Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Ray Tracing of Large 3D Scenes for Mobile Distributed Computing Environments

Cluster computing has attracted much attention as an effective way of solving large-scale problems. However, only a few attempts have been made to explore mobile computing clusters that can be easily built using commodity smartphones and tablets. To investigate the possibility of mobile cluster-based rendering of large datasets, we developed a mobile GPU ray tracer that renders nontrivial 3D scenes with many millions of triangles at an interactive frame rate on a small-scale mobile cluster. To cope with the limited processing power and memory space, we first present an effective 3D scene representation scheme suitable for mobile GPU rendering. Then, to avoid performance impairment caused by the high latency and low bandwidth of mobile networks, we propose using a static load balancing strategy, which we found to be more appropriate for the vulnerable mobile clustering environment than a dynamic strategy. Our mobile distributed rendering system achieved a few frames per second when ray tracing 1024 × 1024 images, using only 16 low-end smartphones, for large 3D scenes, some with more than 10 million triangles. Through a conceptual demonstration, we also show that the presented rendering scheme can be effectively explored for augmenting real scene images, captured or perceived by augmented and mixed reality devices, with high quality ray-traced images.
Polymer-Based Nanofiber–Nanoparticle Hybrids and Their Medical Applications

The search for higher-quality nanomaterials for medicinal applications continues. There are similarities between electrospun fibers and natural tissues. This property has enabled electrospun fibers to make significant progress in medical applications. However, electrospun fibers are limited to tissue scaffolding applications. When nanoparticles and nanofibers are combined, the composite material can perform more functions, such as photothermal, magnetic response, biosensing, antibacterial, drug delivery and biosensing. To prepare nanofiber and nanoparticle hybrids (NNHs), there are two primary ways. The electrospinning technology was used to produce NNHs in a single step. An alternate way is to use a self-assembly technique to create nanoparticles in fibers. This paper describes the creation of NNHs from routinely used biocompatible polymer composites. Single-step procedures and self-assembly methodologies are used to discuss the preparation of NNHs. It combines recent research discoveries to focus on the application of NNHs in drug release, antibacterial, and tissue engineering in the last two years.
Biomechanical characterization and modeling of human mesenchymal stem cells under compression

Abstract The application of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in biomedical devices has expanded vastly over the last few decades, with MEMS devices being developed to measure different characteristics of cells. The study of cell mechanics offers valuable understanding of cell viability and functionality. Cell biomechanics approaches also facilitate the characterization of important cell and tissue behaviors. In particular, understanding of the biological response of cells to their biomechanical environment would enhance the knowledge of how cellular responses correlate to tissue level characteristics and how some diseases, such as cancer, grow in the body. This study focuses on viscoelastic modeling of the behavior of a single suspended human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC). Mechanical properties of hMSC cells are particularly important in tissue engineering and research for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. We evaluated the elastic and viscoelastic properties of hMSC cells using a miniaturized custom-made BioMEMS device. Our results were compared to the elastic and viscoelastic properties measured by other methods such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) and micropipette aspiration. Different approaches were applied to model the experimentally obtained force data, including elastic and Standard Linear Solid (SLS) constitutive models, and the corresponding constants were derived. These values were compared to the ones in literature that were based on micropipette aspiration and AFM methods. We then utilized a tensegrity approach to model major parts of the internal structure of the cell and treat the cell as a network of viscoelastic microtubules and microfilaments, as opposed to a simple spherical blob. The results predicted from the tensegrity model were similar to the recorded experimental data.
The epithelial layers of the body wall in hornerid bryozoans (Stenolaemata: Cyclostomatida)

Bryozoans are small colonial coelomates. They can be conceptualised as “origami‐like” animals, composed of three complexly folded epithelial layers: epidermis of the zooidal/colonial body wall, gut epithelium and coelothelium. We investigated the general microanatomy and ultrastructure of the hornerid (Cyclostomatatida) body wall and polypide in four taxa, including three species of Hornera and one species belonging to an undescribed genus. We describe epithelia and their associated structures (e.g., ECM, cuticle) across all portions of the hornerid body wall, including the terminal membrane, vestibular wall, atrial sphincter, membranous sac and polypide–skeletal attachments. The classic coelomate body wall composition (epidermis–ECM–coelothelium) is only present in an unmodified form in the tentacle sheath. Deeper within a zooid it is retained exclusively in the attachment zones of the membranous sac: [skeleton]–tendon cell–ECM–coelothelium. A typical invertebrate pattern of epithelial organisation is a single, continuous sheet of polarised cells, connected by belt desmosomes and septate junctions, and resting on a collagenous extracellular matrix. Although previous studies demonstrated that polypide‐specific epithelia of Horneridae follow this model, here we show that the body wall may show significant deviations. Cell layers can lose the basement membrane and/or continuity of cell cover and cell contacts. Moreover, in portions of the body wall, the cell layer appears to be missing altogether; the zooidal orifice is covered by a thin naked cuticle largely devoid of underlying cells. Since epithelium is a two‐way barrier against entry and loss of materials, it is unclear how hornerids avoid substance loss, while maintaining intracolonial metabolite transport with imperfect, sometimes incomplete, cell layers along large portions of their outer body surface.
Thin and stretchable extracellular matrix (ECM) membrane reinforced by nanofiber scaffolds for developing in vitro barrier models

An extracellular matrix (ECM) membrane made up of ECM hydrogels has great potentials to develop a physiologically relevant organ-on-a-chip because of its biochemical and biophysical similarity to in vivo basement membranes (BMs). However, the limited mechanical stability of the ECM hydrogels makes it difficult to utilize the ECM membrane in long-term and dynamic cell/tissue cultures. This study proposes a thin but robust and transparent ECM membrane reinforced with silk fibroin (SF)/polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers, which is achieved by in situ self-assembly throughout a freestanding SF/PCL nanofiber scaffold. The SF/PCL nanofiber-reinforced ECM (NaRE) membrane shows biophysical characteristics reminiscent of native BMs, including small thickness (<5 μm), high permeability (<9 × 10−5 cm s−1), and nanofibrillar architecture (∼10–100 nm). With the BM-like characteristics, the nanofiber reinforcement ensured that the NaRE membrane stably supported the construction of various types of in vitro barrier models, from epithelial or endothelial barrier models to complex co-culture models, even over two weeks of cell culture periods. Furthermore, the stretchability of the NaRE membrane allowed emulating the native organ-like cyclic stretching motions (10%–15%) and was demonstrated to manipulate the cell and tissue-level functions of the in vitro barrier model.
In Vitro Evaluation of Curcumin- and Quercetin-Loaded Nanoemulsions for Intranasal Administration: Effect of Surface Charge and Viscosity

The nose-to-brain delivery of neuroprotective natural compounds is an appealing approach for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Nanoemulsions containing curcumin (CUR) and quercetin (QU) were prepared by high-pressure homogenization and characterized physicochemically and structurally. A negative (CQ_NE−), a positive (CQ_NE+), and a gel (CQ_NEgel) formulation were developed. The mean particle size of the CQ_NE− and CQ_NE+ was below 120 nm, while this increased to 240 nm for the CQ_NEgel. The formulations showed high encapsulation efficiency and protected the CUR/QU from biological/chemical degradation. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that the CUR/QU were located at the interface of the oil phase in the proximity of the surfactant layer. The cytotoxicity studies showed that the formulations containing CUR/QU protected human nasal cells from the toxicity evidenced for blank NEs. No permeation across an in vitro model nasal epithelium was evidenced for CUR/QU, probably due to their poor water-solubility and instability in physiological buffers. However, the nasal cells’ drug uptake showed that the total amount of CUR/QU in the cells was related to the NE characteristics (CQ_NE− > CQ_NE+ > CQ_NEgel). The method used allowed the obtainment of nanocarriers of an appropriate size for nasal administration. The treatment of the cells showed the protection of cellular viability, holding promise as an anti-inflammatory treatment able to prevent neurodegenerative diseases.
Identification and Distribution of Sterols, Bile Acids, and Acylcarnitines by LC–MS/MS in Humans, Mice, and Pigs—A Qualitative Analysis

Sterols, bile acids, and acylcarnitines are key players in human metabolism. Precise annotations of these metabolites with mass spectrometry analytics are challenging because of the presence of several isomers and stereoisomers, variability in ionization, and their relatively low concentrations in biological samples. Herein, we present a sensitive and simple qualitative LC–MS/MS (liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry) method by utilizing a set of pure chemical standards to facilitate the identification and distribution of sterols, bile acids, and acylcarnitines in biological samples including human stool and plasma; mouse ileum, cecum, jejunum content, duodenum content, and liver; and pig bile, proximal colon, cecum, heart, stool, and liver. With this method, we detected 24 sterol, 32 bile acid, and 27 acylcarnitine standards in one analysis that were separated within 13 min by reversed-phase chromatography. Further, we observed different sterol, bile acid, and acylcarnitine profiles for the different biological samples across the different species. The simultaneous detection and annotation of sterols, bile acids, and acylcarnitines from reference standards and biological samples with high precision represents a valuable tool for screening these metabolites in routine scientific research.
Promoting the use of a self-management strategy among novice chiropractors treating individuals with spine pain: A mixed methods pilot clustered-clinical trial

Background The uptake of Self-Management Support (SMS) among clinicians is suboptimal. To date, few studies have tested knowledge translation (KT) interventions to increase the application of SMS in chiropractic teaching clinics. Study objective Evaluate the feasibility of implementing a KT intervention to promote the use of a SMS strategy among chiropractic interns, their supervisors, and individuals with spine pain compared to controls. Methods Mixed methods pilot clustered-clinical trial. Clusters of 16 Patient Management Teams were allocated to a complex KT intervention (online and workshop training). Primary feasibility outcomes for clinicians, interns and patients were rates of recruitment, retention, and adherence to protocol. A nominal group technique and interviews were used to seek end-users’ views on the implementation process, and generate possible solutions. Results In total, 16 (84%) clinicians, 65 (26%) interns and 42 patients agreed to participate. All clinicians in the intervention group completed all KT intervention components, 23 interns (85%) completed the online training and 14 interns (51.8%) attended the workshop training. All clinicians in the intervention and seven (78%) in the control group completed all outcome measures at baseline and 6-month follow-up, while 15 (55.6%) and 23 (60.5%) interns in the intervention and control groups completed the questionnaires at baseline and 6-month follow-up, respectively. Among patients, 10 (52.6%) and 12 (52.2%) in the intervention and control groups respectively completed the questionnaires at the end of the study. Based on interview findings, solutions to improve the feasibility of conducting a full trial include: making SMS a part of the internship, changing the time of introducing the study to the interns, and having more training on SMS. Conclusion Recruitment and retention of chiropractic interns and patients for a larger implementation trial in a single outpatient teaching clinic may be challenging.
New BODIPY Dyes Based on Benzoxazole as Photosensitizers in Radical Polymerization of Acrylate Monomers

A series of 2-phenacylbenzoxazole difluoroboranes named BODIPY dyes (1–8) was designed and applied as photosensitizers (PS) for radical photopolymerization of acrylate monomer. The light absorption within the ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis) range (λmax = 350–410 nm; εmax = 23,000–42,500 M−1cm−1), that is strongly influenced by the substituents on the C3 and C4 atoms of phenyl ring, matched the emission of the Omnicure S2000 light within 320–500 nm. The photosensitizer possess fluorescence quantum yield from about 0.005 to 0.99. The 2-phenacylbenzoxazole difluoroboranes, together with borate salt (Bor), iodonium salt (Iod) or pyridinium salt (Pyr) acting as co-initiators, can generate active radicals upon the irradiation with a High Pressure Mercury Lamp which initiates a high-performance UV–Vis light-induced radical polymerization at 320–500 nm. The polymers obtained are characterized by strong photoluminescence. It was found that the type of radical generator (co-initiator) has a significant effect on the kinetic of radical polymerization of acrylate monomer. Moreover, the chemical structure of the BODIPY dyes does not influence the photoinitiating ability of the photoinitiator. The concentration of the photoinitiating system affects the photoinitiating performance. These 2-phenacylbenzoxazole difluoroborane-based photoinitiating systems have promising applications in UV–Vis-light induced polymerization.
Augmenting the accuracy of trainee doctors in diagnosing skin lesions suspected of skin neoplasms in a real-world setting: A prospective controlled before-and-after study

Background Although deep neural networks have shown promising results in the diagnosis of skin cancer, a prospective evaluation in a real-world setting could confirm these results. This study aimed to evaluate whether an algorithm (http://b2019.modelderm.com) improves the accuracy of nondermatologists in diagnosing skin neoplasms. Methods A total of 285 cases (random series) with skin neoplasms suspected of malignancy by either physicians or patients were recruited in two tertiary care centers located in South Korea. An artificial intelligence (AI) group (144 cases, mean [SD] age, 57.0 [17.7] years; 62 [43.1%] men) was diagnosed via routine examination with photographic review and assistance by the algorithm, whereas the control group (141 cases, mean [SD] age, 61.0 [15.3] years; 52 [36.9%] men) was diagnosed only via routine examination with a photographic review. The accuracy of the nondermatologists before and after the interventions was compared. Results Among the AI group, the accuracy of the first impression (Top-1 accuracy; 58.3%) after the assistance of AI was higher than that before the assistance (46.5%, P = .008). The number of differential diagnoses of the participants increased from 1.9 ± 0.5 to 2.2 ± 0.6 after the assistance (P < .001). In the control group, the difference in the Top-1 accuracy between before and after reviewing photographs was not significant (before, 46.1%; after, 51.8%; P = .19), and the number of differential diagnoses did not significantly increase (before, 2.0 ± 0.4; after, 2.1 ± 0.5; P = .57). Conclusions In real-world settings, AI augmented the diagnostic accuracy of trainee doctors. The limitation of this study is that the algorithm was tested only for Asians recruited from a single region. Additional international randomized controlled trials involving various ethnicities are required.
Dip-Coating Self-Assembly Fabrication and Polarization Sensitive Photoresponse of Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Film

It is challenging to obtain wafer-scaled aligned films for completely exploiting the promising properties of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs). Aligned s-SWCNTs with a large area can be obtained by combining water evaporation and slow withdrawal-induced self-assembly in a dip-coating process. Moreover, the tunability of deposition morphology parameters such as stripe width and spacing is examined. The polarized Raman results show that s-SWCNTs can be aligned in ±8.6°. The derived two terminal photodetector shows both a high negative responsivity of 41 A/W at 520 nm and high polarization sensitivity. Our results indicate that aligned films with a large area may be useful to electronics- and optoelectronics-related applications.
An Evaluation of Pretrained BERT Models for Comparing Semantic Similarity Across Unstructured Clinical Trial Texts

Processing unstructured clinical texts is often necessary to support certain tasks in biomedicine, such as matching patients to clinical trials. Among other methods, domain-specific language models have been built to utilize free-text information. This study evaluated the performance of Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) models in assessing the similarity between clinical trial texts. We compared an unstructured aggregated summary of clinical trials reviewed at the Johns Hopkins Molecular Tumor Board with the ClinicalTrials.gov records, focusing on the titles and eligibility criteria. Seven pretrained BERT-Based models were used in our analysis. Of the six biomedical-domain-specific models, only SciBERT outperformed the original BERT model by accurately assigning higher similarity scores to matched than mismatched trials. This finding is promising and shows that BERT and, likely, other language models may support patient-trial matching.
Glucocerebrosidase Activity Is Not Associated with Parkinson's Disease Risk or Severity

I am writing regarding the recent paper entitled “Glucocerebrosidase activity is not associated with Parkinson’s disease risk or severity” (N.). Although the data reported were carefully obtained and represent an important contribution, the definitive wording of the title is not supported by the data and is misleading. What is clear is that a relationship between GBA1-encoded lysosomal glucocerebrosidase activity and PD risk and progression (estimated by Omer et al as symptom severity at a given time post-diagnosis) cannot be discerned by an assay that measures cell-free, resuspended, and enhanced glucocerebrosidase. (This distinction is especially important to me because Bial Biotech is developing a molecule that increases lysosomal glucocerebrosidase activity for the treatment of GBA-PD.) PD patients who carry certain GBA1 rare variants progress more rapidly (UPDRS3) than iPD patients, who carry the wild-type enzyme. Furthermore, the rate of GBA-PD progression depends on GBA1 mutation (Peterschmitt et al Mov Disorders 2021, poster 403; MJFF PPMI database). But it is a mistake to conclude that GBA1-encoded amino acid changes completely explain these differences. Lysosomal glucocerebrosidase activity is sensitive to factors in addition to the primary sequence: pH, saposin C concentration, and membrane properties (none of these are accounted for in the cell-free assay). Importantly, these vary between individuals and differentially affect the glucocerebrosidase variants. Therefore, the comparison of the activities of purified enzyme variants in a test tube captures only a fraction of the drivers of lysosomal glucocerebrosidase activity. To further complicate the issue, the dried blood spot glucocerebrosidase assay used by Omer et al does not directly compare the activity of pure enzymes in a test tube. To increase sensitivity (this assay was developed to screen newborns, not to accurately measure glucocerebrosidase activity over a normal range), additives such as sodium taurocholate are included to enhance the activity of the resuspended enzyme. The enhancement effect of taurocholate depends on the glucocerebrosidase primary sequence; the N370S enzyme is activated to a lesser extent than WT (E Goldin et al PLoS One 2012). Therefore, N370S activity has been reported to be less active than WT by this assay, whereas studies of intact cells suggest that their activity is comparable. The bottom line is that the extrapolation of dried blood spot in vitro glucocerebrosidase activity to in vivo lysosomal activity is not possible. The question raised by the authors is important and unresolved; the development and deployment of an assay to measure glucocerebrosidase activity in live cells is required. Author Contribution
The Gβ-like Protein AfCpcB Affects Sexual Development, Response to Oxidative Stress and Phagocytosis by Alveolar Macrophages in Aspergillus fumigatus

G-protein signaling is important for signal transduction, allowing various stimuli that are external to a cell to affect its internal molecules. In Aspergillus fumigatus, the roles of Gβ-like protein CpcB on growth, asexual development, drug sensitivity, and virulence in a mouse model have been previously reported. To gain a deeper insight into Aspergillus fumigatus sexual development, the ΔAfcpcB strain was generated using the supermater AFB62 strain and crossed with AFIR928. This cross yields a decreased number of cleistothecia, including few ascospores. The sexual reproductive organ-specific transcriptional analysis using RNAs from the cleistothecia (sexual fruiting bodies) indicated that the CpcB is essential for the completion of sexual development by regulating the transcription of sexual genes, such as veA, steA, and vosA. The ΔAfcpcB strain revealed increased resistance to oxidative stress by regulating genes for catalase, peroxiredoxin, and ergosterol biosynthesis. The ΔAfcpcB strain showed decreased uptake by alveolar macrophages in vitro, decreased sensitivity to Congo red, decreased expression of cell wall genes, and increased expression of the hydrophobin genes. Taken together, these findings indicate that AfCpcB plays important roles in sexual development, phagocytosis by alveolar macrophages, biosynthesis of the cell wall, and oxidative stress response.