Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vivo Transplantation of Enteric Neural Crest Cells into Mouse Gut; Engraftment, Functional Integration and Long-Term Safety

Objectives Enteric neuropathies are severe gastrointestinal disorders with unsatisfactory outcomes. We aimed to investigate the potential of enteric neural stem cell therapy approaches for such disorders by transplanting mouse enteric neural crest cells (ENCCs) into ganglionic and aganglionic mouse gut in vivo and analysing functional integration and long-term safety. Design Neurospheres generated from yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) expressing ENCCs selected from postnatal Wnt1-cre;R26R-YFP/YFP murine gut were transplanted into ganglionic hindgut of wild-type littermates or aganglionic hindgut of Ednrbtm1Ywa mice (lacking functional endothelin receptor type-B). Intestines were then assessed for ENCC integration and differentiation using immunohistochemistry, cell function using calcium imaging, and long-term safety using PCR to detect off-target YFP expression. Results YFP+ ENCCs engrafted, proliferated and differentiated into enteric neurons and glia within recipient ganglionic gut. Transplanted cells and their projections spread along the endogenous myenteric plexus to form branching networks. Electrical point stimulation of endogenous nerve fibres resulted in calcium transients (F/F0 = 1.16±0.01;43 cells, n = 6) in YFP+ transplanted ENCCs (abolished with TTX). Long-term follow-up (24 months) showed transplanted ENCCs did not give rise to tumours or spread to other organs (PCR negative in extraintestinal sites). In aganglionic gut ENCCs similarly spread and differentiated to form neuronal and glial networks with projections closely associated with endogenous neural networks of the transition zone. Conclusions Transplanted ENCCs successfully engrafted into recipient ganglionic and aganglionic gut showing appropriate spread, localisation and, importantly, functional integration without any long-term safety issues. This study provides key support for the development and use of enteric neural stem cell therapies.
A survey of clinicians: prioritization of dental treatment in leukemia patients prior to chemotherapy.

PURPOSE Chronic oral and dental infections that may remain benign and asymptomatic in healthy individuals can develop into serious and life-threatening conditions when leukemia patients undergo chemotherapy. There is a general consensus that elimination of chronic dental and oral infections prior to chemotherapy reduces the risk of serious problems that may require hospitalization. The limited time available for dental treatment prior to chemotherapy forces clinicians to prioritize. The aim of this study was to determine how hospital-based clinicians who routinely see leukemia patients prioritize dental treatment prior to chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A survey was conducted that targeted the membership of the American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics because a large number of these clinicians had first-hand experience in managing leukemia patients. RESULTS The consensus was that apical radiolucencies and severe periodontitis must be eliminated. Opinions differed regarding whether and how mild periodontal pathology and caries lesions should be treated. CONCLUSION Most of the surveyed practitioners believed that infectious processes that invade the bone pose the highest risk if left untreated prior to chemotherapy.
Modules Design of a Reconfigurable Multi-Legged Walking Robot

This paper aims at the design of a modular robot called "MiniQuad I" which is reconfigurable both in leg and body. MiniQuad I is composed by three kinds of essential modules, which are joint modules, leg modules and the body module. It can be reconfigured into variety configurations, including quadruped and hexapod configurations for different tasks by changing the layout of modules. Critical design considerations when considering the adaptability, maintainability and extensibility simultaneously are discussed and then detailed designs of each module are presented. A prototype of MiniQuad I is built and a biomemitic controller is applied to exam the reconfigurability by using those modules. Simulations and experiments on crawling and object picking are performed to verify functions of the MiniQuad I.
Longitudinal Evaluation of a Preparation Program for Mandatory Military Service

This multivariate longitudinal study explored the relative contribution of 12th-grade students' (a) participation in a preparation program for mandatory military service, (b) feelings of adjustment at high school, and (c) perceptions of school climate to their evaluation of the program's impact on them, as well as to their later adjustment to military service. The sample included 247 male and female 12th graders, divided into an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group participated in a 10-meeting preparation program focusing on the enhancement of empowerment feelings regarding entrance into military service. We conducted measurements at three points in time: (a) before exposure to the preparation program, (b) after exposure to the preparation program, and (c) 6–12 months after military enlistment. Research findings supported the notion that the preparation program had a short-term impact on students' feelings of preparedness for military service. Activities in which students were directly exposed to military life or to Army representatives gained more positive evaluations. But some of the activities conducted by school staff were also positively related to the overall evaluation of the program's contribution to preparedness. However, in the long run, students' later military adjustment was not related to participation in the preparation program but rather to their pre-intervention attitudes toward military enlistment as well as their preliminary general feeling of adjustment. Altogether, study findings indicate that the preparation program had a positive impact mainly for those students who manage well in high school before enlistment. Hence, it is suggested that efforts to foster school-to-Army transition should unfold in a three-step process: (a) preliminary screening for maladaptive behavior, (b) pre-enlistment preparation, and (c) post-enlistment support to all recruits.
On the Adult's Ability to Acquire Phonology

During the preparation phase of research designed to test the strong version of the critical period hypothesis, the author noted a marked discrepancy between the perceptive and the productive performance of several English-French bilinguals who had evaluated the text instruments. Although these bilinguals spoke French with an English accent,; most were able to match the performance of native-speaking francophones on the initial version of the Foreign Accent Recognition Test especially prepared for the 1979 study. The inspiration for the research described here was drawn from the apparent asymmetry observed in the input and output of these fluent bilinguals. The Foreign Accent Recognition Test was administered to Englishspeaking students who were advanced learners of French and who had acquired their second language as adults. Although all Ss spoke French with traces of foreign accent, the investigator wished to know to what extent they could match the perceptive performance of native-speaking francophones. To assess the relevance of competence in L2 as a variable, another group of English-speaking adults who were less advanced in French was tested. The results of these follow-up studies are interpreted as tentative support for a dual model of linguistic competence. They also constitute, for the author, grounds for re-examining biological constraints in adult language learning as a psychomotor rather than psycholinguistic problem. When perusing the literature on child language, one notes with interest that learning ability is rarely discussed as a significant variable. Whether advocates of a species specific language acquisition device or proponents of a cognitive processing theory, first language acquisitionists accept without question that children possess the capacity to acquire native-like proficiency in their language at all linguistic levels. Although it has been shown that children vary in initial rate of acquisition and in the time at which they begin to use language systematically, these differences have not attracted serious attention in studies on first language acquisition. Our view of the child as indistinguishable from his peers with respect to language learning ability may change of course as a result of work conducted in the areas of pragmatics and individual
Finding common protein interaction patterns across organisms

Protein interactions are an important resource to obtain an understanding of cell function. Recently, researchers have compared networks of interactions in order to understand network evolution. While current methods first infer homologs and then compare topologies, we here present a method which first searches for interesting topologies and then looks for homologs. PINA (protein interaction network analysis) takes the protein interaction networks of two organisms, scans both networks for subnetworks deemed interesting, and then tries to find orthologs among the interesting subnetworks. The application is very fast because orthology investigations are restricted to subnetworks like hubs and clusters that fulfill certain criteria regarding neighborhood and connectivity. Finally, the hubs or clusters found to be related can be visualized and analyzed according to protein annotation.
Server selection for equalizing of performance in distributed cooperative system

In recent years, in distributed cooperative systems such as distributed file systems and online games, equalization of performance between collaborative nodes is one of important issues as well as explicit performance such as bandwidth, delay and packet loss rate. Selection of the server which can offer equal performance to collaborative nodes is necessary to offer equalized performance. Therefore, to achieve this problem, we propose a server selection method that select the server by calculating the circumcenter of collaborative nodes according to the distance between nodes obtained by performance measures. However, depending on the location of nodes, there is a problem that using circumcenter is not always sufficient to find the most appropriate server. In this paper, we also propose a method to improve the accuracy of server selection by solving the problem of using circumcenter by downhill simplex method. We show probability of selection of the most suitable server can be improved around 55 % compared to the the method using circumcenter.
Researchers’ experiences of focus group dynamics in Singapore, Australia and the Netherlands: troubling multicultural assumptions

Increasingly, research is being undertaken with people from diverse cultures, with many countries revitalising the foundations of their cultural heritage. Cultural sensitivity is an essential skill for researchers, and researchers are challenged to carefully consider cultural contexts of all research and data collection methods. In this paper, we describe and reflect on our experiences of facilitating qualitative research, specifically focus groups, across three continents and using a postmodern approach, deconstruct focus group utility. We offer four strategies for conducting focus groups that provide practical guidance suggestions for qualitative researchers facilitating focus groups in these populations. Our reflections reinforce that understanding our own multicultural assumptions and biases, being reflexive and mindful and using the suggested strategies to facilitate focus groups in different cultures may prevent researchers from adopting essentialist cultural stereotypes.
Combinatorial and Algorithmic Issues for Microarray Analysis

1 1 INTRODUCTION 2 1 Introduction J. Craig Venter declared in 1998: " We are now starting the Century of Biology ". This is undoubtedly true and has been recognized before. Gregory Benford was already pointing this fact in 1995 when he also noted that Physics has dominated the 20th century, as Chemistry had probably dominated the 19th century. In his own words: " And yet, far from the physics departments of the great campuses, a clarion call is sounding through our time, one that responds to hot-button environmental problems and that incorporates rapid advances in other laboratories: Biology has turned aggressively useful. " Among the novel and revolutionary biotechnologies, microarrays have been evolving fast in the past ten years and are reshaping our understanding of biological systems as well as shaking the grounds of biomedical research. Microarrays allow to monitor the expression of thousands of genes at once. A single experiment allows to text for billions of individual hypotheses. A query using the PubMed website 1 shows that more than 11,010 entries have already either the word " microarray " or " DNA array ". Almost all of these publications appeared in less than 10 years, approximately 70 percent of them appeared in print in the last two years. These high-throughput molecular assays generate immense datasets. These datasets have the potential to help us to understand biological systems in ways that are completely new. While huge promises are ritually proclaimed (personalized medicine, targeted therapies, genetic engineering for more efficient crops, etc.) [31], the challenges are equally enormous [42]. Not only biotechnologies are evolving fast, interestingly enough, combinatorial optimization has also turned to be an " aggressively useful " discipline. Many advances in exact algorithms, though worst-case exponential, are allowing increasingly larger instances to be solved to optimality. The development of fixed-parameter algorithms as a recognized subdiscipline of computational complexity, is aiming at a systematic development of data reduction methods that bound the search of optimal solutions. The development of metaheuristics starting with Simulated Annealing in 1983, followed by Tabu Search [33, 54] and Memetic Algorithms a few years later [45, 50], has allowed researchers to adapt ad hoc heuristics, and to develop very powerful stochastic algorithms for large-scale optimization problems. 1 INTRODUCTION 3 In spite of all the progress, sometimes combinatorial optimization methods have been naively applied in Bioinformatics, missing " the users real needs ". For a number …
Mining precise performance-aware behavioral models from existing instrumentation

Software bugs often arise from differences between what developers envision their system does and what that system actually does. When faced with such conceptual inconsistencies, debugging can be very difficult. Inferring and presenting developers with accurate behavioral models of the system implementation can help developers reconcile their view of the system with reality and improve system quality. We present Perfume, a model-inference algorithm that improves on the state of the art by using performance information to differentiate otherwise similar-appearing executions and to remove false positives from the inferred models. Perfume uses a system's runtime execution logs to infer a concise, precise, and predictive finite state machine model that describes both observed executions and executions that have not been observed but that the system can likely generate. Perfume guides the model inference process by mining temporal performance-constrained properties from the logs, ensuring precision of the model's predictions. We describe the model inference process and demonstrate how it improves precision over the state of the art.
CoSLAM: Collaborative Visual SLAM in Dynamic Environments

This paper studies the problem of vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in dynamic environments with multiple cameras. These cameras move independently and can be mounted on different platforms. All cameras work together to build a global map, including 3D positions of static background points and trajectories of moving foreground points. We introduce intercamera pose estimation and intercamera mapping to deal with dynamic objects in the localization and mapping process. To further enhance the system robustness, we maintain the position uncertainty of each map point. To facilitate intercamera operations, we cluster cameras into groups according to their view overlap, and manage the split and merge of camera groups in real time. Experimental results demonstrate that our system can work robustly in highly dynamic environments and produce more accurate results in static environments.
The mathematical competence of adults returning to learning on a university foundation programme: a selective comparison of performance with the CSMS study

This brief paper provides a snapshot of some of the mathematical competences of mature students on entry to a University Foundation Programme preparing students for a range of degree routes. As part of a pilot study, Foundation students were given a mathematics questionnaire containing some questions based on those used in the 1974-79 CSMS study (Hart, 1981) with the addition of confidence ratings. Whilst many of the results are as might be predicted, some results are perhaps more surprising. The purpose of this paper is to share some of these findings.
Integrating Text planning and linguistic choice without abandoning modularity: the IGEN generator

Natural language generation is usually divided into separate text planning and linguistic components. This division, though, assumes that the two components can operate independently, which is not always true. The IGEN generator eliminates the need for this assumption; it handles interactions between the components without sacrificing the advantages of modularity. IGEN accomplishes this by means of annotations that its linguistic component places on the structures it builds; these annotations provide an abstract description of the effects of particular linguistic choices, allowing the planner to evaluate these choices without needing any linguistic knowledge. This approach allows IGEN to vary the work done by each component independently, even in cases where the final output depends on interactions between them. In addition, since IGEN explicitly models the effects of linguistic choices, it can gracefully handle situations where the available time or linguistic resources are limited.
High-Speed Power-Line Communication and Its Application to a Localization System

This paper overviews the high-speed power-line communication (PLC) technology, and the related standardization and regulatory activities are described. PLC modems of 200 Mbps class become a practical use stage in the West, and the standardization activity is active now. The discussion for deregulation is being continued in also Japan, and regulation values have been proposed. Another topic in this paper is a sensor network application of PLC, which is an indoor fine-grained localization system by acoustic Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiplexed (DS-CDM) signals. The obtained average accuracy of the localization in a 4 m 2 plane was 1 cm if there was no obstacle. To realize the localization system, some novel ideas, such as PLC speakers, a synchronization method based on the zero-crossing timing of the mains frequency, and integrated wired/wireless PLC, are introduced.
Food Allergy and Helicobacter pylori Infection: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Based on the hygiene hypothesis, a low prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection may explain the recent high prevalence of allergic diseases including food allergy. However, there are very few studies that investigate the relationship between H. pylori and food allergy. Summary: We searched for PubMed, Ovid Medline and the Cochrane library for relevant articles published in English from inception to November 2015. The inverse relationship between H. pylori and food allergy remains unproven because of contradictory and limited evidence at the moment. Likewise, only limited studies have examined the relationship between CagA; one of H. pylori virulence factor and food allergy. On the other hand, in vitro evidence seems to point out a role of H. pylori in the causation of food allergy. The inconsistent results from epidemiological data may be due to small sample size, heterogeneous populations and unstandardised methods or food allergens. Conclusion: Available studies do not support the role of H. pylori in food allergy.
The non-receptor tyrosine kinase Lyn controls neutrophil adhesion by recruiting the CrkL–C3G complex and activating Rap1 at the leading edge

Establishing new adhesions at the extended leading edges of motile cells is essential for stable polarity and persistent motility. Despite recent identification of signaling pathways that mediate polarity and chemotaxis in neutrophils, little is known about molecular mechanisms governing cell–extracellular-matrix (ECM) adhesion in these highly polarized and rapidly migrating cells. Here, we describe a signaling pathway in neutrophils that is essential for localized integrin activation, leading edge attachment and persistent migration during chemotaxis. This pathway depends upon Gi-protein-mediated activation and leading edge recruitment of Lyn, a non-receptor tyrosine kinase belonging to the Src kinase family. We identified the small GTPase Rap1 as a major downstream effector of Lyn to regulate neutrophil adhesion during chemotaxis. Depletion of Lyn in neutrophil-like HL-60 cells prevented chemoattractant-induced Rap1 activation at the leading edge of the cell, whereas ectopic expression of Rap1 largely rescued the defects induced by Lyn depletion. Furthermore, Lyn controls spatial activation of Rap1 by recruiting the CrkL–C3G protein complex to the leading edge. Together, these results provide novel mechanistic insights into the poorly understood signaling network that controls leading edge adhesion during chemotaxis of neutrophils, and possibly other amoeboid cells.
A Parallel IRAM Algorithm to Compute PageRank for Modeling Epidemic Spread

The eigenvalue equation intervenes in models of infectious disease propagation and could be used as an ally of vaccination campaigns in the actions carried out by health care organizations. The stochastic model based on Page Rank allows to simulate the epidemic spread, where a Like-like infection vector is calculated to help establish efficient vaccination strategy. In the context of epidemic spread, generally the damping factor is high. This is because the probability that an infected individual contaminates any other individual through some unusual contact is low. One consequence of this results is that the second largest eigenvalue of Page Rank matrix could be very close to its dominant eigenvalue. Another difficulty arises from the growing size of real networks. Handling very big graph becomes a challenge for computing Page Rank. Furthermore, the high damping factor makes many existing algorithms less efficient. In this paper, we explore the computation methods of Page Rank to address these issues. Specifically, we study the implicitly restarted Arnoldi method (IRAM) and discuss some possible improvements over it. We also present a parallel implementation for IRAM, targeting big data and sparse matrices representing scale-free networks (also known as power law networks). The algorithm is tested on a nation wide cluster of clusters Grid5000. Experiments on very large networks such as twitter, yahoo (over 1 billion nodes) are conducted.