Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrospun bioresorbable tissue repair scaffolds: From laboratory to clinic

The healing of soft tissue wounds and injury sites is a complex process requiring the participation of many different cells, tissues, proteins and tissue components in a coordinated manner. We describe the development of regenerative, electrospun, bioresorbable advanced material tissue scaffolds providing three dimensional (3D) structure for cells involved in the repair of soft tissue injuries. One product, EktoTherix™ provides a micron-scale 3D architecture to enhance the recruitment of reparative cells onto this temporary support and in this way the body's capacity to repair itself is utilised. EktoTherix and other electrospun tissue scaffolds have been translated from early stage laboratory work through manufacturing process development and clinical investigation.
A geometric morphometric study on geographical populations of Hippodamia variegata (Goeze, 1777) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in some parts of Iran

Spotted Amber Ladybird, Hippodamia variegata (Goeze, 1777) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is an important predator of aphids and some other insect pests. Since shape and size variation may affect biological characteristics of an insect, multivariate analysis of shape variations in four geographically isolated populations of H. variegata (Isfahan, Shahrekord, Shiraz, Yasuj) was performed based on eight landmarks of hind wing. According to the analysis, significant difference in weight matrices (as shape variable) was detected. The cluster analysis separated Isfahan population from other populations. According to ANOVA, we found significant difference in centroid size (as size variable), so that the two populations, Isfahan and Shahrekord, had larger wings than the two other populations. Distribution of 80 individuals based on partial warps on the relative warp axis placed Isfahan population in a separate group while the others had overlap and irregular distribution.
Tumor Elastography and Its Association with Collagen and the Tumor Microenvironment

Purpose: The tumor microenvironment presents with altered extracellular matrix (ECM) and stroma composition, which may affect treatment efficacy and contribute to tissue stiffness. Ultrasound (US) elastography can visualize and quantify tissue stiffness noninvasively. However, the contributions of ECM and stromal components to stiffness are poorly understood. We therefore set out to quantify ECM and stroma density and their relation to tumor stiffness. Experimental Design: A modified clinical ultrasound system was used to measure tumor stiffness and perfusion during tumor growth in preclinical tumor models. In vivo measurements were compared with collagen mass spectroscopy and automatic analysis of matrix and stromal markers derived from immunofluorescence images. Results: US elastography estimates of tumor stiffness were positively correlated with tumor volume in collagen and myofibroblast-rich tumors, while no correlations were found for tumors with low collagen and myofibroblast content. US elastography measurements were strongly correlated with ex vivo mechanical testing and mass spectroscopy–based measurements of total collagen and immature collagen crosslinks. Registration of ultrasound and confocal microscopy data showed strong correlations between blood vessel density and T-cell density in syngeneic tumors, while no correlations were found for genetic tumor models. In contrast to collagen density, which was positively correlated with stiffness, no significant correlations were observed for hyaluronic acid density. Finally, localized delivery of collagenase led to a significant reduction in tumor stiffness without changes in perfusion 24 hours after treatment. Conclusions: US elastography can be used as a potential biomarker to assess changes in the tumor microenvironment, particularly changes affecting the ECM. Clin Cancer Res; 24(18); 4455–67. ©2018 AACR.
Diagnostic Accuracy of Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) in Post-Menopausal Patients with Ovarian Mass.

OBJECTIVE To determine the diagnostic accuracy of ROMA in postmenopausal women with history of ovarian mass. STUDY DESIGN Observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Dr. Ziauddin University Hospital, Karachi, from May 2014 to June 2015. METHODOLOGY Two hundred and sixty postmenopausal women of 40-65 years of age with ovarian masses, planned for surgery, were included in the study. Their samples were obtained preoperatively and analysed on Abbot Architect i1000 SR immunoassay analyser for quantitative estimation of tumor markers, i.e. HE4 and CA125. By combination of these two tumor markers, ROMA scores were calculated and studied after histopathological verification of masses. RESULTS Total number of patients were 260, out of which 122 (46.9%) were diagnosed as having ovarian cancer, while 138 (53.0%) were diagnosed as benign condition. Median ROMA score levels in patients with malignant masses were 95.58 (IQR=44.4) as compared to 20.6 (IQR=14) in benign masses. ROMA had sensitivity 92.6% (CI=86.47-96.04), specificity 78.3% (CI=70.09-83.82), positive predictive value 79% (CI=70.87-84.29), negative predictive value 92.3% (CI=86.02-95.9) and positive likelihood ratio 4.26, while negative likelihood ratio 0.1. Diagnostic accuracy of ROMA was 85%, based on ROC curve analysis. ROMA had the highest sensitivity in detecting ovarian carcinoma. CONCLUSION ROMA is a very useful diagnostic tool for the preoperative stratification of patients with ovarian masses showing 85% diagnostic accuracy. However, there is need of more studies with homogenous laboratory procedures for HE4 and CA125 assays as well as patients, selection criteria, so we can draw firm conclusion about utility of ROMA in clinical setups.
Levitating Particle Displays with Interactive Voxels

Levitating objects can be used as the primitives in a new type of display. We present levitating particle displays and show how research into object levitation is enabling a new way of presenting and interacting with information. We identify novel properties of levitating particle displays and give examples of the interaction techniques and applications they allow. We then discuss design challenges for these displays, potential solutions, and promising areas for future research.
Monoamine Transporter and Receptor Interaction Profiles in Vitro Predict Reported Human Doses of Novel Psychoactive Stimulants and Psychedelics

Abstract Background Pharmacological profiles of new psychoactive substances can be established rapidly in vitro and provide information on potential psychoactive effects in humans. The present study investigated whether specific in vitro monoamine transporter and receptor interactions can predict effective psychoactive doses in humans. Methods We correlated previously assessed in vitro data of stimulants and psychedelics with human doses that are reported on the Internet and in books. Results For stimulants, dopamine and norepinephrine transporter inhibition potency was positively correlated with human doses, whereas serotonin transporter inhibition potency was inversely correlated with human doses. Serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine-2A (5-HT2A) and 5-HT2C receptor affinity was significantly correlated with psychedelic doses, but 5-HT1A receptor affinity and 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B receptor activation potency were not. Conclusions The rapid assessment of in vitro pharmacological profiles of new psychoactive substances can help to predict psychoactive doses and effects in humans and facilitate the appropriate scheduling of new psychoactive substances.
Anti‐inflammatory character of Phelligridin D modulates periodontal regeneration in lipopolysaccharide‐induced human periodontal ligament cells

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Phelligridin D is a hispidin analogue from the mushroom Phellinus baumii that is widely used as a food source in East Asia. This study tested phelligridin D for the anti-inflammatory effect and mechanism in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced human periodontal ligament cells (HPDLCs). The objective of this study was to clarify whether the anti-inflammatory function of phelligridin D affects periodontal regeneration for supporting the HPDLCs of teeth. MATERIAL AND METHODS Primary HPDLCs were isolated from healthy teeth and then cultured. The anti-inflammatory function, mechanism and differentiation molecules were verified with reactive oxygen species generation and western blot analysis in LPS-induced HPDLCs. RESULTS HPDLCs showed increased inflammatory molecules (intracellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1) and decreased osteogenic proteins (bone morphogenetic protein-7, Osterix and runt-related transcription factor 2) by LPS treatment. Phelligridin D decreased inflammatory molecules and increased osteogenic molecules via downregulation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase and c-jun N-terminal kinases pathway among the mitogen-activated protein kinase, followed by blocking of nuclear factor kappa-B translocation from cytosol to nucleus. In addition, phelligridin D showed antioxidant properties by reducing reactive oxygen species activity. Finally, the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant function of phelligridin D promoted the periodontal differentiation of HPDLCs. CONCLUSION These results suggest that phelligridin D supports teeth on the alveolar bone against outside stress, and may be used as an anti-inflammatory compound for the prevention of periodontitis or periodontal regenerative related disease.
Social network information visualization based on Fruchterman Reingold layout algorithm

Internet and mobile technology provide a technology platform for information transmission, content production, and interactive communication. Public opinion information involves lots of various emotions, attitudes and opinions that people express and spread through the network. Through constructing data layout and performing visualization of public opinion information, the rendering effect of abstract data can be enhanced, which can provide decision basis for decision makers and analysts. In this paper, we start with three aspects of collection, processing and visualization of public opinion data and elaborate on the process framework of transforming public opinion data into visual form. The public opinion information can be visualized using the crawler program with multi-thread pool technique, the algorithm based on isomer reduction of the Isomap algorithm and the Fruchterman Reingold layout algorithm. The comparison and analysis between the radiation tree layout algorithm and the proposed method indicate that the Fruchterman Reingold layout algorithm used in this paper has better visualization results.
Mechanical Properties and Corrosion Behavior of 5A06 Alloy in Seawater

The mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of 5A06 alloy in a mixed solution of 0.5 mol/L H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> and seawater from Bohai Bay at 40°C for several days were investigated in this paper. The results indicate that the tensile properties of the 5A06 alloy are not very sensitive to seawater corrosion, while the fatigue life is greatly affected by it. The maximum decrements of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sigma _{b}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sigma _{0.2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> are 5.98% and 8.15%, respectively, which are due to the propagation of tensile microcracks. The maximum impairment of the fatigue life is 54.38% after corrosion for 12 days, which is related to the pitting and the combination of the galvanic effect, occluded cell effect and chemical effect. The 5A06 Al alloy mainly experiences pitting, intergranular corrosion, and exfoliation corrosion during the seawater corrosion process.
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF THE LAHONTAN CUTTHROAT TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS CLARKI HENSHAWI), A RESIDENT OF HIGHLY ALKALINE PYRAMID LAKE (pH 9.4), TO CHALLENGE AT pH 10

Desiccation of Pyramid Lake, Nevada, has led to continued increases in the lake9s alkalinity (currently pH 9.4) that may threaten the resident Lahontan cutthroat trout population. In this study, Lahontan cutthroat trout were challenged with more alkaline water (pH 10). The objectives were to describe physiological responses which may permit survival or lead to death in future potential environmental conditions and to cast further light on the mechanisms of nitrogenous waste excretion, acid-base regulation and ionoregulation in this unusual salmonid. Ammonia excretion (Jamm) was reduced by 50 % in the first few hours, but had fully recovered by 24 h and exceeded control values by 36–48 h. A sustained, twofold elevation of plasma ammonia concentration may have facilitated the recovery of Jamm by increasing the blood-to-water ammonia partial pressure diffusion gradient (deltaPNH3) and NH4+ electrochemical gradient. Urea excretion (Jurea) almost doubled at 24–48 h of pH 10 exposure. Activities of ornithine-urea cycle enzymes in the liver were very low and there was no induction at pH 10. However, all three enzymes of the uricolytic pathway were present, and allantoicase activity increased significantly at pH 10, a possible explanation for the elevated Jurea. Increased liver glutamine synthetase activity at pH 10 is consistent with a possible ammonia detoxification mechanism. A combined respiratory (decreased PaCO2) and metabolic (gain of basic equivalents) alkalosis developed at pH 10 and resulted in a 0.25 unit increase in arterial blood pH. Electrochemical gradients for CO32- and OH- entry and H+ efflux all increased, but the gradient for HCO3- entry decreased to zero. Blood lactate level increased without marked changes in arterial O2 tension, suggesting that increased lactic acid production contributed to acid-base control. Plasma Na+ and Cl- levels decreased and K+ level increased during pH 10 exposure. Survival at pH 10 was relatively poor: more than 50 % of the fish died after 72 h exposure. Greatly elevated plasma PNH3 and depressed plasma Na+ and Cl- levels in non-surviving trout suggest that a combination of ammonia toxicity and ionoregulatory failure led to death in susceptible cutthroat trout.
Indoor Localization in Dynamic Human Environments Using Visual Odometry and Global Pose Refinement

Indoor Localization is a primary task for social robots. We are particularly interested in how to solve this problem for a mobile robot using primarily vision sensors. This work examines a critical issue related to generalizing approaches for static environments to dynamic ones: (i) it considers how to deal with dynamic users in the environment that obscure landmarks that are key to safe navigation, and (ii) it considers how standard localization approaches for static environments can be augmented to deal with dynamic agents (e.g., humans). We propose an approach which integrates wheel odometry with stereo visual odometry and perform a global pose refinement to overcome previously accumulated errors due to visual and wheel odometry. We evaluate our approach through a series of controlled experiments to see how localization performance varies with increasing number of dynamic agents present in the scene.
Evaluating Attribute-Object Compositionality in Text-Image Multimodal Embeddings

The infinite possible complex scenes from visual world are composed by finite number of simple concepts i.e. images that depicts human activities could decompose into composition of subject-verb-object triplets; and images of a single salient object decompose into attribute-object pairs. Most of data-driven computer vision approaches do not explicitly model compositionality and instead rely on large number of examples of varying complex visual concepts. On the other hand, visual recognition tasks starts leveraging human language to annotate complex concept within a scene, and consequently learning an image-text multimodal representation using so-called visual-semantic models become increasingly important. However, despite their success in tasks such as cross-modalities retrieval or image captioning, the compositionality aspect of these models has yet to be evaluated explicitly. Our goal in this work is measure the extent of a state-of-the-art visual semantic model called VSE++ [Faghri et al., 2017] in generalizing to unseen attribute-object composition. We compare its performance with models that are trained explicitly to compose multiple classifiers proposed by [Misra et al., 2017]. Despite its advantage of having only a single model for arbitrary number of primitive visual concepts (e.g. subjects, verb, attribute, or object), we show that the visual-semantic model can perform competitively.
Efficacy of Polyethylene Skin Wrapping in Preventing Hypothermia in Preterm Neonates (<34 Weeks): A Parallel Group Non-blinded Randomized Control Trial

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of polyethylene skin wrapping on thermoregulation in preterm neonates. METHODS Total 151 neonates were enrolled in this randomized control trial. In the control group, neonates were transferred to the radiant warmer and covered with warm cloth after initial care. In the study group, neonates were transferred to the radiant warmer and placed in a food-grade polyethylene bag for 1 h. Axillary temperature of all neonates was recorded for first 24 h at frequent time intervals. RESULTS Mean temperature reached to normal range earlier and remained significantly higher in the study group for most time intervals, and this difference persisted even at 24 h. Significantly less number of preterm newborns suffered from hypothermia in the study group as compared with the control group [50 (67.6%) vs. 67 (87%), p = 0.004]. CONCLUSIONS Polyethylene wraps achieved rapid, sustained thermal control and were effective in preventing hypothermia in preterm newborns.
Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta , California

The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (the Delta) is located on the western edge of California’s Central Valley and is of critical ecological and economic importance. However, ecosystem alterations for human uses changed many of the Delta’s natural processes, and it is now considered in need of restoration. An approach was developed to evaluate and rank restoration actions in the Delta under the Ecosystem Restoration Program’s Delta Regional Ecosystem Restoration Implementation Plan (DRERIP). The DRERIP approach provides an explicit framework for evaluating restoration actions, using linked conceptual models, an action evaluation procedure, and a decision-support tool. Conceptual models allow scientists and managers to synthesize scientific information and make qualitative predictions about ecosystem function and restoration outcomes to guide and focus restoration efforts. The action evaluation procedure is a structured assessment of restoration actions. The procedure clearly describes actions to be evaluated, assesses the magnitude (importance and scale) and certainty of anticipated ecological outcomes, estimates degrees of worth (achieving intended outcomes) and risk (causing adverse consequences), evaluates the reversibility of the action, and identifies opportunities for learning. The values for worthiness, risk, reversibility, and learning opportunity are used in the decisionsupport tool to determine the fate of a proposed action. The decision-support tool is a structured decision tree that determines the disposition of an action: whether a restoration project should be discarded, revised with a different approach and re-evaluated, or implemented; and, if implemented, at what scale (targeted research, pilot project, or full implementation). The DRERIP approach provides managers with a valuable tool for restoration planning, and a foundation for integration with quantitative methods for a comprehensive ecosystem restoration plan.
Foretinib (GSK1363089) induces p53-dependent apoptosis in endometrial cancer

Objective Foretinib (GSK1363089 or XL880), which is an oral multikinase inhibitor developed to primarily target the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/Met signaling pathway, has shown anti-tumor effects against some cancers in preclinical and clinical studies. Results HGF/Met signaling in endometrial cancer cell lines was stimulated in an autocrine manner, and was essential for cell survival. Inhibiting the HGF/Met signaling with foretinib induced p53-dependent apoptosis in endometrial cancer cell lines in vitro. Foretinib also showed significant anti-cancer effects in vivo in experiments using cell tumor xenografts. p53 mutations were observed in 37 (10.8%) of 344 endometrial cancer specimens. Conclusion The HGF/Met-MAPK/PI3K pathway in endometrial cancer is activated by HGF in an autocrine manner. Foretinib induces an anti-cancer effect through the anti-phosphorylation of Met, which results in the induction of p53-dependent apoptosis; foretinib was found to exert greater anti-cancer activity in endometrial cancer specimens with wild-type p53 than in specimens with p53 mutations. Our immunochemical analysis revealed that foretinib-induced p53-dependent apoptosis can be expected to have therapeutic potential in approximately 90% of endometrial cancer patients. Methods We evaluated the HGF/Met signaling pathway in endometrial cancer cell lines and assessed the anti-cancer effects of foretinib using in vitro and in vivo experimental models. Furthermore, endometrial cancer specimens were subjected to an immunohistochemical analysis.
Assessing whether early attention of very preterm infants can be improved by an omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid intervention: a follow-up of a randomised controlled trial

Introduction Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accumulates in the frontal lobes (responsible for higher-order cognitive skills) of the fetal brain during the last trimester of pregnancy. Infants born preterm miss some of this in utero provision of DHA, and have an increased risk of suboptimal neurodevelopment. It is thought that supplementing infants born preterm with DHA may improve developmental outcomes. The aim of this follow-up is to determine whether DHA supplementation in infants born preterm can improve areas of the brain associated with frontal lobe function, namely attention and distractibility. Methods and analysis We will assess a subset of children from the N-3 (omega-3) Fatty Acids for Improvement in Respiratory Outcomes (N3RO) multicentre double-blind randomised controlled trial of DHA supplementation. Infants born <29 weeks’ completed gestation were randomised to receive an enteral emulsion containing 60 mg/kg/day of DHA or a control emulsion from within the first 3 days of enteral feeding until 36 weeks’ postmenstrual age. Children will undergo multiple measures of attention at 18 months’ corrected age. The primary outcome is the average time to be distracted when attention is focused on a toy. Secondary outcomes are other aspects of attention, and (where possible) an assessment of cognition, language and motor development with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition. A minimum of 72 children will be assessed to ensure 85% power to detect an effect on the primary outcome. Families, and research personnel are blinded to group assignment. All analyses will be conducted according to the intention-to-treat principal. Ethics and dissemination All procedures were approved by the relevant institutional ethics committees prior to commencement of the study. Results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journal publications and academic presentations. Trial registration number ACTRN12612000503820; Pre-results.