Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation, Characterization, and Transplantation of Cardiac Endothelial Cells

Isolation and ex vivo expansion of cardiac endothelial cells have been a recurrent challenge due to difficulties in isolation, cell heterogeneity, lack of specific markers to identify myocardial endothelial cells, and inadequate conditions to maintain long-term cultures. Herein, we developed a method for isolation, characterization, and expansion of cardiac endothelial cells applicable to study endothelial cell biology and clinical applications such as neoangiogenesis. First, we dissociated the cells from murine heart by mechanical disaggregation and enzymatic digestion. Then, we used flow cytometry coupled with specific markers to isolate endothelial cells from murine hearts. CD45+ cells were gated out to eliminate the hematopoietic cells. CD31+/Sca-1+ cells were isolated as endothelial cells. Cells isolated from atrium grew faster than those from ventricle. Cardiac endothelial cells maintain endothelial cell function such as vascular tube formation and acetylated-LDL uptake in vitro. Finally, cardiac endothelial cells formed microvessels in dorsal matrigel plug and engrafted in cardiac microvessels following intravenous and intra-arterial injections. In conclusion, our multicolor flow cytometry method is an effective method to analyze and purify endothelial cells from murine heart, which in turn can be ex vivo expanded to study the biology of endothelial cells or for clinical applications such as therapeutic angiogenesis.
Ambiguities in Fits to the Complex X-Ray Spectra of Starburst Galaxies

Spectral fits to X-ray data from both NGC 253 and M82 provide ambiguous results. The so-called best-fit results depend on the instrument with which the data were obtained and, obviously, on the choice of spectral model composition. We show that different spectral models can be fit equally well to BeppoSAX data of both galaxies. Metallicities are unreliable in general, with a strong dependence on the choice of model. Preference to one particular spectral model can be given only by combining spectroscopic and imaging X-ray data from all available satellites (ROSAT, ASCA, and BeppoSAX). Based on spectra of NGC 253, we demonstrate that a model consisting of two or more thermal plasma components plus a hard power-law continuum and Fe Kα line emission can explain all observations. These model components represent the integral spectrum of thermal gas and compact sources in starburst galaxies that are most likely supernova remnants and X-ray binaries. The same model can fit the X-ray data of M82, but there the evidence, from ROSAT imaging, of the existence of compact sources which might represent high-mass X-ray binaries is weaker. This implies that its hard X-ray emission, which is extended in ROSAT images, might—if truly diffuse—be dominated by a very hot (several keV energy) thermal gas component.
Structural and Functional Analysis of Murine Polyomavirus Capsid Proteins Establish the Determinants of Ligand Recognition and Pathogenicity

Murine polyomavirus (MuPyV) causes tumors of various origins in newborn mice and hamsters. Infection is initiated by attachment of the virus to ganglioside receptors at the cell surface. Single amino acid exchanges in the receptor-binding pocket of the major capsid protein VP1 are known to drastically alter tumorigenicity and spread in closely related MuPyV strains. The virus represents a rare example of differential receptor recognition directly influencing viral pathogenicity, although the factors underlying these differences remain unclear. We performed structural and functional analyses of three MuPyV strains with strikingly different pathogenicities: the low-tumorigenicity strain RA, the high-pathogenicity strain PTA, and the rapidly growing, lethal laboratory isolate strain LID. Using ganglioside deficient mouse embryo fibroblasts, we show that addition of specific gangliosides restores infectability for all strains, and we uncover a complex relationship between virus attachment and infection. We identify a new infectious ganglioside receptor that carries an additional linear [α-2,8]-linked sialic acid. Crystal structures of all three strains complexed with representative oligosaccharides from the three main pathways of ganglioside biosynthesis provide the molecular basis of receptor recognition. All strains bind to a range of sialylated glycans featuring the central [α-2,3]-linked sialic acid present in the established receptors GD1a and GT1b, but the presence of additional sialic acids modulates binding. An extra [α-2,8]-linked sialic acid engages a protein pocket that is conserved among the three strains, while another, [α-2,6]-linked branching sialic acid lies near the strain-defining amino acids but can be accommodated by all strains. By comparing electron density of the oligosaccharides within the binding pockets at various concentrations, we show that the [α-2,8]-linked sialic acid increases the strength of binding. Moreover, the amino acid exchanges have subtle effects on their affinity for the validated receptor GD1a. Our results indicate that both receptor specificity and affinity influence MuPyV pathogenesis.
A comprehensive model for software rejuvenation

Recently, the phenomenon of software aging, one in which the state of the software system degrades with time, has been reported. This phenomenon, which may eventually lead to system performance degradation and/or crash/hang failure, is the result of exhaustion of operating system resources, data corruption, and numerical error accumulation. To counteract software aging, a technique called software rejuvenation has been proposed, which essentially involves occasionally terminating an application or a system, cleaning its internal state and/or its environment, and restarting it. Since rejuvenation incurs an overhead, an important research issue is to determine optimal times to initiate this action. In this paper, we first describe how to include faults attributed to software aging in the framework of Gray's software fault classification (deterministic and transient), and study the treatment and recovery strategies for each of the fault classes. We then construct a semi-Markov reward model based on workload and resource usage data collected from the UNIX operating system. We identify different workload states using statistical cluster analysis, estimate transition probabilities, and sojourn time distributions from the data. Corresponding to each resource, a reward function is then defined for the model based on the rate of resource depletion in each state. The model is then solved to obtain estimated times to exhaustion for each resource. The result from the semi-Markov reward model are then fed into a higher-level availability model that accounts for failure followed by reactive recovery, as well as proactive recovery. This comprehensive model is then used to derive optimal rejuvenation schedules that maximize availability or minimize downtime cost.
The digital power amplifier for the wireless infrastructure: Status and prospects

In digital paper amplifiers the analog signal is not handled directly but encoded in a pulse train. It is restored only at the output by a bandpass filter. Due to the discretization in amplitude, this principle, often referred to as class S, allows for efficient and versatile amplifiers. While in widespread use for audio frequencies, digital PAs have been introduced at microwave frequencies only a few years ago. The paper reviews the state of the art of such PAs for applications in the wireless infrastructure. The key factors determining transmitter performance are addressed and recent results are presented.
Teachers’ perspectives on handwriting and collaborative intervention for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Purpose This study aims to investigate teacher perspectives on teaching handwriting to children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and collaboration with occupational therapists. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive design was applied. Purpose-designed surveys were distributed to teachers of children with ASD (aged 4-12 years) in the Republic of Ireland. A response rate of 35 per cent (N = 75) was obtained, with 25 responses analysed using descriptive statistics of closed questions and content analysis of open-ended questions. Findings Of 139 children with ASD, 80 (58 per cent) were reported to have difficulties with handwriting. Teachers reported specific difficulties with pencil grasp, letter formation and task concept among the children with ASD. Fourteen (56 per cent, N = 25) respondents did not give handwriting as homework. Teachers valued occupational therapy advice, individualised programmes and ongoing consultation during implementation. Interest in occupational therapy education regarding handwriting was reported. Practical implications Occupational therapy collaboration to address handwriting difficulties for children with ASD should include involvement in teacher education, coordination of teacher–parent collaboration and the need for involvement in early intervention provision within an emergent literacy framework. Originality/value Handwriting development is challenging for children with ASD. There is limited information on teaching or teacher–occupational therapy collaborative practices to address handwriting difficulties of children with ASD.
A Hochschild-cyclic approach to additive higher Chow cycles

Over a field of characteristic zero, we introduce two motivic operations on additive higher Chow cycles: analogues of the Connes boundary $B$ operator and the shuffle product on Hochschild complexes. The former allows us to apply the formalism of mixed complexes to additive Chow complexes building a bridge between additive higher Chow theory and additive $K$-theory. The latter induces a wedge product on additive Chow groups for which we show that the Connes operator is a graded derivation for the wedge product using a variation of a Totaro's cycle. Hence, the additive higher Chow groups with the wedge product and the Connes operator form a commutative differential graded algebra. On zero-cycles, they induce the wedge product and the exterior derivation on the absolute K\"ahler differentials, answering a question of S. Bloch and H. Esnault.
Recipes for foodborne outbreaks: a scheme for categorizing and grouping implicated foods.

BACKGROUND To better understand the sources of foodborne illness, we propose a scheme for categorizing foods implicated in investigations of outbreaks of foodborne diseases. Because nearly 2000 foods have been reported as causing outbreaks in the United States, foods must be grouped for meaningful analyses. METHODS We defined a hierarchy of 17 mutually exclusive food commodities. We defined the following three commodity groups from which nearly all food is derived: aquatic animals, land animals, and plants. We defined three commodities in aquatic animals, six in land animals, and eight in plants. We considered each food as a set of ingredients composed of one or more commodities. We defined a simple food as one made of ingredients that are all in one commodity and a complex food as one containing ingredients in more than one commodity. We determined likely ingredients using a panel of epidemiologists and a web-based search process. RESULTS We assigned 1709 (95%) of the 1794 foods implicated in outbreaks of foodborne diseases reported to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1973 to 2006. Of those, 987 (57%) were simple foods and 722 (43%) were complex foods. DISCUSSION This categorization may serve as an input for modeling the attribution of human illness to specific food commodities and could be used by policy makers, health officials, regulatory agencies, and consumer groups to evaluate the contribution of various food commodities to illness.
NORS: An Open Source Platform to Facilitate Participatory Sensing with Mobile Phones

With more than two billion phone subscribers worldwide and even more sold mobile phones, we can say that mobile phones are the most pervasive portable device today. Over the years their functionalities developed rapidly and today they can be used for performing tasks beyond just calling and messaging: they can provide an increasingly available intelligence at the edge of the network. This intelligence provides a fertile ground for the devices to act as sensor sinks in localized sensor networks and, furthermore, bridge between widely dispersed sensor networks through wide area connectivity. Currently, there are many sensor networks that have been deployed all over the world for various purposes. It is only natural that mobile phones would start, more and more, connecting to this available sensor infrastructure in order to use the data for customizing applications and services or collect, aggregate and provide the data to application servers. This paper presents a platform solution that allows for exploiting this very intelligence residing in everyone's mobile device to implement, among others, participatory sensing scenarios of various kinds. The platform is available under an open source license to facilitate innovation while preserving openness of key components of the platform.
Knowledge and attitudes of family physicians coming to COPD continuing medical education

Purpose COPD remains under-recognized and under-treated. Much of early COPD care is given by primary care physicians but only when COPD is recognized. This survey explores the attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge related to COPD recognition, diagnosis, and treatment from family physicians and nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) working in primary care. Methods We completed a survey of family physicians, and NPs/PAs attending one of three CME programs on five common chronic conditions including COPD. Results Return rate was 62% (n = 284) including 178 physicians and 100 NPs/PAs. Fewer than half of the respondents reported knowledge of or use of COPD guidelines. The barriers to recognition and diagnosis of COPD they reported included the multiple morbidities of most COPD patients, failure of patients to report COPD symptoms, as well as lack of knowledge and inadequate training in COPD diagnosis and management. Three quarters (74%) of respondents reported use of spirometry to diagnose COPD but only 32% said they included reversibility assessment. COPD was incorrectly assessed as a disease primarily of men (78% of respondents) that appeared after age 60 (61%). Few respondents reported that they believed COPD treatment was useful or very useful for improving symptoms (15%) or decreasing exacerbations (3%) or that pulmonary rehabilitation was helpful (3%), but 13% reported they thought COPD treatment could extend longevity. Conclusions Primary care physicians and NPs/PAs working in primary care continue to report lack of awareness and use of COPD guidelines, as well as correct information related to COPD epidemiology or potential benefits of available treatments including pulmonary rehabilitation. It is unlikely that diagnosis and management of COPD will improve in primary care until these knowledge gaps and discrepancies with published efficacy of therapy issues are addressed.
A Comparative Analysis of Spiritual Direction and Psychotherapy

The present study was a comparative analysis of spiritual direction and psychotherapy. Sixty-eight spiritual directors and fifty psychotherapists responded to questionnaires surveying their goals, techniques, evaluation methods, and concerns discussed by their clientele. Practitioner characteristics were also assessed. The results suggest significant overlap between the two disciplines. Spiritual directors were more likely than psychotherapists to incorporate methods and topics from the other discipline into their practice. Implications for both fields regarding training and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Scaling relationships and evolution of distributary networks on wave‐influenced deltas

No genetic model can explain the variability in distributary network pattern on modern deltas. Here we derive scaling relationships for two processes known to create distributary channels and, with these laws, construct a simple model for distributary network evolution. The first process is mouth‐bar deposition at the shoreline and subsequent channel bifurcation; the second is avulsion—the wholesale abandonment of a channel in favor of a new path. The former creates relatively small networks with power‐law distributions of channel length; the latter generates relatively few, backwater‐scale distributaries. Frequency‐magnitude plots of channel length on natural deltas agree with theoretical predictions and show a clear separation in scale that reflects these processes: Mouth‐bar distributary lengths scale with the width of the parent channel, and avulsive distributary lengths scale with the backwater length; intermediate channel lengths are relatively rare. Wave energy controls network topology by suppressing mouth‐bar development, thereby preferentially eliminating smaller‐scale distributaries.
Is French Optimal? A question concerning phonological process order

In this article, an analysis will be presented of a central part of the phonology of French in the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). OT has three major principles that characterize and define it: (i) the idea that phonological processes are driven by their output, (ii) the idea that constraint are ranked and can be violated, and (iii) the idea that there is no genuine derivation, but just a single input-output mapping, at least within a single phonological stratum. It will be shown that central facts in French phonology strongly suggest that the phonological processes at hand should be described as outputdriven. Also, the facts suggest that violable constraints should play a central role in the language. Therefore, that the phenomena in question seem ideally suited for an analysis in OT-terms, because of the strong need for two of the three principles mentioned above that define OT. A comprehensive OT analysis of the processes at hand will be presented. It will become clear, however, that a basic feature of the interaction of the processes collides with the third of the above mentioned defining principles of OT, i.e. the absence of derivation.
State-of-science review: SR-D13, trajectories of development and learning difficulties

It is becoming increasingly clear that little in development is pre-determined or permanently fixed. So, the study of children’s learning difficulties needs to change from the still widely- held view that developmental disorders can be accounted for in terms of intact versus impaired brain modules, to one which takes serious account of the fact that the infant cortex passes from an initial state of high regional interconnectivity to a subsequent state of progressively increasing specialisation and localisation of brain function. With such early interconnectivity in mind, developmental neuroscientists must consider the possibility that an early deficit in one part of the brain may have subtle (or large) effects on other parts of the developing brain, even when subsequent behavioural scores fall ‘in the normal range’. In studying developmental disorders, it is thus crucial to examine not only domains of clear- cut deficit, but also domains of behavioural proficiency. It is also vital to trace developmental disorders of higher-level cognition back to their infancy origins in low-level processing mechanisms. The trajectories approach leads to new syndrome-specific intervention and teaching strategies.
Maternal Diets Trigger Sex-Specific Divergent Trajectories of Gene Expression and Epigenetic Systems in Mouse Placenta

Males and females responses to gestational overnutrition set the stage for subsequent sex-specific differences in adult onset non communicable diseases. Placenta, as a widely recognized programming agent, contibutes to the underlying processes. According to our previous findings, a high-fat diet during gestation triggers sex-specific epigenetic alterations within CpG and throughout the genome, together with the deregulation of clusters of imprinted genes. We further investigated the impact of diet and sex on placental histology, transcriptomic and epigenetic signatures in mice. Both basal gene expression and response to maternal high-fat diet were sexually dimorphic in whole placentas. Numerous genes showed sexually dimorphic expression, but only 11 genes regardless of the diet. In line with the key role of genes belonging to the sex chromosomes, 3 of these genes were Y-specific and 3 were X-specific. Amongst all the genes that were differentially expressed under a high-fat diet, only 16 genes were consistently affected in both males and females. The differences were not only quantitative but remarkably qualitative. The biological functions and networks of genes dysregulated differed markedly between the sexes. Seven genes of the epigenetic machinery were dysregulated, due to effects of diet, sex or both, including the Y- and X-linked histone demethylase paralogues Kdm5c and Kdm5d, which could mark differently male and female epigenomes. The DNA methyltransferase cofactor Dnmt3l gene expression was affected, reminiscent of our previous observation of changes in global DNA methylation. Overall, this striking sexual dimorphism of programming trajectories impose a considerable revision of the current dietary interventions protocols.
Active objects in hybrid

Most object-oriented languages are strong on reusability or on strong-typing, but weak on concurrency. In response to this gap, we are developing <italic>Hybrid</italic>, an object-oriented language in which objects are the active entities. Objects in Hybrid are organized into <italic>domains</italic>, and concurrent executions into <italic>activities</italic>. All object communications are based on remote procedure-calls. Unstructured <italic>sends</italic> and <italic>accepts</italic> are forbidden. To this the mechanisms of <italic>delegation</italic> and <italic>delay queues</italic> are added to enable switching and triggering of activities. Concurrent subactivities and atomic actions provided for compactness and simplicity. We show how solutions to many important concurrent problems, such a pipelining, constraint management and “administration” can be compactly expressed using these mechanisms.
The identification of information sources to aid with Critical Information Infrastructure Protection

Providing Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) has become an important focus area for countries across the world with the widespread adoption of computer systems and computer networks that handle and transfer large amounts of sensitive information on a daily basis. Most large organisations have their own security teams that provide some form of protection against cyber attacks that are launched by cybercriminals. It is however often the case that smaller stakeholders such as schools, pharmacies and other SMEs might not have the required means to protect themselves against these cyber attacks. The distribution of relevant and focused information is an important part of providing effective protection against cyber attacks. In this paper some of the existing mechanisms and formats in which information related to software security vulnerabilities are provided to the public are discussed and reviewed. Providing focused and relevant information can enable smaller stakeholders such as SMEs that have a limited set of skills and expertise to limit their risk of exposure to cyber attacks.