Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An evaluation of mandibular molars root canal morphology using cone-beam computed tomography in an Egyptian subpopulation

Introduction The aim of this study was to assess the root canal (RC) anatomy of mandibular permanent molars using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in an Egyptian Ismailia population. Materials and methods Four hundred and thirty-six mandibular molars were included in this study. CBCT scans were evaluated by an oral radiologist and an endodontist. Root morphology and number as well as RC number were evaluated. RC configurations were classified according to Vertucci's method. Sex and bilateral symmetry were recorded. For RC configurations, sex and bilateral sides, Pearson's χ2-test was used (P ≤ 0.05). Results Two hundred and seventeen mandibular first molars demonstrated two roots configuration. Only one case had an extradistolingual root with type I RC. For the mandibular second molars, majority of the 218 were two roots configuration. Only four cases showed single root configuration. Regarding mandibular first molars, the frequency of Vertucci's classification for the mesial root were type IV (83.94%), type II (11.93%), type III (3.21%) and type VII (0.92%). For the distal root, were type I (62.84%), type II (19.72%), type III (10.55%), type IV (2.75%), type V (3.67%) and type VII (0.46%). Regarding mandibular second molars, the highest frequency of Vertucci's classification for the mesial root were type II (57.71%) then type IV (28.86%), type III (7.46%), type I (5.47%) and type V (0.5%). For the distal root, the most common of Vertucci's classification were type I (95.02%) followed by type II (3.48%), type III (0.99%) and type IV (0.5%). C-shaped canals were noticed in mandibular second molars only. Bilateral symmetry was displayed significantly regarding extra canal. There was significant difference between females and males (<0.05). Conclusion Preassessment of the mandibular molars using CBCT imaging provides clear data for the RC morphology that might increase the prognosis of the RC treatment.
Effects of Beverage-Specific Alcohol Consumption on Drinking Behaviors among Urban Youth

Alcoholic beverage consumption among high school students has shifted from beer to liquor. The current longitudinal study examined the effects of beverage-specific alcohol use on drinking behaviors among urban youth. Data included 731 adolescents who participated in Project Northland Chicago and reported consuming alcohol in 7th grade. Logistic regression tested the effects of beverage-specific use on consequences (e.g., alcohol use in the past month, week, heavy drinking, and ever drunkenness). Compared to wine users, adolescents who reported drinking hard liquor during their last drinking occasion had increased odds of alcohol use during the past month (OR = 1.44; 95% CI = 1.01–2.05), past week (OR = 3.37; 95% CI = 1.39–8.18), and ever drunkenness (OR = 1.56; 95% CI = 1.07–2.29). Use of hard liquor was associated with increased risk of alcohol-related consequences. Early selection of certain alcoholic beverages (e.g., hard liquor) may result in negative health outcomes and problematic alcohol use over time.
Prelude to and Resolution of an Error: EEG Phase Synchrony Reveals Cognitive Control Dynamics during Action Monitoring

Error-related activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is thought to work in conjunction with lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) as a part of an action-monitoring network, where errors signal the need for increased cognitive control. The neural mechanism by which this mPFC–lPFC interaction occurs remains unknown. We hypothesized that transient synchronous oscillations in the theta range reflect a mechanism by which these structures interact. To test this hypothesis, we extracted oscillatory phase and power from current–source–density-transformed electroencephalographic data recorded during a Flanker task. Theta power in the mPFC was diminished on the trial preceding an error and increased immediately after an error, consistent with predictions of an action-monitoring system. These power dynamics appeared to take place over a response-related background of oscillatory theta phase coherence. Theta phase synchronization between FCz (mPFC) and F5/6 (lPFC) sites was robustly increased during error trials. The degree of mPFC–lPFC oscillatory synchronization predicted the degree of mPFC power on error trials, and both of these dynamics predicted the degree of posterror reaction time slowing. Oscillatory dynamics in the theta band may in part underlie a mechanism of communication between networks involved in action monitoring and cognitive control.
Changes in tyrosine phosphorylation associated with true capacitation and capacitation‐like state in boar spermatozoa

Capacitation is defined as a series of events that render boar sperm competent to fertilize, either in vivo or in vitro. Moreover, preliminary stages of cryopreservation of spermatozoa involving cooling to 5°C have been shown to induce capacitation‐like changes in boar spermatozoa. Capacitation of boar spermatozoa is accompanied by protein phosphorylation, however the relationship between both processes is poorly understood. Capacitation status was assessed by chlortetracycline (CTC) staining. Changes in protein tyrosine phosphorylation were examined in pre‐cleared whole cell lysates using a specific anti‐phosphotyrosine monoclonal antibody. Our results in boar spermatozoa show a significant positive correlation between p32 tyrosine phosphorylation levels and percentage of capacitated (CTC pattern B) spermatozoa. Moreover, incubation of boar spermatozoa with two unrelated tyrosine kinase inhibitors induces a significant reduction in the percentages of capacitated and acrosome‐reacted (AR) boar spermatozoa and a reduction in the p32 tyrosine phosphorylation. In our conditions, cooling boar spermatozoa to 5°C and rewarming to 39°C in a noncapacitating medium results in similar CTC staining patterns to those obtained after incubation of boar sperm for 1 or 4 hr at 39°C in a capacitating medium. However, cooled‐rewarmed fails to induce an increase in p32 tyrosine phosphorylation in boar spermatozoa. Moreover, CTC staining patterns of cooled‐rewarmed spermatozoa do not change after incubation with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. In conclusion, our results show a direct relationship between capacitation and tyrosine phosphorylation and suggest that p32 tyrosine phosphorylation levels could be used as a marker of the true capacitation changes observed in boar spermatozoa. Moreover, our results show that true capacitation and capacitation‐like changes induced after cooling involve alternative intracellular tyrosine phosphorylation pathways in boar spermatozoa. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 71: 88–96, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
(Dis)confirming theories of consciousness and their predictions: towards a Lakatosian consciousness science

Abstract The neuroscience of consciousness is undergoing a significant empirical acceleration thanks to several adversarial collaborations that intend to test different predictions of rival theories of consciousness. In this context, it is important to pair consciousness science with confirmation theory, the philosophical discipline that explores the interaction between evidence and hypotheses, in order to understand how exactly, and to what extent, specific experiments are challenging or validating theories of consciousness. In this paper, I examine this intricate relationship by adopting a Lakatosian lens. I propose that Lakatos’ philosophy of science can aid consciousness scientists to better interpret adversarial collaborations in consciousness science and, more generally, to develop a confirmation-theoretic model of theory-appraisal in this field. I do so by suggesting that such a model be built upon three Lakatos-inspired criteria for assessing the relationship between empirical evidence and theoretical predictions: (i) the model should represent the ‘distinction between prediction and accommodation’; (ii) the model should represent the ‘structural relevance’ of predictions; (iii) the model should represent the ‘boldness’ of the predictions. I argue that a Lakatosian model of theory-appraisal has both normative and descriptive virtues, and can move the debate forward by acknowledging that theory-appraisal needs to consider the diachronic development of theories, their logical structure, and their relationship with background beliefs and knowledge.
The next phase of healthcare improvement: what can we learn from social movements?

To date, improvement in health care has relied mainly on a “top down” programme by programme approach to service change and development. This has spawned a multitude of different and often impressive improvement schemes and activities. We question whether what has been happening will be sufficient to achieve the desired scale of change within the time scales set. Is it a case of “more of the same” or are there new and different approaches that might now be usefully implemented? Evidence from the social sciences suggests that other perspectives may help to recast large scale organisational change efforts in a new light and offer a different, though complementary, approach to improvement thinking and practice. Particularly prominent is the recognition that such large scale change in organisations relies not only on the “external drivers” but on the ability to connect with and mobilise people’s own “internal” energies and drivers for change, thus creating a “bottom up” locally led “grass roots” movement for improvement and change.
Co-design of an intervention to improve patient participation in discharge medication communication

Abstract Patients can experience medication-related harm and hospital readmission because they do not understand or adhere to post-hospital medication instructions. Increasing patient medication literacy and, in turn, participation in medication conversations could be a solution. The purposes of this study were to co-design and test an intervention to enhance patient participation in hospital discharge medication communication. In terms of methods, co-design, a collaborative approach where stakeholders design solutions to problems, was used to develop a prototype medication communication intervention. First, our consumer and healthcare professional stakeholders generated intervention ideas. Next, inpatients, opinion leaders, and academic researchers collaborated to determine the most pertinent and feasible intervention ideas. Finally, the prototype intervention was shown to six intended end-users (i.e. hospital patients) who underwent usability interviews and completed the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability questionnaire. The final intervention comprised of a suite of three websites: (i) a medication search engine; (ii) resources to help patients manage their medications once home; and (iii) a question builder tool. The intervention has been tested with intended end-users and results of the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability questionnaire have shown that the intervention is acceptable. Identified usability issues have been addressed. In conclusion, this co-designed intervention provides patients with trustworthy resources that can help them to understand medication information and ask medication-related questions, thus promoting medication literacy and patient participation. In turn, this intervention could enhance patients’ medication self-efficacy and healthcare utilization. Using a co-design approach ensured authentic consumer and other stakeholder engagement, while allowing opinion leaders and researchers to ensure that a feasible intervention was developed.
Satisfaction with and psychological impact of immediate and deferred breast reconstruction.

BACKGROUND The present work assesses the effect of immediate breast reconstruction (IBR), deferred breast reconstruction (DBR), and no breast reconstruction on the psychological impact. PATIENTS AND METHODS Standard questionnaires were used to determine the psychological impact suffered by patients who underwent IBR, DBR and no reconstruction, their degree of satisfaction with the results achieved, and their postprocedure opinions regarding reconstruction options. RESULTS A total of 526 women underwent mastectomy. The response rate to the questionnaires was 71.67%. A significantly greater proportion of the women who underwent no reconstruction suffered psychological problems than those who underwent reconstruction of some type (P = 0.01). Some 94.77% of the women who underwent IBR maintained a postprocedure preference for this option; in contrast, some 87.27% of the DBR and 56.14% of the no-reconstruction patients declared a postprocedure preference for IBR. In all, 63.49% of the women who underwent reconstruction were moderately very satisfied with the aesthetic results achieved, while only 22.80% of the no-reconstruction patients declared such satisfaction (P = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS The women who underwent no breast reconstruction suffered more emotional problems than those who underwent a reconstruction procedure. In general, all groups reported a postprocedure preference for IBR in their questionnaire answers. The aesthetic results achieved by IBR seem to be those best accepted.
Good job, bad job: Occupational perceptions among Latino poultry workers.

OBJECTIVES Immigrant workers frequently take jobs that are physically demanding, provide low wages, and result in injuries (e.g., poultry production and processing). Through a qualitative approach, this paper elicits poultry workers' evaluations of their jobs and set them in the larger context of their lives. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 poultry workers in western North Carolina. Workers were asked to discuss job characteristics, physical and psychological impacts of their employment, and perceived health risks. RESULTS Immigrant workers valued the stability, benefits, upward mobility, and pay offered. They disliked the physical demands, the potential perceived effects of the job on their health, and the interactions with bosses and peers. CONCLUSIONS Workers' willingness to endure dirty, dangerous, and demanding (3-D) conditions of poultry must be understood in the context of other employment options, structural violence, and their focus on immediate family needs that positive aspects of these jobs can fulfill. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:877-886, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Intestinal parasites of conventionally maintained BALB/c mice and Mastomys coucha and the effects of a concomitant schistosome infection

A longitudinal study was carried out to identify the spectrum of intestinal parasites present in conventionally maintained BALB/c mice and Mastomys coucha and to determine the effects of concomitant schistosome infections on their parasite status. Six parasites were observed during the course of the study, namely the nematodes Aspiculuris tetraptera and Syphacia obvelata, Entamoeba muris and the flagellates Trichomonas muris, Spironucleus muris and Chilomastix spp. Although the 2 rodents shared common facilities, the overall prevalences of S. obvelata, T. muris and S. muris were significantly higher in M. coucha than BALB/c mice. BALB/c mice with concomitant schistosome infection had increased prevalences of E. muris, T. muris and S. muris. In M. coucha, in contrast, there were no significant increases in parasite prevalences. Infection intensities of T. muris and S. muris were significantly greater in M. coucha than BALB/c mice. Concomitant schistosome infection resulted in increased intensities of T. muris infection in BALB/c mice only. The influence of immune status in determining the susceptibilities of rodents to environmentally transmitted parasites is discussed.
GLUCURONIDATION OF NONSTEROIDAL ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS: IDENTIFYING THE ENZYMES RESPONSIBLE IN HUMAN LIVER MICROSOMES

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), used for the treatment of pain and inflammation, are eliminated primarily through conjugation with polar sugar moieties to form glucuronides. Glucuronidation is catalyzed by the UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGT) superfamily. An inverse relationship may exist between glucuronidation activity and NSAID efficacy; however, specific UGTs catalyzing conjugation of the structurally diverse NSAIDs have yet to be identified systematically. Therefore, NSAID glucuronidation activity by 12 individually expressed UGTs was investigated by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The relative rates of NSAID glucuronidation varied among UGT enzymes examined, demonstrating specificity of the individual UGTs toward selected NSAIDs. Kinetic parameters were determined for expressed UGT Supersomes and compared with parameters determined in pooled human liver microsomes (HLMs). Comparison of Km values suggested roles for UGTs 1A3 and 2B7 in indene glucuronidation and UGTs 1A9, 2B4, and 2B7 in profen glucuronidation. Inhibitory studies in pooled HLMs support the role of UGTs 1A1, 1A3, 1A9, 2B4, and 2B7 in the glucuronidation of ibuprofen, flurbiprofen, and ketoprofen. Bilirubin did not inhibit indomethacin or diclofenac glucuronidation, suggesting that UGT1A1 was not involved in catalysis. Imipramine did not inhibit glucuronidation of sulindac, sulindac sulfone, indomethacin, or naproxen in pooled HLMs, suggesting that UGT1A3 was not a principal hepatic catalyst. Nevertheless, multiple UGT enzymes, most notably UGTs 1A1, 1A9, 2B4, and 2B7, seem to be involved in the hepatic catalysis of NSAID glucuronidation.
Heme acts through the Bach1b/Nrf2a-MafK pathway to regulate exocrine peptidase precursor genes in porphyric zebrafish

Using a zebrafish model of hepatoerythropoietic porphyria (HEP), we identify a previously unknown mechanism underlying heme-mediated regulation of exocrine zymogens. Zebrafish bach1b, nrf2a and mafK are all expressed in the zebrafish exocrine pancreas. Overexpression of bach1b or knockdown of nrf2a result in the downregulation of the expression of the exocrine zymogens, whereas overexpression of nrf2a or knockdown of bach1b cause their upregulation. In vitro luciferase assays demonstrate that heme activates the zymogens in a dosage-dependent manner and that the zymogen promoter activities require the integral Maf recognition element (MARE) motif. The Bach1b-MafK heterodimer represses the zymogen promoters, whereas the Nrf2a-MafK heterodimer activates them. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays show that MafK binds to the MARE sites in the 5′ regulatory regions of the zymogens. Taken together, these data indicate that heme stimulates the exchange of Bach1b for Nrf2a at MafK-occupied MARE sites and that, particularly in heme-deficient porphyria, the repressive Bach1b-MafK heterodimer dominates, which can be exchanged for the activating Nrf2a-MafK heterodimer upon treatment with hemin. These results provide novel insights into the regulation of exocrine function, as well as the pathogenesis of porphyria, and should be useful for designing new therapies for both types of disease.
Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy is a liver disorder that occurs in pregnant women. Cholestasis is a condition that impairs the release of a digestive fluid called bile from liver cells. As a result, bile builds up in the liver, impairing liver function. Because the problems with bile release occur within the liver (intrahepatic), the condition is described as intrahepatic cholestasis. Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy usually becomes apparent in the third trimester of pregnancy. Bile flow returns to normal after delivery of the baby, and the signs and symptoms of the condition disappear. However, they can return during later pregnancies.
Public Policy

The Public Policy major includes interdisciplinary coursework that concentrates on the theory, analysis and application of policy in order to prepare students with the requisite skills and knowledge to pursue careers in the public or private sector or graduate work in public policy and related disciplines. Public Policy students will not only investigate policy in and of itself, but also the relationships among all of the actors and entities that have a voice in the policymaking process. This process is inherently interdisciplinary, and thus brings together scholarship from Economics, Political Science, and Sociology to understand and analyze public policy, including the process itself and the impact of policy on individuals, businesses, and society. The Public Policy major offers a “rigorous, student-centered education rooted in the liberal arts” that encourages students to investigate social problems, explore ethical standards and considerations, and examine issues of equity across a variety of contexts. The goal is to “prepare students for personal excellence, professional success and engaged citizenship” by equipping them with the skills that are necessary for understanding the broad, societal impact of public policy.
Enhancement and Manipulation of Color Images by Scaling the DCT Coefficients

This paper presents a new technique for color enhancement in the compressed domain. The proposed technique is simple but more effective than some of the existing techniques reported earlier. The novelty lies in this case in its treatment of the chromatic components, while previous techniques treated only the luminance component. The results of all previous techniques along with that of the proposed one are compared with respect to those obtained by applying a spatial domain color enhancement technique that appears to provide very good enhancement. The proposed technique, computationally more efficient than the spatial domain based method, is found to provide better enhancement compared to other compressed domain based approaches. In this paper, we investigate how illuminant estimation techniques can be improved, taking into account automatically extracted information about the content of the images & we considered image manipulation for RGB color space. Piyush B. Desai final Year IT JDIET, Yavatmal Abhijit V. Raut final Year IT JDIET, Yavatmal Jayesh Shukla final Year IT JDIET, Yavatmal The full text of the article is not available in the cache. Kindly refer the IJCA digital library at www.ijcaonline.org for the complete article. In case, you face problems while downloading the full-text, please send a mail to editor at editor@ijcaonline.org
Cross-Sectional Study on Influenza Vaccination, Germany, 1999–2000

To assess influenza vaccination coverage in Germany, we conducted a nationwide telephone survey in November 1999 in adults (>18 yrs) using random-digit dialing. Overall, 23% of 1,190 survey participants reported having been vaccinated (adjusted 18%) with 16% (adjusted 15%) in former West Germany versus 35% (adjusted 32%) in former East Germany. Immunization rates for vaccination target groups were lower in West Germany (21%) than in East Germany (40%). Seven percent of health-care workers were immunized. Previous influenza vaccination, positive attitudes towards immunization, and having a family physician increased the rate of vaccination; fear of adverse effects lowered the rate. Family physicians performed 93% of the vaccinations, which suggests their key role in improving low vaccination coverage in Germany. The fact that >71% (850/1,190) of participants belonged to at least one of the vaccination target groups recommended by the German Standing Commission on Immunization emphasizes the need to focus the definition of target groups.