Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of the expression of cytoskeleton components and adherens molecules by fibroblastic cells in alkali-burned and lacerated corneas.

To provide a better understanding of the role of fibroblastic cells during corneal wound-healing, we examined the expression of cytoskeleton components (i.e. smooth muscle alpha-actin (alpha-SMA), vimentin, desmin), adherens molecules (vinculin and talin) and cellular fibronectin in alkali-burned and lacerated rabbit corneas. Alkali-burned and lacerated corneas, which had healed for various periods of time (1 day to 45 days), were excised and subjected to immunohistochemical studies with monoclonal antibodies against alpha-SMA, vimentin, desmin, vinculin, talin and cellular fibronectin. Monoclonal antibody against alpha-SMA reacted with fibroblastic cells in injured corneas but did not react with keratocytes in normal corneas. Anti-desmin antibody did not react with any corneal cells in normal or injured corneas except the muscle cells in the newly-formed capillary of injured corneas. The results indicate that the fibroblastic cells in injured corneas have the characteristics of myofibroblasts. The number of myofibroblasts in granulation tissues increased and peaked within 3 weeks of injury and then declined. Electron microscopy revealed that some fibroblastic cells in the lacerated cornea which had healed for 4 weeks contained dense chromatins. In situ 3'-end labeling with terminal nucleotide transferase indicating that some of the fibroblastic cells contained nicked genomic DNA. These observations imply that apoptosis plays a role in regulating the number of myofibroblasts in the injured corneas. Antibodies against cellular fibronectin, vinculin and talin react with the fibroblastic cells in the injured corneas, but not with the keratocytes of normal corneas. Examination with transmission electron microscopy demonstrated the presence of microtendon and fibronexis associated with fibroblastic cells and the presence of stress fiber within fibroblastic cells. The results indicate that the fibroblastic cells may cause corneal wound contraction, which in turn contributes to the formation of opaque scar tissues.
Network Security

In a variety of settings, some payo ﬀ -relevant item spreads along a network of connected individuals. In some cases, the item will bene ﬁ t those who receive it (for example, a music download, a stock tip, news about a new research funding source, etc.) while in other cases the impact may be negative (for example, viruses, both biological and electronic, ﬁ nancial contagion, and so on). Often, good and bad items may propagate along the same networks, so individuals must weigh the costs and bene ﬁ ts of being more or less connected to the network. The situation becomes more complicated (and more interesting) if individuals can also put e ﬀ ort into security, where security can be thought of as a screening technology that allows an individual to keep getting the bene ﬁ ts of network connectivity while blocking out the bad items. Drawing on the network literatures in economics, epidemiology, and applied math, we formulate a model of network security that can be used to study individual incentives to expand and secure networks and characterize properties of a symmetric equilibrium.
Persistent Infection of Mice with the Virus of Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis: Virus-Specific Immunological Tolerance

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) virus-infected culture cells as targets were markedly reduced in numbers when incubated in vitro with spleen cells from LCM virus-immune mice, even if the cells were taken months after a subcutaneous immunizing infection of the donor animal. Spleen cells from mice persistently infected with LCM virus had no effect on target cells. Also, mitomycin C-blocked LCM virus-infected culture cells stimulated the incorporation of radiolabeled thymidine into spleen cells from LCM virus-immune mice. No stimulation was observed with spleen cells from LCM virus carrier mice. It was concluded that cell-mediated immunity directed against LCM virion surface antigen(s) is absent in LCM virus carrier mice.
Association between Blood Pressure and Intraocular Pressure in Relation to Glaucoma

High blood pressure is not only associated with systemic cardiovascular complications, but also, ocular complications such as glaucoma. This study sought to determine the association between blood pressure, intraocular pressure and glaucoma. In this cross-sectional study, 162 hypertensive patients (with mean age of 57 (±14.26) years) visiting the St. Dominic’s hospital, in Ghana were purposively sampled to participate in the study. Data on patient’s history, blood pressure, intraocular pressure and cup-to-disc ratio were collected and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Descriptive statistics was computed and thestatistical significance of associations was assessed at a significance level of 0.01. The outcome of the study revealed a positive correlation of 0.364 and 0.309 between systolic blood pressure and the intraocular pressure of the right and left eye respectively.The correlation between diastolic blood pressure and intraocular pressure of the right and left eyes were 0.334 and 0.239 respectively. Out of the 104 patients with systolic blood pressure exceeding 139mmHg, 54 of them (51.9%) had intraocular pressures greater than 21mmHg and 58 of them (55.8%) had cupto-disc ratio in the range of 0.7–1.0. A weak but positive correlation between systolic blood pressure and cup-todisc was also established.Last but not least,a correlation of 0.441 between intraocular pressure and cup-to-disc ratio of the right eye of participants as against a correlation 0.256 for the left eye was reported.The susceptibility to glaucomawas thus, relatively high in patients withuncontrolled hypertension and higher intraocular pressure.Hence, pragmatic measures should be takenby all stakeholders towards managing hypertension and intraocular pressurein order to safeguard the health and sight of all. Keywords— Blood pressure; Intra-ocular pressure; Correlation; Glaucoma. Abbreviations— BP: Blood Pressure; DBP: Diastolic Blood Pressure; SBP: Systolic Blood Pressure; CDR: Cup-to-disc Ratio; LCDR: Left eye Cup-to-disc Ratio; RCDR: Right eyeCup-to-disc Ratio; IOP: Intraocular Pressure; LIOP: Left eye Intraocular Pressure; RIOP: Right eye Intraocular Pressure; OAG: Open Angle Glaucoma; OPP: Ocular Perfusion Pressure.
New Interfacial Nanochemistry on Sensory Bioscaffold-Membranes of Nanobelts

Nanostructured bioscaffolds and biosensors are evolving as popular and powerful tools in life science and biotechnology, due to the possible control of their surface and structural properties at the nm-scale. Being seldom discussed in literature and long-underexploited in materials and biomedical sciences, development of nanofiber-based sensory bioscaffolds has great promises and grand challenges in finding an ideal platform for low-cost quantifications of biological and chemical species in real-time, label-free, and ultrasensitive fashion. In this study, titanate nanobelts were first of all synthesized, from hydrothermal reactions of a NaOH (or KOH solution) with TiO2 powder, to possess underexploited structure and surface vital to the rapid and label-free electrochemical detections of protein (cytochrome c) and neurotransmitter (dopamine). This work is based on a suite of new physical and chemical properties on the titanate nanobelt in water, including high surface area, zwitterionic surface, chemicaland photochemical-durability, cation-exchange and anionand cation-sorption capacities, proteinand cell-compatibility, thermal-stability, and charge conductivity. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) was used for identifying any denaturing of the cytochrome c pre-immobilized on the titanate nanobelts. On that basis, the pheochromocytoma cells (PC-12 cell) were chosen to grow on the titanate nanobelts. These experiments prove that the sensory bioscaffolds of titanate nanobelt-membrane is a multiplex platform for developing new tools for energy, environmental and life sciences. This dissertation is approved for Recommendation to the Graduate Council Dissertation Director:
Shift toward T lymphocytes with a T helper 1 cytokine-secretion profile in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether T cells in the inflamed joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) preferentially produce the T helper 1 (Th1) cytokines, interferon-gamma (IFN gamma) and interleukin-2 (IL-2), or the Th2 cytokine, IL-4, when compared with corresponding peripheral blood-derived T cells. METHODS Synovial fluid mononuclear cells (SFMC) and corresponding peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 10 patients with RA were analyzed, either directly or after in vitro stimulation, for the intracellular presence of Th1 and Th2 cytokines. The amount of secreted cytokine in the cell culture supernatants was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS IFN gamma-containing cells were detected in the unstimulated SFMC, but not in the PBMC, of 3 patients with RA. Cells positive for IL-2 or IL-4 were not detected in the unstimulated samples. Following stimulation, the mean percentage of cells containing Th1 cytokines was significantly increased in the SFMC compared with the PBMC; no differences were found in the mean percentage of IL-4-containing cells. A comparable shift toward Th1 cytokines was observed when the amount of secreted cytokine was determined by ELISA. CONCLUSION A shift toward T cells with a Th1 cytokine profile was observed in the joints of patients with RA. Since an imbalance between Th1 and Th2 cells is thought to be of pathogenic significance, this finding might have implications for the development of new therapies for RA.
Real-time auditory-visual distance rendering for a virtual reaching task

This paper reports on a study on the perception and rendering of distance in multimodal virtual environments. A model for binaural sound synthesis is discussed, and its integration in a real-time system with motion tracking and visual rendering is presented. Results from a validation experiment show that the model effectively simulates relevant auditory cues for distance perception in dynamic conditions. The model is then used in a subsequent experiment on the perception of egocentric distance. The design and preliminary result from this experiment are discussed.
Photo-thermal control of surface plasmon mode propagation at telecom wavelengths

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is the promising versatile platform proposed for guiding electromagnetic waves at nanoscale dimensions. In this context dynamic control of SPPs prop- agation is of paramount importance. Thermo-optical (TO) effect is considered as an efficient technique for performing active control of plasmonic devices. Among the thermo-optical based plasmonic devices demonstrated so far TO coefficient is dominantly provided by a dielectric material on top of the metal sustaining the SPP mode, however, the role of TO properties of the metal has been rarely investigated for plasmonic applications especially at the telecom frequency ranges. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to investigate in detail the impact of thermo-optical properties of metals onto various SPP modes at telecom wavelengths.First, we report on photo-thermal modulation of thin film SPP mode traveling at gold/air interface excited at telecom wavelengths. We start by investigating the photo-thermally in- duced modulation of SPPs propagation mediated by the temperature dependent ohmic losses in the gold film. Then we extract the thermo-plasmonic coefficient of the SPP mode from the accurately measured SPPs signal depth of modulation by which we could compute the thermo-optical coefficients (TOCs) of gold at telecom wavelength. Lastly, we demonstrate a pulsed photo-thermal excitation of the SPPs in the nanosecond regime.Secondly, we investigate the thermo-optical dynamics of polymer loaded surface plasmon waveguide (PLSPPW) based devices photo-thermally excited in the nanosecond regime. First, we demonstrate thermo-absorption of PLSPPW modes mediated by the temperature-dependent ohmic losses of the metal and the thermally controlled field distribution of the plasmon mode within the metal. Next, we consider the thermo-optical response of a PLSPPW based racetrack shaped resonator coupled to a straight bus waveguide and evaluate the photo-thermal activation through heating and cooling times. We conclude that nanosecond excitation combined to high thermal diffusivity materials opens the way to high speed thermo-optical plasmonic devices.Finally, we report on the photo-thermal modulation of SPPs propagation along litho- graphically fabricated gold nanowires sustaining highly confined plasmonic mode at telecom wavelengths. First, we investigate telecommunication characterization of the nanowires by ap- plying high bit rate signal transmission, 10 Gbit/s, through fiber-to-fiber confocal detection setup. Next, we demonstrate and evaluate the photo-thermal modulation of SPPs propagation along the nanowires where we discuss qualitatively TO effects due to light-induced modula- tions on nanowires and show the impact of the incident beam polarization on the photo-thermal modulation.
Advanced Methods of Modelling and Design of Plate Heat Exchangers

Research of devices for heat recovery is currently focused on increasing the heat effectiveness of plate heat exchangers. The goal of optimization is not only to increase the heat transfer but also reduce the pressure loss and material costs. During the optimization of plate heat exchangers using CFD, we are struggling with the problem of how to create a quality computational mesh inside complex and irregular channels. These channels are formed by combining individual plates or blades that are shaped by molding, vacuum forming, or similar technology. Creating computational mesh from the bottom up manually is time consuming and does not help later optimization. The paper presents a new method for creating of computational meshes to simulate flow and heat transfer in a plate heat exchanger. This method is based on dynamic mesh method “user defined deforming” provided by ANSYS Fluent. The method is fast and provide applicable tool for optimization. Influences of cell size and count of layers of computational cells on heat transfer and pressure drop were investigated. It was found that the minimum number of layers is twelve across the channel, otherwise obtained data can be irrelevant.
PKC isoenzymes in the chicken lens and TPA-induced effects on intercellular communication.

PURPOSE Because lens connexins are phosphoproteins and intercellular communication between lens cells may be modulated by connexin phosphorylation, experiments were designed to characterize the expression of protein kinase C (PKC) isoenzymes in the chicken lens and in lentoid-containing cultures and to study the effects of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) treatment on the distribution of PKC isoenzymes and intercellular communication. METHODS The presence and distribution of PKC isoenzymes were studied by immunoblot analysis and immunofluorescence in chicken lens sections and in cell cultures under control conditions and after treatment with TPA. Intercellular communication was assessed by transfer of microinjected Lucifer yellow. RESULTS PKC alpha, gamma, iota, epsilon, and mu were detected in lens homogenates by immunoblot analysis. The levels of PKC alpha, gamma, iota, and mu decreased between the 7th and the 18th embryonic days. Levels of PKC epsilon remained relatively constant during the period of study. Similarly, lens cells in culture expressed isoenzymes alpha, gamma, epsilon, iota, and mu. PKC beta was not detected in lens or culture homogenates. In lens sections, all PKC isoenzymes analyzed were present in epithelial cells, in the annular pad region, and in the posterior aspect of fiber cells. The anti-PKC gamma antibody also stained fiber cell membranes. Analysis of lentoid cultures by immunofluorescence revealed that PKC gamma, epsilon, and iota and minimal amounts of PKC alpha were present in lentoid cells. Treatment with 200 nM TPA for 15 to 30 minutes induced translocation of PKC gamma to the plasma membrane of lentoid cells and significantly reduced the transfer of microinjected Lucifer yellow. CONCLUSIONS Several PKC isoenzymes are expressed by lens cells in situ and in culture. The gamma isoenzyme, present in lens fibers, was activated in lentoid cells by TPA, a known activator of PKC. We have previously demonstrated TPA-induced phosphorylation of the gap junction protein connexin56 (Cx56). The new data presented in the current study demonstrate that TPA treatment also decreased intercellular communication. Taken together, the results suggest that differential phosphorylation of Cx56 by PKCgamma may induce a conformational change in the protein which, in turn, might lead to channel closure.
Regulation of surface CD163 expression and cellular effects of receptor mediated hemoglobin‐haptoglobin uptake on human monocytes and macrophages

Local dysregulation of iron metabolism is suggested to contribute to atherosclerotic lesion development through hemoglobin scavenging pathways. We evaluated the effects of CD163‐mediated uptake of hemoglobin‐haptoglobin (HbHp) complexes on surface CD163 and intracellular heme oxygenase‐1 expression and the secretion of pro‐ and antiinflammatory cytokines by macrophages. We found that increased availability of HbHp complexes triggers the upregulation of surface CD163, and also results in a dose‐dependent secretion of IL‐6 and IL‐10. © 2006 International Society for Analytical Cytology
Managing the Complexity of Large Free and Open Source Package-Based Software Distributions

The widespread adoption of free and open source software (FOSS) in many strategic contexts of the information technology society has drawn the attention on the issues regarding how to handle the complexity of assembling and managing a huge number of (packaged) components in a consistent and effective way. FOSS distributions (and in particular GNU/Linux-based ones) have always provided tools for managing the tasks of installing, removing and upgrading the (packaged) components they were made of While these tools provide a (not always effective) way to handle these tasks on the client side, there is still a lack of tools that could help the distribution editors to maintain, on the server side, large and high-quality distributions. In this paper we present our research whose main goal is to fill this gap: we show our approach, the tools we have developed and their application with experimental results. Our contribution provides an effective and automatic way to support distribution editors in handling those issues that were, until now, mostly addressed using ad-hoc tools and manual techniques
Dynamic Pricing with Limited Supply

We consider the problem of designing revenue-maximizing online posted-price mechanisms when the seller has limited supply. A seller has k identical items for sale and is facing n potential buyers (“agents”) that are arriving sequentially. Each agent is interested in buying one item. Each agent’s value for an item is an independent sample from some fixed (but unknown) distribution with support [0,1]. The seller offers a take-it-or-leave-it price to each arriving agent (possibly different for different agents), and aims to maximize his expected revenue. We focus on mechanisms that do not use any information about the distribution; such mechanisms are called detail-free (or prior-independent). They are desirable because knowing the distribution is unrealistic in many practical scenarios. We study how the revenue of such mechanisms compares to the revenue of the optimal offline mechanism that knows the distribution (“offline benchmark”). We present a detail-free online posted-price mechanism whose revenue is at most O((k log n)2/3) less than the offline benchmark, for every distribution that is regular. In fact, this guarantee holds without any assumptions if the benchmark is relaxed to fixed-price mechanisms. Further, we prove a matching lower bound. The performance guarantee for the same mechanism can be improved to O(√k log n), with a distribution-dependent constant, if the ratio k/n is sufficiently small. We show that, in the worst case over all demand distributions, this is essentially the best rate that can be obtained with a distribution-specific constant. On a technical level, we exploit the connection to multiarmed bandits (MAB). While dynamic pricing with unlimited supply can easily be seen as an MAB problem, the intuition behind MAB approaches breaks when applied to the setting with limited supply. Our high-level conceptual contribution is that even the limited supply setting can be fruitfully treated as a bandit problem.
Advances in Magnetic Field Sensors

The most important milestone in the field of magnetic sensors was when AMR sensors started to replace Hall sensors in many applications where the greater sensitivity of AMRs was an advantage. GMR and SDT sensors finally found applications. We also review the development of miniaturization of fluxgate sensors and refer briefly to SQUIDs, resonant sensors, GMIs, and magnetomechanical sensors.
Supporting the review of student proposal drafts in information technologies

In many cases, academic programs or courses conclude with a thesis or research proposal text, elaborated by students. The review of such texts is a heavy load, especially at initial stages of drafting. This paper proposes a model that allows linguistic and structural review of some essential elements in proposal drafts of undergraduate students. The model aims to support the review from vocabulary to the argumentation in the draft, and is part of an intelligent tutor to monitor student progress. This work presents the initial results in terms of lexical and global coherence analysis of proposal drafts of students. Lexical analysis is done in terms of lexical density, lexical diversity, and sophistication. Global coherence is evaluated using the Latent Semantic Analysis technique. Our results show that the level reached so far by the analyzer is adequate to support the review, taking into account for one section the level of agreement with human reviewers.
Genetic covariation between effectiveness and cost of defence in aphids

Ecological immunology distinguishes between the long-term evolutionary costs of possessing defences against parasites and the short-term costs of using them. Evolutionary biologists have typically focused on the former in the search for constraints on the evolution of resistance. Here, we show in the peach-potato aphid, Myzus persicae, that short-term costs may be of equal evolutionary importance. Survivors of more resistant aphid clones suffered a higher reduction of fecundity upon parasitoid attack than survivors of more susceptible clones. This genetically based trade-off between benefits and costs of defence may limit the evolution of increased resistance and explain the maintenance of genetic variation for resistance under environmental variation in parasitism risk.
The mechanical possibilities of mycelium materials

Disclaimer This document contains a student thesis (bachelor's or master's), as authored by a student at Eindhoven University of Technology. Student theses are made available in the TU/e repository upon obtaining the required degree. The grade received is not published on the document as presented in the repository. The required complexity or quality of research of student theses may vary by program, and the required minimum study period may vary in duration.