometric Biosensors

The Discrete-to-Integrated Electronics group (D2In), at the University of Barcelona, in partnership with the Bioelectronics and Nanobioengineering Group (SICBIO), is researching Smart Self-Powered Bio-Electronic Systems. Our interest is focused on the development of custom built electronic solutions for bio-electronics applications, from discrete devices to Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions.
Metabolic and structural bone disturbances induced by hyperlipidic diet in mice treated with simvastatin

Simvastatin can modulate lipid and bone metabolism. However, information related to the interaction between diet and simvastatin on bone structure and biomechanics is scarce. Thus, this study evaluated the effects of simvastatin on femoral biomechanics and cortical/trabecular bone structure in wild‐type mice nourished with a hyperlipidic diet. Three‐month‐old male wild‐type mice (C57BL6 strain) were divided into four groups: (1) group W, nourished with a standard diet; (2) group WH, fed a hyperlipidic diet; (3) group WS, nourished with a standard diet plus oral simvastatin (20 mg/kg/day); and (4) group WHS, fed a hyperlipidic diet plus oral simvastatin (20 mg/kg/day). All animals received only their specific diet and water for 60 days. Blood samples were collected for the analysis of calcium, triglycerides, total cholesterol (TC) and fraction serum levels. Diet manipulation was able to induce a dyslipidaemic status in mice, characterized by triglyceride and TC rise in WH animals. Simvastatin prevented hypercholesterolaemia and reduced TC and LDL serum levels, but did not prevent hypertriglyceridaemia and HDL serum levels in the WHS group. In the WH mice the hyperlipidaemia was associated with reduction in trabecular bone thickness, femur structural and material property alterations. Simvastatin prevented these morphological alterations and minimized femur biomechanical changes in WHS mice. Taken together, the results indicated that the hyperlipidic diet intake acts as a risk factor for bone integrity, generating bones with reduced resistance and more susceptible to fractures, an effect attenuated by simvastatin that is potentially related to the modulatory action of this drug on lipid and bone metabolism.
Influence of adjustments to amputation and artificial limb on quality of life in patients following lower limb amputation

The objectives of this study are to investigate the relationship between adjustments to amputation and artificial limb, and quality of life (QoL), and to analyse the influence of sociodemographic, medical and amputation-related factors on this relationship. Patients with unilateral and noncongenital lower limb amputation who were using artificial limb were interviewed (n=368) using structured questionnaires. The Trinity Amputation and Prosthesis Experience Scales (TAPES) were used to assess adjustments to amputation and artificial limb and the MOS Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to assess the physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) component summary of QoL. Absence of comorbidity and residual stump pain, being employed, young age, less functional restriction, being more adjusted to limitation, increased social adjustment and less restriction in athletic activity were related to better PCS scores. Absence of comorbidity and phantom limb pain, nonuse of assistive device, being more adjusted to limitation, increased social adjustment and being less functionally restricted were related to higher MCS scores. Comorbidity had a modifying effect on both PCS and MCS scores. In addition, age, being employed and residual stump pain had a modifying influence on PCS, whereas assistive device use and phantom limb pain had a modifying influence on MCS. Our findings show that TAPES subscales have a modifying effect on the associations between several background (sociodemographic and amputation characteristics) and QoL (PCS and MCS). This indicates that adjustments to amputation and artificial limb are the key determinants of QoL in individuals following lower limb amputation.
Less water for haemodialysis: is multiple pass the future pace to go?

Background. The peritoneal membrane is a vital structure for peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. It has been increasingly recognized that the transition of the peritoneal lining mesothelial cells into a more fibroblastic phenotype is a key step in peritoneal membrane injury. Methods. Relevant literature was reviewed and summarized. Results. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a basic cellular process that occurs in a variety of physiologic and pathologic processes. The hallmark of this process is a loss of epithelial markers, and E-cadherin is a prototypical epithelial transmembrane protein. E-cadherin expression is suppressed at many levels and the gene is regulated by a family of transcription factors. Twist is one of the lesser studied E-cadherin regulatory factors, which belongs to a larger family of basic helix-loop-helix DNA-binding proteins. In this issue of Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Cuixiang Li reports on in vitro experiments where the expression of Twist led to a decreased expression of E-cadherin and the evidence of EMT. In an in vivo model of dialysate exposure, Li demonstrates that Twist expression is increased in the injured peritoneal tissues. Conclusions. These important observations are the first to link Twist to mesothelial cell EMT and peritoneal membrane injury. Like most novel observations, this paper leaves many questions unanswered. Twist is only one of several transcription factors involved in EMT and how these factors interact will require further investigations. Furthermore, the question of whether Twist interacts at multiple levels in the EMT process, or simply gives an initial push to the process, is left unanswered. Finally, to bring these early significant findings to the bedside as potential therapies for PD patients will require further innovation.
Comparing the Influence of Spectro-Temporal Integration in Computational Speech Segregation

segregation DTU Orbit (02/11/2019) Comparing the influence of spectro-temporal integration in computational speech segregation The goal of computational speech segregation systems is to automatically segregate a target speaker from interfering maskers. Typically, these systems include a feature extraction stage in the front-end and a classification stage in the backend. A spectrotemporal integration strategy can be applied in either the frontend, using the so-called delta features, or in the back-end, using a second classifier that exploits the posterior probability of speech from the first classifier across a spectro-temporal window. This study systematically analyzes the influence of such stages on segregation performance, the error distributions and intelligibility predictions. Results indicated that it could be problematic to exploit context in the back-end, even though such a spectro-temporal integration stage improves the segregation performance. Also, the results emphasized the potential need of a single metric that comprehensively predicts computational segregation performance and correlates well with intelligibility. The outcome of this study could help to identify the most effective spectro-temporal integration strategy for computational segregation systems.
Divide-by-Three Injection-Locked Frequency Dividers with Direct Forcing Signal

Divide-by-three frequency dividers with direct forcing signal are analyzed, and the actual locking mechanism underlying their operation is highlighted. In particular, it is shown that the lockingmechanism cannot be explained with the mixing between signals, as commonly made in the literature. An analytical procedure based on the averaging method is developed for solving the equation describing such dividers, and the first approximation to the oscillation in the locked states is predicted. The amplitude and phase of the output voltage in steady state as well as the locking range are derived in terms of the circuit parameters, obtaining useful design guidelines. The derived results are shown to be very close to SPICE simulations for a 0.13 um RF-CMOS process.
Smooth control action of sliding mode for a class of electro-hydraulic actuator

This paper presents a sliding mode control scheme to control a class of electro-hydraulic actuator system. A reaching law and varying boundary layers approaches are proposed in the scheme. The reaching law is aimed to solve the effect of chattering and minimize the reaching time. While, varying boundary layers algorithm is applied to ensure position tracking accuracy and smooth control action. The system is presented with the inclusion of friction and internal leakage in the system model. The proposed controller abilities are investigated through simulations works in Matlab Simulink environment based on the existing system parameters. The results indicate that the proposed scheme successfully reduces the reaching time, eliminates the chattering effect, improves the tracking accuracy, and results a smooth control action. In general, this improvement offers a significant contribution for accuracy in modern equipments positioning applications.
Properties of high temperature superconductors in states of mixed symmetry

We study the properties of high temperature superconductors (HTSs) in the states of mixed symmetry with coexisting d- and s-wave order parameter components. We model the mixed symmetry states of the HTSs in the framework of two-order-parameter Ginzburg–Landau (GL) theory. We solve the coupled nonlinear GL equations using a high precision exact numerical iteration technique for the entire range of applied magnetic field, arbitrary GL parameter κ and vortex lattice symmetry. We study theoretically and compare with experiments several properties of HTSs, such as local spatial behaviors of the magnetic field and order parameter profiles, vortex core radius, penetration depth of the magnetic field, structure of the vortex lattice, reversible magnetization, upper critical field Hc2 and shear modulus of the vortex lattice, and their variations with temperature and applied magnetic field. The excellent agreement between theoretical and experimental results on HTSs shows that the mixed symmetry scenario is a good candidate for the description of the HTSs.