Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alteration of Neurotrophic Factors After Transplantation of Bone Marrow Derived Lin‐ve Stem Cell in NMDA‐Induced Mouse Model of Retinal Degeneration

Retinal ganglion cell layer (RGCs) is one of the important layers of retina, depleted in Glaucoma. Loss of RGC neurons is a major cellular mechanism involved in its pathogenesis resulting in severe vision loss. Stem cell therapy has emerged as a potential strategy to arrest the apoptotic loss of RGCs and also replace the degenerative cells in damaged retina. Here, we have investigated the incorporation and survival of mouse bone marrow derived Lin‐ve stem cells in N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA)‐induced mouse model of retinal degeneration. Two days after intravitreal injection of NMDA (100 mM) showed significant decrease in ganglion cell number and increase in TUNEL positive apoptotic cells in retinal layers. The injury was further characterized by immunohistochemical expression of Brn3b, GFAP, Bcl2, pCREB, CNTF, GDNF, and BDNF in retinal layers. Lin‐ve cells (100,000 dose) were intravitreally transplanted after 2 days of injury and evaluated after 7, 14, and 21 days of transplantation. Transplanted cells were found to have migrated from intravitreal space and incorporated into injured retina at 7, 14, and 21 days post‐transplantation. At 21 days Brn3b, CNTF, and BDNF expression was found to be upregulated whereas GDNF was downregulated when compared to respective injury time points. Molecular data showed decrease in the expression of Brn3b, BDNF, CNTF, and GDNF post transplantation when compared with injury groups. This study reveals that Lin‐ve stem cells may exert neuroprotective effect in damaged retina mediated by participation of neurotrophic factors induced by stem cell transplantation at the site of injury. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 1699–1711, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Relationship of Physical Function to Single Muscle Fiber Contractility in Older Adults: Effects of Resistance Training With and Without Caloric Restriction

BACKGROUND Previous studies support beneficial effects of both resistance exercise training (RT) and caloric restriction (CR) on skeletal muscle strength and physical performance. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of adding CR to RT on single-muscle fiber contractility responses to RT in older overweight and obese adults. METHODS We analyzed contractile properties in 1,253 single myofiber from muscle biopsies of the vastus lateralis, as well as physical performance and thigh muscle volume, in 31 older (65-80 years), overweight or obese (body mass index = 27-35 kg/m2) men (n = 19) and women (n = 12) who were randomly assigned to a standardized, progressive RT intervention with CR (RT+CR; n = 15) or without CR (RT; n = 16) for 5 months. RESULTS Both interventions evoked an increase in force normalized to cross-sectional area (CSA), in type-I and type-II fibers and knee extensor quality. However, these improvements were not different between intervention groups. In the RT group, changes in total thigh fat volume inversely correlated with changes in type-II fiber force (r = -.691; p = .019). Within the RT+CR group, changes in gait speed correlated positively with changes in type-I fiber CSA (r = .561; p = .030). In addition, increases in type-I normalized fiber force were related to decreases in thigh intermuscular fat volume (r = -0.539; p = .038). CONCLUSION Single muscle fiber force and knee extensor quality improve with RT and RT+CR; however, CR does not enhance improvements in single muscle fiber contractility or whole muscle in response to RT in older overweight and obese men and women.
Mining Framework for Big Data

Text Mining is the ability to generate knowledge (insight) from text. This is a challenging task, especially when the target text databases are very large. Big Data has attracted much attention lately, both from academia and industry. A number of distributed databases, search engines and frameworks have been developed to handle the memory and time constraints, which are required to process a large amount of data. However, there is no open-source end-to-end framework that can combine near real-time and batch processing of ingested big textual data along with user-defined options and provision of specific, reliable insight from the data. This is important as this way new unstructured information is made accessible in near real-time, more personalised customer products can be created and novel unusual patterns can be found and actioned on quickly. This work focuses on a proprietary complete near real-time automated classification framework for unstructured data with the use of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning algorithms on Apache Spark. The evaluation of our framework shows that it achieves a comparable accuracy with respect to some of the best approaches presented in the literature. Niki Pavlopoulou Department of Computer Science, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6UA, UK, e-mail: n.pavlopoulou@reading.ac. uk Aeham Abushwashi Exonar, 14 W Mills, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5HG, UK e-mail: aeham.abushwashi@exonar.com Frederic Stahl Department of Computer Science, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6UA, UK, e-mail: f.t. stahl@reading.ac. uk Vittorio Scibetta Exonar, 14 W Mills, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5HG, UK e-mail: vittorio.scibetta@exonar.com Niki Pavlopoulou, Aeham Abushwashi, Frederic Stahl and Vittorio Scibetta
Cuntz-Krieger Algebras of Infinite Graphs and Matrices

We show that the Cuntz-Krieger algebras of infinite graphs and infinite {0,1}-matrices can be approximated by those of finite graphs. We then use these approximations to deduce the main uniqueness theorems for Cuntz-Krieger algebras and to compute their K-theory. Since the finite approximating graphs have sinks, we have to calculate the K-theory of Cuntz-Krieger algebras of graphs with sinks, and the direct methods we use to do this should be of independent interest.
Longitudinal Brain MRI Retrieval for Alzheimer’s Disease Using Different Temporal Information

This paper describes the research made toward improving medical case retrieval for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Our approach considers using Magnetic Resonance Images as an input for the search. To improve the retrieval process, we used longitudinal information extracted from the different sets of scans acquired at different time points and automatically extracted descriptors to represent input images. All experiments were performed with and without quality control (QC) to determine the influence of the errors caused by the automated processing to the results relevance. For the experiments, a total of 267 subjects from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative database with available scans at baseline, the 6-month, 12-month, and 24-month follow-ups were selected. The obtained results showed that the selection of the time points for extraction of the longitudinal information influences the retrieval performance. Results also showed that not all automatically generated descriptors lead to improvement of the results. Longitudinal volume changes provide the most relevant representation. Adding QC phase in the experiments leads to improvements in all examined scenarios. The results showed that the most frequent automatically selected features are common semantic markers for AD.
Langerin-expressing dendritic cells in human tissues are related to CD1c+ dendritic cells and distinct from Langerhans cells and CD141high XCR1+ dendritic cells

Langerin is a C‐type lectin expressed at high level by LCs of the epidermis. Langerin is also expressed by CD8+/CD103+ XCR1+ cross‐presenting DCs of mice but is not found on the homologous human CD141high XCR1+ myeloid DC. Here, we show that langerin is expressed at a low level on DCs isolated from dermis, lung, liver, and lymphoid tissue and that langerin+ DCs are closely related to CD1c+ myeloid DCs. They are distinguishable from LCs by the level of expression of CD1a, EpCAM, CD11b, CD11c, CD13, and CD33 and are found in tissues and tissue‐draining LNs devoid of LCs. They are unrelated to CD141high XCR1+ myeloid DCs, lacking the characteristic expression profile of cross‐presenting DCs, conserved between mammalian species. Stem cell transplantation and DC deficiency models confirm that dermal langerin+ DCs have an independent homeostasis to LCs. Langerin is not expressed by freshly isolated CD1c+ blood DCs but is rapidly induced on CD1c+ DCs by serum or TGF‐β via an ALK‐3‐dependent pathway. These results show that langerin is expressed outside of the LC compartment of humans and highlight a species difference: langerin is expressed by the XCR1+ “DC1” population of mice but is restricted to the CD1c+ “DC2” population of humans (homologous to CD11b+ DCs in the mouse).
No Reliable Association Between Recreational Noise Exposure and Threshold Sensitivity, Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission Amplitude, or Word-in-Noise Performance in a College Student Population

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between recreational sound exposure and potentially undiagnosed or subclinical hearing loss by assessing sound exposure history, threshold sensitivity, distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) amplitudes, and performance on the words-in-noise (WIN) test. Design: Survey data were collected from 74 adult participants (14 male and 60 female), 18 to 27 years of age, recruited via advertisements posted throughout the University of Florida campus. Of these participants, 70 completed both the survey and the additional functional test battery, and their preferred listening level was measured in a laboratory setting. Results: There were statistically significant relationships between hearing thresholds and DPOAE amplitude. In contrast, performance on the WIN was not reliably related to threshold sensitivity within this cohort with largely normal hearing. The two most common exposures included bars or dance clubs, followed by music player use. There were no statistically significant relationships between individual or composite measures of recreational sound exposure, including preferred listening level, years of music player use, number of reported sound exposures, previous impulse noise exposure, or previous noise-induced change in hearing, and functional measures including threshold, DPOAE amplitude, and WIN measures. Some subjects were highly consistent in listening level preferences, while others were more variable from song to song. Conclusions: No reliable relationships between common recreational sound exposure or previous noise-induced changes in hearing were found during analysis of threshold sensitivity, DPOAE amplitude, or WIN performance in this cohort. However, the study sample was predominantly female and Caucasian, which limits generalizability of the results.
Persist or Produce: A Community Trade-Off Tuned by Species Evenness

Understanding the effects of biodiversity on community persistence and productivity is key to managing both natural and production systems. Because rare species face greater danger of extinction, species evenness, a measure of how similar abundances are across species in a community, is seen as a key component of biodiversity. However, previous studies have failed to find a consistent association of species evenness with species survival and biomass production. Here we provide a theoretical framework for the relationship among these three elements. We demonstrate that the lack of consistent outcomes is not an idiosyncratic artifact of different studies but can be unified under one common framework. Applying a niche theory approach, we confirm that under demographic stochasticity evenness is a general indicator of the risk of future species extinctions in a community, in accordance with the majority of empirical studies. In contrast, evenness cannot be used as a direct indicator of the level of biomass production in a community. When a single species dominates, as expressed by the constraints imposed by the population dynamics, biomass production depends on the niche position of the dominating species and can increase or decrease with evenness. We demonstrate that high species evenness and an intermediate level of biomass production is the configuration that maximizes the average species survival probability in response to demographic stochasticity.
Histone variant H3.3–mediated chromatin remodeling is essential for paternal genome activation in mouse preimplantation embryos

Derepression of chromatin-mediated transcriptional repression of paternal and maternal genomes is considered the first major step that initiates zygotic gene expression after fertilization. The histone variant H3.3 is present in both male and female gametes and is thought to be important for remodeling the paternal and maternal genomes for activation during both fertilization and embryogenesis. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using our H3.3B-HA–tagged mouse model, engineered to report H3.3 expression in live animals and to distinguish different sources of H3.3 protein in embryos, we show here that sperm-derived H3.3 (sH3.3) protein is removed from the sperm genome shortly after fertilization and extruded from the zygotes via the second polar bodies (PBII) during embryogenesis. We also found that the maternal H3.3 (mH3.3) protein is incorporated into the paternal genome as early as 2 h postfertilization and is detectable in the paternal genome until the morula stage. Knockdown of maternal H3.3 resulted in compromised embryonic development both of fertilized embryos and of androgenetic haploid embryos. Furthermore, we report that mH3.3 depletion in oocytes impairs both activation of the Oct4 pluripotency marker gene and global de novo transcription from the paternal genome important for early embryonic development. Our results suggest that H3.3-mediated paternal chromatin remodeling is essential for the development of preimplantation embryos and the activation of the paternal genome during embryogenesis.
High levels of endogenous lipid mediators (N-acylethanolamines) in women with chronic widespread pain during acute tissue trauma

Although chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain is a significant health problem, the molecular mechanisms involved in developing and maintaining chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain are poorly understood. Central sensitization mechanisms maintained by stimuli from peripheral tissues such as muscle have been suggested. Lipid mediators with anti-inflammatory characteristics such as endogenous ligands of peroxisome proliferator activating receptor-α, oleoylethanolamide, and palmitoylethanolamide are suggested to regulate nociceptive transmission from peripheral locations on route towards the central nervous system. This case–control study investigates the levels of anti-inflammatory lipids in microdialysis samples collected during the first 2 h after microdialysis probe insertion and explores the association of these lipids with different pain characteristics in women with chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain (n = 17) and female healthy controls (n = 19). The levels of oleoylethanolamide, palmitoylethanolamide, and stearoylethanolamide were determined. During sampling of dialysate, pain ratings were conducted using a numeric rating scale. Pain thresholds were registered from upper and lower parts of the body. Oleoylethanolamide and stearoylethanolamide levels were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) in chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain at all time points. Numeric rating scale correlated with levels of stearoylethanolamide in chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain. Higher levels of lipid mediators could reflect an altered tissue reactivity in response to microdialysis probe insertion in chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain.
Performance of mac80211 rate control mechanisms

The 802.11 wireless networking standard has several transmission rates which can be adaptively selected by the MAC layer to cater for various channel conditions. Such dynamic adaptations can improve per-hop performance in wireless networks by enhancing the data throughput, reducing the channel usage time and decreasing the number of failed transmissions. This in turn has an impact on the quality of service (QoS) provided for communicating applications. The new mac80211 framework, which is now part of the Linux operating system, defines functionalities and interfaces that can be used by wireless network drivers to access physical-layer information which has impact on high-level protocols/algorithms. In this paper we present a comprehensive evaluation of the per-hop performance of two rate control mechanisms used by the mac80211 framework in Linux: Minstrel and PID. The evaluation results show that Minstrel outperforms PID. We discuss the PID's performance problems and propose an enhancement to PID to address them. The evaluation of the enhancement confirms substantial improvement of PID's performance in a range of conducted and over-the-air communication scenarios.
Multiple model adaptive control. Part 2: switching

This paper addresses the problem of controlling a continuous‐time linear system with large modelling errors. We employ an adaptive control algorithm consisting of a family of linear candidate controllers supervised by a high‐level switching logic. Methods for constructing such controller families have been discussed in the recent paper by the authors. The present paper concentrates on the switching task in a multiple model context. We describe and compare two different switching logics, and in each case study the behaviour of the resulting closed‐loop hybrid system. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Methods for Detecting Early Warnings of Critical Transitions in Time Series Illustrated Using Simulated Ecological Data

Many dynamical systems, including lakes, organisms, ocean circulation patterns, or financial markets, are now thought to have tipping points where critical transitions to a contrasting state can happen. Because critical transitions can occur unexpectedly and are difficult to manage, there is a need for methods that can be used to identify when a critical transition is approaching. Recent theory shows that we can identify the proximity of a system to a critical transition using a variety of so-called ‘early warning signals’, and successful empirical examples suggest a potential for practical applicability. However, while the range of proposed methods for predicting critical transitions is rapidly expanding, opinions on their practical use differ widely, and there is no comparative study that tests the limitations of the different methods to identify approaching critical transitions using time-series data. Here, we summarize a range of currently available early warning methods and apply them to two simulated time series that are typical of systems undergoing a critical transition. In addition to a methodological guide, our work offers a practical toolbox that may be used in a wide range of fields to help detect early warning signals of critical transitions in time series data.
Layer thickness swell and layer internal bond of medium density fiberboard and oriented strandboard

A practical method of measuring layer properties is proposed as a technique to study the influence of the vertical density distribution on wood composite panel performance. Thin, uniform, horizontal layers were sectioned from medium density fiberboard and oriented strandboard specimens, and tested in thickness swell (TS) and internal bond (IB). The influence of the layer density on layer TS and layer IB is discussed. The layer TS development of both products in relation to water exposure time is presented.
Identifying the Extensive and Intensive Effects of Generic Advertising on the Household Demand for Fluid Milk and Cheese

A two-step sample selection model is used to estimate household demand equations for fluid milk and cheese products incorporating national generic advertising. This approach allows us to disentangle the incidence of the advertising effect on the probability of purchase and changes in the level of consumption. Generic advertising for fluid milk had a predominantly intensive effect on athome fluid milk demand, implying that advertising was relatively more effective at increasing the consumption of current consumers. Conversely, the at-home cheese demand response to generic cheese advertising was almost exclusively extensive, with virtually the entire increase in quantity demanded due to an increase in the household’s probability of purchase.
Low-dose vs standard-dose insulin in pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis: a randomized clinical trial.

IMPORTANCE The standard recommended dose (0.1 U/kg per hour) of insulin in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) guidelines is not backed by strong clinical evidence. Physiologic dose-effect studies have found that even lower doses could adequately normalize ketonemia and acidosis. Lowering the insulin dose may be advantageous in the initial hours of therapy when a gradual decrease in glucose, electrolytes, and resultant osmolality is desired. OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy and safety of low-dose insulin against the standard dose in children with DKA. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This was a prospective, open-label randomized clinical trial conducted in the pediatric emergency department and intensive care unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital in northern India from November 1, 2011, through December 31, 2012. A total of 50 consecutive children 12 years or younger with a diagnosis of DKA were randomized to low-dose (n = 25) and standard-dose (n = 25) groups. INTERVENTIONS Low-dose (0.05 U/kg per hour) vs standard-dose (0.1 U/kg per hour) insulin infusion. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was the rate of decrease in blood glucose until a level of 250 mg/dL or less is reached (to convert to millimoles per liter, multiply by 0.0555). The secondary outcomes included time to resolution of acidosis, episodes of treatment failures, and incidences of hypokalemia and hypoglycemia. RESULTS The mean (SD) rate of blood glucose decrease until a level of 250 mg/dL or less is reached (45.1 [17.6] vs 52.2 [23.4] mg/dL/h) and the mean (SD) time taken to achieve this target (6.0 [3.3] vs 6.2 [2.2] hours) were similar in the low- and standard-dose groups, respectively. Mean (SD) length of time to achieve resolution of acidosis (low vs standard dose: 16.5 [7.2] vs 17.2 [7.7] hours; P = .73) and rate of resolution of acidosis were also similar in the groups. Hypokalemia was seen in 12 children (48%) receiving the standard dose vs 5 (20%) of those receiving the low dose (P = .07); the tendency was more pronounced in malnourished children (7 [88%] vs 2 [28%]). Five children (20%) and 1 child (4%) receiving standard- and low-dose infusion (P = .17), respectively, developed hypoglycemia. Treatment failure was rare and comparable. One child in the standard-dose group developed cerebral edema, and no deaths occurred during the study period. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Low dose is noninferior to standard dose with respect to rate of blood glucose decrease and resolution of acidosis. We advocate a superiority trial with a larger sample size before 0.05 U/kg per hour replaces 0.1 U/kg per hour in the practice recommendations. TRIAL REGISTRATION ctri.nic. in Identifier: CTRI/2012/04/002548.