Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of In Vitro Low Oxygen Tension Preconditioning of Adipose Stromal Cells on Their In Vivo Chondrogenic Potential: Application in Cartilage Tissue Repair

Purpose Multipotent stromal cell (MSC)-based regenerative strategy has shown promise for the repair of cartilage, an avascular tissue in which cells experience hypoxia. Hypoxia is known to promote the early chondrogenic differentiation of MSC. The aim of our study was therefore to determine whether low oxygen tension could be used to enhance the regenerative potential of MSC for cartilage repair. Methods MSC from rabbit or human adipose stromal cells (ASC) were preconditioned in vitro in control or chondrogenic (ITS and TGF-β) medium and in 21 or 5% O2. Chondrogenic commitment was monitored by measuring COL2A1 and ACAN expression (real-time PCR). Preconditioned rabbit and human ASC were then incorporated into an Si-HPMC hydrogel and injected (i) into rabbit articular cartilage defects for 18 weeks or (ii) subcutaneously into nude mice for five weeks. The newly formed tissue was qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated by cartilage-specific immunohistological staining and scoring. The phenotype of ASC cultured in a monolayer or within Si-HPMC in control or chondrogenic medium and in 21 or 5% O2 was finally evaluated using real-time PCR. Results/Conclusions 5% O2 increased the in vitro expression of chondrogenic markers in ASC cultured in induction medium. Cells implanted within Si-HPMC hydrogel and preconditioned in chondrogenic medium formed a cartilaginous tissue, regardless of the level of oxygen. In addition, the 3D in vitro culture of ASC within Si-HPMC hydrogel was found to reinforce the pro-chondrogenic effects of the induction medium and 5% O2. These data together indicate that although 5% O2 enhances the in vitro chondrogenic differentiation of ASC, it does not enhance their in vivo chondrogenesis. These results also highlight the in vivo chondrogenic potential of ASC and their potential value in cartilage repair.
Relationship between Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphisms and Migraine without Aura in an Iranian Population

Background. Inflammation has a key role in migraine pathophysiology. Vitamin D is an effective anti-inflammatory agent. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between migraine and two vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms (TaqI and FokI) and also the relationship between VDR polymorphisms and headache severity. Methods. In this case-control study we assessed 103 patients with newly diagnosed migraine without aura and 100 healthy subjects. Patients filled headache impact test-6 (HIT-6) as a tool to assess headache severity. Results. Genotype frequencies of VDR were significantly different between control and migraine patients. Heterozygote genotypes (Ff and Tt) were statistically more frequent in the migraine patients than the control subjects both for TaqI gene (P = 0.018; OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.03–3.18) and FokI gene polymorphisms (P = 0.001; OR = 2.91, 95% CI = 1.47–5.77). Also f and t alleles were more frequent in the migraine patients. Total HIT-6 score was significantly different between FokI heterozygote and homozygote patients (60.32 ± 1.87 versus 49.87 ± 2.69, resp., P = 0.004). Conclusions. In conclusion our results showed that TaqI and FokI gene polymorphisms are associated with migraine without aura in Iranians patients. Also headache severity in FokI heterozygote patients was significantly greater than in the homozygote patients.
A New Method to Identify Multiple Sources of Oscillatory Activity from Magnetoencephalographic Data

Identifying the sources of oscillatory activity in the human brain is a challenging problem in current magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) research. The fluctuations in phase and amplitude of cortical oscillations preclude signal averaging over successive sections of the data without a priori assumptions. In addition, several sources at different locations often produce oscillatory activity at similar frequencies. For example, spontaneous oscillatory activity in the 8- to 13-Hz band is produced simultaneously at least in the posterior parts of the brain and bilaterally in the sensorimotor cortices. The previous approaches of identifying sources of oscillatory activity by dipole modeling of bandpass filtered data are quite laborious and require that multiple criteria are defined by an experienced user. In this work we introduce a convenient method for source localization using minimum current estimates in the frequency domain. Individual current estimates are calculated for the Fourier transforms of successive sections of continuous data. These current estimates are then averaged. The algorithm was tested on simulated and measured MEG data and compared with conventional dipole modeling. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it provides an efficient approach for simultaneous estimation of multiple sources of oscillatory activity in the same frequency band.
Accelerating mean shift image segmentation with IFGT on massively parallel GPU

Mean shift algorithm is a popular technique in many machine vision applications including image segmentation. Main drawback of the original algorithm is its quadratic computational complexity, the problem approached with many acceleration methods developed by researchers so far. One of the most effective is usage of the Improved Fast Gauss Transformation (IFGT) to accelerate Gaussian summations of the mean shift, resulting with linear computational complexity. Despite such advances, mean shift segmentation on larger images can still be too expensive for time critical applications. However, recent rapid increase in the performance of general purpose graphic processing unit (GPGPU) hardware has opened opportunity for significant acceleration of the algorithms by parallel execution. This paper introduces first parallel implementation of IFGT-MS segmentor based on many core GPGPU platform. The emphasis is placed on adaptation of the core algorithm to efficiently exploit benefits of underlying GPU hardware architecture. Numerical experiments have demonstrated considerably faster segmentation execution compared with alternative CPU and GPU based mean shift variants.
Supporting QoS with location aware prereservation in mobile ad hoc networks

Due to MAC collisions and mobility, quality of service (QoS) provisioning in mobile ad hoc networks is very challenging. In this paper, we propose an innovative scheme to grant high priority to communications between some important nodes in TDMA based ad hoc networks. In addition to bandwidth reservation in previous QoS routing approaches, our scheme adopts a new approach: bandwidth prereservation. Some bandwidth is prereserved at intermediate nodes in a quadrangle-shaped area formed between important nodes. The key idea is to utilize each node's geographic location information and minimize potential scheduling conflicts for transmissions. In this way, time slot collisions in adjacent wireless links along a path can be reduced so that more high priority connections can be accepted into the network. Extensive simulations show that our scheme can successfully provide better communication quality at a relatively low price.
Multi–objective Evolutionary Algorithms for the Risk–return Trade–off in Bank Loan Management

Multi-criteria decision-making is an increasingly accepted tool for decision-making in management. In this work, we highlight the application of a novel multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, NSGA-II, to the risk-return trade-off for a bank-loan portfolio manager. The manager of a bank operating in a competitive environment faces the standard goal of maximizing shareholder wealth. Specifically, this attempts to maximize the net worth of the bank, which in turn involves maximizing the net interest margin of the bank (among other factors, such as non-interest income). At the same time, there are significant regulatory constraints placed on the bank, such as the maintenance of adequate capital, interest-rate risk exposure, etc. The genetic algorithm-based technique used here obtains an approximation to the set of Pareto-optimal solutions which increases the decision flexibility available to the bank manager, and provides a visualization tool for one of the trade-offs involved. The algorithm is also computationally efficient and is contrasted with a traditional multi-objective function - the epsilon-constraint method.
Phenolic and Chromatic Properties of Beibinghong Red Ice Wine during and after Vinification

The phenolic and chromatic characteristics of a special red ice wine made from a Vitis amurensis × V. vinifera hybrid cultivar Beibinghong were studied. Results from two different vintages (2013 and 2014) showed that during vinification, the phenolic acid content increased, while the level of flavonoids (flavonols, flavan-3-ols, and anthocyanins) reduced by a variable extent. The color intensity and red % decreased together with a decrease in anthocyanin content. This was accompanied by an increase in hue as well as yellow %. The final phenolic content was found to be between 119.54 and 180.93 mg/L, with anthocyanins as the predominant phenolic group (92.06%–93.03%), of which 3,5-O-diglucosidic anthocyanins made up 53.55%–79.04%. Phenolic acids were the primary non-anthocyanin phenolics at about 6.64%–7.5%. The phenolic contents and color parameters of Beibinghong dry red wine and several V. vinifera dry red wines of superior color quality were also used in an attempt to clarify the relationship between phenolics and color in the Beibinghong red ice wine. By using Pearson correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA), it was found that 3,5-O-diglucosidic anthocyanins and protocatechuic acid were the only characteristic phenolics that differentiated Beibinghong wines from the other selected red wines from more traditional varieties. They were also the main phenolics to be positively correlated with the hue and yellow % of the wine at the early stages leading into maturation. Their presence might, therefore, explain the relatively high hue and yellow % of Beibinghong ice wine.
The federal funds rate and the conduction of the international orchestra

In the first thirteen years of EMU, monetary policy choices of the European Central Bank (ECB) in setting the short-term interest rate have followed, systematically, monetary policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve System (Fed). For, despite the presence of variable lags with respect to Fed decisions, turning points of European short-term interest rates have been largely anticipated by movements in the federal funds rate. In this paper we show that, in the context of a bivariate cointegrated system, a clear long-run US dominance emerges. Moreover, the structural analysis reveals that a permanent increase in the federal funds rate causes a permanent one-for-one movement in the eonia rate.
Evaluation and validity of the Danish version of the Adult Strabismus Questionnaire AS-20

Purpose Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with strabismus is important in evaluating the clinical benefits of strabismus treatment. The purpose of this study was to translate the Adult Strabismus Quality of Life Questionnaire (AS-20) into Danish and evaluate its reliability and validity in adult patients with strabismus in Denmark. Methods The AS-20 was translated into Danish in accordance with standard international adopted methods. We presented the questionnaire to 64 adults with strabismus and to 13 non-strabismic adult controls. We tested the reliability of the Danish version by reassuring test–retest reliability, estimated the internal consistency, and analyzed the validity (discriminatory power) of the questionnaire by comparing patient scores with scores from control individuals. Results The Danish AS-20 produced high level of internal consistency (Cronbach’s α values) for both subscales (psychosocial: 0.95 and functional: 0.85). We found good discriminatory power of the AS-20. The patients scored significantly lower not only on AS-20 composite score (median =63, interquartile range [IQR] =44–79) compared to healthy individuals (median =98, IQR =93–100) (P<0.0001) but also on all individual questions in both subscales (psychosocial: 1–10 and functional: 11–20). Conclusion The Danish version of AS-20 shows high reliability and validity, and in our opinion, AS-20 is therefore a suitable instrument for evaluating self-perceived psychosocial and functional influence of strabismus.
Selection for growth rate, feed efficiency and body composition in mice.

ROWTH rate and efficiency of feed utilization are two of the most economically important characters in the production of meat animals. In these days of world shortage of both plant and animal protein, and with an energy crisis looming on the horizon, the necessity both to reduce maintenance costs by speeding up growth rate and to improve the efficiency of growth by improving the efficiency of conversion of plant feed to animal protein, has become more urgent than ever. Many studies have been reported on efficiency of feed conversion, dealing with the physiological parameters which affect it and which could conceivably show genetic variability. These parameters include the efficiency with which ingested nutrients are absorbed through the gut (Digestibility), the energy required to maintain body weight (Maintenance), and the efficiency with which absorbed nutrients are converted into a given body tissue, principally protein and fat, and the relative efficiencies of the deposition of these two. Perhaps the most important influences treated have been the differences in feed intake (appetite), and the ratio of fat to lean in the tissue gained. Many individual studies have also been carried out on growth rate and body composition, but few have attempted to relate these to each other or to the physiological factors affecting efficiency. The present paper attempts to synthesize our knowledge by treating the physiological characters mentioned above and the interrelationships among the three characters of growth rate, feed consumption, and composition of the body, along with the “synthetic character” generally called feed efficiency, the ratio of gain in weight of body to the amount of feed consumed over a given period of time. A review of published results will be presented and compared to the results from our own mouse laboratory in Colorado. Projections from mice to large animals will be made periodically to see what insights may be offered on an economic scale.
Incremental Entity Resolution from Linked Documents

In many government applications we often find that information about entities, such as persons, are available in disparate data sources such as passports, driving licences, bank accounts, and income tax records. Similar scenarios are commonplace in large enterprises having multiple customer, supplier, or partner databases. Each data source maintains different aspects of an entity, and resolving entities based on these attributes is a well-studied problem. However, in many cases documents in one source reference those in others; e.g., a person may provide his driving-licence number while applying for a passport, or vice-versa. These links define relationships between documents of the same entity (as opposed to inter-entity relationships, which are also often used for resolution). In this paper we describe an algorithm to cluster documents that are highly likely to belong to the same entity by exploiting inter-document references in addition to attribute similarity. Our technique uses a combination of iterative graph-traversal, locality-sensitive hashing, iterative match-merge, and graph-clustering to discover unique entities based on a document corpus. A unique feature of our technique is that new sets of documents can be added incrementally while having to re-resolve only a small subset of a previously resolved entity-document collection. We present performance and quality results on two data-sets: a real-world database of companies and a large synthetically generated `population' database. We also demonstrate benefit of using inter-document references for clustering in the form of enhanced recall of documents for resolution.
Interaction of the human cytomegalovirus uracil DNA glycosylase UL114 with the viral DNA polymerase catalytic subunit UL54

Interaction between human cytomegalovirus uracil DNA glycosylase (UL114) and the viral DNA polymerase accessory subunit (UL44) has been reported; however, no such association was found in proteomic studies of UL44-interacting proteins. Utilizing virus expressing FLAG-tagged UL114, nuclease-resistant association of UL44 and the DNA polymerase catalytic subunit UL54 with UL114 was observed by co-immunoprecipitation. Contrary to a previous report, we observed that UL114 was much less abundant than UL44. Interaction of UL114 with UL54, independent of the UL54 carboxyl terminus, but not with UL44 was detected in vitro. Our data are consistent with a direct UL114–UL54 interaction, and suggest that UL114 and UL54 act in concert during base excision repair of the viral genome.
Essays on institutional persistence, contract structure, and authority

This thesis is a collection of essays that uses theoretical and experimental methods to explore institutional persistence, contract structure, and authority. Chapter One studies the informational and efficiency properties of institutions that form to reduce moral hazard. While in the short run such mechanisms may be optimal, in the long run inefficient institutions may persist because information about changes in the underlying environment is lost. Using experimental and theoretical methods, it analyzes a market with high quality and low quality products that are indistinguishable without a costly certification process. Sellers in the market make endogenous production decisions and are heterogeneous in their levels of moral hazard leading to two possible equilibria-non-certifying and certifying-that vary in both efficiency and information about the underlying environment. The certifying equilibrium, which does not carry information about changes in the distribution of sellers, does not adjust when the underlying environment changes, perpetuating a market structure that makes all market participants weakly worse off. Chapter Two studies how changes in contract structure may help preserve antiquities. Most countries prohibit the export of certain antiquities. This practice often leads to illegal excavation and looting for the black market, which damages objects and destroys important aspects of the archaeological record. Chapter Two argues that many of the goals for export bans could be better accomplished through the use of long-term leases which would raise revenue for the country of origin while preserving national long-term ownership rights. Chapter Three uses experiments to study how control rights are distributed in a setting with incentive conflicts. It shows that while effort levels are consistent with theoretical predictions, principals retain control rights even when it is strongly in their interest to delegate. Chapter Three also documents a differential response to authority by gender. As agents, women have strong fairness preferences resulting in diminished effort in asymmetric treatments but higher effort in symmetric ones. As principals, women are more likely to transfer authority when it is efficient to do so. Thesis Supervisor: Sergei Izmalkov Title: Assistant Professor Thesis Supervisor: Abhijit Banerjee Title: Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics
Collective Household Models: Principles and Main Results

In the traditional approach to consumer behaviour it is assumed that households behave as if they were single decision-making units. This approach has methodological, empirical and welfare economic deficiencies. A valuable alternative to the traditional model is the collective approach to household behaviour. The collective approach explicitly takes account of the fact that multi-person households consist of several members which may have different preferences. Among these household members, an intrahousehold bargaining process is assumed to take place. In addition to providing an introduction to the collective approach, this survey intends to show how different collective household models, each with their own aims and assumptions, are connected.
This is an author version of the contribution published on: Questa è la versione dell’autore dell’opera:

In Italy the spread of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) has favored the evolution of a rich varietal heritage in different pedoclimatic areas. Conservation of this wide germplasm is very important to save valuable genotypes, because they may retain special adaptative and technological traits and so meet the demands of the market that nowadays requires, more and more, typical products of high quality. The preservation and valorization of this heritage can be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach. Genetic, morphologic, chemical and sensory analyses allow to define the properties and the characteristics of each chestnut cultivar and can be helpful in choosing the most proper uses of the nuts. In this work, we describe our experience on chestnut characterization aimed to select plant material to be exploited in the different growing areas and show how a multidisciplinary approach greatly improves the efficacy of the characterization and the reliability of the evaluation of the germplasm. The final aim is to provide growers with selected plant material able to yield nuts suitable for the fresh market or for processing and offer to consumers high quality products
Design and implementation of a low cost multichannel rectified EMG acquisition system

Main objective of this work is designing and implementation of low cost electromyography (EMG) signal acquisition system which provides multichannel facilities. The major challenges of this work are to meet the quality as well as the cost at the same time. Our designed acquisition system comes with some attractive features like real time data display, offline data store, and simultaneous use of three channels. This multiple channel acquisition system is implemented using instrumentation amplifier (INA118) for pre-amplification stage. For smoothing and rectification purposes operational amplifiers (TL 072) have been used. In this system, 10 bit analog to digital (AD) converter of Arduino UNO has been used. Then the output data are displayed graphically by using open source software named by Serial Oscilloscope. The acquired data is validated by two ways. At first, the acquired data is used to control the prosthetic hand. Else, the acquired data by this designed acquisition system has been compared with certified Biopac Mp36 system and we have achieved 84.1% correlation coefficient. These two validation test proves the effectiveness of our designed system. In addition with that, the cost of this data acquisition is only 40 USD.
Importance Weighted Consensus Monte Carlo for Distributed Bayesian Inference

The recent explosion in big data has created a significant challenge for efficient and scalable Bayesian inference. In this paper, we consider a divide-and-conquer setting in which the data is partitioned into different subsets with communication constraints, and a proper combination strategy is used to aggregate the Monte Carlo samples drawn from the local posteriors based on the dataset subsets. We propose a new importance weighted consensus Monte Carlo method for efficient Bayesian inference in this setting. Our method outperforms the previous one-shot combination strategies in terms of accuracy, and is more computation- and communication-efficient than the previous iterative combination methods that require iterative re-sampling and communication steps. We provide two practical versions of our approach, and illustrate their properties both theoretically and empirically.