Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanisms of Muscle Stem Cell Expansion with Cytokines

Stem cell expansion and proliferation are important for cell transplantation and stem cell‐mediated applications. While we have demonstrated that muscle stem cells can be obtained from adult skeletal muscle tissue, these cells represent only a small percentage of the muscle‐derived cells and require in vitro expansion for successful stem cell‐mediated therapies. In this study, we have examined the potential of several cytokines to stimulate stem cell growth by combining a non‐exponential mathematical model with a unique cell culture system. The growth kinetics of two populations of muscle stem cells were characterized in culture medium supplemented with epidermal growth factor (EGF), fibroblast growth factor‐2 (FGF‐2), insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1), FLT‐3 ligand, hepatocyte growth factor, or stem cell factor (SCF). The division time (DT) and fraction of mitotically active cells were investigated as key parameters to further understand the mechanism of the expansion of the stem cell populations. Our results show that expansion of the freshly isolated, muscle‐derived stem cells (MDSC) occurred by recruiting cells into the cell cycle in the presence of EGF, IGF‐1, and SCF. However, expansion of the cultured stem cell clone, MC13, is attributed to a reduction of the length of the cell cycle in the presence of FGF‐2, EGF, IGF‐1, and SCF. Both MDSC and MC13 growth were inhibited in the presence of FLT‐3 ligand by increasing the length of the cell cycle. Our results suggest that EGF, IGF‐1, FGF‐2, and SCF are important cytokines for stimulating the proliferation of MDSC. In addition, this study illustrates that expansion of stem cells occurs through different mechanisms, which consequently demonstrates the importance of monitoring several parameters of cell growth, such as DT and dividing fraction, following stimulation with growth factors.
Neural Networks in System Identification

System identification is an important way of investigating and understanding the world around. Identification is a process of deriving a mathematical model of a predefined part of the world, using observations. There are several different approaches of system identification, and these approaches utilize different forms of knowledge about the system. When only input-output observations are used behavioral or black box model can be constructed. In black box modeling neural networks play an important role. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the application of neural networks in system identification. It defines the task of system identification, shows the basic questions and introduces the different approaches can be applied. It deals with the basic neural network architectures, the capability of neural networks and shows the motivations why neural networks are applied in system identification. The paper presents the main steps of neural identification and details the most important special problems, which must be solved when neural networks are used in system modeling. The general statements are illustrated by a real world complex industrial application example, where important practical questions and the strength and weakness of neural identification are also discussed.
Slouching Toward the Ordinary: Current Trends in Computer-Mediated Communication

A data entry and retrieval composite display system which by electronic means transforms film, microfiche, transparent slides, video tape data and like data into a video signal and combines the same with computer originated data reduced to a video signal and displays the combined signals as a composite video display embodying the use of integrated electronic control and operating apparatus and programming, providing for selective electronic blanking and substitution of data, for electronic verification of identity of data and for electronic registration of position of data.
Diabetes care in general practice: meta-analysis of randomised control trials.

Abstract Objective : To assess the effectiveness of care in general practice for people with diabetes. Design : Meta-analysis of randomised trials comparing general practice and shared care with follow up in hospital outpatient clinic. Identification : Trials were identified from searches of eight bibliographic and research databases. Results : Five trials identified included 1058 people with diabetes, overall mean age 58.4 years, receiving hospital outpatient follow up for their diabetes. Results were heterogeneous between trials. In shared care schemes featuring more intensive support through a computerised prompting system for general practitioners and patients, there was no difference in mortality between care in hospital and care in general practice (odds ratio 1.06, 95% confidence interval 0.53 to 2.11); glycated haemoglobin tended to be lower in primary care (weighted difference in means of 0.28%, 0.59% to 0.03%); and losses to follow up were significantly lower in primary care (odds ratio 0.37, 0.22 to 0.61). However, schemes with less well developed support for family doctors were associated with adverse outcomes for patients. Conclusions : Unstructured care in the community is associated with poorer follow up, worse glycaemic control, and greater mortality than in hospital care. Computerised central recall, with prompting for patients and their family doctors, can achieve standards of care as good as or better than hospital outpatient care, at least in the short term. The evidence supports provision of regular prompted recall and review of selected people with diabetes by willing general practitioners. This can be achieved if suitable organisation is in place.
The Application of Technology Roadmapping Method Related to Sustainable Energy: Case Study in the World and Brazil

The Technology Roadmapping Method (TRM) is a widely used method in the industry for the development of long term planning strategies, enabling to align market, product and technology over time. This article presents a survey about the uses of this tool regarding to studies on renewable energy in the World and Brazil. The TRM has proven useful efforts in organizing and guiding Reseach, Development and Innovation (R, D & I) in order to achieve the desired goals for each example. In Brazil, the highlight was the works of the SENAI/PR and CGEE.
The discovery of user related rare sequential patterns of topics in the internet document stream

On the Internet, plain text documents created and viewed by users constitute ever changing document streams. Lots of the literature is devoted to topic modeling, while the sequential patterns of topics in document streams are ignored. In this paper, we deal with the problem of mining user related rare sequential patterns of topics in the Internet document streams, which can be used in many fields, such as real-time user behavioral monitoring on the Internet. We propose an approach to discover rare patterns based on the temporal and probabilistic information of topics. Experiments show that the proposed approach can discover user related rare patterns of topic effectively.
Comparison of the CHADS2, CHA2DS2 -VASc and HAS-BLED scores for the prediction of clinically relevant bleeding in anticoagulated patients with atrial fibrillation: The AMADEUS trial

Summary Many of the risk factors for stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF) are also important risk factors for bleeding. We tested the hypothesis that the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores (used for stroke risk assessment) could be used to predict serious bleeding, and that these scores would compare well against the HAS-BLED score, which is a specific risk score designed for bleeding risk assessment. From the AMADEUS trial, we focused on the trial’s primary safety outcome for serious bleeding, which was “any clinically relevant bleeding”. The predictive value of HAS-BLED/CHADS2/CHA2DS2-VASc were compared by area under the curve (AUC, a measure of the c-index) and the Net Reclassification Improvement (NRI). Of 2,293 patients on VKA, 251 (11%) experienced at least one episode of “any clinically relevant bleeding” during an average 429 days follow up period. Incidence of “any clinically relevant bleeding” rose with increasing HAS-BLED/CHADS2/CHA2DS2-VASc scores, but was statistically significant only for HAS-BLED (p<0.0001). Only HAS-BLED demonstrated significant discriminatory performance for “any clinically relevant bleeding” (AUC 0.60, p<0.0001). There were significant AUC-differences between HAS-BLED (which had the highest AUC) and both CHADS2 (p<0.001) and CHA2DS2VASc (p=0.001). The HAS-BLED score also demonstrated significant NRI for the outcome of “any clinically relevant bleeding” when compared with CHADS2 (p=0.001) and CHA2DS2-VASc (p=0.04). In conclusion, the HAS-BLED score demonstrated significant discriminatory performance for “any clinically relevant bleeding” in anticoagulated patients with AF, whilst the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores did not. Bleeding risk assessment should be made using a specific bleeding risk score such as HAS-BLED, and the stroke risk scores such as CHADS2 or CHA2DS2-VASc scores should not be used.
The relationship between moral judgment, egocentrism, and altruistic behavior.

RUBIN, KENNETH H. , and SCHNEIDER, FRANK W. The Relationship between Moral Judgment, Egocentrism, and Altruistic Behavior. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 661-665. 55 7-year-old children were administered cognitive measures of communicative egocentrism and moral judgment and were provided with 2 opportunities to display altruistic behavior--(a) to donate candy to poor children and (b) to help a younger child complete a task. Success on the 2 cognitive measures was positively correlated with the incidence of altruistic behavior in both altruism conditions. With mental age partialled out the correlations between the cognitive measures and donating candy were significantly lower than the correlation between the cognitive measures and helping. The difference between the correlations was accounted for by the fact that only in the candy donation were there cues that helped the subject attend to the possibility of emitting an altruistic act. Finally, the communicative and moral judgment measures were significantly correlated.
Cellular microRNA-214 contributes to H 1 N 1 influenza A virus-mediated apoptosis through repression of anti-apoptotic factors Livin in A 549 cells

Influenza A virus (IAV) infection results in host cell death and major tissue damage. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the regulation of gene expression and are involved in many cellular processes including inhibition of viral replication in infected cells. Recent studies have revealed that miR-214 is involved in a variety of biological processes, including apoptosis. However, the effects and mechanisms of miR-214 on influenza A virus mediated apoptosis have not been well understood. In this study, we found that several apoptosis-associated miRNAs were stimulated in influenza A virus-infected A549 cells by microRNA PCR array analysis and validated using qPCR in serum samples from patients with H1N1 infection. Because miR-214 was significantly upregulated among them, we investigated its function. We identified anti-apoptotic factors Livin as a direct target of miR-214 by bioinformatics analysis and confirmed by using luciferase activity assay and Western blot. Functional overexpression of miR-214 promoted A549 cells apoptosis induced by influenza A virus, while knockdown of miR-214 inhibited A549 cells apoptosis. Moreover, we demonstrated that silencing of Livin rescued the inhibition of cell apoptosis induced by miR-214 inhibitor in influenza A virus-infected A549 cells, whereas Livin overexpression could reverse the promotion of cell apoptosis induced by miR-214 mimic. Taken together, our findings indicate that miR-214 is involved in H1N1 influenza virus-mediated apoptosis through repression of anti-apoptotic factor Livin.
Specific expression of human c-fgr in natural immunity effector cells

The c-fgr gene product was shown by immune complex protein kinase assay with specific antibodies to be a 58-kilodalton protein (p58c-fgr) with tyrosine-specific autophosphorylating activity. On examination of peripheral blood cells by immunoblotting with anti-c-fgr antibodies, p58c-fgr was found only in the fractions of monocytes, granulocytes, and natural killer cells. On the other hand, histochemical studies of hybridization demonstrated accumulation of c-fgr transcripts on most monocytes and large lymphocytes. In hematopoietic cell lines, p58c-fgr was detected in differentiated granulocytic cells as well as in differentiated monocytic cells of HL-60-cell origin. These data suggest a specific role for p58c-fgr in natural immunity effector cells.
Sustainable Consumerism via Context-Aware Shopping

We are living in a world of vast information. The means of the Internet allow access to diverse sources of information, with social media and Internet of Things technologies significantly expanding the informational ecosystem. With the use of social media, it is easy for ‘like-minded' people to group up and initiate movements. One way to articulate such movements is via political consumerism. Users group together and boycott or buycott (boost purchases) for certain products with a concrete collective goal in mind. If, however, the collective goal is vague and abstract, as in the case of sustainability, this bottom-up strategy may lose its popularity and attraction. In this paper, we introduce a new concept of how individual consumers can follow their own understanding of sustainability, while at the same time benefiting from collective and participatory actions. We discuss how the means of ICT can be used to develop political consumerism further to transform individual policies into collective statements.
A general isolation network for N-way power combiners/dividers

A method that can be used in general to improve the isolation of power combiners and dividers is presented in this paper. The presented method can in theory be used with any type of power combiner or divider, and allows the use of terminations for isolation loads in high power applications. Unlike using isolators, this method does not remove the characteristic of reciprocity from the combiner or divider. The method is explained briefly, followed by a design example based on a 4-way microstrip combiner. The full-wave simulation results and measurements demonstrate the effectiveness of the method by exhibiting significant improvements in both input port isolation and reflection coefficient.
Supplementary Effect of Creatine on Cardiovascular Adaptation and Endurance Performance in Athletes

Creatine has beneficial effect on strength training athletes, but it is not clear whether it has any effect on endurance sport. Present study has been designed to investigate the effect of creatine supplementation on cardiovascular adaptation to sub maximal exercise and endurance performance. A total of 60 male athletes (age range 16-19 years) were selected and randomly divided into experimental group (EG, n = 30) and control group (CG, n = 30) and supplemented with 5 g per day of creatine monohydrate (CrM) and moltodextrine, respectively for 4 weeks. A treadmill test was performed to determine the heart rate responses to sub maximal exercise and maximal endurance performance. Blood lactate was measured at the end of exercise. Body mass, body fat and fat free mass were also measured. Repeated measure ANOA followed by t-test was applied to analyze the data. Significant decreases in heart rates were noted in the experimental group during sub maximal exercise when compared to the control group. Moreover, the maximal endurance time was increase in the experimental group after supplementation of CrM when compared to control group. However, no significant change has been observed in resting heart, maximal heart rate, recovery heart rate, body mass, body fat, fat free mass and blood lactate level.
Extraction automatique d'unités lexicales complexes : Un enjeu fondamental pour la recherche documentaire

Reconnaitre les unites lexicales complexes des collections de textes toujours croissantes constitue un enjeu fondamental dans le cadre de la recherche documentaire. En effet, les unites polylexicales sont souvent moins ambigues et plus motivees que les mots simples et permettent ainsi une meilleure approximation des themes abordes. L'identification de ces suites de mots permet soit d'indexer les textes avec une plus grande precision soit de guider l'utilisateur dans sa quete d'information. Dans cet article, nous presentons un analyseur statistique qui extrait a partir d'un texte brut un ensemble d'unites lexicales complexes contigues et non-contigues sans recourir aux methodes d'amorcage ni a la definition de valeurs seuil globales.
Prevalence of joint contractures and muscle weakness in people with multiple sclerosis

Abstract Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of joint contracture (limited passive range of joint motion) and muscle weakness in a population with multiple sclerosis (MS). A secondary aim was to establish normative data of functional tests of mobility and balance of people with MS who are still ambulant. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: People with MS living in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. Participants: 330 people with MS living in metropolitan Sydney, Australia were randomly sampled on 23 July 2009 from the MS Australia register and invited to participate. Main outcome measures: Passive range of motion of large joints of the limbs and muscle strength. Tests of walking and balance were also conducted. Results: 156 people (109 females, 47 males; mean age 54.2 years; mean time since diagnosis 14.9 years) agreed to participate and were assessed. Fifty-six per cent (56%) of participants had contracture in at least one major joint of upper or lower limb. The most common site of contracture was the ankle (43.9%). Seventy per cent (70%) of participants had muscle weakness in one or more muscle groups. As muscle weakness, joint contractures were present at early stage of MS and the prevalence was associated with the progression of the disease. Conclusions: These data show that in addition to muscle weakness joint contractures are highly prevalent among people with MS, especially in the ankle joint. This implicates that prevention of contracture is crucial in providing rehabilitation to people with MS. Implications for Rehabilitation Joint contractures are highly prevalent of people with MS, especially in the lower limb, even at an early stage. While many interventions such as stretching and serial casting have been implemented to reduce contractures, there is not yet strong evidence for their effectiveness. Further research is required.
Effects of dietary fructooligosaccharide on selected bacterial populations in feces of dogs.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate fecal concentrations of selected genera of colonic bacteria in healthy dogs, and to investigate effects of dietary fructooligosaccharides (FOS) on those bacterial populations. ANIMALS 6 healthy adult Beagles. PROCEDURE Dogs were randomly assigned to 2 groups of 3 and fed an unsupplemented diet for 370 days. After 88 days, fecal samples were collected. Another fecal sample was collected from each dog 282 days later. Group A then received a diet supplemented with FOS, and group B continued to receive the unsupplemented diet. Twenty-eight to 29 days later, fecal samples were collected. Diets were switched between groups, and fecal samples were collected 31 and 87 days later. Concentrations of Bifidobacterium spp, Lactobacillus spp, Clostridium spp, Bacteroides spp, and Escherichia coli in freshly collected feces were determined. Effects of diet and time on bacterial concentrations were compared between groups. RESULTS Bifidobacterium spp and Lactobacillus spp were inconsistently isolated from feces of dogs fed either diet. Sequence of diet significantly affected number of Bacteroides spp subsequently isolated from feces, but diet had no effect on numbers of Clostridium spp or E coli. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Some genera of bacteria (eg, Bifidobacterium) believed to be common components of colonic microflora may be only sporadically isolated from feces of healthy dogs. This deviation from expected fecal flora may have implications for the effectiveness of supplementing diets with prebiotics.
IgY antiporcine endothelial cell antibodies effectively block human antiporcine xenoantibody binding

Avian IgY antibodies are structurally different from mammalian IgGs and do not fix mammalian complement components or bind human Fc receptors. As these antibody‐mediated interactions are believed to play significant roles in both hyperacute rejection (HAR) and acute vascular xenograft rejection (AVXR), IgY antibodies to xenoantigen target epitopes may inhibit these rejection processes. In this report, we show that chicken IgY antibodies to α‐Gal antigen epitopes and to other porcine aortic endothelial cell (PAEC) antigens block human xenoreactive natural antibody binding to both porcine and rat cardiac tissues and porcine kidney tissues. Chicken IgY antibodies blocked complement‐mediated lysis of PAECs by human serum, and inhibited antibody‐dependent cell‐mediated lysis of PAECs by heat‐inactivated human serum plus peripheral blood leukocytes. Binding of IgY to porcine endothelial cells did not affect cell morphology nor expression of E‐selectin. These results suggest that avian IgYs could be of potential use in inhibiting pig‐to‐human xenograft rejection.
Erythropoiesis-stimulating protein therapy and the decline of renal function: a retrospective analysis of patients with chronic kidney disease

ABSTRACT Background/Aims: Previous studies have hinted at possible associations between anemia and progression of renal disease. The study objective was to determine whether treatment with erythropoiesis-stimulating proteins (ESPs) can curb the rate of decline in renal function in pre-dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: Observational, before/after analysis using electronic medical records from the Veterans Administration (VA). Included patients had at least two measurements of serum creatinine levels before and after ESP treatment initiation. The Cockcroft–Gault formula was used to derive estimates of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Rate of renal function decline prior to and following initiation of therapy were compared. Results: One hundred and twenty two patients with renal impairment levels of Stage 3 (moderate) or Stage 4 (severe) at ESP treatment initiation were identified. Over 80% of patients initiated therapy with either Grade 1 or Grade 2 anemia. The rate of renal function decline was calculated as the slope of the least-squares linear regression line of the inverse serum creatinine over time during the pre-treatment initiation and post-treatment initiation time periods. Overall, patients experienced a slowing in the rate of renal function decline after treatment was initiated (mean pre-treatment initiation rate of –0.094 dL/mg/yr versus mean post-treatment initiation rate of –0.057 dL/mg/yr). Conclusion: Renal function declined at a slower rate following ESP initiation. Results are consistent with prior studies indicating delayed dialysis initiation in patients treated with ESPs. Analyses were limited by the observational study design and lack of information regarding some potential confounders. Longer-term, prospective trials are needed to determine whether ESPs slow progression of renal disease and the potential magnitude of such an effect.