Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative analysis of adhesive failure of orthodontic resins: An in vitro mechanical test with the finite element method

Objective: The purpose of this study was to validate finite element (FE) method as a reliable adhesive shear strength test method by investigating and comparing the results from in vitro mechanical tests and 3-D FE simulations. Materials and Methods: Four groups of teeth ( n =15) using Transbond XT (3M Unitek, Monrovia, CA) and Enlight Ormco (Glendora, CA) with metallic and ceramic brackets (Twin-Edge and InVu, TP Orthodontics, Inc., La Porte, IN) were obtained and submitted to shear bond strength tests. Subsequently, an equivalent geometric model was subjected to FE modeling analysis. ANOVA tests indicated a statistically significant difference ( P Results: FE analysis showed the stress distribution in the adhesive layer and revealed an increased stress distribution in the ceramic brackets. These results were consistent with in vitro detachment experiments. Conclusions: This study establishes that FE sub-modeling can be used to simulate adhesive resistance.
The impact of alcohol in pedestrian trauma

Across the globe, alcohol plays a major role in traffic-related injuries. It impairs the motor and cognitive coordination of drivers leading to motor vehicle collisions, which severely or fatally injure individuals across cultures and socioeconomic spectra. Although most public health initiatives have focused on driver intoxication, there is a high prevalence of alcohol use among pedestrians who are struck by motor vehicles, especially in collisions involving pedestrian fatalities. Alcohol use by pedestrians impairs judgment and coordination leading to risky street-crossing behaviors. Intoxication influences medical management by disrupting the reliability of the physical examination often necessitating expensive imaging modalities to rule out injuries. Alcohol abuse continues to impede traffic safety injury prevention efforts. This article reviews alcohol’s notorious role in traffic safety and pedestrian trauma.
Utilization of a chromogenic Limulus amebocyte lysate blood assay in a multi-center study of sepsis

We conducted a prospective study of a chromogenic LAL assay in 346 patients with sepsis syndrome, as defined by a modification of the Bone criteria, and 131 healthy volunteers at eight member centers of the Academic Medical College Consortium (AMCC). We identified patients with endotoxemia (> 0.40 EU/ml) by measuring LAL-reactive material in whole blood, extracted by the Tamura nitric acid method, with the chromogenic LAL (Pyrochrome®) assay. The mean result in sepsis patients with detectable endotoxemia (n = 241) was 1.07 ± 1.57 EU/ml, and the mean result in 131 volunteers was 0.151 ± 0.113 EU/ml, with 73% of the volunteers' results falling below the detectable limit. The average incidence of endotoxemia in sepsis patients was 33%, but varied 2.7-fold among the clinical centers (range 16-44%). Assay results were repeatable when samples tested frozen at the clinical sites were compared to results on frozen samples tested at Associates of Cape Cod, Inc. (ACC). Multiple samples were obtained from 40 patients at 18-24 h interval(s). Fourteen multidraw patients (35%) were endotoxemic at one or more draw(s) and eight of these patients had two or more draws with endotoxin levels > 1.0 EU/ml. The presence of sulfa drugs gave false positive results in two patient samples. A positive LAL test did not correlate with culture-proven bacterial infection and did not significantly correlate with mortality. There was a correlation (P = 0.014) between a patient having a positive LAL test and the presence of a fungal infection when mixed fungal and bacterial infections were included. There was no correlation with a positive LAL test when only a fungal infection was present (P = 0.425) or when only a fungal and a Gram-positive infection was present (P = 0.087).
The Prevalence of Social Engagement in the Disabled Elderly and Related Factors

The purpose of this study is to explore the prevalence and related factors of social engagement in the disabled elderly. Participants were 86 elderly ranging from 65 to 84 years of age with disability dwelling in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Among them, socially engaged elderly were 23 people (26.7% of the participants). Seventeen of the 23 socially engaged elderly were mildly disabled (32.7% of the mild disability group). Four were moderately disabled (20.0% of the moderate disability group), and 2 were severely disabled elderly (14.3% of the severe disability group). Factors related to social engagement in the disabled elderly were examined using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results showed that self-rated health and psychological independence were significantly associated with social engagement in the disabled elderly. This result did not change even after adjusting for disability status level. These findings suggest that support in psychological aspects, such as self-rated health and psychological independence, may promote social engagement in the disabled elderly.
Improving recommendation accuracy based on item-specific tag preferences

In recent years, different proposals have been made to exploit Social Web tagging information to build more effective recommender systems. The tagging data, for example, were used to identify similar users or were viewed as additional information about the recommendable items. Recent research has indicated that “attaching feelings to tags” is experienced by users as a valuable means to express which features of an item they particularly like or dislike. When following such an approach, users would therefore not only add tags to an item as in usual Web 2.0 applications, but also attach a preference (affect) to the tag itself, expressing, for example, whether or not they liked a certain actor in a given movie. In this work, we show how this additional preference data can be exploited by a recommender system to make more accurate predictions. In contrast to previous work, which also relied on so-called tag preferences to enhance the predictive accuracy of recommender systems, we argue that tag preferences should be considered in the context of an item. We therefore propose new schemes to infer and exploit context-specific tag preferences in the recommendation process. An evaluation on two different datasets reveals that our approach is capable of providing more accurate recommendations than previous tag-based recommender algorithms and recent tag-agnostic matrix factorization techniques.
A gamified mobile application for engaging new students at university orientation

The term gamification describes the addition of game elements to non-game contexts as a means to motivate and engage users. This study investigates the design, delivery and pilot evaluation of a gamified, smartphone application built to introduce new students to the campus, services and people at university during their first few weeks. This paper describes changes to the application made after an initial field study was undertaken and provides an evaluation of the impact of the redesign. Survey responses were collected from thirteen students and usage data was captured from 105 students. Results indicate three levels of user engagement and suggest that there is value in adding game elements to the experience in this way. A number of issues are identified and discussed based on game challenges, input, and facilitating game elements in an event setting such as university orientation.
Self-determination theory as applied to the design of a software learning system using whole-body controls

Whole-body computer control interfaces present new opportunities to engage children with games for learning. Stomp is a suite of educational games that use such a technology, allowing young children to use their whole body to interact with a digital environment projected on the floor. To maximise the effectiveness of this technology, tenets of self-determination theory (SDT) are applied to the design of Stomp experiences. By meeting user needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness our aim is to increase children's engagement with the Stomp learning platform. Analysis of Stomp's design suggests that these tenets are met. Observations from a case study of Stomp being used by young children show that they were highly engaged and motivated by Stomp. This analysis demonstrates that continued application of SDT to Stomp will further enhance user engagement. It also is suggested that SDT, when applied more widely to other whole-body multi-user interfaces, could instil similar positive effects.
Exploration to design a cursor for indirect pen interfaces

Indirect pen interfaces with a horizontal control space and a vertical display space are common in designers' work environments. They have advantages compared to direct pen interfaces in respect of fatigue and occlusion problems. An intrinsic problem of indirect pen interfaces, however, is that users have to work with limited visual feedback about the pen and the hand. In order to understand and cope with the limited visual feedback problem, we undertook a three-phase user study. First, we conducted an observation study to examine the symptoms of the limited visual feedback problem. Second, we tested different types of cursors to cope with the limited visual feedback problem. Third, we performed a controlled user study to analyse the effects of different cursor designs and their quality factors. We summarize the main findings from our user study that may contribute to the usability of indirect pen interfaces.
Interval cancer incidence and episode sensitivity in the Norrbotten Mammography Screening Programme, Sweden

Objectives To estimate the interval cancer incidence, its determinants and the episode sensitivity in the Norrbotten Mammography Screening Programme (NMSP). Setting Since 1989, women aged 40–74 years (n = 55,000) have been invited to biennial screening by the NMSP, Norrbotten county, Sweden. Methods Data on 1047 invasive breast cancers from six screening rounds of the NMSP (1989–2002) were collected. We estimated the invasive interval cancer rates, rate ratios and the episode sensitivity using the detection and incidence methods. A linear Poisson-model was used to analyse association between interval cancer incidence and sensitivity. Results 768 screen-detected and 279 interval cancer cases were identified. The rate ratio of interval cancer decreased with age. The 50–59 year age group showed the highest rate ratio (RR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.41–0.65) and the 70–74 year age group the lowest (RR = 0.23, 95% CI 0.15–0.36). The rate ratios for the early (0–12 months) and late (13–24 months) interval cancers were similar (RR = 0.18, 95% CI 0.15–0.22 and 0.20, 95% CI 0.17–0.24). There was a significantly lower interval cancer incidence in the prevalence round as compared with the incidence rounds. According to the detection method the episode sensitivity increased with age from 57% in the age group 40–49 years to 84% in the age group 70–74 years. The corresponding figures for the incidence method were 50% and 77%, respectively. Conclusion Our study showed an interval cancer incidence of 38% and the episode sensitivity of 62–73%, depending on the method of calculation. Our results are of clinically acceptable level and concert with the reference values of the European guidelines.
Response letter: “The gracilis muscle and its use in clinical reconstruction: An anatomical, embryological, and radiological study”

We would like to thank Prof. Ger for his interest in our study (Ger, 2008). He has raised an interesting point on the use of gracilis muscle in the management of the recurrent hernias. The use of a muscle, preferably the gracilis, will provide a dynamic repair that is superior to the introduction of foreign material with all its disadvantages (Ger et al., 1984). The gracilis muscle is used widely in reconstructive surgery, as a pedicled or as a free microsurgical flap, for soft tissue coverage or as a functioning muscle transfer. Gracilis muscle flap is an excellent option for the repair of rectovaginal and ano-vaginal fistulas, which are often resistant to repeated repair procedures. In fact, with a success rate going from 60% (Rius et al., 2000) to 83% (Zmora et al., 2003, 2006), this procedure has generally better outcome than those reported for other repair techniques. In particular pedicled gracilis flap is adequate in those cases of irradiated rectovaginal septum, active Crohn’s disease, fibrotic perineal body, as well as large and recurrent fistulas, where it is essential to separate the organs and interpose healthy tissue with an independent blood supply. In fact, the rectovaginal septum is located in an oblique coronal plane, close to the posterior vaginal wall, and shows a variable number of small vessels (Stecco et al., 2005). Our group has recently performed a proximally pedicled gracilis flap in a 54 years old woman suffering from a recurrent recto-vaginal fistula (Vigato et al., 2007). The patient underwent CT angiography in accordance to the protocol described in our study (Macchi et al., 2008) and the data were useful for planning the graciloplasty, since the part of the muscle belly comprised between the dominant pedicle and the distal myotendineuos junction was long enough for the surgical procedure. In this way surgeons could minimize the dissection and avoid the retrograde mobilization of the dominant pedicle, reducing the risk of iatrogenic damage. CT angiography has been an useful preoperative study for the plastic surgeon in planning a gracilis flap, allowing a better selection of the patients and providing a detailed description of the muscular and vascular structures of the thigh.
Clinical implications from proteomic studies in neurodegenerative diseases: lessons from mitochondrial proteins

ABSTRACT Mitochondria play a key role in eukaryotic cells, being mediators of energy, biosynthetic and regulatory requirements of these cells. Emerging proteomics techniques have allowed scientists to obtain the differentially expressed proteome or the proteomic redox status in mitochondria. This has unmasked the diversity of proteins with respect to subcellular location, expression and interactions. Mitochondria have become a research ‘hot spot’ in subcellular proteomics, leading to identification of candidate clinical targets in neurodegenerative diseases in which mitochondria are known to play pathological roles. The extensive efforts to rapidly obtain differentially expressed proteomes and unravel the redox proteomic status in mitochondria have yielded clinical insights into the neuropathological mechanisms of disease, identification of disease early stage and evaluation of disease progression. Although current technical limitations hamper full exploitation of the mitochondrial proteome in neurosciences, future advances are predicted to provide identification of specific therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disorders.
Proteomic strategies in the search for novel pancreatic cancer biomarkers and drug targets: recent advances and clinical impact

ABSTRACT Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest cancers; despite a low incidence rate it is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the world. Improvement of the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment remains the main focus of pancreatic cancer research. Rapid developments in proteomic technologies has improved our understanding of the pancreatic cancer proteome. Here, the authors summarise the recent proteomic strategies undertaken in the search for: novel biomarkers for early diagnosis, pancreatic cancer-specific proteins which may be used for novel targeted therapies and proteins which may be useful for monitoring disease progression post-therapy. Recent advances and findings discussed here provide great promise of having a significant clinical impact and improving the outcome of patients with this malignancy.
Designing mobile information systems to support WIL experiences

This paper presents the development and preliminary research results of a mobile information system designed to support the mentoring and assessment of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) activities in Tertiary Education settings. The system has been trialled with workplace mentors and pre-service teachers participating in University Education Practicals. This paper presents the system design, the preliminary results of the trials and outlines the future direction for this research to support WIL experiences in other disciplines.
Eurocat Website Data on Prenatal Detection Rates of Congenital Anomalies

The EUROCAT website www.eurocat-network.eu publishes prenatal detection rates for major congenital anomalies using data from European population-based congenital anomaly registers, covering 28% of the EU population as well as non-EU countries. Data are updated annually. This information can be useful for comparative purposes to clinicians and public health service managers involved in the antenatal care of pregnant women as well as those interested in perinatal epidemiology.
Construction and validation of a systematization instrument for nursing in intensive care

Objective: construction and validation of a systematization instrument for Nursing Care, characterizing the profile of patients of an intensive care unit in the north of Brazil. Methods: it was a descriptive methodological study that followed a nursing process model in five phases. Results: it was suggested that the instrument be constructed in two formats; one for admission and another for daily assessment. Some items were removed from the instrument according to content validation content by the nurses. Of the 45 patients evaluated, 60.0% were men, 44.0% were married, 40.0% had low education levels, chronic renal failure and cancer. The main nursing diagnoses were risk for infection (100.0%) and impaired physical mobility (97.8%). The main nursing interventions were: handwashing, changing intravenous access, performing aseptic techniques and moving patients every 2 hours. Conclusion: construction and content validation were carried out successfully, promoting instruments capable of providing quality nursing care for patients in intensive care.
Individualisation of mycophenolate mofetil dose in renal transplant recipients

The immunosuppressive agent mycophenolate mofetil has been succesfully used over the past 10 years to prevent acute allograft rejection after renal transplantation. It has mainly been administered as a fixed dose of mycophenolate mofetil 1000 mg b.i. d. The pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid, the active moiety of the prodrug mycophenolate mofetil, show large between-patient variability, and exposure to mycophenolic acid correlates with the risk for acute rejection. This suggests that already excellent clinical results can be further improved by mycophenolate mofetil dose individualisation. This review discusses different arguments in favour of individualisation of mycophenolate mofetil dose, as well as strategies for managing mycophenolate mofetil therapy individualisation, including pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic monitoring and dose individualisation based on pharmacogenetic information. It is expected that pharmacokinetic monitoring of mycophenolic acid will offer the most effective and feasible tool for mycophenolate mofetil dose individualisation.
City-scale traffic estimation from a roving sensor network

Traffic congestion, volumes, origins, destinations, routes, and other road-network performance metrics are typically collected through survey data or via static sensors such as traffic cameras and loop detectors. This information is often out-of-date, difficult to collect and aggregate, difficult to analyze and quantify, or all of the above. In this paper we conduct a case study that demonstrates that it is possible to accurately infer traffic volume through data collected from a roving sensor network of taxi probes that log their locations and speeds at regular intervals. Our model and inference procedures can be used to analyze traffic patterns and conditions from historical data, as well as to infer current patterns and conditions from data collected in real-time. As such, our techniques provide a powerful new sensor network approach for traffic visualization, analysis, and urban planning.
β-Adrenergic Receptor Polymorphisms and Response to Salmeterol

Rationale: Several studies suggest that patients with asthma who are homozygous for arginine at the 16th position of the β2-adrenergic receptor may not benefit from short-acting β-agonists. Objectives: We investigated whether such genotype-specific effects occur when patients are treated with long-acting β-agonists and whether such effects are modified by concurrent inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use. Methods: We compared salmeterol response in patients with asthma homozygous for arginine at B16 (B16Arg/Arg) with those homozygous for glycine at B16 (B16Gly/Gly) in two separate cohorts. In the first, subjects were randomized to regular therapy with salmeterol while simultaneously discontinuing ICS therapy. In the second, subjects were randomized to regular therapy with salmeterol while continuing concomitant ICS. Results: In both trials, B16Arg/Arg subjects did not benefit compared with B16Gly/Gly subjects after salmeterol was initiated. In the first cohort, compared with placebo, the addition of salmeterol was associated with a 51.4 L/min lower A.M. peak expiratory flow (PEF; p = 0.005) in B16Arg/Arg subjects(salmeterol, n = 12; placebo, n = 5) as compared with B16Gly/Gly subjects (salmeterol, n = 13; placebo, n = 13). In the second cohort, B16Arg/Arg subjects treated with salmeterol and ICS concurrently (n = 8) had a lower A.M. PEF (36.8 L/min difference, p = 0.048) than B16Gly/Gly subjects (n = 22) treated with the same regimen. In addition, B16 Arg/Arg subjects in the second cohort had lower FEV1 (0.42 L, p = 0.003), increased symptom scores (0.2 units, p = 0.034), and increased albuterol rescue use (0.95 puffs/d, p = 0.004) compared with B16Gly/Gly subjects. Conclusions: Relative to B16Gly/Gly patients with asthma, B16Arg/Arg patients with asthma may have an impaired therapeutic response to salmeterol in either the absence or presence of concurrent ICS use. Investigation of alternate treatment strategies may benefit this group.
Neutralization-Sensitive R5 SHIV-2873Nip Encoding env from a Infant with Recent HIV Clade C Infection

Nagadenahalli B. Siddappa, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Ruijiang Song, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts Victor G. Kramer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Agnes-Laurence Chenine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Vijayakumar Velu, Division of Microbiology and Immunology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center Helena Ong, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Robert A. Rasmussen, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Ricky D. Grisson, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Charles Wood, University of Nebraska Lincoln Hong Zhang, Univesity of Nebraska Lincoln Chipepo Kankasa, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia, Rama Rao Amara, Division of Microbiology and Immunology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center James G. Else, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia Francis J. Novembre, Division of Microbiology and Immunology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center David Montefiori, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina Ruth M. Ruprecht, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts