Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrospun Scaffolds as Cell Culture Substrates for the Cultivation of an In Vitro Blood–Brain Barrier Model Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

The human blood–brain barrier (BBB) represents the interface of microvasculature and the central nervous system, regulating the transport of nutrients and protecting the brain from external threats. To gain a deeper understanding of (patho)physiological processes affecting the BBB, sophisticated models mimicking the in vivo situation are required. Currently, most in vitro models are cultivated on stiff, semipermeable, and non-biodegradable Transwell® membrane inserts, not adequately mimicking the complexity of the extracellular environment of the native human BBB. To overcome these disadvantages, we developed three-dimensional electrospun scaffolds resembling the natural structure of the human extracellular matrix. The polymer fibers of the scaffold imitate collagen fibrils of the human basement membrane, exhibiting excellent wettability and biomechanical properties, thus facilitating cell adhesion, proliferation, and migration. Cultivation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) on these scaffolds enabled the development of a physiological BBB phenotype monitored via the formation of tight junctions and validated by the paracellular permeability of sodium fluorescein, further accentuating the non-linearity of TEER and barrier permeability. The novel in vitro model of the BBB forms a tight endothelial barrier, offering a platform to study barrier functions in a (patho)physiologically relevant context.
Two Genetic Mechanisms in Two Siblings with Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Psychosis

Intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are complex neurodevelopmental disorders with high heritability. To search for the genetic deficits in two siblings affected with ID and ASD in a family, we first performed a genome-wide copy number variation (CNV) analysis using chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA). We found a 3.7 Mb microdeletion at 22q13.3 in the younger sister. This de novo microdeletion resulted in the haploinsufficiency of SHANK3 and several nearby genes involved in neurodevelopment disorders. Hence, she was diagnosed with Phelan–McDermid syndrome (PMS, OMIM#606232). We further performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis in this family. We did not detect pathogenic mutations with significant impacts on the phenotypes of the elder brother. Instead, we identified several rare, likely pathogenic variants in seven genes implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders: KLHL17, TDO2, TRRAP, EIF3F, ATP10A, DICER1, and CDH15. These variants were transmitted from his unaffected parents, indicating these variants have only moderate clinical effects. We propose that these variants worked together and led to the clinical phenotypes in the elder brother. We also suggest that the combination of multiple genes with moderate effects is part of the genetic mechanism of neurodevelopmental disorders.
A Comprehensive Review of Types, Properties, Treatment Methods and Application of Plant Fibers in Construction and Building Materials

Sustainable development involves the usage of alternative sustainable materials in order to sustain the excessive depletion of natural resources. Plant fibers, as a “green” material, are progressively gaining the attention of various researchers in the field of construction for their potential use in composites for stepping towards sustainable development. This study aims to provide a scientometric review of the summarized background of plant fibers and their applications as construction and building materials. Studies from the past two decades are summarized. Quantitative assessment of research progress is made by using connections and maps between bibliometric data that are compiled for the analysis of plant fibers using Scopus. Data refinement techniques are also used. Plant fibers are potentially used to enhance the mechanical properties of a composite. It is revealed from the literature that plant-fiber-reinforced composites have comparable properties in comparison to composites reinforced with artificial/steel fibers for civil engineering applications, such as construction materials, bridge piers, canal linings, soil reinforcement, pavements, acoustic treatment, insulation materials, etc. However, the biodegradable nature of plant fibers is still a hindrance to their application as a structural material. For this purpose, different surface and chemical treatment methods have been proposed in past studies to improve their durability. It can be surmised from the gathered data that the compressive and flexural strengths of plant-fiber-reinforced cementitious composites are increased by up to 43% and 67%, respectively, with respect to a reference composite. In the literature, alkaline treatment has been reported as an effective and economical method for treating plant fibers. Environmental degradation due to excessive consumption of natural resources and fossil fuels for the construction industry, along with the burning of waste plant fibers, can be reduced by incorporating said fibers in cementitious composites to reduce landfill pollution and, ultimately, achieve sustainable development.
ANALYSING THE LINKAGE AND RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND MARKET ORIENTATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE STATE OF KUWAIT

The study should determine the web link among entrepreneurship in addition marketplace alignment inside the Kuwait industry, which is among the created GCC nations. With this particular type of advancement, business owners possess acquired a number of options within Kuwait, which affected the particular region's economic climate. Simultaneously, industry positioning associated with Kuwait encourages particular ramifications plus results towards internet marketers in addition to their own exercise regarding entrepreneurship. To be able to achieve the specific goals of the study, a scientific summary of typically the books has been applied. Previous books browse entrepreneurship, market place direction, entrepreneurship inside Kuwait as well as the partnership in between entrepreneurship as well as marketplace angle had been carried out. Right after a few evaluation carried out, the outcomes additional tension which will needs on the market, because exemplified from the existing COVID-19 outbreak, could make or even crack gumptiouspioneering, up-and-coming work and even actions. Company owners can make or perhaps open possibilities with this time period, along with assistance with the market requirements together with needs. The federal government involving Kuwait continues to be encouraging within just forwarding the particular SMEs plus the business people via the nationwide system. Certainly, authorities support plus financing must be motivated to be able to enhance in addition to maintain the actual impact associated with entrepreneurship in the area.
Generation and Characterization of a Tumor Stromal Microenvironment and Analysis of Its Interplay with Breast Cancer Cells: An In Vitro Model to Study Breast Cancer-Associated Fibroblast Inactivation

Breast cancer-associated fibroblasts (BCAFs), the most abundant non-cancer stromal cells of the breast tumor microenvironment (TME), dramatically sustain breast cancer (BC) progression by interacting with BC cells. BCAFs, as well as myofibroblasts, display an up regulation of activation and inflammation markers represented by α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2). BCAF aggregates have been identified in the peripheral blood of metastatic BC patients. We generated an in vitro stromal model consisting of human primary BCAFs grown as monolayers or 3D cell aggregates, namely spheroids and reverted BCAFs, obtained from BCAF spheroids reverted to 2D cell adhesion growth after 216 h of 3D culture. We firstly evaluated the state of activation and inflammation and the mesenchymal status of the BCAF monolayers, BCAF spheroids and reverted BCAFs. Then, we analyzed the MCF-7 cell viability and migration following treatment with conditioned media from the different BCAF cultures. After 216 h of 3D culture, the BCAFs acquired an inactivated phenotype, associated with a significant reduction in α-SMA and COX-2 protein expression. The deactivation of the BCAF spheroids at 216 h was further confirmed by the cytostatic effect exerted by their conditioned medium on MCF-7 cells. Interestingly, the reverted BCAFs also retained a less activated phenotype as indicated by α-SMA protein expression reduction. Furthermore, the reverted BCAFs exhibited a reduced pro-tumor phenotype as indicated by the anti-migratory effect exerted by their conditioned medium on MCF-7 cells. The deactivation of BCAFs without drug treatment is possible and leads to a reduced capability of BCAFs to sustain BC progression in vitro. Consequently, this study could be a starting point to develop new therapeutic strategies targeting BCAFs and their interactions with cancer cells.
Multi-Slice Computed Tomography Analysis in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement – Impact of Workflows on Measurement of Virtual Aortic Annulus and Valve Size

Exact and reliable measurements of anatomical dimensions in pre-procedural multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) scans are crucial for optimal valve sizing and clinical results of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). This study aimed to investigate interrater reliability between routinely used workflows for pre-procedural analysis. MSCT scans of 329 patients scheduled for TAVR were analyzed using both a 3mensio and SECTRA IDS7 platform. The results were retrospectively compared using the intraclass correlation coefficient, revealing excellent correlation in the analysis of simple diameters and poor correlation in the assessment of more complex structures with impact on calculated valve size.
A Meta-model Approach to Inconsistency Management

Transformations between abstract design models and platform specific models are the basis of the modeldriven development process. In the transformation process inconsistencies are introduced, that neither can nor always should be eradicated. This paper presents a meta-model that addresses the need to manage inconsistencies arising during vertical model transformations. The meta-model captures both characteristics of inconsistencies and provides support for inconsistency management activities such as monitoring and analysis. We motivate the inconsistency management approach with an example transformation and show the scope of the proposed meta-model solution.
Spirituality - An Antidote to Corruption

An antidote is a cure for sickness. Corruption is danger sickness of this 21st century and the antidote to the corruption sickness is no other than spirituality. This viewpoint paper engages with the spiritual insights against corruption at the individual level that might be a fundamental dimension for good governance. It explores Vedas and some of the mystic’s views on corruption. It urges that anti-corruption laws and offices alone will not be able to cope with corruption because power doesn’t corrupt, people are corrupt. Corruption is inside peoples’ hearts and minds. Hence, along with the various dimensions of good governance, academia needs to motivate the development of spiritual insight in people. It will develop a playful attitude in individual life with peace in mind and compassion in heart, instead of competition, hatred, and rat race behind success, money, position, status, and power.
Assessing the gingival biotypes for better planning of esthetics in Indian population

Background: Anterior fixed prosthesis fabrication is a challenging one which involves many aspects and one among them which dictates the most is the gingiva. Any recession causes exposure of the tooth and prosthetic junction leading to esthetic failure. Hence it is important to know the biotypes before planning the restoration. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of different gingival biotypes in individuals with relation to age, gender, tooth size and papillary height with respect to maxillary central incisors. Methods & Materials: A total of 200 subjects in the range of 18-50 years participated in the study. Three clinical parameters were recorded which included crown width & crown length ratio, papillary height and gingival transparency of two maxillary central incisors. The measurements were tabulated and statistically analyzed. Data was statistically analyzed using SSPS software. Results: The relationship of biotypes with clinical parameters was assessed using t test and chi square test. Thicker gingival biotype was more prevalent in male population with short, wider form of teeth whereas in females’ thin gingival biotypes with long and narrow teeth forms were observed. Conclusion: Both the young and old age groups have the same prevalence of thick gingival biotype.
Effects of a Dried Neem Leaf Extract on the Growth Performance, Meat Yield and Meat Quality in Skeletal Muscle of Broiler Chickens Under High-Temperature Conditions

We aimed to examine the effects of cyclical high ambient temperature (HT) and dried Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf extract (DNE) supplementation on the growth performance, muscle lipid peroxidation level, and muscle drip loss of broiler chickens. Twenty-four 15-day old broiler chickens (Chunky strain ROSS 308) were divided into four treatment groups that were fed diets with or without 2.0% DNE under thermoneutral (25 ± 1°C) or cyclical HT (35 ± 1°C for 8 h/day) conditions. Supplementation of DNE did not affect the growth performance of the chicks, but HT reduced their feed intake, the weights of breast muscle and heart. In addition, supplementation with DNE ameliorated the negative effects of cyclical HT on feed intake and breast muscle mass. Furthermore, cyclical HT increased the malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration and drip loss over 48 h of storage of the breast muscle, and these effects were ameliorated by DNE. Collectively, we conclude that dietary supplementation with DNE reduces the muscle MDA concentration and drip loss of broiler chickens kept under HT conditions.
Low Voltage and Low Power Front Panel Design for 12 Lead ECG

The use of portable devices is increasing day by day. Mainly these devices play a vital role in medical field when the doctors are unavailable. In that one of the important emergency medical portable systems is Electro Cardiogram (ECG). ECGs are used to measure the abnormalities of the heart by performing electrical activities. It can be done by attaching electrodes on the body for few minutes. To collect the information from electrodes data acquisition system is used in ECGs or in any biomedical systems. The major challenge in implementing data acquisition system is the increase in power dissipation due to the excessive contact impedance of electrodes. As a solution to this, A CMOS 12 lead ECG data acquisition circuit is designed by using analog multiplexers is proposed in this paper. The proposed system is designed by using improved DTMOS based analog multiplexers and these works with a power supply of ±0.2 V with a dynamic voltage range from 1uv to 200mv with the Power dissipation of 140 nW.
CCAD-Net: A Cascade Cloud Attribute Discrimination Network for Cloud Genera Segmentation in Whole-Sky Images

Cloud detection and recognition are two important tasks usually referring to image binary segmentation and image-level classification individually. Cloud genera segmentation has more practical significance but is much more challenging as a fine-grained pixel-level dense prediction problem. In this letter, a cascade cloud attribute discrimination network (CCAD-Net) is proposed. Based on an improved encoding–decoding model, CCAD-Net adds a binary segmentation branch for cloud detection and an attribute discrimination branch for cloud attribute feature learning in the decoding stage. Especially, in the attribute discrimination branch, several visual attributes are selected to design the attribute discrimination constraint according to prior professional knowledge and the corresponding loss function is defined. These two additional branches and the final cloud genera segmentation branch extract their task-specific features successively and form a cascade structure. Due to the fusion of raw feature, binary segmentation feature, attribute discrimination feature, and cloud genera feature, CCAD-Net can achieve significantly better performance than the state-of-the-art methods in cloud genera segmentation in whole-sky images.
Design and Analysis of NOMA With Adaptive Modulation and Power Under BLER Constraints

In this work, we derive closed-form expressions for the throughput of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and use the expressions to maximize the throughput. The design considers a packet-based transmission where the base station optimizes the modulation orders and power coefficients while satisfying the block error rate requirement for each user. The optimization problem is solved using integer and mixed-integer programming, where the computational complexity is reduced using an efficient stopping criterion, segment-line search, and quantized signal to noise ratios (SNRs). The analytical and simulation results show that selecting the appropriate power and modulation orders can improve the throughput by about 3 dB at high SNRs. The impact of the SNR quantization is evaluated, and the obtained results show that the proposed system can tolerate large quantization steps, which enables reducing the complexity of the optimization and adaptation processes.
Pedagogía en Educación Física “otra” y Formación humana (Pedagogy in Physical Education "other" and Human Formation)

Este ensaio nasce da necessidade e questionamentos dos autores no campo de atuação profissional da Formação Inicial de Professores (FID) em Pedagogia em Educação Física (PEF) e Formação Humana, busca articular esses dois conceitos com o objetivo de enfatizando os processos de FID no PEF de uma forma “outra” a partir de novas possibilidades. Um FID no PEF “outro” pensado a partir de uma perspectiva mais humana, sentida e situada nos permitirá reorientar a formação dos futuros professores do FEP a partir das demandas atuais que são necessárias para impactar os processos de ensino-aprendizagem visando desenvolver níveis transcendentais no contexto escolar, perdurando assim ao longo do tempo as aprendizagens desenvolvidas e, por outro lado, fortalecendo a FID a partir de uma componente humana que vai para além da meramente pedagógica e/ou disciplinar.
Effects of Ambient Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide on Outpatient Visits for Psoriasis in Rapidly Urbanizing Areas

Rapid development and urbanization can increase ambient exposure to NO 2 and its health risks in individuals. However, the association between NO 2 exposure and outpatient visits of patients with psoriasis has rarely been reported, though psoriasis is a major skin disease in rapidly urbanizing areas with high population densities. This study applied a time-stratified case-crossover design to investigate the effect of short-term exposure to ambient NO 2 on outpatient visits for psoriasis from 2014 to 2020 in Guangzhou, China (n = 62,305). A subgroup analysis was performed to evaluate NO 2 impacts on vulnerable subpopulations. Our results showed that the NO 2 concentration during the study period was lower than that of the level II threshold from China (PRC) but higher than that set by the WHO, indicating moderate air quality. However, a 10-µ g m –3 increase in NO 2 concentration could still be associated with 3.1% higher outpatient visits for psoriasis (adjusted RR of lag 0 day:1.031 [CI: 1.025, 1.037]). NO 2 exposure can also pose long-term risks. Additionally, NO 2 impacts on psoriasis may be independent of other pollutants. Adjusting for PM 2.5 , SO 2 , O 3 , and meteorological factors, a 10-µ g m –3 increase in NO 2 was associated with RRs of 1.043 [CI: 1.033, 1.053], 1.022 [CI: 1.014, 1.031], and 1.022 [CI: 1.014, 1.031] at lag 0, lag 1, and lag 2 days, respectively. NO 2 risks were higher among older individuals (age ≥ 60 years) and those with medical insurance [adjusted RRs: 1.045 (CI: 1.023, 1.066) and 1.047 (CI: 1.036, 1.058)]. Being a major pollutant in rapidly urbanizing areas with high population densities, NO 2 emission could be a crucial factor in psoriasis, although the daily pollution level was not above the air quality thresholds. Challenges associated with air quality control and health disparity create a necessity for the enhancement of health and environmental policies to reduce local and regional emissions (e.g., traffic-related pollution), and vulnerable subpopulations should be targeted
Adaptive FRESH filter with vicarious reference for interference rejection: An application to signal detection in NOMA system

Adaptive frequency shift (FRESH) filter is one of the most suggested methods for interference rejection. This filter extracts the desired cyclostationary signal by exploiting its spectral correlation through the adaptive periodically time‐varying filters. The reference signal in this filter has an essential role in the quality of the desired signal estimation. In this article, a vicarious signal is generated as a reference of an adaptive FRESH structure. Using the cyclostationary characteristics of the desired signal (eg, modulation, cyclic frequencies, etc.), the generated signal exhibits all feasible cyclostationary behaviors of the desired signal. The overall system significantly improves the performance of the FRESH filter. The advantage of using the vicarious signal is demonstrated with theoretical analysis. Furthermore, a multistage form of the proposed method is designed for severe noise and interference conditions. The method is used for signal detection in non‐orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system. Simulation results validate its efficiency in this case and in different interference scenarios which include pulse chirp radar signal, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).
Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Novel Sounds on Task Performance in Children With and Without ADHD

Distractibility is one of the key features of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and has been associated with alterations in the neural orienting and alerting networks. Task-irrelevant stimuli are thus expected to have detrimental effects on the performance of patients with ADHD. However, task-irrelevant presentation of novel sounds seems to have the opposite effect and improve subsequent attentional performance particularly in patients with ADHD. Here, we aimed to understand the neural modulations of the attention networks underlying these improvements. Fifty boys (25 with ADHD) participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which unique (novel) or repeatedly presented (familiar) sounds were placed before a visual flanker task in 2/3 of the trials. We found that presenting any sound improved task performance in all participants, but the underlying neural mechanisms differed for the type of sound. Familiar sounds led to a stronger increase in activity in the left posterior insula in patients with ADHD compared to typically developing peers. Novel sounds led to activations of the fronto-temporoparietal ventral attention network, likewise in ADHD and TD. These changes in signaling by novelty in the right inferior frontal gyrus were directly related to improved response speed showing that neural orienting network activity following novel sounds facilitated subsequent attentional performance. This mechanism of behavioral enhancement by short distractions could potentially be useful for cognitive trainings or homework situations.