Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accuracy of 2 impression techniques for ITI implants.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of casts produced by 2 impression techniques and elastomeric impression materials commonly used for the fabrication of implant-supported fixed prostheses. MATERIALS AND METHODS A master model with 4 synOcta ITI implants placed unilaterally in place of the mandibular right central incisor, canine, first premolar, and first molar was constructed. Implant-level impressions were made by direct and indirect techniques. In the direct technique, synOcta impression caps with integral guide screws were used to transfer the implants using a custom-made acrylic resin tray and a polyether impression material (the PE direct technique). In the indirect technique, synOcta plastic positioning cylinders with impression caps were used to transfer the implants with either a custom-made acrylic resin tray and polyether impression material (the PE indirect technique) or with a stock tray with a vinylpolysiloxane impression material (the VPS indirect technique). After impression making, all casts (n = 21) were poured in type IV dental stone. Linear changes in -x or -y direction and numeric and descriptive angular changes between the implants were quantified using a coordinate measuring machine. RESULTS Seven of 12 distance measurements (6 for -x direction, 6 for -y direction) showed differences between groups (P < .05). Of these, 5 were associated with the PE direct versus PE indirect and PE indirect versus VPS indirect, and 3 were associated with PE direct versus VPS indirect. Two implants also showed angular changes but only for the PE indirect technique versus the VPS indirect technique (P < .05). CONCLUSION The snap-on VPS indirect impression technique using a stock tray, which has the advantages of being clinically convenient and eliminating repositioning after removal of the impression, resulted in dimensional accuracy similar to that achieved with the PE direct technique.
The scope of farms sustainability tools based on FADN data.

This paper reviews recent reports on the farm sustainability assessment, in particular, the farm sustainability assessments based on EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The most commonly-used data source for evaluation of farms economic, social and environment sustainability is farmers’ survey, employing structured questionnaire or/and in-depth interview. Therefore, recently the available databases as information sources such as EU FADN have been employed. As FADN originally was developed for measuring farms’ income and economic performance, the developed farms’ sustainability tools based on FADN data should be verified in the new context. The analysis is presented in two steps. First, an analytical overview of farm sustainability tools in terms of their research purpose, subject, developed indicators by economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability and the key elements of the methodology is presented. In a second step, the economic, environmental and social subthemes of the Sustainability Assessment in Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) Guidelines were employed. The results of analysis revealed, that tools differ and this limits the possibilities to compare the research results. FADN data in terms of coverage the SAFA developed subthemes revealed medium coverage of the SAFA economic and environmental subthemes, and low coverage of social SAFA subthemes. The presented analysis opens the scientific discussion about the need and possibilities to develop a tool for farm sustainability assessments using FADN data and to assess sustainability of farms across Europe.
New records and new species of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a species-rich region that has been the focus of biodiversity research for over 40 years. The expedition “Atelier Lifou 2000” collected benthic fauna at the island of Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, in November of 2000. This is a taxonomic account of the brittle stars found. 94 species were identified, 51 of them new for the region, and seven new to science, increasing the total number of species known from the New Caledonia region to 204. New species are described in the genera Squamophis, Astroceras, Astrogymnotes, Ophiochondrus, Ophiomoeris, Ophiozonella and Amphipholis. Three species and a subspecies are revised, one of them placed in a new genus. The taxonomic status of Euryale Lamarck, 1816, a junior homonym of Euryale Peron & Lesueur, 1810 (a medusa), is stabilized by formally establishing precedence over the senior name.
Working memory predicts the rejection of false memories

The relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and false memories in the memory conjunction paradigm was explored. Previous research using other paradigms has shown that individuals high in WMC are not as likely to experience false memories as low-WMC individuals, the explanation being that high-WMC individuals are better able to engage in source monitoring. In the memory conjunction paradigm participants are presented at study with parent words (e.g., eyeglasses, whiplash). At test, in addition to being presented with targets and foils, participants are presented with lures that are composed of previously studied features (e.g., eyelash). It was found that high-WMC individuals had lower levels of false recognition than low-WMC individuals. Furthermore, recall-to-reject responses were analysed (e.g., “I know I didn't see eyelash because I remember seeing eyeglasses”) and it was found that high-WMC individuals were more likely to utilise this memory editing strategy, providing direct evidence that one reason that high-WMC individuals are not as prone to false memories is because they are better able to engage in source monitoring.
Ocean Acidification Disrupts Prey Responses to Predator Cues but Not Net Prey Shell Growth in Concholepas concholepas (loco)

Background Most research on Ocean Acidification (OA) has largely focused on the process of calcification and the physiological trade-offs employed by calcifying organisms to support the building of calcium carbonate structures. However, there is growing evidence that OA can also impact upon other key biological processes such as survival, growth and behaviour. On wave-swept rocky shores the ability of gastropods to self-right after dislodgement, and rapidly return to normal orientation, reduces the risk of predation. Methodology/Principal Findings The impacts of OA on this self-righting behaviour and other important parameters such as growth, survival, shell dissolution and shell deposition in Concholepas concholepas (loco) were investigated under contrasting pCO2 levels. Although no impacts of OA on either growth or net shell calcification were found, the results did show that OA can significantly affect self-righting behaviour during the early ontogeny of this species with significantly faster righting times recorded for individuals of C. concholepas reared under increased average pCO2 concentrations (± SE) (716±12 and 1036±14 µatm CO2) compared to those reared at concentrations equivalent to those presently found in the surface ocean (388±8 µatm CO2). When loco were also exposed to the predatory crab Acanthocyclus hassleri, righting times were again increased by exposure to elevated CO2, although self-righting times were generally twice as fast as those observed in the absence of the crab. Conclusions and Significance These results suggest that self-righting in the early ontogeny of C. concholepas will be positively affected by pCO2 levels expected by the end of the 21st century and beginning of the next one. However, as the rate of self-righting is an adaptive trait evolved to reduce lethal predatory attacks, our result also suggest that OA may disrupt prey responses to predators in nature.
Assessment of cancer risk with β-interferon treatment for multiple sclerosis

Objective The risk of cancer after exposure to the β-interferons (IFNβs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been established. We assessed whether IFNβ treatment for MS is associated with cancer risk or the risk of specific cancers in a population-based observational study. Methods The British Columbia MS database was linked to the provincial Cancer Registry, Vital Statistics death files and Health Registration files. Using a nested case-control design, MS cancer cases were matched with up to 20 randomly selected MS controls at the date of cancer diagnosis by sex, age (±5 years) and study entry year using incidence density sampling. Associations between treatment exposure and overall or specific (breast, colorectal, lung and prostate) cancers were estimated by conditional logistic regression, adjusted for MS disease duration and age. Tumour size at cancer diagnosis was compared between treated and untreated patients using the stratified Wilcoxon test to explore potential lead time bias. Results The cohort included 5146 relapsing-onset MS patients and 48 705 person-years of follow-up, during which 227 cancers were diagnosed. Exposure to IFNβ was not significantly different for cases and controls (OR 1.28; 95% CI 0.87 to 1.88). There was a non-significant trend towards an increased risk of IFNβ exposure in the breast cancer cases (OR 1.77; 95% CI 0.92 to 3.42), but no evidence of a dose–response effect. Tumour size was similar between IFNβ treated and untreated cases. Conclusions There was no evidence of an increased cancer risk with exposure to IFNβ over a 12-year observation period. However, the trend towards an association between IFNβ and breast cancer should be investigated further.
Privacy-MaxEnt: integrating background knowledge in privacy quantification

Privacy-Preserving Data Publishing (PPDP) deals with the publication of microdata while preserving people' private information in the data. To measure how much private information can be preserved, privacy metrics is needed. An essential element for privacy metrics is the measure of how much adversaries can know about an individual's sensitive attributes (SA) if they know the individual's quasi-identifiers (QI), i.e., we need to measure P(SA|QI). Such a measure is hard to derive when adversaries' background knowledge has to be considered. We propose a systematic approach, Privacy-MaxEnt, to integrate background knowledge in privacy quantification. Our approach is based on the maximum entropy principle. We treat all the conditional probabilities P(SA|QI) as unknown variables; we treat the background knowledge as the constraints of these variables; in addition, we also formulate constraints from the published data. Our goal becomes finding a solution to those variables (the probabilities) that satisfy all these constraints. Although many solutions may exist, the most unbiased estimate of P(SA|QI) is the one that achieves the maximum entropy.
Metastatic gastric cancer – focus on targeted therapies

Gastric cancer (GC) is currently the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide; unfortunately, most patients will present with locally advanced or metastatic disease. Despite recent progress in diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, prognosis remains poor. A better understanding of GC biology and signaling pathways is expected to improve GC therapy, and the integration of targeted therapies has recently become possible and appears to be promising. This article focuses on anti-Her-2 therapy, specifically trastuzumab, as well as other epidermal growth factor receptor antagonists such as cetuximab, panitumub, matuzumab, nimotzumab, gefitinib, and erlotinib. Additionally, drugs that target angiogenesis pathways are also under investigation, particulary bevacizumab, ramucirumab, sorafenib, sunitinib, and cediranib. Other targeted agents in preclinical or early clinical development include mTOR inhibitors, anti c-MET, polo-like kinase 1 inhibitors, anti-insulin-like growth factor, anti-heat shock proteins, and small molecules targeting Hedgehog signaling.
Superantigen-Induced T Cell:B Cell Conjugation Is Mediated by LFA-1 and Requires Signaling Through Lck, But Not ZAP-701

The formation of a conjugate between a T cell and an APC requires the activation of integrins on the T cell surface and remodeling of cytoskeletal elements at the cell-cell contact site via inside-out signaling. The early events in this signaling pathway are not well understood, and may differ from the events involved in adhesion to immobilized ligands. We find that conjugate formation between Jurkat T cells and EBV-B cells presenting superantigen is mediated by LFA-1 and absolutely requires Lck. Mutations in the Lck kinase, Src homology 2 or 3 domains, or the myristoylation site all inhibit conjugation to background levels, and adhesion cannot be restored by the expression of Fyn. However, ZAP-70-deficient cells conjugate normally, indicating that Lck is required for LFA-1-dependent adhesion via other downstream pathways. Several drugs that inhibit T cell adhesion to ICAM-1 immobilized on plastic, including inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-related kinase kinase, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, and calpain, do not inhibit conjugation. Inhibitors of phospholipase C and protein kinase C block conjugation of both wild-type and ZAP-70-deficient cells, suggesting that a phospholipase C that does not depend on ZAP-70 for its activation is involved. These results are not restricted to Jurkat T cells; Ag-specific primary T cell blasts behave similarly. Although the way in which Lck signals to enhance LFA-1-dependent adhesion is not clear, we find that cells lacking functional Lck fail to recruit F-actin and LFA-1 to the T cell:APC contact site, whereas ZAP-70-deficient cells show a milder phenotype characterized by disorganized actin and LFA-1 at the contact site.
Vibrotactile letter reading using a low-resolution tactor array

Vibrotactile displays have been studied for several decades in the context of sensory substitution. Recently, a number of vibrotactile displays have been developed to extend sensory modalities in virtual reality. Some of these target the whole body as the stimulation region, but existing systems are only designed for discrete stimulation points at specific parts of the body. However, since human tactile sensation has more resolution, a higher density might be required in factor alignment in order to realize general-purpose vibrotactile displays. One problem with this approach is that it might result in an impractically high number of required tactors. Our current focus is to explore ways of simplifying the system while maintaining an acceptable level of expressive ability. As a first step, we chose a well-studied task: tactile letter reading. We examined the possibility of distinguishing alphanumeric letters by using only a 3-by-3 array of vibrating motors on the back of a chair. The tactors are driven sequentially in the same sequence as if someone were tracing the letter on the chair's back. The results showed 87% successful letter recognition in some cases, which was close to the results in previous research with much larger arrays.
Dynamics of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Transcription: P-TEFb Phosphorylates RD and Dissociates Negative Effectors from the Transactivation Response Element

ABSTRACT The elongation of transcription is a highly regulated process that requires negative and positive effectors. By binding the double-stranded stem in the transactivation response (TAR) element, RD protein from the negative transcription elongation factor (NELF) inhibits basal transcription from the long terminal repeat of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIVLTR). Tat and its cellular cofactor, the positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb), overcome this negative effect. Cdk9 in P-TEFb also phosphorylates RD at sites next to its RNA recognition motif. A mutant RD protein that mimics its phosphorylated form no longer binds TAR nor represses HIV transcription. In sharp contrast, a mutant RD protein that cannot be phosphorylated by P-TEFb functions as a dominant-negative effector and inhibits Tat transactivation. These results better define the transition from abortive to productive transcription and thus replication of HIV.
Trichophyton verrucosum infection in livestock in the Chitral district of Pakistan.

INTRODUCTION Trichophyton verrucosum belongs to the dermatophyte fungi, closely related organisms that cause skin infections in animals and humans. T. verrucosum infection has been reported in livestock and people in different countries from all continents. Human cases have been reported in different areas of Pakistan, but there is little information about the animal source of the fungus. METHODOLOGY Dermatological specimens collected in the Chitral district of Pakistan for a study on mange in livestock were retrospectively analyzed for the presence of T. verrucosum. In total, 5,873 animals (1,087 cows, 2,033 goats, and 2,753 sheep) were screened for evidence of dermatological lesions during two surveys performed in the summer and winter seasons. Skin scrapings collected from animals with lesions were analyzed by direct microscopic examination after digestion in sodium hydroxide and a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting pathogenic Trichophyton species. RESULTS At microscopy, samples from 18 cows (1.6%), 3 sheep (0.1%), and 4 goats (0.2%) were positive for fungal elements consistent with T. verrucosum. PCR confirmed the microscopy results. The prevalence was lower than that reported in other countries in intensive breeding farms. Results agree with the literature regarding factors affecting T. verrucosum diffusion, i.e., infection was more prevalent in cattle, especially in younger animals during the winter season. CONCLUSIONS This study reports, for the first time, the presence of T. verrucosum in livestock in Pakistan. A better knowledge of the animal role in the spread of this fungus may allow the adoption of more efficient control measures and prophylaxis.
One Odontogenic Cell-Population Contributes to the Development of the Mouse Incisors and of the Oral Vestibule

The area of the oral vestibule is often a place where pathologies appear (e.g., peripheral odontomas). The origin of these pathologies is not fully understood. In the present study, we traced a cell population expressing Sonic hedgehog (Shh) from the beginning of tooth development using Cre-LoxP system in the lower jaw of wild-type (WT) mice. We focused on Shh expression in the area of the early appearing rudimentary incisor germs located anteriorly to the prospective incisors. The localization of the labelled cells in the incisor germs and also in the inner epithelial layer of the vestibular anlage showed that the first very early developmental events in the lower incisor area are common to the vestibulum oris and the prospective incisor primordia in mice. Scanning electron microscopic analysis of human historical tooth-like structures found in the vestibular area of jaws confirmed their relation to teeth and thus the capability of the vestibular tissue to form teeth. The location of labelled cells descendant of the early appearing Shh expression domain related to the rudimentary incisor anlage not only in the rudimentary and functional incisor germs but also in the externally located anlage of the oral vestibule documented the odontogenic potential of the vestibular epithelium. This potential can be awakened under pathological conditions and become a source of pathologies in the vestibular area.
Pak 3 regulates apical-basal polarity in migrating border cells during Drosophila oogenesis

Group cell migration is a highly coordinated process that is involved in a number of physiological events such as morphogenesis, wound healing and tumor metastasis. Unlike single cells, collectively moving cells are physically attached to each other and retain some degree of apical-basal polarity during the migratory phase. Although much is known about direction sensing, how polarity is regulated in multicellular movement remains unclear. Here we report the role of the protein kinase Pak3 in maintaining apical-basal polarity in migrating border cell clusters during Drosophila oogenesis. Pak3 is enriched in border cells and downregulation of its function impedes border cell movement. Time-lapse imaging suggests that Pak3 affects protrusive behavior of the border cell cluster, specifically regulating the stability and directionality of protrusions. Pak3 functions downstream of guidance receptor signaling to regulate the level and distribution of F-actin in migrating border cells. We also provide evidence that Pak3 genetically interacts with the lateral polarity marker Scribble and that it regulates JNK signaling in the moving border cells. Since Pak3 depletion results in mislocalization of several apical-basal polarity markers and overexpression of Jra rescues the polarity of the Pak3-depleted cluster, we propose that Pak3 functions through JNK signaling to modulate apical-basal polarity of the migrating border cell cluster. We also observe loss of apical-basal polarity in Rac1-depleted border cell clusters, suggesting that guidance receptor signaling functions through Rac GTPase and Pak3 to regulate the overall polarity of the cluster and mediate efficient collective movement of the border cells to the oocyte
Loneliness, Self-Disclosure, and ICQ ("I Seek You") Use

This study investigated the relationships between self-disclosure in ICQ ("I seek you") chat, level of loneliness, and ICQ usage. The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Revised Self-Disclosure Scale (RSDS) were administered to a multistaged stratified random sample of 576 college students. The results indicate that loneliness is not related to level of ICQ use, but inversely related to valence, accuracy, and the amount dimensions of self-disclosure in ICQ chat, and that ICQ usage is significantly related to control of depth and intent of disclosure. Specifically, it was found that the lonelier the student, the more dishonest, more negative, and the less revealing was the quality of the self-disclosure in their ICQ interaction. Conversely, appropriate, honest, positive, and accurate self-disclosure might lead to decreased loneliness when one feels understood, accepted, and cared about on ICQ. More important, as intimate relationships are based on high degrees of depth and intent of self-disclosure, heavy users of ICQ are usually open, personal, and consciously aware of what they are disclosing.
SDiff gauge theory and the M2 condensate

We develop a general formalism for the construction, in D-dimensional Minkowski space, of gauge theories for which the gauge group is the infinite-dimensional group SDiffn of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms of some closed n-dimensional manifold. We then focus on the D = 3 SDiff3 superconformal gauge theory describing a condensate of M2-branes; in particular, we derive its = 8 superfield equations from a pure-spinor superspace action, and we describe its relationship to the D = 3 SDiff2 super-Yang-Mills theory describing a condensate of D2-branes.