Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 9-Year Prospective Case Series Using Multivariate Analyses to Identify Predictors of Early and Late Peri-Implant Bone Loss.

PURPOSE The study aims to identify predictors of early and late peri-implant bone loss following complete implant-supported rehabilitation using multivariate analyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifty patients (28 women, 22 men; mean age 58, range 35-76) in need of a complete implant-supported rehabilitation on five to eight implants were consecutively treated. Patients were reinvited for a clinical and radiographic examination after an average 9 years of function. Implant survival and peri-implant bone loss were considered the dependent variables. Multivariate analyses were adopted to identify predictors of early and late peri-implant bone loss. RESULTS In total, 39 patients were examinated. Two implants failed after 4 years of function, resulting in an overall survival rate of 99.2%. After a mean follow-up of 9 years, mean bone loss of 1.68 mm (SD 2.08, range -1.05 to 10.95) was found. The abutment height was a significant predictor of early peri-implant bone loss (1 year) (p = .024), whereas smoking (p = .046) and history of periodontitis (p = .046) affected late peri-implant bone loss. CONCLUSION Within the limits of this study, it can be concluded that initial bone remodeling was affected by soft tissue thickness as reflected by the height of the abutment, whereas smoking and history of periodontitis affected long-term peri-implant bone stability.
Perspectives on an Integrated Construction Project Model

This paper reviews the growing interest in an integrated construction project model, and examines the fundamental concept of an integrated project model by discussing the various definitions that have evolved as well as the various approaches to its development. The nature of collaborative communications that the integrated project model needs to support is also discussed, as are the enabling information and communications technologies that may have a role in the realization of the model. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the future development of the integrated construction project model.
Using ODP metadata to personalize search

The Open Directory Project is clearly one of the largest collaborative efforts to manually annotate web pages. This effort involves over 65,000 editors and resulted in metadata specifying topic and importance for more than 4 million web pages. Still, given that this number is just about 0.05 percent of the Web pages indexed by Google, is this effort enough to make a difference? In this paper we discuss how these metadata can be exploited to achieve high quality personalized web search. First, we address this by introducing an additional criterion for web page ranking, namely the distance between a user profile defined using ODP topics and the sets of ODP topics covered by each URL returned in regular web search. We empirically show that this enhancement yields better results than current web search using Google. Then, in the second part of the paper, we investigate the boundaries of biasing PageRank on subtopics of the ODP in order to automatically extend these metadata to the whole web.
Tower of London Performance in Healthy Adolescents: The Development of Planning Skills and Associations With Self-Reported Inattention and Impulsivity

Studies have investigated planning skill development using the Tower of London (TOL). Reports conflict regarding maturational trajectories and associations with IQ, other executive functions, and impulsivity. A convenience sample of 9- to 20-year-olds completed the TOL and other measures. TOL accuracy improved until ages 15–17. Digit span backwards (DSB), response inhibition, and IQ were correlated with TOL performance. DSB contributed to TOL accuracy above and beyond age and IQ. Inhibitory control and DSB both contributed to the modulation of planning times across problems. Self-reported inattention and hyperactivity were associated with low performance. Task approaches reflecting planning and psychometric issues are discussed.
Compressive performance of new types of load-bearing horizontal-hole interlocking concrete hollow blocks

Two series of load-bearing horizontal-hole interlocking hollow concrete blocks, referred to as H-shaped series and cross-shaped series, were developed, including three geometric types: type BH-290 (H-shaped), type BH-240 (H-shaped), and type BC-240 (cross-shaped). The research presented in this article investigated the compressive behavior of the proposed load-bearing horizontal-hole interlocking hollow concrete blocks and aimed at analyzing the influence of geometric parameters on the block capacity. First, compressive tests of the horizontal-hole interlocking hollow concrete blocks were carried out. The compressive strength, elastic modulus, and compressive failure mechanism were analyzed. Second, the feasibility of the finite element analysis model was verified by experimental results presented in this article, as well as by available test data from other researchers. The influences of vertical ribs, horizontal ribs, and concrete strength on the compressive strength of horizontal-hole interlocking hollow concrete blocks were investigated. Ultimately, based on the numerical modeling results, linear equations were proposed to predict the compressive strength of H-shaped series and cross-shaped series blocks. The results show that the compressive strengths of types BH-240, BH-290, and BC-240 are 15.9, 13.4, and 13.0 MPa, respectively. For the H-shaped series, the core horizontal rib is the key part that can significantly constrain the vertical ribs so that the block can achieve higher compressive bearing capacity. For the cross-shaped series, core horizontal ribs cannot improve the compressive strength of the block because core horizontal ribs and joints near them become damaged early. Improving the concrete strength and the width of the vertical rib can effectively improve the compressive bearing capacity for both H-shaped and cross-shaped series blocks. The accuracy of the proposed equations for predicting the compressive strength of H-shaped and cross-shaped blocks is acceptable, according to the current verification.
The influence of CD4 T‐cell subsets on control of CD4 T‐cell‐mediated graft‐versus‐host disease

In this study, we tested the effect of different T‐cell subpopulations on antigen driven effector cell expansion in lymphopenic hosts, making use of an experimental model of graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD). Fluorescence‐activated cell sorted (FACS) naïve CD4 T cells from C57BL/6 mice, transferred into lymphopenic F1 (C57BL/6 × BALB/c) Rag‐deficient hosts, proliferated extensively and migrated systemically causing acute GVHD within 4 weeks after transfer. Adoptive hosts of CD4 memory T cells on the other hand developed milder symptoms of GVHD with later onset. T‐cell expansion and migration to peripheral sites as well as development of GVHD were prevented when naïve T cells were transferred together with CD4+ CD25+ T cells, but co‐transfer of memory T cells with naïve T cells could not prevent GVHD, although its onset was delayed. OX40, a costimulatory marker that is upregulated at an early time point after T‐cell activation and enhances T‐cell proliferation, cytokine secretion and survival, was strongly upregulated during GVH responses. Naïve T cells deficient in OX40 expression caused markedly reduced GVH in onset and severity despite some level of expansion in the adoptive host, suggesting an important role of this molecule in the immune pathology of GVHD.
Centenarian athletes: Examples of ultimate human performance?

BACKGROUND some centenarians are engaged in regular physical activity and sometimes in sporting events. OBJECTIVE we aimed to identify world records of centenarian athletes in several sports and determine which represented the best performance when compared to all-age world records, all disciplines taken together. METHODS all of the best performances achieved by centenarians were identified and compared in three disciplines: athletics, swimming and cycling. The performances were considered as an average of the respective speeds, except for jumping and throwing events for which the maximum distances performed were considered. Within each discipline, the decline in performance of centenarian athletes was expressed as a percentage of the world record for that discipline. In total, 60 performances of centenarian athletes were found. These performances belong to 19 individuals: 10 in athletics, 8 in swimming and 1 in cycling. RESULTS the centenarian world record performed by Robert Marchand in one hour track cycling appears to be the best performance (-50.6% compared with the all-age world record in this discipline) achieved by a centenarian. CONCLUSIONS although the physiological characteristics of Robert Marchand are certainly exceptional, his remarkable performance could also be due to the lower age-related decline for cycling performances compared with running and swimming. Our observations offer new perspectives on how the human body can resist the deleterious effects of ageing.
Atrial fibrillation: a perspective: thinking inside and outside the box.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common clinical problem that is increasing in prevalence1 and is inextricably linked to another burgeoning cardiovascular problem, namely, congestive heart failure.2 There is increasing evidence that AF, at least in some population subsets, may be part of a spectrum of atherosclerotic vascular disease, hypertension, inflammation, diastolic dysfunction, and the metabolic syndromes. AF is part of a family of atrial tachyarrhythmias (Figure 1). A panel of experts has recently characterized the definition and position of AF within this group of tachyarrhythmias.3 Nonetheless, this family of tachyarrhythmias is closely interrelated, and the individual tachyarrhythmias often coexist in the same patient. Although the present discussion focuses on AF, many of the points made with regard to AF apply to these other tachyarrhythmias to varying degrees. Figure 1. AF family of tachyarrhythmias. This group of tachyarrhythmias shares much in common, including pathophysiology arising from atrial tissue, often involving critical areas near where veins (pulmonary veins, coronary sinus, vena cava) enter the atria. Recently, international panels of experts have also created clinical practice guidelines4 and perspectives on future research directions5 for AF. These documents are a rich source of reference to the vast literature on AF. It is not the intention of the present article to review this literature, and, in particular, it is not intended that the reader will use the present article as a manual for managing AF. However, the perspective is intended to provide a framework for rational thinking about the management of AF. A schema of how a basic scientist might currently view AF is presented in Figure 2. In this schema, modulating factors surround the basic elements of arrhythmogenesis, and the focus is on the mechanisms for initiation and perpetuation of AF. In this particular paradigm, a trigger and …
Tall Buildings and the Urban Skyline

Tall buildings are a significant feature of many urban skylines. The visual complexity of the tall buildings that make up the urban skyline can vary according to the degree of silhouette complexity and the extent to which the façade is articulated. This article reports a study in which 60 undergraduate psychology students ranked a set of 9 synthetic skylines according to either the perceived complexity of the skyline or their preference. The pleasure and arousal associated with each skyline was also measured using the Affect Grid. The strongest influence on preference, arousal, and pleasure was the degree of silhouette complexity, with higher silhouette complexity associated with higher levels of perceived complexity and preference and higher arousal and pleasure. Façade articulation only influenced the evaluations of skyline complexity, although this isolated finding may be due to the pretask training.
Algorithm for detection of the internal components of the heart sounds and their split using a Hilbert transform

Abstract Valvular heart disease is a serious heart condition that is difficult to diagnose in ambulatory settings. Heart sounds is one of the most relevant diagnosis signals in this context. The time interval between the two internal components of the two heart sounds in the medical field known as ‘split’ was considered by many researchers and one study is described as the key medical diagnosis by many clinicians. Compared to the energy envelope Shannon Hilbert envelope is greater awareness of the internal components of the first and second heart sound. The morphology of this envelope will allow one to apply the necessary tests for the temporal localization of the internal components of the two heart sounds. According to the results obtained, the Hilbert envelope is an approach and representation taking into account the physiological attenuation and giving a good separation.
Adaptive image restoration with artifact suppression using the theory of convex projections

The authors develop an iterative, adaptive, space-variant restoration incorporating both regularization and artifact-suppression constraints. The algorithm is formulated using the method of projections onto convex sets (POCS). They introduce a closed-convex regularization constraint set called the partial Wiener solution set. Projection onto this set forces the solution to be equal to the Wiener solution over a predetermined set of frequencies that lie outside the neighborhoods of the zeros of the degradation transfer function. In the neighborhoods of the zeros, the Wiener solution contains significant errors that contribute to artifacts. Hence, in these neighborhoods the Wiener solution is discarded, and the missing frequency components are determined so that the entire solution is consistent with the artifact-suppression constraints and other a priori information. The proposed artifact-suppression constraints bound the norm of the variation of the image from its local mean using regionally adaptive bounds. The high quality of the resulting restorations is noteworthy. >
Novel Oncogenic Mutations of CBL in Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia That Activate Growth and Survival Pathways Depend on Increased Metabolism*

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by multiple mutagenic events that affect proliferation, survival, as well as differentiation. Recently, gain-of-function mutations in the α helical structure within the linker sequence of the E3 ubiquitin ligase CBL have been associated with AML. We identified four novel CBL mutations, including a point mutation (Y371H) and a putative splice site mutation in AML specimens. Characterization of these two CBL mutants revealed that coexpression with the receptor tyrosine kinases FLT3 (Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3) or KIT-induced ligand independent growth or ligand hyperresponsiveness, respectively. Growth of cells expressing mutant CBL required expression and kinase activity of FLT3. In addition to the CBL-dependent phosphorylation of FLT3 and CBL itself, transformation was associated with activation of Akt and STAT5 and required functional expression of the small GTPases Rho, Rac, and Cdc42. Furthermore, the mutations led to constitutively elevated intracellular reactive oxygen species levels, which is commonly linked to increased glucose metabolism in cancer cells. Inhibition of hexokinase with 2-deoxyglucose blocked the transforming activity of CBL mutants and reduced activation of signaling mechanisms. Overall, our data demonstrate that mutations of CBL alter cellular biology at multiple levels and require not only the activation of receptor proximal signaling events but also an increase in cellular glucose metabolism. Pathways that are activated by CBL gain-of-function mutations can be efficiently targeted by small molecule drugs.
Refined Phenotyping of Modic Changes

AbstractLow back pain (LBP) is the world's most disabling condition. Modic changes (MC) are vertebral bone marrow changes adjacent to the endplates as noted on magnetic resonance imaging. The associations of specific MC types and patterns with prolonged, severe LBP and disability remain speculative. This study assessed the relationship of prolonged, severe LBP and back-related disability, with the presence and morphology of lumbar MC in a large cross-sectional population-based study of Southern Chinese.We addressed the topographical and morphological dimensions of MC along with other magnetic resonance imaging phenotypes (eg, disc degeneration and displacement) on the basis of axial T1 and sagittal T2-weighted imaging of L1-S1. Prolonged severe LBP was defined as LBP lasting ≥30 days during the past year, and a visual analog scale severest pain intensity of at least 6/10. An Oswestry Disability Index score of 15% was regarded as significant disability. We also assessed subject demographics, occupation, and lifestyle factors.In total, 1142 subjects (63% females, mean age 53 years) were assessed. Of these, 282 (24.7%) had MC (7.1% type I, 17.6% type II). MC subjects were older (P = 0.003), had more frequent disc displacements (P < 0.001) and greater degree of disc degeneration (P < 0.001) than non-MC subjects. In adjusted models, any MC (odds ratio [OR] 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01–2.18), MC affecting whole anterior-posterior length (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.04–2.51), and MC affecting 2/3 posterior length (OR 2.79, 95% CI 1.17–6.65) were associated with prolonged severe LBP. Type I MC tended to associate with pain more strongly than type II MC (OR 1.80, 95% CI 0.94–3.44 vs OR 1.36, 95% CI 0.88–2.09, respectively). Any MC (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.04–2.10), type II MC (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.06–2.31), MC affecting 2/3 posterior length (OR 2.96, 95% CI 1.27–6.89), and extensive MC (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.21–3.15) were associated with disability. The strength of the associations increased with the number of MC.This large-scale study is the first to definitively note MC types and specific morphologies to be independently associated with prolonged severe LBP and back-related disability. This proposed refined MC phenotype may have direct implications in clinical decision-making as to the development and management of LBP. Understanding of these imaging biomarkers can lead to new preventative and personalized therapeutics related to LBP.
The neural mediators of kindness-based meditation: a theoretical model

Although kindness-based contemplative practices are increasingly employed by clinicians and cognitive researchers to enhance prosocial emotions, social cognitive skills, and well-being, and as a tool to understand the basic workings of the social mind, we lack a coherent theoretical model with which to test the mechanisms by which kindness-based meditation may alter the brain and body. Here, we link contemplative accounts of compassion and loving-kindness practices with research from social cognitive neuroscience and social psychology to generate predictions about how diverse practices may alter brain structure and function and related aspects of social cognition. Contingent on the nuances of the practice, kindness-based meditation may enhance the neural systems related to faster and more basic perceptual or motor simulation processes, simulation of another’s affective body state, slower and higher-level perspective-taking, modulatory processes such as emotion regulation and self/other discrimination, and combinations thereof. This theoretical model will be discussed alongside best practices for testing such a model and potential implications and applications of future work.
When Good Observers Go Bad: Change Blindness, Inattentional Blindness, and Visual Experience

Several studies (e.g., Becklen & Cervone, 1983; Mack & Rock, 1998; Neisser & Becklen, 1975) have found that observers attending to a particular object or event often fail to report the presence of unexpected items. This has been interpreted as inattentional blindness (IB), a failure to see unattended items (Mack & Rock, 1998). Meanwhile, other studies (e.g., Pashler, 1988; Phillips, 1974; Rensink, O'Regan, & Clark, 1997; Simons, 1996) have found that observers often fail to report the presence of large changes in a display when these changes occur simultaneously with a transient such as an eye movement or flash of the display. This has been interpreted as change blindness (CB), a failure to see unattended changes (Rensink et al., 1997).
Existence and Uniqueness of a Quasistationary Distribution for Markov Processes with Fast Return from Infinity

We study the long-time behaviour of a Markov process evolving in N and conditioned not to hit 0. Assuming that the process comes back quickly from ∞, we prove that the process admits a unique quasistationary distribution (in particular, the distribution of the conditioned process admits a limit when time goes to ∞). Moreover, we prove that the distribution of the process converges exponentially fast in the total variation norm to its quasistationary distribution and we provide a bound for the rate of convergence. As a first application of our result, we bring a new insight on the speed of convergence to the quasistationary distribution for birth-and-death processes: we prove that starting from any initial distribution the conditional probability converges in law to a unique distribution ρ supported in N * if and only if the process has a unique quasistationary distribution. Moreover, ρ is this unique quasistationary distribution and the convergence is shown to be exponentially fast in the total variation norm. Also, considering the lack of results on quasistationary distributions for nonirreducible processes on countable spaces, we show, as a second application of our result, the existence and uniqueness of a quasistationary distribution for a class of possibly nonirreducible processes.
Electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness and microwave absorption properties of thermoplastic polyurethane/montmorillonite‐polypyrrole nanocomposites

Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil Université de Lyon, F‐69003 Lyon, France Engenharia Metalúrgica e Materiais COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941‐972 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy Correspondence Guilherme M. O. Barra, Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. Email: g.barra@ufsc.br Funding information Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—CNPq, Grant/Award Number: 400155/2014‐1; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior—CAPES; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina— FAPESC