Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying the diffused benefit from water fluoridation in the United States.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the total contribution of water fluoridation to caries reduction by including the benefit from the diffusion of fluoride from fluoridated communities to surrounding nonfluoridated communities via the export of bottled beverages and processed foods. METHODS We analyzed data from the 1986-87 NIDR Children's Survey for 18,507 school children aged 6-17 years who had at least one permanent tooth and for whom a complete fluoride exposure history could be created. To measure water fluoridation exposure, we generated continuous and categorical exposure variables. Years of fluoridation exposure (YFE-continuous) measured the number of years the child lived at residences receiving fluoridated water. Lifetime fluoridation exposure (LFE-categorical) was high if the child lived at residences receiving fluoridated water more than 50% of his life and low, otherwise. We summed the proportion of state population receiving fluoridated water times the number of years the child had lived in each state and then divided this value by the child's age to measure diffusion exposure (DE). We grouped DE into three levels: low (DE<=0.25), medium (0.25=0.55). For each level of DE, we compared the age-adjusted mean DMFS for high and low LFE. In addition we used linear regression to measure the association between DMFS and YFE while controlling for DE, age, exposures to other fluoride sources, and sociodemographic variables. Reported results are significant at P<0.05. RESULTS Comparison of mean DMFS scores found that the direct benefit of water fluoridation (DMFS(LFE=low) - DMFS(LFE=high)) was 1.44 surfaces among low DE children and 0 among high DE children. The diffused benefit (DMFS(LFE=low, DE=low) - DMFS(LFE=low, DE=high)) was 1.23 surfaces. The regression results were similar and indicated that the direct benefit would be 1.44 fewer DMFS for low DE children and the indirect benefit would be 1.09 fewer DMFS for high DE children. CONCLUSION Failure to account for the diffusion effect may result in an underestimation of the total benefit of water fluoridation, especially in high diffusion exposure regions.
Importaciones Agropecuarias: A qué Responden?

Durante la decada de los noventa las importaciones agropecuarias en Colombia se han incrementado considerablemente contribuyendo al deficit de la cuenta corriente, lo cual ha causado preocupacion. Este incremento de las importaciones agropecuarias se ha atribuido a la apertura economica, al mismo tiempo que se le senala como la razon mas importante detras del comportamiento mediocre del sector agropecuario. No son pocos los que han sugerido echar atras el proceso de liberacion del comercio exterior, y aunque tal cambio de politica es poco probable debido a los compromisos internacionales adquiridos, es evidente que dicho proceso de apertura internacional en el sector agropecuario, evaluando las relaciones entre las importaciones agropecuarias y variables macroeconomicas como la tasa real de cambio y el ingreso, al tiempo que verifica la hipotesis de un cambio estructural en la demanda de importaciones agropecuarias como resultado de la apertura del comercio inetrnacional en 1991. Para lograr este objetivo se desarrrolla un modelo econometrico y se evaluan las relaciones de largo plazo entre las variables por medio de cointegracion. Los resultados indican que el incremento de las importaciones agropecuarias se explica principalmente por la revaluacion de la tasa real de cambio y el aumento del ingreso per capita de los consumidores, en tanto que las politicas de apertura han contribuido al desplazamiento de la demanda por importaciones agropecuarias aunque en una magnitud menor a la que comunmente se le ha atribuido.
Performance Analysis of OFDM Systems over 60 GHz Indoor Channels

In this paper, the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) analysis of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems over the IEEE 802.15. 3c 60 GHz channel models is investigated. The derivation precisely captures the distinctive path clustering phenomenon in the spatial-temporal domain and provides the exact SINR. Based on the analytical results, a universal rule for adapting the near-optimal half-power beamwidth is identified. Moreover, numerical results are provided to verify the analytical findings.
G‐CSF activation of AKT is not sufficient to prolong neutrophil survival

Neutrophils play an important role in the innate immune response against bacterial and fungal infections. They have a short lifespan in circulation, and their survival can be modulated by several cytokines, including G‐CSF. Previous studies have implicated AKT as a critical signaling intermediary in the regulation of neutrophil survival. Our results demonstrate that G‐CSF activation of AKT is not sufficient to prolong neutrophil survival. Neutrophils treated with G‐CSF undergo apoptosis, even in the presence of high levels of p‐AKT. In addition, inhibitors of AKT and downstream targets failed to alter neutrophil survival. In contrast, neutrophil precursors appear to be dependent on AKT signaling pathways for survival, whereas high levels of p‐AKT inhibit proliferation. Our data suggest that the AKT/mTOR pathway, although important in G‐CSF‐driven myeloid differentiation, proliferation, and survival of early hematopoietic progenitors, is less essential in G‐CSF suppression of neutrophil apoptosis. Whereas basal AKT levels may be required for the brief life of neutrophils, further p‐AKT expression is not able to extend the neutrophil lifespan in the presence of G‐CSF.
Electron density fluctuations in a dusty Ar/SiH4 rf discharge

Many investigators have been working on the problems related to dusty low pressure discharges’V2 and significant progress has been made in understanding particle formation,3 trapping,4’5 charging6 and tran~port. ~~~ Also the interaction of particles with the plasma has been studied.9V*0 In this paper we will discuss the behavior of the electron density in a dusty Ar/SiH4 rf discharge. It has been shown that particle formation in this chemical system (under typical conditions: 5% SiH4 in argon at 120 mTorr) is a three-step process.3*11 Within several milliseconds after plasma ignition nanometer size particles are formed. In this process nearly all silicon in the gas phase is incorporated into these particles. In the next formation step these particles coalesce into structures of approximately 20 nm. At ambient temperature the coalescence phase lasts for about 50 ms. As the duration of this process is shorter than a typical residence time of species in the plasma (100 ms and longer), no new active gas is supplied and consequently the total particle mass remains constant during the coalescence. This implies that the particle density decreases. When the grain size reaches about 20 nm, the particles acquire a permanent negative charge and the repulsive Coulomb force prevents further coalescence. The negative charge traps the particles in the positive plasma glow, where they continue to grow by deposition of plasma species. This third formation phase lasts typically for several seconds. Afterwards the particles become too large, so they are (partly) expelled from the discharge and the cycle begins again. Such a formation mechanism results in homogeneously distributed particles with a well defined, monodisperse size distribution. However, several generations of monodisperse particles can be simultaneously present in the discharge.3 Below we will show that the charging of particles results in a decrease of the electron density in the plasma during the particle forma
Nutrition and Physical Activity During and After Cancer Treatment: An American Cancer Society Guide for Informed Choices

Cancer survivors are often highly motivated to seek information about food choices, physical activity, dietary supplement use, and complementary nutritional therapies to improve their treatment outcomes, quality of life, and survival. To address these concerns, the American Cancer Society (ACS) convened a group of experts in nutrition, physical activity, and cancer to evaluate the scientific evidence and best clinical practices related to optimal nutrition and physical activity after the diagnosis of cancer. This report summarizes their findings and is intended to present health care providers with the best possible information on which to help cancer survivors and their families make informed choices related to nutrition and physical activity. The report discusses nutrition and physical activity issues during the phases of cancer treatment and recovery, living after recovery from treatment, and living with advanced cancer; selected nutritional and physical activity issues such as body weight, food choices, and complementary and alternative nutritional options; and selected issues related to breast, colorectal, lung, prostate, head and neck, and upper gastrointestinal cancers. In addition, handouts containing commonly asked questions and answers and a resource list are provided for survivors and families. Tables that grade the scientific evidence for benefit versus harm related to nutrition and physical activity for breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers are also included for this growing body of knowledge to provide guidance for informed decision making and to identify areas for future research.
Shrinking the room for invasive mechanical ventilation in acute chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure: yes, but must be sure to have opened windows for noninvasive ventilation

Dear Editor In the last decade, the treatment and prognosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients have been improved by noninvasive ventilation (NIV). 1 However, the choice between invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and NIV, is still influenced by several critical factors.2 We read with interest the original article and related commentary by Scarpazza et al, reporting a very high NIV success rate in patients with acute hypercapnic respiratory failure due to acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) with related reduction in IMV-associated complications.3 Nevertheless, although NIV represents one of the most important progresses in pulmonary medicine in the last decade, we believe that there are still some unresolved questions. First, there are interhospital differences in the organization of NIV provisions.4 Second, the final decision on indications and modalities of NIV in patients with AECOPD should rely on experience and guidelines.5 Third, there is a subgroup of patients not yet clearly evaluated, such as elderly with comorbidities, where studies are limited and do not provide a clear message. Furthermore the influence of COPD stage and underlying cause of AECOPD in outcome of mechanical ventilation is difficult to estimate.6 Fourth, devices and settings differ among countries, sometimes with scarce perspectives of improvement due to economic aspects.7 We believe that there is clear scientific evidence of effect of NIV in these patients. The room for IMV is small, but it must still have open windows to any situation in deciding the type of mechanical ventilation.
An unbiased stereological study on subpopulations of rat liver macrophages and on their numerical relation with the hepatocytes and stellate cells

Studies on liver macrophages have elucidated their key roles in immunological, fibrotic and regenerative responses, and shown that macrophages are not a homogeneous population. In the rat, two sets of liver macrophages coexist, identified by ED1 and ED2 antibodies. Those sets have different quantitative responses in liver injuries and may have different tasks throughout the injury and recovery phases. Nevertheless, the total number (N), number per gram (N g−1) and proportion of those macrophages in relation to other liver cells has never been quantified using design‐based stereology. Thus, we combined immunocytochemistry with those tools to produce an unbiased estimate of the N of ED1+ and of ED2+ cells. A smooth fractionator sampling scheme was applied to the liver of five male Wistar rats (3 months old), to obtain systematic uniform random sections (30 µm thick); these were immunostained with the monoclonal antibodies: ED1, a pan‐macrophagic marker; and ED2, which identifies the completely differentiated macrophages, i.e. Kupffer cells. The N of ED1+ cells was 340 × 106, estimated with a coefficient of error (CE) of 0.04, and that of ED2+ cells was 283 × 106, with a CE of 0.05. These figures correspond to 10.7% and 8.9%, respectively, of the total liver cells. The new data constitute reference values for correlative inferences. Also, the methodological strategy, by its accuracy and precision, is valuable for future investigations on the liver cell composition in various models of disease, and especially for studying the more subtle variations that occur during the injury and recovery phases.
Finite-length rate-compatible LDPC codes: a novel puncturing scheme - [transactions letters]

In this paper, we study rate-compatible puncturing of finite-length low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. We present a novel rate-compatible puncturing scheme that is easy to implement. Our scheme uses the idea that the degradation in performance is reduced by selecting a puncturing pattern wherein the punctured bits are far apart from each other in the Tanner graph of the code. Although the puncturing scheme presented is tailored to regular codes, it is also directly applicable to irregular parent ensembles. By simulations, the proposed rate-compatible puncturing scheme is shown to be superior to the existing puncturing methods for both regular and irregular LDPC codes over the binary erasure channel (BEC) and the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel.
Type-I diabetes: a chronic autoimmune disease of human, mouse, and rat.

Article de synthese sur la pathogenie du diabete insulinodependant chez l'homme, le rat BB et la souris NOD, presente sous la forme d'une serie de questions concernant les processus genetiques et autoimmuns qui conduisent au diabete insulinodependant et des reponses actuelles a ces questions
Inhibitory Effects of Nitric Oxide on the Uptake of [3H]Dopamine and [3H]Glutamate by Striatal Synaptosomes

Abstract: Ten‐minute incubation with 1 mMS‐nitroso‐l‐cysteine (NO‐CYS), a nitric oxide (NO) generator, induced a 3.5‐fold increase in the basal dopamine (DA) efflux from rat striatal slices. Reduced hemoglobin (100 µM), a NO scavenger, blocked this response. Nomifensine (10 µM), an inhibitor of high‐affinity DA transport, reduced the NO‐CYS effect by 39%. In a synaptosomal preparation, NO‐CYS induced a concentration‐dependent efflux of [3H]DA that was also significantly inhibited by 10 µM nomifensine. Because these findings indicated that NO could alter the activity of the striatal DA transporter, we tested the effect of NO and NO‐CYS on the uptake of [3H]DA into crude striatal synaptosomes. Although both compounds inhibited [3H]DA uptake with similar dose‐response characteristics (IC50≈300 µM and ≈400 µM, respectively), the effect of NO was quicker in onset. The presence of superoxide dismutase (30 U/ml) and catalase (50 U/ml) had a small impact on the NO‐CYS inhibition of [3H]DA uptake (1.8‐fold increase in IC50). NO (1 mM) inhibited striatal [3H]glutamate uptake by 23%, but lower concentrations had no significant effect. The duration of the effect of NO gas on [3H]DA uptake varied from <5 min to>10 min, depending on the concentration used. All concentrations of NO‐CYS tested produced an inhibition of [3H]DA uptake that lasted at least 10 min. However, only concentrations ≤1 mM NO‐CYS (or NO) were washable. The effect of 3 mM NO‐CYS lasted>20 min and could not be reversed by washing. Reduced hemoglobin (300 µM) prevented the action of 3 mM NO‐CYS, whereas methemoglobin had no effect. The action of 3 mM NO‐CYS was temperature dependent and took about 2 min to fully develop. Scatchard analysis revealed that NO‐CYS diminished the capacity of the DA transporter without having a significant effect on the affinity. NO‐CYS had no effect on striatal [3H]‐mazindol binding, suggesting that NO‐CYS did not interact with the DA recognition site of the transporter. These data suggest that NO may play a role in the regulation of DA and, to a lesser extent, glutamate transport in the striatum.
Coverage path planning for mobile robots using genetic algorithm with energy optimization

Coverage path planning (CPP) is one of the current researches for mobile robots. This study presents a new approach for solving CPP. In this approach the coverage area is divided into small squares where the squares diagonal is the size of the robot tool. Four fundamental motions in a square are defined, which are straight, left turn, right turn and U-turn. A cost function is taken in which a fixed cost for each fundamental motion in a square is used and costs for all moves are summed up to get an approximated cost for a path. This function makes it possible to find the better path between two paths with equal repetitive visits. Furthermore genetic algorithm (GA) is used to find the best path to cover an area. Via crossover, selection and mutation GA improves current paths which leads to optimal, near optimal solutions. Simulation results are taken with reasonable areas.
Search for tumor-specific immune reactions in Burkitt lymphoma patients by the membrane immunofluorescence reaction.

Virus-induced lymphomas of the mouse contain tumor-specific antigens, as evidenced by the rejection of small numbers of viable neoplastic cells by preimmunized, genetically compatible animals; and the concomitant appearance of antibodies, demonstrated by the cytotoxic reaction in vitro, or by the membrane immunofluorescence reaction with living target cells. '-10 In the course of previous studies, we have been particularly interested in lymnphomas induced by the Moloney virus.5' 10 When adult mice are inoculated with this agent, they develop high titers of antibodies, capable of reacting with Moloney lymphoma target cells in immunofluorescence and cytotoxic tests, but not crossreacting with lymphomas induced by the Gross or Graffi viruses.5' 11, 12 Mice inoculated with the Moloney agent when newborn often develop tolerance.13 Virus-neutralizing, cytotoxic, or fluorescent antibodies fail to appear and cannot be induced by a second virus inoculation at adult age.14 Mlice inoculated as newborn develop leukemia earlier and in a higher incidence than mice that received the agent for the first time at adult age. Animals of the latter category show a decrease of their usually high antibody titer when they develop generalized leukenlia. If leukemia is inhibited by chemotherapy, the antibody levels may rise again.15 Whether similar reactions occur in human malignancies of the lymphatic system is of interest. The Burkitt lymphoma has attracted much interest during recent years due to serious consideration of a possible virus etiology. All virus-induced murine neoplasms studied have been found to contain tumor-specific antigens capable of inducing host rejection reactions, with common specificity shared by all neoplasms induced by the same virus. The possible antigenicity of the Burkitt tumor is also indicated by the total regression of the disease after chemotherapy in a considerable proportion of cases and the absence of recurrence during observation periods up to 4-6 years. Such durable remissions have been obtained by different agents and even in cases where treatment was incomplete. According to Burkitt,'6 these good results cannot be attributed to an unusual susceptibility of the tumor to cytotoxic agents since this cannot explain spontaneous or temporary remissions following serum transfusions alone.24 It has therefore been postulated that some immunological mechanism operates. The purpose of the present study was to look for possible tumor-specific reactions in Burkitt lymphoma and, if found, to assess their significance. The choice of materials and methods was based on our experience in the Moloney system. Since different Moloney lymphomas showed great variation with regard to surface antigen concentration, and since variants with a decreased antigen concentration could be selected during passage in vitro or in vivo, we have worked with fresh biopsy material rather than with established cell lines. The membrane immunofluorescence
Self-Construal Priming Modulates Neural Substrates of Self-Awareness

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess whether self-construal priming can change adults' self-awareness induced during face perception. After reading essays containing independent or interdependent pronouns (e.g., I or we), participants were scanned while judging the head orientation of images showing their own and familiar faces. Neural activity in the right middle frontal cortex was greater when participants viewed their own rather than familiar faces, and this difference was larger after independent than after interdependent self-construal priming. The increased right frontal activity for participants' own faces relative to familiar faces was associated with faster responses. Our findings suggest that the neural correlates of self-awareness associated with recognition of one's own face can be modulated by self-construal priming in human adults.
A Compact Envelope-Memory Polynomial for RF Transmitters Modeling With Application to Baseband and RF-Digital Predistortion

In this letter, a compact envelope-memory polynomial based model, suitable for forward and reverse modeling of weakly nonlinear wireless transmitters and power amplifiers (PAs) exhibiting electrical memory effects, is presented. This model is implemented in a complex gain based architecture and takes advantage of the dependency of PA nonlinearity on the magnitude of the input signal. Contrary to conventional memory polynomials, the proposed model can be implemented in baseband, as well as in radio frequency, digital predistorters. A 100-W average power transmitter is used for experimental validation of the forward and reverse models. Both forward and reverse modeling results obtained with the proposed model are comparable to that of the conventional memory polynomial.
Breast milk MSCs: An explanation of tissue growth and maturation of offspring

Exciting advances are revealing that breast milk harbors populations of stem and progenitor cells, and much attention is now intensified on delineating their properties and functions. The aim of this study is to isolate a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)‐like population from rabbit breast milk and track their integration into the different organs of the breastfed rabbits after taken by oral route and to explore the functional role of stem cells in the breastfed newborn babies. Ten newborn rabbits 2 weeks old fed on 2 × 106 PKH26‐labeled rabbit milk derived‐MSCs suspended in 2 mL Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) and 10 newborn baby rabbits fed with 2 mL DMEM solution or with rabbit fibroblasts as a control group were used in the study. All rabbits were sacrificed after 1 week. We found that PKH26‐labeled MSCs were engrafted into the offspring organs as liver, cartilage, bone and duodenum. Histologically, there was proliferation of cells in some organs. Moreover, there was overexpression of both PCNA and cyclin D1 genes in all organs from milk derived MSCs fed rabbits compared to the control group. Our results confirmed the presence of MSC‐like population in the breast milk. We first showed that milk derived‐MSCs were engrafted into the offspring organs when were taken orally. Milk derived‐MSCs may elucidate the functional benefits to the newborn babies by increasing cell proliferation and growth. © 2016 IUBMB Life, 68(12):935–942, 2016