Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the relationship between gingival biotypes and gingival thickness in young Caucasians.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate a possible relationship between gingival biotypes and gingival thickness, papilla height and gingival width. MATERIAL AND METHODS Thirty-six adult subjects were stratified by their gingival biotype (GB), as defined by transparency of a periodontal probe through the buccal gingival margin, into "thin" (18 subjects) and "thick" (18 subjects) GB. Out of these, extreme cases (6 "very thin", 6 "very thick") were identified. Four different parameters were assessed: gingival thickness (GT), papilla height (PH), probing depth (PD) and gingival width (GW). RESULTS When comparing "thin" and "thick" GB, midfacial GT (0.40 ± 0.07 vs. 0.72 ± 0.11 mm; P < 0.0001), PH (3.76 ± 0.50 vs. 3.95 ± 0.41 mm, P = 0.02) and GW (3.01 ± 1.26 vs. 4.63 ± 0.86 mm, P = 0.04) were lower in the "thin" GB group. Further stratification into moderately and extremely "thin"/"thick" GB eliminated the differences between the moderate groups. CONCLUSION Our data support the traditional hypothesis that two different gingival biotypes with concomitant properties distinguishable by gingival transparency exist. In addition, we provide evidence that an alternative classification into "very thick", "moderate" and "very thin" biotypes might be advantageous, because the unique properties were seemingly primarily driven by subjects with extreme values.
Investigating Active Learning for Concept Prerequisite Learning

Concept prerequisite learning focuses on machine learning methods for measuring the prerequisite relation among concepts. With the importance of prerequisites for education, it has recently become a promising research direction. A major obstacle to extracting prerequisites at scale is the lack of large-scale labels which will enable effective data-driven solutions. We investigate the applicability of active learning to concept prerequisite learning.We propose a novel set of features tailored for prerequisite classification and compare the effectiveness of four widely used query strategies. Experimental results for domains including data mining, geometry, physics, and precalculus show that active learning can be used to reduce the amount of training data required. Given the proposed features, the query-by-committee strategy outperforms other compared query strategies.
The effect on treatment response of fibromyalgic symptoms in early rheumatoid arthritis patients: results from the ESPOIR cohort.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether patients with RA who belong to the spectrum of fibromyalgic RA (FRA) have an impaired response to treatment measured by traditional activity scores. METHODS Patients from the ESPOIR cohort were analysed. This prospective cohort included 813 patients with early arthritis not initially receiving DMARDs. Among the 697 patients who met RA classification criteria, we studied two groups, one with and the other without FRA. The following endpoints were compared at 6, 12 and 18 months using a mixed linear regression model: 28-joint DAS (DAS28), Simple Disease Activity Index (SDAI), Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) and HAQ. In addition, attainment of low disease activity (LDA; DAS28 <3.2) and remission (DAS28 <2.6, SDAI <3.3, CDAI <2.8) at these time points was analysed. RESULTS Patients with FRA (n = 120) had higher DAS28, SDAI, CDAI and HAQ scores than patients with RA and no fibromyalgic characteristics (n = 548). DAS28 and other DASs started out higher in subjects with FRA, and while they improved to a similar extent to in the isolated RA group, they remained consistently higher among FRA patients. Achievement of LDA and remission was significantly less likely in subjects with FRA. CONCLUSION Patients with FRA and RA will have a similar response to treatment according to the decrease in indexes of disease activity, but may miss the target of remission or LDA.
Democracy and human development: A critical empirical investigation using data from 123 countries, 1970-1990.

Although much has been written about the general relationship between democracy and development since the end of the Second World War, a common consensus has not emerged to explain the various facets of this relationship. Originally defined in purely economic terms, only recently has the concept of development been broadened to include the most vital non-economic components under the umbrella of 'human development'. Indeed, the UNDP's first Human Development Report (1990) proposed that human development should serve as the yardstick with which to measure the progress of nations. Influenced by the post-Cold War euphoria, the accompanying political argument, propagated by many international bodies (including the World Bank and the UNDP), Western policy-makers and development planners, held that democracy and human development are mutually complementary phenomena. To date, however, the empirical basis for this view has not been established. Using data from 123 countries for the 1970-90 period, this thesis represents an extensive cross-national, time-series investigation into the nature of the relationship between democracy and human development. It will be argued that there are in fact two relationships to be established, one between democracy and levels of human development and one between democracy and human development performance. This leads to the fundamental question: Is democracy typically the by-product of development, the catalyst for development, or neither. To answer this, the records of democratic and non-democratic states will be evaluated and compared using many different analytical techniques, sample groups and controlling variables. This thesis will also examine other important related concerns, including the triangular relationship between democracy, human development and economic growth, and the political basis of the best-performing case studies, or 'developmental states'. Several new empirical measures have been constructed specifically for the purposes of this research, including a new measure of democracy, the Level of Democracy index (LoD), and a new and more comprehensive measure of human development, the Integrated Human Development Index (I-HDI).
The novel histologic International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society classification system of lung adenocarcinoma is a stage-independent predictor of survival.

PURPOSE Our aim was to analyze and validate the prognostic impact of the novel International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)/American Thoracic Society (ATS)/European Respiratory Society (ERS) proposal for an architectural classification of invasive pulmonary adenocarcinomas (ADCs) across all tumor stages. PATIENTS AND METHODS The architectural pattern of a large cohort of 500 patients with resected ADCs (stages I to IV) was retrospectively analyzed in 5% increments and classified according to their predominant architecture (lepidic, acinar, solid, papillary, or micropapillary), as proposed by the IASLC/ATS/ERS. Subsequently, histomorphologic data were correlated with clinical data, adjuvant therapy, and patient outcome. RESULTS Overall survival differed significantly between lepidic (78.5 months), acinar (67.3 months), solid (58.1 months), papillary (48.9 months), and micropapillary (44.9 months) predominant ADCs (P = .007). When patterns were lumped into groups, this resulted in even more pronounced differences in survival (pattern group 1, 78.5 months; group 2, 67.3 months; group 3, 57.2 months; P = .001). Comparable differences were observed for overall, disease-specific, and disease-free survival. Pattern and pattern groups were stage- and therapy-independent prognosticators for all three survival parameters. Survival differences according to patterns were influenced by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy; in particular, solid-predominant tumors had an improved prognosis with adjuvant radiotherapy. The predominant pattern was tightly linked to the risk of developing nodal metastases (P < .001). CONCLUSION Besides all recent molecular progress, architectural grading of pulmonary ADCs according to the novel IASLC/ATS/ERS scheme is a rapid, straightforward, and efficient discriminator for patient prognosis and may support patient stratification for adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. It should be part of an integrated clinical, morphologic, and molecular subtyping to further improve ADC treatment.
Tobacco Smoking and Alcohol Consumption Are Related to Benign Parotid Tumor: A Nested Case-Control Study Using a National Health Screening Cohort

Objectives. To evaluate the relationship among smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity and benign or malignant parotid tumors in a Korean population. Methods. The Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort (for ≥40-year-olds) was assessed from 2002 to 2013. In total, 336 benign parotid tumors and 46 malignant parotid tumors were matched with controls at a ratio of 1 to 4 with respect to age, sex, income, region of residence, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. We analyzed previous histories of smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity. By unconditional logistic regression analyses, the crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were investigated and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were counted. Results. The estimated annual incidence of the benign parotid tumors was 5.66 per 100,000, and that of the malignant parotid tumor was 0.81 per 100,000. The adjusted ORs of smoking for the benign parotid tumors was 2.52 (95% CI, 1.84 to 3.46). This finding was consistent in the subgroups of <60 years old, ≥60 years old, and men. The adjusted ORs of alcohol consumption for the benign parotid tumors showed the statistical significance only in women (adjusted OR, 2.35; 95% CI, 1.10 to 5.00). Obesity did not reach a statistical significance in any analysis. Conclusion. Benign parotid tumor was related with smoking, and it was linked with alcohol consumption in women only.
Politics in Mexico: The Democratic Consolidation

This detailed and accessible text gives readers a general introduction to all aspects of Mexican politics and the necessary historical grounding to understand it. Camp provides up-to-date information on such timely topics as decision-making, political participation, citizen socialization, voter behaviour, and electoral politics. The book also offers original analysis of the 2006 presidential election, and compares voter behaviour and electorial outcomes with the 2000 and 2003 elections. This text is perfect for classes in Mexican Politics, Latin American Politics and comparative politics.
The blood donor: detection and magnitude of cytomegalovirus carrier states and the prevalence of cytomegalovirus antibody.

Interest in transfusion-associated Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections began with the recognition that the overwhelming majority of cases of late-onset postperfusion mononucleosis were heterophile negative (1, 2). In 1965 Klemola and Kaariainen (3) associated heterophile-negative mononucleosis with CMV infection, and 1 year later the same group documented the association ofCMV infection with heterophile-negative posttransfusion mononucleosis (4). Those patients experiencing CMV infection had not undergone extracorporeal perfusion but had been transfused with large volumes of fresh blood, which implied that asymptomatic carriage of CMV might be quite common. This supposition seemed to be borne out by Diosi et al. (5) in work published in 1968 which reported CMV isolation from the peripheral leukocytes of 2 out of 35 healthy blood donors. Since that time peripheral leukocytes from over 1500 blood donors have been inoculated into cell culture for virus isolation, but no CMV has been recovered. This work has been done in various parts of the world including Bristol, England (6), Pittsburgh (7), Cleveland (8), Atlanta (9), Houston (10), Kansas City (1 1), and Seattle (12). Prospective studies have examined the incidence of CMV infection by serology in patients receiving multiple blood transfusions. Table 1, taken from Randall and Plotkin (13), lists these studies which have shown posttransfusion infection frequencies ranging from 21 to 38%. It is noteworthy that 10 to 15% of those infected developed the postperfusion syndrome. At this point it is important to emphasize the difference between infection and disease. "Disease" is a very simple English word that means just what it says. dis ease, or loss of comfort. "Infection", on the other hand, means the establishment of a host-parasite interaction and need not lead to damage to the host. There are many ways of detecting this interaction, ranging from isolation of the agent to evidence of the immunological response in the host. This table shows evidence of infection. Table 2 is taken from a paper by Krech (18) and shows the distribution of CMV complement Fixing (CF) antibodies in healthy blood donors in different parts of the world. Antibody prevalences range from 40% in highly industrialized areas to 100% in developing countries. It is interesting that antibody prevalences in Japan and Hong Kong are in excess of 90%, even though they cannot be considered developing areas. Table 3 is a summary ofCMV CF antibody prevalence studies in blood donors living in Europe, Australia, and North America. The low prevalence reported in the study of Monif et al. (24) can be explained by the fact that the majority of the donors in Gainesville are college students, thus young and likely to be middle class. Additional studies reporting low antibody prevalences are those of Jack and McAuliffe
Differential modulation for decode-and-forward multiple relay systems

In this paper, differential modulation and demodulation in a multiple relay system using either the decode-and-forward (DF) protocol or the selection relaying (SR) protocol, are investigated. For the DF protocol, the detectors at the destination take the average bit error probabilities (BEPs) of all the source-relay transmissions into account. For a DF single relay system, the exact BEP and its approximation at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are obtained. The approximation of the BEP at high SNR shows explicitly the diversity order and the different effects of the source-relay link and the relay-destination link on the end-to-end error performance. For a DF multiple relay system, a Chernoff upper bound on the BEP and a high SNR approximation for the BEP are obtained. For the SR protocol, some computational complexity is shifted from the destination to all the relays. Each relay computes the instantaneous BEPs of the source-relay transmissions, and uses the instantaneous BEPs to decide whether to transmit or remain silent. The destination performs simple maximal ratio combining (MRC) reception whose error performance is analyzed at high SNR. It shows from an error probability perspective that the SR protocol offers a space diversity order equal to the number of all the potential cooperating nodes.
Biochemical profile in patients with anxious depression under the treatment with serotonergic antidepressants with different mechanisms of action

The pharmacodynamics of serotonergic antidepressants that differentially influence serotonin reuptake transporters is poorly investigated. The aim of this study was to compare the biochemical profiles in patients with anxious depression under the treatment with tianeptine, a serotonin reuptake enhancer, and sertraline, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) and serum amine oxidase (AO) activities, concentration of middle‐mass endotoxic molecules (MMEM) and parameters that characterize the functional properties of serum albumin were investigated in 43 patients with anxious depression (ICD‐10: F 32.1 and F 33.1). It was established that, in comparison with healthy controls, patients with anxious depression were characterized by the significant increase in MAO activity (by 95%), MMEM concentration (by 86%), and a significant decrease in AO activity (by 43%) and also in functional albumin activity. The results of the study show that both tianeptine and sertraline are equally effective in the treatment of anxious depression. The present biochemical investigation, however, suggests that the underlying biochemical changes are more complete following tianeptine treatment. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Neuroprotective effect of pretreatment with ganoderma lucidum in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rat hippocampus

Ganoderma lucidum is a traditional Chinese medicine, which has been shown to have both anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects, and noticeably decreases both the infarct area and neuronal apoptosis of the ischemic cortex. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of pretreatment with ganoderma lucidum (by intragastric administration) in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats. Our results showed that pretreatment with ganoderma lucidum for 3 and 7 days reduced neuronal loss in the hippocampus, diminished the content of malondialdehyde in the hippocampus and serum, decreased the levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-8 in the hippocampus, and increased the activity of superoxide dismutase in the hippocampus and serum. These results suggest that pretreatment with ganoderma lucidum was protective against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury through its anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory actions.
Multimodal image analysis of clinical influences on preterm brain development

Premature birth is associated with numerous complex abnormalities of white and gray matter and a high incidence of long‐term neurocognitive impairment. An integrated understanding of these abnormalities and their association with clinical events is lacking. The aim of this study was to identify specific patterns of abnormal cerebral development and their antenatal and postnatal antecedents.
Advertising as a Search Deterrent

This paper examines a firm's incentive to supply information through advertising when consumers can choose between buying immediately and searching for additional information. The presence of consumer search, which may lower sales, creates incentives for the firm to deter search. We show that partial information disclosure emerges as a useful tool for search deterrence when the search cost is low. Moreover, informative advertising and consumer search behave as complements in the information production process. Our welfare analysis suggests that, although transparency policies reduce search expenditures and improve match quality, their effectiveness depends heavily onthe magnitude of the search cost.
A note on rational call option exercise

Using Swedish equity option data, the rationality in the exercise of American call options is analyzed to see how well it complies with the theoretical exercise rules. Although the exercise behavior appears to be rational overall, several cases of both faulty exercise and failure to exercise are found. Almost a third of the early exercised calls are exercised at other times than predicted by theory. Several of these exercise decisions could potentially be explained by transaction costs, indicating that market frictions do affect the exercise behavior. However, over two thirds of the faulty exercises cannot be explained at all. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:471–482, 2002
Four degrees and beyond: the potential for a global temperature increase of four degrees and its implications

The 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change commits signatories to preventing ‘dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’, leaving unspecified the level of global warming that is dangerous. In the late 1990s, a limit of 2°C global warming above preindustrial temperature was proposed as a ‘guard rail’ below which most of the dangerous climate impacts could be avoided. The 2009 Copenhagen Accord recognized the scientific view ‘that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius’ despite growing views that this might be too high. At the same time, the continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions in the past decade and the delays in a comprehensive global emissions reduction agreement have made achieving this target extremely difficult, arguably impossible, raising the likelihood of global temperature rises of 3°C or 4°C within this century. Yet, there are few studies that assess the potential impacts and consequences of a warming of 4°C or greater in a systematic manner. Papers in this themed issue provide an initial picture of the challenges facing a world that warms by 4°C or more, and the difficulties ahead if warming is to be limited to 2°C with any reasonable certainty. Across many sectors—coastal cities, agriculture, water stress, ecosystems, migration—the impacts and adaptation challenges at 4°C will be larger than at 2°C. In some cases, such as farming in sub-Saharan Africa, a +4°C warming could result in the collapse of systems or require transformational adaptation out of systems, as we understand them today. The potential severity of impacts and the behavioural, institutional, societal and economic challenges involved in coping with these impacts argue for renewed efforts to reduce emissions, using all available mechanisms, to minimize the chances of high-end climate change. Yet at the same time, there is a need for accelerated and focused research that improves understanding of how the climate system might behave under a +4°C warming, what the impacts of such changes might be and how best to adapt to what would be unprecedented changes in the world we live in.
Electrochemical treatment of cork boiling wastewater with a boron-doped diamond anode

Anodic oxidation at a boron-doped diamond anode of cork boiling wastewater was successfully used for mineralization and biodegradability enhancement required for effluent discharge or subsequent biological treatment, respectively. The influence of the applied current density (30–70 mA/cm2) and the background electrolyte concentration (0–1.5 g/L Na2SO4) on the performance of the electrochemical oxidation was investigated. The supporting electrolyte was required to achieve conductivities that enabled anodic oxidation at the highest current intensities applied. The results indicated that pollutant removal increased with the applied current density, and after 8 h, reductions greater than 90% were achieved for COD, dissolved organic carbon, total phenols and colour. The biodegradability enhancement was from 0.13 to 0.59 and from 0.23 to 0.72 for the BOD/COD ratios with BOD of 5 and 20 days’ incubation period, respectively. The tests without added electrolyte were performed at lower applied electrical charges (15 mA/cm2 or 30 V) with good organic load removal (up to 80%). For an applied current density of 30 mA/cm2, there was a minimum of electric conductivity of 1.9 mS/cm (corresponding to 0.75 g/L of Na2SO4), which minimized the specific energy consumption.