Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preparation, Optimization, and In Vivo Evaluation of Nanoparticle-Based Formulation for Pulmonary Delivery of Anticancer Drug

Background and Oobjectives: Lung cancer, a pressing issue in present-day society due to its high prevalence and mortality rate, can be managed effectively by long-term delivery of anticancer agents encapsulated in nanoparticles in the form of inhalable dry powder. This approach is expected to be of strategic importance in the management of lung cancer and is a developing area in current research. In the present investigation, we report on the formulation and characterization of docetaxel inhalable nanoparticles as a viable alternative for effective treatment of non-small cell lung cancer as a long-term delivery choice. Materials and Methods: Poloxamer (PLX-188) coated poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles containing docetaxel (DTX-NPs) were prepared by simple oil in water (o/w) single emulsification-solvent evaporation process. The nanoparticles were collected as pellet by centrifugation, dispersed in mannitol solution, and lyophilized to get dry powder. Results: Optimized DTX-NPs were smooth and spherical in morphology, had particle size around 200 nm, zeta potential around −36 mV, and entrapment efficiency of around 60%. The in vitro anticancer assay was assessed and it was observed that nanoparticle-based formulation exhibited enhanced cytotoxicity when compared to the free form of the drug post 48 h. On examining for in vitro drug release, slow but continuous release was seen until 96 h following Higuchi release kinetics. DTX-NPs were able to maintain their desired characteristics when studied at accelerated conditions of stability. Conclusions: In-vivo study indicated that the optimized nanoparticles were well retained in lungs and that the drug level could be maintained for a longer duration if given in the form of DTX-NPs by the pulmonary route. Thus, the non-invasive nature and target specificity of DTX-NPs paves the way for its future use as a pulmonary delivery for treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Enhanced Hepatogenic Differentiation of Human Wharton’s Jelly–Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Using Three-Step Protocol

Currently, human Wharton’s jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hWJ-MSCs) are an attractive source of stem cells for cell-based therapy, owing to their ability to undergo self-renewal and differentiate into all mesodermal, some neuroectodermal, and endodermal progenies, including hepatocytes. Herein, this study aimed to investigate the effects of sodium butyrate (NaBu), an epigenetic regulator that directly inhibits histone deacetylase, on hepatic endodermal lineage differentiation of hWJ-MSCs. NaBu, at 1 mM, optimally promoted endodermal differentiation of hWJ-MSCs, along with epidermal growth factor (EGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) supplementation. CXCR4, HNF3β, SOX17 (endodermal), and GATA6 (mesendodermal) mRNAs were also up-regulated (p < 0.001). Immunocytochemistry and a Western blot analysis of SOX17 and HNF3β confirmed that the 1 mM NaBu along with EGF and bFGF supplementation condition was appropriately pre-treated with hWJ-MSCs before hepatogenic differentiation. Furthermore, the hepatic differentiation medium with NaBu pre-treatment up-regulated hepatoblast (AFP and HNF3β) and hepatic (CK18 and ALB) markers, and increased the proportion of mature hepatocyte functions, including G6P, C/EBPα, and CYP2B6 mRNAs, glycogen storage and urea secretion. The hepatic differentiation medium with NaBu in the pre-treatment step can induce hWJ-MSC differentiation toward endodermal, hepatoblastic, and hepatic lineages. Therefore, the hepatic differentiation medium with NaBu pre-treatment for differentiating hWJ-MSCs could represent an alternative protocol for cell-based therapy and drug screening in clinical applications.
Time course of sensorimotor cortex reorganization during upper extremity task accompanying motor recovery early after stroke: An fNIRS study.

BACKGROUND The acute phase of stroke is accompanied by functional changes and interplay of both hemispheres. However, our understanding of how the time course of upper limb functional motor recovery is related to the progression of brain reorganization in the sensorimotor areas remains limited. This study aimed to assess the time course of hemodynamic patterns of cortical sensorimotor areas using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and motor recovery within three months after a stroke. METHOD Eight right-handed first ischemic/hemorrhagic stroke patients (60±8 years, 3 women) with mild to severe hemiparesis were examined with repetitive fNIRS measurements and motor recovery tests (Fugl-Meyer score) during two months. Hemodynamic changes over the ipsilesional and contralesional sensorimotor areas were collected from a multi-channel fNIRS system during intermittent isometric muscle contractions at self-selected submaximal force levels for each arm. Lateralization index was computed to evaluate the changes in the interhemispheric balance between the cortical sensorimotor areas. RESULTS Lateralization index values during non-paretic arm movements showed no significant changes over time in patients and were comparable to those observed in eight healthy controls. Paretic-arm movements were associated early with a bilateral cortical activity before shifting to ipsilesional patterns (p < 0.01). Progressive lateralization observed over the two months (p < 0.05) evolved concomitantly with an increase in the Fugl-Meyer score (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Cortical reorganization monitoring using fNIRS during the first weeks after stroke may be applied for assessing progressive brain plasticity in addition to clinical measures of performance.
Bayesian Low-Tubal-Rank Robust Tensor Factorization with Multi-Rank Determination

Robust tensor factorization is a fundamental problem in machine learning and computer vision, which aims at decomposing tensors into low-rank and sparse components. However, existing methods either suffer from limited modeling power in preserving low-rank structures, or have difficulties in determining the target tensor rank and the trade-off between the low-rank and sparse components. To address these problems, we propose a fully Bayesian treatment of robust tensor factorization along with a generalized sparsity-inducing prior. By adapting the recently proposed low-tubal-rank model in a generative manner, our method is effective in preserving low-rank structures. Moreover, benefiting from the proposed prior and the Bayesian framework, the proposed method can automatically determine the tensor rank while inferring the trade-off between the low-rank and sparse components. For model estimation, we develop a variational inference algorithm, and further improve its efficiency by reformulating the variational updates in the frequency domain. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in multi-rank determination as well as its superiority in image denoising and background modeling over state-of-the-art approaches.
Virtual audio localization with simulated early reflections and generalized head-related transfer functions

In a natural sonic environment a listener is accustomed to hearing reflections and reverberation. It is conceived that early reflections could reduce front-back confusion in synthetic 3-D audio. This thesis describes experiments which seek to determine whether or not simulated reflections can reduce front-back confusions for audio presented with non-individualized head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) via headphones. To measure the contribution of the reflections, 13 human subjects participated in localization experiments which compared their localization ability with anechoic HRTF processing versus HRTF processing with a single early-reflection. The results were highly subject dependent; some showed improvement while others seemed to be inhibited by the reflections. Statistical analysis of the overall results concluded that a single reflection does not provide a significant difference in localization ability. Although this data rejects the hypothesis of this investigation, some suspicion regarding the contribution of lateral reflections in an auditory environment remains.
Global analysis of polysome-associated mRNA in vesicular stomatitis virus infected cells

Infection of mammalian cells with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) results in the inhibition of cellular translation while viral translation proceeds efficiently. VSV RNA synthesis occurs entirely within the cytoplasm, where during transcription the viral polymerase produces 5 mRNAs that are structurally indistinct to cellular mRNAs with respect to their 5′ cap-structure and 3′-polyadenylate tail. Using the global approach of massively parallel sequencing of total cytoplasmic, monosome- and polysome-associated mRNA, we interrogate the impact of VSV infection of HeLa cells on translation. Analysis of sequence reads in the different fractions shows >60% of total cytoplasmic and polysome-associated reads map to the 5 viral genes by 6 hours post-infection, a time point at which robust host cell translational shut-off is observed. Consistent with an overwhelming abundance of viral mRNA in the polysome fraction, the reads mapping to cellular genes were reduced. The cellular mRNAs that remain most polysome-associated following infection had longer half-lives, were typically larger, and were more AU rich, features that are shared with the viral mRNAs. Several of those mRNAs encode proteins known to positively affect viral replication, and using chemical inhibition and siRNA depletion we confirm that the host chaperone heat shock protein 90 (hsp90) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3A (eIF3A)—encoded by 2 such mRNAs—support viral replication. Correspondingly, regulated in development and DNA damage 1 (Redd1) encoded by a host mRNA with reduced polysome association inhibits viral infection. These data underscore the importance of viral mRNA abundance in the shut-off of host translation in VSV infected cells and link the differential translatability of some cellular mRNAs with pro- or antiviral function.
Ovarian cancer-derived exosomes promote tumor metastasis in vivo an effect modulated by the invasiveness capacity of their originating cells.

Exosomes are small nanovesicles that carry bioactive molecules which can be delivered to neighbouring cells to modify their biological functions. Interestingly, exosomes from ovarian cancer (OVCA) cells can alter the cell migration and proliferation of cells within the tumour microenvironment, an effect modulated by the invasiveness capacity of their originating cells. Using a OVCA cell line xenograph mouse model, we showed that exosomes derived from a high invasiveness capacity cell line (exo-SKOV-3) promoted metastasis in vivo compared to exosomes from a low invasiveness capacity cell line (exo-OVCAR-3). Analysis from an in-vivo imaging system (IVIS) revealed that exo-SKOV-3 formed metastatic niches, whereas exo-OVCAR-3 formed colonies of clustered cells close to the site of injection. Interestingly, kinetic parameters showed that the half-maximal stimulatory time (ST50) of tumour growth with exo-OVCAR-3 (4.0 ± 0.31 weeks) was significantly lower compared with the ST50 in mice injected with exo-SKOV-3 (4.5 ± 0.32 weeks). However, the number of metastic nodes in mice injected with exo-SKOV-3 was higher compared to exo-OVCAR-3. Using a quantitative mass spectrometry (SWATH MS/MS) followed by bioinformatic analysis using the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA), we identified a total of 771 proteins. Furthermore, 40 of these proteins were differentially expressed in tumour tissues from mice injected with exo-SKOV-3 compared with exo-OVCAR-3, and associated with Wnt canonical pathway (β-catenin). Finally, we identified a set of proteins which had elevated expression in the circulating exosomes in association with tumour metastasis. These observations suggest that exosomal signalling plays an important role in ovarian cancer metastasis.
Zig-Zag Network for Semantic Segmentation of RGB-D Images

Semantic segmentation of images requires an understanding of appearances of objects and their spatial relationships in scenes. The fully convolutional network (FCN) has been successfully applied to recognize objects’ appearances, which are represented with RGB channels. Images augmented with depth channels provide more understanding of the geometric information of the scene in an image. In this paper, we present a multiple-branch neural network to utilize depth information to assist in the semantic segmentation of images. Our approach splits the image into layers according to the “scene-scale”. We introduce the context-aware receptive field (CARF), which provides better control of the relevant context information of learned features. Each branch of the network is equipped with CARF to adaptively aggregate the context information of image regions, leading to a more focused domain that is easier to learn. Furthermore, we propose a new zig-zag architecture to exchange information between the feature maps at different levels, augmented by the CARFs of the backbone network and decoder network. With the flexible information propagation allowed by our zig-zag network, we enrich the context information of feature maps for the segmentation. We show that the zig-zag network achieves state-of-the-art performances on several public datasets.
Metal Sulphides and Their Carbon Supported Composites as Platinum-Free Counter Electrodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: A Review

Energy sufficiency is a critical requirement for the economic prosperity of modern countries. Efficient harnessing of solar energy using technologies such as the dye-sensitized solar cell could solve the energy problem which persistently plagues developing countries. Despite having a simple operational procedure and modest power conversion efficiency of 13.8%, the dye-sensitized solar cell consists of an expensive platinum counter electrode which makes commercial success futile. Thus, this review intends to establish the progress researchers have attained in the development of sulphide based counter electrodes as alternatives to platinum, thereby lowering cost of production. Metallic sulphides are good electrocatalysts and cheap, hence, they possess the necessary requirements for effective functional counter electrodes. Furthermore, ternary metallic sulphides are known to exhibit higher efficiencies stemming from the synergistic effect produced by the co-existence of two metal ions in a crystal structure, which is believed to induce greater catalytic capability. Incorporation of metallic sulphides with carbon materials, which are exceptional electrical conductors, could potentially produce more efficient counter electrodes. In that regard, this review seeks to establish the effect recently developed composite counter electrodes comprising metallic sulphides and carbon-based materials have induced on the functionality of the counter electrode (CE).
Teaching and learning formal methods

J. Wordsworth, An Industrial Perspective on Educational Issues Relating to Formal Methods. D. Garlan, Effective Formal Methods Education for Professional Software Engineers. D.L. Parnas, Education for Computing Professionals. D.L. Parnas, Teaching Programming as Engineering. J. Wing, Hints to Specifiers. J.A. Foster and M. Barnett, Moore Formal Methods in the Classroom: A How-To Manual. N. Dean, Formal Methods and Modeling in Context. K.M. Finney and A.M. Fedorec, An Empirical Study of Specification Readability. V.L. Almstrum, Investigating Student Difficulties with Mathematical Logic. G. Malcolm and J.A. Goguen, An Executable Course in the Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs. D. Gries, Improving the Curriculum Through the Teaching of Calculation and Discrimination. W. Feijen and A.J.M. van Gasteren, Keep Your Design Simple. M. Gordon, Teaching Hardware and Software Verification in a Uniform Framework. Subject Index.
The Information Needs of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Patients and Their Parents in the UK: An Online Survey

Patients’ involvement in decision-making regarding their own health care is considered to be of great importance. However, their information needs are frequently reported to be unfulfilled. Few studies have investigated the knowledge, information and support needs of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients and their families. Furthermore, previous studies have predominantly focussed on information needs relating to surgery. No previous studies have been conducted to specifically identify the information needs of AIS patients and their families. An online survey consisting of 18 questions was conducted to investigate the information needs of AIS patients and their families. Completed surveys of 83 participants (76 female, 7 male) from 44 differing postcode areas were analysed. The mean age of the respondents with scoliosis was 13.3 years (SD = 1.9; range = 10–18). Participants identified with feelings including worry, anxiety and being upset. The main information needs related to the cause and prognosis of the condition. Where participants had received information, there were contrasting views of the quality. The findings of this study stress the necessity for information materials to be accurate and applicable to each individual patient. Furthermore, the information should be presented in such a way as to be easily understandable, yet contain the necessary information required by AIS patients and their families.
Adaptive control of phase leading compensator parameters applied to respiratory motion compensation system.

PURPOSE This study evaluates the feasibility of our previously developed Respiratory Motion Compensation System (RMCS) combined with the Phase Lead Compensator (PLC) to eliminate system delays during the compensation of respiration-induced tumor motion. The study objective is to improve the compensation effect of RMCS and the efficay of radiation therapy to reduce its side effects to the patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this study, LabVIEW was used to develop the proposed software for calculating real-time adaptive control parameters, combined with PLC and RMCS for the compensation of total system delay time. Experiments of respiratory motion compensation were performed using 6 pre-recorded human respiration patterns and 7 sets of different sine waves. During the experiments, a respiratory simulation device, Respiratory Motion Simulation System (RMSS), was placed on the RMCS, and the detected target motion signals by the Ultrasound Image Tracking Algorithm (UITA) were transmitted to the RMCS, and the compensation of respiration induced motion was started. Finally, the tracking error of the system is obtained by comparing the encoder signals bwtween RMSS and RMCS. The compensation efficacy is verified by the root mean squared error (RMSE) and the system compensation rate (CR). RESULTS The experimental results show that the calcuated CR with the simulated respiration patterns is between 42.85% ∼3.53% and 33.76% ∼2.62% in the Right-Left (RL) and Superior-Inferior (SI), respectively, after the RMCS compensation of using the adaptive control parameters in PLC. For the compensation results of human respiration patterns, the CR is between 58.95% ∼8.56% and 62.87% ∼9.05% in RL and SI, respectively. CONCLUSIONS During the respiratory motion compensation, the influence of the delay time of the entire system (RMCS+RMSS+UITA) on the compensation effect was improved by adding an adaptive control PLC, which reduces compensation error and helps improve efficacy of radiation therapy.
ECG-Derived Respiratory Rate in Atrial Fibrillation

Objective: The present study addresses the problem of estimating the respiratory rate from the morphological ECG variations in the presence of atrial fibrillatory waves (f-waves). The significance of performing f-wave suppression before respiratory rate estimation is investigated. Methods: The performance of a novel approach to ECG-derived respiration, named “slope range” (SR) and designed particularly for operation in atrial fibrillation (AF), is compared to that of two well-known methods based on either R-wave angle (RA) or QRS loop rotation angle (LA). A novel rule is proposed for spectral peak selection in respiratory rate estimation. The suppression of f-waves is accomplished using signal- and noise-dependent QRS weighted averaging. The performance evaluation embraces real as well as simulated ECG signals acquired from patients with persistent AF; the estimation error of the respiratory rate is determined for both types of signals. Results: Using real ECG signals and reference respiratory signals, rate estimation without f-wave suppression resulted in a median error of 0.015 ± 0.021 Hz and 0.019 ± 0.025 Hz for SR and RA, respectively, whereas LA with f-wave suppression resulted in 0.034 ± 0.039 Hz. Using simulated signals, the results also demonstrate that f-wave suppression is superfluous for SR and RA, whereas it is essential for LA. Conclusion: The results show that SR offers the best performance as well as computational simplicity since f-wave suppression is not needed. Significance: The respiratory rate can be robustly estimated from the ECG in the presence of AF.
900 MHz Differential Power Amplifier IC Using 55 nm CMOS Technology

This paper presents a differential power amplifier integrated circuit (PAIC) based on the 55 nm Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process for the 900 MHz band. The two-stage CMOS PA was designed to have optimized efficiency and linearity using second-harmonic control circuits at the source and drain of the main stage. RC feedback and cross-coupled capacitor were adopted for stabilization. The implemented PAIC delivers the linear gain of more than 25 dB and the output power of more than 27.2 dBm at the center frequency of 900 MHz.
Biocompatibility of Nanoscale Hydroxyapatite Coating on TiO2 Nanotubes

In this study, a highly-ordered TiO2 nanotube array was successfully fabricated on the surface of a pure titanium foil using the anodization method, and a hydroxyapatite (HA) layer was electrochemically deposited on the vertically aligned titania (TiO2) nanotube array. The TiO2 nanotubes exhibited an inner diameter ranging from 44.5 to 136.8 nm, a wall thickness of 9.8 to 20 nm and a length of 1.25 to 3.94 µm, depending on the applied potential, and the anodization time and temperature. The TiO2 nanotubes provided a high number of nucleation sites for the HA precipitation during electrochemical deposition, resulting in the formation of a nanoscale HA layer with a particle size of about 50 nm. The bond strength between the HA coating and the nanotubular layer with an inner diameter of 136.8 nm was over 28.7 MPa, and the interlocking between the nanoscale HA and the TiO2 nanotubes may have been responsible for the high bond strength. The biocompatibility assessment was conducted on Ti foil with a composite coat of nanoscale HA and the TiO2 nanotube array by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) array with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The mesenchymal stem cells adhered to and spread onto the nanoscale HA layer with plenty of extending filopodia, indicating excellent biocompatibility of the HA coat, the composite coat of nanoscale HA and the TiO2 nanotube array. The findings suggest that the nanoscale HA coating on the TiO2 nanotube array might be a promising way to improve the bond strength and the compatibility of the HA layer.