Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prediction of final treatment for class III malocclusion of patients with oral clefts.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the value of predicted treatment plans interpreted from a previously developed Formula for Orthodontics and Surgery Prediction (FOSP) in patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP). MATERIAL AND METHOD Orthodontic treatment records were collected of 105 non-syndromic CLP patients between the ages of 5 and 29 years, having Class III malocclusions of varying severity. Three cephalometric values from pre-treatment lateral cephalometric radiographs were determined for use with the FOSP. A receiver operating curve (ROC) was used to identify the optimal cut-off score for classifying predicted treatment needs, whether orthodontics alone or orthognathic surgery. The clinical merit of using the FOSP was determined by comparing predicted plans with actual treatments. RESULTS The predictive value using a cut-off score of 0.6475 from the FOSP-for recommending the final treatment provided--was correctly classified for 79 subjects (75.2%). Sensitivity and specificity of the FOSP for prediction of the need for orthognathic surgery were 68.1% (52.9%-80.9%) and 81.0% (68.6%-90.1%), respectively. CONCLUSION The FOSP can be used for early treatment prediction and counseling, and for more objectively specifying the type of orthodontic treatment for CLP patients. Other sources of information-such as evaluation of psychological and socioeconomic status, and patient's wishes-are still necessary for finalizing the treatment plan.
The Pannexin 1 Channel Activates the Inflammasome in Neurons and Astrocytes*

The inflammasome is a multiprotein complex involved in innate immunity. Activation of the inflammasome causes the processing and release of the cytokines interleukins 1β and 18. In primary macrophages, potassium ion flux and the membrane channel pannexin 1 have been suggested to play roles in inflammasome activation. However, the molecular mechanism(s) governing inflammasome signaling remains poorly defined, and it is undetermined whether these mechanisms apply to the central nervous system. Here we show that high extracellular potassium opens pannexin channels leading to caspase-1 activation in primary neurons and astrocytes. The effect of K+ on pannexin 1 channels was independent of membrane potential, suggesting that stimulation of inflammasome signaling was mediated by an allosteric effect. The activation of the inflammasome by K+ was inhibited by the pannexin 1 channel blocker probenecid, supporting a role of pannexin 1 in inflammasome activation. Co-immunoprecipitation of neuronal lysates indicates that pannexin 1 associates with components of the multiprotein inflammasome complex, including the P2X7 receptor and caspase-1. Moreover antibody neutralization of the adaptor protein ASC (apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD) blocked ATP-induced cell death in oocytes co-expressing P2X7 receptor and pannexin 1. Thus, in contrast to macrophages and monocytes in which low intracellular K+ has been suggested to trigger inflammasome activation, in neural cells, high extracellular K+ activates caspase-1 probably through pannexin 1.
Classifying the smoothness of images: theory and applications to wavelet image processing

Devore, Jawerth, and Lucier (1992) introduced a definition of the smoothness of images that is directly related to the performance of wavelet compression schemes. The present authors survey previous results on the equivalence between smoothness, rate of decay of the wavelet coefficients, and efficiency of wavelet compression techniques applied to images. They report on other applications including deciding how many pixel quantization intervals are needed to preserve smoothness, and the fast solution of variational problems that arise naturally in several areas of image processing. <<ETX>>
Incremental Improvement of Voltage Assignment

Design for low power has become a key requirement in today's System-on-a-Chip design, particularly for mobile applications. Multi-Vdd (MSV) is an effective method to reduce both leakage and dynamic powers. In a MSV design, cells of different supply voltages are often grouped into a small number of voltage islands, in order to avoid complex power-supply system and excessive amount of level shifters. In 2005, Wu et al proposed an elegant algorithm for voltage-island grouping based on the physical proximity of the critical cells in a postplacement voltage assignment and, in 2006, proposed an efficient algorithm for voltage assignment which not only meets timing but also forms good proximity of the critical cells. However, due to insufficient slack, a few isolated critical cells (called outliers) may still exist in the resulting voltage assignment, causing disproportionately expensive penalty to the final voltage-island grouping. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to improve the voltage assignment by automatic outlier detection followed by incremental placement. The outlier detection is based on a modified algorithm for the facility-location problem and proper parameter setting. We also propose a novel partial-sort technique which speeds up this algorithm significantly (up to 3times in our experiments). The incremental placement is guided by setting proper constraints on the paths containing the detected outliers, such that the outliers can be eliminated later. Our experiments on industry designs show that our algorithm leads to 12%-54% improvement in the final voltage-island grouping, with quick turn-around time.
Effects of exposure of parents to toxic gases in Bhopal on the offspring.

BACKGROUND Exposure to methyl isocyanate and other toxic gases in Bhopal, India, on December 3, 1984 resulted in thousands of acute deaths, pregnancy loss and long-term effects. METHODS From 1985 to 2007, we conducted successive surveys of vital status and health to determine whether the exposure of parents to toxic gases in the Bhopal incident affected the 5-year survival and anthropometric variables of their offspring. RESULTS Initial 5-year mortality of offspring of exposed parents was very high. Male but not female offspring who were exposed to gases in utero or who were born to exposed parents were stunted in growth until puberty, which was followed by a period of accelerated growth. Results also suggest a post-puberty effect on head circumference of females exposed to gases in utero. CONCLUSION Exposure of pregnant women to toxic gases in Bhopal in 1984 resulted in high pregnancy loss, increased first 5-year mortality and delayed development of male progeny.
Ghostwriters guaranteeing grades? The quality of online ghostwriting services available to tertiary students in Australia

ABSTRACT Ghostwriting is difficult to detect, it has the potential to be high quality, and universities do not currently have adequate policies in place to police it. Determining the quality of the ghostwriting services available to tertiary students is of vital importance because underestimating the potential for students to use these services to pass their courses affects universities’ ability to detect their use and counteract their prevalence. This study examines the service being advertised to students by the 30 top-ranked ghostwriting websites. The study examines the quality of the service being offered by purchasing 2 essays from 13 of these businesses, 1 undergraduate and 1 postgraduate. These essays were graded by three academics who believed they were grading real student papers. The results of the study are alarming because they imply that had these essays been submitted to a university, the majority of them would have passed without any plagiarism detected.
The viable but non-culturable state in pathogenic Escherichia coli: A general review

Background The persistence and pathogenicity of pathogenic bacteria are dependent on the ability of the species to survive in adverse conditions. During the infectious process, the organism may need to pass through certain hostile anatomical sites, such as the stomach. Under various environmental stresses, many bacteria enter into the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, where they are ‘alive’ or metabolically active, but will not grow on conventional media. Escherichia coli bacteria encounter several diverse stress factors during their growth, survival and infection and thus may enter into the VBNC state. Objectives This review discusses various general aspects of the VBNC state, the mechanisms and possible public health impact of indicator and pathogenic E. coli entering into the VBNC state. Method A literature review was conducted to ascertain the possible impact of E. coli entering into the VBNC state. Results Escherichia coli enter into the VBNC state by means of several induction mechanisms. Various authors have found that E. coli can be resuscitated post-VBNC. Certain strains of pathogenic E. coli are still able to produce toxins in the VBNC state, whilst others are avirulent during the VBNC state but are able to regain virulence after resuscitation. Conclusion Pathogenic and indicator E. coli entering into the VBNC state could have an adverse effect on public health if conventional detection methods are used, where the number of viable cells could be underestimated and the VBNC cells still produce toxins or could, at any time, be resuscitated and become virulent again.
C-glucosidic ellagitannins from Lythri herba (European Pharmacopoeia): chromatographic profile and structure determination.

INTRODUCTION Lythri herba, a pharmacopoeial plant material (European Pharmacopoea), is obtained from flowering parts of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria L.). Although extracts from this plant material have been proven to possess some interesting biological activities and its pharmacopoeial standardisation is based on total tannin content determination, the phytochemical characterisation of this main group of compounds has not yet been fully conducted. OBJECTIVE To isolate ellagitannins from Lythri herba, determine their structures and develop chromatographic methods for their qualitative analysis. RESULTS Five C-glucosidic ellagitannins - monomeric- vescalagin and castalagin together with new dimeric structures - salicarinins A-C, composed of vescalagin and stachyurin, vescalagin and casuarinin, castalagin and casuarinin units connected via formation of valoneoyl group, were isolated using column chromatography and preparative HPLC. Structures were determined according to (1) H and (13) C-NMR (one- and two-dimensional), electrospray ionisation-time of flight (ESI-TOF), electrospray ionisation-ion trap (ESI-MS(n) ) and circular dichroism (CD) spectra, together with acidic hydrolysis products analysis. HPTLC on RP-18 modified plates and HPLC-DAD-MS(n) on RP-18 column methods were developed for separation of the five main ellagitannins.
Fecal excretion of Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 and changes in fecal microbiota after eight weeks of oral supplementation with encapsulated probiotic

Certain randomized, placebo-controlled trials of oral supplementation with B. infantis 35624 have demonstrated the amelioration of symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Potential GI colonization by B. infantis 35624 or effects of supplementation on resident GI microbiota may pertain to these clinical observations. In this study, fecal excretion of B. infantis 35624 before, during and after 8 weeks of daily treatment was compared in subjects with IBS who received either the encapsulated oral supplement (n = 39) or placebo (n = 37) and in healthy subjects who received the supplement (n = 41). Secondarily, changes in assessed fecal microbiota and IBS symptoms were determined. Supplementation significantly increased fecal B. infantis 35624 excretion vs. placebo in IBS subjects; excretion in healthy subjects receiving supplement was quantitatively similar. Fecal levels of the probiotic declined and approached baseline once dosing ceased, documenting that colonization is transient. Although supplementation increased numbers of B infantis 35624 within the GI tract, limited changes in 10 other fecal taxa were observed either in healthy subjects or those with IBS. No impact on IBS symptoms was observed. Detection of bacterial DNA in fecal samples suggests that the probiotic is able to survive transit through the GI tract, although strain selective culture techniques were not performed to confirm viability of B. infantis 35624 in the feces. Continuous probiotic administration was necessary to maintain steady-state transit. Given the complex spectrum of GI microbiota, however, monitoring perturbations in selected taxa may not be not a useful indicator of probiotic function.
Building of field association terms based on links

Studying co-word relations between field association (FA) terms and candidate terms can provide valuable information which helps the machine to take the correct decision and append the candidate terms in their suitable place inside FA terms dictionary. In this paper, a pure automatic tool to build a dynamic FA terms dictionary is described. The concept of link power as well as modifications of the rules used to determine the FA terms level depending on the concept of links will be presented. The results showed that the precession and recall were improved. In our simulation, the average improvement was about 16%. Also the complete dynamic system was built and tested.
DJ-1/PARK7 is an important mediator of hypoxia-induced cellular responses

In cancer, DJ-1/PARK7 acts as an oncogene that drives Akt-mediated cell survival. Although amplification of DJ-1 has been described in several types of tumors, the mechanistic basis of DJ-1's oncogenic effect remains incompletely understood. A tumor's ability to adapt to hypoxia is absolutely critical for its survival and progression, and this adaptation is largely mediated by the transcription factor HIF1. The stabilization of HIF1 subunits during hypoxia is at least partly dependent on the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. We hypothesized that DJ-1, a positive regulator of Akt when over-expressed, might be involved in regulating HIF1 transcriptional activity under hypoxic conditions. Our results show that loss of DJ-1 in human cell lines and transformed mouse fibroblasts decreases the transcription of a variety of HIF1-responsive genes during hypoxia. Moreover, DJ-1 expression is critical for the Akt and mTOR activities that sustain HIF1 stability. Surprisingly, DJ-1 also regulates the activity of the metabolic sensor AMPK, especially during hypoxia. Finally, DJ-1 appears to protect cells against hypoxia-induced cell death and is required for their adaptation to severe hypoxic stress. Our work positions DJ-1 as an upstream activator of HIF1 function in cancer cells and establishes that DJ-1's oncogenic activity stems from its ability to increase a cell's resistance to hypoxic stress through DJ-1's regulatory effects on mTOR and AMPK. The discovery of these functions of DJ-1 strengthens the case for the development of therapeutics that target DJ-1 activity in cancer cells.
Children's genotypes interact with maternal responsive care in predicting children's competence: Diathesis–stress or differential susceptibility?

Abstract We examined Genotype × Environment (G × E) interactions between children's genotypes (the serotonin transporter linked promoter region [5-HTTLPR] gene) and maternal responsive care observed at 15, 25, 38, and 52 months on three aspects of children's competence at 67 months: academic skills and school engagement, social functioning with peers, and moral internalization that encompassed prosocial moral cognition and the moral self. Academic and social competence outcomes were reported by both parents, and moral internalization was observed in children's narratives elicited by hypothetical stories and in a puppet interview. Analyses revealed robust G × E interactions, such that children's genotype moderated the effects of maternal responsive care on all aspects of children's competence. Among children with a short 5-HTTLPR allele (ss/sl), those whose mothers were more responsive were significantly more competent than those whose mothers were less responsive. Responsiveness had no effect for children with two long alleles (ll). For academic and social competence, the G × E interactions resembled the diathesis–stress model: ss/sl children of unresponsive mothers had particularly unfavorable outcomes, but ss/sl children of responsive mothers had no worse outcomes than ll children. For moral internalization, the G × E interaction reflected the differential susceptibility model: whereas ss/sl children of unresponsive mothers again had particularly unfavorable outcomes, ss/sl children of responsive mothers had significantly better outcomes than ll children.
Release of vasopressin and oxytocin from isolated pituitary glands of adult and new‐born rats

1. Pituitary glands of adult rats of both sexes, of lactating female and of new‐born rats, incubated in a Locke solution, release both oxytocin and vasopressin. The amount of hormones released, during a measured period of incubation, is related to the actual hormone content of the gland.
Personal Best Position Particle Swarm Optimization

In this paper, a new particle swarm optimization method has been proposed. In the proposed approach a novel philosophy of modifying the velocity update equation of Standard Particle Swarm Optimization approach has been used. The modification has been done by vanishing the gbest term in the velocity update equation of SPSO. The performance of the proposed algorithm (Personal Best Position Particle Swarm Optimization, PBPPSO) has been tested on several benchmark problems. It is concluded that the PBPPSO performs better than SPSO in terms of accuracy and quality of solution.
Translation Modeling with Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Networks

This work presents two different translation models using recurrent neural networks. The first one is a word-based approach using word alignments. Second, we present phrase-based translation models that are more consistent with phrasebased decoding. Moreover, we introduce bidirectional recurrent neural models to the problem of machine translation, allowing us to use the full source sentence in our models, which is also of theoretical interest. We demonstrate that our translation models are capable of improving strong baselines already including recurrent neural language models on three tasks: IWSLT 2013 German! English, BOLT Arabic! English and Chinese! English. We obtain gains up to 1.6% BLEU and 1.7% TER by rescoring 1000-best lists.
Parathyroid Imaging: The Importance of Pinhole Collimation with Both Single- and Dual-Tracer Acquisition

Our objective was to rigorously compare pinhole and parallel-hole collimation in an intrapatient, intrastudy design in 2 parathyroid imaging protocols: the first was dual-phase 99mTc-sestamibi imaging, and the second was dual-phase 99mTc-sestamibi plus dual-tracer (99mTc-sestamibi and 123I) simultaneous-acquisition subtraction imaging. Methods: Thirty-three patients with 37 surgically proven nonectopic parathyroid adenomas were evaluated. Anterior pinhole and parallel-hole images of the neck were available for 99mTc-sestamibi at 15 min and 3 h, and for simultaneously acquired 99mTc-sestamibi and 123I subtraction at 15 min, all from a single study. The images were modified so that all had a square border and so that the thyroid filled approximately three quarters of the image. The images were evaluated by 2 experienced nuclear medicine physicians who did not know the surgical results or whether the images were acquired with pinhole or parallel-hole collimation. The observers indicated the location of any identified adenoma and graded the certainty of diagnosis on a 3-point scale. Results: The localization success rate for the 2 observers combined for the single-tracer dual-phase images was 66.2% with pinhole collimation and 43.2% with parallel-hole collimation (P < 0.0001). The localization success rate with the addition of the dual-tracer simultaneous-acquisition subtraction image was 83.8% with pinhole collimation and 62.2% with parallel-hole collimation (P = 0.0018). In addition, the degree of certainty of localization was greater with pinhole collimation with both imaging protocols (P < 0.001 in both cases). Conclusion: In the anterior projection, pinhole collimation is superior to parallel-hole collimation for parathyroid imaging with either dual-phase 99mTc-sestamibi or dual-phase 99mTc-sestamibi plus dual-tracer (99mTc-sestamibi and 123I) simultaneous-acquisition subtraction.
Cancer treatment cost in the United States

There has not been a comprehensive analysis of how aggregate cancer costs have changed over time. The authors present 1) updated estimates of the prevalence and total cost of cancer for select payers and how these have changed over the past 2 decades; and 2) for each payer, the distribution of payments by type of service over time to assess whether there have been shifts in cancer treatment settings.
Central and peripheral fatigue after electrostimulation-induced resistance exercise.

PURPOSE To investigate central and peripheral fatigue induced by a typical session of electromyostimulation (EMS) of the triceps surae muscle. METHODS A series of neuromuscular tests including voluntary and electrically evoked contractions were performed before and immediately after 13 min of EMS (75 Hz) in 10 healthy individuals. RESULTS Maximal voluntary contraction torque of the plantar flexor muscles significantly decreased (-9.4%; P < 0.001) after EMS, and this was accompanied by an impairment of central activation, as attested by twitch interpolation results (P < 0.05), whereas soleus maximal Hoffmann reflex and tibialis anterior coactivation did not change significantly. Contractile properties associated with paired stimuli and maximal M-wave amplitude for both soleus and medial gastrocnemius muscles (-9.4 and -38.7%, respectively) were significantly affected by EMS (P < 0.05), whereas postactivation potentiation did not change. CONCLUSION A single bout of EMS resulted in fatigue attributable to both central and peripheral factors. The most obvious alteration in the function of the central nervous system is a decrease in the quantity of the neural drive to muscle from the supraspinal centers. On the other hand, neuromuscular propagation failure was more evident for the muscle with the higher percentage of Type II fibers.
High Dimensional Structured Superposition Models

High dimensional superposition models characterize observations using parameters which can be written as a sum of multiple component parameters, each with its own structure, e.g., sum of low rank and sparse matrices. In this paper, we consider general superposition models which allow sum of any number of component parameters, and each component structure can be characterized by any norm. We present a simple estimator for such models, give a geometric condition under which the components can be accurately estimated, characterize sample complexity of the estimator, and give non-asymptotic bounds on the componentwise estimation error. We use tools from empirical processes and generic chaining for the statistical analysis, and our results, which substantially generalize prior work on superposition models, are in terms of Gaussian widths of suitable spherical caps.