Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of different hydroxyapatite incorporation methods on the structural and biological properties of porous collagen scaffolds for bone repair

Scaffolds which aim to provide an optimised environment to regenerate bone tissue require a balance between mechanical properties and architecture known to be conducive to enable tissue regeneration, such as a high porosity and a suitable pore size. Using freeze‐dried collagen‐based scaffolds as an analogue of native ECM, we sought to improve the mechanical properties by incorporating hydroxyapatite (HA) in different ways while maintaining a pore architecture sufficient to allow cell infiltration, vascularisation and effective bone regeneration. Specifically we sought to elucidate the effect of different hydroxyapatite incorporation methods on the mechanical, morphological, and cellular response of the resultant collagen‐HA scaffolds. The results demonstrated that incorporating either micron‐sized (CHA scaffolds) or nano‐sized HA particles (CnHA scaffolds) prior to freeze‐drying resulted in moderate increases in stiffness (2.2‐fold and 6.2‐fold, respectively, vs. collagen‐glycosaminoglycan scaffolds, P < 0.05, a scaffold known to support osteogenesis), while enabling good cell attachment, and moderate mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)‐mediated calcium production after 28 days' culture (2.1‐fold, P < 0.05, and 1.3‐fold, respectively, vs. CG scaffolds). However, coating of collagen scaffolds with a hydroxyapatite precipitate after freeze‐drying (CpHA scaffolds) has been shown to be a highly effective method to increase the compressive modulus (26‐fold vs. CG controls, P < 0.001) of scaffolds while maintaining a high porosity (~ 98%). The coating of the ligand‐dense collagen structure results in a lower cell attachment level (P < 0.05), although it supported greater cell‐mediated calcium production (P < 0.0001) compared with other scaffold variants after 28 days' culture. The comparatively good mechanical properties of these high porosity scaffolds is obtained partially through highly crosslinking the scaffolds with both a physical (DHT) and chemical (EDAC) crosslinking treatment. Control of scaffold microstructure was examined via alterations in freezing temperature. It was found that the addition of HA prior to freeze‐drying generally reduced the pore size and so the CpHA scaffold fabrication method offered increased control over the resulting scaffolds microstructure. These findings will help guide future design considerations for composite biomaterials and demonstrate that the method of HA incorporation can have profound effects on the resulting scaffold structural and biological response.
The interplay of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein and cytokines in periodontal health and disease.

AIM Periodontal pathogenesis is characterized by Gram-negative bacteria activation of series of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines from host cells through the pathway of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), LPS-binding protein (LBP) and CD14. The present study investigated the expression profiles of interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-10 in periodontal health and disease, and examined the effects of Escherichia coli LPS and LBP interaction on the expression of IL-1beta and IL-10 by human gingival fibroblasts (HGF). MATERIAL AND METHODS Gingival biopsies were collected from 44 subjects with chronic periodontitis and 15 periodontally healthy subjects. The expression of IL-1beta and IL-10 was detected by immunohistochemistry. The mRNA expression of IL-1beta and IL-10 in HGF was detected by RT-PCR with or without recombinant human LBP (rhLBP), while the peptides were analysed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS IL-1beta was detected in both oral sulcular epithelia of healthy controls and periodontal pocket epithelia of patients. IL-10 was mainly expressed in the intercellular spaces of connective tissues. IL-1beta displayed a reverse pattern of expression levels with reference to IL-10, and a negative correlation existed between LBP and the ratio of IL-1beta/IL-10. rhLBP suppressed E. coli LPS-induced IL-1beta expression by HGF. CONCLUSION An appropriate interplay of LBP and cytokines may have a beneficial effect on innate host defence, thereby contributing to periodontal homeostasis.
Various Experimental Applications Of DigitalImage Correlation Method

Despite the powerful of current calculus codes by finite element or analytical, their reliability and validity must be justified by experimental tests. An original software for the displacement field measurement is presented in this paper. This software use the digital picture correlation principle. Due to this technique, the accuracy of the measure could reach 1/60 th of a pixel and, it is possible to measure strains between 5.10-5 to 0.8. Initially, this software was developed for measuring strains on a sheet testing in metal forming. But, it is revealed that this application field is more important: biomechanical field, geotechnical field, metal characterization, control tests This software could be used, nowadays, for all application which need the knowledge of displacement and strain field for a plane surface. Of course, the experimental conditions must be made in such a way that any deterioration of the random aspect, deposed on the piece, will occur. Lost, alteration or little modification of the speckle aspect will not guarantee the success of the measure. Finally, the purpose of this paper will be, first, to give clearly the mathematical principle of the displacement field determination by a correlation method. Then, various experimental tests using the correlation method, are presented. The powerful of this technique is show by their variety. This method of measure without contact can be an another tool for validating, in a short time, a numerical or analytical result.
Sparse PCA for High-Dimensional Data With Outliers

A new sparse PCA algorithm is presented, which is robust against outliers. The approach is based on the ROBPCA algorithm that generates robust but nonsparse loadings. The construction of the new ROSPCA method is detailed, as well as a selection criterion for the sparsity parameter. An extensive simulation study and a real data example are performed, showing that it is capable of accurately finding the sparse structure of datasets, even when challenging outliers are present. In comparison with a projection pursuit-based algorithm, ROSPCA demonstrates superior robustness properties and comparable sparsity estimation capability, as well as significantly faster computation time.
A rapid oxidation and persistent decrease in the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 after methamphetamine

Methamphetamine (METH) produces long‐term decreases in markers of dopamine (DA) terminals in animals and humans. A decrease in the function of the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) has been associated with damage to striatal DA terminals caused by METH; however, a possible mechanism for this decrease in VMAT2 function has not been defined. The current study showed that METH caused a rapid decrease to 68% of controls in VMAT2 protein immunoreactivity of the vesicular fraction from striatal synaptosomes within 1 h after a repeated high‐dose administration regimen of METH. This decrease was associated with a 75% increase in nitrosylation of VMAT2 protein in the synaptosomal fraction as measured by nitrosocysteine immunoreactivity of VMAT2 protein. The rapid decreases in VMAT2 persisted when evaluated 7 days later and were illustrated by decreases in VMAT2 immunoreactivity and DA content of the vesicular fraction to 34% and 51% of control values, respectively. The decreases were blocked or attenuated by prior injections of the neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, S‐methyl‐l‐thiocitrulline. These studies demonstrate that METH causes a rapid neuronal nitric oxide synthase‐dependent oxidation of VMAT2 and long‐term decreases in VMAT2 protein and function. The results also suggest that surviving DA terminals after METH exposure may have a compromised capacity to buffer cytosolic DA concentrations and DA‐derived oxidative stress.
Red blood cell phenotypes in the α+ thalassaemias from early childhood to maturity

The α+ thalassaemias are the most common single gene disorders of humans, yet little is known about their haematological characteristics in childhood. Blood samples have been collected randomly from more than 2000 individuals in village communities in Vanuatu in the South West Pacific and analysed for α thalassaemia and associated haematological changes. Here we describe the haematological effects of the α+ thalassaemias from early childhood through to maturity in this population. Mean cell volume (MCV) and mean cell haemoglobin (MCH) levels in individuals of normal, heterozygous and homozygous genotype differed significantly from one another throughout the entire age range (2P < 0.05). In contrast, haemoglobin levels in heterozygous and homozygous individuals were well maintained throughout development. Adults of normal genotype attain Hb levels which are indistinguishable from Caucasian reference values, a finding made all the more remarkable given the high frequency of clinical malaria in this population. It is clear from these findings that haematological data are valuable in screening for carriers of α+ thalassaemia in this population. MCH is clearly the most sensitive discriminator. None of the homozygous adults tested had an MCH of >27 pg, whereas <10% of normals had a value of <27 pg. These data provide reference values for areas in which the α+ thalassaemias are common and often confused with iron‐deficiency anaemia.
Routing techniques in optical packet-switched networks

In the last few years research on optical packet-switching has mainly concentrated on issues at the single node level. This paper intends to discuss about the problems arising when the focus is moved towards a network-wide scope. In particular, an overview of routing techniques that may be adopted in an optical packet-switched backbone is presented, showing the effects of adaptive multi-path routing strategies on the network performance. Furthermore, performance differentiation based on different routing and contention resolution strategies is proposed and analyzed in a simple QoS-aware scenario. Then, the application of adaptive routing strategies to network recovery in case of single link failure is also discussed.
A randomized trial of pulsatile perfusion using an intra-aortic balloon pump versus nonpulsatile perfusion on short-term changes in kidney function during cardiopulmonary bypass during myocardial reperfusion.

BACKGROUND Nonpulsatile perfusion during cardiopulmonary bypass can induce renal damage. We evaluated whether pulsatile perfusion using an intra-aortic balloon pump preserves renal function in patients undergoing myocardial revascularization. STUDY DESIGN Randomized controlled trial, nonmasked parallel-group design. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS 100 patients undergoing preoperative perfusion using an intra-aortic balloon pump; 64 with baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) or greater (>or=1 mL/s/1.73 m(2); stage 1 or 2) and 36 with eGFR of 30 to 59 mL/min/1.73 m(2) (0.5 to 0.98 mL/s/1.73 m(2); stage 3). INTERVENTION Patients were randomly assigned to nonpulsatile perfusion during cardiopulmonary bypass (group A) or automatic intra-aortic balloon pump-induced pulsatile perfusion during cardiopulmonary bypass (group B). OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS Renal function, daily diuresis, complications, serum lactate levels, and other biochemical indices at 24 and 48 hours. RESULTS GFR, adjusted for baseline eGFR, was 16 mL/min/1.73 m(2) [0.27 mL/s/1.73 m(2)] less in group A (58.1 mL/min/1.73 m(2); 95% confidence interval [CI], 56.1 to 60.1 mL/min/1.73 m(2) [0.97 mL/s/1.73 m(2); 95% CI, 0.94 to 1.0 mL/s/1.73 m(2)]) than in group B (74.0 mL/min/1.73 m(2); 95% CI, 72.0 to 76.1 mL/min/1.73 m(2) [1.23 mL/s/1.73 m(2); 95% CI, 1.20 to 1.27 mL/s/1.73 m(2)]; P < 0.001). Plasma lactate levels were +3.9 mg/dL (+0.43 mmol/L) higher in group A (19.5 mg/dL; 95% CI, 18.4 to 20.5 mg/dL [2.16 mmol/L; 95% CI, 2.04 to 2.28 mmol/L]) than in group B (16.7 mg/dL; 95% CI, 14.4 to 16.7 mg/dL [1.73 mmol/L; 95% CI, 1.60 to 1.85 mmol/L]; P < 0.001). No significant difference between the 2 groups was observed for 24-hour diuresis. Patients with eGFR stage 3 had a greater decrease in GFR and daily diuresis and greater increase in lactate levels than those with eGFR stages 1 to 2. LIMITATIONS Short-term change in kidney function as a surrogate outcome for "hard" clinical outcomes of mortality, morbidity, and length of hospitalization. Other limitations are short-term follow-up and absence of measurement of hemodynamic parameters or inflammatory mediators. CONCLUSIONS Use of automatic pulsatile intra-aortic balloon pumps during cardiopulmonary bypass is associated with better renal function during myocardial reperfusion. More studies are needed to verify the effects of pulsatile intra-aortic balloon pumps.
Inclusive Institutions, Innovation and Economic Growth: Estimates for European Countries

This paper investigates the theoretical and empirical foundations of the links between inclusive institutions, innovation and economic growth. Its first contribution to the literature is to provide a non-scale R&D-based growth model incorporating negative externalities linked to low institutional quality that not only affect the productivity of private and human capital, but also constrain the diffusion of existing technological knowledge. In turn, these negative externalities reduce economic growth. The second contribution of this paper is to run estimates for a sample of European Union countries. Empirical analysis based on pooled long- and short-run estimates confirms the importance of private capital and technology as instruments to increase economic growth in European countries and suggests the existence of a positive relationship between inclusive institutions, innovation and economic growth. The estimates also show that market failures linked to the degree of market competition and to the level of network interaction in the economic system significantly condition the influence of formal institutions on private capital, technology and GDP growth.
The effect of meteorological and chemical parameters on summer phytoplankton assemblages in an urban recreational lake

The summer phytoplankton community was studied across both vertical and temporal scales in relation to environmental factors in the shallow recreational Sava Lake. The sampling was conducted weekly at four depths from mid-July until mid-September 2014, in order to detect short-term changes within the assemblages. Besides physical and chemical parameters, meteorological data was also included in the investigation, as that year was characterized with extreme rainfall, which caused serious flooding in the region. The community succession was characterized by a reverse in the cyanobacteria (Codon M) and chlorococcal green algae (Coda F and J). Statistical analyses (RDA) indicated that changes in the community composition and successional pattern could have been due to the mixing regime variations in the reservoir, most likely induced by weather disturbances, especially high precipitation and wind events. These events did not permit massive cyanobacterial development, although they most likely caused resuspension of dissolved phosphorus from the sediment. When observing functional groups, three groups could be distinguished by their response to the above-mentioned parameters: the first prefers high temperature and insolation (Lm, Y, Lo, Xph, W2 and M), the second is correlated with precipitation and wind (Td, C, K, MP and X2), while the third group tolerates cloudiness (H1, F, N, X1, D, J and P).
Separation, Partial Purification and Characterization of a Fatty Acid Hydroperoxide Cleaving Enzyme from Apple and Tomato Fruits

Abstract A membrane-bound enzyme catalysing the cleavage of 13-hydroperoxy-(Z)-9,(E)-11-oc-tadecadienoic acid (13-LHPO) and 13-hydroperoxy-(Z)-9,(E)-11,(Z)-15-octadecadienoic acid (13-LnHPO) to C6-aldehydes was isolated and partially purified from apples and tomatoes. Attempts to employ Ultrogel AcA 34 and AcA 22 in a gel chromatographic purification step were partially frustrated by reaggregation phenomena. However, by using Sepharose CL-4 B an enzyme fraction (MW 200 000 Da) with lipoxygenase and fatty acid hydroperoxide cleaving activity could be separated from a high molecular-weight active eluate. By applying preparative isoelec tric focussing to the tomato protein we succeeded in separating the fatty acid cleaving activity from the lipoxygenase, because o f their different isoelectric points of pH 5.8 -6 . 1 and pH 5.0, respectively, An 8.4-fold purification of the fatty acid cleaving activity was achieved. A pH-optimum of 5.5 and a Km-value of 2.6 × 10-5 м/1 for the 13-hydroperoxide of linoleic acid were measured. p-Chloromercuribenzoic acid (1 mм) showed significant inhibitory effect on the fatty acid hydroperoxide cleaving enzyme, but no evidence o f inhibition was found with 1 mм H2O2, KCN, DABCO and EDTA or superoxide dismutase (270 U). The maximum amount of fatty acid hydroperoxide decomposition (C6-aldehyde formation) was determined to be 59%.
Swarm intelligence for natural language processing

Natural language processing NLP is an area dealing with computational methods for achieving human-like language processing. Traditionally, NLP research has been focused on developing efficient and robust algorithms to treat most NLP tasks, including syntactic and semantic analysis, grammar induction, summary and text generation, document clustering and machine translation. Swarm intelligence SI methods are effective to do so, since they have been successfully applied for many real-world problems. Recently, NLP and SI have been active areas of research, joined together more than once to solve problems in NLP field. This paper presents a review of recent developments of SI methods in NLP. It shows that only a few NLP tasks and applications were tackled by using SI-based algorithms. These mainly include text document clustering and classification, text summarisation, word sense disambiguation, information retrieval, and speaker recognition. This study also shows that four SI-based algorithms were examined in NLP field, including ant colony optimisation ACO, particle swarm optimisation PSO, bee swarm optimisation BSO, and firefly algorithm FA, emphasising ACO and PSO as the most investigated algorithms in this field.
Relative effects of vehicle pollution, moisture and colonization sources on urban lichens

Summary 1. Lichens are sensitive to pollution and have therefore been used as air quality indicators. While the distribution of lichens within cities may reflect the distribution of traffic pollution, other factors affecting urban lichens are correlated with this pollution – particularly moisture and the presence of lichen colonization sources. 2. Our objective was to determine the relative importance of these three factors – vehicle pollution, moisture and colonization sources – in determining lichen distribution within a city. We surveyed macrolichen richness and cover on 420 trees within 84 sites across urban Ottawa, Canada. The sites were selected to minimize correlations among vehicle pollution, moisture and colonization sources. Model-averaged standardized regression coefficients were used to compare the relative effects of these three variables on macrolichen richness and cover. 3. We found that macrolichen cover was most strongly related to vehicle pollution and that this effect occurred within 300 m of a site. 4. However, macrolichen species richness responded more strongly to both moisture (at the site centre) and colonization sources (within 1000 m of the site) than to vehicle pollution. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that macrolichen cover, but not macrolichen species richness, can be used as an indicator of urban traffic pollution. Our results also suggest that, to promote urban macrolichen diversity, it would be more effective to increase the availability of lichen colonization sources (nearby trees) than to control traffic pollution.
Safety considerations of septic shock treatment

ABSTRACT Introduction: The management of sepsis essentially relies on effective resuscitation with fluids and vasopressors, appropriate and adequate antimicrobial therapy, and organ support. Any of these interventions can have beneficial but also harmful effects. Areas covered: We focus on the key hemodynamic signs of sepsis and discuss the potential safety risks associated with the management of each of them, including optimizing arterial pressure, cardiac output and oxygen delivery. We also underline the importance of the timing of interventions. Expert opinion: Patients with septic shock are heterogeneous, making it particularly difficult to provide therapeutic recommendations that are safe and effective for all. A personalized medicine approach should be used with treatment decisions carefully considered and the risks and benefits of each intervention balanced in each individual patient.
Experimental estimate of using the ant colony optimization algorithm to solve the routing problem in FANET

FANETs are ad hoc networks based on unmanned aerial vehicles. Such nets are characterized by high mobility of nodes, dynamically changing topology and 3-D movement. Routing in FANET is a complex task. Different methods of routing in FANET are given in this paper. The review of intelligent routing methods in MANETs based on ant algorithm is presented. To confirm possibility of effective usage of protocols based on ant colony algorithm to solve routing tasks in MANETs, the experimental analysis has been performed.
Role of oxidative stress and inflammation in the origin of Type 2 diabetes – a paradigm shift

In Type 2 diabetes the body either produces too little insulin, or does not respond well to it. Current pharmacological treatments, which are less than optimal, either target defective insulin secretion (sulfonylureas, glinides) or insulin resistance (metformin, thiazolidinediones). Exciting new research is now helping us to understand novel pathways that may contribute to defective insulin secretion as well as decreased response to insulin. Such pathways may explain the development of diabetes and associated complications (atherosclerosis and diabetic nephropathy). Understanding the way a cell metabolises glucose may be the key to understanding how cells secrete insulin and respond to it.