Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autologous Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Combined with Gelatin Sponge for Repair Intervertebral Disc Defect after Discectomy: A Preclinical Study in a Goat Model.

BACKGROUND The defect of intervertebral disc (IVD) after discectomy may impair tissue healing and predispose patients to subsequent IVD degeneration, which is thought to be an important cause of recurrence. Cell-based approaches for the treatment of IVD degeneration have shown promise in preclinical studies. However, most of these therapies have not been approved for clinical use due to the risks of abnormal differentiation and microorganism contamination of the culture-expanded cells. Selective cell retention (SCR) technology is non-cultivation technique, which can avoid those preambles in cell expansion. In this study, we used a commercially available BONE GROWTH PROMOTER device (BGP, FUWOSI, Chongqing, China) to concentrate mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from bone marrow aspirate (BMA) through SCR technology. METHODS A small incision was made on the L2/3, L3/4 and L4/5 discs of goats and part of nucleus pulposus (NP) was removed to construct IVD defect model. The L2/3 disc was subjected to discectomy only (DO group), the L3/4 disc was implanted with enriched BMA-matrix (CE group), and the L4/5 disc was implanted cultured autologous bone marrow MSCs matrix (CC group). And the intact L1/2 disc served as a non-injured control (NC group). The animals were followed up for 24 weeks after operation. Spine imaging was analysis performed at 4 and 24 weeks. Histology, immunohistochemistry, gene expression and biomechanical analysis were performed to investigate the IVD morphology, content and mechanical properties at 24 weeks. RESULTS The CE and CC groups showed a significantly smaller reduction in the disc height and T2-weighted signal intensity, and a better spinal segmental stability than DO group. Histological analysis demonstrated that CE and CC groups maintained a relatively well-preserved structure compared to the DO group. Furthermore, real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry demonstrated that aggrecan and type II collagen were up-regulated in CE and CC groups compared to DO group. CONCLUSIONS The strategy of MSCs enrichment combined with gelatin sponge by SCR technology provides a rapid, simple, and effective method for cell concentration and cell-carrier combination. This reparative strategy can be used in clinical treatment of IVD defect after discectomy. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT03002207.
Incorporation of Natural and Recombinant Collagen Proteins within Fmoc-Based Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogels

Hydrogel biomaterials mimic the natural extracellular matrix through their nanofibrous ultrastructure and composition and provide an appropriate environment for cell–matrix and cell–cell interactions within their polymeric network. Hydrogels can be modified with different proteins, cytokines, or cell-adhesion motifs to control cell behavior and cell differentiation. Collagens are desirable and versatile proteins for hydrogel modification due to their abundance in the vertebrate extracellular matrix and their interactions with cell-surface receptors. Here, we report a quick, inexpensive and effective protocol for incorporation of natural, synthetic and recombinant collagens into Fmoc-based self-assembling peptide hydrogels. The hydrogels are modified through a diffusion protocol in which collagen molecules of different molecular sizes are successfully incorporated and retained over time. Characterization studies show that these collagens interact with the hydrogel fibers without affecting the overall mechanical properties of the composite hydrogels. Furthermore, the collagen molecules incorporated into the hydrogels are still biologically active and provide sites for adhesion and spreading of human fibrosarcoma cells through interaction with the α2β1 integrin. Our protocol can be used to incorporate different types of collagen molecules into peptide-based hydrogels without any prior chemical modification. These modified hydrogels could be used in studies where collagen-based substrates are required to differentiate and control the cell behavior. Our protocol can be easily adapted to the incorporation of other bioactive proteins and peptides into peptide-based hydrogels to modulate their characteristics and their interaction with different cell types.
Investigation of CO2 Extract of Portulaca oleracea for Antioxidant Activity from Raw Material Cultivated in Kazakhstan

Medicinal plants remain as an important resource in the fight against many diseases, especially in developing countries. Antioxidants are substances capable of delaying, retarding, and preventing the oxidation of lipids or substances that delay or prevent free radical reactions during lipid oxidation. Natural antioxidants such as ascorbic acid, tocopherol, phenolic compounds, and flavonoids are a safe alternative to chemical antioxidants. In present work, results of antioxidant activity of raw materials from the cultivated plant Portulaca oleracea are presented. The extraction time was optimized to 780 minutes; the yield of extractive substances was 1.25% in the production of CO2 extract under subcritical conditions. For the first time, the antioxidant activity of Portulaca oleracea CO2 extract was determined by the amperometric method. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) chemical analysis of Portulaca oleracea CO2 extract dissolved in hexane revealed 37 components, including a complex mixture of aldehydes, alkanes, alkenes, esters, diterpenes, steroids, vitamin E, and carbohydrates. The investigation results showed that the Portulaca oleracea CO2 extract was promising for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries and had great potential for the prevention and treatment of diseases caused by oxidative stress.
Agronomic variability among hybrids of tomato plant with emphasis on the multivariate analysis

ABSTRACT The tomato is one of the most economically, socially and nutritionally important vegetables, presenting high added value. The culture allows high profit for the producers, but it is a high risk activity due to, specially, the sensibility of some varieties to climate conditions as well as multiple plagues and diseases that attack the culture. Therefore, the search for new hybrids with more tolerance to biotic and abiotic factors is extremely important to attend to the demand of the culture’s productive chain. The objective of this work was to demonstrate the importance of multivariate and univariate techniques in evaluating the level of similarity among hybrids of the tomato plant of the salad group with the purpose of diagnosing possible groups in relation to the variables analyzed. A total of 23 hybrids of tomato from the salad group were evaluated; of those, 9 were commercial hybrids and 14 were experimental hybrids. Throughout the conduction of the experiment, the productive characters of the culture were evaluated as well as the characteristics of the fruits and the agronomic characters of the plant. For the productive characters and the characteristics of the fruits, the multiple factor analysis was performed, and the averages were compared by the Scott-Knott test. For the agronomic characters of the plant, the exploratory data analysis was used with the correspondence analysis. The commercial hybrids studied present a high degree of similarity among them, with more than 77% of the materials with strong or high similarity with the other materials. Meanwhile, for the experimental hybrids, this result is seen in only 42.86% of the materials. The experimental hybrids 3124, 3139, and 3126 present higher divergence when compared to the other materials studied. They are, therefore, recommended to increase the genetic base of the tomato plant’s breeding program.
Narrative Formation and Gestalt Closure: Helping Clients Make Sense of "Disequilibrium" Through Stories in the Therapeutic Setting

HERE IS AN IMPORTANT LINK between Gestalt theory and the narrative theory. Gestalt theorists (Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman, 1951; TLatner, 1973) describe how individuals are constantly engaged in an ongoing process of losing and then reestablishing organismic equilibrium. In a parallel way, narrative theorists (Labov, 1982; Bruner, 1990; Linde, 1993) describe how we tell stories about troubling events in our everyday experience in order to regain some sense of equilibrium in our lives. The important shared concept at the heart of both Gestalt theory and narrative theory is that we are constantly addressing and attempting to make sense of “disequilibrium” in our experience. In this article I will make visible how individuals work to reestablish a sense of equilibrium in their lives through the stories they tell. I will also show how these efforts parallel what Gestalt theorists have described as the process of Gestalt formation and closure. Through this analysis, I hope to show how a working knowledge and awareness of narrative theory can help Gestalt practitioners in their work with clients in the therapeutic context. In Part One of this article, I present a case example in the form of a transcript of therapeutic work between Dr. Violet Oaklander (“Dr. O” hereafter) and a 14-year-old girl named Elisa. In Part Two, I elaborate on the theoretical links between Gestalt therapy theory and narrative theory before analyzing, in Part Three, the exchange between Dr. O and
Inhibition of Neuroinflammation May Mediate the Disease-Modifying Effects of Exercise: Implications for Parkinson’s Disease

Accumulating evidence indicates that regularly engaging in exercise may have disease-modifying effects across neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD) [1] and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [2]. However, insights into which mechanisms mediate these effects of exercise remain limited. In last month’s issue of Nature, De Miguel and colleagues performed several complementary experiments to investigate which mechanisms might mediate the effects of exercise on cognition in AD [3]. They found that the effects of exercise may be mediated by a reduction in neuroinflammation, due to upregulation of complement cascade inhibitors, and in particular by a complement cascade inhibiting molecule named clusterin. Their translational work could serve as a template to identify mediators of the disease-modifying effects of exercise in other neurodegenerative diseases, including PD. Here, we
Remote sensing-based deformation monitoring of pagodas at the Bagan cultural heritage site, Myanmar

ABSTRACT As a World Cultural Heritage site with sacred landscape featuring an exceptional range of Buddhist art and architecture, much attention has been focused on the sustainable development of Bagan (Myanmar). Particularly, the monitoring of landscape surface subsidence and monument instability is of great importance to the protection and development planning of the Bagan heritage site. In this study, we applied high resolution TerraSAR-X imagery acquired from 2019 to 2020 for deformation monitoring based on the small baseline subset (SBAS) and persistent scatterer synthetic aperture radar interferometry (PSInSAR) approaches. We identified several hotspots and pagodas with displacement anomalies linked to land cover change and previous earthquakes. The cross comparison between SBAS and PSInSAR and the precision of height estimates derived by PSInSAR indicated a millimetric precision of the derived deformation products. The combination of the two multi-temporal SAR interferometry approaches satisfies the two-scale monitoring requirements from landscapes to monuments, particularly for large-scale World Heritage sites. The non-contact monitoring method has potential when traditional methods using field accessibility and surveillance are constrained.
LAND-USE AND LAND-COVER MAPPING USING A COMBINATION OF RADAR AND OPTICAL SENSORS IN RORAIMA – BRAZIL

Land-use and land-cover (LULC) are important environmental properties of the Earth's surface. Satellite platforms and state-of-the-art algorithms enable the mapping of large areas, but they still need to be improved. This study aimed to compare free- and open-access images from radar and optical sensors, using the Google Earth Engine™ (GEE) for supervised classification of LULC for five municipalities in Roraima State, Brazil. Sentinel-1 (S1) scenes were used along with Landsat 8 (L8) and Sentinel-2 (S2) ones, resulting in five classification approaches S1 (SD), L8 (ODL), S2 (ODS), S1+L8 (SODL), and S1+S2 (SODS), with an auxiliary ALOS World 3D dataset (DEM≈30m). Accuracy was assessed by an error matrix. The SD approach was significantly different (P ≤ 0.01) from the others using a mean F1-score of 0.80. ODL and ODS had barely perceptible differences (P ≤ 0.1), showing F1-scores of 0.95 and 0.92, respectively. When comparing ODL (F1=0.95) and SODL (F1=0.95) no difference was found (P > 0.1). However, by comparing ODS (F1=0.92) and SODS (F1=0.94), there was a significant classification improvement (P ≤ 0.05). In short, the approaches SODL and SODS had the best pixel-based supervised classification performance.
In Vitro Immunomodulatory Effects of Inonotus obliquus Extracts on Resting M0 Macrophages and LPS-Induced M1 Macrophages

Background Inonotus obliquus (Chaga) is a parasitic fungus that is distributed mainly in northeast China. Our literature research showed chaga polysaccharides have bilateral effects on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-1β levels when they exert antitumor and antidiabetic activities. The current research tried to explore the influence of chaga extracts on inflammatory factors via macrophage polarization which has bilateral immune-regulation not only on healthy tissue homeostasis but also on pathologies. Methods Chaga was extracted with 100°C water and precipitated with 80% ethanol. The extracts were studied on RAW264.7 macrophage at resting condition (M0) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated subtype (classic activated macrophage, M1). The IL-1β, TNF-α, nitric oxide (NO) level, and the protein expressions of M1 and alternative activated macrophage (M2) markers including IL-1β, inducible NO synthase (iNOS), mannose receptor (CD206), and arginase (Arg)-1 were compared. Results The 100 g extracts contained 13.7 g polysaccharides and 1.9 g polyphenols. Compared with M0, the 50 μg/mL extracts increased NO level (P < 0.05) and decreased CD206 and Arg-1 expression significantly (P < 0.05). The extracts at 100–200 μg/mL increased NO and TNF-α level (P < 0.05), but increased iNOS and IL-1β expression significantly (P < 0.05). Compared with M1, the extracts decreased NO level at 25, 50, 100, and 200 μg/mL and decreased IL-1β and TNF-α level at 100–200 μg/mL significantly (P < 0.05). At 25–200 μg/mL, the extracts significantly increased CD206 and Arg-1 expression and decreased IL-1β and iNOS expression separately (P < 0.05). Conclusions Our research suggested that the bilateral effects of the chaga extracts on iNOS, IL-1β, and NO level on M0/M1 macrophages might be related with chaga polysaccharides and chaga polyphenols. Some in vivo anticancer and antidiabetic research of purified chaga polysaccharides related to macrophage differentiation should be conducted further.
Advances In Synthetic Metals Twenty Years Of Progress In Science And Technology

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Effect of flow velocity and water quality in the passivation of an electrocoagulation reactor

In recent years, the interest in electrochemical techniques for treatment of various types of contaminated water has increased, and because of this, the development and evaluation of the performance of reactors play a very important role in the success of these technologies. In this regard, the present study illustrates the effect of flow velocity (v f) and the quality of the water to be treated, on the passivation of the electrocoagulation reactor. The tests were conducted in a pilot scale reactor to plug flow, with aluminum electrodes in a monopolar operating galvanostatic and timed changes polarity. During the study the current densities were fixed (i) in 23 A/m 2 , and the hydraulic residence time (HRT) in 63 seconds. Two flow rates (0.23 and 0.63 m/s) were explored, as well as two types of water (well water and water cooling tower blowdown). The results showed that the well water, for a vf of 0.63 m/s, had an average efficiency of aluminum production (EAlP) of 250% and the voltage ranged between 3.34 and 3.41 V, and with a vf of 0.23 m/s a 228% EAlP voltages ranging between 4 and 4.5 V. was obtained. Furthermore, by treating the water cooling tower blowdown with 0.63 m/s was reached 96% EAlP without changes in voltage, while with a vf of 0.23 m/s a 114% of EAlP with a clear increase in voltage towards the end of the test (4.43 V to 11.2 V) was obtained. These data showed that the flow velocity influences the efficiency of the electrochemical process, increasing the production of aluminum when the vf is higher; on the other hand, the reactor with well water presented less passivation than with water cooling tower blowdown.
Unsupervised Customer Segmentation with Knowledge Graph Embeddings

We propose an unsupervised customer segmentation method from behavioral data. We model sequences of beer consumption from a publicly available dataset of 2.9M reviews of more than 110,000 brands over 12 years as a knowledge graph, learn their representations with knowledge graph embedding models, and apply off-the-shelf cluster analysis. Experiments and clusters interpretation show that we learn meaningful clusters of beer customers, without relying on expensive consumer surveys or time-consuming data annotation campaigns.
COVID-19 diagnosis with convolution neural networks using CT images

As COVID-19 has spread worldwide, detecting the patients of COVID-19 and taking effective actions has gained more and more importance. Applying a deep learning framework to detect medical pictures has already been used for years. This paper mainly trained a large number of CT images of patients and normal people on three networks: AlexNet, VGG, and ResNet. Based on PyTorch, we build the network successfully and soon examine the performance of the three networks on the test and validation dataset. Our experiments demonstrate that the ResNet performs the best when detecting the COVID-19 CT images. It reaches the accuracy of 99.5%, which proves that it has a strong fitting ability in our dataset, which is not so large. However, when applying the pre-trained model from the bigger dataset in a smaller dataset, the accuracy of AlexNet and VGGNet will increase accordingly while the accuracy of ResNet decreases. Though we have made many assumptions about the phenomenon, more experiments are needed after the experiment.
A high frequency SiC bipolar transistor design optimization using process and device simulations

An optimization of a SiC bipolar high frequency transistor with a regrown extrinsic base is presented. The structure for device simulations was created with process simulations, and investigated the influence of graded base doping, emitter design and an uncovering step after the regrowth. A maximum fMAX of 40 GHz was achieved for the graded base with an isolating uncovering step. The input and output impedances of this transistor are also studied with respect to 30 W operation over a 50 Ω load.
Intelligent control system of chemical process based on Internet of Things

This paper introduces a chemical process control system based on the Internet of things, which combines ESP8266WiFi module and multiple sensors. The system includes temperature control, pressure control, concentration control, humidity control, raw material prediction, intelligent adjustment, intelligent judgment, intelligent scheduling. Users can establish a connection with the system by logging in PC or mobile APP to monitor and control the factory's production process in real time. And through the intelligent analysis of product demand, the production line optimization, the optimal configuration of services. Establish a set of self - perception, self - communication, self - learning self - optimization of intelligent control system. The control system of the chemical process is simulated, and the purpose of real-time monitoring, real-time judgment and real-time scheduling is achieved. It shows the feasibility and necessity of intelligent control. Intelligent chemical industry and intelligent manufacturing are the necessary trend of the development of science and technology in the future.
The Relationship between Market Orientation, Innovation and Business Performance of Hotel and Restaurant Businesses in Ho Chi Minh City: The Moderating Role of Business Environment

The study was conducted to examine the relationship between market orientation, innovation, and business performance through the role of regulation of business environment. By the quantitative research method combined with the qualitative research method, structural equation modelling (SEM) is performed with a sample size of 503 observations, the participants are the leaders of the hotel, restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. The results show that there is a positive relationship between market orientation, innovation, and business performance of hotel – restaurant businesses. The business environment plays a role in regulating market orientation, innovation, and business outcomes. Through the regulatory role, the business environment factor plays a role in increasing the business performance of hotel – restaurant businesses. The results have brought practical significance to hotel – restaurant businesses. Managers needs to focus on market orientation, and innovation to improve business results. In addition, before the fluctuations of the business environment, restaurant – hotel businesses need to take advantage and grasp to adjust the appropriate market orientation and innovation strategies to contribute to improving business results. Finally, some limitations are also mentioned in this study.
Media Development and Digital Evaluation Training to Improve High School Teacher Competence in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 Era in Sawahlunto City, Sumatera Barat

Learning is a process of interaction between teachers and students that considers various internal and external aspects. In the internal context, the learning process needs to change regarding the industrial revolution 4.0 which has an impact on all aspects. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic also demands many changes in the presentation of learning. Middle school teachers in Sawahlunto City have minimal knowledge about media development and digital evaluation. In connection with this, it is necessary to conduct training to increase teacher competence in the field of media and digital evaluation. The training method is online and offline with a total of 30 training participants. The training is carried out through presentations by resource persons, then practice and assistance in developing media and digital evaluations. In the final stage, training evaluation activities are carried out. Training Outcomes The trainees have competence in designing and developing digital evaluations. Regarding the process in the implementation of the training, the participants were very satisfied with the average score of the questionnaire at 4.54 (scale 1-5). The follow-up to the implementation of the training was the formation of a teacher working group and coordination through whatsApp groups to follow up on the training that had been carried out.