Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent Progress on the Development of Porous Bioactive Calcium Phosphate for Biomedical Applications

Hydroxyapatite (HA) and tricalcium phosphate are two members of the calcium phosphate compounds which have been used clinically for many years. Their good biocompatibility is attributed by its similar chemical composition to that of bone material. Porous calcium phosphate ceramics have found enormous use in biomedical applications including bone tissue regeneration, cell proliferation, and drug delivery. In bone tissue engineering it has been applied as filling material for bone defects and augmentation, artificial bone graft material, and prosthesis revision surgery. Their high surface area leads to excellent osteoconductivity and resorbability providing fast bone ingrowth. Many efforts on the development of porous calcium phosphates can be observed from a considerable numbers of patents which have been filled recently on various methods for preparing porous calcium phosphate for applications of bone implant, chromatography and so on. Porous calcium phosphate can be produced by a variety of methods including conversion of natural bones, ceramic foaming technique, polymeric sponge method, gel casting of foams, solvent casting/ salt leaching method, selective laser sintering, precision extrusion deposition, starch consolidation, microwave processing, slip casting, and electrophoretic deposition technique. Some of these methods have been combined to fabricate porous calcium phosphate with improved properties. These combination methods have yielded some promising results. This paper discusses briefly the fundamental aspects of porous calcium phosphate for biomedical applications as well as the various techniques used to prepare porous calcium phosphate.
A New Composite Hemiface/Mandible/Tongue Transplantation Model in Rats

Extensive head and neck deformities, including bone and soft tissue defects, are always challenging for reconstructive surgeons. The purpose of this study was to extend the application of the face/scalp transplantation model in rats by the incorporation of vascularized mandible, masseter and tongue (based on the same vascular pedicle), and to use this as a model to test new reconstructive options for extensive head and neck deformities with involving large soft and bone tissue defects.A total of 10 composite hemiface/mandible/tongue transplantations were performed in Lewis rats (RT11). Hemimandibular bone, masseter muscle, tongue and hemifacial skin flaps were dissected based on the same vascular pedicle of common carotid artery and external jugular vein. The flaps were then transplanted to the recipient inguinal region. Evaluation methods included flap angiography, plain x-ray, computed tomographic scan, and histology.All transplants survived indefinitely and no graft loss was noted. Flap angiography demonstrated intact vascular supply to the bone. Computed tomography scan and bone histology confirmed the viability of the bone components for the composite grafts. Hematoxylin and eosin staining determined the presence of viable bone marrow cells within the transplanted mandible. Viability of the tongue was confirmed by the presence of pink color and bleeding after puncture, as well as by histology.We have introduced a new composite hemiface/mandible/tongue transplant model. The main advantage of this model is the presence of vascularized bone marrow within the mandibular component, which may facilitate future studies on chimerism and tolerance induction. Although this mandible composite allograft is placed heterotopically to the recipient inguinal region, we believe that it may serve as a new reconstructive option for the coverage of combined bone and soft tissue defects within the head and neck region.
Childhood abuse and reduced cortical thickness in brain regions involved in emotional processing.

BACKGROUND Alterations in gray matter development represent a potential pathway through which childhood abuse is associated with psychopathology. Several prior studies find reduced volume and thickness of prefrontal (PFC) and temporal cortex regions in abused compared with nonabused adolescents, although most prior research is based on adults and volume-based measures. This study tests the hypothesis that child abuse, independent of parental education, predicts reduced cortical thickness in prefrontal and temporal cortices as well as reduced gray mater volume (GMV) in subcortical regions during adolescence. METHODS Structural MRI scans were obtained from 21 adolescents exposed to physical and/or sexual abuse and 37 nonabused adolescents (ages 13-20). Abuse was operationalized using dichotomous and continuous measures. We examined associations between abuse and brain structure in several a priori-defined regions, controlling for parental education, age, sex, race, and total brain volume for subcortical GMV. Significance was evaluated at p < . 05 with a false discovery rate correction. RESULTS Child abuse exposure and severity were associated with reduced thickness in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC), right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), left temporal pole, and bilateral inferior, right middle, and right superior temporal gyri. Neither abuse measure predicted cortical surface area or subcortical GMV. Bilateral PHG thickness was inversely related to externalizing symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Child abuse, an experience characterized by a high degree of threat, is associated with reduced cortical thickness in ventromedial and ventrolateral PFC and medial and lateral temporal cortex in adolescence. Reduced PHG thickness may be a mediator linking abuse with externalizing psychopathology, although prospective research is needed to evaluate this possibility.
Maltreatment‐associated neurodevelopmental disorders: a co‐twin control analysis

BACKGROUND Childhood maltreatment (CM) is strongly associated with psychiatric disorders in childhood and adulthood. Previous findings suggest that the association between CM and psychiatric disorders is partly causal and partly due to familial confounding, but few studies have investigated the mechanisms behind the association between CM and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Our objective was to determine whether maltreated children have an elevated number of NDDs and whether CM is a risk factor for an increased NDD 'load' and increased NDD symptoms when controlling for familial effects. METHODS We used a cross-sectional sample from a population-representative Swedish twin study, comprising 8,192 nine-year-old twins born in Sweden between 1997 and 2005. CM was defined as parent-reported exposure to emotional abuse/neglect, physical neglect, physical abuse, and/or sexual abuse. Four NDDs were measured with the Autism-Tics, AD/HD, and other comorbidities inventory. RESULTS Maltreated children had a greater mean number of NDDs than nonmaltreated children. In a co-twin control design, CM-discordant monozygotic twins did not differ significantly for their number of NDDs, suggesting that CM is not associated with an increased load of NDDs when genetic and shared environmental factors are taken into account. However, CM was associated with a small increase in symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in CM-discordant MZ twins, although most of the covariance of CM with NDD symptoms was explained by common genetic effects. CONCLUSIONS Maltreated children are at higher risk of having multiple NDDs. Our findings are, however, not consistent with the notion that CM causes the increased NDD load in maltreated children. Maltreated children should receive a full neurodevelopmental assessment, and clinicians should be aware that children with multiple NDDs are at higher risk of maltreatment.
Sex differences in the associations between vagal reactivity and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms

Background Vagal reactivity to stress in children has been associated with future psychiatric outcomes. However, results have been mixed possibly because these effects are in opposite direction in boys and girls. These sex differences are relevant in the context of development of psychopathology, whereby the rates of psychiatric disorders differ by sex. In this study, we aimed to examine the association between vagal reactivity, assessed as a reduction in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in response to a challenge, and the development of future oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms in boys and girls. In addition, we examine the specific associations with ODD symptom dimensions, named irritability and headstrong. We hypothesized that increased vagal reactivity was associated with increased ODD symptoms in girls and a reduction in ODD symptoms in boys. Methods Participants were members of the Wirral Child Health and Development Study, a prospective epidemiological longitudinal study of 1,233 first‐time mothers recruited at 20 weeks’ gestation. RSA during four nonstressful and one stressful (still‐face) procedures was assessed when children were aged 29 weeks in a sample stratified by adversity (n = 270). Maternal reports of ODD symptoms were collected when children were 2.5 years old (n = 253), 3.5 years old (n = 826), and 5 years old (n = 770). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test our hypotheses. Results There was a significant sex difference in the prediction of ODD symptoms due to the opposite directionality in which increasing vagal reactivity was associated with an increase in ODD symptoms in girls and a reduction of ODD symptoms in boys. This Sex by Vagal reactivity interaction was common for both ODD dimensions, with no sex by dimension‐specific associations. Conclusions Physiological reactivity to a stressful situation predicts differently ODD symptoms in boys and girls very early in life, with no difference across irritability and headstrong components. Findings are discussed in the context of the several mechanisms involved on the later development of distinct psychiatric disorders in boys and girls.
Single molecule experimentation in biological physics: exploring the living component of soft condensed matter one molecule at a time

The soft matter of biological systems consists of mesoscopic length scale building blocks, composed of a variety of different types of biological molecules. Most single biological molecules are so small that 1 billion would fit on the full-stop at the end of this sentence, but collectively they carry out the vital activities in living cells whose length scale is at least three orders of magnitude greater. Typically, the number of molecules involved in any given cellular process at any one time is relatively small, and so real physiological events may often be dominated by stochastics and fluctuation behaviour at levels comparable to thermal noise, and are generally heterogeneous in nature. This challenging combination of heterogeneity and stochasticity is best investigated experimentally at the level of single molecules, as opposed to more conventional bulk ensemble-average techniques. In recent years, the use of such molecular experimental approaches has become significantly more widespread in research laboratories around the world. In this review we discuss recent experimental approaches in biological physics which can be applied to investigate the living component of soft condensed matter to a precision of a single molecule.
Morphology of monolayer films on quasicrystalline surfaces from the phase field crystal model

We present a computational study of the morphology of adsorbed monolayers on quasicrystalline surfaces with five- and seven-fold symmetry. The phase field crystal model is employed to first simulate the growth of the quasicrystal surfaces and then to elastically couple a two-dimensional film to the substrate. We find several distinct pseudomorphic phases that depend on the position of adsorption sites as well as the strength of the monolayer/substrate interaction, and quantify them by computing local order parameters. In qualitative agreement with recent experiments using colloids in quasiperiodic light fields, we find that the formation of quasicrystalline order is greatly inhibited on seven-fold surfaces.
Serum fructosamine as an index of glycaemia: Comparison with glycated haemoglobin in diabetic and non-diabetic individuals

The recent development of the serum fructosamine assay, an indicator of glycated serum protein, may provide an alternative to glycated haemoglobin (HbA1) measurements. To examine the relationship of serum fructosamine to HbA1 and evaluate its potential application to diabetic management, simultaneous measurements were made of serum fructosamine and HbA1 in 113 non-diabetic and in 87 diabetic individuals. Values of HbA1 (mean ± 2 × SD = 6.3 ± 1.5%) and serum fructosamine (2.3 ± 0.4 mmol/1) in the non-diabetic population were distributed in a Gaussian manner, whereas results in the diabetic patients encompassed a broad range. The correlation coefficient between HbA1 and serum fructosamine was r = 0.79 (p < 0.001). Serum fructosamine provides an alternative to glycated haemoglobin as an index of glycaemia in diabetic patients.
Management of glioblastoma: comparison of clinical practices and cost‐effectiveness in two cohorts of patients (2008 versus 2004) diagnosed in a French university hospital

Therapeutic options for the management of glioblastoma (GBM) have greatly evolved over the last decade with the emergence of new regimens combining radiotherapy plus temozolomide and the use of bevacizumab at recurrence. Our aim was to assess the clinical and economic impacts of those novel strategies in our center.
Calculating protein–ligand binding affinities with MMPBSA: Method and error analysis

Molecular Mechanics Poisson–Boltzmann Surface Area (MMPBSA) methods have become widely adopted in estimating protein–ligand binding affinities due to their efficiency and high correlation with experiment. Here different computational alternatives were investigated to assess their impact to the agreement of MMPBSA calculations with experiment. Seven receptor families with both high‐quality crystal structures and binding affinities were selected. First the performance of nonpolar solvation models was studied and it was found that the modern approach that separately models hydrophobic and dispersion interactions dramatically reduces RMSD's of computed relative binding affinities. The numerical setup of the Poisson–Boltzmann methods was analyzed next. The data shows that the impact of grid spacing to the quality of MMPBSA calculations is small: the numerical error at the grid spacing of 0.5 Å is already small enough to be negligible. The impact of different atomic radius sets and different molecular surface definitions was further analyzed and weak influences were found on the agreement with experiment. The influence of solute dielectric constant was also analyzed: a higher dielectric constant generally improves the overall agreement with experiment, especially for highly charged binding pockets. The data also showed that the converged simulations caused slight reduction in the agreement with experiment. Finally the direction of estimating absolute binding free energies was briefly explored. Upon correction of the binding‐induced rearrangement free energy and the binding entropy lost, the errors in absolute binding affinities were also reduced dramatically when the modern nonpolar solvent model was used, although further developments were apparently necessary to further improve the MMPBSA methods. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
First-principle calculations of the Berry curvature of Bloch states for charge and spin transport of electrons

Recent progress in wave packet dynamics based on the insight of Berry pertaining to adiabatic evolution of quantum systems has led to the need for a new property of a Bloch state, the Berry curvature, to be calculated from first principles. We report here on the response to this challenge by the ab initio community during the past decade. First we give a tutorial introduction of the conceptual developments we mentioned above. Then we describe four methodologies which have been developed for first-principle calculations of the Berry curvature. Finally, to illustrate the significance of the new developments, we report some results of calculations of interesting physical properties such as the anomalous and spin Hall conductivity as well as the anomalous Nernst conductivity and discuss the influence of the Berry curvature on the de Haas–van Alphen oscillation.
Secondary Surgery for Functional Improvement After Hand Transplantation

Unilateral and bilateral hand transplantations have been performed worldwide with good midterm functional results. The role of secondary surgery to improve function in the patients with hand transplant has not been uniformly agreed upon. A series of 10 secondary procedures were performed in 5 surgeries on 3 patients with bilateral upper extremity transplantation. There was 1 incidence of acute rejection after 1 procedure. The functional improvement was evaluated subjectively by the patients as substantial. Secondary procedures can upgrade function after hand transplantation and provide unique opportunities for deep-tissue biopsies. The proinflammatory stimulus of the surgery can theoretically precipitate an acute rejection. The pharmacologic interference of some immunosuppressive drugs with wound healing should also be considered.
Effects of supplemental Chinese traditional herbal medicine complex on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of male Holstein calves

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary addition of traditional Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) complex on the growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality of male Holstein calves. This study was conducted with 36 male Holstein calves (initial weight about 173 ± 3 kg) which were randomly divided into control and CHM supplementation (20 g/d) groups with three replicates. The study lasted for 98 days. The carcass fat percentage of the meat was increased, while the meat shear force and cooking losses were decreased in the CHM group in comparison to the control group (P <0.05). The CHM group's meat displayed greater trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (P <0.05) and showed a trend of higher (P = 0.07) scavenging a,a-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical ability than the control group. For that reason, the panel test result showed that the CHM group meat had better tenderness, flavor, juiciness, and total acceptance than the control group (P <0.05). In conclusion, this study's results indicated that the dietary supplementation of CHM had beneficial effects including increased carcass fat percentage, decreased cooking losses, and shear force and increased meat antioxidant activities and panel evaluation values.
Time‐dependent density functional theory study on direction‐dependent electron and hole transfer processes in molecular systems

We report on real‐time time‐dependent density functional theory calculations on direction‐dependent electron and hole transfer processes in molecular systems. As a model system, we focus on α‐sulfur. It is shown that time scale of the electron transfer process from a negatively charged S8 molecule to a neighboring neutral monomer is comparable to that of a strong infrared‐active molecular vibrations of the dimer with one negatively charged monomer. This results in a strong coupling between the electrons and the nuclei motion which eventually leads to S8 ring opening before the electron transfer process is completed. The open‐ring structure is found to be stable. The similar infrared‐active peak in the case of hole transfer, however, is shown to be very weak and hence no significant scattering by the nuclei is possible. The presented approach to study the charge transfer processes in sulfur has direct applications in the increasingly growing research field of charge transport in molecular systems. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Urinary leukotriene E4 and 9α, 11β‐prostaglandin F2 concentrations in mild, moderate and severe asthma, and in healthy subjects

Background Airway inflammation in asthma is associated with cysteinyl leukotriene and prostaglandin D2 production. Measurement of urinary metabolites of these eicosanoids may be useful for monitoring asthma patients. However, the influence of asthma phenotype and severity on basal urinary excretion of these metabolites is unknown.
Frequency of Hypomagnesemia in Hospitalized Diabetic Hypokalemic Patients

Recent studies suggest that there is strong relationship between serum magnesium and diabetes. Low serum magnesium is one of the risk factors of diabetes mellitus and its complications, at the same time diabetes is one of the common causes of hypomagnesemia. Hypokalemia is also quite common in diabetic patient. When hypokalemia coexists with hypomagnesemia, the chance of ‘complications of hypokalemia' increase significantly. In addition, the correction of hypokalemia becomes difficult. However, the exact frequency of hypomagnesemia in diabetic hypokalemic patient is not yet defined. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to find out the frequency of hypomagnesemia in hospitalized diabetic hypokalemic patient. Thirty consecutive diabetic patients with hypokalemia admitted under medical unit 1 BIRDEM were included in this study. There were 20 Female; and 10 male, mean age was 52.33±12.97 years, duration of diabetes was 1 - 20 years, mean serum potassium was 2.37± . 36m mol/l, The mean ± SD of serum magnesium was 0.67 ±0.26 m mol/l. Hypomagnesemia was present in 19 patients (63.3%). Fifteen normokalemic diabetic patients were taken as control. Only one subject had Hypomagnesemia in control. Sample mean of serum magnesium has been found significantly lower than general population (P=.001) and control (P=.034) Key words: Hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, diabetes, frequency DOI: 10.3329/jbcps.v26i1. 4227 J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2008; 26: 10-13
Efficient algorithm for expanding theoretical electron densities in canterakis–zernike functions

An algorithm for the efficient computation of Canterakis–Zernike moments of theoretically computed molecular electron densities and rotationally invariant Fingerprint indices derived from them is reported. The algorithm is suitable for any density expressed in terms of Gaussian‐ or Slater‐type functions within the Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals framework at any level of computation. Electron density is expressed as a one‐center expansion of real regular spherical harmonics times radial factors by means of translation techniques, which facilitates the efficient computation of the moments in terms of a single one‐dimension numerical integration. The performance of the algorithm is analyzed showing that the computation of radial factors in the quadrature points is responsible for almost all computational time. The procedure is applicable to any density obtained with standard packages for molecular structure calculations. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Hormonal Regulation of Growth and Maturation: I. The Effect of Hormones on Fetal Growth

pha ring monodeiodinase, which converts T4 to rT3. From 15% to 20% of the thyroid hormone in the fetus is thought to come from the mother via the placenta and the remaining thyroid hormone to be secreted by the fetal thyroid. A report by Vulsma et al. (2) indicating that 30% to 50% of thyroid hormone comes from the mother at term is consistent with the finding that serum levels of T4 in neonates with congenital thyroid hypoplasia range from 2.3 ƒÊg/dl to 5.4