Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
980 nm diode lasers in oral and facial practice: current state of the science and art

Aim: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a 980nm diode laser for the treatment of benign facial pigmented and vascular lesions, and in oral surgery. Materials and Methods: 20 patients were treated with a 980 nm diode laser. Oral surgery: 5 patients (5 upper and lower frenulectomy). Fluence levels were 5-15 J/cm2; pulse lengths were 20-60 ms; spot size was 1 mm. Vascular lesions: 10 patients (5 small angiomas, 5 telangiectases). Fluences were 6-10 J/cm2; pulse lengths were 10-50 ms; spot size was 2 mm. In all cases the areas surrounding the lesions were cooled. Pigmented lesions: 5 patients (5 keratoses). All the lesions were evaluated by dermatoscopy before the treatment. Fluence levels were 7-15 J/cm2; pulse lengths were 20-50 ms; spot size was 1 mm. All the patients were followed at 1, 4 and 8 weeks after the procedure. Results: Healing in oral surgery was within 10 days. The melanoses healed completely within four weeks. All the vascular lesions healed after 15 days without any residual scarring. Conclusions: The end results for the use of the 980 nm diode laser in oral and facial surgery appears to be justified on the grounds of efficacy and safety of the device, and good degree of acceptance by the patients, without compromising their health and function.
The liquid biopsy in lung cancer

The incidence of lung cancer has significantly increased over the last century, largely due to smoking, and remains the most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. This is often due to lung cancer first presenting at late stages and a lack of curative therapeutic options at these later stages. Delayed diagnoses, inadequate tumor sampling, and lung cancer misdiagnoses are also not uncommon due to the limitations of the tissue biopsy. Our better understanding of the tumor microenvironment and the systemic actions of tumors, combined with the recent advent of the liquid biopsy, may allow molecular diagnostics to be done on circulating tumor markers, particularly circulating tumor DNA. Multiple liquid biopsy molecular methods are presently being examined to determine their efficacy as surrogates to the tumor tissue biopsy. This review will focus on new liquid biopsy technologies and how they may assist in lung cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment.
Contagion : an Empirical Study of the Spread of News on Digg and Twitter Social Networks

Social networks have emerged as a critical factor in information dissemination, search, marketing, expertise and in fluence discovery, and potentially an important tool for mobil izing people. Social media has made social networks ubiquitous, and also given researchers access to massive quantiti es of data for empirical analysis. These data sets offer a rich source of evidence for studying dynamics of individual and group behavior, the structure of networks and global patter ns of the flow of information on them. However, in most previous studies, the structure of the underlying networks was not directly visible but had to be inferred from the flow of information from one individual to another. As a result, we do not yet understand dynamics of information spread on networks or how the structure of the network affects it. We address this gap by analyzing data from two popular social news sites. Specifically, we extract social networks of active us rs on Digg and Twitter, and track how interest in news stories spreads among them. We show that social networks play a crucial role in the spread of information on these sites, and that network structure affects dynamics of information flow .
A Human Model of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition to Monitor Drug Efficacy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) of malignant hepatocytes is a crucial event in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression and recurrence. We aimed to establish a human model of EMT to examine drug efficacy and specificity in HCC progression. Human HCC cell populations were characterized by immunofluorescence analysis, migration and invasion assays, array comparative genomic hybridization, whole-genome expression profiling, and promoter methylation. Therapeutic agents clinically used against HCC were examined for efficacy by determination of IC50 values. We show that liver cancer cell lines exhibited either an epithelial or mesenchymal phenotype of which the latter showed strong migratory and invasive abilities in vitro. The common cellular origin of both cell types indicated that mesenchymal HCC cells have been derived from epithelial hepatocytes through EMT in the HCC patient. Drug exposure of mesenchymal HCC cells showed higher resistance to the targeted therapeutic agents sorafenib and erlotinib as compared to epithelial HCC cells, which were slightly more resistant to cytostatic drugs. Most remarkably, combined treatment with doxorubicin and sorafenib caused increased susceptibility of both HCC cell types resulting in enhanced drug efficacy. Taken together, this EMT model of human HCC allows the identification of molecular mechanisms and the assessment of therapeutic drug efficacy during liver cancer progression in preclinical studies. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(5); 850–60. ©2011 AACR.
Recommendations for Accurate Resolution of Gene and Isoform Allele-Specific Expression in RNA-Seq Data

Genetic variation modulates gene expression transcriptionally or post-transcriptionally, and can profoundly alter an individual’s phenotype. Measuring allelic differential expression at heterozygous loci within an individual, a phenomenon called allele-specific expression (ASE), can assist in identifying such factors. Massively parallel DNA and RNA sequencing and advances in bioinformatic methodologies provide an outstanding opportunity to measure ASE genome-wide. In this study, matched DNA and RNA sequencing, genotyping arrays and computationally phased haplotypes were integrated to comprehensively and conservatively quantify ASE in a single human brain and liver tissue sample. We describe a methodological evaluation and assessment of common bioinformatic steps for ASE quantification, and recommend a robust approach to accurately measure SNP, gene and isoform ASE through the use of personalized haplotype genome alignment, strict alignment quality control and intragenic SNP aggregation. Our results indicate that accurate ASE quantification requires careful bioinformatic analyses and is adversely affected by sample specific alignment confounders and random sampling even at moderate sequence depths. We identified multiple known and several novel ASE genes in liver, including WDR72, DSP and UBD, as well as genes that contained ASE SNPs with imbalance direction discordant with haplotype phase, explainable by annotated transcript structure, suggesting isoform derived ASE. The methods evaluated in this study will be of use to researchers performing highly conservative quantification of ASE, and the genes and isoforms identified as ASE of interest to researchers studying those loci.
Nonlinear Memory Capacity of Parallel Time-Delay Reservoir Computers in the Processing of Multidimensional Signals

This letter addresses the reservoir design problem in the context of delay-based reservoir computers for multidimensional input signals, parallel architectures, and real-time multitasking. First, an approximating reservoir model is presented in those frameworks that provides an explicit functional link between the reservoir architecture and its performance in the execution of a specific task. Second, the inference properties of the ridge regression estimator in the multivariate context are used to assess the impact of finite sample training on the decrease of the reservoir capacity. Finally, an empirical study is conducted that shows the adequacy of the theoretical results with the empirical performances exhibited by various reservoir architectures in the execution of several nonlinear tasks with multidimensional inputs. Our results confirm the robustness properties of the parallel reservoir architecture with respect to task misspecification and parameter choice already documented in the literature.
Breakdown of immunity to Nippostrongylus brasiliensis in lactating rats

The nutritional basis of breakdown of immunity to parasites may be addressed in a rodent model. We hypothesized that lactating rats would show a breakdown of immunity to Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, and that this breakdown of immunity would be sensitive to protein supply. Rats were immunized with 1600 infective N. brasiliensis larvae and subsequently mated. During lactation, these rats were offered foods with 90 (low protein; LP) or 210 (high protein, HP) g crude protein (N X 6.25)/kg and re-infected with 400, 800 or 1600 larvae on day 2 post-parturition. Immunized non-reproducing rats were offered a food containing 60 g crude protein/kg and re-infected with 1600 larvae. Seven days after secondary infection, lactating rats had more adult nematodes in their small intestine and nematode eggs in their colon contents than the non-reproducing rats. Protein supply did not affect worm or egg counts, although LP rats carried relatively more female nematodes than the HP rats. All lactating rats had lower intakes than expected from previous studies using similar nutritional protocols. This may have resulted in insufficient protein supply, even for the HP rats, and this could explain the absence of effects of protein supply on egg and worm counts. We conclude that a breakdown of immunity to N. brasiliensis can occur in lactating rats; this strongly suggests that the lactating rat is a suitable model for elucidating a possible nutritional basis of breakdown of immunity to parasites. However, sufficient protein intake must be achieved to address the hypothesis that breakdown of immunity to N. brasiliensis is sensitive to protein supply.
Business Ethics and Religion : Religiosity as a Predictor of Stephen J . Conroy Ethical Awareness among Students

We survey students at two Southern United States universities (one public and one private, religiously affiliated). Using a survey instrument that includes 25 vignettes, we test two important hypotheses: whether ethical attitudes are affected by religiosity (H1) and whether ethical attitudes are affected by courses in ethics, religion or theology (H2). Using a definition of religiosity based on behavior (church attendance), our results indicate that religiosity is a statistically significant predictor of responses in a number of ethical scenarios. In seven of the eight vignettes for which religiosity is significant, the effect is negative, implying that it reduces the “acceptability” of ethically-charged scenarios. Completion of ethics or religion classes, however, was a significant predictor of ethical attitudes in only two of the 25 vignettes (and in the expected direction). We also find that males and younger respondents appear to be more accepting of the ethically-questionable vignettes. We conclude that factors outside of the educational system may be more influential in shaping responses to ethical vignettes than are ethics and religion courses.
Commentary: Usability and the Primacy of Practice

In the article “The Usability Construct: A Dead End? ” Noam Tractinsky (2017) discusses how usability is an umbrella construct and how that is a problem for usability if it wants to be a measurement-based scientific discipline. In this commentary, I argue that the way forward for an emerging field of academic usability is to acknowledge the primacy of practice. To me, usability has always seemed like a strange concept in human–computer interaction (HCI) research—an easily understood layman’s term but hard to make sense of in an academic perspective. Despite the fundamental vagueness of the concept, a large part of the HCI research community has persistently tried to define, measure, compare, . usability. Thus, Tractinsky’s article is necessary and welcomed. Mainstream usability research seems to base itself on haphazard identification of parameters derived from folk concepts of good interfaces and good human relations to technology. Tractinsky explains, in terms that are native to the discipline, why this is not fruitful or sustainable. Tractinsky makes a distinction between usability engineering as a pool of practices and techniques for systems development, and usability as a possible object of academic inquiry; and he points out that there seems to be no clear connection between the two. Tractinsky does, however, not seem to question the underlying assumptions that an academic concept—or construct, in his terminology—should be modeled over the natural sciences. And he does not question that the relation between the two should be that usability engineering is applied academic usability regardless of how detached the academic concepts, or constructs, are from practical reality. In contrast to Tractinsky’s implicit assumptions, I believe that studies of practical usability work is a necessary foundation for an academic concept of usability. Fortunately, quite a number of studies take usability engineering as its object of study. In their paper “What Do Usability Evaluators Do in Practice? ” (2006), Nørgaard and Hornbæk studied how usability consultants worked with the think-aloud method.
Apolipoprotein E Is Resistant to Intracellular Degradation in Vitro and in Vivo

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) is an important determinant for the uptake of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and emulsions by the liver, but the intracellular pathway of apoE following particle internalization is poorly defined. In the present study, we investigated whether retroendocytosis is a unique feature of apoE as compared with apoB by studying the intracellular fate of very low density lipoprotein-sized apoE-containing triglyceride-rich emulsion particles and LDL after LDLr-mediated uptake. Incubation of HepG2 cells with [3H]cholesteryl oleate-labeled particles at 37 °C led to a rapid release of [3H]cholesterol within 30 min for both LDL and emulsion particles. In contrast, emulsion-derived 125I-apoE was more resistant to degradation (≥120 min) than LDL-derived 125I-apoB (30 min). Incubation at 18 °C, which allows endosomal uptake but prevents lysosomal degradation, with subsequent incubation at 37 °C resulted in a time-dependent release of intact apoE from the cells (up to 14% of the endocytosed apoE at 4 h). The release of apoE was accelerated by the presence of protein-free emulsion (20%) or high density lipoprotein (26%). Retroendocytosis of intact particles could be excluded since little intact [3H]cholesteryl oleate was released (<3%). In contrast, the degradation of LDL was complete with virtually no secretion of intact apoB into the medium. The intracellular stability of apoE was also demonstrated after hepatic uptake in C57Bl/6 mice. Intravenous injection of 125I-apoE and [3H]cholesteryl oleate-labeled emulsions resulted in efficient LDLr-mediated uptake of both components by the liver (45–50% of the injected dose after 20 min). At 1 h after injection, only 15–20% of the hepatic125I-apoE was degraded, whereas 75% of the [3H]cholesteryl oleate was hydrolyzed. From these data we conclude that following LDLr-mediated internalization by liver cells, apoE can escape degradation and can be resecreted. This sequence of events may allow apoE to participate in its hypothesized intracellular functions such as mediator of the post-lysosomal trafficking of lipids and very low density lipoprotein assembly.
The significance of nonlinear motion in the wear screening of orthopaedic implant materials

Linear reciprocating pin-on-plate-type wear testing has been a standard technique for the screening of orthopaedic implant materials since the early 1980s. This investigation compares a wear screening technique based on linear motion with a modern hip joint simulator based on multi-axial motion. Two groups of differently sterilized UHMWPE samples were tested. The first group of samples was sterilized by ethylene oxide (EtO) gas that caused no structural changes in the UHMWPE. The second group of samples was sterilized in nitrogen by gamma-irradiation and then subjected to a stabilization treatment that resulted in a significant level of crosslinking in the UHMWPE. When tested on the linear reciprocating wear machine, the EtO sterilized specimens (non-crosslinked linear polyethylene) showed an approximately 30% lower wear rate than the gamma-irradiated and stabilized specimens (crosslinked polyethylene). When tested on the hip simulator, the EtO sterilized specimens exhibited two to three times higher wear rates than the gamma irradiated and stabilized specimens. The ranking of wear resistance obtained with the hip simulator was strikingly different than that obtained with the linear reciprocating wear machine. This study indicates that screening wear machines based on linear motion do not correlate with multi-axial joint simulators and may produce misleading results in the prediction of clinical wear performance of UHMWPE bearing materials.
Operational Characteristics of Linear Concentration‐QT Models for Assessing QTc Interval in the Thorough QT and Phase I Clinical Studies

Concentration‐QTc (C‐QTc) analysis can be used as an alternative to the standard statistical methods in clinical QT studies. Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) simulations were performed to assess the operating characteristics of four C‐QTc models. False negatives were 2–6% for crossover and 2–9% for parallel studies, with 12 to 60 subjects per treatment for a dose with 10‐ms mean effect. All C‐QTc models tested gave less than +1 ms mean bias in the ΔΔQTcmax prediction. The power to exclude 10 ms was >80% across all study designs and sizes, for a dose with 3‐ms mean effect. The study demonstrates that linear C‐QTc models have adequate sensitivity and specificity when the simulation and data analytical models are the same. C‐QTc models that incorporate time‐ and treatment‐specific terms give the least biased ΔΔQTcmax predictions under scenarios of model‐misspecifications and offer an advantage when applying to real clinical data where the underlying relationship is not known.
Soft Polypropylene Mesh, But Not Cadaveric Dermis, Significantly Improves Outcomes in Midline Hernia Repairs Using the Components Separation Technique

Background: The search continues for the “ideal” repair of the midline ventral hernia, and the components separation technique has a low, but still concerning, hernia recurrence rate. The authors hypothesize that adding prosthetic or bioprosthetic meshes to the midline closure during components separation would reduce recurrence rates with minimal added morbidity. Methods: Over a 3-year period, patients had a components separation procedure where either acellular cadaveric dermis (n = 26) or soft polypropylene mesh (n = 28) was used as an intraperitoneal underlay for reinforcement of the midline repair, but not as a “bridging material. ” In 36 operations, the mesh or cadaveric dermis was placed at the time of the components separation, and in the remaining cases (n = 18), the underlay was used to treat a recurrence after components separation. Results: Cadaveric dermis was associated with a 46 percent “true” recurrence rate that required reoperation (mean follow-up, 17.3 months), whereas soft polypropylene mesh had a significantly lower recurrence rate of 11 percent (p = 0.0057) during a follow-up period of 16 months. Because of a higher incidence of concomitant bowel surgery and contamination in the cadaveric dermis group, additional subset analysis of uncontaminated cases was performed, demonstrating a 61 percent recurrence rate for cadaveric dermis compared with 12 percent for soft polypropylene (p = 0.0017). No significant differences in major and minor complications were seen between groups. Conclusion: Soft polypropylene mesh, but not acellular dermis, demonstrates acceptably low complication and hernia recurrence rates when used as a reinforcement of the midline ventral hernia closure in conjunction with components separation.
Mechanical and dielectric properties of segmented polyurethane elastomers containing chemical crosslinks in the hard segment

Mechanical and dielectric properties of two series of segmented polyurethanes having soft segment concentration of 50 and 70% and a varying degree of crosslinking through the hard segment were studied. The degree of crosslinking in each series was varied by varying the butane diol/trimethylol propane ratio in the chain extender mixture. Tensile strength, elongation at break decrease, but elastic recovery increases monotonically with increasing crosslinking. The plateau modulus in the dynamic mechanical test decreases and then increases with increasing TMP content. Crosslinking causes broadening of the soft segment glass transition as seen by permittivity and loss factor measurements. It also affects high temperature behavior (above the glass transition of the hard segment); it lowers permittivity, loss factor, and ionic conductivity.
Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together.

We administered the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) to 217 monozygotic and 114 dizygotic reared-together adult twin pairs and 44 monozygotic and 27 dizygotic reared-apart adult twin pairs. A four-parameter biometric model (incorporating genetic, additive versus nonadditive, shared family-environment, and unshared environment components) and five reduced models were fitted through maximum-likelihood techniques to data obtained with the 11 primary MPQ scales and its 3 higher order scales. Solely environmental models did not fit any of the scales. Although the other reduced models, including the simple additive model, did fit many of the scales, only the full model provided a satisfactory fit for all scales. Heritabilities estimated by the full model ranged from . 39 to . 58. Consistent with previous reports, but contrary to widely held beliefs, the overall contribution of a common family-environment component was small and negligible for all but 2 of the 14 personality measures. Evidence of significant nonadditive genetic effects, possibly emergenic (epistatic) in nature, was obtained for 3 of the measures.