Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Binding and lubrication of biomimetic boundary lubricants on articular cartilage

The glycoprotein, lubricin, is the primary boundary lubricant of articular cartilage and has been shown to prevent cartilage damage after joint injury. In this study, a library of eight bottle‐brush copolymers were synthesized to mimic the structure and function of lubricin. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) grafted onto a polyacrylic acid (pAA) core mimicked the hydrophilic mucin‐like domain of lubricin, and a thiol terminus anchored the polymers to cartilage surfaces much like lubricin's C‐terminus. These copolymers, abbreviated as pAA‐g‐PEG, rapidly bound to cartilage surfaces with binding time constants ranging from 20 to 39 min, and affected lubrication under boundary mode conditions with coefficients of friction ranging from 0.140 ± 0.024 to 0.248 ± 0.030. Binding and lubrication were highly correlated (r2 = 0.89–0.99), showing that boundary lubrication in this case strongly depends on the binding of the lubricant to the surface. Along with time‐dependent and dose‐dependent behavior, lubrication and binding of the lubricin‐mimetics also depended on copolymer structural parameters including pAA backbone length, PEG side chain length, and PEG:AA brush density. Polymers with larger backbone sizes, brush sizes, or brush densities took longer to bind (p < 0.05). Six of the eight polymers reduced friction relative to denuded cartilage plugs (p < 0.05), suggesting their potential to lubricate and protect cartilage in vivo. In copolymers with shorter pAA backbones, increasing hydrodynamic size inhibited lubrication (p < 0.08), while the opposite was observed in copolymers with longer backbones (p < 0.05). These polymers show similar in vitro lubricating efficacy as recombinant lubricins and as such have potential for in vivo treatment of post‐traumatic osteoarthritis. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:548–557, 2017.
Evolutionary Computation and Cryptology

Evolutionary Computation (EC) has been used with great success on various real-world problems. One domain abundant with numerous difficult problems is cryptology. Cryptology can be divided into cryptography, that informally speaking considers methods how to ensure secrecy (but also authenticity, privacy, etc.), and cryptanalysis, that deals with methods how to break cryptographic systems. Although not always in an obvious way, EC can be applied to problems from both domains. This tutorial will first give a brief introduction to cryptology intended for general audience (therefore, omitting proofs and mathematics behind many concepts). Afterwards, we concentrate on several topics from cryptography that are successfully tackled up to now with EC and discuss why those topics are suitable to apply EC. However, care must be taken since there exists a number of problems that seem to be impossible to solve with EC and one needs to realize the limitations of the heuristics. We will discuss the choice of appropriate EC techniques (GA, GP, CGP, ES, multi-objective optimization, etc) for various problems and evaluate on the importance of that choice. Furthermore, we will discuss the gap between the cryptographic community and EC community and what does that mean for the results. By doing that, we will give a special emphasis on the perspective that cryptography presents a source of benchmark problems for the EC community. To conclude, we will present a number of topics we consider to be a strong research choice that can have a real-world impact. In that part, we give a special attention to cryptographic problems where cryptographic community successfully applied EC, but where those problems remained out of the focus of EC community. This tutorial will also present some live demos of EC in action when dealing with cryptographic problems. We will present several problems, ways of encoding solutions, impact of the algorithms choice and finally, we will run some experiments to show the results and discuss how to assess them from cryptographic perspective.
CYTOTOXICITY EFFECT OF CLADRIBINE ON THE MCF-7 HUMAN BREAST CANCER CELL LINE

Cladribine, an analogue of deoxyadenosine, is highly toxic for both non-dividing and proliferating cells and has shown activity in the treatment of several malignancies. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate the cytotoxicity effect of cladribine (2-CdA) on the breast cancer cell line, MCF7 (estrogen receptor positive, ER + ). MTT assay, annexin V-Fluorescein/PI and Hoechst 33258 staining were used to detect cytotoxicity and cell apoptosis. The activation of caspase-3 and -9 was assayed using caspase activation assay kits. Gel electrophoresis was performed to detect DNA fragmentation. Treatment of MCF-7 cells with different concentrations of 2-CdA resulted in a significant increase in the cell death. Annexin V-Fluorescein/PI and Hoechst 33258 staining revealed that the cell death was mainly an apoptotic type. A significant (p<0.05) increase in the activity of caspase-9 was observed but Caspase-3 activity was unchanged and DNA laddering profile was not obtained. Pre-treatment of the cells with kinase inhibitor, 5-amino-5-deoxyadenosine inhibited the cytotoxicity effect of cladribine. In conclusion, this study has shown that high dose of cladribine (higher than 25 μM) has an apoptotic effect on MCF-7 cells and that its intracellular phosphorylation is necessary. Iran. Biomed. J. 8 (1): 7-12, 2004
Mitomycin C in Patients with Gynecological Malignancies

Mitomycin C (MMC) is an effective cytostatic agent used in the treatment of patients with gynecological malignancies and breast carcinoma. This review presents and discusses the current treatment options with MMC in patients with breast, cervical, and vulvar carcinomas, as well as rarer gynecological malignancies. New combinations and developments are also presented and their potential clinical relevance is examined. Consequently, also for the next years a MMC-containing chemotherapy continues to be a relevant part of an individualized therapy despite numerous innovative new drugs, especially for the salvage therapy of metastatic breast cancer and the simultaneous radiochemotherapy of other gynecological malignancies.
Angulated views in the sagittal plane for improved accuracy of cinecoronary angiography.

It has been a standard practice during selective coronary angiography to obtain multiple angulated views of the coronary vessels in a single transverse plane.These views usually provide an excellent definition of the longitudinally oriented right coronary artery and middle and distal segments of the left coronary artery. However, the proximal branches of the left coronary artery are more transversely oriented and can be parallel to the axis of the x-ray beam in this plane of rotation. This results not infrequently in superimpositions and incomplete tangential views of these segments. Therefore, stenoses in these areas can be overlooked or underestimated.We have found that these difficulties can be overcome, in most instances, by the systematic use of additional views in a sagittal plane, angulated approximately 25° either in a cranial or caudal direction or both.
Cytokines in Stress

Periodontitis is a chronic infectious disease, characterized by the progressive loss of the teeth's supporting tissues, affecting almost 40% of the entire adult population. An imbalance between a localized gram-negative infection and an exaggerated host inflammatory response plays a pivotal role in determining gingival tissue damage. Recent evidence suggests that the effect of periodontitis might not be limited just to the oral cavity but it might have systemic consequences. Indeed periodontitis has also been associated with a moderate systemic inflammatory response. Although the mechanisms behind this association remain unclear, periodontitis might represent one distant source of low-grade systemic inflammation. This association could explain the increased risk of future cardiovascular diseases observed, the impaired metabolic control in diabetes subjects and the adverse pregnancy outcomes observed in populations suffering from periodontitis. In this review we describe the pathophysiological processes involved in periodontitis and briefly review the evidence produced to support an association between periodontitis and systemic diseases.
Increased extracellular release of hippocampal NE is associated with tetanization of the medial perforant pathway in the freely moving adult male rat

The induction of long‐term potentiation (LTP) within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation is modulated by many afferent influences from a number of subcortical structures known to be intimately involved in hippocampal‐dependent learning and memory. It has been demonstrated in slice and anesthetized preparations that norepinephrine (NE) is one of these major neuromodulators involved in the induction of LTP. However, the majority of these studies have not been conducted in the freely moving animal. Recently, we developed surgical procedures and instrumentation techniques to simultaneously record electrophysiological and neurochemical data from the hippocampal formation. The present study uses these techniques to examine the underlying neurochemical changes in the hippocampus associated with the induction of hippocampal dentate LTP in the freely moving adult rat. These findings establish baseline levels of NE that can be used to evaluate the impact of various tetanization paradigms as well as the effect of a variety of insults on hippocampal plasticity. Hippocampus 2001;11:423–429. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
RepSnapping: Efficient Image Cutout for Repeated Scene Elements

Repeated scene elements are copious and ubiquitous in natural images. Cutout of those repeated elements usually involves tedious and laborious user interaction by previous image segmentation methods. In this paper, we present RepSnapping, a novel method oriented to cutout of repeated scene elements with much less user interaction. By exploring inherent similarity between repeated elements, a new optimization model is introduced to thread correlated elements in the segmentation procedure. The model proposed here enables efficient solution using max‐flow/min cut on an extended graph. Experiments indicate that RepSnapping facilitates cutout of repeated elements better than the state‐of‐the‐art interactive image segmentation and repetition detection methods.
Mapping of receptor binding domains in the envelope protein of spleen necrosis virus

Spleen necrosis virus (SNV) is an amphotropic retrovirus originally isolated from a duck. Although of avian origin, it also replicates on some mammalian cells. SNV-derived retroviral vectors work with high efficiency and have a high potential for various gene transfer applications. However, little is known about the envelope-receptor interactions of this virus. We constructed a series of recombinant envelope proteins to characterize the SU peptide of SNV. We found that, in contrast to the envelope proteins of other retroviruses, truncated envelope proteins of SNV are transported to the cell surface. Surprisingly, particles displaying truncated envelope proteins can still infect cells, although at reduced efficiencies. Furthermore, these proteins can confer partial superinfection interference. Our data suggest that peptides throughout SU are involved in envelope-receptor interactions. To more precisely determine the localization of the main receptor binding domain, point mutations were introduced at certain regions of the SNV SU which are highly conserved among retroviruses belonging to the same receptor interference group. We identified one point mutation in the middle of SU (position 192) which drastically reduced infectivity and strongly reduced the ability to confer superinfection interference. The level of expression was not abolished, and translocation to the cell membrane of the mutant envelope occurred efficiently. This indicates that amino acid 192 may be directly involved in receptor binding.
Sensitivity vs specificity

Pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) is clearly underrecognized and is often misdiagnosed as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), or as one of many relapsing pediatric neurologic conditions. Up to 5% of MS cases have a pediatric onset,1 and there are an estimated 10,000 cases in the United States alone.2 Recently, the International Pediatric MS Study Group proposed new clinical criteria for pediatric MS and related demyelinating disorders.3 However, definitive MRI criteria for these conditions are lacking. Recent studies have shown that at the time of their MS-defining attack, children meet McDonald MRI criteria only 67% of the time, suggesting a lower lesion burden at the time of presentation compared to adults.4 Previously published studies have suggested that the presence of periventricular and corpus callosum well-defined lesions may be sensitive predictors of MS after a first attack in childhood.5 Thus, neuroimaging biomarkers are powerful tools that may assist in both diagnosis and prognostication for demyelinating disorders in children. In a pair of articles published in this issue of Neurology ®, Callen and a well-recognized team of authors6,7 contrasted the MRI features of clinically definite MS in children with ADEM and with other neurologic diseases. In the first …
An analysis of image quality assessment algorithm to detect the presence of unnatural contrast enhancement

Image contrast enhancement purposely aim the visibility of image to be increased. Most of these problems may happen after contrast enhancement: amplification of noise artifacts, saturation-loss of details, excessive brightness change and unnatural contrast enhancement. The main objective of this paper is to present an extensive review on existing Image Quality Assessment Algorithm (IQA) in order to detect the presence of unnatural contrast enhancement. Basically, the IQA used produced quality rating of the image while consistently with human visual perception. Current IQA to detect presence of unnatural contrast enhancement: Lightness Order Error (LOE), Structure Measure Operator (SMO) and Statistical Naturalness Measure (SNM). However, result of current IQA evaluation shows it may not giving consistent quality rating with human visual perception. Among three IQAs, SNM demonstrate better performance compared to LOE and SMO. But, it suffers with consistent rating for different spatial image resolution in same image content. Thus, an improvement suggested in this paper to overcome such problem occurred.
Effects of Halothane on Global and Regional Biventricular Performances and on Coronary Hemodynamics before and during Right Coronary Artery Stenosis in the Dog

BackgroundPreviously, it was suggested that right ventricular (RV) free wall dysfunction does not necessarily elicit global hemodynamic alterations. This was investigated in a canine model of halothane-lnduced right coronary artery (RCA) insufficiency. MethodsTwo concentrations (0.8% and 1.6% end tidal) of halothane on global and regional RV and left ventricular (LV) performance and on coronary, pulmonary, and systemic hemodynamics were studied in 10 open-chest dogs first before and, subsequently, during critical RCA stenosis. ResultsIn the absence of stenosis, halothane caused progressive and comparable depression of regional and global RV and LV function and reduction of RCA flow. Halothane administered during RCA stenosis caused disproportionate decreases in RCA flow and segment shortening and increases in systolic segment lengths in the area supplied by the stenosed RCA that were approximately twice as great as before stenosis. Such severe regional RV dysfunction was not accompanied by greater depression of global RV and LV pump function (systolic pressures and stroke volume). ConclusionsIn the canine heart with its dominant left coronary system, RCA insufficiency (on the basis of halothane-lnduced hypotension) caused regional RV dysfunction suggesting ischemia that was not accompanied by global hemodynamic alteration.
Early onset pancreatic malignancies: Clinical characteristics and survival associations

Diagnosed before age 50, early onset pancreatic malignancy (EOPM), is hypothesized to be a distinct subset of disease, although research is limited. To better characterize EOPM, and the effect of age at diagnosis on pancreatic cancer survival, we examined clinical characteristics and survival in EOPM and typical age‐at‐onset pancreatic malignancy (TOPM) cases. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) Cancer Registry confirmed pancreatic adenocarcinomas (PDACs) and malignant pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) were evaluated. Clinical characteristics were compared using χ2 tests. Overall survival was visualized with Kaplan–Meier functions; Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A total of 1,697 pancreatic malignancies were diagnosed at the VUMC between 1988 and 2013. Of 1,407 PDACs, 118 (8.4%) were EOPM, which was associated with significantly better survival (adjusted HR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.67–1.00). EOPM and TOPM PDACs significantly differed with regard to having multiple malignancies; survival associations significantly differed by race, stage of disease, treatment and multiple malignancies. Of 190 PNETs, 63 (33.1%) were EOPM, which was not significantly associated with survival (adjusted HR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.46–1.40). Malignant neuroendocrine EOPM and TOPM cases significantly differed by stage of disease and tumor location; survival associations significantly differed by family history of pancreatic cancer, stage of disease and multiple malignancies. Differences in clinical characteristics and associations with survival were identified, indicating that EOPM is distinct from TOPM, and exists among both pancreatic adenocarcinomas and malignant pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
An update of the evolving epidemic of blaKPC-2-carrying Klebsiella pneumoniae in Greece (2009-10).

OBJECTIVES To follow the epidemic of KPC-2-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in Greece. METHODS KPC-2-producing isolates (n = 378) were collected during January 2009-April 2010 in 40 Greek hospitals. bla(KPC) and bla(VIM) were detected by PCR. Carbapenemase production was confirmed by spectrophotometry. Sequences flanking bla(KPC-2) and their plasmid carriers were studied. Isolates were typed by PFGE and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). RESULTS All 378 isolates were bla(KPC-2) positive; 18 also carried bla(VIM-1/VIM-4). Higher isolation frequencies were observed in Athens and Crete. Isolates were classified into 13 PFGE types and 11 sequence types (STs). ST258 was predominant (n = 322), followed by ST147 (n = 20), ST383 (n = 9), ST133 (n = 6), ST274 (n = 4) and ST323 (n = 3). Of the remaining isolates, seven were distributed into five STs (11, 17, 340 and the novel 494 and 495) and seven were not typed. bla(KPC-2) could not be transferred from ST258 isolates, in contrast to isolates of ST17, ST133, ST147, ST274, ST494 and ST495. All bla(KPC-2)-encoding plasmids were of similar size (∼100 kb) and showed indistinguishable restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns except those from the ST340 isolates. Sequences flanking bla(KPC-2) revealed that the Tn4401a isoform was present in plasmids from all STs except ST340 containing Tn4401b. Co-production of VIM enzymes was observed in isolates of ST147, ST323 and ST383. CONCLUSIONS Apart from the epidemic of KPC-2-producing K. pneumoniae belonging to ST258 in Greece, diffusion of bla(KPC-2) to at least 10 additional STs has taken place. Notably, strains from three of the latter STs (147, 323 and 383) were found to carry both bla(KPC-2) and bla(VIM).
Replicating Form of a Single-Stranded DNA Virus: Isolation and Properties

The replicating form of single-stranded DNA virus has been isolated in pure form by chromatography on columns of methylated albumin. Its buoyant density in CsCl and "melting temperature" are characteristic of a double stranded DNA structure containing 43 percent guanine-cytosine. The nearest neighbors to uridylate were compared in the RNA synthesized when replicating-form DNA and mature single-stranded DNA were employed as templates in an in vitro system. The mature DNA component of the replicating duplex does not serve as the sole source of complementary RNA. The results agree best with the assumption that both strands of the replicating form function as templates. It is important to note that this is contrary to the situation found in the intact cell where only one of the two strands appears to be transcribed into message.
Clinical Outcomes and Cost of the Moderately Preterm Infant

PURPOSEThe purpose of this study is to define the incidence of admission and morbidities and the economic impact of moderately preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). DESIGNA retrospective descriptive study. SUBJECTSAll infants born between 32 to 34 weeks' gestational age (GA) (n = 4932) followed by ParadigmHealth, a care management company, from January 2001 through June 2004 were evaluated. Infants with major congenital anomalies were excluded. This sample represented 453 NICUs in 24 states in the United States. METHODSRetrospective data analysis. Infants born between 32 and 34 weeks' GA were studied (n = 4932). This subset of patients in the NICU was compared to the entire population in the database (n = 19,923) for incidence and cost comparison. Infants were followed for 2 weeks after hospital discharge. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESDemographics, feeding characteristics, respiratory needs, complications, discharge needs, and patient costs. RESULTSThe 4932 infants admitted to the NICU with gestational ages of 32 to 34 weeks represented 24.8% of the 19,923 admissions during this time period. This cohort experienced low mortality (0.5%) and had an average length of stay (LOS) of 17.6 days. The average cost per case was $31,000, representing 21.6% of total NICU costs. Fifty-four percent of infants experienced respiratory compromise, requiring ventilation, continuous positive airway pressure, or oxygen during their hospital course. Fifty-six percent required intravenous nutrition, and 19% of these patients were discharged home with ongoing medical needs and the use of durable medical equipment. CONCLUSIONSAlthough morbidities with long-term consequences were rare, there is a significant burden on the infant, family, and healthcare team for patients 32 to 34 weeks' GA. It is important to understand the characteristics of this group of infants and explore ways of optimizing care to minimize this burden.