Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A scanning electron microscope study of the in vitro development of dissociated hippocampal cells

Cultures of dissociated hippocampal neurons from 18‐day‐old rat fetuses were examined by scanning electron microscopy after periods between one hour and 20 days following plating on a poly‐L‐lysine coated substrate. Cell attachment was virtually complete within one hour after plating, and at that stage many cells could be seen which had started to extend processes with broad growth cones. By four hours in culture, process formation was well advanced and some cells had already assumed a pyramidal configuration. After 16 hours in culture, numerous contacts were seen between neighboring growth cones, and this frequently led to fasciculation of the interacting fibers. During the next three weeks the cell bodies enlarged considerably and rounded‐up, and two distinct types of processes became evident: large, rapidly tapering dendrite‐like processes and finer, essentially uniform‐diametered processes that resemble axons. In most of the older cultures a dense plexus of processes was formed, and many of the finer processes appeared to have “bouton‐like” swellings as they traversed the upper surfaces of the neuronal perikarya. Non‐neuronal elements, which comprised only about 5% of the cells initially plated, rapidly proliferated in our cultures and within three to six days formed a confluent monolayer beneath the neurons.
Liver NK cells expressing TRAIL are toxic against self hepatocytes in mice

Although it is known that activation of natural killer (NK) cells causes liver injury, the mechanisms underlying NK cell‐induced killing of self‐hepatocytes are not clear. We demonstrated that liver NK cells have cytotoxicity against normal syngeneic hepatocytes in mice. Polyinosinic‐polycytidylic acid (poly I:C) treatment enhanced hepatocyte toxicity of liver NK cells but not that of spleen NK cells. Unlike NK cells in other tissues, approximately 30%–40% of liver NK cells constitutively express tumor necrosis factor‐related apoptosis‐inducing ligand (TRAIL). An in vitro NK cell cytotoxic assay revealed that hepatocyte toxicity of liver NK cells from both naïve and poly I:C‐treated mice was inhibited partially by an anti‐TRAIL monoclonal antibody (mAb) alone and completely by the combination with anti‐Fas ligand (FasL) mAb and a perforin inhibitor, concanamycin A, indicating contribution of TRAIL to NK cell‐mediated hepatocyte toxicity. The majority of TRAIL+ NK cells lacked expression of Ly‐49 inhibitory receptors recognizing self‐major histocompatibility complex class I, indicating a propensity to targeting self‐hepatocytes. Poly I:C treatment significantly upregulated the expression of Ly‐49 receptors on TRAIL− NK cells. This might be a compensatory mechanism to protect self‐class I‐expressing cells from activated NK cell‐mediated killing. However, such compensatory alteration was not seen at all in the TRAIL+ NK cell fraction. Thus, liver TRAIL+ NK cells have less capacity for self‐recognition, and this might be involved in NK cell‐dependent self‐hepatocyte toxicity. In conclusion, our findings are consistent with a model in which TRAIL‐expressing NK cells play a critical role in self‐hepatocyte killing through poor recognition of MHC. (HEPATOLOGY 2004;39:1321–1331.)
Most Effective Colon Cancer Chemopreventive Agents in Rats: A Systematic Review of Aberrant Crypt Foci and Tumor Data, Ranked by Potency

Potential chemopreventive agents for colorectal cancer are assessed in rodents. We speculated that the magnitude of the effect is meaningful and ranked all published agents according to their potency. Data were gathered systematically from 137 articles with the aberrant crypt foci (ACF) end point and from 146 articles with the tumor end point. The potency of each agent to reduce the number of ACF is listed in one table and the potency of each agent to reduce the tumor incidence in another table. Both tables are shown in this review and on a website with sorting abilities (http://www.inra.fr/reseau-nacre/sci-memb/corpet/indexan.html). Potency was estimated as the ratio of the value in control rats to the value in treated rats. From each article, only the most potent agent was kept, except in articles reporting the effect of more than seven agents. Among the 186 agents in the ACF table, the median agent reduced the number of ACF by one-half. The most potent agents to reduce azoxymethane-induced ACF were Pluronic, polyethylene glycol, perilla oil with β-carotene, and sulindac sulfide. Among the 160 agents in the tumor table, the median agent reduced the tumor incidence in rats by one-half. The most potent agents to reduce the incidence of azoxymethane-induced tumors were celecoxib, a protease inhibitor from soy, difluoromethylornithine with piroxicam, polyethylene glycol, and a thiosulfonate. For the 57 agents present in both tables, a significant correlation (r) was found between the potencies against ACF and tumors (r = 0.45, P < 0.001); without celecoxib, a major outlying point in the correlation, r = 0.68 (P < 0.001, n = 56). In conclusion, this review gathers most known chemopreventive agents, ranks the most promising agents against colon carcinogenesis in rats or mice, and further supports the use of ACF as a surrogate end point for tumors in rats.
Design of Run Time Monitors for Concurrent Programs

We address the problem of correctly monitoring the run time behavior of a concurrent program. We view a program as having three (potentially different) sets of behavior: computations of the original program when monitoring is not performed, computations after the monitor is added to the program, and "observations'''' produced by the monitor. Using these sets of behaviors, we define four properties of monitor systems: non-interference, safety, accuracy and correctness. We define both a minimal level and a total level for each of these properties. The non-interference and safety properties address the degree to which the presence of the monitor alters a computation (the differences between the first two sets of computations). Accuracy is a relationship between a monitored computation and the observation of the computation produced by the monitor. Correctness is a relationship between observations and the unmonitored computations. A run time monitor for TSL-1 and Ada has been implemented. This monitor system uses two techniques for constructing the observation. We show that any monitoring system using these two techniques is at least minimally correct, from which the (minimal) correctness of the TSL-1 monitor follows.
Modelling Polycrystalline Materials: An Overview of Three-Dimensional Grain-Scale Mechanical Models

A survey of recent contributions on three-dimensional grain-scale mechanical modelling of polycrystalline materials is given in this work. The analysis of material micro-structures requires the generation of reliable micro-morphologies and affordable computational meshes as well as the description of the mechanical behavior of the elementary constituents and their interactions. The polycrystalline microstructure is characterized by the topology, morphology and crystallographic orientations of the individual grains and by the grain interfaces and microstructural defects, within the bulk grains and at the inter-granular interfaces. Their analysis has been until recently restricted to two-dimensional cases, due to high computational requirements. In the last decade, however, the wider affordability of increased computational capability has promoted the development of fully three-dimensional models. In this work, different aspects involved in the grain-scale analysis of polycrystalline materials are considered. Different techniques for generating artificial micro-structures, ranging from highly idealized to experimentally based high-fidelity representations, are briefly reviewed. Structured and unstructured meshes are discussed. The main strategies for constitutive modelling of individual bulk grains and inter-granular interfaces are introduced. Some attention has also been devoted to three-dimensional multiscale approaches and some established and emerging applications have been discussed.
MRSA Colonization and Risk of Infection in the Neonatal and Pediatric ICU: A Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in NICUs and PICUs. Our objective was to assess the burden of MRSA colonization on admission, study the time trends, and examine the significance of MRSA colonization in this population. METHODS: PubMed and Embase databases were consulted. Studies that reported prevalence of MRSA colonization on ICU admission were selected. Two authors independently extracted data on MRSA colonization and infection. RESULTS: We identified 18 suitable articles and found an overall prevalence of MRSA colonization of 1.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3%–2.6%) on admission to the NICU or PICU, with a stable trend over the past 12 years. Interestingly, 5.8% (95% CI 1.9%–11.4%) of outborn neonates were colonized with MRSA on admission to NICU, compared with just 0.2% (95% CI 0.0%–0.9%) of inborn neonates (P = .01). The pooled acquisition rate of MRSA colonization was 4.1% (95% CI 1.2%–8.6%) during the NICU and PICU stay and was as high as 6.1% (95% CI 2.8%–10.6%) when the NICU population was studied alone. There was a relative risk of 24.2 (95% CI 8.9–66.0) for colonized patients to develop a MRSA infection during hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: In the NICU and PICU, there are carriers of MRSA on admission, and MRSA colonization in the NICU is almost exclusively associated with outborn neonates. Importantly, despite infection control measures, the acquisition rate is high, and patients colonized with MRSA on admission are more likely to suffer a MRSA infection during hospitalization.
Shader algebra

An algebra consists of a set of objects and a set of operators that act on those objects. We treat shader programs as first-class objects and define two operators: connection and combination. Connection is functional composition: the outputs of one shader are fed into the inputs of another. Combination concatenates the input channels, output channels, and computations of two shaders. Similar operators can be used to manipulate streams and apply computational kernels expressed as shaders to streams. Connecting a shader program to a stream applies that program to all elements of the stream; combining streams concatenates the record definitions of those streams.In conjunction with an optimizing compiler, these operators can manipulate shader programs in many useful ways, including specialization, without modifying the original source code. We demonstrate these operators in Sh, a metaprogramming shading language embedded in C++.
Studying Feature Generation from Various Data Representations for Answer Extraction

In this paper, we study how to generate features from various data representations, such as surface texts and parse trees, for answer extraction. Besides the features generated from the surface texts, we mainly discuss the feature generation in the parse trees. We propose and compare three methods, including feature vector, string kernel and tree kernel, to represent the syntactic features in Support Vector Machines. The experiment on the TREC question answering task shows that the features generated from the more structured data representations significantly improve the performance based on the features generated from the surface texts. Furthermore, the contribution of the individual feature will be discussed in detail.
Infarct-remodeled Myocardium Is Receptive to Protection by Isoflurane Postconditioning: Role of Protein Kinase B/Akt Signaling

Background:Postinfarct remodeled myocardium exhibits numerous structural and biochemical alterations. So far, it is unknown whether postconditioning elicited by volatile anesthetics can also provide protection in the remodeled myocardium. Methods:Myocardial infarct was induced in male Wistar rats by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Six weeks later, hearts were buffer-perfused and exposed to 40 min of ischemia followed by 90 min of reperfusion. Anesthetic postconditioning was induced by 15 min of 2.1 vol% isoflurane. In some experiments, LY294002 (15 &mgr;m), a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor, was coadministered with isoflurane. Masson’s trichrome staining, immunohistochemistry, Western blot analysis, and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction served to confirm remodeling. In buffer-perfused hearts, functional recovery was recorded, and acute infarct size was measured using 1% triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining and lactate dehydrogenase release during reperfusion. Western blot analysis was used to determine phosphorylation of reperfusion injury salvage kinases including protein kinase B/Akt and its downstream targets after 15 min of reperfusion. Results:Infarct hearts exhibited typical macroscopic and molecular changes of remodeling. Isoflurane postconditioning improved functional recovery and decreased acute infarct size, as determined by triphenyltetrazolium (35 ± 5% in unprotected hearts vs. 8 ± 3% in anesthetic postconditioning; P < 0.05) and lactate dehydrogenase release. This protection was abolished by LY294002, which inhibited phosphorylation of protein kinase B/Akt and its downstream targets glycogen synthase kinase 3&bgr;, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, and p70S6 kinase. Conclusions:Infarct-remodeled myocardium is receptive to protection by isoflurane postconditioning via protein kinase B/Akt signaling. This is the first time to demonstrate that anesthetic postconditioning retains its marked protection in diseased myocardium.
Information retrieval based writer identification

This communication deals with the Writer Identificationtask. Our previous work has shown the interest of usingthe graphemes as features for describing the individualproperties of Handwriting. We propose here to exploit thesame feature set but using an information retrievalparadigm to describe and compare the handwritten queryto each sample of handwriting in the database. Using thistechnique the image processing stage is performed onlyonce and before the retrieval process can take place, thusleading to a significant saving in the computation of eachquery response, compared to our initial proposition. Themethod has been tested on two handwritten databases.The first one has been collected from 88 different writersat PSI Lab. while the second one contains 39 writers fromthe original correspondence of Emile Zola, a famousFrench novelist of the last 19th century. We also analyzethe proposed method when using concatenation ofgraphemes (bi and tri-gramme) as features.
Experimental Research on Technology of Ultrasonic Vibration Aided Electrical Discharge Machining (UEDM) in Gas

Ultrasonic vibration aided electrical discharge machining (UEDM) in gas is an electrical discharge machining (EDM) technology, in which gases such as air and oxygen are used as dielectrics and ultrasonic vibration is applied. UEDM in gas can avoid environment pollution, the most serious disadvantage of conventional EDM in kerosene-based oil or other dielectric fluids, and it is environmental-friendly. The technology also possesses virtues of wide applications, high machining efficiency and simple tool electrodes and so on. The principle of UEDM in gas is introduced in this paper. Experiments have been carried out to study the effects of machining parameters on material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness of the workpiece and tool electrode wear ratio (TWR), and the experiments results have also been analyzed.
Word Selection for EBMT based on Monolingual Similarity and Translation Confidence

We propose a method of constructing an example-based machine translation (EBMT) system that exploits a content-aligned bilingual corpus. First, the sentences and phrases in the corpus are aligned across the two languages, and the pairs with high translation confidence are selected and stored in the translation memory. Then, for a given input sentences, the system searches for fitting examples based on both the monolingual similarity and the translation confidence of the pair, and the obtained results are then combined to generate the translation. Our experiments on translation selection showed the accuracy of 85% demonstrating the basic feasibility of our approach.
Layered double hydroxide induced advancement in joint prosthesis using bone cement: the effect of metal substitution.

Poly(methyl methacrylate) based bone cement and its nanocomposites with layered double hydroxide (LDH) have been developed with greater mechanical strength and biocompatibility as a grouting material for total joint arthroplasty. Bivalent magnesium has been replaced with trivalent aluminium with various mole ratios, keeping the layered pattern of the LDH intact, to cater for the effect of varying substitution on the property enhancement of the nanocomposites. The intercalation of polymer inside the LDH layers makes them disordered and mechanically stiffer and tougher by more than 100%. The thermal stability of bone cement has increased by more than 30 °C in the presence of 1 wt% of nanoLDH, homogenously distributed in the bone cement matrix by creating an inorganic thermal barrier out of the LDH dispersion. The improvement in the properties of the nanocomposites has been explained in terms of the strong interaction between nanoLDH and polymer. The superior bioactivity and biocompatibility of the nanocomposites, as compared to pure bone cement, has been established through hemolysis assay, cell adhesion, MTT assay and cell proliferation using fluorescence imaging. The developed nanocomposites have been used as a grouting material and significant improvements have been achieved in fatigue behaviour with gradual increment of Al substitution in the Mg : Al mole ratio in nanoLDH, demonstrating the real use of the material in the biomedical area. In vivo experiments on rabbits clearly revealed the superior efficacy of bone cement nanocomposites, over pure bone cement and a blank.
Predictors of In-Hospital Mortality after Acute Ischemic Stroke in Subjects with and without Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a well-established risk factor for ischemic stroke and is associated with in- creased in-hospital mortality. The aim of the present study was to determine the potential predictors of in-hospital mortal- ity after an ischemic stroke in diabetic and nondiabetic subjects. Methods: 159 diabetic subjects (66 males / 93 females, mean age ± SD: 77.4 ± 6.4 years) and 159 non diabetic subjects (66 males / 93 females, mean age ± SD: 77.3 ± 5.2 years) hospitalized for ischemic stroke were studied. Demographic characteristics and laboratory tests on admission as well as outcome were recorded. Brain computed tomography scan was performed in all study subjects. Results: In-hospital death rates did not differ between the diabetic and the nondiabetic patients (36 (22.6%) vs. 27 (17.0%), respectively, P = 0.20). In the diabetic study group multivariate analysis, after controlling for CRP, total choles- terol, LDL-C, urea and creatinine levels, demonstrated that death was related with WBC count (OR: 1.002, 95% CI: 1.001-1.004, P = 0.005), glucose levels (OR: 1.007, 95% CI: 1.002-1.012, P = 0.008), and UA levels (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.003-2.260, P = 0.05). In the nondiabetic study group, after controlling for WBC count, CRP, total cholesterol and LDL- C levels, death was related only with glucose levels (OR: 1.016, 95% CI: 1.001-1.031, P = 0.03). Conclusions: WBC count and UA levels on hospital admission are independent predictors for in-hospital mortality in dia- betic subjects with ischemic stroke. Plasma glucose levels are predictor for in-hospital mortality in both diabetic and nondiabetic subjects.
Mobile mentor: weight management platform

In recent years health care professionals have been investigating the use of ICT technologies in order to influence the general public to change their attitude and behaviour toward a healthier lifestyle. We present Mobile Mentor, a platform aimed at supporting individuals on goal driven programs through personalized mobile technology. This demonstration focuses on a weight loss prototype, Weight Management Mentor, which supports self regulation through the collection of real time diet and exercise data, self reflection and awareness through its graphical feedback mechanisms, and interaction with a health practitioner or advisor through a central server.
Secure and Verifiable Outsourcing of Large-Scale Biometric Computations

Cloud computing services are becoming prevalent and readily available today, bringing to us economies of scale and making large scale computation feasible. Security and privacy considerations, however, stand on the way of fully utilizing the benefits of such services and architectures. In this work we address the problem of secure outsourcing of large-scale biometric experiments to a cloud, where privacy of the data is preserved and the client can verify that with very high probability the task was computed correctly. We conduct thorough theoretical analysis of the proposed techniques and provide instantiations for concrete biometric types that show that the overhead is modest.
Join Index Hierarchies for Supporting Efficient Navigations in Object-Oriented Databases

A join index hierarchy method is proposed to handle the “goto’s on disk” problem in objectoriented query processing. The method constructs a hierarchy of join indices and transforms a sequence of pointer chasing operations into a simple search in an appropriate join index file, and thus accelerates navigation in object-oriented databases. The method extends the join index structure studied in relational and spatial databases, supports both forward and backward navigations among objects and classes, and localizes update propagations in the hierarchy. Our performance study shows that partial join index hierarchy outperforms several other indexing mechanisms in object-oriented query processing.
Identification of an additional ferric-siderophore uptake gene clustered with receptor, biosynthesis, and fur-like regulatory genes in fluorescent Pseudomonas sp. strain M114

Five cosmid clones with insert sizes averaging 22.6 kilobases (kb) were isolated after complementation of 22 Tn5-induced Sid- mutants of Pseudomonas sp. strain M114. One of these plasmids (pMS639) was also shown to encode ferric-siderophore receptor and dissociation functions. The receptor gene was located on this plasmid since introduction of the plasmid into three wild-type fluorescent pseudomonads enabled them to utilize the ferric-siderophore from strain M114. The presence of an extra iron-regulated protein in the outer membrane profile of one of these strains was detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A ferric-siderophore dissociation gene was attributed to pMS639 since it complemented the ferric-siderophore uptake mutation in strain M114FR2. This mutant was not defective in the outer membrane receptor for ferric-siderophore but apparently accumulated ferric-siderophore internally. Since ferric-citrate alleviated the iron stress of the mutant, there was no defect in iron metabolism subsequent to release of iron from the ferric-siderophore complex. Consequently, this mutant was defective in ferric-siderophore dissociation. A fur-like regulatory gene also present on pMS639 was subcloned to a 7.0-kb BglII insert of pCUP5 and was located approximately 7.3 kb from the receptor region. These results established that the 27.2-kb insert of pMS639 encoded at least two siderophore biosynthesis genes, ferric-siderophore receptor and dissociation genes, and a fur-like regulatory gene from the biocontrol fluorescent Pseudomonas sp. strain M114.