Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
microRNA‐181a inhibits ocular neovascularization by interfering with vascular endothelial growth factor expression

AIM Excess angiogenesis or neovascularization plays a key role in the pathophysiology of several ocular diseases such as retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy, and exudative age-related macular degeneration. microRNA-181a (miR-181a) was found highly expressed in retina and choroidal tissues. This study intends to investigate the role of miR-181a in the regulation of ocular neovascularization in different pathophysiological conditions. METHOD We performed the RNA sequence to identify the microRNAs components of anti-angiogenic lymphocyte-derived microparticles (LMPs). The effect of miR-181a on human retinal endothelial cells proliferation was assessed in vitro. The impact of miR-181a on angiogenesis was confirmed using in vitro angiogenesis assay, ex vivo choroidal explant, and in vivo retinal neovascularization. The expression of major angiogenic factors was assessed by real-time qPCR. RESULTS RNA sequence revealed that miR-181a is selectively enriched in LMPs. Importantly, the inhibition of miR-181a significantly abrogated the effect of LMPs on endothelial viability, but overexpression of miR-181a reduced endothelial cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. miR-181a strongly inhibited in vitro angiogenesis and ex vivo choroidal neovascularization. The strong anti-angiogenic effect of miR-181a was also displayed on the retinal neovascularization of the in vivo mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy. In keeping with its effect, several angiogenesis-related genes were dysregulated in the miR-181a overexpressed endothelial cells. CONCLUSION These data may open unexpected avenues for the development of miR-181a as a novel therapeutic strategy that would be particularly useful and relevant for the treatment of neovascular diseases.
Implementation of a Grid-Integrated PV-Battery System for Residential and Electrical Vehicle Applications

A new control approach of integrating a solar photovoltaic (PV) with a battery storage is presented to a single-phase grid for residential and electric vehicle application. The main purpose of the proposed work is to feed a continuous power to the grid, thereby enhancing the viability of the battery energy storage support connected to the system. The charging and discharging of the battery achieve power leveling and load leveling along with increased reliability of the system. The multifunctional voltage-source converter acts as an active power filter and performs the harmonics mitigation along with reactive power compensation. In the proposed system, a unique control is developed for resynchronization of the grid during reconnection of the grid after the mitigation of a failure. The overall control of the system is adaptable under various practically occurring situations such as disconnection of the PV array, the battery, and the grid from the system. The detailed design and control of the proposed system are presented. The validity of the proposed system is performed through a laboratory prototype developed for a power rating of 2.2 kW connected to the utility grid. The performance of the system is found satisfactory under various disturbance, and the recorded results have been demonstrated.
Live Migration of Virtual Machine with Pre-Record and Use PDoPMP to Analyse Memory Access Trend

The virtual machine (VM) live migration could achieve VM redistribution among distributed system hosts without reducing normal working performance. Post-copy is one of the wildly used VM live migration algorithm and has lots of advantages, such as less total migration time, less downtime, lower network overhead and so on. Its disadvantage is that the VM will be suspended frequently due to the page faults caused by the incomplete memory while VM is restored to run on destination host, which may lead to an extremely negative affect on VM work efficiency. To solve this problem, this paper proposes the pre-record algorithm. Pre-record extends the VM execution on source host, records the accessed memory pages during this period to obtain pre-recorded page set (PPS), and preferentially completes the migration of PPS to avoid page faults as much as possible. It also proposes PDoPMP algorithm to analysis the trend of the trajectory of memory address in PPS, in order to further expand the predict range of memory pages. The experimental results show that the pre-record has better efficiency than traditional post-copy, especially after combining with PDoPMP. It could obviously reduce the page faults number and then the total VM migration time without prolonging the downtime, and could improve VM migration efficiency under different workload and network conditions.
Towards User-Centered Assistance in Smart Environments Based on Device Metadata

Smart environments are composed of heterogeneous smart devices and interface modalities that make a smart environment complex in its structure. This complexity can be challenging for users, in particular for elderly, while interacting with a smart environment. To address this problem, we introduce a framework for a user-centered assistance in smart environments allowing users to get an overview of relevant functions of the smart environment and to obtain support for optimizing their home automation based on the users needs. This assistance achieved through the framework aims to reduce the perceived complexity of smart environments for users, so that especially elderly users can be supported by the smart environment. This paper focuses on the framework consisting on the one hand of a Digital Agent processing data and providing an adaptive user interface. On the other hand a Device-Interface is a further component of the framework providing access to context data of smart environments being a requirement for the Digital Agent to perform its tasks.
Research on Impact Factors of User's Continuance Intention in Online Education Platform

With the rapid development of Internet technology in China, digital online learning has become a new way for people to receive education. The scale of online education users has been growing rapidly as well as online education industry, which has broad and large market prospects. Many online education enterprises began to consider an important issue that how to attract and maintain users and make online education become more commercial. Under the backgrounds, this study takes the commercial online education platform as the research object, and based on previous researches, it integrates Echnology Acceptance Model (EAM), Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and constructs impact factors model. Based on the results, this study also puts forward some targeted operational strategies to improve the user's intention.
Wholegrain cereals and bread: a duet of the Mediterranean diet for the prevention of chronic diseases

Abstract Objective The promotion of healthy lifestyles is one of the major goals of governments and international agencies all over the world. Wholegrain cereals are rich in nutrients and many phytochemical compounds, with recognised benefits for health, including dietary fibre, a number of phenolic compounds, lignans, vitamins and minerals and other bioactive components. The aim of the present work is to review the fundamental studies that support the consumption of wholegrain cereals and bread to prevent chronic diseases. Design Descriptive review considering human studies. Setting and subjects Subjects included in randomised intervention trials and cohort studies from different countries published up to 2010. Results Several studies show consistently that subjects who ingest three or more portions of foods per day based on wholegrain cereals have a 20–30 % lower risk of CVD than subjects who ingest low quantities of cereals. This level of protection is not observed with the ingestion of refined cereals, these being even higher than with the intake of fruit and vegetables. Likewise, high intake of wholegrain cereals and their products, such as whole-wheat bread, is associated with a 20–30 % reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes. Finally, protection against the risk of colorectal cancer and polyps, other cancers of the digestive tract, cancers related to hormones and pancreatic cancer has been associated with the regular consumption of wholegrain cereals and derived products. Conclusions The regular intake of wholegrain cereals can contribute to reduction of risk factors related to non-communicable chronic diseases.
Review of short-wave infrared spectroscopy and imaging methods for biological tissue characterization

Abstract. We present a review of short-wave infrared (SWIR, defined here as ∼1000 to 2000 nm) spectroscopy and imaging techniques for biological tissue optical property characterization. Studies indicate notable SWIR absorption features of tissue constituents including water (near 1150, 1450, and 1900 nm), lipids (near 1040, 1200, 1400, and 1700 nm), and collagen (near 1200 and 1500 nm) that are much more prominent than corresponding features observed in the visible and near-infrared (VIS-NIR, defined here as ∼400 to 1000 nm). Furthermore, the wavelength dependence of the scattering coefficient has been observed to follow a power-law decay from the VIS-NIR to the SWIR region. Thus, the magnitude of tissue scattering is lower at SWIR wavelengths than that observed at VIS or NIR wavelengths, potentially enabling increased penetration depth of incident light at SWIR wavelengths that are not highly absorbed by the aforementioned chromophores. These aspects of SWIR suggest that the tissue spectroscopy and imaging in this range of wavelengths have the potential to provide enhanced sensitivity (relative to VIS-NIR measurements) to chromophores such as water and lipids, thereby helping to characterize changes in the concentrations of these chromophores due to conditions such as atherosclerotic plaque, breast cancer, and burns.
Activity Patterns in the Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus during and after Awakening from Etomidate Anesthesia

Background:The anesthetic properties of etomidate are largely mediated by &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptors. There is evidence for the existence of &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptor subtypes in the brain, which respond to small concentrations of etomidate. After awakening from anesthesia, these subtypes are expected to cause cognitive dysfunction for a yet unknown period of time. The corresponding patterns of brain electrical activity and the molecular identity of &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptors contributing to these actions remain to be elucidated. Methods:Anesthesia was induced in wild-type and &bgr;3(N265M) knock-in mice by intravenous injection of 10 mg/kg etomidate. Local field potentials were recorded simultaneously in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus using chronically implanted electrode arrays. Local field potentials were sampled before, during, and after anesthesia. Results:In the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of wild-type mice, intravenous bolus injection of etomidate evoked isoelectric baselines and subsequent burst suppression. These effects were largely attenuated by the &bgr;3(N265M) mutation. During emergence from anesthesia, power density in the &thgr; band (5–15 Hz) transiently increased in the hippocampus of wild types, but not in the mutants, indicating that this action was caused by the receptors harboring &bgr;3 subunits. In both genotypes, etomidate produced a long-lasting (> 1 h after recovery of righting reflexes) decrease in &thgr;-peak frequency. Significant slowing of &thgr; activity was apparent in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Conclusions:Etomidate-induced patterns of brain activity during deep anesthesia mostly involve actions at &bgr;3 containing &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A receptors. During the postanesthesia period, altered &thgr;-band activity indicates ongoing anesthetic action.
Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 Impairs Homing of Intracoronary Delivered Mesenchymal Stem Cells in a Porcine Reperfused Myocardial Infarction: Comparison With Intramyocardial Cell Delivery

Background Intracoronary (IC) injection of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) results in a prompt decrease of absolute myocardial blood flow (AMF) with late and incomplete recovery of myocardial tissue perfusion. Here, we investigated the effect of decreased AMF on oxidative stress marker matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and its influence on the fate and homing and paracrine character of MSCs after IC or intramyocardial cell delivery in a closed-chest reperfused myocardial infarction (MI) model in pigs. Methods Porcine MSCs were transiently transfected with Ad-Luc and Ad-green fluorescent protein (GFP). One week after MI, the GFP-Luc-MSCs were injected either IC (group IC, 11.00 ± 1.07 × 106) or intramyocardially (group IM, 9.88 ± 1.44 × 106). AMF was measured before, immediately after, and 24 h post GFP-Luc-MSC delivery. In vitro bioluminescence signal was used to identify tissue samples containing GFP-Luc-MSCs. Myocardial tissue MMP-2 and CXCR4 receptor expression (index of homing signal) were measured in bioluminescence positive and negative infarcted and border, and non-ischemic myocardial areas 1-day post cell transfer. At 7-day follow-up, myocardial homing (cadherin, CXCR4, and stromal derived factor-1alpha) and angiogenic [fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and VEGF] were quantified by ELISA of homogenized myocardial tissues from the bioluminescence positive and negative infarcted and border, and non-ischemic myocardium. Biodistribution of the implanted cells was quantified by using Luciferase assay and confirmed by fluorescence immunochemistry. Global left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was measured at baseline and 1-month post cell therapy using magnet resonance image. Results AMF decreased immediately after IC cell delivery, while no change in tissue perfusion was found in the IM group (42.6 ± 11.7 vs. 56.9 ± 16.7 ml/min, p = 0.018). IC delivery led to a significant increase in myocardial MMP-2 64 kD expression (448 ± 88 vs. 315 ± 54 intensity × mm2, p = 0.021), and decreased expression of CXCR4 (592 ± 50 vs. 714 ± 54 pg/tissue/ml, p = 0.006), with significant exponential decay between MMP-2 and CXCR4 (r = 0.679, p < 0.001). FGF2 and VEGF of the bioluminescence infarcted and border zone of homogenized tissues were significantly elevated in the IM goups as compared to IC group. LVEF increase was significantly higher in IM group (0.8 ± 8.4 vs 5.3 ± 5.2%, p = 0.046) at the 1-month follow up. Conclusion Intracoronary stem cell delivery decreased AMF, with consequent increase in myocardial expression of MMP-2 and reduced CXCR4 expression with lower level of myocardial homing and angiogenic factor release as compared to IM cell delivery.
Sinusoidal Current Operation of a DFIG-DC System Without Stator Voltage Sensors

This paper presents a sinusoidal current control scheme for the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-DC system to reduce the harmonic current losses of the stator and rotor windings. The DFIG-DC system can be controlled as an open-winding system if the DFIG is equivalent in the Г circuit. The stator is connected to the dc link through the diode bridge and the rotor is connected to the same dc link through the rotor-side converter. A phase-locked loop based on stator flux is applied for estimating not only the stator frequency but also the angle of stator flux linkage. The sinusoidal stator current can be achieved by injecting appropriate harmonic voltages to the rotor side. The rotor harmonic voltages are produced by applying the stator voltage directly without employing a series of resonant controllers. Since the voltage of the diode bridge depends on the direction of the flowing current, the stator voltage of DFIG can be expressed by the stator current avoiding the stator voltage sensors. In this way, the harmonic current losses of the stator and rotor windings can be greatly reduced, which is beneficial for system efficiency. Furthermore, the torque ripple and power ripple can also be reduced, which is a good operation condition of the DFIG-DC system. The proposed control method is validated through experiments.
Optimizing the Enterprise Search

NoSQL solutions are used for search in large data volumes of unstructured data, mostly for the search of the public data. The problem is how to use the technology for effective search of enterprise data where users access rights apply. The search mechanism has to be organized in a way to work fast on a large volume of data to return only the results a user has access to. An objective of our research is to create such a search mechanism. We evaluate several types and brands of NoSQL databases and select the most appropriate for the solution of the problem on hand. We use a polyglot persistence model that advocates to use several technologies inside a solution to profit from the strength of each. The solution we created uses an SQL database for the input and maintenance of the current data and a NoSQL Elasticsearch database for the search and retrieval of data. We created a methodology as well to evaluate the performance of the solution (and a search mechanism in particular). The evaluation results on a 1 million document database show that the data requests of a flow generated by 2000 user base are processed in 0.14 seconds in average. The evaluation tests are performed on a one node Elasticsearch database on a commodity server hence the proposed solution should be regarded as an effective way to handle search of enterprise data.
Center of Mass Estimation Using Motion Capture System

In this paper a center of mass estimation technique that uses the Weighted Segmental method and a motion capture system is presented. Balance is an essential ability needed by all humans for everyday routine activities. Therefore, improving balance ability results in a better and more convenient way of living. There are various major factors and aspects influence on balance, it is important to know which aspects have the greatest effect. And that is the focus of proposed research and experimental testing. The process of estimating the center of mass in a human body depends on the center of pressure of the body, human balance is strongly related to both of them. The center of pressure is the projection of the center of mass onto the XY plane, which can be found using a force plate. In this work, we used a Wii Balance Board with a compatible output program to replace the force plate, which reduced the cost of the system by $5,000-10,000 dollars. Based on the tests, 90% of accuracy was achieved for the center of pressure measurement. The motion capture system is operated from a laptop or desktop computer. Three calibrated cameras detect passive markers attached on the test subject. Weighted Segmental equations are generated and the center of mass of each segment and whole body are calculated and plotted based on recorded 3-dimensional data by the motion capture system and the force plate. Coupled with a passive marker motion capture system, we are able to mathematically determine the center of mass.
Bistability through Triadic Closure

We propose and analyze a class of evolving network models suitable for describing a dynamic topological structure. Applications include telecommunication, online social behavior, and information processing in neuroscience. We model the evolving network as a discrete-time Markov chain and study a very general framework in which edges conditioned on the current state appear or disappear independently at the next time step. We show how to exploit symmetries in the microscopic, localized rules in order to obtain conjugate classes of random graphs that simplify analysis and calibration of a model. Further, we develop a mean field theory for describing network evolution. For a simple but realistic scenario incorporating the triadic closure effect that has been empirically observed by social scientists (friends of friends tend to become friends), the mean field theory predicts bistable dynamics, and computational results confirm this prediction. We also discuss the calibration issue for a set of real cellphone data, and find support for a block model in which individuals are assigned to one of two distinct groups having different within-group and across-group dynamics.
The Structure of PrPSc Prions

PrPSc (scrapie isoform of the prion protein) prions are the infectious agent behind diseases such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle, chronic wasting disease in cervids (deer, elk, moose, and reindeer), as well as goat and sheep scrapie. PrPSc is an alternatively folded variant of the cellular prion protein, PrPC, which is a regular, GPI-anchored protein that is present on the cell surface of neurons and other cell types. While the structure of PrPC is well studied, the structure of PrPSc resisted high-resolution determination due to its general insolubility and propensity to aggregate. Cryo-electron microscopy, X-ray fiber diffraction, and a variety of other approaches defined the structure of PrPSc as a four-rung β-solenoid. A high-resolution structure of PrPSc still remains to be solved, but the four-rung β-solenoid architecture provides a molecular framework for the autocatalytic propagation mechanism that gives rise to the alternative conformation of PrPSc. Here, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the structure of PrPSc and speculate about the molecular conversion mechanisms that leads from PrPC to PrPSc.
N-Glycolyl GM3 Ganglioside as a Relevant Tumor Antigen in Humans

It is known, human cells are incapable of synthesizing the N-glycolyl neuraminic acid (NeuGc) due to the inactivation of the cytidine monophospho-N-acetyl-neuraminic acid hydroxylase, the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of this sialic acid. Conversely, the aberrant expression of NeuGc-sialoconjugates has been detected in humans, although preferentially in malignant tissues. The more accepted hypothesis for the presence of NeuGc in human malignancies is associated with its incorporation from dietary sources to the altered metabolism of malignant cells which is also favored by the hypoxic conditions of tumors. However, the significance of NeuGccontaining conjugates in tumor biology as well as its clinical implications is still under investigation. One of these molecules is Nglycolyl GM3 ganglioside (NeuGcGM3).
Therapeutic effects of neurotrophic factors in experimental spinal cord injury models

© 2016 Enomoto. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress. com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php). Journal of Neurorestoratology 2016:4 15–22 submit your manuscript | www.dovepress. com
Phase Limitations of Zames–Falb Multipliers

Phase limitations of both continuous-time and discrete-time Zames–Falb multipliers and their relation with the Kalman conjecture are analyzed. A phase limitation for continuous-time multipliers given by Megretski is generalized and its applicability is clarified; its relation to the Kalman conjecture is illustrated with a classical example from the literature. It is demonstrated that there exist fourth-order plants where the existence of a suitable Zames– Falb multiplier can be discarded and for which simulations show unstable behavior. A novel phase limitation for discrete-time Zames–Falb multipliers is developed. Its application is demonstrated with a second-order counterexample to the Kalman conjecture. Finally, the discrete-time limitation is used to show that there can be no direct counterpart of the off-axis circle criterion in the discrete-time domain.