Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stem Cell Applications in Tendon Disorders: A Clinical Perspective

Tendon injuries are a common cause of morbidity and a significant health burden on society. Tendons are structural tissues connecting muscle to bone and are prone to tearing and tendinopathy, an overuse or degenerative condition that is characterized by failed healing and cellular depletion. Current treatments, for tendon tear are conservative, surgical repair or surgical scaffold reconstruction. Tendinopathy is treated by exercises, injection therapies, shock wave treatments or surgical tendon debridement. However, tendons usually heal with fibrosis and scar tissue, which has suboptimal tensile strength and is prone to reinjury, resulting in lifestyle changes with activity restriction. Preclinical studies show that cell therapies have the potential to regenerate rather than repair tendon tissue, a process termed tenogenesis. A number of different cell lines, with varying degrees of differentiation, have being evaluated including stem cells, tendon derived cells and dermal fibroblasts. Even though cellular therapies offer some potential in treating tendon disorders, there have been few published clinical trials to determine the ideal cell source, the number of cells to administer, or the optimal bioscaffold for clinical use.
IBM Team at NTCIR-10 RITE2: Textual Entailment Using Temporal Dimension Reduction

Our system for the Japanese BC/EXAM subtasks in NTCIR10 RITE2 is an extension of our previous system for NTCIR9 RITE. The new techniques are (1) Case-aware noun phrase matching using ontologies: The motivation of the feature is to capture finer syntactic structures than simple word matching. We uses ontologies to allow flexible matching of noun phrases. (2) Temporal expression matching after mapping historical entities to specific time intervals: The motivation of historical entity mapping is to expand the capabilities of the temporal expression matching. From the experimental results, we found that the coverage is more important than the accuracy in the temporal entity mapping. The scores of the formal runs were 74.9% (accuracy in BC) and 64.5% (accuracy in EXAM), which outperformed the baselines provided by the organizer.
Optimized Doherty power amplifier with a new offset line

This work proposes a new offset line of carrier PA for Doherty power amplifier (PA). The carrier PA of conventional Doherty PA (DPA) delivers lower efficiency at back-off output power than at peak output power due to the phase mismatch of the carrier offset line in implementation, because the efficiency at back-off power is very sensitive to the output impedance change. To solve the problem, a new offset line for the carrier PA is adopted optimizing the efficiency performance at back-off output power, while it maintains the output peak power. A Doherty PA with the concept is designed using 45 W gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) for the carrier and peaking cells at 1.94 GHz. The measured average output power, drain/power-added efficiencies and gain are 43.6 dBm, 60.7/56.9%, and 12 dB for a 10MHz long term evolution (LTE) signal with a 6.5 dB peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR).
Capacity of Large-Scale CSMA Wireless Networks

In the literature, asymptotic studies of multihop wireless network capacity often consider only centralized and deterministic time-division multiple-access (TDMA) coordination schemes. There have been fewer studies of the asymptotic capacity of large-scale wireless networks based on carrier-sensing multiple access (CSMA), which schedules transmissions in a distributed and random manner. With the rapid and widespread adoption of CSMA technology, a critical question is whether CSMA networks can be as scalable as TDMA networks. To answer this question and explore the capacity of CSMA networks, we first formulate the models of CSMA protocols to take into account the unique CSMA characteristics not captured by existing interference models in the literature. These CSMA models determine the feasible states, and consequently the capacity of CSMA networks. We then study the throughput efficiency of CSMA scheduling as compared to TDMA. Finally, we tune the CSMA parameters so as to maximize the throughput to the optimal order. As a result, we show that CSMA can achieve throughput as Ω([1/√(n)]), the same order as optimal centralized TDMA, on uniform random networks. Our CSMA scheme makes use of an efficient backbone-peripheral routing scheme and a careful design of dual carrier-sensing and dual channel scheme. We also address implementation issues of our CSMA scheme.
Genetic variation of the FMR1 gene among four Mexican populations: Mestizo, Huichol, Purepecha, and Tarahumara

Fragile X syndrome is the most common cause of inherited mental retardation; it is caused by expansion of CGG repeats in the first exon of the FMR1 gene. The number of CGG repeats varies between 6 and 50 triplets in normal individuals; the most common alleles have 29 or 30 repeats. Allelic patterns in the global populations are similar; however; some reports show statistical differences among several populations. In Mexico, except by a single report on a western Mestizo population, the allelic frequencies of the FMR1 gene are unknown. In this study, we analyze 207, 140, 138, and 40 chromosomes from Mestizos, Tarahumaras, Huichols, and Purepechas respectively. After PCR amplification on DNA modified by sodium bisulfite treatment, molecular analysis of the FMR1 gene showed 30 different alleles among the 525 chromosomes evaluated. Trinucleotide repeat number in the different Mexican populations varied from 15 to 87, with modal numbers of 32 and 30 in Mestizos and Tarahumaras, 29 and 32 in Purepechas and 30 among Huichols. Together, these allelic patterns differ significantly from those reported for Caucasian, Chinese, African, Indonesian, Brazilian, and Chilean populations. The increased number of the unusual allele of 32 repeats observed in the Mexican mestizo population can be explained from its frequency in at least two Mexican native populations. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Electric-field assisted assembly and alignment of metallic nanowires

This letter describes an electric-field assisted assembly technique used to position individual nanowires suspended in a dielectric medium between two electrodes defined lithographically on a SiO2 substrate. During the assembly process, the forces that induce alignment are a result of nanowire polarization in the applied alternating electric field. This alignment approach has facilitated rapid electrical characterization of 350- and 70-nm-diameter Au nanowires, which had room-temperature resistivities of approximately 2.9 and 4.5×10−6 Ω cm.
Analyzing Thioflavin T Binding to Amyloid Fibrils by an Equilibrium Microdialysis-Based Technique

A new approach for the determination of the amyloid fibril – thioflavin T (ThT) binding parameters (the number of binding modes, stoichiometry, and binding constants of each mode) is proposed. This approach is based on the absorption spectroscopy determination of the concentration of free and bound to fibril dye in solutions, which are prepared by equilibrium microdialysis. Furthermore, the proposed approach allowed us, for the first time, to determine the absorption spectrum, molar extinction coefficient, and fluorescence quantum yield of the ThT bound to fibril by each binding modes. This approach is universal and can be used for determining the binding parameters of any dye interaction with a receptor, such as ANS binding to proteins in the molten globule state or to protein amorphous aggregates.
Interaction mechanism between deep mixing column and surrounding clay during installation

Laboratory and field investigation has shown that the shear strength of the surrounding clay increased in the vicinity of a deep mixed (DM) column in the short period following installation. Field observations indicated that significant excess pore pressure, which may be higher than the hydraulic fracture pressure, was generated during installation.The behaviour between a DM column interacting with the surrounding clay during installation can be simulated as the shearing-expanding process of a cylindrical cavity. A simple approach is proposed to calculate the excess pore pressure around a DM column during installation. The proposed method of calculation considers the effect of a shearing force caused by rotating blades during mixing. In the proposed approach, the excess pore pressure is expressed in terms of undrained strength of clay, shearing force, injection pressure, and a pore pressure parameter. An approach is developed to analyze clay fracturing using a tensile failure mechanism. Analytical results.
Mandarin Tone 2 Coarticulation : Phonetic or phonological ?

Tone processes in Chinese languages can be identified as phonological or phonetic. In the literature, this distinction is often made by referring to them as either tone sandhi (phonological) or tonal coarticulation (phonetic). However, while it is unchallenged that certain processes (e.g. Standard Mandarin Tone 3 Sandhi) belong to the phonological camp, some other tone processes that are considered phonetic may infact display both properties of sandhi and coarticulation. The current paper investigates the mixed properties of Mandarin Tone 2 (T2) Coarticulation (Wu, 1985; Chen, 2000) observed in preliminary production data. I begin by discussing the properties of tonal processes that make them either phonological or phonetic (§2.1), why the coarticulation process of interest may display both types of properties (§2.2), as well as the remaining unresolved issues regarding this tonal process that has prompted this study (§2.3). I will then present the methods of the production study (§3), the results (§4), what it may reveal about the process (§5), and finally a summary of the findings (§6).
Incidence of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in 35,940 Pregnant Women in Norway and Pregnancy Outcome for Infected Women

ABSTRACT From 1992 to 1994 a screening program for detection of specific Toxoplasma gondii antibodies involving 35,940 pregnant women was conducted in Norway. For women with serological evidence of primary T. gondii infection, amniocentesis and antiparasitic treatment were offered. The amniotic fluid was examined for T. gondii by PCR and mouse inoculation to detect fetal infection. Infants of infected mothers had clinical and serological follow-up for at least 1 year to detect congenital infection. Of the women 10.9% were infected before the onset of pregnancy. Forty-seven women (0.17% among previously noninfected women) showed evidence of primary infection during pregnancy. The highest incidence was detected (i) among foreign women (0.60%), (ii) in the capital city of Oslo (0.46%), and (iii) in the first trimester (0.29%). Congenital infection was detected in 11 infants, giving a transmission rate of 23% overall, 13% in the first trimester, 29% in the second, and 50% in the third. During the 1-year follow-up period only one infant, born to an untreated mother, was found to be clinically affected (unilateral chorioretinitis and loss of vision). At the beginning of pregnancy 0.6% of the previously uninfected women were falsely identified as positive by the Platelia Toxo-IgM test, the percentage increasing to 1.3% at the end of pregnancy. Of the women infected prior to pregnancy 6.8% had persisting specific immunoglobulin M (IgM). A positive specific-IgM result had a low predictive value for identifying primaryT. gondii infection.
A Markov Model for Ontology Alignment

The explosion of available data along with the need to integrate and utilize that data has led to a pressing interest in data integration techniques. In terms of Semantic Web technologies, Ontology Alignment is a key step in the process of integrating heterogeneous knowledge bases. In this paper, we present the Edge Confidence technique, a modification and improvement over the popular Similarity Flooding technique for Ontology Alignment.
Recent Advances in Video Based Document Processing: A Review

Extraction and recognition of text present in video has become a very popular research area in the last decade. Generally, text present in video frames is of different size, orientation, style, etc. with complex backgrounds, noise, low resolution and contrast. These factors make the automatic text extraction and recognition in video frames a challenging task. A large number of techniques have been proposed by various researchers in the recent past to address the problem. This paper presents a review of various state-of-the-art techniques proposed towards different stages (e.g. detection, localization, extraction, etc.) of text information processing in video frames. Looking at the growing popularity and the recent developments in the processing of text in video frames, this review imparts details of current trends and potential directions for further research activities to assist researchers.
Climate extremes indices in the CMIP5 multimodel ensemble: Part 2. Future climate projections

This study provides an overview of projected changes in climate extremes indices defined by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). The temperature‐ and precipitation‐based indices are computed with a consistent methodology for climate change simulations using different emission scenarios in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) and Phase 5 (CMIP5) multimodel ensembles. We analyze changes in the indices on global and regional scales over the 21st century relative to the reference period 1981–2000. In general, changes in indices based on daily minimum temperatures are found to be more pronounced than in indices based on daily maximum temperatures. Extreme precipitation generally increases faster than total wet‐day precipitation. In regions, such as Australia, Central America, South Africa, and the Mediterranean, increases in consecutive dry days coincide with decreases in heavy precipitation days and maximum consecutive 5 day precipitation, which indicates future intensification of dry conditions. Particularly for the precipitation‐based indices, there can be a wide disagreement about the sign of change between the models in some regions. Changes in temperature and precipitation indices are most pronounced under RCP8.5, with projected changes exceeding those discussed in previous studies based on SRES scenarios. The complete set of indices is made available via the ETCCDI indices archive to encourage further studies on the various aspects of changes in extremes.
Non-verbal Signals for Turn-taking and Feedback

This paper concerns non-verbal communication, and describes especially the use of eye-gaze to signal turn-taking and feedback in conversational settings. Eye-gaze supports smooth interaction by providing signals that the interlocutors interpret with respect to such conversational functions as taking turns and giving feedback. New possibilities to study the effect of eye-gaze on the interlocutors communicative behaviour have appeared with the eye-tracking technology which in the past years has matured to the level where its use to study naturally occurring dialogues have become easier and more reliable to conduct. It enables the tracking of eye-fixations and gaze-paths, and thus allows analysis of the persons turn-taking and feedback behaviour through the analysis of their focus of attention. In this paper, experiments on the interlocutors non-verbal communication in conversational settings using the eye-tracker are reported, and results of classifying turn-taking using eye-gaze and gesture information are presented. Also the hybrid method that combines signal level analysis with human interpretation is discussed.
Breast ultrasound diagnostic performance and outcomes for mass lesions using Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System category 0 mammogram

PURPOSE: To evaluate the outcomes and diagnostic performance of ultrasonography after a Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (Bi-RADS) category 0 mammogram. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective study reviewed 4,384 consecutive patients who underwent a screening mammography from January 2005 to July 2006; 391 of the 4,384 exams were classified as Bi-RADS category 0. After exclusions, 241 patients received subsequent sonogram. Ultrasonography was considered diagnostic when the Bi-RADS category was changed to 2, 4, or 5, and it was considered indeterminate (Bi-RADS 3) when the results indicated that the patients should return for a mammographic follow-up. The outcomes of these patients were assessed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of ultrasonography. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 53.3 years (ranging from 35 to 81). Of the 241 patients, ultrasonography was considered diagnostic in 146 (60.6%) patients and indeterminate in 95 (39.4%) patients. In the diagnostic group, 111 out of 146 patients (70.2%) had a sonogram result of Bi-RADS category 2 after a 2-year follow-up without evidence of malignancy. Furthermore, 35 out of 146 patients (29.8%) had a suspicious sonogram with a result of Bi-RADS category 4. After a tissue sampling procedure, 10 patients were confirmed to have breast cancer, and 25 had benign histopathological features without any evidence of malignancy after a 2-year follow-up. The sensitivity of ultrasonography was 100%, specificity was 89.1%, and overall accuracy was 89.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the degree of resolution and its diagnostic performance, ultrasonography was determined to be an excellent method for the subsequent evaluation of Bi-RADS 0 mammograms.
Glutamate transport by retinal Müller cells in glutamate/aspartate transporter‐knockout mice

Glutamate transporters are involved in maintaining extracellular glutamate at a low level to ensure a high signal‐to‐noise ratio for glutamatergic neurotransmission and to protect neurons from excitotoxic damage. The mammalian retina is known to express the excitatory amino acid transporters, EAAT1–5; however, their specific role in glutamate homeostasis is poorly understood. To examine the role of the glial glutamate/aspartate transporter (GLAST) in the retina, we have studied glutamate transport by Müller cells in GLAST−/− mice, using biochemical, electrophysiological, and immunocytochemical techniques. Glutamate uptake assays indicated that the Km value for glutamate uptake was similar in wild‐type and GLAST−/− mouse retinas, but the Vmax was ∼50% lower in the mutant. In Na+‐free medium, the Vmax was further reduced by 40%. In patch‐clamp recordings of dissociated Müller cells from GLAST−/− mice, application of 0.1 mM glutamate evoked no current showing that the cells lacked functional electrogenic glutamate transporters. The result also indicated that there was no compensatory upregulation of EAATs in Müller cells. [3H]D‐Aspartate uptake autoradiography, however, showed that Na+‐dependent, high‐affinity transporters account for most of the glutamate uptake by Müller cells, and that Na+‐independent glutamate transport is negligible. Additional experiments showed that the residual glutamate uptake in Müller cells in the GLAST−/− mouse retina is not due to known glutamate transporters—cystine‐glutamate exchanger, ASCT‐1, AGT‐1, or other heteroexchangers. The present study shows that while several known glutamate transporters are expressed by mammalian Müller cells, new Na+‐dependent, high‐affinity glutamate transporters remain to be identified. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ECB Labour market mismatches in euro area countries, March 2002

Telex 411 144 ecb d All rights reserved. Reproduction for educational and non-commercial purposes is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged. 3 E C B • L a b o u r m a r k e t m i s m a t c h e s i n e u r o a r e a c o u n t r i e s • M a r c h 2 0 0 2
Photothermal effects of supramolecularly assembled gold nanoparticles for the targeted treatment of cancer cells.

Noble-metal nanostructures with unique photophysical properties have been considered as prime candidate agents for the photothermal treatment of cancer. [1–4] Typically, the photothermal properties of these nanostructures can be controlled by manipulating their sizes and shapes. [4,5] Over the past decade, significant endeavors have been devoted to the production of a variety of gold nanostructures, such as nanoparticles,[6,7] nanoshells,[8–10] nanorods,[11,12] and nanocages,[5,13,14] which are able to overcome limitations of organic-dye-based photothermal agents,[7] such as low light absorption and undesired photobleaching. For sufficient energy to be harvested/generated to damage tumor cells, the size of these nanostructure-based agents are required in the range of tens to hundreds nm. [15] However, the relatively “large” size of the agents often leads to poor bioclearance (i.e., accumulation in the liver, spleen, and kidneys), which is a major obstacle to their in vivo application. [16–18] Alternatively, the photophysical properties of noble-metal nanostructures can be altered systematically by the formation of aggregates through self-assembly. [19–30] The antibody-assisted aggregation of Au nanoparticles on cell membranes or in intracellular environments led to the enhancement of photothermal performance[31] as a result of the collective effects[32,33] associated with the assembled structures. Therefore, the self-assembly of small noble-metal building blocks, that is, noble-metal colloids with diameters of less than 8 nm[16–18] (compatible with renal clearance) would be a promising approach toward a new class of noble-metal photothermal agents.
A control theory approach to clock steering techniques

Several clock and time scale steering methods have been developed according to different viewpoints by various time laboratories. By resorting to control theory ideas, we propose a common theoretical framework encompassing these methods. A comparison of the most common steering methodologies, namely, the classical steering approach, the GPS bang-bang method, and the linear quadratic Gaussian technique, is carried out. We believe that the use of control theory methods can potentially lead to a better understanding of clock steering algorithms.
Estrogen responsiveness of renal calbindin‐D28k gene expression in rat kidney

In women, calcium excretion in the urine rises after menopause and falls with estrogen replacement therapy. The amount of calcium lost in the urine following estrogen therapy is less than should occur based on changes in serum calcium and the amount of calcium filtered by the kidney. This suggests there may be a direct effect of estrogen therapy to increase renal calcium reabsorption. Calbindin D28k is a putative calcium ferry protein located in the distal renal tubules which has been shown to increase transcellular calcium transport. We proposed that estrogen loss after menopause may diminish gene expression of renal calbindin D28k and subsequently diminish renal calcium reabsorption. We used the ovariectomized rat model of estrogen deficiency to investigate changes at the messenger RNA level of calbindin D28k in ovariectomized rats (OVX), sham ovariectomized rats (S‐OVX), and estrogen treated ovariectomized rats (E‐OVX). We have demonstrated that ovariectomy in rats diminishes the gene expression of renal calbindin D28k. The mRNA levels were approximately three times lower in OVX rats than S‐OVX rats. Administration of 17β estradiol to OVX rats produced a significant increase in mRNA level to greater than the S‐OVX rats by 4 h. Measurement of serum 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 showed lower level in OVX rats than S‐OVX rats but no significant change in E‐OVX animals. In conclusion, our results indicate that estrogen increases renal calbindin D28k mRNA levels, by a mechanism independent of changes in 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3. This may result in increased expression of calbindin D28k protein which may have a role in reducing renal calcium excretion. J. Cell. Biochem. 65:340–348. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.