Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Large Case‐Control Study Reveals a Positive Association Between Bisphosphonate Use and Delayed Dental Healing and Osteonecrosis of the Jaw

This study sought to investigate, using a case‐control study design, the association between bisphosphonate therapy and delayed dental healing and osteonecrosis of the jaw. Identification of potential cases of delayed dental healing was by consecutive screening of Specialist Oral and Maxillofacial and Special Needs Dentist clinic records for patients aged older than 50 years, during a 6‐month window, in Victoria, Australia. Cases were confirmed by a case adjudication panel blinded to bisphosphonate status. Cases associated with malignancy or local radiotherapy were excluded. Controls were matched for age, sex, and source of dental referral (1:4, n = 160 controls). Variables of interest were dental precipitants, dental clinic type, smoking history, and medical comorbidities. A total of 4212 of 22,358 patients met inclusion criteria, of which 69 were potential cases with 40 (0.95%) confirmed cases. The odds ratio (OR) for developing delayed dental healing when taking an oral bisphosphonate was 13.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.4 to 39.3; p < 0.001). There were no cases associated with intravenous bisphosphonate use. There was some evidence of an interaction with age, sex, and clinic type. When adjusted for smoking, the estimated odds ratio was 11.6 (95% CI 1.9 to 69.4; p = 0.01). There was an association between having another illness and delayed dental healing (OR = 2.3; 95% CI 1.0 to 5.2). A dental precipitant was present in 39 of 40 (97.5%) delayed dental healing cases. An important association between bisphosphonate use and delayed dental healing in the setting of benign bone disease, predominately in individuals with a dental precipitant, has been demonstrated. © 2014 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
SCLERODERMA: 1. CLINICAL FEATURES, COURSE OF ILLNESS AND RESPONSE TO TREATMENT IN 61 CASES

The word "scleroderma" (hard skin) has been used to describe both a condition of hardness and inelasticity of the skin and also a disease in which these changes are a prominent feature, and this usage will be followed here; the context will show which meaning is used. However, we are unhappy with such terms as "scleroderma of the kidney" (literally "hard skin of the kidney") and prefer such expressions as "renal involvement in scleroderma". "Raynaud's phenomenon" is applied to ischremic episodes in digits characterized by pallor or cyanosis provoked by cold, irrespective of the cause. "Raynaud's disease" is reserved for the condition in which such attacks occur without discoverable cause and without demonstrable structural vascular disease.
Eigen-MLLR environment/speaker compensation for robust speech recognition

However, it is generally difficult if not impossible to prepare a complete set of a priori noisy environment knowledge. Especially, the noisy environments which are not seen in the training phase (aka unseen noisy environment) may become potential sources of serious performance degradation for those non-blind methods. In other words, it is crucial how to well organize and efficiently utilize the a priori noisy environment knowledge. To efficiently take the advantage of a priori noisy environment knowledge and, at the same time, alleviate the problem of unseen noisy environments and speakers, an Eigen-MLLR method originally proposed only for speaker adaptation [7-8] is adopted in this paper. In this paper an eigen-maximum likelihood linear regression (Eigen-MLLR) method is proposed to utilize a set of a priori noisy environment/speaker knowledge to online compensate the characteristics of unknown test environment/speaker. This idea is straightforward but is motivated from our recent findings that both the characteristics of different kinds of noisy environments and speakers could be simultaneously well organized in a PCA-constructed Eigen-MLLR subspace. Especially, the first three dimensions of the constructed Eigen-MLLR subspace are highly related to the SNR value, gender and type of noise. The proposed Eigen-MLLR was evaluated on Aurora 2 multi-condition training task. Experimental results showed that average word error rate (WER) of 6.14% was achieved. Moreover, Eigen-MLLR not only outperformed the multi-condition training baseline (Multi-Con., 13.72%) but also the blind ETSI advanced DSR front-end (ETSI-Adv., 8.65%), the histogram equalization (HEQ, 8.66%) and the non-blind reference model weighting (RMW, 7.29%) approaches. This idea is straightforward (from the viewpoint of speaker adaptation) but is motivated from our recent finding [5] that both the characteristics of different kinds of noisy environments (represented by a set of MLLR super-matrices) could be simultaneously well organized in a PCA-constructed Eigen-MLLR subspace. Especially, the first three dimensions of the constructed Eigen-MLLR subspace are highly related to the SNR value, gender and type of noise. It is therefore possible to (1) analyze a set of environment/speaker characteristics collected from all seen noisy environments/speakers in the training phase to construct an Eigen-MLLR environment/speaker subspace, and to then (2) optimally estimate (in the sense of maximum likelihood) the characteristics of the unknown test noisy environment/speaker in the test phase to compensate the HMMs of the ASR engine.
Surface Area Measurement of the Female Breast: Phase I. Validation of a Novel Optical Technique

Background: Breast shape is largely determined by the volume of tissue and surface area of the skin envelope. Values for breast surface area have never been published in the literature. The investigators have developed an inexpensive, noninvasive optical method to objectively measure breast volume and surface area, and its accuracy is determined. Methods: An optical grid is projected onto the breast, and two images are captured to create a computerized three-dimensional model from which volume, surface area, and maximum vertical projection are calculated. Results: To assess accuracy, simple geometric shapes (n = 22) were analyzed, and the actual volume, surface area, and maximum vertical projection were compared with the imaged values using least-squares linear regression. There was excellent correlation in all three parameters (r > 0.995, p < 10−14). The mean differences in volume, surface area, and maximum vertical projection were 28 ± 28 ml (mean ± SD), 2 ± 9 cm, and 0.4 ± 0.5 cm, respectively. Female breasts (n = 14) were then analyzed, and the actual volume and surface area were measured using plaster casts. Based on least-squares linear regression, there was excellent correlation between the imaged values and actual values (r > 0.992, p < 10−11), and the mean differences in volume and surface area were 32 ± 22 ml and 3 ± 11 cm2, respectively. Conclusions: For the first time, an optical method has been demonstrated to measure volume and surface area with accuracy. When the method is applied to the breast, measurement errors are small and clinically insignificant. The ability to facilitate quantitative breast surgery will be investigated in future phases of this experiment.
The Relevance of Financial Information and Contents of the New Audit Report for Lending Decisions of Commercial Banks

This research study examines the importance of financial information and information contained in the ISA’s New Audit Report effective from 2016 for lenders as capital providers. We base our findings on a survey conducted in September of 2016 with corporate loan officers for medium-large corporate clients in Macedonia. The results show that the annual report of the company, except for the management report and notes to the financial statements, has consistently high importance and usability for respondents’ decision making. Various accounting ratios related to liquidity, financial stability and profitability of the company are considered very important and regularly used in credit analysis. However, respondents were not consistent in their shared perceptions regarding high importance of projected profits and historical information on operating cash flows. All loan officers gave high importance to the information found in existent auditor’s report format regardless of the form of expressed opinion. Also, information on key audit matters, additional information on going concern and related auditor’s judgement, procedures related to fraud risk were considered of high importance. Lenders rated as less important the disclosure of the name of engagement partner, auditor’s statement on independence and compliance with ethical requirements and the level of materiality used in the audit.
Extracting bulk properties of self-assembling systems from small simulations

For systems that self-assemble into finite-sized objects, it is sometimes convenient to compute the thermodynamics for a small system where a single assembly can form. However, we show that in the canonical ensemble the use of small systems can lead to significant finite-size effects due to the suppression of concentration fluctuations. We introduce methods for estimating the bulk yields from simulations of small systems and for following the convergence of yields with system size, under the assumptions that the various species behave ideally.
Origin and Evolution of Yolk Proteins: Expansion and Functional Diversification of Large Lipid Transfer Protein Superfamily1

ABSTRACT Vitellogenin (VTG) and apolipoprotein (APO) play a central role in animal reproduction and lipid circulation, respectively. Although previous studies have examined the structural and functional relationships of these large lipid transfer proteins (LLTPs) from an evolutionary perspective, the mechanism in generating these different families have not been addressed in invertebrates. In this study, the most comprehensive phylogenetic and genomic analysis of the LLTP superfamily genes is carried out. We propose the expansion and diversification of LLTPs in invertebrates are mediated via retrotransposon-mediated duplications, followed by either subfunctionalization or neofunctionalization in different lineages. In agreement with a previous hypothesis, our analysis suggests that all LLTPs originate from a series of duplications of a primitive yolk protein gene similar to VTG. Two early consecutive duplications of the yolk protein genes resulted in the formation of microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP) and the APO gene ancestor. Gains and losses of domains and genes occurred in each of these families in different animal lineages, with MTP becoming truncated. MTP maintained only the components stabilizing the huge lipoprotein particle. Surprisingly, for the first time, two VTG-like protein families were found to independently arise in the lineages of insects. This work consolidates the reconstruction of the evolutionary roadmap of the LLTP superfamily and provides the first mechanistic explanation on the expansion of family members via retrotransposition in invertebrates.
Effect of antihypertensive treatment on the long-term outcome of patients discharged after acute ischemic stroke

ABSTRACT We aimed to evaluate the effects of the five main classes of antihypertensive agents on the long-term outcome of 313 consecutive patients discharged after acute ischemic stroke (36.4% males, age 78.5 ± 6.3 years). One year after discharge, the functional status [evaluated with the modified Rankin scale (mRS)], the occurrence of cardiovascular events, and vital status were recorded. Patients prescribed angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) had lower mRS than patients not prescribed ARBs (1.7 ± 2.0 vs. 2.9 ± 2.5, respectively; p = 0.006). The rates of adverse outcome (mRS 2-6) and cardiovascular events did not differ between patients prescribed each one of the major classes of antihypertensive agents and those not prescribed the respective class. Patients who were prescribed ARBs had lower risk of death during follow-up than patients who did not receive ARBs (9.4 and 26.9%, respectively; p < 0.05). In binary logistic regression analysis, the only independent predictor of all-cause mortality during follow-up was the mRS at discharge (relative risk 1.69, 95% confidence interval 1.25–2.28; p < 0.001). In conclusion, in patients discharged after acute ischemic stroke, administration of ARBs appears to have a more beneficial effect on long-term functional outcome and all-cause mortality than treatment with other classes of antihypertensive agents.
Morphological and genetic diversity of Cercospora beticola isolates.

The fungus Cercospora beticola Sacc. is the one of the most important pathogens on the sugar beet. This plant pathogen causes cercospora leaf spot disease which is a serious economic problem for growers of this crop all over the world. Traditionally, the identification of C. beticola is based mainly on conidial characters and host association, but today molecular characterization is necessary for determination of their genetic diversity. This study was designed to evaluate level of morphological and genetic diversity of population C. beticola in Serbia. Isolates originated from sugar beet field where this crop has been cultivated for last two decades and from localities where sugar beet has never been cultivated. The isolates exhibited significant morphological differences in shape, colour and size of border zone of colony on different nutrition media. For molecular identification and characterization of these isolates we used molecular tools: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Direct Amplification of Minisatellite-region DNA (DAMD). The ability of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) to distinguish among C. beticola populations from Serbia was evaluated. Certain specific bands were identified which could be effectively used to distinguish the populations. Polymorphism in RAPD markers among C. beticola populations was high and sufficient to distinguish each of the populations. The results obtained suggest that RAPD and DAMD markers are valuable for the genetic divergence estimation in C. beticola and for the study of diversity among populations. Results of morphological and molecular tests showed the presence of different populations of C. beticola in Serbia.
Optimized Selective OFDMA in multihop network

Selective OFDMA is a powerfull relaying technique with subcarrier based selection. This scheeme has a high potential to considerably improve the performance of cooperative OFDM systems. However, in practice, the implementation of this technique may suffer from multiple problems caused by the separation of the subcarriers from each other's. In this Contribution, we propose a new selection scheme denoted “Optimized Selective OFDMA” that approaches selective OFDMA performance in terms of outage probability while reducing its synchronization problems that may be caused by the subcarriers separation. The outage probability and diversity order of the proposed scheme are derived. The number of the used paths is also analyzed. We proved that for high SNR, the introduced scheme gives exactly the same performance of selective OFDMA with only one path for all the subcarriers.
Inverse changes in fetal insulin‐like growth factor (IGF)‐1 and IGF binding protein‐1 in association with higher birth weight in maternal diabetes

Objective The insulin like growth factor (IGF) system plays a key role in regulating fetal growth, is metabolically regulated, and may influence development of increased birth weight in offspring of mothers with diabetes. We examined IGF‐1 and IGF binding protein‐1 (IGFBP‐1) concentrations in cord blood samples from offspring of mothers with gestational and type 2 diabetes.
Plasma kinetics of a cholesterol-rich emulsion in subjects with or without coronary artery disease Published, JLR Papers in Press, December 1, 2002. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M200331-JLR200

A cholesterol-rich emulsion (LDE) that resembles the LDL lipidic structure is taken-up by LDL receptors after intravenous injection by means of apolipoprotein E it acquires in the circulation and can be used to probe LDL metabolism. In this study, LDE was labeled with [14C]cholesteryl oleate and [3H]cholesterol and injected into 19 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and into 14 subjects without CAD to verify whether the kinetic behavior of the radioactive lipids is different in CAD. Blood was sampled over 24 h for radioactivity measurement after lipid extraction and separation by thin-layer chomatography. Fractional clearance rate (FCR, in h−1) of [14C]cholesteryl ester was not different in CAD and nonCAD expressed as median (25%; 75%): 0.08 (0.062; 0.134) h−1 versus 0.06 (0.04; 0.083) h−1, P = 0.167. However, [3H]cholesterol FCR was greater in CAD than in nonCAD (mean ± SEM): 0.163 ± 0.016 h−1 versus 0.077 ± 0.014 h−1, P < 0.001. Esterification of the LDE [3H]cholesterol was also greater in CAD subjects than nonCAD at 10 h and 24 h after emulsion injection (P = 0.029 and 0.024 respectively). In conclusion, both removal from the plasma and esterification of the LDE-cholesterol were increased in CAD. These findings may contribute for unraveling pro-atherogenic mechanisms and the establishment of novel CAD markers.
Determining an alternative organizational structure within two small/rural Iowa school districts: A case study of an innovative decision-making process

The Issues confronting small/rural schools In the state of Iowa are very complex, ranging in scope from the loss of student population, limited financial resources, quality of academic and extra-curricular programs, and even to the very survival of the community in which the school is located. Because of these issues school administrators, boards of education, and school district patrons are confronted with finding a new organizational structure for their school. Processes and procedures used to make these decisions have typically led to emotional battles within the school and community. The purpose of this study was to apply the Nominal Group Technique and the Interpretive Structural Modeling processes within two small/rural school districts to assess their potential usefulness as analytical tools when a school is faced with making a decision about its organizational structure. The Nominal Group Technique and Interpretive Structural Model are two validated group techniques found to be useful when analyzing complex problems. To understand more clearly the problem of choosing an alternative organizational structure for a small/rural school these techniques were used to: (a) identify the substantive elements of the issue without the emotional and political Influences so common in group decision making, and (b) identify and structure the relationships between the identified elements. Further, a follow-up questionnaire asked participants to assess the Nominal Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Group Technique and Interpretive Structural Modeling processes as tools to Improve communication and foster a better understanding of the Issues when an alternative organizational structure Is sought. The Nominal Group Technique and Interpretive Structural Model, as employed In this study, were found to be effective tools to Improve the decision making process for tvo small/rural Iowa school districts faced with making a change In their organizational structure. Moreover, the techniques, because of their flexibility, were found to be useful In other educational settings. The transition process that occurs after two school districts have decided to combine educational programs, establishing consensus and priorities for budget cuts, or the process of restructuring an entire educational program are examples In which the Nominal Group Teohnlque and Interpretive Structural Modeling processes will be useful. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Measuring Mental Health Outcomes in a Private Psychiatric Clinic: Health of the Nation Outcome Scales and Medical Outcomes Short Form SF-36

Objective: This study reports on data collected from the routine use of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) and the Medical Outcomes Short Form (SF-36). Three main aims were addressed in using these measures: (i) to establish patient disability levels; (ii) to determine the level of treatment effectiveness; and (iii) to explore the ability of these instruments to predict length of stay and mood change. Method: The clinician-rate HoNOS and the patient-rated SF-36 were included in the assessment battery, at admission and discharge, of consecutive inpatients (n = 754) at one private psychiatric facility over a 2-year period. Results: The sample, on admission, was comparable in illness severity to levels reported at other Australian private psychiatric facilities. Treatment was shown to be effective, and the degree of changes in HoNOS ratings compared favourably with other private psychiatric facilities. Certain factors underlying the structure of the HoNOS and the SF-36 only weakly predicted length of stay and changes in depression and anxiety levels. Conclusion: The HoNOS and the SF-36 provided valid and reliable data on patient function, with the HoNOS being most sensitive to treatment change. However, neither instrument proved useful in predicting length of stay or levels of depression and anxiety at discharge.
A hypothesis of cerebral venous system regulation based on a study of the junction between the cortical bridging veins and the superior sagittal sinus. Laboratory investigation.

OBJECT The cerebral venous regulation involved in various physiological and pathological processes has received little attention. Here the authors describe the anatomy of the junction between the cortical vein and the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) and propose a new theory of cerebral venous regulation. METHODS Ten adult human cadaveric heads (20 sides), including five specimens into which stained latex had been injected, were used for anatomical study. Formalin-fixed cadaver heads were dissected to demonstrate the cortical veins along the SSS. The characteristics of the cortical bridging veins and their openings into the SSS were established by anatomical, histological, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural study of the junction. RESULTS After their subarachnoid course, the cortical bridging veins penetrated the SSS at different points in the dura mater depending on their rostrocaudal position. The venous endothelium stretched beyond the sinus endothelium. The orientation of the collagen fibers changed at the level of the venous openings, with the luminal diameter becoming narrow and oval-shaped. The major finding was the organization of the smooth-muscle cells at the end of each cortical vein. At this site and particularly in the frontoparietal region, the vessel resembled a myoendothelial "sphincter. " The authors hypothesize that this organization is involved in cerebral venous system regulation. CONCLUSIONS The point of convergence between the cortical veins and the SSS is a key area. The authors also hypothesize that the myoendothelial junction acts as a smooth sphincter and that it plays a role in cerebral venous hemodynamics and pathological conditions.