Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diabetes Mellitus Is a Chronic Disease that Can Benefit from Therapy with Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality, with an increasing incidence worldwide. The impact of DM on public health in developing countries has triggered alarm due to the exaggerated costs of the treatment and monitoring of patients with this disease. Considerable efforts have been made to try to prevent the onset and reduce the complications of DM. However, because insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells progressively deteriorate, many people must receive insulin through subcutaneous injection. Additionally, current therapies do not have consistent results regarding the prevention of chronic complications. Leveraging the approval of real-time continuous glucose monitors and sophisticated algorithms that partially automate insulin infusion pumps has improved glycemic control, decreasing the burden of diabetes management. However, these advances are facing physiologic barriers. New findings in molecular and cellular biology have produced an extraordinary advancement in tissue development for the treatment of DM. Obtaining pancreatic β-cells from somatic cells is a great resource that currently exists for patients with DM. Although this therapeutic option has great prospects for patients, some challenges remain for this therapeutic plan to be used clinically. The purpose of this review is to describe the new techniques in cell biology and regenerative medicine as possible treatments for DM. In particular, this review highlights the origin of induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) and how they have begun to emerge as a regenerative treatment that may mitigate the pathology of this disease.
A pilot study of mobilized intervention to help caregivers of oncology patients manage distress

Caregivers of patients with advanced cancer experience significant anxiety, depression, and distress. Caregivers have barriers to accessing in‐person treatment to manage stress. Technology allows for the dissemination of evidence‐based interventions in a convenient way. This study examined usage rates of Pep‐Pal (an evidence‐based mobilized intervention to help caregivers of patients with advanced cancer manage distress) and estimates of efficacy on anxiety, depression, stress, and sexual dysfunction.
A Review of Strategies for the Synthesis of N-Doped Graphene-Like Materials

Methods for synthesizing nitrogen-doped graphene-like materials have attracted significant attention among the scientific community because of the possible applications of such materials in electrochemical devices such as fuel cells, supercapacitors and batteries, as well as nanoelectronics and sensors. The aim of this paper is to review recent advances in this scientific niche. The most common synthesis technique is nitridization of as-deposited graphene or graphene-containing carbon mesh using a non-equilibrium gaseous plasma containing nitrogen or ammonia. A variety of chemical bonds have been observed, however, it is still a challenge how to ensure preferential formation of graphitic nitrogen, which is supposed to be the most favorable. The nitrogen concentration depends on the processing conditions and is typically few at. %; however, values below 1 and up to 20 at. % have been reported. Often, huge amounts of oxygen are found as well, however, its synergistic influence on N-doped graphene is not reported. The typical plasma treatment time is several minutes. The results reported by different authors are discussed, and future needs in this scientific field are summarized. Some aspects of the characterization of graphene samples with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy are presented as well.
What Is the Spatial Extent of a Bemisia tabaci Population?

Simple Summary Pest management can be greatly enhanced by basic knowledge about pest dispersal patterns in agroecosystems, which for insects often relies on comparisons of genetic variation among populations. The globally invasive sweet potato whitefly Bemisia tabaci is one such pest for which a large body of research has examined patterns of genetic variation. We review this literature to address the question: What spatial scales define B. tabaci populations? These studies are global in coverage and draw from a variety of genetic marker types. We found that genetic differentiation among populations is typically low, and that patterns of genetic diversity suggest that groups of migrating whiteflies from divergent populations are typically being sampled together. Overall, these results suggest that there is high ongoing gene flow over large spatial extents, but recent invasion by most populations could obscure genetic markers’ ability to detect geographic isolation. Genome-wide data collected across finer spatial and temporal scales hold great promise to clarify the spatial extent of a B. tabaci population, and could reveal whether insecticide rotations can be tailored to specific commodities or if coordination across commodities and regions linked by B. tabaci gene flow is justified. Abstract Effective pest management depends on basic knowledge about insect dispersal patterns and gene flow in agroecosystems. The globally invasive sweet potato whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is considered a weak flier whose life history nonetheless predisposes it to frequent dispersal, but the scale over which populations exchange migrants, and should therefore be managed, is uncertain. In this review, we synthesize the emergent literature on B. tabaci population genetics to address the question: What spatial scales define B. tabaci populations? We find that within-species genetic differentiation among sites is often low, and evidence of population structuring by host plant or geography is rare. Heterozygote deficits prevail among populations, indicating that migrants from divergent populations are frequently sampled together. Overall, these results suggest that there is high ongoing gene flow over large spatial extents. However, genetic homogeneity typical of recently invading populations could obscure power to detect real isolation among populations. Genome-wide data collected systematically across space and time could distinguish signatures of invasion history from those of ongoing gene flow. Characterizing the spatial extent of B. tabaci populations could reveal whether insecticide rotations can be tailored to specific commodities or if coordination across linked commodities and regions is justified.
Graph Convolutional Autoencoder and Fully-Connected Autoencoder with Attention Mechanism Based Method for Predicting Drug-Disease Associations

Predicting novel uses for approved drugs helps in reducing the costs of drug development and facilitates the development process. Most of previous methods focused on the multi-source data related to drugs and diseases to predict the candidate associations between drugs and diseases. There are multiple kinds of similarities between drugs, and these similarities reflect how similar two drugs are from the different views, whereas most of the previous methods failed to deeply integrate these similarities. In addition, the topology structures of the multiple drug-disease heterogeneous networks constructed by using the different kinds of drug similarities are not fully exploited. We therefore propose GFPred, a method based on a graph convolutional autoencoder and a fully-connected autoencoder with an attention mechanism, to predict drug-related diseases. GFPred integrates drug-disease associations, disease similarities, three kinds of drug similarities and attributes of the drug nodes. Three drug-disease heterogeneous networks are constructed based on the different kinds of drug similarities. We construct a graph convolutional autoencoder module, and integrate the attributes of the drug and disease nodes in each network to learn the topology representations of each drug node and disease node. As the different kinds of drug attributes contribute differently to the prediction of drug-disease associations, we construct an attribute-level attention mechanism. A fully-connected autoencoder module is established to learn the attribute representations of the drug and disease nodes. Finally, the original features of the drug-disease node pairs are also important auxiliary information for their association prediction. A combined strategy based on a convolutional neural network is proposed to fully integrate the topology representations, the attribute representations, and the original features of the drug-disease pairs. The ablation studies showed the contributions of data related to three types of drug attributes. Comparison with other methods confirmed that GFPred achieved better performance than several state-of-the-art prediction methods. In particular, case studies confirmed that GFPred is able to retrieve more actual drug-disease associations in the top k part of the prediction results. It is helpful for biologists to discover real associations by wet-lab experiments.
The Space Shuttle Glow.

Abstract : Photographic pictures of the shuttle glow were analyzed. Radiative lifetime of the emitting species was found to be 0.7 msec by analyzing the spatial distribution of the glow intensity. The Atmospheric Explorer (AE) glow under daytime conditions has been examined. The glow was more intense in the daytime, but the production efficiency, measured in Rayleighs per oxygen atom, was found to be similar to the nighttime value. No dependence of the glow intensity on the ambient density was found. The production efficiency increased with time throughout the duration of the satellite in orbit. Keywords: Shuttle glow; Radiative lifetime; AE-Glow; Day-night variation; Satellite lifetime dependence; Plasma environment dependence.
Small herbaria contribute unique biogeographic records to county, locality, and temporal scales

Premise With digitization and data sharing initiatives underway over the last 15 years, an important need has been prioritizing specimens to digitize. Because duplicate specimens are shared among herbaria in exchange and gift programs, we investigated the extent to which unique biogeographic data are held in small herbaria vs. these data being redundant with those held by larger institutions. We evaluated the unique specimen contributions that small herbaria make to biogeographic understanding at county, locality, and temporal scales. Methods We sampled herbarium specimens of 40 plant taxa from each of eight states of the United States of America in four broad status categories: extremely rare, very rare, common native, and introduced. We gathered geographic information from specimens held by large (≥100,000 specimens) and small (<100,000 specimens) herbaria. We built generalized linear mixed models to assess which features of the collections may best predict unique contributions of herbaria and used an Akaike information criterion‐based information‐theoretic approach for our model selection to choose the best model for each scale. Results Small herbaria contributed unique specimens at all scales in proportion with their contribution of specimens to our data set. The best models for all scales were the full models that included the factors of species status and herbarium size when accounting for state as a random variable. Conclusions We demonstrated that small herbaria contribute unique information for research. It is clear that unique contributions cannot be predicted based on herbarium size alone. We must prioritize digitization and data sharing from herbaria of all sizes.
Chemical Tools for Imaging Glycans in Living Systems

Glycans are important mediators of many biological processes, including cell-cell adhesion and communication as well as development, inflammation, and cancer cell metastasis. The composition and expression of these biomolecules are known to change during these physiological processes, and, accordingly, there has been much interest in profiling and imaging glycans in vivo. While proteins can be visualized using fluorescent proteins such as GFP, glycans are challenging targets for imaging because they are not genetically encoded. We have developed a two-step method to equip glycans with reporter tags for isolation and visualization from living systems known as the chemical reporter strategy. In our approach, an unnatural sugar, which bears a small reactive functional group known as a chemical reporter, is metabolically incorporated into cell-surface glycans. These reporters can then be detected via a covalent, bioorthogonal reaction such as the Staudinger ligation or Cu-free click chemistry by delivery of exogenous phosphine or cyclooctyne probes, respectively. If an affinity tag or imaging agent is appended to the probe, this method allows for the enrichment and visualization of the labeled glycoconjugates.This thesis describes the development of new chemical tools for profiling and imaging glycans and their extension to living systems. Chapter 1 provides an overview of recent advances in imaging technologies, including the chemical reporter strategy, for visualizing non-proteinaceous biomolecules such as glycans, lipids, nucleic acids, and small molecule metabolites. Chapter 2 describes the application of Cu-free click chemistry using a panel of cyclooctyne probes to glycan labeling in mice. Chapter 3 describes the synthesis of phosphine and cyclooctyne imaging probes and the evaluation of their ability to image glycans in vivo. Chapter 4 outlines the development of a new chemical reporter for detecting the monosaccharide sialic acid and its application to the labeling of murine glycoconjugates. Finally, Chapter 5 presents a novel strategy for cell-selective labeling of glycans using a caged metabolic precursor.
L’inhibiteur d’intégrines Cilengitide : un nouveau principe actif en neuro-oncologie

Resume Ces dernieres annees ont vu l’essor des strategies antiangiogeniques dans le traitement des cancers. Parmi elles, le Cilengitide (EMD121974 ; Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Allemagne) est une nouvelle molecule ciblant les integrines αvβ3 et αvβ5 et ce grâce a son motif peptidique specifique, la sequence RGD. Le Cilengitide intervient ainsi dans les interactions entre cellules endotheliales, cellules tumorales et matrice extracellulaire. Les resultats prometteurs obtenus in vitro avec le Cilengitide, utilise seul ou en association avec de la chimiotherapie cytotoxique ou des radiations ionisantes, ouvrent des perspectives notamment dans le traitement des tumeurs cerebrales. En ce sens, des essais cliniques sont actuellement en cours dans cette indication. L’objectif de cette revue est de faire le point sur les mecanismes d’action et sur les premiers resultats precliniques et cliniques obtenus par l’inhibiteur d’integrines Cilengitide.
Protocol combinators for modeling, testing, and execution of distributed systems

Abstract Distributed systems are hard to get right, model, test, debug, and teach. Their textbook definitions, typically given in a form of replicated state machines, are concise, yet prone to introducing programming errors if naïvely translated into runnable implementations. In this work, we present Distributed Protocol Combinators (DPC), a declarative programming framework that aims to bridge the gap between specifications and runnable implementations of distributed systems, and facilitate their modeling, testing, and execution. DPC builds on the ideas from the state-of-the art logics for compositional systems verification. The contribution of DPC is a novel family of program-level primitives, which facilitates construction of larger distributed systems from smaller components, streamlining the usage of the most common asynchronous message-passing communication patterns, and providing machinery for testing and user-friendly dynamic verification of systems. This paper describes the main ideas behind the design of the framework and presents its implementation in Haskell. We introduce DPC through a series of characteristic examples and showcase it on a number of distributed protocols from the literature. This paper extends our preceeding conference publication (Andersen & Sergey, 2019a) with an exploration of randomized testing for protocols and their implementations, and an additional case study demonstrating bounded model checking of protocols.
Synthesis, Characterization and Thermal Decomposition of Yttrium and Light Lanthanides with 4,4'-Bipyridine and Dichloroacetates

A novel mixed-ligand complexes with empirical formulae: Ln(4-bpy)(CCl2HCOO) 3 ·H 2 O (where: Ln = Y, Ce, Nd, Pr and Eu, 4-bpy = 4,4'-bipyridine) were prepared and characterized by chemical and elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and conductivity measurements (in methanol, dimethylformamide and dimethylsulfoxide). Analysis of the powder diffraction patterns showed that the obtained complexes are crystalline and isostructural compounds. The thermal properties of complexes in the solid state were studied under non-isothermal conditions in air atmosphere. During heating the complexes decompose via intermediate products to the oxides: Ln 2 O 3 (Y, Nd, Eu), Pr 6 O 1 and CeO 2 . A coupled TG-MS system was used to analyse principal volatile thermal decomposition (or fragmentation) products evolved during pyrolysis of Pr(III) and Nd(III) complexes. In air major profiles for ion currents are observed with m/z = 12, 18, 29, 30, 35, 36, 44, 47 amongst others.
In-situ study of the chemically driven flow fields in initiating homogeneous and heterogeneous nitromethane explosives

Electromagnetic gauging has been used to make in-situ measurements of particle velocity and impulse at five Lagrangian positions in nitromethane (NM) during gas-gun-driven, shock-to-detonation experiments. Homogeneous initiation experiments were conducted using NM that was chemically sensitized (using an organic base) and heterogeneous initiation experiments were done with physically sensitized NM (using silica particles). In the homogeneous initiation experiments, some of the features we observed are consistent with the classical homogeneous initiation model, however, our measurements show that the superdetonation does not form immediately after an induction time. Considerably behind the initial shock, reaction causes a wave to build up over a discernible length and this wave evolves into a superdetonation which catches the initial shock. In the heterogeneous initiation experiments, the waveforms indicated that wave growth occurs primarily in the shock front, similar to earlier observations in other heterogeneous explosives. 21 refs., 8 figs., 3 tabs.
The Corrosion of Copper, Tin, and Their Alloys

Part one discusses the corrosion of copper and its alloys, including atmospheric corrosion, oxidation, corrosion by other gases, aqueous and nonaqueous corrosion, stress-corrosion cracking, erosion, radiation, underground corrosion and purposeful corrosion. Part two treats the corrosion of tin and its alloys including atmospheric corrosion, gaseous corrosion, aqueous and non-aqueous corrosion, tinplate and the electrochemistry of the Sn -- Fe couple deterioration by phase change and Sn-whisker formation. Chemical and electrical polishing techniques for copper are described. Quantitative data are emphasized for engineering applications. Numerous ref. -- AATA
Protective role of Excoecaria agallocha L. against streptozotocin induced diabetic complications

Oxidative stress has a pivotal role in the pathogenesis and development of various diabetic-related complications, the most common and debilitating effects of diabetes mellitus are on kidney, liver and heart tissue. There is accumulating evidence that Excoecaria agallocha L extract, a rich source of phenolic and flavonoid components, has hypoglycemic and antioxidative properties. This study aimed to determine the protective effects of Excoecaria agallocha L extract against streptozotocin-induced diabetic complications on kidney, liver and heart in rat. The diabetic rat model was generated by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) at a dose of 60 mg/kg, i.p. dissolved in 0.01M citrate buffer (pH 4.5) after 16 h fasting. A subset of the STZ-induced diabetic rats intragastrically administered with Excoecaria agallocha L. extract (250 and 500 mg/kg/day) before or after the onset of diabetes for 16 weeks, whereas other diabetic rats received only isotonic saline as the same volume of Excoecaria agallocha L extract. To evaluate the effects of Excoecaria agallocha L extract on the diabetic rats various parameters, including oxidative parameters, liver enzymes, kidney-specific parameters, and histopathology were assessed along with other biochemical assessments. Greater blood sugar, SGOT, SGPT, creatine kinase, urea whereas lower uric acid, creatinine and total protein were detected in the STZ-diabetic rats, which were significantly attenuated after Excoecaria agallocha L extract administration, dose-dependently. Even various oxidative stress parameters were also drastically changed in a STZ-diabetic rats which were improved by Excoecaria agallocha L extract. Histopathological study of liver, kidney and heart tissue were supported the potential protective effect of Excoecaria agallocha L extract. The activity elicited by the extract might be due to its ability to activate antioxidant enzymes. The findings suggest the potential use of the extract of Excoecaria agallocha L. as a novel therapeutically useful nephron protective, hepatoprotective and cardio protective agent.
ESES: Evolving Software Ecosystems and Services

Like our society, software systems are subject to constant change. Innovation cycles in this field are getting shorter and shorter, and user requirements are changing from generation to generation. It is the task of software architects to react to these changes and to ensure that these changes remain silently controllable. A model focused on control of individual software entities and their relations are software ecosystems, borrowing concepts from biological ecosystems but sharing the idea of sustainable management of software systems. Keywords-Software Ecosystems, Ecosystems, Software Engineering,
Development and Test of a Single-Aperture 11 T Nb3Sn Demonstrator Dipole for LHC Upgrades

The upgrade of the LHC collimation system foresees installation of additional collimators around the LHC ring. The longitudinal space for the collimators could be provided by replacing some 8.33 T NbTi LHC main dipoles with shorter 11 T Nb3Sn dipoles compatible with the LHC lattice and main systems. To demonstrate this possibility FNAL and CERN have started a joint program with the goal of building a 5.5 m long twin-aperture dipole prototype suitable for installation in the LHC. The first step of this program is the development of a 2 m long singleaperture demonstrator dipole with a nominal field of 11 T at the LHC nominal current of 11.85 kA and ~20% margin. This paper describes the design, construction and test results of the first single-aperture Nb3Sn demonstrator dipole model. 
Benefits of Zebrafish Xenograft Models in Cancer Research

As a promising in vivo tool for cancer research, zebrafish have been widely applied in various tumor studies. The zebrafish xenograft model is a low-cost, high-throughput tool for cancer research that can be established quickly and requires only a small sample size, which makes it favorite among researchers. Zebrafish patient-derived xenograft (zPDX) models provide promising evidence for short-term clinical treatment. In this review, we discuss the characteristics and advantages of zebrafish, such as their transparent and translucent features, the use of vascular fluorescence imaging, the establishment of metastatic and intracranial orthotopic models, individual pharmacokinetics measurements, and tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, we introduce how these characteristics and advantages are applied other in tumor studies. Finally, we discuss the future direction of the use of zebrafish in tumor studies and provide new ideas for the application of it.