Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Degenerative bone changes in TMJ assessed by cone beam computed tomography

Objective To assess the degenerative bone changes of the jaw head and the condylar mobility regarding gender and age. Methods The sample was composed of 106 CBCT images for TMJ region from patients over 18 years old, from both genders, from the archives of a radiological clinic in the city of Campina Grande, Paraiba, Brazil. The images were obtained from patients in maximum intercuspal and maximum mouth opening. The images were examined by a radiologist, through the software Xoran CAT(r), using a monitor with high resolution of and maximum color quality (12 bits) in a low light environment. It was assessed tomographic aspects of bone degenerative changes (flattening, erosion, osteophytes, bone sclerosis and pseudocyst) of both TMJ of each patient. The association among the degenerative changes of the jaw head, gender and age were investigated through Fisher's exact test, G-test and chi-squared test. The data obtained regarding condylar mobility (normo, hyper and hypoexcursion), location (right unilateral, left unilateral and bilateral) were also submitted to descriptive analysis in terms of absolute and relative frequency. Results The most frequent bone alteration was flattening (58.5%), followed by osteophytes (44.3%), erosion (22.6%), sclerosis (13.2%) and pseudocyst (10.4%). Regarding condylar mobility it was observed that normoexcursion (71.7%) was more prevalent. Conclusion The degenerative bone changes occurred more frequently among women and in bilateral location and there was an increasing of alterations according the age. It was not found correlation among condylar mobility and the presence of degenerative bone alterations of the TMJ.
Assessing plant uptake and transport mechanisms of engineered nanomaterials from soil

Agricultural soils are among the depositories of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). Soil exposure to ENMs occurs through the intentional use of nano-agrochemicals, as well as through incidental contamination from industrial-waste release, irrigation with wastewater or gray water, amendment with ENMs-loaded sludge (soil conditioning to stimulate plant growth), or atmospheric fallouts. Concerns about ENM interactions with plants raise two questions. (1) Are ENMs taken up from soil by plants? (2) If they are taken up, do they remain in the nanoform within plant tissues? Experiments with crop plants have demonstrated that some ENMs such as TiO_2 are taken up by roots and translocated to aboveground tissues, including fruits, without biotransformation. CeO_2 ENM is also taken up by the roots; however, although most of it remains as ENM, it releases cerium ions that are incorporated into organic compounds. CeO_2 ENM has been shown to be translocated from roots to seeds in soybean grown in soil amended with such ENM. On the other hand, ZnO ENM is transformed at the soil/root interface, leading to tissue Zn enrichment. Overall, most ENMs are taken up by plants with either low or no transformation, and accumulate in tissues.
High glucose-induced tyrosine nitration in endothelial cells: role of eNOS uncoupling and aldose reductase activation.

PURPOSE Analyses in diabetic rats have shown that breakdown of the blood-retina barrier is associated with increased formation of peroxynitrite, nitric oxide, and lipid peroxidation. The permeability increase is blocked by treatments that also prevent the increases in reactive oxygen species, suggesting their causal role in vascular dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to determine the specific effects of high glucose and high osmolarity on the formation of nitrotyrosine, nitric oxide, and superoxide anion in retinal vascular endothelial cells and to evaluate the metabolic pathways involved. METHODS Cultured retinal endothelial cells were maintained for 5 days in media with different concentrations of glucose or osmotic control reagents and tested for effects on protein tyrosine nitration and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) expression, using immunoblot techniques. NOS activity was determined by assays for nitrite formation and conversion of arginine to citrulline. Superoxide anion formation was assayed by hydroethidine staining. RESULTS Increased concentrations of glucose or 3-methyL-o-glucose stimulated formation of nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide induced protein nitration on tyrosine and increased expression and activity of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). The effects of glucose were more potent: Inhibiting NOS or aldose reductase (AR), scavenging superoxide or peroxynitrite, or supplementing the NOS substrate L-arginine or cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin blocked the formation of reactive oxygen species and prevented protein tyrosine nitration. CONCLUSIONS Increases in glucose levels and osmotic stress similar to those in diabetic patients increase the formation of nitrotyrosine in retinal endothelial cells because of their actions increasing NOS activity and causing superoxide formation due to eNOS uncoupling and AR activation.
Unsupervised Learning of Probabilistic Grammar-Markov Models for Object Categories

We introduce a probabilistic grammar-Markov model (PGMM) which couples probabilistic context free grammars and Markov random fields. These PGMMs are generative models defined over attributed features and are used to detect and classify objects in natural images. PGMMs are designed so that they can perform rapid inference, parameter learning, and the more difficult task of structure induction. PGMMs can deal with unknown 2D pose (position, orientation, and scale) in both inference and learning, different appearances, or aspects, of the model. The PGMMs can be learnt in an unsupervised manner where the image can contain one of an unknown number of objects of different categories or even be pure background. We first study the weakly supervised case, where each image contains an example of the (single) object of interest, and then generalize to less supervised cases. The goal of this paper is theoretical but, to provide proof of concept, we demonstrate results from this approach on a subset of the Caltech dataset (learning on a training set and evaluating on a testing set). Our results are generally comparable with the current state of the art, and our inference is performed in less than five seconds.
Neuroecology, Chemical Defense, and the Keystone Species Concept

Neuroecology unifies principles from diverse disciplines, scaling from biophysical properties of nerve and muscle cells to community-wide impacts of trophic interactions. Here, these principles are used as a common fabric, woven from threads of chemosensory physiology, behavior, and population and community ecology. The “keystone species” concept, for example, is seminal in ecological theory. It defines a species whose impacts on communities are far greater than would be predicted from its relative abundance and biomass. Similarly, neurotoxins could function in keystone roles. They are rare within natural habitats but exert strong effects on species interactions at multiple trophic levels. Effects of two guanidine alkaloids, tetrodotoxin (TTX) and saxitoxin (STX), coalesce neurobiological and ecological perspectives. These molecules compose some of the most potent natural poisons ever described, and they are introduced into communities by one, or only a few, host species. Functioning as voltage-gated sodium channel blockers for nerve and muscle cells, TTX and STX serve in chemical defense. When borrowed by resistant consumer species, however, they are used either in chemical defense against higher order predators or for chemical communication as chemosensory excitants. Cascading effects of the compounds profoundly impact community-wide attributes, including species compositions and rates of material exchange. Thus, a diverse array of physiological traits, expressed differentially across many species, renders TTX and STX fully functional as keystone molecules, with vast ecological consequences at multiple trophic levels.
Perioperatives hämodynamisches Monitoring – ein Überlebensvorteil für anästhesiologisch betreute Patienten?

Both, obligatory non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring and adjunctive hemodynamic monitoring need to be considered perioperatively. Patient as well as surgical requirements may contribute to the decision making process. Effectiveness and quality of the perioperative patient monitoring solely depends on the knowledge and awareness of the anesthesist with regard to the potentials and limitations of the applied monitoring.
Alterations in platelet function during the ovarian cycle

Steroid hormones may profoundly influence hemostasis; for example, as discussed for hormone replacement therapy, pregnancy and, being less obvious, for the ovarian cycle. We investigated primary hemostasis parameters using a platelet function analyzer (PFA-100TM) during the follicular and luteal phases in 18 healthy young women without oral contraceptives. During the follicular phase, the mean closure time (CT) was 164.7 ± 56.7 s, and it decreased to 130.2 ± 30.6 s in collagen/epinephrine cartridges in the luteal phase (P = 0.0095). No significant difference could be found for CT values in collagen/adenosine diphosphate cartridges during the follicular phase as compared with the luteal phase (97.2 ± 24.2 s versus 89.6 ± 18.4 s, P = 0.174). Negative correlations between the CT values in collagen/epinephrine cartridges and von Willebrand factor from both phases of the cycle were found (follicular phase:r = −0.53; luteal phase:r = −0.54). Fibrinogen and fibrinogen degradation products were significantly increased in the luteal phase (2.49 ± 0.62 g/l versus 2.05 ± 0.59 g/l and 0.12 ± 014 versus 0.04 ± 0.04, P = 0.02 for both parameters) as compared with the follicular phase. No significant differences could be detected for plasminogen, plasmin–antiplasmin complex, prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 and D-dimer between the groups. This study indicates that platelet function is periodically altered during the ovarian cycle due to the influence of progesterone and estrogen on von Willebrand factor concentrations.
Distributed and Fair Beaconing Rate Adaptation for Congestion Control in Vehicular Networks

Cooperative inter-vehicular applications rely on the exchange of broadcast single-hop status messages among vehicles, called beacons. The aggregated load on the wireless channel due to periodic beacons can prevent the transmission of other types of messages, what is called channel congestion due to beaconing activity. In this paper, we approach the problem of controlling the beaconing rate on each vehicle by modeling it as a Network Utility Maximization (NUM) problem. This allows us to formally apply the notion of fairness of a beaconing rate allocation in vehicular networks and to control the trade-off between efficiency and fairness. The NUM methodology provides a rigorous framework to design a broad family of simple and decentralized algorithms, with proved convergence guarantees to a fair allocation solution. In this context, we focus exclusively in beaconing rate control and propose the Fair Adaptive Beaconing Rate for Intervehicular Communications (FABRIC) algorithm, which uses a particular scaled gradient projection algorithm to solve the dual of the NUM problem. The desired fairness notion in the allocation can be established with an algorithm parameter. Simulation results validate our approach and show that FABRIC converges to fair rate allocations in multi-hop and dynamic scenarios.
High levels of cervical HIV-1 RNA during early HIV-1 infection

Few data are available on genital tract viral replication early after HIV-1 acquisition, when infectivity is high. We compared cervical HIV-1 RNA from 60 women with paired samples from within 90 days after HIV-1 acquisition and at viral setpoint (4–24 months). Cervical HIV-1 was higher in early compared with setpoint samples (mean 3.43 versus 2.85 log10 copies/swab, P < 0.001). After adjusting for HIV-1-plasma RNA, cervical HIV-1 RNA from 30 days or less after infection was increased by 0.45 log10 copies/swab (P = 0.006).
FD-Buffer: A Cost-Based Adaptive Buffer Replacement Algorithm for FlashMemory Devices

In this paper, we present a design and implementation of FD-Buffer, a cost-based adaptive buffer manager for flash memory devices. Due to flash memory's unique hardware features, it has an inherent read-write asymmetry: writes involve expensive erase operations, which usually makes them much slower than reads. To address this read-write asymmetry, we revisit buffer management and consider the average I/O cost per page access as the main cost metric, as opposed to the traditional miss rate. While there have been a number of buffer management algorithms that take the read-write asymmetry into consideration, most algorithms fail to effectively adapt to the runtime workload or different degrees of asymmetry. In this paper, we develop a new replacement algorithm in which we separate clean and dirty pages into two pools. The size ratio of the two pools is automatically adapted based on the read-write asymmetry and the runtime workload. We evaluate the FD-Buffer with trace-driven experiments on real flash memory devices. Our trace-driven evaluation results show that our algorithm achieves 4.0-33.4 percent improvement of I/O performance on flash memory, compared to state-of-the-art flash-aware replacement policies.
Spatial capture–mark–resight estimation of animal population density

Sightings of previously marked animals can extend a capture–recapture dataset without the added cost of capturing new animals for marking. Combined marking and resighting methods are therefore an attractive option in animal population studies, and there exist various likelihood‐based non‐spatial models, and some spatial versions fitted by Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. As implemented to date, the focus has been on modeling sightings only, which requires that the spatial distribution of pre‐marked animals is known. We develop a suite of likelihood‐based spatial mark–resight models that either include the marking phase (“capture–mark–resight” models) or require a known distribution of marked animals (narrow‐sense “mark–resight”). The new models sacrifice some information in the covariance structure of the counts of unmarked animals; estimation is by maximizing a pseudolikelihood with a simulation‐based adjustment for overdispersion in the sightings of unmarked animals. Simulations suggest that the resulting estimates of population density have low bias and adequate confidence interval coverage under typical sampling conditions. Further work is needed to specify the conditions under which ignoring covariance results in unacceptable loss of precision, or to modify the pseudolikelihood to include that information. The methods are applied to a study of ship rats Rattus rattus using live traps and video cameras in a New Zealand forest, and to previously published data.
The mechanism of secretion of the milk fat globule.

The morphology of secretion of the fat globule is identical in goat, guinea-pig and cow. The smallest fat droplets, which are found in the basal cytoplasm of the secretory cell, have no membrane separating the lipid from the cytoplasm and no direct association with rough endoplasmic reticulum. In the apex of the cell, fat droplets have numerous peripheral vesicles, most of which appear to be derived from the Golgi body. The progressive fusion of these vesicles results in the extrusion of the fat droplet surrounded by a unit membrane originating partly from the originally peripheral vesicles and partly from the plasmalemma. This membrane bears on its inner surface a zone of dense material which appears to be derived from the cytoplasm, and this is also seen around fat globules in secreted milk. Thus the term apocrine secretion is considered a valid description of the process.
Habitat specialization and phylogenetic structure of tree species in a coastal Brazilian white-sand forest

Aims The coastal Brazilian rainforest on white-sand (restinga) ranks among the most fragmented forest types in the tropics, owing to both the patchy distribution of sandy soils and widespread coastal development activities. Here we study the environmental and evolutionary determinants of a forest tree assemblage at a single restinga forest in Southeastern Brazil. We also explore the ability of competing hypotheses to explain the maintenance of species diversity in this forest type, which includes contrasting extremes of edaphic conditions associated with flooding stress. Methods The study was conducted in a white-sand forest permanent plot of 10.24 ha on the coastal plain of Southeastern Brazil. This plot was divided into 256 quadrats of 20 × 20 m, whic h were classified into two main edaphic habitats (flooded and drained). Trees with a diameter ≥1 cm at breast height were identified. W e assembled DNA sequence data for each of the 116 morphospecies recognized using two chloroplast markers (rbcL and matK). A phylogenetic tree was obtained using the maximum likelihood method, and a phylogenetic distance matrix was produced from an ultrametric tree. We analyzed similarity in floristic composition and structure between habitats and related them to cross-plot distances using permutation procedures. Null model torus shift simulations were performed to obtain a statistical significance level for habitat association for each species. The phylogenetic structure for the two habitats and for each 20 × 20 m quadrat w as calculated using the mean phylogenetic distance weighted by species abundance and checked for significance using the standardized effect size generated by 5000 randomizations of phylogenetic tip labels.
Automatic nuclei and cytoplasm segmentation of leukocytes with color and texture-based image enhancement

Designing a single automatic and accurate segmentation approach for different classes of white blood cells is a challenging task. This paper presents a fully automated segmentation framework to segment both nuclei and cytoplasm of five major classes of white blood cells in the peripheral blood smears based on color and texture enhancement. Particularly, a new gray-scale transform is generated based on three representative color channels to separate the nuclei from the cytoplasm and background by Poisson distribution based minimum error thresholding. For cytoplasm segmentation, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and morphological filtering based enhancement procedure is utilized to highlight the cytoplasm and eliminate the small details inside the cells. Finally level set-based refinement and false candidates filtering are applied to obtain the accurate cell segmentation. The proposed approach is evaluated on two sets of peripheral blood smears, and it demonstrates improved segmentation performance when compared with existing methods.
Experimental Investigation of External Confinement of Reinforced Concrete Columns by Hollow Structural Section Collars

Methods are available for strengthening circular reinforced concrete columns that confine the concrete using primarily membrane action. Since these methods are not as effective for square and rectangular columns, a relatively simple noninvasive scheme is proposed that confines the concrete with a combination of significant flexural and axial stiffness. An experimental investigation of the behavior of square concrete columns strengthened by steel hollow structural section (HSS) collars has been carried out. This initial phase of the research considered only axial loading and consisted of a total of 11 full-scale column tests. Two control columns with conventional internal tie reinforcement and nine columns with external confinement by HSS collars were tested. The effects of collar stiffness, spacing, type of corner connection (bolted or welded), and active confining pressure on the confined material curve have been studied. The results indicate that the provision of HSS collars results in considerable enhancement in strength as well as ductility.
Constraint in the failure assessment diagram approach for fracture assessment

This paper presents a framework for including constraint effects in the failure assessment diagram approach for fracture assessment. As parameters for describing constraint are still the subject of development, the framework is illustrated using both the elastic T-stress and the hydrostatic Q-stress. It is shown that constraint effects can be treated by modifying the shape of the failure assessment curves. In their simplest form, the modifications involve only two parameters: one quantifying the magnitude of structural constraint which depends on geometry and crack size; and the second quantifying the influence of constraint on fracture toughness.
Intestinal Damage Determines the Inflammatory Response and Early Complications in Patients Receiving Conditioning for a Stem Cell Transplantation

Background Stem cell transplantation (SCT) is still complicated by the occurrence of fever and inflammatory complications attributed to neutropenia and subsequent infectious complications. The role of mucosal barrier injury (MBI) of the intestinal tract therein has received little attention. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis in 163 SCT recipients of which data had been collected prospectively on intestinal damage (citrulline), inflammation (C-reactive protein), and neutrophil count. Six different conditioning regimens were studied; 5 myeloablative (MA) and 1 non-myeloablative (NMA). Linear mixed model multivariate and AUC analyses were used to define the role of intestinal damage in post-SCT inflammation. We also studied the relationship between the degree of intestinal damage and the occurrence of early post-SCT complications. Results In the 5 MA regimen there was a striking pattern of inflammatory response that coincided with the occurrence of severe intestinal damage. This contrasted with a modest inflammatory response seen in the NMA regimen in which intestinal damage was limited. With linear mixed model analysis the degree of intestinal damage was shown the most important determinant of the inflammatory response, and both neutropenia and bacteremia had only a minor impact. AUC analysis revealed a strong correlation between citrulline and CRP (Pearson correlation r = 0.96). Intestinal damage was associated with the occurrence of bacteremia and acute lung injury, and influenced the kinetics of acute graft-versus-host disease. Conclusion The degree of intestinal damage after myeloablative conditioning appeared to be the most important determined the inflammatory response following SCT, and was associated with inflammatory complications. Studies should explore ways to ameliorate cytotoxic therapy-induced intestinal damage in order to reduce complications associated with myeloablative conditioning therapy.