Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mesenchymal stem cell‐based angiopoietin‐1 gene therapy for acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide in mice

Bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can serve as a vehicle for gene therapy. Angiopoietin‐1 (Ang1) is a critical factor for endothelial survival and vascular stabilization via the inhibition of endothelial permeability and leukocyte–endothelium interactions. We hypothesized that MSC‐based Ang1 gene therapy might be a potential therapeutic approach for lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced lung injury. MSCs were isolated from 6 week‐old inbred male mice and transduced with the Ang1 gene, using a lentivirus vector. The MSCs showed no significant phenotypic changes after transduction. In the in vivo mouse model, the LPS‐induced lung injury was markedly alleviated in the group treated with MSCs carrying Ang1 (MSCs–Ang1), compared with groups treated with MSCs or Ang1 alone. The expression of Ang1 protein in the recipient lungs was increased after MSCs–Ang1 administration. The histopathological and biochemical indices of LPS‐induced lung injury were improved after MSCs‐based Ang1 gene treatment. MSCs–Ang1 administration also reduced pulmonary vascular endothelial permeability and the recruitment of inflammatory cells into the lung. Cells of MSC origin could be detected in the recipient lungs for 2 weeks after injection with MSCs. These results suggest that MSCs and Ang1 have a synergistic role in the treatment of LPS‐induced lung injury. MSC‐based Ang1 gene therapy may be developed as a potential novel strategy for the treatment of acute lung injury. Copyright © 2008 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Quasi-phase matching in integrated lithium-niobate whispering galleries

Whispering-gallery resonators (WGRs) made of lithium niobate are very attractive for nonlinear-optical frequency conversion due to their small mode volumes and high Q-factors. To achieve phase matching, methods like birefringent phase matching and quasi phase matching (QPM) have been employed in millimeter-sized bulk WGRs. Among these, the latter provides ultimate flexibility in terms of wavelengths and polarization of the interacting waves. Integrated on-chip WGRs are in particular very appealing due to the possibility of building photonic circuits and the usage of highly-parallel and thus scalable semiconductor manufacturing techniques. Integrated WGRs are, however, fabricated on thin-film substrates. This leads to one major drawback: QPM is hard to achieve, since it is difficult to realize periodically-poled thin films by field-assisted domain inversion. We report on a method to resolve this issue. First, we do domain engineering in bulk material. Next, we bond this sample on a quartz substrate by direct wafer bonding and finally we polish the lithium niobate to a 2-μm-thick film. By lithography and reactive-ion etching we structure waveguide rings with 200 μm diameter into the thin film. Subsequent polishing of the waveguide sidewalls decreases surface-scattering losses and enables on-chip WGRs with quality factors exceeding one million. This allowed us to demonstrate for the first time quasi-phase matched second-harmonic generation in integrated WGRs, pumped by light with 1550 nm wavelength, obtaining a normalized conversion efficiency of 0.9 ‰/mW. Being now able to deploy type-0 and type-ii phase matching opens entirely new possibilities for frequency conversion with on-chip WGRs.
Physically based modelling with particle systems

In this paper, we describe a general methodology for the realistic modelling and simulation of deformable objects. The system of particles is used for this purpose. The first main contribution of this work is in the modelling field. Multi-layer particle systems are used to obtain a geometric description of an existing object. The second contribution is in the domain of the simulation. The particle systems are physically-based models that allow a realistic simulation of movements and deformations. This implies the representation of physical characteristics of existing objects, and thus the control of a wide variety of behaviours (stiffness, elasticity, control of volume variation) interesting in various areas such as medical applications, reverse-engineering, prototyping. The second contribution of this paper is to put these physical constraints into the model. Moreover, this paper proposes some techniques for the animation and the rendering of the particle systems.
Ecologically relevant outcome measure for post-inpatient rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND Transfer of skills learned within the clinic environment to patients' home or community is important in post-inpatient brain injury rehabilitation (PBIR). Outcome measures used in PBIR assess level of independence during functional tasks; however, available functional instruments do not quantitate the environment in which the behaviors occur. OBJECTIVE To examine the reliability and validity of an instrument used to assess patients' functional abilities while quantifying the amount of structure and distractions in the environment. METHODS 2501 patients who sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and participated in a multidisciplinary PBIR program between 2006 and 2014 were identified retrospectively for this study. The PERPOS and MPAI-4 were used to assess functional abilities at admission and at discharge. Construct validity was assessed using a bivariate Spearman rho analysis A subsample of 56 consecutive admissions during 2014 were examined to determine inter-rater reliability. Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and Kappa coefficients assessed inter-rater agreement of the total PERPOS and PERPOS subscales respectively. RESULTS The PERPOS and MPAI-4 demonstrated a strong negative association among both TBI and CVA patients. Kappa scores for the three PERPOS scales each demonstrated good to excellent inter-rater agreement. The ICC for overall PERPOS scores fell in the good agreement range. CONCLUSION The PERPOS can be used reliably in PBIR to quantify patients' functional abilities within the context of environmental demands.
Shrinkage Deformation’s Simulation of Injection Molding Product

In the text, study effects of process parameters on average volumetric shrinkage of aspherical plastic optical lens. By using Moldflow and Taguchi experiment design method with seven factors three levels, including mold temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure, filling time, packing time, cooling time and gate size, analyze average volumetric shrinkage of aspherical plastic optical lens. According to analysis of simulation results, optimize process parameters and gain the minimum average volumetric shrinkage, it can be concluded that effects of packing pressure, injection time, melt temperature and gate size are remarkable. Thus select these four process parameters to conduct Taguchi experiment considering each two’s interaction. In the end, obtain a conclusion that these interaction effects are small and can be neglected.
Systemic Inflammation in Young Adults Is Associated with Abnormal Lung Function in Middle Age

Background Systemic inflammation is associated with reduced lung function in both healthy individuals and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Whether systemic inflammation in healthy young adults is associated with future impairment in lung health is uncertain. Methodology/Principal Findings We evaluated the association between plasma fibrinogen and C-reactive protein (CRP) in young adults and lung function in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults cohort study. Higher year 7 fibrinogen was associated with greater loss of forced vital capacity (FVC) between years 5 and 20 (439 mL in quartile 4 vs. 398 mL in quartile 1, P<0.001) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) (487 mL in quartile 4 vs. 446 mL in quartile 1, P<0.001) independent of cigarette smoking, body habitus, baseline lung function and demographic factors. Higher year 7 CRP was also associated with both greater loss of FVC (455 mL in quartile 4 vs. 390 mL in quartile 1, P<0.001) and FEV1 (491 mL in quartile 4 vs. 442 mL in quartile 1, P = 0.001). Higher year 7 fibrinogen and CRP were associated with abnormal FVC at year 20 (odds ratio (OR) per standard deviation 1.51 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.30–1.75) for fibrinogen and 1.35 (95% CI: 1.14–1.59) for CRP). Higher year 5 fibrinogen was additionally associated with abnormal FEV1. A positive interaction was observed between pack-years cigarette smoking and year 7 CRP for the COPD endpoint, and among participants with greater than 10 pack-years of cigarette exposure, year 7 CRP was associated with greater odds of COPD at year 20 (OR per standard deviation 1.53 (95% CI: 1.08–2.16). Conclusion/Significance Systemic inflammation in young adults is associated with abnormal lung function in middle age. In particular, elevated CRP may identify vulnerability to COPD among individuals who smoke. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00005130
Systems of logic based on ordinals : a dissertation Universal Turing Machine

Recent advances in empathic technology and reliable communication offer a viable alternative to e-business. In fact, few cyberneticists would disagree with the investigation of operating systems. Our focus in our research is not on whether 802.11 mesh networks can be made stochastic, signed, and pseudorandom, but rather on motivating an analysis of hierarchical databases (Stond).
Rutin rich Emblica officinalis Geart. fruit extract ameliorates inflammation in the pancreas of rats subjected to alcohol and cerulein administration

Abstract Background: The modulating effect of methanolic extract of Emblica officinalis (MEEO) on ethanol (EtOH)- and cerulein (Cer)-induced pancreatitis in rats was investigated in this study. Methods: Male albino Wistar rats were divided into four groups. Group 1 and 2 rats served as control and fed normal diet. Group 3 and 4 rats were fed isocalorically adjusted diet containing EtOH (36% of total calories) for 5 weeks and also subjected to intraperitoneal injection of Cer 20 µg/kg b.wt. thrice weekly for the last 3 weeks of the experimental period. In addition, group 2 and 4 rats received 200 mg/kg b.wt. of MEEO from 15th day till the experimental period. Serum levels of lipase (L), amylase (A), cytokines IL-1β, IL-18, caspase-1 and oxidative stress index (OSI) were determined. Levels of fecal trypsin, total collagen, caspase-1, myeloperoxidase (MPO), antioxidants and mRNA expression of caspase-1, IL-1β and IL-18 were determined in the pancreas. Results: HPLC analysis showed the presence of rutin in MEEO. We observed a significant elevation in serum L/A ratio, IL-1β, IL-18, caspase-1, OSI, collagen, MPO activity and the mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-18 and caspase-1 and significant reduction in fecal trypsin and antioxidant status in EtOH- and Cer-administered rats. The inflammatory markers were found to be reduced and the antioxidant status of pancreas was maintained in MEEO-coadministered rats. Conclusions: The rutin rich nature of E. officinalis can be claimed for its anti-inflammatory and pancreato protective effects.
Under-modelled blind system identification for time delay estimation in reverberant environments

In multichannel systems, acoustic time delay estimation (TDE) is a challenging problem in reverberant environments. Although blind system identification (BSI) based methods have been proposed which utilize a realistic signal model for the room impulse response (RIR), their TDE performance depends strongly on that of the BSI, which is often inaccurate in practice when the identified responses are under-modelled. In this paper, we propose a new under-modelled BSI based method for TDE in reverberant environments. An under-modelled BSI algorithm is derived, which is based on maximizing the cross-correlation of the cross-filtered signals rather than minimizing the cross-relation error, and also exploits the sparsity of the early part of the RIR. For TDE, this new criterion can be viewed as a generalization of conventional cross-correlation-based TDE methods by considering a more realistic model for the early RIR. Depending on the microphone spacing, only a short early part of each RIR is identified, and the time delays are estimated based on the peak locations in the identified early RIRs. Experiments in different reverberant environments with speech source signals demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Outcome of rheumatoid arthritis following adjunct statin therapy

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by symmetric peripheral polyarthritis, inflammatory synovitis, and articular destruction. Statins, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A-reductase inhibitors, mediate significant vascular risk reduction in patients with coronary artery disease by promoting reduction in plasma levels of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol. Extensive in vitro data, experimental studies and more recently few clinical trials have strongly suggested statins to possess an important role in RA mainly mediated by their anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of adjunct statin therapy in comparison to standard disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) therapy in patients with RA. Materials and Methods: In this observational study, diagnosed RA patients of age group between 40 and 60 years were selected as per the inclusion criteria from the rheumatology outdoor. From the selected patients, we identified two separate groups of patients. Group 1 included 30 patients of RA currently under DMARD therapy with adjunct statin medication. Group 2 included 30 patients of RA currently under DMARD therapy. Patients were followed up over 6 months. Standard parameters such as disease activity score (DAS28), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) were recorded for comparing the outcome of RA in both groups. Results: Out of a total of 60 patients who took part in the study, significant beneficial role of adjunct statin medication was found in this study when prescribed along with conventional DMARDs in active RA patients. The mean DAS28, considered by far as the most important index of clinical disease activity in RA, was found to be significantly lower (P < 0.05) in the adjunct statin-treated group (group 1) than that of the conventional DMARD treated group (group 2) after 6 months of continuous therapy. Other two important biochemical markers of RA disease activity, that is, ESR and CRP were also found to be significantly lower (P < 0.05) in RA patients who were on adjunct statin medication (group 1) than in group 2 comprising RA patients only under conventional DMARDs therapy without statin medication. Conclusion: The results suggest an adjunct and potentially beneficial role of statin therapy in active cases of RA, producing significant clinical and biochemical improvement.
Tracing Determinants of Dual Substrate Specificity in Glycoside Hydrolase Family 5*

Background: Glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5) comprises enzymes with a wide range of activities critical for the deconstruction of lignocellulose. Results: Concurrent glucan and mannan specificity in over 70 members of GH5 can be ascribed to a conserved active site motif. Conclusion: Single domain multispecific hydrolases are widely prevalent. Significance: This finding has potential applications in improved enzyme mixture design or microbes engineered for consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulose. Enzymes are traditionally viewed as having exquisite substrate specificity; however, recent evidence supports the notion that many enzymes have evolved activities against a range of substrates. The diversity of activities across glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5) suggests that this family of enzymes may contain numerous members with activities on multiple substrates. In this study, we combined structure- and sequence-based phylogenetic analysis with biochemical characterization to survey the prevalence of dual specificity for glucan- and mannan-based substrates in the GH5 family. Examination of amino acid profile differences between the subfamilies led to the identification and subsequent experimental confirmation of an active site motif indicative of dual specificity. The motif enabled us to successfully discover several new dually specific members of GH5, and this pattern is present in over 70 other enzymes, strongly suggesting that dual endoglucanase-mannanase activity is widespread in this family. In addition, reinstatement of the conserved motif in a wild type member of GH5 enhanced its catalytic efficiency on glucan and mannan substrates by 175 and 1,600%, respectively. Phylogenetic examination of other GH families further indicates that the prevalence of enzyme multispecificity in GHs may be greater than has been experimentally characterized. Single domain multispecific GHs may be exploited for developing improved enzyme cocktails or facile engineering of microbial hosts for consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulose.
The Effect of Medicaid on Dental Care of Poor Adults: Evidence from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of Medicaid coverage on dental care outcomes, a major health concern for low-income populations. DATA SOURCES Primary and secondary data on health care use and outcomes for participants in Oregon's 2008 Medicaid lottery. STUDY DESIGN We used the lottery's random selection to gauge the causal effects of Medicaid on dental care needs, medication, and emergency department visits for dental care. DATA COLLECTION Data were collected for lottery participants over 2 years, including mail surveys (N = 23,777) and in-person questionnaires (N = 12,229). Emergency department (ED) records were matched to lottery participants in Portland (N = 24,646). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Medicaid coverage significantly reduced the share of respondents who reported needing dental care (-9.8 percentage points, p < .001) or having unmet dental care needs (-13.5 percentage points, p < 0.001). Medicaid doubled the share visiting the ED for dental care (+2.6 percentage points, p = .003) and the use of anti-infective medications often prescribed for dental care, but it had no detectable effect on uncovered dental care or out-of-pocket spending. CONCLUSIONS Expansion of Medicaid covering emergency dental care substantially reduced unmet need for dental care, increasing ED dental visits and medication use, while not changing patient use of uncovered dental services.
Glutamate 636 of the Escherichia coli Pyruvate Dehydrogenase-E1 Participates in Active Center Communication and Behaves as an Engineered Acetolactate Synthase with Unusual Stereoselectivity*

The residue Glu636 is located near the thiamine diphosphate (ThDP) binding site of the Escherichia coli pyruvate dehydrogenase complex E1 subunit (PDHc-E1), and to probe its function two variants, E636A and E636Q were created with specific activities of 2.5 and 26% compared with parental PDHc-E1. According to both fluorescence binding and kinetic assays, the E636A variant behaved according to half-of-the-sites mechanism with respect to ThDP. In contrast, with the E636Q variant a Kd,ThDP = 4.34 μm and Km,ThDP = 11 μm were obtained with behavior more reminiscent of the parental enzyme. The CD spectra of both variants gave evidence for formation of the 1′,4′-iminopyrimidine tautomer on binding of phosphonolactylthiamine diphosphate, a stable analog of the substrate-ThDP covalent complex. Rapid formation of optically active (R)-acetolactate by both variants, but not by the parental enzyme, was observed by CD and NMR spectroscopy. The acetolactate configuration produced by the Glu636 variants is opposite that produced by the enzyme acetolactate synthase and the Asp28-substituted variants of yeast pyruvate decarboxylase, suggesting that the active centers of the two sets of enzymes exhibit different facial selectivity (re or si) vis à vis pyruvate. The tryptic peptide map (mass spectral analysis) revealed that the Glu636 substitution changed the mobility of a loop comprising amino acid residues from the ThDP binding fold. Apparently, the residue Glu636 has important functions both in active center communication and in protecting the active center from undesirable “carboligase” side reactions.
User-Centric Energy Efficiency Maximization for Wireless Powered Communications

In this paper, we consider wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs) where multiple users harvest energy from a dedicated power station and then communicate with an information receiving station in a time-division manner. Thereby, our goal is to maximize the weighted sum of the user energy efficiencies (WSUEEs). In contrast to the existing system-centric approaches, the choice of the weights provides flexibility for balancing the individual user EEs via joint time allocation and power control. We first investigate the WSUEE maximization problem without the quality of service constraints. Closed-form expressions for the WSUEE as well as the optimal time allocation and power control are derived. Based on this result, we characterize the EE tradeoff between the users in the WPCN. Subsequently, we study the WSUEE maximization problem in a generalized WPCN where each user is equipped with an initial amount of energy and also has a minimum throughput requirement. By exploiting the sum-of-ratios structure of the objective function, we transform the resulting non-convex optimization problem into a two-layer subtractive-form optimization problem, which leads to an efficient approach for obtaining the optimal solution. The simulation results verify our theoretical findings and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Advanced background subtraction approach using Laplacian distribution model

In this paper, we propose a novel background subtraction approach in order to accurately detect moving objects. Our method involves three important proposed modules: a block alarm module, a background modeling module, and an object extraction module. Our proposed block alarm module efficiently checks each block for the presence of either moving object or background information. This is accomplished by using temporal differencing pixels of the Laplacian distribution model and allows the subsequent background modeling module to process only those blocks found to contain background pixels. For our proposed background modeling module, a unique two-stage background training procedure is performed using Rough Training followed by Precise Training in order to generate a high-quality adaptive background model. As the final step of our process, we present an object extraction module which will compute the binary object detection mask through the applied suitable threshold value. This is accomplished by using our proposed threshold training procedure in order to achieve accurate and complete detection of moving objects. The overall results of these analyses demonstrate that our proposed method attains a substantially higher degree of efficacy, outperforming other state-of-the-art methods by Similarity and F1 accuracy rates of up to 57.17% and 48.48%, respectively.