Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of surface treatments on the bond strength of composite resin to hybrid computer-assisted design/manufacturing blocks

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the repair bond strength of a dimethacrylate-based composite to two hybrid CAD/CAM blocks after different surface treatments. One hunded and twenty specimens were prepared from two different CAD/CAM blocks (Lava Ultimate (L), Cerasmart (C)). After thermal aging, specimens from each group (n = 60) were divided into 6 treatment groups (n = 10): (1) No treatment (2) Phophoric acid (37%) for 60 s, (3) Hydrofluoric acid (8%) for 60 s, (4) Sanblasting with 50-µm aluminium oxide (5) Er,Cr:YSGG laser treatment at 2 W and (6) Er,Cr:YSGG laser treatment at 3 W. Single Bond Universal was applied on all specimens and a dimethacrylate-based composite (Tetric N-Ceram) was bonded using Teflon tubes. After thermal cycling, shear bond strength (SBS) was tested, and failure modes were evaluated. Two-way ANOVA and independent t-test were used for statistical analysis (p < 0.05). The highest SBS values were detected at Er,Cr:YSGG laser treatment groups (3W) (L:22.7 MPa, C:22.6 MPa). Lowest SBS values were obtained at no surface pretreatment groups followed by phophoric acid treatment groups which were significantly lower than sandblasting, hydrofluoric acid treatment and Er,Cr:YSGG laser treatment groups (p = 0.001). The universal adhesive Single Bond Universal had no effect on promoting bond strength to hybrid ceramics alone or with phosphoric acid. Sandblasting, hydrofluoric acid and laser treatment were effective at increasing repair bond strength, for both Lava Ultimate and Cerasmart.
First cytogenetic information for Drymoreomys albimaculatus (Rodentia, Cricetidae), a recently described genus from Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract The recently described taxon Drymoreomys albimaculatus is endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and its biology and genetics are still poorly known. Herein, we present, for the first time, the karyotype of the species using classical and molecular cytogenetics, which showed 2n=62, FN=62, and interstitial telomeric signals at the sex chromosomes. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences from the two karyotyped individuals verify the taxonomic identity as the recently described Drymoreomys albimaculatus and confirm the relationship of the species with other Oryzomyini. Additionally, external morphological information is provided.
Relationships between Micro-Vascular and Iodine-Staining Patterns in the Vicinity of the Tumor Front of Superficial Esophageal Squamous Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to clarify differences between micro-vascular and iodine-staining patterns in the vicinity of the tumor fronts of superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs). METHODS Ten consecutive patients with ESCCs who were treated by endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) were enrolled. At the edge of the iodine-unstained area, we observed 183 sites in total using image-enhanced magnifying endoscopy. We classified the micro-vascular and iodine-staining patterns into three types: Type A, in which the line of vascular change matched the border of the iodine-unstained area; Type B, in which the border of the iodine-unstained area extended beyond the line of vascular change; Type C, in which the line of vascular change extended beyond the border of the iodine-unstained area. Then, by examining histopathological sections, we compared the diameter of intra-papillary capillary loops (IPCLs) in cancerous areas and normal squamous epithelium. RESULTS We investigated 160 sites that the adequate quality of pictures were obtained. There was no case in which the line of vascular change completely matched the whole circumference of the border of an iodine-unstained area. Among the 160 sites, type A was recognized at 76 sites (47.5%), type B at 79 sites (49.4%), and type C at 5 sites (3.1%). Histological examination showed that the mean diameter of the IPCLs in normal squamous epithelium was 16.2±3.7 μm, whereas that of IPCLs in cancerous lesions was 21.0±4.4 μm. CONCLUSIONS The development of iodine-unstained areas tends to precede any changes in the vascularity of the esophageal surface epithelium.
Quality of life in patients who survive a dire prognosis compared to control cancer survivors

The primary goal of this study was to describe well‐being and its correlates in long‐term cancer survivors who had exceeded their life expectancies (‘exceptional survivors’ (ES)) and to identify ways in which exceptional survivors differed from cancer survivors with much better prognoses (‘control survivors’ (CS)). Survivors were identified through a population‐based tumor registry, and ES (n = 160) were matched to CS (n = 160) on age, ethnicity, site of disease, and time since diagnosis. Data were collected through in person interviews and self‐administered questionnaires. Outcomes included quality of life, depression, and stress. Predictors included demographics, clinical variables and psychological predictors (sense of coherence, optimism, and resiliency). The findings led to several clear conclusions: (1) cancer survivors are doing well, in comparison to well‐being in control populations; (2) cancer survivors exhibit higher levels of sense of coherence and resilience, but not optimism, than control populations; (3) psychological variables explain considerable variance in well‐being; and (4) there are few differences between exceptional and control survivors. We conclude that objective disease state is not as important to cancer survivor well‐being as personal attributes, and that a cancer diagnosis has such frightening implications that all survivors consider their recovery to be ‘exceptional. ’. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Women Are More Likely to Wear Red or Pink at Peak Fertility

Although females of many species closely related to humans signal their fertile window in an observable manner, often involving red or pink coloration, no such display has been found for humans. Building on evidence that men are sexually attracted to women wearing or surrounded by red, we tested whether women show a behavioral tendency toward wearing reddish clothing when at peak fertility. Across two samples (N = 124), women at high conception risk were more than 3 times more likely to wear a red or pink shirt than were women at low conception risk, and 77% of women who wore red or pink were found to be at high, rather than low, risk. Conception risk had no effect on the prevalence of any other shirt color. Our results thus suggest that red and pink adornment in women is reliably associated with fertility and that female ovulation, long assumed to be hidden, is associated with a salient visual cue.
A spectro-polarimetric study of the planet-hosting G dwarf, HD 147513

The results from a spectro-polarimetric study of the planet-hosting Sun-like star, HD 147513 (G5V), are presented here. Robust detections of Zeeman signatures at all observed epochs indicate a surface magnetic field, with longitudinal magnetic field strengths varying between 1.0-3.2 G. Radial velocity variations from night to night modulate on a similar timescale to the longitudinal magnetic field measurements. These variations are therefore likely due to the rotational modulation of stellar active regions rather than the much longer timescale of the planetary orbit (Porb=528 d). Both the longitudinal magnetic field measurements and radial velocity variations are consistent with a rotation period of 10 +/- 2 days, which are also consistent with the measured chromospheric activity level of the star (log R'(HK)=-4.64). Together, these quantities indicate a low inclination angle, i~18 degrees. We present preliminary magnetic field maps of the star based on the above period and find a simple poloidal large-scale field. Chemical analyses of the star have revealed that it is likely to have undergone a barium-enrichment phase in its evolution because of a higher mass companion. Despite this, our study reveals that the star has a fairly typical activity level for its rotation period and spectral type. Future studies will enable us to explore the long-term evolution of the field, as well as to measure the stellar rotation period, with greater accuracy.
Hypoxia-Induced Aggressiveness of Pancreatic Cancer Cells Is Due to Increased Expression of VEGF, IL-6 and miR-21, Which Can Be Attenuated by CDF Treatment

Hypoxia is known to play critical roles in cell survival, angiogenesis, tumor invasion, and metastasis. Hypoxia mediated over-expression of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) has been shown to be associated with therapeutic resistance, and contributes to poor prognosis of cancer patients. Emerging evidence suggest that hypoxia and HIF pathways contributes to the acquisition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), maintenance of cancer stem cell (CSC) functions, and also maintains the vicious cycle of inflammation-all which lead to therapeutic resistance. However, the precise molecular mechanism(s) by which hypoxia/HIF drives these events are not fully understood. Here, we show, for the first time, that hypoxia leads to increased expression of VEGF, IL-6, and CSC signature genes Nanog, Oct4 and EZH2 consistent with increased cell migration/invasion and angiogenesis, and the formation of pancreatospheres, concomitant with increased expression of miR-21 and miR-210 in human pancreatic cancer (PC) cells. The treatment of PC cells with CDF, a novel synthetic compound inhibited the production of VEGF and IL-6, and down-regulated the expression of Nanog, Oct4, EZH2 mRNAs, as well as miR-21 and miR-210 under hypoxia. CDF also led to decreased cell migration/invasion, angiogenesis, and formation of pancreatospheres under hypoxia. Moreover, CDF decreased gene expression of miR-21, miR-210, IL-6, HIF-1α, VEGF, and CSC signatures in vivo in a mouse orthotopic model of human PC. Collectively, these results suggest that the anti-tumor activity of CDF is in part mediated through deregulation of tumor hypoxic pathways, and thus CDF could become a novel, and effective anti-tumor agent for PC therapy.
Robust precoding design for multibeam downlink satellite channel with phase uncertainty

In this work, we study the design of a precoder on the user downlink of a multibeam satellite channel. The variations in channel due to phase noise introduced by on-board oscillators and the long round trip delay result in outdated channel information at the transmitter. The phase uncertainty is modelled and a robust design framework is formulated based on availability and power constraints. The optimization problem is cast into the convex paradigm after approximations and the benefits of the resulting precoder are highlighted.
Dualities in persistent (co)homology

We consider sequences of absolute and relative homology and cohomology groups that arise naturally for a filtered cell complex. We establish algebraic relationships between their persistence modules, and show that they contain equivalent information. We explain how one can use the existing algorithm for persistent homology to process any of the four modules, and relate it to a recently introduced persistent cohomology algorithm. We present experimental evidence for the practical efficiency of the latter algorithm.
On the Convergence Analysis of Asynchronous Distributed Quadratic Programming via Dual Decomposition

In this paper, we analyze the convergence as well as the rate of convergence of asynchronous distributed quadratic programming (QP) with dual decomposition technique. In general, distributed optimization requires synchronization of data at each iteration step due to the interdependency of data. This synchronization latency may incur a large amount of waiting time caused by an idle process during computation. We aim to attack this synchronization penalty in distributed QP problems by implementing asynchronous update of dual variable. The price to pay for adopting asynchronous computing algorithms is unpredictability of the solution, resulting in a tradeoff between speedup and accuracy. Thus, the convergence to an optimal solution is not guaranteed owing to the stochastic behavior of asynchrony. In this paper, we employ the switched system framework as an analysis tool to investigate the convergence of asynchronous distributed QP. This switched system will facilitate analysis on asynchronous distributed QP with dual decomposition, providing necessary and sufficient conditions for the mean square convergence. Also, we provide an analytic expression for the rate of convergence through the switched system, which enables performance analysis of asynchronous algorithms as compared with synchronous case. To verify the validity of the proposed methods, numerical examples are presented with an implementation of asynchronous parallel QP using OpenMP.
Human Muscle Satellite Cells as Targets of Chikungunya Virus Infection

Background Chikungunya (CHIK) virus is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that causes in humans an acute infection characterised by fever, polyarthralgia, head-ache, and myalgia. Since 2005, the emergence of CHIK virus was associated with an unprecedented magnitude outbreak of CHIK disease in the Indian Ocean. Clinically, this outbreak was characterized by invalidating poly-arthralgia, with myalgia being reported in 97.7% of cases. Since the cellular targets of CHIK virus in humans are unknown, we studied the pathogenic events and targets of CHIK infection in skeletal muscle. Methodology/Principal Findings Immunohistology on muscle biopsies from two CHIK virus-infected patients with myositic syndrome showed that viral antigens were found exclusively inside skeletal muscle progenitor cells (designed as satelllite cells), and not in muscle fibers. To evaluate the ability of CHIK virus to replicate in human satellite cells, we assessed virus infection on primary human muscle cells; viral growth was observed in CHIK virus-infected satellite cells with a cytopathic effect, whereas myotubes were essentially refractory to infection. Conclusions/Significance This report provides new insights into CHIK virus pathogenesis, since it is the first to identify a cellular target of CHIK virus in humans and to report a selective infection of muscle satellite cells by a viral agent in humans.
Human Activity Recognition for an Intelligent Knee Orthosis

This paper investigates the possibility to classify isolated human activities from biosignal sensors integrated into a knee orthosis. An intelligent orthosis that is capable to recognize its wearers activity would be able to adapt itself to the users situation for enhanced comfort. We use a setup with three modalities: accelerometry, electromyography and goniometry to measure leg motion and muscle activity of the wearer. We segment signals in motion primitives and apply Hidden Markov Models to classify these isolated motion primitives. We discriminate between seven activities like for example walking stairs and ascend or descend a hill. In a small user study we reach an average person-dependent accuracy of 98% and a person-independent accuracy
Biosynthesis and Characterization of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles via Syzygium aromaticum Extract and Determination of Its Cytotoxicity against Human Breast Cancer Cell Lines

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles exhibit many interesting properties due to their surface chemistry and they can be exploited in biomedical and technological applications. The iron oxide nanoparticles (FeO NPs) using ferric chloride, ferrous chloride, PVP (Poly Vinyl Pyrolidone) and Syzygium aromaticum extract were successfully synthesized by wet-chemical co-precipitation method. The PVP coated FeO NPs and S. aromaticum loaded to PVP coated FeO NPs were systematically characterized by using expository tools. UV-Visible spectroscopy showed the maximum absorbance at 480 nm and 554 nm due to the excitation of surface plasmon vibrations in the FeO NPs formation. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum showed the presence of functional groups of in the form of various band positions and this study confirmed that phenols and primary amines were majorly present. DLS studies revealed narrow size of particles i.e., 399.8 nm and 190.1 nm. Particle size distribution was showed at 256 nm and 153 nm for these samples and zeta potential values were observed at -23.7 and -18.8 mV with greater stability. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis is in good agreement with a high degree of crystallographic nature of particles and the average particle size was found to be 23 nm and 29 nm using Scherrer equation. FT-Raman spectrum showed three main characteristic peaks. The scope of this study was extended by examining the cytotoxicity of PVP coated FeO NPs and S. aromaticum loaded PVP coated FeO NPs on human breast (MCF-7) cancer cell lines. The results suggest that the S. aromaticum loaded FeO NPs acts as a potential anti-cancer agent and are a promising research field for lots of biomedical applications particularly for breast cancer studies.
Workload Analysis, Implications, and Optimization on a Production Hadoop Cluster: A Case Study on Taobao

Understanding the characteristics of MapReduce workloads in a Hadoop cluster is the key to making optimal configuration decisions and improving the system efficiency and throughput. However, workload analysis on a Hadoop cluster, particularly in a large-scale e-commerce production environment, has not been well studied yet. In this paper, we performed a comprehensive workload analysis using the trace collected from a 2000-node Hadoop cluster at Taobao, which is the biggest online e-commerce enterprise in Asia, ranked 10th in the world as reported by Alexa. The results of the workload analysis are representative and generally consistent with the data warehouses for e-commerce web sites, which can help researchers and engineers understand the workload characteristics of Hadoop in their production environments. Based on the observations and implications derived from the trace, we designed a workload generator Ankus, to expedite the performance evaluation and debugging of new mechanisms. Ankus supports synthesizing an e-commerce style MapReduce workload at a low cost. Furthermore, we proposed and implemented a job scheduling algorithm, Fair4S , which is designed to be biased towards small jobs. Small jobs account for the majority of the workload, and most of them require instant and interactive responses, which is an important phenomenon at production Hadoop systems. The inefficiency of Hadoop fair scheduler for handling small jobs motivates us to design the Fair4S, which introduces pool weights and extends job priorities to guarantee the rapid responses for small jobs. Experimental evaluation verified that the Fair4S accelerates the average waiting times of small jobs by a factor of 7 compared with the fair scheduler.
Glass-like dynamics of collective cell migration

Collective cell migration in tissues occurs throughout embryonic development, during wound healing, and in cancerous tumor invasion, yet most detailed knowledge of cell migration comes from single-cell studies. As single cells migrate, the shape of the cell body fluctuates dramatically through cyclic processes of extension, adhesion, and retraction, accompanied by erratic changes in migration direction. Within confluent cell layers, such subcellular motions must be coupled between neighbors, yet the influence of these subcellular motions on collective migration is not known. Here we study motion within a confluent epithelial cell sheet, simultaneously measuring collective migration and subcellular motions, covering a broad range of length scales, time scales, and cell densities. At large length scales and time scales collective migration slows as cell density rises, yet the fastest cells move in large, multicell groups whose scale grows with increasing cell density. This behavior has an intriguing analogy to dynamic heterogeneities found in particulate systems as they become more crowded and approach a glass transition. In addition we find a diminishing self-diffusivity of short-wavelength motions within the cell layer, and growing peaks in the vibrational density of states associated with cooperative cell-shape fluctuations. Both of these observations are also intriguingly reminiscent of a glass transition. Thus, these results provide a broad and suggestive analogy between cell motion within a confluent layer and the dynamics of supercooled colloidal and molecular fluids approaching a glass transition.
CT Scans May Reduce Rather than Increase the Risk of Cancer

Extrapolating from data on atomic bomb survivors on the basis of the linear no-threshold (LNT) model as applied to radiation exposure, a recent paper concludes that within a few decades 1.5–2 percent of all cancers in the U.S. population could be caused by current rates of use of computed tomography (CT). This paper ignores the other war-related exposures of the Japanese population, which would be expected to shift the dose-response relationship for cancer induction to the left. Moreover, the LNT model is shown to fail in four tests involving low-dose radiation exposures. Considering the available information, we conclude that CT scans may reduce rather than increase lifetime cancer risk.
Stress evolution in silicon nanowires during electrochemical lithiation using in situ synchrotron X-ray microdiffraction

Silicon is a promising material for lithium-ion batteries. However, it expands by 300% on lithiation, leading to fracture. Nanostructuring of silicon is expected to be a promising method to improve the mechanical strength of the silicon electrodes. In the present work, a unique battery test cell was designed and fabricated to study the in situ stress evolution in the silicon nanowire (SiNW) electrode during electrochemical lithiation using synchrotron X-ray microdiffraction. The stress in the SiNWs at pristine state and during lithiation was evaluated using energy scans. The average stress in the pristine nanowires was found to be ∼40 MPa tensile, which changed to ∼325 MPa compressive on lithiation. Further, the deviatoric stress state in the SiNWs during lithiation was evaluated using Laue diffraction and the lithiated nanowires were found to be in triaxial stress state with high shear stresses. The technique and the findings provide new and more in-depth understanding of the stress evolution in the SiNWs during electrochemical lithiation.
A novel cell-based system for evaluating skeletal muscle cell hypertrophy-inducing agents

SummarySkeletal muscle is a tissue that adapts to increased use by increasing contractile protein gene expression and ultimately skeletal muscle mass (hypertrophy). To identify hypertrophy-inducing agents that may be potentially useful in the treatment of age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) and to better understand hypertrophy signal transduction pathways, we have created a skeletal muscle cell-based hypertrophy-responsive system. This system was created by permanently modifying the relatively undifferentiated C2C12 cell line so that it contains the β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC) gene promoter and enhancer regions fused to a luciferase reporter gene. This cell line responds, by increasing luciferase expression, to a variety of skeletal muscle hypertrophy-inducing agents, including insulin, insulin-like growth factor I, testosterone, and the β-adrenergic receptor agonist isoproterenol, in both the undifferentiated and differentiated states. This cell-based system should be useful for identifying novel hypertrophy-inducing agents as well as understanding hypertrophy signal transduction.