LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The use of white Portland cement as an apical plug in a tooth with a necrotic pulp and wide-open apex: a case report.

AIM
To present a case in which substantial periapical healing occurred with the use of white Portland cement (WPC) to create an apical plug in the root of an immature tooth.


SUMMARY
Radiographic examination indicated an immature tooth (35) with a wide-open apex and a periapical radiolucency. The canal was mechanically cleaned using intracanal instruments and 5% NaOCl irrigation. Small pieces of resorbable collagen sponge were packed beyond the root apex with the aim of creating a periapical barrier for the compaction of filling material. WPC powder was then mixed with sterile water and delivered to the apical portion of the canal (approximately 3 mm). The patient was asked to return 1 week later for the continuation of treatment but he did return as planned. Seven months after the intervention the patient returned and another radiograph was exposed to reveal complete radiographic healing of the periapical region. The remainder of the canal was filled with thermoplastic gutta-percha. Clinical follow-up 1 year later revealed adequate clinical function, absence of clinical symptoms and no signs of periapical rarefaction.


KEY LEARNING POINT
The positive clinical resolution of this case is encouraging for the use of WPC as an apical plug in immature teeth with necrotic pulps and wide-open apices.
Use of alcohol and other drugs among male university students and its meanings.

OBJECTIVE
To understand the meanings that male university students assign to the condition of users of alcohol and other drugs.


METHOD
An exploratory study using a qualitative approach, with inductive analysis of the content of semi-structured interviews applied to 20 male university students from a public university in the southeast region of Brazil, grounded on the theoretical-methodological referential of interpretive anthropology and ethnographic method.


RESULTS
Data were construed using content inductive analysis for two topics: use of alcohol and/or drugs as an outlet; and use of alcohol and/or other drugs: an alternative for belonging and identity.


CONCLUSION
Male university students share the rules of their sociocultural environment that values the use of alcohol and/or other drugs as a way of dealing with the demands and stress ensuing from the everyday university life, and to build identity and belong to this social context, reinforcing the influence of culture.


OBJETIVO
Compreender os significados atribuídos pelos universitários do sexo masculino à condição de usuários de álcool e outras drogas.


MÉTODO
Estudo exploratório de abordagem qualitativa, com análise de conteúdo indutiva de entrevistas semiestruturadas de 20 universitários do sexo masculino, matriculados em uma universidade pública da região sudeste do Brasil, fundamentado no referencial teórico-metodológico da Antropologia Interpretativa e do método etnográfico.


RESULTADOS
Os dados foram interpretados com a análise de conteúdo indutiva em dois temas: O uso do álcool e/ou drogas como válvula de escape; O uso do álcool e/ou outras drogas: alternativa para o pertencimento e para a identidade.


CONCLUSÃO
Os universitários do sexo masculino compartilham normas de seu meio sociocultural, que valorizam o uso de álcool e/ou outras drogas, como uma forma de lidar com as exigências e o estresse da vida universitária, criar uma identidade e ter pertencimento neste contexto social, reforçando a influência da cultura.
Spironolactone improves lung diffusion in chronic heart failure.

AIMS
To evaluate whether anti-aldosteronic treatment influences lung diffusion (DLCO) in chronic heart failure (HF) patients. Spironolactone improves clinical conditions and prognosis in chronic HF and reduces connective tissue matrix turnover; DLCO abnormalities in chronic HF are related to increase in fibrosis and connective tissue derangement.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Thirty stable chronic HF patients, with reduced DLCO (<80% of predicted), were randomly assigned to active treatment (25 mg spironolactone daily) or placebo in addition to conventional anti-failure treatment. They were evaluated by quality of life questionnaire, laboratory investigations, cardiopulmonary exercise test, and pulmonary function test, which included DLCO and membrane diffusing capacity (DM). The evaluation was done before treatment and 6 months after. Quality of life score and standard pulmonary function tests were not significantly affected by spironolactone, while active treatment increased DLCO due to an increase of DM (DLCO: 18.3+/-3.9 vs. 19.9+/-5.5 mL/min/mmHg; DM: 28.1+/-7.7 vs. 33.3+/-8.6 mL/min/mmHg) and peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2 16.8+/-1.9 vs.18.6+/-2.2 mL/min/kg). Increments of DLCO and peak VO2 were linearly related (R=0.849, P<0.001).


CONCLUSION
These data show a positive effect of spironolactone on gas diffusion and exercise capacity suggesting a novel mechanism by which anti-aldosteronic drugs improve HF clinical condition and prognosis.
Hungarian population data of four X-linked markers: DXS8378, DXS7132, HPRTB, and DXS7423

DXS8378, DXS7132, HPRTB, and DXS7423 microsatellite markers located in four different X-chromosomal linkage groups were studied in the Hungarian population. After genotyping unrelated men (219) and women (165), forensic efficiency parameters showing that the four X-linked short tandem repeats are informative for forensic applications were calculated. With fragment and sequence analysis, one microvariant allele (11.2) was identified in the HPRTB locus. A deviation from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium could not be detected. Investigations of 96 father–child meioses revealed one mutation in the DXS7132 locus. For comparison of 22 different populations, G-tests were carried out.
88-Pulse ACDC Converter for Power Quality Improvement

This paper presents a pulse doubling technique in a 44-pulse ac-dc converter which supplies direct torque controlled motor drives (DTCIMD’s) in order to have better power quality conditions at the point of common coupling. The proposed technique increases the number of rectification pulses without significant changes in the installations and yields in harmonic reduction in both ac and dc sides. The 44-pulse rectified output voltage is accomplished via two paralleled 22pulse ac-dc converters each of them consisting of 11-phase diode bridge rectifier. An autotransformer is designed to supply the rectifiers. The design procedure of magnetics is in a way such that makes it suitable for retrofit applications where a sixpulse diode bridge rectifier is being utilized. Independent operation of paralleled diode-bridge rectifiers, i.e. dc-ripple reinjection methodology, requires a Zero Sequence Blocking Transformer (ZSBT). Finally, a tapped interphase reactor is connected at the output of ZSBT to double the pulse numbers of output voltage up to 88 pulses. The aforementioned structure improves power quality criteria at ac mains and makes them consistent with the IEEE-519 standard requirements for varying loads. Furthermore, near unity power factor is obtained for a wide range of DTCIMD operation. A comparison is made between 6-pulse, 44-pulse, and proposed converters from view point of power quality indices. Results show that input current total harmonic distortion (THD) is less than 2% for the proposed topology at variable loads. KeywordsAC–DC converter, polygon autotransformer, power quality, 88-pulse, Pulse Doubling, direct torque controlled induction motor drive (DTCIMD).
An economic theory of FDI: A behavioral economics and historical approach☆

Abstract This is an attempt to argue that explaining the foreign investment decision (FDI) need not lie outside the realm of economics, for it can be explained using the attributes of behavioral economics. Behavioral economics, which tries to improve the assumptive realism of economic theory, and objects to the neoclassical acceptance of the simplistic economic model of rational agents exhibiting optimizing behavior, is certainly capable of explaining the decision of multinational enterprises making investment decisions when they face the complex and uncertain international environment. It is in this spirit that I have tried to model the FDI decision using the attributes of behavioral economics. However, before presenting this behavioral economics model of FDI decisions, I discuss the problems that neoclassical economics faced in explaining the new reality of FDI/international production after World War II, when neoclassical economists utilized the unrelated arbitrage theory of portfolio flows to explain it. I do also Stephen Hymer's critique of that attempt, and his attempt to explain FDI decision, which helped it move outside of the realm of economics. I do also review and discuss the various FDI theories that emerged, after the 1960 dissertation of Hymer, in the works of Dunning, Buckley, Casson, Markusen, and others presented as transaction cost, internalization, and the eclectic theories of foreign direct investment. While praising the contributions of these theories, I argue that they are inferior to the behavioral economics based model I develop in this model.
A portable binaural beat device for learning stimulation

Binaural beats are created by presenting two different tones at slightly different frequencies separately into each ear. This auditory stimulation has been suggested to influence behavior and cognition via the process of cortical entrainment. The portable binaural beat device used in this study was designed to produce 500 and 515 Hz slightly different frequencies separately into each ear to form a given low 15 Hz binaural beat in brain hemisphere. In this study the generated binaural beat was 15 Hz as determined by digital storage oscilloscope. This portable device is 5x6x3 cm in size and weighs 100 g which can easily be taken to any laboratory. The device was examined by Digital Storage Oscilloscope to confirm its capacity in producing the mentioned beta wave frequencies prior to our application with four participants. Binaural beat audio was also studied as an alternative frequency source, for larger sample group that involve learning activities or moving around. The quantitative electroencephalograph (qEEG) method was used to convert the brainwave signal into brain mapping for apparent understanding of how frequency stimulation affect brainwave and to confirm the existence of the binaural beats created in brain hemisphere at 15 Hz. All participants are in age group of 26 40 years, who represent the majority of the chemical users’ age group in earlier research. The brain mapping evidently illustrated the result of this research that the 15 Hz binaural beats tremendously stimulated Brainwave Activity and neural connectivity in participants. Keywords; Binaural Beat; Electroencephalography (EEG); Chemical Safety; Brain Mapping.
Socioeconomic status and children’s mental health: results from the Bergen Child Study

It is generally accepted that mental health problems are unequally distributed across population strata defined by socioeconomic status (SES), with more problems for those with lower SES. However, studies of this association in children and adolescents are often restricted by the use of global measures of mental health problems and aggregation of SES-indicators. We aim to further elucidate the relationship between childhood mental health problems and SES by including more detailed information about mental health and individual SES-indicators. The participants (N = 5,781, age 11–13) were part of the Bergen Child Study (BCS). Mental health was assessed using the teacher, parent and self-report versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), including an impact section, used to measure symptom dimensions and probability of psychiatric disorders. Parent reports of family economy and parental education were used as SES measures. For each SES indicator we confirmed an inverse relationship across all the symptom dimensions. Poor family economy consistently predicted mental health problems, while parental education level predicted externalizing disorders stronger than internalizing disorders. In this Norwegian sample of children, family economy was a significant predictor of mental health problems as measured across a wide range of symptom dimensions and poor economy predicted a high probability of a psychiatric disorder. Longitudinal studies of the impact of low family income as well as other SES factors on externalizing and internalizing symptom dimensions and disorders are called for.
Optimism and physical health: a meta-analytic review.

BACKGROUND
Prior research links optimism to physical health, but the strength of the association has not been systematically evaluated.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analytic review to determine the strength of the association between optimism and physical health.


METHODS
The findings from 83 studies, with 108 effect sizes (ESs), were included in the analyses, using random-effects models.


RESULTS
Overall, the mean ES characterizing the relationship between optimism and physical health outcomes was 0.17, p < .001. ESs were larger for studies using subjective (versus objective) measures of physical health. Subsidiary analyses were also conducted grouping studies into those that focused solely on mortality, survival, cardiovascular outcomes, physiological markers (including immune function), immune function only, cancer outcomes, outcomes related to pregnancy, physical symptoms, or pain. In each case, optimism was a significant predictor of health outcomes or markers, all p < .001.


CONCLUSIONS
Optimism is a significant predictor of positive physical health outcomes.
HER2 expression in salivary gland carcinomas: dependence on histological subtype.

PURPOSE
Previous evaluation of HER2 overexpression in salivary gland cancers indicated an incidence varying between 7 and 56%, with no clear difference among three histologically different subtypes. As part of a Phase II trial of trastuzumab for treatment of incurable salivary gland cancer, we screened 137 tumors for HER2 expression.


EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Unstained sections of paraffin-embedded tumor samples were stained with p185/HER2 receptor antibody. Tumors with moderate (2+) to strong (3+) complete membrane staining in at least 10% of the tumor cells were scored as positive for overexpression.


RESULTS
The overall frequency of overexpression for HER2 was 17% (23 of 137), whereas it was only 8% in the three most common histological subtypes screened. Overexpression was distinctly rare in the most common subtype screened, adenoid cystic carcinoma (4%, 3 of 70). Overexpression was very common in salivary duct cancers; 10 (83%) of 12 were positive for HER2. This observation is consistent with the typical high-grade histological features and aggressive behavior of this subtype as well as with its histogenetic similarity to breast cancer. Analysis based on histogenesis (intercalated duct versus excretory duct) indicated a higher frequency of overexpression in the latter (55%) than in the former (7%).


CONCLUSIONS
Our overall results suggest that trastuzumab will not have a major role in treatment of salivary gland cancers of intercalated duct origin. Further systematic evaluation of trastuzumab in subtypes of excretory duct origin could be supported.
Population diversity of particle swarms

In the field of evolutionary computation, an important attribute of a population is diversity. This paper proposes a method for measuring the diversity of a particle swarm optimization population. It involves the measurement of position and velocity attributes of the particles that comprise the population. The proposed method is computationally straightforward and is adaptable to other evolutionary algorithms.
Preliminary evaluation of image reconstruction by ordered-subset expectation maximization in thallium-201 lung scintigraphy.

OBJECTIVES
We observed whether clearer tumor delineation and greater tumor to non-tumor (T/N) count ratios could be obtained using an iterative ordered-subsets expectation maximization (OSEM) algorithm than conventional filtered-back projection algorithm (FBP) in the image reconstruction of thallium-201 (201Tl) lung scintigraphy.


METHODS
In 29 patients with lung cancer and phantom studies, tomograms were reconstructed using FBP and OSEM algorithms, with and without a prefilter (Butterworth filter: BW), whose cut-off frequencies were 0.10 cycles/pixel for FBP and 0.10 and 0.17 cycles/pixel for OSEM. Visual interpretation and tumor to non-tumor (T/N) count ratios were obtained and compared.


RESULTS
Without a prefilter, T/N ratios from OSEM and FBP were 1.89 +/- 0.31 (early) and 2.00 +/- 0.54 (late) for OSEM, 1.90 +/- 0.33 (early) and 2.05 +/- 0.59 (late) for FBP, respectively. The OSEM reconstruction without prefiltering showed clearer tumor contours than FBP without a prefilter. Incorporation of BW showed visually low-noised images but decreased T/N ratios in both reconstructions with BW (0.10 cycles/pixel). No greater T/N ratios were obtained by OSEM than FBP, with or without prefiltering. With BW with a cut-off frequency of 0.17 cycles/pixel, the same T/N ratios as those without BW were obtained. The tumor model sized 0.9 cm in the phantom study was invisible in both OSEM and FBP reconstructions without a prefilter, but visible with a prefilter. The influence of prefiltering on T/N ratios was also observed in phantom studies.


CONCLUSIONS
Visually improved tumor delineation could be obtained in OSEM reconstruction without a prefilter as compared to FBP reconstruction without a prefilter for tumors greater than 2 cm. Prefiltering should be incorporated into OSEM reconstruction in diagnosing small tumors. However, the influence of prefilter (BW) setting on semi-quantitative interpretation needs further discussion.
Regular expressions for language engineering

Many of the processing steps in natural language engineering can be performed using nite state transducers An optimal way to create such transducers is to compile them from regular expressions This paper is an introduction to the regular expression calculus extended with certain operators that have proved very useful in natural language appli cations ranging from tokenization to light parsing The examples in the paper illustrate in concrete detail some of these applications
Distributed QoS management for Internet of Things under resource constraints

Internet-of-Things (IoT) envisions an infrastructure of ubiquitous networked smart devices offering advanced monitoring and control services. Current art in IoT architectures utilizes gateways to enable application-specific connectivity to IoT devices. In typical configurations, an IoT gateway is shared among several IoT devices. However, given the limited available bandwidth and processing capabilities of an IoT gateway, the quality of service (QoS) of IoT devices must be adjusted over time not only to fulfill the needs of individual IoT device users, but also to tolerate the QoS needs of the other IoT devices sharing the same gateway.
 In this paper, we address the problem of QoS management for IoT devices under bandwidth, battery, and processing constraints. We first formulate the problem of resource-aware QoS tailored to the IoT paradigm and then propose an efficient problem decomposition that enables the adoption of a recurrent dynamic programming approach with reduced execution time overhead. We evaluate the efficiency of the proposed approach with a case study and through extensive experimentation over different IoT system configurations regarding to the number and type of the employed IoT-devices. Experiments show that our solution improves the overall QoS by 50% compared to an unsupervised system while both meet the constraints.
An Evaluation of Frankliniella occidentalis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) and Frankliniella intonsa (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) Performance on Different Plant Leaves Based on Life History Characteristics

To compare the performance of Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) and native Frankliniella intonsa (Trybom) on cucumber and tomato leaves in laboratory, life history characters were investigated, and life tables were constructed using the method of age-stage, two-sex table life. Compared with tomato leaf, there were shorter total preoviposition period (TPOP), higher fecundity, longer female longevity, and higher intrinsic rate of increase (r) of both F. occidentalis and F. intonsa on cucumber leaf. Meanwhile, on cucumber leaf, the shorter TPOP, higher fecundity, longer female longevity, and higher value of r were found on population of F. intonsa but on tomato leaf which were found on population of F. occidentalis. From above, cucumber leaf was the preference to population development of both F. occidentalis and F. intonsa compared with tomato leaf. Nevertheless, on cucumber leaf, population of F. intonsa would grow faster than that of F. occidentalis, which was the opposite on tomato leaf. As to the population development in fields, much more factors would be taken into account, such as pollen, insecticide resistance, and effects of natural enemies etc.
Occipital condyle fractures: incidence and clinical follow-up at a level 1 trauma centre

The purpose of the study was to investigate the incidence, management, and outcomes of occipital condyle fractures at a level 1 trauma center. Blunt trauma patients with occipital condyle fracture admitted to a level 1 trauma center over a 3-year period were identified. Prospective clinical and functional follow-up was undertaken, including further radiographic imaging. The incidence of occipital condyle fracture in patients presenting to our level 1 trauma center was 1.7/1,000 per year. Twenty-four patients were followed up at a mean of 27 months post-injury. There was one case of isolated occipital condyle fracture; all other patients had sustained additional orthopedic, cervical spine, and/or head injury. Seven (29%) patients sustained unilateral Type III avulsion fractures, none of which were isolated injuries. Traumatic brain injury was detected in 46% of study patients, and 42% had cervical spine injury. External halothoracic immobilization was used in 33% of cases. Fracture union with anatomical alignment occurred in 21 patients (88%). No patient had cranial nerve deficit at admission or follow-up. Three patients (12.5%) had moderate to severe neck pain/disability at follow-up, all of whom had sustained multiple injuries. Occipital condyle fractures most frequently occur in conjunction with additional injuries, particularly head and cervical spine injuries. Most cases can be managed successfully nonoperatively. Functional outcome is generally determined by pain and disability related to other injuries, rather than occipital fracture configuration.