Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of two adhesion boosters on depth of penetration of orthodontic adhesive on fluorosed and normal enamel: A confocal microscopic study

Objectives: This study has been conducted to unveil adhesion promoter's underlying microscopic mechanism using confocal microscope. Materials and Methods: Fifty maxillary first premolars (25 fluorosed and 25 nonfluorosed) were selected. The teeth were divided into 4 groups of 10 teeth each based on the adhesion booster applied and two control groups of 5 fluorosed and 5 nonfluorosed teeth without adhesion booster. Two different adhesion boosters, All-Bond 3 (Bisco, Schaumburg, IL, USA) and Enhance LC (Reliance, Itasca, IL, USA), were mixed with Rhodamine B fluorescent dye and applied on the tooth to facilitate the detection of resin tags in the confocal microscope. The teeth were sliced to a cross-section of 800 μm by hard tissue microtome. Each cross section was scanned in confocal microscope till three distinct resin tags were seen, and this image was stored and quantified. The depth of penetration of adhesive resin tag was chosen as a measure of micromechanical bonding. Data obtained were statistically analyzed. Results: The maximum depth of penetration was recorded in fluorosed/All-Bond 3 group of 75.57 μm and a minimum depth of penetration was in fluorosed and conventional primer group of 26.46 μm. Conclusions: This shows that micromechanical bonding is compromised in fluorosed teeth. Both the adhesion boosters, All-Bond 3 and Enhance LC, enhanced the depth of resin penetration in fluorosed as well as nonfluorosed teeth while conventional primer did not prove to be very useful. Thus, adhesion boosters have been beneficial to increase the micromechanical bonding in cases where bonding is compromised, thus providing a good solution to effective orthodontic bonding.
Modeling and optimization of an ammonia reactor using a penalty-like method q

Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals produced in the world. Due to its broad applicability, modeling and simulation of process of ammonia has received considerable attention among the industrial processes. Ammonia is produced from the reaction of hydrogen and nitrogen at high temperature and high pressure along with a catalyst. Its production depends on temperature of feed gas at the top of the reactor, the partial pressures of the reactants and the reactor length. The optimal design problem requires obtaining the optimal reactor length with maximum economic return subject to a number of equality constraints involving solution of coupled nonlinear differential equations. A more efficient algorithm for the solution of optimization-constrained differential equations is proposed by coupling numerical techniques (barrier function with a direct search method) with Runge–Kutta method. The global convergence of the proposed algorithm is established under some usual conditions. Numerical results showed that the resulting algorithm, based only on function values, is highly competitive with other global optimization methods. 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
A Reduced Basis Method for Parabolic Partial Differential Equations with Parameter Functions and Application to Option Pricing

We consider the Heston model as an example of a parameterized parabolic partial differential equation. A space-time variational formulation is derived that allows for parameters in the coefficients (for calibration) and enables us to choose the initial condition (for option pricing) as a parameter function. A corresponding discretization in space and time for the initial condition are introduced. Finally, we present a novel reduced basis method that is able to use the initial condition of the parabolic partial differential equation as a parameter (function). The corresponding numerical results are shown.
Characterization of the Formation and Localization of Sulfamethoxazole and Dapsone-Associated Drug-Protein Adducts in Human Epidermal Keratinocytes

Sulfonamide- and sulfone-induced hypersensitivity reactions are thought to be mediated through bioactivation of parent drug molecule(s) to their respective reactive metabolite(s). Recent studies have demonstrated that keratinocytes can bioactivate sulfonamides and sulfones. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and hapten-specific rabbit antisera developed in our laboratory, we found that incubation of either normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs) or an immortalized human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) with sulfamethoxazole (SMX) or dapsone (DDS) resulted in the formation of drug/metabolite protein adducts. The formation of these adducts with SMX was increased in the presence of ascorbic acid, whereas N-acetylcysteine decreased adduct formation with both SMX and DDS. Adduct formation was confirmed using confocal microscopy when NHEKs were incubated with SMX, DDS, or their respective arylhydroxylamine metabolites. Cellular distribution of adducts was compared in permeable versus nonpermeable NHEKs. Exposure to SMX, DDS, or dapsone hydroxylamine resulted in the formation of intracellular adducts, whereas SMX hydroxylamine also resulted in the presence of adducts on the cell surface. In summary, our work shows that keratinocytes can bioactivate SMX/DDS to form drug-protein adducts, which may be acquired by antigen-presenting cells upon keratinocyte cell death, evoking an immune response. In addition, keratinocytes may themselves present antigen to hapten-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Furthermore, our results also suggest that different sulfonamides/sulfones may have different protein targets for in situ haptenation in keratinocytes.
SULFURIC ACID DIMER FORMATION IN LAMINAR FLOW TUBE EXPERIMENTS

Atmospheric nucleation rates have been shown to be dependent on sulphuric acid (H2SO4) concentration (Weber et al. 1996, Sihto et al., 2006; Riipinen et al., 2007; Kuang et al., 2009). However, laboratory experiments on H2SO4-nucleation have failed to reproduce ambient observations (e.g. Wyslouzil et al., 1991; Viisanen et al, 1997; Ball et al, 1999; Young et al 2008). Very recently Sipilä et al. (2010) showed that the disagreement between ambient data and laboratory studies is most probably related to improper experimental design and that sulphuric acid nucleation in ultra clean laboratory conditions can indeed explain atmospheric nucleation rates. If H2SO4 is responsible for the nucleation the first step should be formation of (hydrated) H2SO4-dimer which can and have been measured by means of chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CI-MS, Eisele and Hanson, 2000; Hanson and Eisele, 2002; Hanson and Lovejoy, 2006; Zhao et al., 2010).
Forward Kinematics Analysis of a Six-Degree-of-Freedom Stewart Platform Based on Independent Component Analysis and Nelder–Mead Algorithm

This correspondence paper presents an algorithm in which the independent components of link lengths are used as a medium to analyze the forward kinematics of a six-degree-of-freedom Stewart platform. The link lengths are firstly transformed into independent components through independent component analysis. Then, the value of positional variables is computed by using the Nelder-Mead algorithm by taking advantage of the relationships between the independent components and the positional variables. Simulations have been conducted to test the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a better performance than the other published algorithms.
Sensitivity to dimethyltubocurarine and toxiferine with special reference to serum proteins.

SUMMARY In a consecutive series of 100 female patients undergoing abdominal surgery muscular relaxation was obtained in half with dimethyltubocurarine and in half with toxiferine. The required dose of these relaxants (mg/m2 body surface) showed a lower individual variation than the requirements of any other non-depolarizing relaxants investigated under similar conditions. Neostigmine 0.5 mg reversed the block by dimethyltubocurarine better than the block by toxiferine. The requirement of dimethyltubocurarine showed no detectable correlation with any serum protein fraction. The requirement of toxiferine displayed a negative correlation with serum albumin (r≡—0.46) and only weak positive correlation with the globulins. From the present and previous studies it is concluded that charge-dissipating ethyl and allyl quaternization leads to positive correlation with albumin. Methylquaternized compounds, on the other hand, do not show this effect and may even display a negative albumin correlation as seen with toxiferine. Free phenolic hydroxyl groups induce positive correlations with the globulins while free alcoholic hydroxyl groups do not.
Surface turbulence for particle-based liquid simulations

We present a method to increase the apparent resolution of particle-based liquid simulations. Our method first outputs a dense, temporally coherent, regularized point set from a coarse particle-based liquid simulation. We then apply a surface-only Lagrangian wave simulation to this high-resolution point set. We develop novel methods for seeding and simulating waves over surface points, and use them to generate high-resolution details. We avoid error-prone surface mesh processing, and robustly propagate waves without the need for explicit connectivity information. Our seeding strategy combines a robust curvature evaluation with multiple bands of seeding oscillators, injects waves with arbitrarily fine-scale structures, and properly handles obstacle boundaries. We generate detailed fluid surfaces from coarse simulations as an independent post-process that can be applied to most particle-based fluid solvers.
Small-for-gestational age, ponderal index and neonatal polycythaemia: a study of their association with maternal hypertension among Nigerian women

Background/Objective : To examine the influence of maternal hypertension on rate of delivery of small-for-gestation age (SGA) infants, incidence of neonatal polycythaemia and mean ponderal indices of the resultant newborn infants. Methods :From the birth weights and lengths, the ponderal indices of SGA infants born to mothers with chronic hypertension were compared with those of their counterparts born to mothers with pregnancy-induced hypertension. In addition, the spun venous haematocrit values of 265 infants born to mothers whose pregnancies were complicated by hypertension were compared with those of 804 infants born to control mothers. Results : The rates of delivery of SGA infants were 82.0 and 54.7 per 1000 live births among hypertensive and normotensive mothers respectively (p>0.05). The prevalence of neonatal polycythaemia was 8.2% and 2.2% for infants of hypertensive and control mothers respectively (p Conclusion : Maternal hypertension is associated with an increased incidence of neonatal polycythaemia and delivery of SGA infants. This risk is dramatically higher in women with chronic hypertension. Chronic maternal hypertension causes proportionate foetal growth retardation while pregnancy-induced hypertension causes disproportionate foetal growth retardation. Keywords : maternal hypertension, small for gestational age, ponderal index, neonatal polycythaemia Annals of African Medicine Vol. 4(4) 2005: 154-159
Genome-Wide Associations for Water-Soluble Carbohydrate Concentration and Relative Maturity in Wheat Using SNP and DArT Marker Arrays

Improving water-use efficiency by incorporating drought avoidance traits into new wheat varieties is an important objective for wheat breeding in water-limited environments. This study uses genome wide association studies (GWAS) to identify candidate loci for water-soluble carbohydrate accumulation—an important drought-avoidance characteristic in wheat. Phenotypes from a multi-environment trial with experiments differing in water availability and separate single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and diversity arrays technology (DArT) marker sets were used to perform the analyses. Significant associations for water-soluble carbohydrate accumulation were identified on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 1D, 2D, and 4A. Notably, these loci did not collocate with the major loci identified for relative maturity. Loci on chromosome 1D collocated with markers previously associated with the high molecular weight glutenin Glu-D1 locus. Genetic × environmental interactions impacted the results strongly, with significant associations for carbohydrate accumulation identified only in the water-deficit experiments. The markers associated with carbohydrate accumulation may be useful for marker-assisted selection of drought tolerance in wheat.
Cell-Mediated Immune Responses to Human Papillomavirus 16 E6 and E7 Antigens as Measured by Interferon Gamma Enzyme-Linked Immunospot in Women With Cleared or Persistent Human Papillomavirus Infection

Cell-mediated immune responses have been thought to be important in the control of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. We examined cell-mediated immune responses to HPV-16 E6 and E7 in the peripheral blood using interferon gamma (IFN-&ggr;) enzyme-linked immunospot assay (Cellular Technology Ltd, Cleveland, Ohio) in women with HPV-16 infection who showed clearance and compared these women to women with HPV-16 persistence. Women participating in a longitudinal study of cervical HPV were recruited once cervical HPV-16 infection was detected by polymerase chain reaction. Four groups of women were examined: (1) persistent, (2) intermittent, (3) transient, and (4) cleared. Ninety-six samples from 55 women were compared. Comparing IFN-&ggr; enzyme-linked immunospot to the HPV-16 clearance of 10 women with recent persistence, none had response to either E6 or E7; of 24 women with recent clearance, 14 had E6 and 8 had E7 response. Women with intermittent persistence behaved similarly to the clearance group than recent persistors: 50% were positive to E6 and 20% to E7. In summary, anti-E6 responses seem critical in the immediate control of HPV, and in some women, an immune tolerance eventually develops if HPV is not eliminated soon after infection.
Extended Report

Background A lack of biomarkers that identify patients at risk for severe osteoarthritis (OA) complicates development of disease-modifying OA drugs. Objective To determine whether infl ammatory genetic markers could stratify patients with knee OA into high and low risk for destructive disease. Methods Genotype associations with knee OA severity were assessed in two Caucasian populations. Fifteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in six infl ammatory genes were evaluated for association with radiographic severity and with synovial fl uid mediators in a subset of the patients. Results Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL1RN) SNPs (rs419598, rs315952 and rs9005) predicted Kellgren– Lawrence scores independently in each population. One IL1RN haplotype was associated with lower odds of radiographic severity (OR=0.15; 95% CI 0.065 to 0.349; p<0.0001), greater joint space width and lower synovial fl uid cytokine levels. Carriage of the IL1RN haplotype infl uenced the age relationship with severity. Conclusion IL1RN polymorphisms reproducibly contribute to disease severity in knee OA and may be useful biomarkers for patient selection in disease-modifying OA drug trials.
Human glioblastoma‐initiating cells invade specifically the subventricular zones and olfactory bulbs of mice after striatal injection

In patients with glioblastoma multiforme, recurrence is the rule despite continuous advances in surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Within these malignant gliomas, glioblastoma stem cells or initiating cells have been recently described, and they were shown to be specifically involved in experimental tumorigenesis. In this study, we show that some human glioblastoma cells injected into the striatum of immunodeficient nude mice exhibit a tropism for the subventricular zones. There and similarily to neurogenic stem cells, these subventricular glioblastoma cells were then able to migrate toward the olfactory bulbs. Finally, the glioblastoma cells isolated from the adult mouse subventricular zones and olfactory bulbs display high tumorigenicity when secondary injected in a new mouse brain. Together, these data suggest that neurogenic zones could be a reservoir for particular cancer‐initiating cells.
Murine articular cartilage morphology and compositional quantification with high resolution cationic contrast‐enhanced μCT

Articular cartilage lines the load‐bearing surfaces of long bones and undergoes compositional and structural degeneration during osteoarthritis progression. Contrast enhanced microcomputed tomography (μCT) is being applied to a variety of preclinical models, including the mouse, to map structural and compositional properties in 3‐D. The thinness (∼30–50 μm) and high cellularity of mouse articular cartilage presents a significant imaging challenge. Our group previously showed that mouse articular cartilage and proteoglycan (PG) content can be assessed by μCT with the ioxagalate‐based contrast agent Hexabrix, but the voxel size used (6 μm) was deemed to be barely adequate. The objective of the present study is to assess the utility of a novel contrast agent, CA4+, to quantify mouse articular cartilage morphology and composition with high resolution μCT imaging (3 μm voxels) and to compare the sensitivity of CA4+ and Hexabrix to detect between‐group differences. While both contrast agents are iodine‐based, Hexabrix is anionic and CA4+ is cationic so they interact differently with negatively charged PGs. With CA4+, a strong correlation was found between non‐calcified articular cartilage thickness measurements made with histology and μCT (R2 = 0.72, p < 0.001). Cartilage degeneration—as assessed by loss in volume, thickness, and PG content—was observed in 34‐week‐old mice when compared to both 7‐ and 12‐week‐old mice. High measurement precision was observed with CA4+, with the coefficient of variation after repositioning and re‐imaging samples equaling 2.8%, 4.5%, 7.4% and 5.9% for attenuation, thickness, volume, and PG content, respectively. Use of CA4+ allowed increased sensitivity for assessing PG content compared to Hexabrix, but had no advantage for measurement of cartilage thickness or volume. This improvement in imaging should prove useful in preclinical studies of cartilage degeneration and regeneration. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:2740–2748, 2017.
Responses to gastric distension in functional dyspepsia

Background—Studies have shown that an altered visceral perception threshold plays a role in the pathogenesis of upper gastrointestinal tract symptoms in dyspeptic patients. However, it is not clear whether the compliance and adaptive relaxation of the proximal stomach contribute to the symptoms. Aims—To investigate whether abnormal relaxation or adaptation of the proximal stomach during the interdigestive state and the postprandial phase could explain the symptoms of functional dyspepsia. Subjects—Twelve volunteers and 12 patients with dysmotility-like functional dyspepsia were included in the study. Methods—An electronic barostat was used to investigate adaptation to distension of the proximal stomach and accommodation in response to a liquid meal. Dyspeptic symptoms during distension and accommodation were assessed. Results—When the subjects were in the fasting state, the pressure-volume curve showed slightly higher compliance in the dyspeptic patients (p<0.05). Patients not only had a higher score for nausea, bloating, and pain but also the increase in nausea and pain scores with intragastric pressure was higher than in volunteers (p<0.05). The increase in intragastric bag volume in response to a meal was significantly lower in patients (p<0.05). Both bloating and pain significantly increased in the patients (p<0.05), but not in the healthy volunteers. Conclusions—Patients with functional dyspepsia show slightly higher compliance to mechanical distension. Their visceral perception of mechanical stress is enhanced. In contrast with the balloon distension, relaxation after a meal was less. Therefore the postprandial symptoms cannot be explained fully by greater global tension in the stomach wall, as assessed by the barostat technique. Visceral hypersensitivity plays a major role in the pathogenesis of the symptoms.
Symmetrized Random Permutations

Selecting N random points in a unit square corresponds to selecting a random permutation. By putting 5 types of symmetry restrictions on the points, we obtain subsets of permutations : involutions, signed permutations and signed involutions. We are interested in the statistics of the length of the longest up/right path of random points selections in each symmetry type as the number of points increases to infinity. The limiting distribution functions are expressed in terms of Painleve II equation. Some of them are Tracy-Widom distributions in random matrix theory, while there are two new classes of distribution functions interpolating GOE and GSE, and GUE and GOE^2 Tracy-Widom distribution functions. Also some applications and related topics are discussed.
Uricemia and homocysteinemia: nontraditional risk factors in the early stages of chronic kidney disease--preliminary data.

BACKGROUND Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) show a risk of cardiovascular death, which is 10-100 times higher than that in the general population. This increase is not completely explained by the traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Hyperuricemia and hyperhomocysteinemia are highly prevalent in CKD. Patients suffering from these complications present accelerated atherosclerosis, determined mainly from the endothelial dysfunction that carries out a central role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. AIM The hypothesis was that brachial artery flow mediated dilation (FMD) and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) evaluation can be considered as early and systemic markers of atherosclerosis and that nontraditional risk factors, such as hyperhomocysteinemia and hyperuricemia, are associated with early endothelial dysfunction and vascular damage in patients suffering from first- and second-stage CKD. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study comprised 50 patients, 10 for each CKD stage, and 15 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. We compared the traditional and nontraditional factors for cardiovascular diseases with alterations of vascular reactivity, such as cIMT, and brachial artery FMD, in patients affected by CKD with those in the control group. RESULTS In our study, hyperuricemia was significantly and independently associated with brachial artery FMD reduction (p = 0.007), while hyperhomocysteinemia was significantly and independently associated with carotid intima-media thickening (p = 0.021) in patients at Stage I and II KDOQI (Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative). CONCLUSIONS In our study, we found a progressive increase in the inflammatory indices and endothelial dysfunction at the early stages of CKD. Hyperuricemia and hyperhomocysteinemia were associated with IMT and FMD at Stage I-III KDOQI, and can be used as markers of subclinical atherosclerosis, especially in nephropathic patients with high cardiovascular risk.
Purification and characterization of glutamic acid dehydrogenase and -ketoglutaric acid reductase from Peptococcus aerogenes.

Two NAD-dependent enzymes involved in glutamic acid metabolism have been isolated from cell-free extracts of P. aerogenes. One enzyme, glutamic acid dehydrogenase, was shown to oxidatively deaminate glutamic acid yielding α-ketoglutaric acid in the presence of NAD but not NADP. The other enzyme, an NADH-requiring α-ketoglutarate reductase, reduced the α-keto acid to α-hydroxy-glutarate. The two NAD-dependent enzymes were separated, purified, and characterized. The results indicate that glutamic acid dehydrogenase, an enzyme not frequently implicated in anaerobic glutamate metabolism, is a predominating protein in extracts of P. aerogenes grown in the presence of glutamate. Kinetic data showed that the equilibrium of the latter reaction favored the direction of keto acid reduction.