Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inferior Alveolar Nerve Lateralization and Transposition for Dental Implant Placement. Part II: a Systematic Review of Neurosensory Complications

ABSTRACT Objectives This article, the second in a two-part series, continues the discussion of inferior alveolar nerve lateralization/transposition for dental implant placement. The aim of this article is to review the scientific literature and clinical reports in order to analyse the neurosensory complications, risks and disadvantages of lateralization/transposition of the inferior alveolar nerve followed by implant placement in an edentulous atrophic posterior mandible. Material and Methods A comprehensive review of the current literature was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines by accessing the NCBI PubMed and PMC databases, as well as academic sites and books. The articles were searched from January 1997 to July 2014. Articles in English language, which included adult patients between 18 - 80 years of age who had minimal residual bone above the mandibular canal and had undergone inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) repositioning, with minimum 6 months of follow-up, were included. Results A total of 21 studies were included in this review. Ten were related to IAN transposition, 7 to IAN lateralization and 4 to both transposition and lateralization. The IAN neurosensory disturbance function was present in most patients (99.47% [376/378]) for 1 to 6 months. In total, 0.53% (2/378) of procedures the disturbances were permanent. Conclusions Inferior alveolar nerve repositioning is related to initial transient change in sensation in the majority of cases. The most popular causes of nerve damage are spatula-caused traction in the mucoperiosteal flap, pressure due to severe inflammation or retention of fluid around the nerve and subsequent development of transient ischemia, and mandibular body fracture.
Casein Kinase 1 Alpha Regulates Chromosome Congression and Separation during Mouse Oocyte Meiotic Maturation and Early Embryo Development

Casein kinase I alpha (CK1α) is a member of serine/threonine protein kinase, generally present in all eukaryotes. In mammals, CK1α regulates the transition from interphase to metaphase in mitosis. However, little is known about its role in meiosis. Here we examined Ck1α mRNA and protein expression, as well as its subcellular localization in mouse oocytes from germinal vesicle to the late 1-cell stage. Our results showed that the expression level of CK1α was increased in metaphase. Immunostaining results showed that CK1α colocalized with condensed chromosomes during oocyte meiotic maturation and early embryo development. We used the loss-of-function approach by employing CK1α specific morpholino injection to block the function of CK1α. This functional blocking leads to failure of polar body 1 (PB1) extrusion, chromosome misalignment and MII plate incrassation. We further found that D4476, a specific and efficient CK1 inhibitor, decreased the rate of PB1 extrusion. Moreover, D4476 resulted in giant polar body extrusion, oocyte pro-MI arrest, chromosome congression failure and impairment of embryo developmental potential. In addition, we employed pyrvinium pamoate (PP), an allosteric activator of CK1α, to enhance CK1α activity in oocytes. Supplementation of PP induced oocyte meiotic maturation failure, severe congression abnormalities and misalignment of chromosomes. Taken together, our study for the first time demonstrates that CK1α is required for chromosome alignment and segregation during oocyte meiotic maturation and early embryo development.
On the congruence of modularity and code coupling

Software systems are modularized to make their inherent complexity manageable. While there exists a set of well-known principles that may guide software engineers to design the modules of a software system, we do not know which principles are followed in practice. In a study based on 16 open source projects, we look at different kinds of coupling concepts between source code entities, including structural dependencies, fan-out similarity, evolutionary coupling, code ownership, code clones, and semantic similarity. The congruence between these coupling concepts and the modularization of the system hints at the modularity principles used in practice. Furthermore, the results provide insights on how to support developers to modularize software systems.
Combating Sybil attacks in cooperative systems

Cooperative systems are ubiquitous nowadays. In a cooperative system, end users contribute resource to run the service instead of only receiving the service passively from the system. For example, users upload and comment pictures and videos on Flicker and YouTube, users submit and vote on news articles on Digg. As another example, users in BitTorrent contribute bandwidth and storage to help each other download content. As long as users behave as expected, these systems benefit immensely from user contribution. In fact, five out of ten most popular websites are operating in this cooperative fashion (Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter, Wikipedia). BitTorrent is dominating the global Internet traffic. A robust cooperative system cannot blindly trust that its users will truthfully participate in the system. Malicious users seek to exploit the systems for profit. Selfish users consume but avoid to contribute resource. For example, adversaries have manipulated the voting system of Digg to promote their articles of dubious quality. Selfish users in public BitTorrent communities leave the system to avoid uploading files to others, resulting in drastic performance degradation for these content distribution systems. The ultimate way to disrupt security and incentive mechanisms of cooperative systems is using Sybil attacks, in which the adversary creates many Sybil identities (fake identities) and use them to disrupt the systems' normal operation. No security and incentive mechanism works correctly if the systems do not have a robust identity management that can defend against Sybil attacks. This thesis provides robust identity management schemes which are resilient to the Sybil attack, and use them to secure and incentivize user contribution in several example cooperative systems. The main theme of this work is to leverage the social network among users in designing secure and incentive-compatible cooperative systems. First, we develop a distributed admission control protocol, called Gatekeeper, that leverages social network to admit most honest user identities and only few Sybil identities into the systems. Gatekeeper can be used as a robust identity management for both centralized and decentralized cooperative systems. Second, we provide a vote aggregation system for content voting systems, called Sumup, that can prevent an adversary from casting many bogus votes for a piece of content using the Sybil attack. Sumup leverages unique properties of content voting systems to provide significantly better Sybil defense compared with applying a general admission control protocol such as Gatekeeper. Finally, we provide a robust reputation system, called Credo, that can be used to incentivize bandwidth contribution in peer-to-peer content distribution networks. Credo reputation can capture user contribution, and is resilient to both Sybil and collusion attacks.
Hong Kong Liver Cancer Staging System Is Associated With Better Performance for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

AbstractHong Kong Liver Cancer (HKLC) staging system was developed for prognostic and treatment evaluation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but is not externally validated. We aimed to evaluate and compare HKLC system with Barcelona Clínic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system. The prognostic performance, discriminatory ability, and efficacy of treatment recommendations were compared between the BCLC and HKLC systems. Significant differences in survival were found across all stages of BCLC and across stages I to IV of HKLC systems (P < 0.01). HKLC system was associated with higher homogeneity in prognostic accuracy. The survival was similar between patients treated according to the HKLC or BCLC system (P = 0.07). However, more patients were treated according to HKLC recommendations than to BCLC recommendations (57% vs. 47%, P < 0.001). In a hypothetical cohort created by random sampling, patients treated according to the HKLC scheme had better survival compared with patients treated according to the BCLC system (P < 0.001). Subgroup analyses between hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC were performed. More HCV-related HCC were at earlier BCLC or HKLC stages (both P < 0.001). The HKLC system was more informative with greater homogeneity in predicting survival in both HBV and HCV cohorts. However, HKLC treatment recommendations were associated with better long-term survival only in HBV-related HCC but not in HCV-related HCC (P < 0.001 and P = 0.79, respectively). In conclusion, we provided external validation of the HKLC system. Compared with the BCLC system, the HKLC system has better prognostic accuracy and therapeutic efficacy in the entire cohort and in HBV-related HCC but not in HCV-related HCC. Due to high heterogeneity among patients of various etiologies, staging and treatment strategies tailored to specific HCC etiology are required.
Using a land surface model to simulate Net Primary Productivity in China comparing with the process model derived by remote sensing

In this study, we analyze Net Primary Productivity from 51-year (1950–2000) offline simulations using an Australian land-surface model CABLE (CSIRO Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange). The model annual NPP climatology with the estimated 2001 annual NPP from what was derived from a process model driven by remote sensing in deriving China NPP at 1-km resolution. The CABLE results are highly comparable with those, with annual NPP decreasing from southeast to northwest. Southern China has high annual NPP of more than 1,200 gC m? 2 year? 1, while the Tibetan Plateau, north and northwest regions show very low annual NPP. CABLE is also skillful in reproducing NPP interannual variability in northeast China, with similar year-to-year fluctuations for the period of 1982 to 2000. But the model shows a different trend compared with the satellite-based approach. Further analysis shows that using a prefixed CO2 concentration in the model experiment appears to be the chief reason for it failing to simulate an upward NPP trend.
Association analysis of genetic polymorphisms of factor V, factor VII and fibrinogen β chain genes with human abdominal aortic aneurysm

Increased activity of the coagulation system is associated with the increased risk of many arterial thrombotic diseases and atherosclerosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of selected polymorphisms in genes coding for coagulation factor V (1691 G/A, the so-called Leiden mutation), factor VII (−323 0/10 bp insertion/deletion) and fibrinogen β chain (−455 G/A) on the risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a particular form of atherothrombosis. We conducted a case-control study of 153 Polish patients hospitalized due to abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and compared the results to those obtained from matched healthy control subjects. The polymorphisms were ascertained through genotyping by polymerase chain reaction and restriction digestion of amplified fragments. The study revealed that individuals carrying heterozygous genotype GA for the fibrinogen β chain −455 G/A mutation had at least a 2-fold greater likelihood of AAA development compared to control subjects (OR=3.01; 95% CI 1.83–4.96). The cases possessing homozygous mutant genotype (AA) had no significant risk of developing AAA compared to the control subjects (OR=1.12; 95% CI 0.33–2.44; p=0.83). Concerning factor V 1691 G/A and factor VII −323 0/10 bp mutations, we did not find any statistically significant correlation between them and AAA occurrence. In conclusion, we suggest that the −455G/A polymorphism of the fibrinogen β chain gene is a potential genetic marker to identify the risk of AAA.
Long-Range Correlation in Synchronization and Syncopation Tapping: A Linear Phase Correction Model

We propose in this paper a model for accounting for the increase in long-range correlations observed in asynchrony series in syncopation tapping, as compared with synchronization tapping. Our model is an extension of the linear phase correction model for synchronization tapping. We suppose that the timekeeper represents a fractal source in the system, and that a process of estimation of the half-period of the metronome, obeying a random-walk dynamics, combines with the linear phase correction process. Comparing experimental and simulated series, we show that our model allows accounting for the experimentally observed pattern of serial dependence. This model complete previous modeling solutions proposed for self-paced and synchronization tapping, for a unifying framework of event-based timing.
Changes in Vitamin E and Essential Fatty Acid Contents and Their Interrelationship in Soybean ( Glycine max L . Merr . ) Seeds During Germination and Storage

Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) is considered an important crop in the world owing to its unique nutritional composition. On an average dry matter basis, soybean contains about 20% fat. Soy fat contains a high proportion of vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) and essential fatty acids such as linoleic and linolenic acids. In this study, vitamin E and linoleic and linolenic acid contents of soybean seeds were estimated with different germination times (24, 48 and 72 hrs) and storage with different packaging materials (aluminum foil, polythene, paper and unpacked) for a period of six months. The highest vitamin E content (12.63 μg/g) was observed in the sample germinated after 48 hrs. The highest amounts of linoleic acid (107.57 mg/g) and linolenic acid (18.27 mg/g) were observed in the ungerminated sample and sample germinated after 72 hrs, respectively. A significant positive correlation (r=0.81) between vitamin E and linolenic acid was observed in the germinated seeds. Vitamin E content of soybean seeds decreased with time under all four packaging conditions. Linoleic acid content of the seeds stored in aluminum foil and polythene packets increased with time. However linoleic acid content of the seeds stored in paper bags and unpacked seeds decreased significantly with increasing storage time. Linolenic acid content of soybean seeds also decreased with time under all four packaging conditions. A significant positive correlation (r=0.91) between vitamin E and linolenic acid contents and between vitamin E and vitamin E / essential fatty acid ratio (r=0.98) was observed during storage. The rate of loss of vitamin E, linoleic and linolenic acid was comparatively low in seeds packed in aluminum foil and polythene than other packaging types. INTRODUCTION Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) is considered an important world crop owing to its unique nutritional composition. On an average dry matter basis, soybean contains about 40% protein and 20% fat. Soy fat contains a high proportion of vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) and essential fatty acids such as linoleic and linolenic acids. The amounts of alpha, gamma and delta tocopherol in soybean seed are 10.9 28.4, 150 191 and 24.6 72.5 μg/g, respectively. Tocopherols are natural antioxidants with heart/vascular, and cancer protective properties (Liu, 2000). Essential fatty acids are necessary for the biosynthesis of compounds 1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. 2 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Local Scale Control for Edge Detection and Blur Estimation

We show that knowledge of sensor properties and operator norms can be exploited to define a unique, locally computable minimum reliable scale for local estimation at each point in the image. This method for local scale control is applied to the problem of detecting and localizing edges in images with shallow depth of field and shadows. We show that edges spanning a broad range of blur scales and contrasts can be recovered accurately by a single system with no input parameters other than the second moment of the sensor noise. A natural dividend of this approach is a measure of the thickness of contours which can be used to estimate focal and penumbral blur. Local scale control is shown to be important for the estimation of blur in complex images, where the potential for interference between nearby edges of very different blur scale requires that estimates be made at the minimum reliable scale.
Regulation of NMDA receptors by cyclin-dependent kinase-5

Members of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) class of glutamate receptors (NMDARs) are critical for development, synaptic transmission, learning and memory; they are targets of pathological disorders in the central nervous system. NMDARs are phosphorylated by both serine/threonine and tyrosine kinases. Here, we demonstrate that cyclin dependent kinase-5 (Cdk5) associates with and phosphorylates NR2A subunits at Ser-1232 in vitro and in intact cells. Moreover, we show that roscovitine, a selective Cdk5 inhibitor, blocks both long-term potentiation induction and NMDA-evoked currents in rat CA1 hippocampal neurons. These results suggest that Cdk5 plays a key role in synaptic transmission and plasticity through its up-regulation of NMDARs.
The Effect of Environmental Conditions on Biofilm Formation of Burkholderia pseudomallei Clinical Isolates

Burkholderia pseudomallei, a Gram-negative saprophytic bacterium, is the causative agent of the potentially fatal melioidosis disease in humans. In this study, environmental parameters including temperature, nutrient content, pH and the presence of glucose were shown to play a role in in vitro biofilm formation by 28 B. pseudomallei clinical isolates, including four isolates with large colony variants (LCVs) and small colony variants (SCVs) morphotypes. Enhanced biofilm formation was observed when the isolates were tested in LB medium, at 30°C, at pH 7.2, and in the presence of as little as 2 mM glucose respectively. It was also shown that all SVCs displayed significantly greater capacity to form biofilms than the corresponding LCVs when cultured in LB at 37°C. In addition, octanoyl-homoserine lactone (C8-HSL), a quorum sensing molecule, was identified by mass spectrometry analysis in bacterial isolates referred to as LCV CTH, LCV VIT, SCV TOM, SCV CTH, 1 and 3, and the presence of other AHL's with higher masses; decanoyl-homoserine lactone (C10-HSL) and dodecanoyl-homoserine lactone (C12-HSL) were also found in all tested strain in this study. Last but not least, we had successfully acquired two Bacillus sp. soil isolates, termed KW and SA respectively, which possessed strong AHLs degradation activity. Biofilm formation of B. pseudomallei isolates was significantly decreased after treated with culture supernatants of KW and SA strains, demonstrating that AHLs may play a role in B. pseudomallei biofilm formation.
Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Mechanisms for Oncogenic Overexpression of Ether À Go-Go K+ Channel

The human ether-à-go-go-1 (h-eag1) K+ channel is expressed in a variety of cell lines derived from human malignant tumors and in clinical samples of several different cancers, but is otherwise absent in normal tissues. It was found to be necessary for cell cycle progression and tumorigenesis. Specific inhibition of h-eag1 expression leads to inhibition of tumor cell proliferation. We report here that h-eag1 expression is controlled by the p53−miR-34−E2F1 pathway through a negative feed-forward mechanism. We first established E2F1 as a transactivator of h-eag1 gene through characterizing its promoter region. We then revealed that miR-34, a known transcriptional target of p53, is an important negative regulator of h-eag1 through dual mechanisms by directly repressing h-eag1 at the post-transcriptional level and indirectly silencing h-eag1 at the transcriptional level via repressing E2F1. There is a strong inverse relationship between the expression levels of miR-34 and h-eag1 protein. H-eag1antisense antagonized the growth-stimulating effects and the upregulation of h-eag1 expression in SHSY5Y cells, induced by knockdown of miR-34, E2F1 overexpression, or inhibition of p53 activity. Therefore, p53 negatively regulates h-eag1 expression by a negative feed-forward mechanism through the p53−miR-34−E2F1 pathway. Inactivation of p53 activity, as is the case in many cancers, can thus cause oncogenic overexpression of h-eag1 by relieving the negative feed-forward regulation. These findings not only help us understand the molecular mechanisms for oncogenic overexpression of h-eag1 in tumorigenesis but also uncover the cell-cycle regulation through the p53−miR-34−E2F1−h-eag1 pathway. Moreover, these findings place h-eag1 in the p53−miR-34−E2F1−h-eag1 pathway with h-eag as a terminal effecter component and with miR-34 (and E2F1) as a linker between p53 and h-eag1. Our study therefore fills the gap between p53 pathway and its cellular function mediated by h-eag1.
Ontology-based multi-layered robot knowledge framework (OMRKF) for robot intelligence

An ontology-based multi-layered robot knowledge framework (OMRKF) is proposed to implement robot intelligence to be useful in a robot environment. OMRKF consists of four classes of knowledge (KClass), axioms and two types of rules. Four KClasses including perception, model, activity and context class are organized in a hierarchy of three knowledge levels (KLevel) and three ontology layers (OLayer). The axioms specify the semantics of concepts and relational constraints between ontological elements in each OLayer. One type of rule is designed for relationships between concepts in the same KClasses but in different KLevels. These rules will be used in a way of unidirectional reasoning. And, the other types of rules are also designed for association between concepts in different KLevels and different KClasses to be used in a way of bi-directional reasoning. These features will let OMRKF enable a robot to integrate robot knowledge from levels of sensor data and primitive behaviors to levels of symbolic data and contextual information regardless of class of knowledge. To show the validities of our proposed OMRKF, several experimental results will be illustrated, where some queries can be possibly answered by using uni-directional rules as well as bi-directional rules even with partial and uncertain information.
High-Temperature-Induced Transposition of Insertion Elements in Burkholderia multivorans ATCC 17616

ABSTRACT An efficient and quantitative method to analyze the transposition of various insertion sequence (IS) elements in Burkholderia multivorans ATCC 17616 was devised. pGEN500, a plasmid carrying a Bacillus subtilis-derived sacB gene, was introduced into ATCC 17616 cells, and 25% of their sucrose-resistant derivatives were found to carry various IS elements on pGEN500. A PCR-based experimental protocol, in which a mixture of several specific primer pairs was used, revealed that pGEN500 captured, in addition to five previously reported IS elements (IS401, IS402, IS406, IS407, and IS408), three novel IS elements, ISBmu1, ISBmu2, and ISBmu3. The global transposition frequency of these IS elements was enhanced more than sevenfold under a high-temperature condition (42°C) but not under oxidative stress or starvation conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the elevated transposition activities of several IS elements at a high temperature. The efficient experimental protocol developed in this study will be useful in quantitatively and simultaneously investigating various IS elements, as well as in capturing novel functional mobile elements from a wide variety of bacteria.