Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Periodontal health and lateral lower lip piercings: a split-mouth cross-sectional study.

AIM To assess periodontal health of individuals with a lateral lower lip piercing and describe associated periodontal, dental and mucosal complications. MATERIAL AND METHODS A split-mouth study was performed in a sample of 50 patients with a lateral lower lip piercing who attended the Periodontal Pathology and Surgery Unit of the Dental School of the University of Barcelona. The patients underwent periodontal, dental and mucosal examination on both the piercing and the control sides. RESULTS Piercing users were predominantly women (78%), with a mean age of 21.3 years (SD=4.4). The amounts of keratinized and attached gingiva were significantly lower on the piercing side, and the prevalence of gingival recession was higher (p=0.012). The canine and first bicuspid teeth were the most affected. Tooth fractures and cracks were more frequent on the piercing side (20%) when compared with the control (4%). Mucosal alterations were found in seven patients. CONCLUSIONS The use of lateral lower lip piercings enhances gingival recession and reduces the amounts of keratinized and attached gingiva. These ornaments are also associated with tooth fractures and cracks.
Peer counselling for the promotion of long-acting, reversible contraception among teens: a randomised, controlled trial

Abstract Aim: To evaluate the impact peer counselling has on same-day desire for long-acting, reversible contraception (LARC) among adolescents attending a family planning clinic. Methods: A randomised, controlled trial of 110 adolescent females attending an outpatient clinic for contraception in 2013. Adolescents received either brief peer counselling about LARC with routine contraceptive counselling, or routine counselling alone. Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression assessed the primary outcome of same-day desire for LARC and secondary outcomes of change in knowledge and attitudes regarding LARC. Results: Peer counselling was well received and 70% reported that it was helpful in contraceptive decision-making. Peer counselling did not affect same-day desire for LARC, however, adolescents who received the intervention were more likely to report increased knowledge and positive change in attitudes towards LARC (adjusted odds ratios: 6.6 (95% confidence interval: 2.0–22.0 and 6.4 (1.6–26.8), respectively). Factors positively associated with same-day LARC desire included greater reported peer contraceptive influence, peer use of LARC and social support. Twenty of the 36 adolescents who desired LARC at the end of their clinic visit did not receive one most commonly due to a need to schedule a specific appointment for the procedure and the need to return during a menstrual period for intrauterine device placement. Conclusion: While brief, point-of-care peer counselling is well received, and can increase adolescent knowledge and positive attitude about our most effective contraceptive methods, barriers to same-day LARC placement limit immediate use.
Diversity of cultivable and uncultivable oral spirochetes from a patient with severe destructive periodontitis

To determine the genetic diversity of cultivable and uncultivable spirochetes in the gingival crevice of a patient with severe periodontitis, partial 16S rRNA genes were cloned from PCR-amplified products of DNA and RNA extracted from a subgingival plaque sample. Approximately 500 bp were amplified in PCRs by using universally conserved primers with polylinker tails. Purified PCR products were cloned into Escherichia coli by using the plasmid vector pUC19. The resultant clone library was screened by colony hybridization with a radiolabeled, treponeme-specific oligonucleotide probe. The 16S rRNA inserts of 81 spirochetal clones were then sequenced by standard procedures. Sequences were compared with 16S rRNA sequences of 35 spirochetes, including the four known cultivable oral treponeme species. The analysis revealed an unexpected diversity of oral treponemes from a single patient. When 98% or greater sequence similarity was used as the definition of a species-level cluster, the clone sequences were found to represent 23 species. When 92% similarity was used as the definition, the clones fell into eight major groups, only two of which contained named species, Treponema vincentii and Treponema denticola, while Treponema pectinovorum and Treponema socranskii were not represented in any cluster. Seven of the 81 spirochetal clones were found to contain chimeric 16S rRNA sequences. In situ fluorescence hybridization with a fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled oligonucleotide probe specific for one of the new species representing cluster 19 was used to identify cells of the target species directly in clinical samples.
Public Policy in Macroeconomic Models with Incomplete Markets

This thesis consist of three self-contained papers linked by a common topic: positive and normative analysis of public policy when human capital investment is risky and private insurance markets against labor income risk are missing. The failure of private insurance markets makes room for welfare improving public policies that provide some insurance against labor income and employment risk. In addition, publicly provided consumption services leave income risk unaffected but reduces consumption risk. This relationship is not taken into account by the households' portfolio decisions. The presence of idiosyncratic uninsurable labor income risk makes public policies that encourage more risk taking beneficial. The first paper (chapter 2 of this thesis) is joint work with Tom Krebs and introduces a labor market search model in which unemployed households choose their search effort. After having established some characterization results of the competitive equilibrium, we apply a calibrated version of the model economy to evaluate employment, growth and, in particular, welfare effects of the recent major labor market reform in Germany, that was implemented in 2005 and 2006. The second paper (chapter 3 of this thesis) is single authored and builds on the model developed in the previous paper, but in contrast of making a positive statement on the effect of labor market reforms, I now take a normative approach and analyzed the optimal unemployment insurance system when the households' search effort decisions are only private information such that the government cannot make benefit payments conditional on the exerted search effort. The third paper (chapter 4 of this thesis) is joint work with Tom Krebs and introduces publicly provided consumption services that are financed through capital, labor and consumption taxes. Because there is an implicit shift from risky private consumption towards risk-free publicly provided consumption services that is not taken into account by the households' optimization decision, distortative tax systems may be welfare improving. In this paper, we take a normative approach and derive the optimal welfare improving tax system.
Glass Ceilings or Sticky Floors? An analysis of the gender wage gap across the wage distribution in Japan

This study examines the gender wage gap across the wage distribution in Japan using large sample data for 1990, 2000, and 2014. The results of the Firpo-Fortin-Lemieux decomposition show that the part of the observed gender gap that is not explained by gender differences in human capital is larger at the top and at the bottom of the wage distribution, indicating that both a glass ceiling and a sticky floor exist for women in the Japanese labor market. The sticky floor could be explained by female workers being segregated into non-career track jobs, while the glass ceiling could be due to gender differences in the quality of education. Furthermore, this study also finds that while the gender wage gap has been declining from 1990 to 2014 at all quantiles of the wage distribution, the decline in gender gap of human capital attributes contributes to it. However, the glass ceiling and the sticky floor phenomena, observed since 1990, persist.
Phototoxicity in Human Lens Epithelial Cells Promoted by St. John's Wort¶

Abstract St. John's Wort (SJW), an over-the-counter antidepressant, contains hypericin, which absorbs light in the UV and visible ranges and is phototoxic to skin. To determine if it also could be phototoxic to the eye, we exposed human lens epithelial cells to 0.1–10 μM hypericin and irradiated them with 4 J/cm2 UV-A or 0.9 J/cm2 visible light. Neither hypericin exposure alone nor light exposure alone reduced cell viability. In contrast, cells exposed to hypericin in combination with UV-A or visible light underwent necrosis and apoptosis. The ocular antioxidants lutein and N-acetyl cysteine did not prevent damage. Thus, ingested SJW is potentially phototoxic to the eye and could contribute to early cataractogenesis. Precautions should be taken to protect the eye from intense sunlight while taking SJW.
Identification of Balamuthia mandrillaris by PCR Assay Using the Mitochondrial 16S rRNA Gene as a Target

ABSTRACT Balamuthia mandrillaris is an opportunistic pathogen that causes granulomatous amebic meningoencephalitis in animals, including humans. Based on sequence analysis of mitochondrial small-subunit-rRNA genes, we developed primers that amplify a Balamuthia-specific PCR product. These primers will be useful for retrospective analyses of fixed tissues and possible identification of Balamuthia in vivo.
Adjustments in the housing market after an environmental shock: evidence from a large-scale change in aircraft noise exposure

The impact of aircraft noise on housing is a much-debated topic. To meet the increasing demand for air transportation, airports seek to expand their capacities, but studies looking at market responses to a spatial redistribution of noise pollution are scarce. Using online advertisements of rental apartments around a large European airport (ZRH) and an unexpected change in flight regulations, we investigate the post-shock dynamics in apartment rents and tenants’ search behaviour. We find that rents take about two years to stabilise to a new equilibrium value. After this period there is a constant markup (discount) for apartments exposed to less (more) aircraft noise. Moreover, the number of advertisement clicks as a proxy for search behaviour and information acquisition is significantly higher during the adjustment period. Our results have implications regarding the calculation of capitalisation effects in quasi-experimental hedonic valuations, which need to take into account off-equilibrium periods.
Research and applications: Combining structured and unstructured data to identify a cohort of ICU patients who received dialysis

OBJECTIVE To develop a generalizable method for identifying patient cohorts from electronic health record (EHR) data-in this case, patients having dialysis-that uses simple information retrieval (IR) tools. METHODS We used the coded data and clinical notes from the 24,506 adult patients in the Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care database to identify patients who had dialysis. We used SQL queries to search the procedure, diagnosis, and coded nursing observations tables based on ICD-9 and local codes. We used a domain-specific search engine to find clinical notes containing terms related to dialysis. We manually validated the available records for a 10% random sample of patients who potentially had dialysis and a random sample of 200 patients who were not identified as having dialysis based on any of the sources. RESULTS We identified 1844 patients that potentially had dialysis: 1481 from the three coded sources and 1624 from the clinical notes. Precision for identifying dialysis patients based on available data was estimated to be 78.4% (95% CI 71.9% to 84.2%) and recall was 100% (95% CI 86% to 100%). CONCLUSIONS Combining structured EHR data with information from clinical notes using simple queries increases the utility of both types of data for cohort identification. Patients identified by more than one source are more likely to meet the inclusion criteria; however, including patients found in any of the sources increases recall. This method is attractive because it is available to researchers with access to EHR data and off-the-shelf IR tools.
UNIONS AND WAGES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FIRMS: A GAME-THEORETIC

The analysis combines what have been, up to now, two quite distinct strands of literature: the relatively small group of models studying wage determination in public firms (Gravelle 1984; Haskel and Szymanski 1990), and those analysing the effects of product market interaction on the bargaining process between union and firm management. This synthesis is needed for two reasons. Firstly, many public firms operate in an oligopolistic market. ' Secondly, as the recent literature on mixed oligopoly has highlighted, the market interaction between private and public firms can modify some of the results which are established in the independent firm case (see De Fraja and Delbono, 1990, for a survey). Section 3 establishes that, unless the utility of the union has a low weight in the social welfare function, the public firm pays higher wages than its private competitor. To see intuitively why this happens, notice that a marginal increase in the wage paid by the public firm affects its payoff in a variety of ways: it leads to lower profits and lower consumer surplus; but it also leads to higher utility for the public firm's union and, via the product market interaction, to higher profits and higher union utility for the private firm operating in the market (the relative importance of these factors is determined by the weights in the public firm's welfare function). These last three effects increase the management's payoff dampen the reduction which follows a wage increaseand thus weaken the management's ability to resist the union's wage demands. If these are strong, that is, if the union's utility has a sufficiently high weight, and/or if the product market interaction is present, the public firm pays higher wages as a result. Without a product market competitor the last two effects are absent, and the management of the public firm is in a much stronger position. Thus, Section 2 suggests that, unless the union's utility has a large weight in social welfare, a public monopoly pays a lower wage than an identical private one. Section 3 therefore provides a plausible economic raison d'etre for higher
Technical Analysis as a Rational Tool of Decision Making for Professional Traders

ABSTRACT The psychological background of technical analysis usage is investigated to further explain the popularity and common usage of technical analysis as an investment decision tool. Attitudes toward technical analysis of professional futures market traders and neophyte investors, represented by finance students, were examined. Technical analysis is one of the most popular methods supporting investment decisions and it is much more popular among future market traders than among neophyte investors. The concept of processing information was used to explain this phenomenon. Neophyte investors are more experiential and intuition-driven while using technical analysis models, while futures market traders are more rationally driven. Technical analysis methods help professional traders on futures markets, which are less transparent than regulated stock markets, to process information; those methods are perceived by them as rational, cognitive tools supporting their decision making.
Sox11 regulates survival and axonal growth of embryonic sensory neurons

Sensory neurons transduce various stimuli including temperature, pain, and touch from the periphery to the central nervous system. Sensory neuron development is governed by a combination of extracellular cues and specific gene expression. We demonstrated that the transcription factor Sox11 was highly expressed in the developing sensory neurons. To test the function of Sox11, we used a knockin mouse model where the entire coding region of Sox11 was replaced by a LacZ reporter. The ablation of Sox11 caused severe reduction in sensory neuron survival in the trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia, although it did not affect migration of neural crest cells or acquisition of major sensory neuron subtypes. We further demonstrated that ablating Sox11 caused an arrest of axonal outgrowth in vivo and in vitro. This defect could not be fully rescued by blocking cell death. Our data suggest that Sox11 is a key regulator of sensory neuron development. Developmental Dynamics, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
RPE65 Mutations in Two Japanese Families with Leber Congenital Amaurosis

Abstract Purpose: To investigate genetic and clinical features of patients with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) caused by RPE65 mutations. Methods: Five Japanese families with LCA were recruited. We performed complete ophthalmic examinations, with optical coherence tomography, fundus autofluorescence imaging, and full-field electroretinography (ERG). Genetic analysis was performed with whole-exome sequencing analysis and Sanger sequencing. Results: We identified RPE65 mutations in two unrelated LCA patients from two families. Case 1: A 5-month-old girl was diagnosed with LCA because of nystagmus, loss of vision and non-recordable ERG. She was the only one affected in her non-consanguineous family, and exhibited novel compound heterozygous RPE65 mutations (c.177C>G, p.H59Q and c.183_184insT, p.D62X). Case 2: A 30-year-old woman, who had night blindness and poor ocular pursuit during the first year of life, exhibited severe retinal degeneration and non-recordable ERG. She was the only affected in her non-consanguineous family, and showed a homozygous RPE65 mutation (c.1543C>T, p.R515W). Conclusions: By using whole-exome sequencing analysis, three RPE65 mutations were identified in two Japanese patients with LCA. This approach would be useful for identification of disease-causing mutations of LCA.
Immunohistologic markers of immune activation and changes of glycosylation of serum proteins in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

OBJECTIVE [corrected] To assess the possible correlations between the immune activation of certain surface antigens at the lip salivary gland (LSG) level, and changes in glycosylation of serum proteins in primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS). METHODS LSG biopsy samples were obtained from 22 SS patients (mean age 56.3 years; mean disease duration 70.8 months) and prepared for immunohistochemical analysis using murine monoclonal antibodies for interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R) (CD25) and for the class II major histocompatibility antigen HLA-DR. The glycosylation of serum proteins was evaluated in all patients by an enzyme-linked lectin assay (ELLA) using concanavalin A (Con A). RESULTS In LSG specimens the presence of IL-2R was observed at the infiltrating level, mainly periductally, in 13 (59%) cases and on the epithelial cells of 14 (64%) patients. In 13 out of 22 SS patients (59%) a marked positivity both of the infiltrates and of the epithelium was found for anti-HLA-DR monoclonal antibody. The degree of expression of different antigens on LSG samples was correlated with their histologic class according to Tarpley evaluation. The positivity for IL-2R and HLA-DR molecules on glandular tissues was correlated. A significant increase in the total Con A reactivity of serum proteins was found in those patients expressing IL-2R and HLA-DR antigens on LSG specimens. CONCLUSIONS The co-expression of IL-2R and HLA-DR antigens on both the epithelium and infiltrates of LSG is consistent with a participation of these cells in the immune process of SS. Moreover, changes in the glycosylation of serum proteins seem to be related to the presence of these immunoactivation markers of the disease at the LSG level, suggesting that the control of protein glycosylation could be mediated by the same mechanisms involved in the tissue damage of SS.
Measurement error in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe: A Validation Study with Administrative Data for Education Level, Income and Employment

Summary We link the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to Danish Administrative Registers, comparing schooling, retirement status and income. We are able to retrieve administrative records for 1670 out of the original 1707 respondents from the first survey wave in 2004. We compare individual linked records in an analysis of measurement error. Overall, we find only minor non-random misclassification of schooling, but otherwise SHARE provides reliable data for socio-economic analysis of schooling, income and retirement. SHARE Denmark overestimates the proportion of individuals with higher education: the probability of misclassification is higher for lower educated, richer individuals. Labour market status is precisely reported, and misclassification probability decreases with age. Average gross household income is not statistically different in SHARE and register data, and we show that measurement error is classical.
Frequency regulation by management of building cooling systems through Model Predictive Control

Frequency stability in power systems is a key driver for the maintenance of supply quality. Thermal loads, if properly managed, can play an important role in providing support to the frequency regulation. In this framework, the paper presents a control strategy to enable a load aggregator to manage a set of building cooling systems to contribute both to primary and secondary regulation. The proposed strategy uses the Model Predictive Control approach. Frequency support is provided without compromising the natural mission of the controlled loads, i.e., the end-user thermal comfort. The introduced method is tested by means of software-in-the-loop simulation studies. The implemented testing framework emulates real-time operation of a building aggregate within a benchmark network with high penetration of wind generation. Results show the ability of the control algorithm to optimally coordinate the contribution of thermal loads both to primary and secondary frequency regulation.
Primary central nervous system germ cell tumors. Effect of histologic confirmation on radiotherapy

Primary malignant intracranial germ cell tumors are rare lesions responsible for only 0.5% of all central nervous system (CNS) malignancy. With stereotactic localization these lesions can be safely biopsied, and histologic confirmation will affect the ultimate prognosis. This report is a multi‐institutional retrospective analysis of 33 patients diagnosed with a primary CNS germ cell tumor. Tumors in 14 patients (42%) were histologically confirmed (13 germinoma and one embryonal cell carcinoma); 19 patients were treated with a presumptive diagnosis. All patients were irradiated with a dose range of 3950 cGy to 6000 cGy to the primary lesions. Eight patients received craniospinal irradiation, and 25 patients were locally treated. The 5‐year actuarial survival for the entire population was 64%. The survival rate in patients with histologic confirmation was 79% versus 53% in the unbiopsied population. Radiation doses greater than 5000 cGy, radiotherapy volume, and age were prognostic factors in determining survival.