Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Soft-Tissue Restraints After Type II Odontoid Fractures in the Elderly: A Biomechanical Study

Study Design. A biomechanical analysis of soft-tissue restraints to passive motion in odontoid fractures. Objective. To quantify the role of the C1–C2 facet joint capsules and anterior longitudinal ligaments (ALLs) in the setting of a type II odontoid fracture in the elderly. Summary of Background Data. The odontoid process itself is the primary stabilizer at the C1–C2 level; however, little is known about the role of the soft-tissue structures that remain intact in the setting of an odontoid fracture after a low-energy mechanism. Methods. Ten cadaveric C0–C2 spinal segments were studied. Specimens were tested under simulated axial rotation with an applied moment of ±1 Nm and with an application of a 10 N anteriorly directed force to the body of C2 to induce sagittal translation. Optical motion data were initially collected for the intact state and after a simulated dens fracture. The specimens were then divided into 2 groups, where 1 group underwent unilateral and then bilateral C1–C2 facet capsular injuries followed by an ALL injury. The second group underwent the ALL injury before the same capsular injuries. Changes in axial range of motion and C1–C2 translation were analyzed using 2-way repeated measures analyses of variance and post hoc Student-Newman-Keuls tests (&agr; = 0.05). Results. In axial rotation, there was an increase in range of motion by approximately 13%, with the fracture of the dens compared with the intact state (P < 0.05). An increase was also present for each subsequent soft-tissue injury state compared with the previous (P < 0.05); however, there was no difference found between the 2 sectioning protocols. For sagittal translation testing, it was found that the odontoid fracture alone showed an increase of 3 mm of C1–C2 translation compared with intact (P < 0.05). Further soft-tissue injuries did not show an increase until the complete injury state. Conclusion. This study identifies that type II odontoid fractures without associated soft-tissue injury may be stable under certain loading modes.
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences the Effect of Five Proteins on Stem Cells Used for Osteoblast Differentiation and Proliferation: a Current Review of the Literature

morphology, and proliferation of pluripotent and multipo-tent cells. Likewise, in the second stage of differentiation, surface coating with BMP2 decreases the diameter and the pore size of the scaffold, causing better adhesion and reduced proliferation of BMP-MSCs. Coating oligomeriza-tion surfaces with OPN and BSP promotes cell adhesion, but it is clear that the polymeric coating material BSP alone is insufficient to induce priming of MSCs and functional osteoblastic differentiation in vivo. Finally, TN is involved in mineralization and can accelerate new bone formation in a multicellular environment but has no effect on the initial stage of osteogenesis. Abbreviations BMSCs Bone marrow stromal cells CaP Calcium phosphate ESCs Embryonic stem cells ECM Extracellular matrix FN Fibronectin HA Hydroxyapatite MSCs Mesenchymal stem cells PEA Poly(ethyl acrylate) PLLA Poly(l-lactic acid) TG Tissue transglutaminase ADSCs Adipose-derived stromal cells ASCs Adult human adipose-derived stem cells ALP Alkaline phosphatase BMPs Bone morphogenetic proteins FGF Fibroblast growth factor HGF Hepatocyte growth factor JNK c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase MMP Metalloproteinase Abstract Bone-tissue engineering is a therapeutic target in the field of dental implant and orthopedic surgery. It is therefore essential to find a microenvironment that enhances the growth and differentiation of osteoblasts both from mes-enchymal stem cells (MSCs) and those derived from dental pulp. The aim of this review is to determine the relationship among the proteins fibronectin (FN), osteopontin (OPN), tenascin (TN), bone sialoprotein (BSP), and bone morpho-genetic protein (BMP2) and their ability to coat different types of biomaterials and surfaces to enhance osteoblast differentiation. Pre-treatment of biomaterials with FN during the initial phase of osteogenic differentiation on all types of surfaces, including slotted titanium and polymers, provides an ideal microenvironment that enhances adhesion, 114 P. Chatakun et al.
An integrative approach combining ion mobility mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the conformational dynamics of α1-antitrypsin upon ligand binding

Native mass spectrometry (MS) methods permit the study of multiple protein species within solution equilibria, whereas ion mobility (IM)‐MS can report on conformational behavior of specific states. We used IM‐MS to study a conformationally labile protein (α1‐antitrypsin) that undergoes pathological polymerization in the context of point mutations. The folded, native state of the Z‐variant remains highly polymerogenic in physiological conditions despite only minor thermodynamic destabilization relative to the wild‐type variant. Various data implicate kinetic instability (conformational lability within a native state ensemble) as the basis of Z α1‐antitrypsin polymerogenicity. We show the ability of IM‐MS to track such disease‐relevant conformational behavior in detail by studying the effects of peptide binding on α1‐antitrypsin conformation and dynamics. IM‐MS is, therefore, an ideal platform for the screening of compounds that result in therapeutically beneficial kinetic stabilization of native α1‐antitrypsin. Our findings are confirmed with high‐resolution X‐ray crystallographic and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies of the same event, which together dissect structural changes from dynamic effects caused by peptide binding at a residue‐specific level. IM‐MS methods, therefore, have great potential for further study of biologically relevant thermodynamic and kinetic instability of proteins and provide rapid and multidimensional characterization of ligand interactions of therapeutic interest.
Modified Neural Network Algorithms for Predicting Trading Signals of Stock Market Indices

The aim of this paper is to present modified neural network algorithms to predict whether it is best to buy, hold, or sell shares (trading signals) of stock market indices. Most commonly used classification techniques are not successful in predicting trading signals when the distribution of the actual trading signals, among these three classes, is imbalanced. The modified network algorithms are based on the structure of feedforward neural networks and a modified Ordinary Least Squares (OLSs) error function. An adjustment relating to the contribution from the historical data used for training the networks and penalisation of incorrectly classified trading signals were accounted for, when modifying the OLS function. A global optimization algorithm was employed to train these networks. These algorithms were employed to predict the trading signals of the Australian All Ordinary Index. The algorithms with the modified error functions introduced by this study produced better predictions.
Preschoolers prefer to learn causal information

Young children, in general, appear to have a strong drive to explore the environment in ways that reveal its underlying causal structure. But are they really attuned specifically to casual information in this quest for understanding, or do they show equal interest in other types of non-obvious information about the world? To answer this question, we introduced 20 three-year-old children to two puppets who were anxious to tell the child about a set of novel artifacts and animals. One puppet consistently described causal properties of the items while the other puppet consistently described carefully matched non-causal properties of the same items. After a familiarization period in which children learned which type of information to expect from each informant, children were given the opportunity to choose which they wanted to hear describe each of eight pictured test items. On average, children chose to hear from the informant that provided causal descriptions on 72% of the trials. This preference for causal information has important implications for explaining the role of conceptual information in supporting early learning and may suggest means for maximizing interest and motivation in young children.
Prospective Associations of Vitamin D With β-Cell Function and Glycemia

OBJECTIVE To examine the prospective associations of baseline vitamin D [25-hydroxyvitamin D; 25(OH)D] with insulin resistance (IR), β-cell function, and glucose homeostasis in subjects at risk for type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We followed 489 subjects, aged 50 ± 10 years, for 3 years. At baseline and follow-up, 75-g oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) were administered. IR was measured using the Matsuda index (ISOGTT) and the homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR), β-cell function was determined using both the insulinogenic index divided by HOMA-IR (IGI/IR) and the insulin secretion sensitivity index-2 (ISSI-2), and glycemia was assessed using the area under the glucose curve (AUCglucose). Regression models were adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, season, and baseline value of the outcome variable, as well as baseline and change in physical activity, vitamin D supplement use, and BMI. RESULTS Multivariate linear regression analyses indicated no significant association of baseline 25(OH)D with follow-up ISOGTT or HOMA-IR. There were, however, significant positive associations of baseline 25(OH)D with follow-up IGI/IR (β = 0.005, P = 0.015) and ISSI-2 (β = 0.002, P = 0.023) and a significant inverse association of baseline 25(OH)D with follow-up AUCglucose (β = −0.001, P = 0.007). Progression to dysglycemia (impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or type 2 diabetes) occurred in 116 subjects. Logistic regression analyses indicated a significant reduced risk of progression with higher baseline 25(OH)D (adjusted odds ratio 0.69 [95% CI 0.53–0.89]), but this association was not significant after additional adjustment for baseline and change in BMI (0.78 [0.59–1.02]). CONCLUSIONS Higher baseline 25(OH)D independently predicted better β-cell function and lower AUCglucose at follow-up, supporting a potential role for vitamin D in type 2 diabetes etiology.
The Tissue Specific Role of Estrogen and Progesterone in Human Endometrium and Mammary Gland

The purpose of this chapter is to review the tissue-specific role of estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) in human endometrium and mammary gland. It is well known that both E2 and P4 are essential for the development and differentiation of human endometrium and mammary gland, but the exact basis for differential tissue-specific signalling of E2 and P4 are still not fully understood. This chapter explores observed functions of two major female steroid hormones and their cognate receptors in normal physiology of human reproductive system but also in assisted reproductive technology and breast cancer treatment. The normal reproductive physiology requires tightly coordinated action of hypothalamus, pituitary gland, ovaries and endometrium. Also functioning of other endocrine units such as the thyroid and adrenal glands are essential for regular ovulation and cyclic changes. The production of ovarian steroid hormones is coordinated by the hypothalamic-pituitarygonadal axis which is activated in puberty (Figure 1). The hypothalamus produces and secretes luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH), which binds to its receptors in pituitary gland. This causes cascade of biochemical events culminating in the production of two hormones in pituitary gland, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). LH and FSH are secreted into the general blood circulation and attach to receptors on the ovary, where they trigger ovulation and stimulate the production of E2 and P4. Ovarian steroid hormones themselves have direct role in the development of the inner lining of the uterus but they also act as a positive feedback system to hypothalamus and pituitary gland for continuous cyclic changes until the beginning of menopause (Kanis and Stevenson, 1994). Cholesterol is the building block for all steroid hormones, which is carried into the bloodstream and through a sequence of enzymatic changes is synthesized into final products. In the bloodstream steroid hormones are distributed rapidly throughout the tissues and act on distant targets. This secretory process is called endocrine action and the function of many target tissues as mammary gland, brain, bones, liver and heart are affected by circulating hormones. Steroid hormones can also act very close to their site of secretion
Induction of Lipoprotein Lipase Gene Expression in 3T3-L1 Preadipocytes by Atorvastatin, a Cholesterol- and Triglyceride-Lowering Drug

Atorvastatin is a drug of choice in the treatment of coronary heart disease, because this hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme reductase inhibitor significantly decreases plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels. However, little is known about the underlying molecular targets of this drug. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL), an enzyme with multiple functions in non-hepatic lipid metabolism, may be a potential candidate and LPL gene expression may increase in response to a treatment with atorvastatin. In order to verify this hypothesis, mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were incubated with 1 and 10 µmol/l atorvastatin for 24 and 48 h and LPL mRNA concentration was measured by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Our data indicated that atorvastatin increased LPL mRNA concentration by a time- and dose-dependent mechanism. LPL mRNA concentration was significantly increased by 82% with 10 µmol/l atorvastatin after 48 h. LPL mRNA concentration was 28% greater (not significant) than control with 10 µmol/l atorvastatin after 24 h. No increase was obtained with 1 µmol/l atorvastatin after 24 or 48 h. The first 976 nucleotides of rat LPL promoter were transfected in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Addition of 10 µmol/l atorvastatin for 48 h resulted in a 44% increase of rat LPL promoter activity. This study demonstrates for the first time that a statin can regulate LPL gene expression transcriptionally in preadipocytes.
Overexpression of Tbx3 is correlated with Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition phenotype and predicts poor prognosis of colorectal cancer.

AIMS To investigate the clinical significance of Tbx3 in colorectal cancer (CRC) and the possible association between Tbx3 expression and Epithelial- Transition Mesenchymal (EMT) phenotype. METHODS Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting were employed to evaluate the expression of Tbx3 in 30 fresh CRC and matched normal tissues. Using immunochemistry, protein level of Tbx3 and EMT markers (E-cadherin and N-cadherin) were identified in 150 pairs of paraffin-embedded specimen. RESULTS The results of qRT-PCR and western blotting showed that Tbx3 expression was higher in CRC tissues than in corresponding normal tissues. The statistical analysis based on immunohistochemical evaluation suggested that Tbx3 aberrant expression was significantly associated with tumor size (P=0.049), differentiation (P=0.032), invasion (P=0.019), lymph node metastasis (P=0.049) and TNM stage (P=0.018). Patients who displayed high expression of Tbx3 may achieve a poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), compared to those with low expression of Tbx3. This tendency was also observed in patients with intermediate levels of disease (II and III stage). The multivariate analysis indicated Tbx3 expression could independently predict the outcome of CRC patients. Interestingly, correlation analysis suggested Tbx3 expression was negatively correlated with E-cadherin expression, but positively correlated with N-cadherin expression. CONCLUSION Tbx3 may promote CRC progression by involving EMT program and has the potential to be an effective prognostic predictor for CRC patients.
High sensitivity of spontaneous spike frequency to sodium leak current in a Lymnaea pacemaker neuron

The spontaneous rhythmic firing of action potentials in pacemaker neurons depends on the biophysical properties of voltage‐gated ion channels and background leak currents. The background leak current includes a large K+ and a small Na+ component. We previously reported that a Na+‐leak current via U‐type channels is required to generate spontaneous action potential firing in the identified respiratory pacemaker neuron, RPeD1, in the freshwater pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. We further investigated the functional significance of the background Na+ current in rhythmic spiking of RPeD1 neurons. Whole‐cell patch‐clamp recording and computational modeling approaches were carried out in isolated RPeD1 neurons. The whole‐cell current of the major ion channel components in RPeD1 neurons were characterized, and a conductance‐based computational model of the rhythmic pacemaker activity was simulated with the experimental measurements. We found that the spiking rate is more sensitive to changes in the Na+ leak current as compared to the K+ leak current, suggesting a robust function of Na+ leak current in regulating spontaneous neuronal firing activity. Our study provides new insight into our current understanding of the role of Na+ leak current in intrinsic properties of pacemaker neurons.
Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in the United States During 2012–2013: Variable Protection by Age and Virus Type

Background. During the 2012–2013 influenza season, there was cocirculation of influenza A(H3N2) and 2 influenza B lineage viruses in the United States. Methods. Patients with acute cough illness for ≤7 days were prospectively enrolled and had swab samples obtained at outpatient clinics in 5 states. Influenza vaccination dates were confirmed by medical records. The vaccine effectiveness (VE) was estimated as [100% × (1 − adjusted odds ratio)] for vaccination in cases versus test-negative controls. Results. Influenza was detected in 2307 of 6452 patients (36%); 1292 (56%) had influenza A(H3N2), 582 (25%) had influenza B/Yamagata, and 303 (13%) had influenza B/Victoria. VE was 49% (95% confidence interval [CI], 43%–55%) overall, 39% (95% CI, 29%–47%) against influenza A(H3N2), 66% (95% CI, 58%–73%) against influenza B/Yamagata (vaccine lineage), and 51% (95% CI, 36%–63%) against influenza B/Victoria. VE against influenza A(H3N2) was highest among persons aged 50–64 years (52%; 95% CI, 33%–65%) and persons aged 6 months–8 years (51%; 95% CI, 32%–64%) and lowest among persons aged ≥65 years (11%; 95% CI, −41% to 43%). In younger age groups, there was evidence of residual protection from receipt of the 2011–2012 vaccine 1 year earlier. Conclusions. The 2012–2013 vaccines were moderately effective in most age groups. Cross-lineage protection and residual effects from prior vaccination were observed and warrant further investigation.
Cognitive Polar Receiver Using Two Injection-Locked Oscillator Stages

A novel cognitive polar receiver that utilizes two injection-locked oscillator stages to extract the modulation envelope and phase components of a received nonconstant envelope modulation signal without using phase-locked-loop-based carrier recovery circuitry is presented. The paper begins with a theoretical analysis of injection locking and pulling phenomena based on the discrete-time computation approach, and then develops the principles of the proposed receiver. The implemented prototype can cover a sensing bandwidth of 140 MHz at a central frequency of 2.43 GHz and perform π/4 differential quadrature phase-shift keying and quadrature phase-shift keying demodulation with the best error vector magnitudes of 6.6% and 7.9%, respectively, both at a symbol rate of 2 Ms/s. Due to its simplicity, the proposed receiver has great potential as an energy-efficient architecture with low complexity for short-range wireless communications.
Self-organising temporal pooling

Temporal Pooling (TP) is a recent technique for processing temporal events by forming declarative representations of the complete sequences. In this paper, we examine and extend the functionality of the existing TP algorithm from the Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) framework and introduce the Self-Organising Temporal Pooling (SOTP) architecture. The SOTP draws together the Merge Self-Organising Map (MSOM) and a new algorithm termed the Modified Temporal Pooler (MTP) to produce functionality not yet seen in a TP. This new architecture is shown to be capable of producing stable declarative representations of sequences that activate consistently for each item in that sequence.
IPA and STOUT: Leveraging Linguistic and Source-based Features for Machine Translation Evaluation

This paper describes the UPC submissions to the WMT14 Metrics Shared Task : UPC-IPA and UPC-STOUT. These metrics use a collection of evaluation measures integrated in ASIYA, a toolkit for machine translation evaluation. In addition to some standard metrics, the two submissions take advantage of novel metrics that consider linguistic structures, lexical relationships, and semantics to compare both source and reference translation against the candidate translation. The new metrics are available for several target languages other than English. In the the official WMT14 evaluation, UPC-IPA and UPC-STOUT scored above the average in 7 out of 9 language pairs at the system level and 8 out of 9 at the segment level.
Residential Appliances Identification and Monitoring by a Nonintrusive Method

The method presented in this paper is based on new residential appliances classification and an events detect model. The whole identification and monitoring system is designed in a financially viable and easily applicable method that is ensured by followed two aspects: first, the only senor is one a meter installed to the main electric supply of a residence; second, the model of appliance is absolutely unsupervised. The classification factors of the appliances are main power consumption unit and working styles. The new events detector is simple enough to install into the sensor/meter. The final identification uses mean-shift clustering and multidimensional linear discriminates. Actual trials in situ and their results are presented to reveal the performance of the system.
Multi-a(ge)nt Graph Patrolling and Partitioning

Abstract--- We introduce a novel multi agent patrolling algorithm inspired by the behavior of gas filled balloons. Very low capability ant-like agents are considered with the task of patrolling an unknown area modeled as a graph. While executing the proposed algorithm, the agents dynamically partition the graph between them using simple local interactions, every agent assuming the responsibility for patrolling his subgraph. Balanced graph partition is an emergent behavior due to the local interactions between the agents in the swarm. Extensive simulations on various graphs (environments) showed that the average time to reach a balanced partition is linear with the graph size. The simulations yielded a convincing argument for conjecturing that if the graph being patrolled contains a balanced partition, the agents will find it. However, we could not prove this. Nevertheless, we have proved that if a balanced partition is reached, the maximum time lag between two successive visits to any vertex using the proposed strategy is at most twice the optimal so the patrol quality is at least half the optimal. In case of weighted graphs the patrol quality is at least lmin/2lmax of the optimal where lmax(lmin) is the longest (shortest) edge in the graph.