Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell therapy for bone fracture repair: A comparative preclinical review of mesenchymal stromal cells from bone marrow and from adipose tissue

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing interest among researchers for human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC). Their regenerative properties, multilineage differentiation capacity and immunomodulatory properties make them promising candidates for treatment in various conditions. Emerging biotechnology companies specialized in cellular and regenerative therapies have been focusing their interest on MSC-based therapies, and their use in clinical trials has steadily increased. Notably, MSC are currently tested in clinical trials addressing unmet medical needs in the field of bone fracture repair and more specifically in non-union and delayed union fractures where the bone repair process is impaired. Although MSC can be isolated from various tissues, the most commonly studied sources are bone marrow (BM) and adipose tissue (Ad). In this article, we reviewed the literature directly comparing BM- and Ad-MSC for their in vitro characteristics and in vivo osteogenic potential to determine which source of MSC would be more appropriate for bone fracture repair. As considerable variations in experimental settings between studies were found, our review was based on studies meeting specific sets of criteria, notably regarding donors’ age and gender. This review of side-by-side comparisons suggests that while BM-and Ad-MSC share common general characteristics, BM-MSC have a higher intrinsic osteogenic capacity in vitro and bone repair potential in vivo.
On the eficiency of some signal descriptors to identify normal or abnormal cardiac rhythms

This work presents a new study on characterization of EEG signal descriptors with possibility of use in mobile devices for prevention of heart attack. Various techniques are compared in order to design a system for identification of normal or abnormal windows in a continuous scanning acquisition. As result the potentialities of the considered signal descriptors on the identification of normal or abnormal cardiac rhythms are discussed.
Characterization of mid-infrared femtosecond pulses [Invited]

We review different methods for characterizing mid-infrared femtosecond pulses, including linear methods such as electro-optic sampling, time- and frequency-domain interferometry, and nonlinear self-referenced methods such as frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) and spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER). Of particular interest are methods based on upconversion through nonlinear mixing with chirped 800 nm pulses, enabling a complete measurement of mid-infrared pulses with visible-light spectrometers.
Constrained Coupled Matrix-Tensor Factorization and its Application in Pattern and Topic Detection

Traditionally, time-evolving topic discovery approaches have focused on the temporal evolution of the topic itself. However, especially in settings where content is contributed by a community or a crowd, an orthogonal notion of time is the one that pertains to the level of expertise of the content creator: the more experienced the creator, the more advanced the topic will be. In this paper, we propose a novel time-evolving topic discovery method which, in addition to the extracted topics, is able to identify the evolution of that topic over time, as well as the level of difficulty of that topic, as it is inferred by the level of expertise of its main contributors. Our method is based on a novel formulation of Constrained Coupled Matrix-Tensor Factorization, which adopts constraints that are well motivated for, and, as we demonstrate, are necessary for high-quality topic discovery.
Ethylene inhibits stem trichome formation in Arabidopsis

Trichomes, specialized cells that form on the above ground parts of plants, are useful model systems for studying cell differentiation. In this study, the plant hormone ethylene was found to strongly inhibit formation of trichomes on stems of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants grown in the presence of high concentrations of the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid fail to form trichomes on their primary inflorescences. In addition, plants carrying mutations in CTR1 that confer a constitutive response to ethylene exhibit severe reductions in stem trichome numbers. In contrast, plants carrying mutations that confer ethylene insensitivity, and plants grown in the presence of an ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor, produce normal numbers of stem trichomes. Together, these results suggest that either excess ethylene or a constitutive ethylene response prevents the normal differentiation of cells that would otherwise form stem trichomes. Reduced ethylene levels and decreased ethylene response, in constrast, appear insufficient to cause cells that do not normally form trichomes to form trichomes. In contrast to ethylene, application of exogenous Glc results in increased stem trichome numbers. Besides affecting stem trichome numbers, ethylene may also affect branching of stem trichomes. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the vast majority of stem trichomes are unbranched. When wild-type Arabidiopsis thaliana of the Col-0 ecotype are grown in the presence of an ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor, the percentage of stem trichomes that are branched increases significantly. However, growth in the presence of an ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor does not affect stem branching in wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana of the Ler-0 ecotype. Plants carrying the etr1-1 and ein2-1 mutations, which cause ethylene insensitivity, have an increased percentage of branched stem trichomes. In contrast, plants carrying the ctr1-1 and ctr1-12 mutations have a decreased percentage of branched stem trichomes. Growth in the presence of a precursor of ethylene biosynthesis also causes a substantial reduction in branching of Arabidopsis leaf trichomes, suggesting that ethylene has a negative effect on branching of both leaf and stem trichomes in Arabidopsis.
T H E OCCURRENCE OF POLYGLYCEROPHOSPHATE AS AN A N T I G E N I C COMPONENT OF VARIOUS GRAM-POSITIVE BACTERIAL SPECIES BY MACLYN McCARTY, M.D

The present report deals with the identification of a new bacterial substance which was first recognized as a result of its reactivity with certain streptococcal antisera. Extracts of Groups A to G streptococci, as well as those of various other Gram-positive bacteria, give strong precipitin reactions with these antisera, indicating that the substance is widely distributed in the microbial world. Purification and characterization of the active component was carried out principally with material extracted from Group A streptococci, using the serological reaction as a guide during the fractionation procedures. On the basis of the evidence presented below, it is concluded that the active substance is an organic polyphosphate which appears to be a simple polymer built up solely of glycerophosphate units.
Impacts of International Wheat Breeding Research in the Developing World, 1988-2002

The third in a series of global studies, this report (covering 1988-2002) documents the adoption and diffusion of modern wheat varieties in the developing world and assesses the benefi ts generated by international wheat breeding efforts. It updates the fi ndings and confi rms the three major conclusions of the two earlier studies, and extends the coverage to include many countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In the postGreen Revolution era, CIMMYT’s improved germplasm continues to be used extensively by breeding programs in developing countries, and public investment in international wheat breeding research continues to generate high rates of return. Measured in terms of varietal releases, wheat breeding programs in developing countries continue to be very productive. Between 1988 and 2002, public national research organizations and private seed companies in the developing world released nearly 1,700 wheat varieties. The international wheat breeding system continues to be dominated by public breeding programs, but private companies also engage in wheat breeding in a number of developing countries. More than 75% of protected cultivars (those with plant breeding rights) in South America have CIMMYT ancestry. Of the area planted to wheat in the surveyed countries, 64% was sown to varieties containing CIMMYT-related germplasm, and 24% of varieties in those countries were derived from CIMMYT crosses. A simple economic surplus model was used to estimate the value of additional grain production attributable to the adoption of modern wheat varieties in developing countries. Depending on the stringency of the method used, the value of additional grain ranges from US$ 2.0 to 6.1 billion per year (2002 dollars). The extensive use of CIMMYT germplasm by public and private breeding programs, combined with the widespread adoption of CIMMYT-derived varieties, generates signifi cant benefi ts. Using the most conservative rule for attributing credit to CIMMYT (CIMMYT cross), the annual benefi ts associated with the use of CIMMYT-derived germplasm range from US$ 0.5 to 1.5 billion (2002 dollars), a huge return on CIMMYT’s annual investment (US$ 9-11 million in 2002 dollars) in wheat improvement research.
Modeling and measurement of tissue elastic moduli using optical coherence elastography

Mechanical forces play crucial roles in tissue growth, patterning and development. To understand the role of mechanical stimuli, biomechanical properties are of great importance, as well as our ability to measure biomechanical properties of developing and engineered tissues. To enable these measurements, a novel non-invasive, micron-scale and high-speed Optical Coherence Elastography (OCE) system has been developed utilizing a titanium:sapphire based spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system and a mechanical wave driver. This system provides axial resolution of 3 microns, transverse resolution of 13 microns, and an acquisition rate as high as 25,000 lines per second. External lowfrequency vibrations are applied to the samples in the system. Step and sinusoidal steady-state responses are obtained to first characterize the OCE system and then characterize samples. Experimental results of M-mode OCE on silicone phantoms and human breast tissues are obtained, which correspond to biomechanical models developed for this analysis. Quantified results from the OCE system correspond directly with results from an indentation method from a commercial. With micron-scale resolution and a high-speed acquisition rate, our OCE system also has the potential to rapidly measure dynamic 3-D tissue biomechanical properties.
EXPLORING THE WORLD THROUGH MANIPULATION: A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH

This paper describes a developmental approach to the design of a humanoid robot. The robot, equipped with initial perceptual and motor competencies, explores the “shape” of its own body before devoting its attention to the external environment. The initial form of sensorimotor coordination consists of a set of reflexive and explorative motor behaviors coupled to an ensemble of visual routines providing a bottomup attention system. The developmental path leads the robot from to construction of a “body schema” to the exploration of the world of objects. The “body schema” allows controlling the arm and hand to reach and touch objects within the robot’s workspace. Eventually, the interaction between the environment and the robot’s body is exploited to acquire a visual model of the objects the robot interacts with. In turn object models can be used to guide a top-down attention system. We discuss the implications of our approach in the study of cognition and our effort to build a cognitive artificial system.
Imaging for Viable and Ischemic Myocardium Value of Assessment of Viable and Ischemic Myocardium and Techniques Such as MRI, Radionuclide Imaging

Myocardial ischemia and infarction cause abnorma myocardial metabolism, decreased left ventricular (LV) systolic function, diastolic dysfunction, congestive heart failure, and decreased survival. Consequently, revascularization techniques, either surgical or catheter based, have become integral to treatment of severe ischemic heart disease. With revascularization, significant areas of dysfunctional myocardium can regain their function, resulting in improved LV performance and in increased survival. Current data suggests that 25–40% of patients with ischemic LV dysfunction are potential candidates for improvement following revascularization [1–5]. The challenge lies in correctly identifying this group of patients based on accurate detection of ischemic and viable myocardium. Nuclear imaging techniques, like single photon emission tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET), directly assess myocardial perfusion, cell membrane integrity, cellular metabolism, and the molecular mechanisms of ischemic viable or necrotic myocardium, thereby indicating revascularization procedures or not. Historical Perspective and Definitions
Monetary and Fiscal Policy Interactions in the Post-War U.S

A New Keynesian model allowing for an active monetary and passive fiscal policy (AMPF) regime and a passive monetary and active fiscal policy (PMAF) regime is fit to various U.S. samples from 1955 to 2007. Data in the pre-Volcker periods strongly prefer an AMPF regime, but the estimation is not very informative about whether the inflation coefficient in the interest rate rule exceeds one in pre-Volcker samples. Also, whether a government spending increase yields positive consumption in a PMAF regime depends on price stickiness. An income tax cut can yield a negative labor response if monetary policy aggressively stabilizes output.
REINFORCEMENT LEARNING THROUGH NEURAL ENCODING

Recent progress in the field of Reinforcement Learning (RL) has enabled to tackle bigger and more challenging tasks. However, the increasing complexity of the problems, as well as the use of more sophisticated models such as Deep Neural Networks (DNN), has impeded the ability to understand the behavior of trained policies. In this work, we present the Semi-Aggregated Markov Decision Process (SAMDP) model. The purpose of the SAMDP modeling is to analyze trained policies by identifying temporal and spatial abstractions. In contrast to other modeling approaches, SAMDP is built in a transformed state-space that encodes the dynamics of the problem. We show that working with the right state representation mitigates the problem of finding spatial and temporal abstractions. We describe the process of building the SAMDP model by observing trajectories of a trained policy and give examples for using it in a toy problem and complicated DQN agents. Finally, we show how using the SAMDP we can monitor the trained policy and make it more robust.
The Role of Soccer in Slowing the Decline of Visual Function Caused by Aging: a Study of Young and Middle-aged Subjects

The general decline of visual function is one of the many physical changes that occur as a result of the aging process. This study was conducted to identify the effects that daily soccer activity has on the following eight visual functions: static visual acuity (SVA), kinetic visual acuity (KVA), dynamic visual acuity (DVA), contrast sensitivity (CS), depth perception (DP), ocular motor skill (OMS), visual reaction time (VRT), and eye/hand coordination (E/H). Young and middle-aged subjects were examined in this study. Two findings were confirmed. First, decrease in KVA, DVA, VRT and E/H with age was observed. Next, results suggest that soccer blunted the decrease with age or improved the function of DVA and OMS. Future studies should include the effect of innate ability on the visual function and use longitudinal study methods to more precisely clarify the effects of daily soccer activity on visual function.
Stability Improvement of AC System by Controllability of the HVDC

High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power transmission is employed to move large amounts of electric power. There are several possibilities to enhance the transient stability in a power system. One adequate option is by using the high controllability of the HVDC if HVDC is available in the system. This paper presents a control technique for HVDC to enhance the transient stability. The strategy controls the power through the HVDC to help make the system more transient stable during disturbances. Loss of synchronism is prevented by quickly producing sufficient decelerating energy to counteract accelerating energy gained during. In this study, the power flow in the HVDC link is modulated with the addition of an auxiliary signal to the current reference of the rectifier firing angle controller. This modulation control signal is derived from speed deviation signal of the generator utilizing a PD controller; the utilization of a PD controller is suitable because it has the property of fast response. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is demonstrated with a SMIB test system. Keywords—HVDC, SMIB, Stability, Power System.
Molecular Targeting of Prostate Cancer During Androgen Ablation: Inhibition of CHES1/FOXN3

Abstract : Our operating hypothesis is that Checkpoint suppressor 1 (CHES1)/FOXN3 is an androgen withdrawal-induced gene that promotes prostate cancer (PCa) resistance to apoptosis. The purposes of this research are two-fold. The first is to define the mechanisms of CHES1 gene expression regulation and function, particularly in mediating apoptosis resistance during androgen ablation. Secondly, the tools yielded from our functional studies will be utilized to test the efficacy of CHES1- silencing therapy (CST) in preventing castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and to develop a mechanism-based noninvasive imaging strategy for monitoring the success of CST. Several significant findings were made. We defined the mechanisms through which CHES1 coordinates anti-apoptotic pathways, specifically enhanced PI3K/Akt activation and global regulation of genes negatively regulating apoptosis. We elucidated that CHES1-mediated AR repression diminishes amino acid-activated mTORC1, which consequently de-represses PI3K-Akt activity. We defined the precise mechanism of CHES1 as a direct transcriptional suppressor of pro-apoptotic BNIP3 expression via its ability to recruit co-repressor complexes to the upstream regulatory region. Conversely, p53-mediated CHES1 down-regulation is required for genotoxic stress to trigger apoptosis. Taken together, our findings provide strong support for exploiting CHES1 as a therapeutic target in that CHES1 antagonism would potentially lead to decreased anti-apoptotic PI3K-Akt signaling, combined reinstatement of pro-apoptotic gene expression (i.e., BNIP3) and suppression of pro-survival genes, and reduced activity of oncogenic AR splice variants.
Computational Analysis and Integration of MeDIP-seq Methylome Data

The combinatorial number of possible methylomes in biological time and space is astro‐ nomical. Consequently, the computational analysis of methylomes needs to cater for a va‐ riety of data, throughput and resolution. Here, we review recent advances in 2nd generation sequencing (2GS) with a focus on the different methods used for the analysis of MeDIP-seq data. The challenges and opportunities presented by the integration of methylation data with other genomic data types are discussed as is the potential impact of emerging 3rd generation sequencing (3GS) based technologies on methylation analysis.
Deep Learning Based Data Governance for Chinese Electronic Health Record Analysis

Electronic health record (EHR) analysis can leverage great insights for improving the quality of human health care. However, the low data quality problems of missing values, inconsistency, and errors in the data columns hinder building robust machine learning models for data analysis. In this paper, we develop a methodology of artificial intelligence (AI)-based data governance to predict the missing values or verify if the existing values are correct and what they should be when they are wrong. We demonstrate the performance of this methodology through a case study of patient gender prediction and verification. Experimental results show that the deep learning algorithm works very well according to the testing performance measured by the quantitative metric of F1-Score, and it outperforms support vector machine (SVM) models with different vector representations for documents.
Self-Compacting Concrete

Development of Self-Compacting Concrete For several years beginning in 1983, the problem of the durability of concrete structures was a major topic of interest in Japan. The creation of durable concrete structures requires adequate compaction by skilled workers. However, the gradual reduction in the number of skilled workers in Japan's construction industry has led to a similar reduction in the quality of construction work. One solution for the achievement of durable con- crete structures independent of the quality of construc- tion work is the employment of self-compacting con- crete, which can be compacted into every corner of a formwork, purely by means of its own weight and with- out the need for vibrating compaction (Fig. 1). The necessity of this type of concrete was proposed by Okamura in 1986. Studies to develop self-compacting concrete, including a fundamental study on the work- ability of concrete, have been carried out by Ozawa and Maekawa at the University of Tokyo (Ozawa 1989, Okamura 1993 & Maekawa 1999). The prototype of self-compacting concrete was first completed in 1988 using materials already on the mar- ket (Fig. 2). The prototype performed satisfactorily with regard to drying and hardening shrinkage, heat of hydration, denseness after hardening, and other proper- ties. This concrete was named "High Performance Con- crete" and was defined as follows at the three stages of concrete:
Proceedings of the NATO IST-128 Workshop: Assessing Mission Impact of Cyberattacks Held in Istanbul, Turkey on 15-17 June 2015

Abstract : This volume consists of the papers presented at the NATO workshop IST-128 / RWS-019, entitled Cyber Attack Detection, Forensics and Attribution for Assessment of Mission Impact. This workshop was organized by the NATO Science and Technology Organizations (STO) Information Systems and Technology (IST) Panel and held at the Istanbul Technical University, in Istanbul, Turkey, 15-17 June 2015. It was NATO Unclassified and open to the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) nations, and to the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) nations. Additional information and a discussion of the findings of the workshop can be found in the accompanying volume Assessing Mission Impact of Cyber Attacks: the Report of the NATO Workshop IST-128.
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSFORMATION GROUPS

These are the notes from a course that was an introduction to the theory of finite (or compact) transformation groups, including basic definitions and facts, standard examples, algebraic restrictions, fundamental constructions, all with an emphasis on group actions on manifolds in lowdimensional geometric topology. There is a focus on problems and results that have interesting versions in low dimensional topology, including the study of group actions on surfaces, 3-manifolds, and 4-manifolds. Many other deep results, especially in higher dimensions, are also briefly surveyed without full proofs.
Unchained : Amplified Application-Layer DoS Attacks Against DNS Authoritatives

We present DNS Unchained, a new application-layer DoS attack against core DNS infrastructure that for the first time uses amplification. To achieve an attack amplification of 8.51, we carefully chain CNAME records and force resolvers to perform deep name resolutions— effectively overloading a target authoritative name server with valid requests. We identify 178 508 potential amplifiers, of which 74.3 % can be abused in such an attack due to the way they cache records with low Time-to-Live values. In essence, this allows a single modern consumer uplink to downgrade availability of large DNS setups. To tackle this new threat, we conclude with an overview of countermeasures and suggestions for DNS servers to limit the impact of DNS chaining attacks.