Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shear Bond Strength of Cement to Zirconia

This study investigated the shear bond strength (SBS) of various cements to zirconia ceramic. CoCr-cylinders were bonded to zirconia plates (20 mm × 10 mm × 2 mm; n = 8 per group) using four self-adhesive resin cements (one capsule, three hand-mixed) and four resin cements, partly in combination with a tribochemical/silane treatment. All cements were auto-polymerizing. The bonding areas were sandblasted using 110 μm Al2O3. The shear bond strength was determined after 24 h, 30 days, 90 days of water storage (37°C) and after 12 000 thermal cycles. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni post hoc test (α = 0.05). After 24 h and after thermal cycling (TC) the lowest value of shear bond strength was found for the control Variolink without bonding pre-treatment (9.5 MPa/3.1 MPa) and the highest results were determined for Calibra with bonding pre-treatment (37.3 MPa/31.9 MPa). After 30 days and 90 days of storage in water the highest SBS values were found for RelyX (33.3 MPa/28.6 MPa), and again lowest values were determined for Variolink (8.8 MPa/9.1 MPa). After 90 days storage all samples of Maxcem failed. The groupwise comparison revealed significantly different SBS results between 90 days storage and the initial results after 24 h (p = 0.003). No significant differences were found between the other storage conditions (p > 0.057). The systems without bonding pre-treatment provided significantly lower SBS in comparison to the self-adhesive systems and the systems with bonding pre-treatment (p = 0.000). Within the limitations of this study, three of four self-adhesive bonding systems provided bond strengths to zirconia, comparable to systems with additional bonding pre-treatment. The durability of the bonding resin and zirconia can only be judged after long-term water storage.
Neural Activity in the Reward-Related Brain Regions Predicts Implicit Self-Esteem: A Novel Validity Test of Psychological Measures Using Neuroimaging

Self-esteem, arguably the most important attitudes an individual possesses, has been a premier research topic in psychology for more than a century. Following a surge of interest in implicit attitude measures in the 90s, researchers have tried to assess self-esteem implicitly to circumvent the influence of biases inherent in explicit measures. However, the validity of implicit self-esteem measures remains elusive. Critical tests are often inconclusive, as the validity of such measures is examined in the backdrop of imperfect behavioral measures. To overcome this serious limitation, we tested the neural validity of the most widely used implicit self-esteem measure, the implicit association test (IAT). Given the conceptualization of self-esteem as attitude toward the self, and neuroscience findings that the reward-related brain regions represent an individual’s attitude or preference for an object when viewing its image, individual differences in implicit self-esteem should be associated with neural signals in the reward-related regions during passive-viewing of self-face (the most obvious representation of the self). Using multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) on functional MRI (fMRI) data, we demonstrate that the neural signals in the reward-related regions were robustly associated with implicit (but not explicit) self-esteem, thus providing unique evidence for the neural validity of the self-esteem IAT. In addition, both implicit and explicit self-esteem were related, although differently, to neural signals in regions involved in self-processing. Our finding highlights the utility of neuroscience methods in addressing fundamental psychological questions and providing unique insights into important psychological constructs.
Understanding the Software Development Industry's Perspective on Coding Boot Camps versus Traditional 4-year Colleges

This study reports on the perceived capacity of coding boot camps versus computer science (CS) undergraduate programs to instill a range of software development skills from an industry perspective. We present findings from a series of national focus groups and individual interviews with representatives from the software development industry, who spoke about their hiring procedures and preferences as well as how they perceived coding boot camp applicants in comparison to graduates from four-year CS degree programs. We also present findings on how the boot camp and university participants viewed their role in developing necessary skills for employability. Results indicate that hiring managers filling positions, generally have a favorable perspective of coding boot camp hires in relation to their demonstration of "soft" skills, such as teamwork, passion, and persistence; With regards to four-year university hires, several industry representatives indicated that a four-year degree is mandatory for hire, while also listing a solid understanding of CS principles and substantial exposure to mathematics. The Discussion section focuses on the future potential of coding boot camps as an alternative training ground for the software development industry.
Predicting Fatigue 12 Months after Child Traumatic Brain Injury: Child Factors and Postinjury Symptoms

Abstract Objectives: Fatigue is a common and persisting symptom after childhood brain injury. This study examined whether child characteristics and symptomatology preinjury or 6 months postinjury (pain, sleep, and mood, inattention) predicted fatigue at 12months postinjury. Methods: Parents of 79 children (0–18 years) rated fatigue at 12 months after injury on a multidimensional scale (general, sleep/rest, and cognitive). Demographic and clinical data were collected at injury. Parents rated child sleep, pain, physical/motor function, mood, and inattention at injury (preinjury description), and 6 months postinjury. Children were divided into two traumatic brain injury severity groups: mild TBI (n=57) and moderate/severe TBI (n=27). Hierarchical regression models were used to examine (i) preinjury factors and (ii) symptoms 6 months postinjury predictive of fatigue (general, sleep/rest, and cognitive) at 12 months postinjury. Results: Sleep/rest fatigue was predicted by preinjury fatigue (7% of variance) and psychological symptoms preinjury (10% of variance). General fatigue was predicted by physical/motor symptoms (27%), sleep (10%) and mood symptoms (9%) 6 months postinjury. Sleep/rest fatigue was predicted by physical/motor symptoms (10%), sleep symptoms (13%) and mood symptoms (9%) 6 months postinjury. Cognitive fatigue was predicted by physical/motor symptoms (17%) 6 months postinjury. Conclusions: Preinjury fatigue and psychological functioning identified those at greatest risk of fatigue 12 months post-TBI. Predictors of specific fatigue domains at 12 months differed across each of the domains, although consistently included physical/motor function as well as sleep and mood symptoms postinjury. (JINS, 2018, 24, 224–236)
Pathophysiologic differences in cerebral autoregulation after subarachnoid hemorrhage

Objective: To understand the physiologic basis of impaired cerebral autoregulation in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and its relationship to neurologic outcomes. Methods: The cohort included 121 patients with nontraumatic SAH admitted to a neurointensive critical care unit from March 2010 to May 2015. Vasospasm was ascertained from digital subtraction angiography and delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) was defined as new cerebral infarction on high-resolution CT. Cerebral blood flow and beat-by-beat pressure were recorded daily on days 2–4 after admission. Autoregulatory capacity was quantified from pressure flow relation via projection pursuit regression. The main outcome was early alterations in autoregulatory mechanisms as they relate to vasospasm and DCI. Results: Forty-three patients developed only vasospasm, 9 only DCI, and 14 both. Autoregulatory capacity correctly predicted DCI in 86% of training cohort patients, generalizing to 80% of the patients who were not included in the original model. Patients who developed DCI had a distinct autoregulatory profile compared to patients who did not develop secondary complications or those who developed only vasospasm. The rate of decrease in flow was significantly steeper in response to transient reductions in pressure. The rate of increase in flow was markedly lower, suggesting a diminished ability to increase flow despite transient increases in pressure. Conclusions: The extent and nature of impairment in autoregulation accurately predicts neurologic complications on an individual patient level, and suggests potentially differential impairments in underlying physiologic mechanisms. A better understanding of these can lead to targeted interventions to mitigate neurologic morbidity.
Retirement-Driven Dynamic VAR Planning for Voltage Stability Enhancement of Power Systems With High-Level Wind Power

Conventional VAR compensation devices such as capacitor banks and synchronous condensers, after long periods of service, have become aged and less effective to satisfy stringent requirement of short-term voltage stability in high-level wind power penetrated power systems. STATCOMs with a rapid and dynamic reactive power support capability can be an ideal alternative, when combined with a proper equipment retirement and upgrades scheme. This paper proposes a systematic approach for optimal dynamic VAR resource planning and upgrading for a power system with increased wind power penetration and equipment retirement. The problem is constituted by two parts that are aged equipment retirement and new equipment placement. A multiobjective optimization model is proposed to minimize three objectives: the cost of retirement and upgrades, the index of proximity to steady-state voltage collapse, and the index of transient voltage unaccepted performance. To simulate real-world operating situation, multiple contingencies and uncertain dynamic load models are taken into account. Furthermore, low- and high-voltage ride through abilities for wind farms are modeled. The proposed model is tested on the New England 39-bus test system.
Differential transcriptomic analysis reveals hidden light response in Streptomyces lividans

Recently, a comprehensive screening workflow for the filamentous bacterium Streptomyces lividans, a highly performant source for pharmaceutically active agents was introduced. This framework used parallelized cultivation in microtiter plates to efficiently accelerate early upstream process development. Focusing on growth performance, cultivation was successfully scaled‐up to 1 L stirred tank reactors. However, metabolic adaptation was observed on the transcriptomic level as among others, several genes incorporated in light response were upregulated during bioreactor cultivation. Despite it was assumed that this was attributed to the fact that reactor cultivations were performed in glass vessels exposed to daylight and artificial room light, this setup did not allow distinguishing exclusively between light and other effects. Upon that, the present study directly investigates the influence of light by defined illumination of microtiter plate cultures. Almost identical growth performance was observed for cultures grown in the dark or with illumination. Transcriptomics revealed the upregulation of seven genes of which 6 have previously been described to be relevant for carotenoid synthesis and its regulation. These pigments are effective quenchers of reactive oxygen species. The seventh transcript coded for a photo‐lyase incorporated in UV‐damage repair of DNA further confirming induced light response. However, this was fully compensated by metabolic adaptation on the transcriptomic level and overall process performance was maintained. Consequently, environmental conditions need extremely careful control and evaluation during in‐depth omics analysis of bioprocesses. Otherwise metabolic adaptation induced by such issues can easily be misinterpreted, especially during studies addressing cultivation system comparisons. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 34:287–292, 2018
Self-organized filamentation of photoresponsive polymers during UV curing

The exposure of thick UV sensitive polymer layers leads to the formation of self-organized refractive index filaments, which appear after a certain layer thickness, typically in the range of 50 μm. This effect has strong influence on the fabrication of, e.g., high precision micro-optical elements. In particular, diffraction limited micro-lenses with high sag or high aspect ratio on-chip collimators require a perfect index homogeneity. We show that the saturable and irreversible change of the polymer refractive index causes a modulational instability (MI), which finally leads to the creation of filaments. It will be presented that a maximum growth rate for a certain spatial frequency of an initial perturbation exists. This MI gain determines the dynamics of the filament formation. The impact of the exposure conditions, e.g., chemical process parameters, on the homogeneity of the UV cured polymer is discussed for ORMOCERTM type polymers.
Projecting Global Biodiversity Indicators under Future Development Scenarios

To address the ongoing global biodiversity crisis, governments have set strategic objectives and have adopted indicators to monitor progress toward their achievement. Projecting the likely impacts on biodiversity of different policy decisions allows decision makers to understand if and how these targets can be met. We projected trends in two widely used indicators of population abundance Geometric Mean Abundance, equivalent to the Living Planet Index and extinction risk (the Red List Index) under different climate and land‐use change scenarios. Testing these on terrestrial carnivore and ungulate species, we found that both indicators decline steadily, and by 2050, under a Business‐as‐usual (BAU) scenario, geometric mean population abundance declines by 18–35% while extinction risk increases for 8–23% of the species, depending on assumptions about species responses to climate change. BAU will therefore fail Convention on Biological Diversity target 12 of improving the conservation status of known threatened species. An alternative sustainable development scenario reduces both extinction risk and population losses compared with BAU and could lead to population increases. Our approach to model species responses to global changes brings the focus of scenarios directly to the species level, thus taking into account an additional dimension of biodiversity and paving the way for including stronger ecological foundations into future biodiversity scenario assessments.
Quantification of in vivo 31P NMR brain spectra using LCModel

Quantification of 31P NMR spectra is commonly performed using line‐fitting techniques with prior knowledge. Currently available time‐ and frequency‐domain analysis software includes AMARES (in jMRUI) and CFIT respectively. Another popular frequency‐domain approach is LCModel, which has been successfully used to fit both 1H and 13C in vivo NMR spectra. To the best of our knowledge LCModel has not been used to fit 31P spectra. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using LCModel to quantify in vivo 31P MR spectra, provided that adequate prior knowledge and LCModel control parameters are used. Both single‐voxel and MRSI data are presented, and similar results are obtained with LCModel and with AMARES. This provides a new method for automated, operator‐independent analysis of 31P NMR spectra. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The E-volution of preprints in the scholarly communication of physicists and astronomers

To learn how e-prints are cited, used, and accepted in the literature of physics and astronomy, the philosophies, policies, and practices of top-tier physics and astronomy journals regarding e-prints from the Los Alamos e-print archive, arXiv.org, were examined. Citation analysis illustrated e-prints were cited with increasing frequency by a variety of journals in a wide range of physics and astronomy fields from 1998 to 1999. The peak e-print citation rate of 3 years observed was comparable to that of print journals, suggesting a similarity in citation patterns of e-prints and printed articles. The number of citations made to 37 premier physics and astronomy journals and their impact factors have remained constant since arXiv.org's inception in 1991, indicating that e-prints have yet to make an impact on the use of the printed literature. The degree of acceptance stated by the journals' editors and the policies given in the journal's instructions to authors sections concerning the citing of e-prints and subsequent publication of papers that have appeared as e-prints differed from journal to journal, ranging from emphatically unacceptable to “why not? ” Even though the use of the traditional literature has not changed since arXiv.org began and the policies concerning e-print citation and publication were inconsistent, the number of citations (35,928) and citations rates (34.1%) to 12 arXiv.org archives were found to be large and increasing. It is, therefore, evident that arXiv.org e-prints have evolved into an important facet of the scholarly communication of physics and astronomy.
A survey of tools for variant analysis of next-generation genome sequencing data

Recent advances in genome sequencing technologies provide unprecedented opportunities to characterize individual genomic landscapes and identify mutations relevant for diagnosis and therapy. Specifically, whole-exome sequencing using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies is gaining popularity in the human genetics community due to the moderate costs, manageable data amounts and straightforward interpretation of analysis results. While whole-exome and, in the near future, whole-genome sequencing are becoming commodities, data analysis still poses significant challenges and led to the development of a plethora of tools supporting specific parts of the analysis workflow or providing a complete solution. Here, we surveyed 205 tools for whole-genome/whole-exome sequencing data analysis supporting five distinct analytical steps: quality assessment, alignment, variant identification, variant annotation and visualization. We report an overview of the functionality, features and specific requirements of the individual tools. We then selected 32 programs for variant identification, variant annotation and visualization, which were subjected to hands-on evaluation using four data sets: one set of exome data from two patients with a rare disease for testing identification of germline mutations, two cancer data sets for testing variant callers for somatic mutations, copy number variations and structural variations, and one semi-synthetic data set for testing identification of copy number variations. Our comprehensive survey and evaluation of NGS tools provides a valuable guideline for human geneticists working on Mendelian disorders, complex diseases and cancers.
DNA breaks and chromatin structural changes enhance the transcription of autoimmune regulator target genes

The autoimmune regulator (AIRE) protein is the key factor in thymic negative selection of autoreactive T cells by promoting the ectopic expression of tissue-specific genes in the thymic medullary epithelium. Mutations in AIRE cause a monogenic autoimmune disease called autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy. AIRE has been shown to promote DNA breaks via its interaction with topoisomerase 2 (TOP2). In this study, we investigated topoisomerase-induced DNA breaks and chromatin structural alterations in conjunction with AIRE-dependent gene expression. Using RNA sequencing, we found that inhibition of TOP2 religation activity by etoposide in AIRE-expressing cells had a synergistic effect on genes with low expression levels. AIRE-mediated transcription was not only enhanced by TOP2 inhibition but also by the TOP1 inhibitor camptothecin. The transcriptional activation was associated with structural rearrangements in chromatin, notably the accumulation of γH2AX and the exchange of histone H1 with HMGB1 at AIRE target gene promoters. In addition, we found the transcriptional up-regulation to co-occur with the chromatin structural changes within the genomic cluster of carcinoembryonic antigen-like cellular adhesion molecule genes. Overall, our results suggest that the presence of AIRE can trigger molecular events leading to an altered chromatin landscape and the enhanced transcription of low-expressed genes.
Automatic Identification of Errors in Multi-step Answers to Algebra Questions

This paper presents a system that automatically identifies errors made by students in answering algebra questions that require multiple steps. The types of algebra questions we consider include linear equations with fractions and quadratic equations. We have already developed a system that is capable of grading multi-step answers to the aforementioned two types of questions and awarding full/ partial credit according to a marking scheme. The error identification module works on top of this previous system. It was evaluated using data from two sources: government schools and a tuition class in Sri Lanka. The mistakes identified by the system were compared against feedback by two independent teachers. The results showed that the system identified the student mistakes with more than 85% accuracy for both types of questions.
The Rate of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Korean Children and Adolescents Since 2007

The incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in pediatric populations is a critical indicator of national TB management and treatment strategies. Limited data exist regarding the rate of pediatric DR-TB. In this study, we aimed to analyze the status of DR-TB in Korean children from 2007 to 2013. We analyzed specimens submitted to the Korean Institute of Tuberculosis using Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture and drug susceptibility tests (DSTs) from January 2007 through December 2013. Specimens from patients ≤ 19 years of age were included. Among the 2,690 cases, 297 cases were excluded because of insufficient data, leaving 2,393 cases for the final analysis. In total, resistance to one or more TB drugs was 13.5%. The resistance rates of each of the drugs were as follows: isoniazid (INH) 10.2%, rifampin (RFP) 5.1%, ethambutol (EMB) 3.7%, and pyrazinamide (PZA) 3.1%. The resistance rate of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) was 4.2%, and that of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) was 0.8%. The overall drug resistance rate demonstrated significant increase throughout the study period (P < 0.001) but showed no significant difference compared to previous study from 1999 to 2007. The drug resistance rate of PZA in ≤ 15 years of age group was significantly greater than that of > 15 years (P < 0.001). The drug resistance rate has increased throughout the study period.
A knowledge organization system for e-participation in law-making

This paper describes the knowledge organization system developed within a project for e-Participation in the EU law-making process. The project aims to build a web platform allowing citizens and other stakeholders to actively participate in the EU law-making by providing comments and amendments, as well expressing sentiments, on pre-legislative documents. The semantic approach follows a pure RDF(S)/ OWL implementation for all the produced contributions (documents, comments, amendments, statistics), with the aim to made them available as Linked Open Data.