Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generation of chimeric piglets by injection of embryonic germ cells from inbred Wuzhishan miniature pigs into blastocysts

Human embryonic stem/germ (ES/EG) cell research poses ethical dilemma, it is therefore critical to establish alternative sources of cells for relevant studies. Considering the similarities between the inbred miniature Wuzhishan pigs (WZSP) and humans, ES/EG from these pigs can serve as potential substitutes in human research. In this study, we reported our results that successfully established stable EG cell lines from the WZSP.
Similar GABAergic inputs in dentate granule cells born during embryonic and adult neurogenesis

Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus follows a unique temporal pattern that begins during embryonic development, peaks during the early postnatal stages and persists through adult life. We have recently shown that dentate granule cells born in early postnatal and adult mice acquire a remarkably similar afferent connectivity and firing behavior, suggesting that they constitute a homogeneous functional population [ Laplagne et al. (2006)PLoS Biol., 4, e409]. Here we extend our previous study by comparing mature neurons born in the embryonic and adult hippocampus, with a focus on intrinsic membrane properties and γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic synaptic inputs. For this purpose, dividing neuroblasts of the ventricular wall were retrovirally labeled with green fluorescent protein at embryonic day 15 (E15), and progenitor cells of the subgranular zone were labeled with red fluorescent protein in the same mice at postnatal day 42 (P42, adulthood). Electrophysiological properties of mature neurons born at either stage were then compared in the same brain slices. Evoked and spontaneous GABAergic postsynaptic responses of perisomatic and dendritic origin displayed similar characteristics in both neuronal populations. Miniature GABAergic inputs also showed similar functional properties and pharmacological profile. A comparative analysis of the present data with our previous observations rendered no significant differences among GABAergic inputs recorded from neurons born in the embryonic, early postnatal and adult mice. Yet, embryo‐born neurons showed a reduced membrane excitability, suggesting a lower engagement in network activity. Our results demonstrate that granule cells of different age, location and degree of excitability receive GABAergic inputs of equivalent functional characteristics.
Evidence-Based Protocol for Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Background: Diabetic foot ulcers are the single biggest risk factor for nontraumatic foot amputations in persons with diabetes. Foot ulcers occur in 12 to 25 percent of persons with diabetes and precede 84 percent of all nontraumatic amputations in this growing population. Because of the high incidence of foot ulcers, amputations remain a source of morbidity and mortality in persons with diabetes. Strict adherence to evidence-based protocols as described herein will prevent the majority of these amputations. Methods: The collective experience of treating patients with neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers in four major diabetic foot programs in the United States and Europe was analyzed. Results: The following protocol was developed for patients with diabetic foot ulcers: (1) establishment of good communication among the patient, the wound healing team, and the primary medical doctor; (2) comprehensive, protocol-driven care of the entire patient, including hemoglobin A1c, microalbuminuria, and cholesterol as well as early treatment of retinopathy, nephropathy, and cardiac disease; (3) weekly objective measurement of the wound with digital photography, planimetry, and documentation of the wound-healing process using the Wound Electronic Medical Record, if available; (4) objective evaluation of blood flow in the lower extremities (e.g., noninvasive flow studies); (5) débridement of hyperkeratotic, infected, and nonviable tissue; (6) use of systemic antibiotics for deep infection, drainage, and cellulitis; (7) off-loading; (8) maintenance of a moist wound bed; (9) use of growth factor and/or cellular therapy if the wound is not healing after 3 weeks with this protocol; and (10) consideration of the use of vacuum-assisted therapy in complex wounds. Conclusions: In diabetic foot ulcers, availability of the above modalities, in combination with early recognition and comprehensive treatment, ensures rapid healing, minimizes morbidity and mortality rates, and eliminates toe and limb amputations in the absence of ischemia and osteomyelitis.
QoS guarantee over hybrid SDN/non-SDN networks

Ensuring dynamic behavior, accountability, and flexible management is required by any traffic engineering solution. Software Defined Networking (SDN), presenting a central management control, is a promising solution in this context. However, the migration to SDN is not straightforward. SDN and non-SDN based networks will coexist for a long period of time. This hybrid mode brings together the distributed networking scheme benefits in terms of robustness and scalability, and the SDN management power gained by the control centralization. At the same time, it avoids the centralization single point of failure and the distributed scheme's management complexity. In this paper, we review research work related to hybrid networks and we present a solution to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS) for time-critical applications over a hybrid network.
Association of macrophage migration inhibitory factor and mannose-binding lectin-2 gene polymorphisms in acute rheumatic fever

Abstract Background Macrophage migration inhibitory factor and mannose-binding lectin-2 play important roles in the pathogenesis of several acute and chronic inflammatory/autoimmune disorders. The aim of the study was to investigate any possible association between migration inhibitory factor and mannose-binding lectin-2 gene polymorphisms and acute rheumatic fever in children. Material and methods A total of 38 unrelated children with acute rheumatic fever and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were analysed for codon 54 A/B polymorphism in mannose-binding lectin-2 gene and −173 G/C polymorphism in migration inhibitory factor gene by using the polymerase chain reaction method. Results Frequency of BB genotype of mannose-binding lectin-2 gene was higher in the patient group. Interestingly, children with acute rheumatic fever with AA genotype tended to have chorea compared with children with BB genotype. There was a statistically significant increase in frequency of the migration inhibitory factor −173 CC genotype in patients compared with the control subjects. Conclusion The present study is the first to investigate the mannose-binding lectin-2gene polymorphism in children with acute rheumatic fever. BB genotype of mannose-binding lectin-2 (codon 54) and CC genotype of migration inhibitory factor (−173) may have a role in the immunoinflammatory process of acute rheumatic fever.
PCR Methods of Genotyping

Two protocols discuss labeling PCR products with radioactive labels. The PCR products are then analyzed on a denaturing polyacrylamide gel and visualized by direct autoradiography. The resulting band pattern is used to define the SSLP genotype of the individual. Another method of genotyping uses a simple silver staining technique to detect PCR‐amplified SSLPs electrophoresed in denaturing polyacrylamide gels. In a fourth protocol, multiple unlabeled PCR products from one individual are pooled, separated on a denaturing polyacrylamide gel, transferred to a nylon membrane, and sequentially hybridized to nonradioactive end‐labeled probes derived from the primers used to amplify each SSLP marker. The probes are detected on film using chemiluminescence. Support protocols describe the preparation of an M13 sequence ladder size standard and digoxigenin labeling of the probe, both of which are required for the chemiluminescent method.
Solving exercise generation problems by diversity oriented meta-heuristics

Evolutionary algorithms used for multi-objective optimization mostly prioritize fitness over diversity to achieve a single optimum fast, or a region in the Pareto-front. In this paper, we argue on that diversity should be a primary objective as well, and we propose a novel approach called EGAL to solve a well-known problem: to generate very different exercises to test students' knowledge in a specific range of topics. We show that focusing on diversity and fitness at the same time result in a better quality of solutions in the resulting population.
A Dimensional Approach to Assessing Psychiatric Risk in Adults Born Very Preterm

Background Individuals who were born very preterm have higher rates of psychiatric diagnoses compared to term-born controls; however, it remains unclear whether they also display increased sub-clinical psychiatric symptomatology. Hence our objective is to utilise a dimensional approach to assess psychiatric symptomatology in adults who were born very preterm. Methods 152 adults who were born very preterm (before 33 weeks’ gestation; gestational range 24–32 weeks) and 96 term-born controls. We examined participants’ clinical profile using the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS), a measure of sub-clinical symptomatology that yields seven subscales including general psychopathology, positive, negative, cognitive, behavioural, motor and emotional symptoms, in addition to a total psychopathology score. Intellectual abilities were examined using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. Results Between-group differences on the CAARMS showed elevated symptomatology in very preterm participants compared to controls in positive, negative, cognitive and behavioural symptoms. Total psychopathology scores were significantly correlated with IQ in the very preterm group only. In order to examine the characteristics of participants’ clinical profile a principal component analysis was conducted. This revealed two components, one reflecting a non-specific psychopathology dimension, and the other indicating a variance in symptomatology along a positive-to-negative symptom axis. K-means (k=4) were used to further separate the study sample into clusters. Very preterm adults were more likely to belong to the high non-specific psychopathology cluster compared to controls. Conclusion and Relevance Very preterm individuals demonstrated elevated psychopathology compared to full-term controls. Psychiatric risk was characterised by a non-specific clinical profile and was associated with lower IQ.
Joint Load Balancing and Interference Management for Small-Cell Heterogeneous Networks With Limited Backhaul Capacity

In this paper, new strategies are devised for joint load balancing and interference management in the downlink of a heterogeneous network, where small cells are densely deployed within the coverage area of a traditional macrocell. Unlike existing work, the limited backhaul capacity at each base station (BS) is taken into account. Here, users (UEs) cannot be offloaded to any arbitrary BS, but only to ones with sufficient backhaul capacity remaining. Jointly designed with traffic offload, transmit power allocation mitigates the intercell interference to further support the quality of service of each UE. The objective here is either: 1) to maximize the network sum rate subject to minimum throughput requirements at individual UEs, or 2) to maximize the minimum UE throughput. Both formulated problems belong to the difficult class of mixed-integer nonconvex optimization problems. The inherently binary BS-UE association variables are strongly coupled with the transmit power variables, making the problems even more challenging to solve. New iterative algorithms are developed based on an exact penalty method combined with successive convex programming, where the binary BS-UE association problem and the nonconvex power allocation problem are dealt with one at a time. At each iteration of the proposed algorithms, only two simple convex problems need to be solved at the same time scale. It is proven that the algorithms improve the objective functions at each iteration and converge eventually. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms in both traffic offloading and interference mitigation.
Accurate and reliable real-time indoor positioning on commercial smartphones

This paper outlines the software navigation engine that was developed by SPIRIT Navigation for indoor positioning on commercial smartphones. A distinctive feature of our approach is concurrent use of multiple technologies for indoor positioning. Measurements from such smartphone sensors as IMU (3D accelerometer, gyroscope), a magnetic field sensor (magnetometer), WiFi and BLE modules, together with the floor premises plan are used for hybrid indoor positioning in the navigation engine. Indoor navigation software uses such technologies as PDR, Wi-Fi fingerprinting, geomagnetic fingerprinting, and map matching. Being blended in the particle filter, dissimilar measurements allow solving a set of principal tasks. First, the navigation engine can automatically start in any place of a building wherever user switches on his or her smartphone. There is no need to enter initial position manually or to start outdoors where initial position can be determined by GPS/GNSS receiver. Then, operating in the tracking mode, the navigation engine provides real-time indoor navigation for displaying current user position either on the floor plan or on Google Indoor Map if the latter is available for the building. At last, the navigation engine can recover tracking from failures that are the known problem of the particle filter occurring when all particles are accidentally discarded. The automatic recovery of tracking in this case allows continuing tracking and increasing availability of indoor navigation. The navigation engine exits in a form of SDK that serves for building mobile applications both for Android and iOS. Positioning results given for different indoor environments in a shopping mall and in a big exhibition hall show fast TTFF indoors and accurate and reliable real-time indoor positioning with accuracy of about 1-2 m.
Systematic Review of Physical Activity Intervention Studies After Cardiac Rehabilitation

Coronary heart disease significantly impacts the morbidity, mortality, and health care economy of our population. Enrollment into cardiac rehabilitation (CR) after cardiac events improves patient outcomes; however, physical activity (PA) behavior decreases significantly in the years following completion of CR. This article reviews the literature regarding interventions to maintain or increase PA after CR. Fourteen interventions studies from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia used variations of cognitive and/or behavioral strategies. Women and older adults were underrepresented in the reviewed studies. Measurement of PA varied between studies and included self-report, objective pedometer or accelerometer data, or questionnaire format. Common cognitive interventions included self-efficacy enhancement measures, barrier management, and problem solving. Behavioral interventions included self-monitoring, prompting, goal setting, and feedback. Cognitive intervention studies reported inconsistent results, whereas behavioral studies and studies that used combinations of interventions reported more consistent, positive findings. More intervention studies, using rigorous designs and reliable measures of PA on larger, more diverse populations, are needed to improve the understanding of PA-related behavior change after completion of CR.
Translational Research Challenges

Translation of scientific discoveries into meaningful human applications, particularly novel therapies of human diseases, requires development of suitable animal models. Experimental approaches to test new drugs in preclinical phases often necessitated animal models that not only replicate human disease in etiopathogenesis and pathobiology but also biomarkers development and toxicity prediction. Whereas the transgenic and knockout techniques have revolutionized manipulation of rodents and other species to get greater insights into human disease pathogenesis, we are far from generating ideal animal models of most human disease states. The challenges in using the currently available animal models for translational research, particularly for developing potentially new drugs for human disease, coupled with the difficulties in toxicity prediction have led some researchers to develop a scoring system for translatability. These aspects and the challenges in selecting an animal model among those that are available to study human disease pathobiology and drug development are the topics covered in this detailed review.
Technology Drivers and Challenges For Next Generation Distributed Spacecraft Systems

Distributed spacecraft systems is envisioned to provide the technology platform to extend, improve and enable mission concepts such as wide aperture radars for high-precision space-borne surveillance, 3D mapping of Earth's magnetic field and even deep-space interferometry to better understand the origins of the universe. However, a mission with a fully autonomous spacecraft fleet flying in close-proximity or in a tightly kept configuration has yet to be realized. In this work, we review the major technology drivers and challenges for such next generation systems across a selective set of on-going, cancelled or proposed space missions. Our analyses identify five main classes of technology drivers from navigation and control perspective. These drivers are enumerated for a typical interferometric SAR example. The example illustrates steep technological challenges such as the need for sub-millimeter relative navigation solution accuracy for even decimeter level vertical image resolution. We conclude with an initial effort at outlining a cost effective and robust roadmap for flight maturation of the key technologies to deem such missions and goals achievable.
Improving the Classification of Cirrhotic Liver by using Texture Features

We have been developing a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for distinguishing the cirrhosis in MR images by shape and texture analysis. Two shape features are calculated from a segmented liver region, and seven texture features are quantified by using grey level difference method (GLDM) within the small region-of-interests (ROIs). The degree of cirrhosis is derived from integrating the shape and texture features of the liver into a three-layer feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN). A liver is regarded as cirrhosis if the percentage of the ROIs with a degree over 0.5 is greater than 50%. The initial experimental result showed that the ANN can learn all of the patterns in the training data sets. In testing of the whole liver regions, 82% cirrhosis and 100% normal cases were correctly differentiated from 18 test cases, that indicates our proposed method is effective to the cirrhosis prediction on MRI
Sterol‐independent regulation of 3‐hydroxy‐3‐methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase in tumor cells

Elevated 3‐hydroxy‐3‐methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG‐CoA) reductase expression supports synthesis of prenyl pyrophosphate intermediates required for tumor growth. In this study, the copy number of HMG‐CoA reductase mRNA was determined in solid tumor and leukemic cell lines using competitive reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction. Reductase mRNA was increased about eight‐fold in Caco2 human colon adenocarcinoma cells compared with that in CCD18 normal colon cells. We also found a 50‐fold enhancement of reductase mRNA in stimulated human lymphocytes compared with unstimulated cells. In CEM human leukemia cells, reductase mRNA was increased 8.6 times compared with that in stimulated lymphocytes. Greater low density lipoprotein receptor mRNA was also observed in tumor cells compared with normal counterparts. We hypothesized that elevated reductase mRNA was due to attenuation of sterol‐mediated control of tumor reductase promoter activity. We first compared the methylation status of CpG dinucleotides in the promoters of reductase and p16 tumor suppressor genes from solid tumor, leukemic, and normal cells. As reported for other tumor cells the p16 promoter region was hypermethylated in Caco2 and CEM cells but was hypomethylated in corresponding normal cells. However, reductase promoter sequences in both normal and tumor cells were hypomethylated, demonstrating that methylation is not involved in sterol‐independent reductase regulation. We addressed altered transcription factor binding to the tumor cell reductase promoter by transiently transfecting Caco2 and CCD18 with a plasmid vector containing a hamster HMG‐CoA reductase promoter fused to the luciferase gene. We found that increased reductase mRNA was partially due to an approximately three‐fold higher reductase promoter activity in Caco2 than in CCD18, measured by luciferase reporter assays. Thus, differential binding of transcription factor or factors on the tumor cell reductase promoter attenuates normal sterol‐mediated regulation of reductase activity. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effectiveness of ultrasonic cleaning of dental instruments.

PURPOSE To quantitate blood contamination present on dental instruments used for routine prophylaxis and to assess the effectiveness of ultrasonic decontamination in reducing blood and virus contamination on dental instruments. MATERIALS AND METHODS Human blood contamination present on dental instruments obtained after routine prophylaxis was analyzed using IgG as a blood marker. RESULTS The estimated contaminating blood volume was found to normally range between 1.4 x 10(-6) to 2.0 x 10(-4) ml. Attempts to saturate the instruments with blood contamination suggested that the maximum possible retained blood volume was about 10-fold higher than the normal levels of contamination. Hand scrubbing of contaminated instruments was both relatively ineffective and inconsistent in removing blood contamination. Decontamination in an ultrasonic cleaner was more effective than hand washing, resulting in greater than a 100-fold reduction of blood contamination. Using a mouse model virus (lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus, LDV), high levels of virus contamination of dental instruments and dental handpieces were achieved, as determined by assay of residual virus. Ultrasonic treatment reduced the level of virus contamination present on dental instruments by one million-fold, and virus contamination present in dental handpieces was reduced by one thousand-fold. These results provide quantitative estimations of the infection threat and its reduction by ultrasonication, posed by human-exposed dental instruments.
Performance comparison between hypervisor- and container-based virtualizations for cloud users

To outsourcing their services to public clouds, cloud users should understand the performance of various virtualization technologies so that they can choose suitable cloud on which to deploy their services, as various cloud providers use different virtualization technologies. In this paper, we compare the performance between a representative hypervisor-based virtualization, Xen, and a very popular container-based virtualization, Docker. We use extensive micro-benchmarks to compare virtualization overheads of various components on a host system between these two virtualization technologies, and two macro-benchmarks, HPL, a case of high performance computing applications, and YCSB, a case of online transaction processing applications, to study on virtualization impact on real-world applications. We found that although the virtualization overheads of Xen are much higher than that of Docker on latencies of host systems and both of virtualization solutions have few impacts on bandwidths overall, Xen has comparable, more, and less overheads than Docker for HPL, YCSB in term of transaction latency under certain loads, and YCSB in term of transaction throughput, respectively.