Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinematic analysis of new and used reciprocating endodontic motors in 2 different modes

Purpose: The actual reciprocating angles of endodontic motors might differ from the manufacturers’ set values. This study analyzed the effect of clinical usage on the kinematics of reciprocating endodontic motors with 2 different reciprocal modes. Methods: 1 new and 3 used reciprocating endodontic motors (X-Smart Plus, Dentsply Maillefer) with 2 different reciprocating modes, WaveOne mode (W-mode) or Reciproc mode (R-mode), were analyzed. An angle measurement disc was inserted into a contra-angle. Reciprocating motions were recorded with a high-speed camera at 1,200 fps and analyzed on a computer. The following kinematic parameters were calculated: duration of each reciprocating motion, engaging and disengaging angles, cycle rotational speeds, engaging and disengaging rotational speeds, net cycle angle, total cycle angle, and number of cycles to complete full rotation. One-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test followed by multiple comparison tests were used for statistical analysis (p = 0.05). Results: In W-mode, the actual engaging angles of all used and new motors were different from the manufacturer’s set values (p<0.0001), whereas there was no difference between actual engaging angles among the motors (p>0.05). In R-mode, the actual engaging angles of all used and new motors were similar to the manufacturers’ set values (p>0.05). There was no difference between the actual engaging angles among motors (p>0.05). Both the W-mode and R-mode showed statistically different values of actual disengaging angles for all used and new motors when compared with the manufacturers’ set value (p<0.0001). Conclusions: This study confirmed that the actual kinematics of reciprocating endodontic motors differ from the manufacturers’ set values. Some kinematic parameters were influenced by the clinical usage of the motors.
Incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease and distribution of capsular types of pneumococci in Denmark, 1989–94

Summary During the period 1989–94, 4620 strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae (4063 from blood and 557 from cerebrospinal fluid), from cases of invasive disease in Denmark, were received for capsular typing and penicillin susceptibility testing. During the study period the incidence of bacteraemic pneumococcal disease increased from 10 to 18 cases per 100000 inhabitants per year. The highest rates were seen in the very young, age less than 5 years (23/100000/year, in 1994), and in the elderly, age greater than 60 years (55/100000/year, in 1994). The annual number of cases of meningitis did not vary. Overall, 92% (93% blood, 87% CSF) of isolates and 94% of all childhood isolates belonged to the 23 vaccine types. The capsular types occurring most commonly among the 4123 pneumococcal strains from adults were types 1, 4, 14, 6A+6B, 7F, 9V, 3, 12F, and 8 (in order of frequency). The ten most frequently occurring types from children (6A+6B, 18C, 14, 1, 7F, 19F, 9V, 4, and 23F) covered 84% of the cases of bacteraemia and meningitis. Reduced susceptibility to penicillin was rare (< 1%).
Finite element analysis of the stability of combined plate internal fixation in posterior wall fractures of acetabulum.

OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the mechanical stability of combined plate internal fixation in posterior wall fractures of the acetabulum. METHODS The fracture and internal fixation models were established in this study and they were divided into four kinds of internal fixation models, finite element analysis was performed. The four groups were 2 mini-plates and 1 reconstruction plate fixation (A), Reconstruction plate internal fixation group (B), 2 screws internal fixation group (C) and mini-plates internal fixation group (D). The displacement of each node was measured and evaluated. RESULTS There was no distortion in the geometric shape of the finite element model. The results of stress showed that it was less in the anterior pelvic ring and distributed uniform in labrum acetabulare; the stress was bigger in the upper and middle of sacroiliac joint and sciatic notch in sitting position. CONCLUSIONS Combined plate internal fixation for posterior wall fractures of acetabular were stable and reliable, it is better than the other three methods.
Results of the WNUT2017 Shared Task on Novel and Emerging Entity Recognition

This shared task focuses on identifying unusual, previously-unseen entities in the context of emerging discussions. Named entities form the basis of many modern approaches to other tasks (like event clustering and summarization), but recall on them is a real problem in noisy text - even among annotators. This drop tends to be due to novel entities and surface forms. Take for example the tweet “so. kktny in 30 mins? ” – even human experts find the entity ‘kktny’ hard to detect and resolve. The goal of this task is to provide a definition of emerging and of rare entities, and based on that, also datasets for detecting these entities. The task as described in this paper evaluated the ability of participating entries to detect and classify novel and emerging named entities in noisy text.
Novel synthesis and characterization of an AB-type carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatite.

A novel synthesis route has been developed to produce a high-purity mixed AB-type carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatite (CHA) with a carbonate content that is comparable to the type and level observed in bone mineral. This method involves the aqueous precipitation in the presence of carbonate ions in solution of a calcium phosphate apatite with a Ca/P molar ratio greater than the stoichiometric value of 1.67 for hydroxyapatite (HA). The resulting calcium-rich carbonate-apatite is sintered/heat-treated in a carbon dioxide atmosphere to produce a single-phase, crystalline carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatite. In contrast to previous methods for producing B- or AB-type carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatites, no sodium or ammonium ions, which would be present in the reaction mixture from the sodium or ammonium carbonates commonly used as a source of carbonate ions, were present in the final product. The chemical and phase compositions of the carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatite was characterized by X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction, respectively, and the level and nature of the carbonate substitution were studied using C-H-N analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The carbonate substitution improves the densification of hydroxyapatite and reduces the sintering temperature required to achieve near-full density by approximately 200 degrees C compared to stoichiometric HA. Initial studies have shown that these carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatites have improved mechanical and biologic properties compared to stoichiometric hydroxyapatite.
A Theory-Driven Approach to Tree-Ring Standardization: Defining the Biological Trend from Expected Basal Area Increment

Abstract One of the main elements of dendrochronological standardization is removing the biological trend, i.e. the progressive decline of ring width along a cross-sectional radius that is caused by the corresponding increase in stem size and tree age over time. The “conservative” option for removing this biological trend is to fit a modified negative exponential curve (or a straight line with slope ≤ 0) to the ring-width measurements. This method is based on the assumption that, especially for open-grown and/or shade-intolerant species, annual growth rate of mature trees fluctuates around a specific level, expressed by a constant ring width. Because this method has numerical and conceptual drawbacks, we propose an alternative approach based on the assumption that constant growth is expressed by a constant basal area increment distributed over a growing surface. From this starting point, we derive a mathematical expression for the biological trend of ring width, which can be easily calculated and used for dendrochronological standardization. The proposed C-method is compared to other standardization techniques, including Regional Curve Standardization (RCS), of tree-ring width from ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex P.Lawson & C.Lawson) located at the Gus Pearson Natural Area (GPNA) in northern Arizona, USA. Master ring-index chronologies built from ring area, RCS, and C-method reproduced stand-wide patterns of tree growth at the GPNA, whereas other standardization options, including the “conservative” one, failed to do so. In addition, the C-method has the advantage of calculating an expected growth curve for each tree, whereas RCS is based on applying the same growth curve to all trees. In conclusion, the C-method replaces the purely empirical “conservative” option with a theory-based approach, which is applicable to individual ring-width measurement series, does not require fitting a growth curve using nonlinear regression, and can be rigorously tested for improving tree-ring records of environmental changes.
The Origins Of Western Warfare: Militarism And Morality In The Ancient World

* Introduction In The Beginning * Primitive Warfare * Chiefdoms, States, and Empires Greek Warfare * The Greek Way of War * The Ethics of Greek Warfare * The Greeks and Raison dEtat * Warfare and the Greek Constitution Roman Warfare * The Roman Way of War * The Ethics of Roman War * The Romans and Raison dEtat * Warfare and the Roman Constitution The Classical Legacy * Warfare in Medieval Thought * Warfare in Renaissance Thought * Conclusion
Survival of Kansas Dipel-Resistant European Corn Borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) on Bt and Non-Bt Corn Hybrids

Abstract The Kansas Dipel-resistant and susceptible European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), were evaluated in the greenhouse on different Bt transgenic events expressed in corn hybrids. There were important differences in the resistance offered by the different Bt event corn hybrids. Hybrid comparison tests indicate that these Dipel-resistant first-instar European corn borer were not able to survive to adulthood on whorl-stage MON810, Bt11, or 176 Bt event corn plants. Third instars did not survive to adulthood on whorl-stage MON810 or Bt11 event corn plants but a small number of fifth instars were found on whorl-stage DBT418 plants infested with Dipel-resistant larvae. First and third instars of these Dipel-resistant European corn borers caused more leaf-feeding damage and more tunneling on whorl-stage Bt-corn plants than did the Dipel-susceptible European corn borers. However, in the single Bt corn hybrid test, there was no survival of the Dipel-resistant European corn borers on DK580BtX or MAX454 Bt plants 35 to 42 d after they had been infested with first instars. These results demonstrate that the current Kansas selection of Dipel-resistant European corn borer strain cannot establish reproducing populations in the tested Bt corn lines and hybrids.
Development of 2dTCA for the detection of irregular, transient bold activity

The temporal clustering algorithm (TCA) has been developed in order to detect irregular, transient functional MRI (fMRI) activation signals when the timings of the stimuli are unknown. Unfortunately, such methods are also sensitive to signal changes caused by motion and physiological noise. We have developed a modified TCA technique, 2dTCA, which can detect multiple different timing patterns within a dataset so that signals of interest can be separated from artifacts and those of no interest. The objective of this work was to further develop the 2dTCA methods and evaluate their performance in simulated functional MRI datasets. Comparisons were made with TCA and a freely‐distributed independent component analysis algorithm (ICA). We created two different sets of six computer‐generated phantoms with one and two different simulated activation time courses present in 10 regions of interest. The phantoms also contained real subject rigid and nonrigid body motion and noise. Sensitivity of detection, defined as the true‐positive activation rate at false‐positive activation rates varying between 0.0001 and 0.01, was compared between methods. Additionally, specificity of detection of the irregular, transient signal of interest was assessed by comparing the number of signal time courses detected by each algorithm. The results suggest that the increased sensitivity of 2dTCA over TCA in detecting this particular signal of interest is comparable to the detection with ICA, but with fewer other signals detected. A few examples of the successful application of 2dTCA to the localization of interictal activity in preliminary studies of temporal lobe epilepsy are also described. Hum Brain Mapp 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Metabolic effects of intravenous LCT or MCT/LCT lipid emulsions in preterm infants Published, JLR Papers in Press, November 18, 2005.

Most lipid emulsions for parenteral feeding of premature infants are based on long-chain triacylglycerols (LCTs), but inclusion of medium-chain triacylglycerols (MCTs) might provide a more readily oxidizable energy source. The influence of these emulsions on fatty acid composition and metabolism was studied in 12 premature neonates, who were randomly assigned to an LCT emulsion (control) or an emulsion with a mixture of MCT and LCT (1:1). On study day 7, all infants received [13C]linoleic (LA) and [13C]α-linolenic acid (ALA) tracers orally. Plasma phospholipid (PL) and triacylglycerol (TG) fatty acid composition and13C enrichments of plasma PL fatty acids were determined on day 8. After 8 days of lipid infusion, plasma TGs in the MCT/LCT group had higher contents of C8:0 (0.50 ± 0.60% vs. 0.10 ± 0.12%; means ± SD) and C10:0 (0.66 ± 0.51% vs. 0.15 ± 0.17%) than controls. LA content of plasma PLs was slightly lower in the MCT/LCT group (16.47 ± 1.16% vs. 18.57 ± 2.09%), whereas long-chain polyunsaturated derivatives (LC-PUFAs) of LA and ALA tended to be higher. The tracer distributions between precursors and products (LC-PUFAs) were not significantly different between groups. Both lipid emulsions achieve similar plasma essential fatty acid (EFA) contents and similar proportional conversion of EFAs to LC-PUFAs. The MCT/LCT emulsion seems to protect EFAs and LC-PUFAs from β-oxidation.
Evaluation of the Antidiabetic Properties of S-1708 Mulberry Variety

Background: Diabetes is a metabolic disease prevalent worldwide in all age group of people. The source of diabetes is due to an oxidation process that can produce free radicals. An increase in oxidative free radicals in the body is reported to be one of the several causes of diabetes. The best remedy to combat oxidative stress is the use of antioxidants, which inhibit and scavenge free radicals. Aim: This study has been undertaken to evaluate the antioxidant activity and antidiabetic effect of mulberry leaf extract in diabetic mice. Materials and Methods: Antioxidant activity of mulberry leaves was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. Antidiabetic assay of mulberry leaf extract was analyzed by oral administration of leaf extract up to 3 weeks in diabetic mice induced by streptozotocin. Results: In vitro antioxidant activity in both DPPH and FRAP assays showed significantly (P < 0.05) higher inhibition of free radicals than that with ascorbic acid. Diabetic mice fed with mulberry leaf extract showed increment (+25.88%) in body weight and a significant reduction in blood glucose concentration (−71.58%). Further, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme activity was significantly (P < 0.05) increased, whereas activities of other enzymes particularly catalase, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase were decreased in diabetic mice after oral administration of mulberry leaf extracts. Histology of liver revealed regeneration of hepatocytes, central vein, and nucleus. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that S-1708 mulberry variety has a potential therapeutic value in diabetes and related complications. Abbreviations used: S-1708, DPPH, FRAP.
Effects of grade and mass distribution on the mechanics of trotting in dogs

SUMMARY Quadrupedal running on grades requires balancing of pitch moments about the center of mass (COM) while supplying sufficient impulse to maintain a steady uphill or downhill velocity. Here, trotting mechanics on a 15 deg grade were characterized by the distribution of impulse between the limbs and the angle of resultant impulse at each limb. Anterior–posterior manipulation of COM position has previously been shown to influence limb mechanics during level trotting of dogs; hence, the combined effects of grade and COM manipulations were explored by adding 10% body mass at the COM, shoulder or pelvis. Whole body and individual limb ground reaction forces, as well as spatiotemporal step parameters, were measured during downhill and uphill trotting. Deviations from steady-speed locomotion were determined by the net impulse angle and accounted for in the statistical model. The limbs exerted only propulsive force during uphill trotting and, with the exception of slight hindlimb propulsion in late stance, only braking force during downhill trotting. Ratios of forelimb impulse to total impulse were computed for normal and shear components. Normal impulse ratios were more different from level values during uphill than downhill trotting, indicating that the limbs act more as levers on the incline. Differential limb function was evident in the extreme divergence of forelimb and hindlimb impulse angles, amplifying forelimb braking and hindlimb propulsive biases observed during level trotting. In both downhill and uphill trotting, added mass at the up-slope limb resulted in fore–hind distributions of normal impulse more similar to those of level trotting and more equal fore–hind distributions of shear impulse. The latter result suggests a functional trade-off in quadruped design: a COM closer to the hindlimbs would distribute downhill braking more equally, whereas a COM closer to the forelimbs would distribute uphill propulsion more equally. Because muscles exert less force when actively shortening than when lengthening, it would be advantageous for the forelimb and hindlimb muscles to share the propulsive burden more equally during uphill trotting. This functional advantage is consistent with the anterior COM position of most terrestrial quadrupeds.
Fetal Heart Rate Classification : First vs . Second Stage of Labor

Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) is clinically used for early detection of fetal acidosis. Despite a marked interest in automatic detection procedures, FHR analysis remains a challenging signal processing task, receiving considerable research attention. Among other difficulties, the two stages of labor (dilation and active pushing) produce very different FHR dynamics. Most research efforts, however, have either ignored these differences or analyzed only one of the two stages of labor. In this work, we propose to assess the impact of labor stages on acidosis detection performance. A state-of-the-art sparse support vector machine classifier that performs simultaneously feature selection and classification is applied to a large-size and well documented FHR database. It shows that the selected set of features differs for each stage and that detection performance improves when the difference between labor stages is considered.
Effects of Songs With Prosocial Lyrics on Prosocial Behavior: Further Evidence and a Mediating Mechanism

Previous research has shown that exposure to prosocial songs increased the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, led to more interpersonal empathy, and fostered helping behavior. However, inasmuch as cognition, affect, and behavior were measured in different studies, it remained unclear what variable constituted the mediating path from media exposure to action. This was tested in the present research. In four studies, listening to songs with prosocial, relative to neutral, lyrics increased helping behavior. This effect was mediated by interpersonal empathy. The results are consistent with the general learning model and point to the importance of the affective route in explaining how media exposure influences social behavior.
Dietary Microbial Toxins and Type 1 Diabetes

Abstract: Toxins may promote type 1 diabetes by modifying or damaging the β cell causing release of autoantigens. Streptomyces is a common soil bacterium that produces many toxic compounds. Some Streptomyces can infect vegetables, raising the possibility of dietary exposure to toxins. We aimed to identify toxins that erode cellular proton gradients in extracts of Streptomyces and infested vegetables and to establish the effect of low doses of these toxins on pancreatic islets in mice. The vacuolar ATPase inhibitors, bafilomycin and concanamycin, and the ionophore, nigericin, were identified in extracts from 4 of 13 Streptomyces isolated from infested potatoes and in potatoes themselves. Injection of bafilomycin A1 into mice impaired glucose tolerance, reduced islet size, and decreased relative β cell mass. Thus, exposure to small quantities of bafilomycin in the diet may contribute to the cause of type 1 diabetes.
An NIR-Based Probe for Submilligram Measurement of Solid Contaminants in Gas Pipelines

This paper suggests a new near-infrared (NIR)-based device to accurately measure the concentration of solid contaminants passing through gas-oil pipelines. It consists of a ring of NIR sources and receivers, which are evenly distributed across a cross section of the probe and connected to sources of lights and NIR spectrometers through multimode optical fibers. This allows a more accurate measurement of solid contaminants by capturing NIR light from the maximum volume in the probe, in addition to allowing image reconstruction of solid contaminants using image tomography techniques. The extracted data are processed by the principal component analysis, in order to keep only the most representative data of the spectrum. Extensive experimental results on non-diluted solid contaminants, the weight of which ranged from 0.212 to 0.717 g, demonstrate the capability of the device to measure the concentration of solid contaminants at submilligram scale, in addition to dealing with sand particles when they coexist with solid contaminants. A finite-element model is also provided in this paper to predict the behavior of the probe for different scenarios of the process. The corresponding simulation results indicate some overlaps with the experimental results.
A variant to Sequential Quadratic Programming for nonlinear Model Predictive Control

Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) denotes an established class of methods for solving nonlinear optimization problems via an iterative sequence of Quadratic Programs (QPs). Several approaches in the literature have established local and global convergence of the method. This paper considers a variant to SQP that, instead of solving each QP, at each iteration follows one gradient step along a direction that is proven to be a descent direction for an augmented Lagrangian of the nonlinear problem, and in turn is used to generate the next QP. We prove global convergence to a critical point of the original nonlinear problem via a line search that requires the same assumptions as the SQP method. The method is then applied to nonlinear Model Predictive Control (MPC). To simplify the problem formulation and achieve faster convergence, we propose a locally convergent reformulation. An important speed-up is observed in practice via a specific initialization. The computational efficiency of the proposed method is finally shown in a numerical example.
Cerebrospinal fluid levels of insulin, leptin, and agouti‐related protein in relation to BMI in pregnant women

During pregnancy, metabolic interactions must be adapted, though neuroendocrine mechanisms for increased food intake are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to characterize differences in insulin, leptin, and agouti‐related protein (AgRP) levels in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in pregnant women with normal weight (NW) and pregnant women with overweight (OW) or obesity (OB). Placenta as a source for increased peripheral AgRP levels during pregnancy was also investigated.