Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of root maturation after revitalization in immature permanent teeth with nonvital pulps by cone beam computed tomography and conventional radiographs

AIM To investigate the response of immature permanent teeth with nonvital pulps after revitalization procedures using cone beam computed tomography imaging and conventional radiograph. METHODOLOGY Clinical records of patients who had undergone revitalization between 1997 and 2014 were collected. Seventeen patients attended the follow-up examination. Clinical examination and radiographic examination by means of CBCT imaging and conventional radiographs were conducted to evaluate treatment outcomes, especially the dimensional changes of the root and the pattern of root maturation. Statistical analysis was conducted using Fisher's exact test and Monte Carlo test to investigate the effect of potential outcome predictors. RESULTS For the follow-up period as far as 96 months, thirteen teeth (76%) were classified as a 'success'. Conventional radiographs showed various degrees of dimensional changes in the immature roots ranging from 0% to 73% changes. The mean percentage changes of root length and root wall thickness were 14.38 ± 20.92% and 13.82 ± 11.17%, respectively. CBCT images illustrated various patterns of root maturation including incomplete root development with wide-open apices and fully formed roots with various apical shapes. Root canal contents varied radiographically from empty canals to many degrees of unpredictable patterning of radiopaque deposits. CONCLUSION Revitalization in immature teeth with nonvital pulps resulted in unpredictable responses in terms of continued root development. Various types of root maturation and root canal contents were observed radiographically, which were different from typical root development.
Research on unified phone set for Mandarin-Tibetan Bilingual ASR

Mandarin and Tibetan Lhasa dialect are chosen to be the research objects. Phones sets and corresponding Latin Transformation scheme of Mandarin and Tibetan Lhasa dialect are established respectively. KL distance between two GMMs are studied. GMM-HMM models for phones of two languages are trained on the basis of corpus and pronunciation dictionaries. Phones of Mandarin and Tibetan Lhasa dialect are clustered based on KL distance between two GMM-HMMs. So an unified phone set of the two languages are set. The effectiveness of the unified phones set of mandarin and Tibetan Lhasa are validated.
Reproducibility of heart rate variability from short-term recordings during five manoeuvres in normal subjects

Primary objective: Due to limited and contradictory information available, the reproducibility of temporal and spectral measurements of heart rate variability from short-term recordings was evaluated in normal subjects during supine, controlled breathing, standing, exercise and recovery conditions. Methods and procedures: Five-minute tachograms from 11 individuals were obtained during the specified manoeuvres, and repeated three times in a five day period. Besides temporal and spectral indexes, the central frequencies were also computed. Main outcomes and results: The ANOVA presented non-significant differences among the repetitions for any of the parameters studied. Most intra-class correlation coefficients were over 0.68. The central frequency of the low component diminished during the manoeuvres. Conclusions: In healthy individuals, the temporal and spectral measurements of the heart rate variability from short-term records are stable in a five day period for the manoeuvres studied. Central frequencies of the spectral components might be used as indexes of the autonomic activity.
Investigation of NBTI Recovery During Measurement

In this work we present a rigorous investigation of the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) recovery process during measurement intervals in comparison to the numerical solution of an extended reaction-diffusion (RD) model. In contrast to previous work, the RD model has been implemented in a multi-dimensional device simulator and is solved selfconsistently together with the semiconductor device equations. This allows us to directly use many commonly approximated quantities such as the oxide electric field and the interface hole concentration in a self-consistent manner. In addition, the influence of the trapped charges can be more accurately considered by using a distributed Shockley-Read-Hall interface trap-charge model [1, 2] which has been coupled to the RD model. Thus, due to the self-consistent solution procedure, also the feedback of these charged interface-states on the Poisson equation is considered which influences the observed threshold voltage shift. Experimental data confirm the model which has been calibrated to a wide range of temperatures using a single set of parameters.
Grating-patterned hyperbolic metamaterials for InGaN/GaN nanowire quantum dots single photon source

Oue to the wide adjustable range of bandgap and large exciton binding energy, InGaN/GaN nanowire quantum dots (NQDs) has been one of the most promising candidates for site-controlled single photon source (SPS) in a wide range from visible to near-infrared. Here the annular-grating-patterned hyperbolic metamaterials was proposed to enhance the performance of InGaN/GaN NQDs SPS. By combining the broadband enhancement of spontaneous emission from hyperbolic metamaterials and directional light output from annular grating, both the spontaneous emission rate and photon extraction efficiency can be enhanced. Our research provides a novel idea for high-frequency, high-brightness and directional InGaN/GaN NQDs SPS, which has good prospect for many applications such as quantum information processing.
Discordance between dipyridamole stress Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT and coronary angiography in patients with Kawasaki disease

BackgroundKawasaki disease is an acute vasculitis syndrome of unknown etiology that mainly affects the coronary arteries. The purpose of this study was to assess the agreement between dipyridamole stress technetium 99m sestamibi single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and coronary angiography in these patients.Methods and ResultsForty-one consecutive patients (29 boys and 12 girls) who underwent coronary angiography were studied prospectively. Their ages at onset of the disease ranged from 2 months to 4.8 years (mean ± SD, 1.9 ± 1.3 years). Their ages at the time of the study ranged from 8 months to 15.3 years (6.2 ± 4.4 years). The duration between symptom onset and the study ranged from 2 months to 12 years (4.3 ± 4.0 years). All patients underwent dipyridamole stress Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT within 1 month of their angiographic studies. They were divided into 3 groups according to coronary angiography findings. Group A consisted of 2 patients (1 boy and 1 girl, aged 10.3 and 1.9 years, respectively) with coronary stenoses who also had aneurysms. Group B consisted of 10 patients (8 boys and 2 girls, aged 0.7-15.3 years [mean, 3.8 years]) with coronary aneurysms. Group C consisted of 29 patients (20 boys and 9 girls, aged 1.2-13.8 years [mean, 7 years]) with normal coronary angiograms. Two patients in group A (100%), 3 of 10 patients in group B (30%), and 19 of 29 patients in group C (65.5%) had myocardial perfusion defects. There was poor agreement between Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT and coronary angiography for detecting coronary stenoses (k = 0.07; P = .222) and aneurysms (k = -0.184; P = .158). ConclusionSignificant discordance exists between Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT and coronary angiography in patients with Kawasaki disease.
Antisocial Alcoholism in Parents of Adolescents and Young Adults With Childhood ADHD

Objective: Test the hypothesis that alcoholism, including antisocial alcoholism, is more prevalent among mothers and fathers of children with versus without ADHD. Method: Mothers (312 ADHD group, 235 non-ADHD group) and fathers (291 ADHD group, 227 non-ADHD group) in the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study were interviewed along with their adolescent and young adult offspring. Results: Maternal and paternal alcoholism, with and without comorbid antisociality, was more prevalent in the ADHD group. Paternal alcoholism without antisociality was only marginally higher for probands after controlling for paternal ADHD. Offspring conduct disorder comorbidity was associated with parental antisociality but not parental antisocial alcoholism. Conclusion: Our findings that 44% of proband fathers and 25% of proband mothers experienced alcohol problems with or without antisociality are further evidence of increased alcoholism prevalence in families affected by ADHD. Maternal alcoholism and antisociality are prominent contributors to this family-level vulnerability. These findings indicate the need to assess long-term offspring outcomes as a function of parental alcohol and externalizing comorbidities, and perhaps other indicators of parental alcoholism phenotype, as familial vulnerability unfolds across development.
From interacting particle systems to random matrices Contribution to StatPhys 24 special issue

In this contribution we consider stochastic growth models in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class in 1+1 dimension. We discuss the large time distribution and processes and their dependence on the class on initial condition. This means that the scaling exponents do not uniquely determine the large time surface statistics, but one has to further divide into subclasses. Some of the fluctuation laws were first discovered in random matrix models. Moreover, the limit process for curved limit shape turned out to show up in a dynamical version of hermitian random matrices, but this analogy does not extend to the case of symmetric matrices. Therefore the connections between growth models and random matrices is only partial.
No added value of the methionine loading test in assessment for venous thrombosis and cardiovascular disease risk

Summary Homocysteine isa risk factor for cardiovascular disease and venous thrombosis. Clinical guidelines differ in their recommendation whether or not to measure homocysteine after methionine loading. In this study, we investigated the added value of the methionine loading test next to fasting homocysteine levels for identifying subjects at risk for venous thrombosis or cardiovascular disease, using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves.The analysis was performed in 185 patients with recurrent venous thrombosis, 130 patients with cardiovascular disease and 601 controls.The discriminatory power of the fasting homocysteine measurement alone for identifying subjects at risk of venous thrombosis expressed as the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.61 (95%CI 0.56-0.66). Using both a fasting homocysteine measurement and a methionine loading test together yielded a similar AUC of 0.65 (95%CI 0.60-0.69), indicating no added value of methionine loading next to fasting homocysteine measurement in identifying subjects at risk for thrombosis. Similar results where found for cardiovascular disease, with anAUC of 0.62 (95%CI 0.57-0.67) for the fasting homocysteine measurement alone and an AUC of 0.62 (95%CI 0.57-0.67) for the combination of both the fasting and the postload homocysteine measurement. The methionine loading test has no added value next to measuring fasting homocysteine levels for identifying subjects at risk for venous thrombosis or cardiovascular disease and for that reason should not be used in clinical practice.
Prevalence and Identification of Bovine Ixodide Tick in Dandi District, West Shoa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted with the aim of identifying and estimating the prevalence of cattle ixodid tick infestation with respect to host related factors in Dendi district, Western Shoa, Ethiopia. Adult ixodid ticks were collected from 384 randomly selected cattle by using forceps and preserved in separate collecting bottle with 70 % ethyl alcohol. The collected ticks were identification under stereomicroscope into generas and species based on their morphology. The present study revealed that there was high tick infestation with an overall prevalence of 264 (68.8 %). In the study area four genera of ixodid ticks (Amblyomma, Rhipecephalus (Boophilus), Hyalomma and Rhipecephalus) and four species (Amblyomma variegatum, Rhipecephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus, Hyalomma dromedary, Rhipecephalus evertsi evertsi) were identified with the prevalence rate of 26.6 %, 31.8 %, 3.4 % and 3.6 % respectively. All species of ticks had higher number of male, except Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus (0.0048:1) and they were distributed and attached with statistically significant (P<0.05) variation among different parts of the host body. Different risk factors (age, sex, body condition score, breed and managements) were considered but they are statistically not significant (P>0.05). Their respective prevalence were; age (young 12.2 %, adult 45.5 % and old 10.9 %); sex (male 30.7 % and female 38 %); body condition score (poor 22.9 %, medium 43.7 % and good 2.1 %); breed (local 57.6 % and cross breed 11.2 %) and management system(extensive 63.3 %, semi-intensive 4.2 % and intensive 1.3 %). The present study indicates there is high prevalence of ixodide tick infestation, especially in local cattle breed, adult, female and medium body condition. Therefore, effective control measures should be undertaken to bring the needed health and productive animals in Dendi district.
Comparisons between alfalfa silage and hay.

Abstract Comparisons were made between alfalfa harvested as silage or hay and fed to cattle and sheep. Feedable silage amounted to 71 to 90% of the dry matter ensiled, and organic matter lost as seepage from direct-cut silage amounted to 4 to 7%. For one year early-cut forage (hay and silage) was more digestible and produced greater intakes and live weight gains in heifers and sheep than did that cut three weeks later, but for the next year no such differences were found. Forage treated with a mechanical press to decrease water content or treated with formic acid was compared to direct-cut silage. No marked differences in silage composition, digestibility, and performance by cattle or sheep were noted. In six trials comparing direct-cut silage with hay, cattle and sheep consumed more dry matter as hay than as silage, yet performance was not consistently greater with hay. Dry matter from silages contained more energy, ether extract, and less hemicellulose than the companion hay, and the energy from silages was slightly more digestible. Thus, the digestible energy value as calories per gram dry matter for silages was about 1.24 times that of companion hays.
A Case-Based Study of Students' Visuohaptic Experiences of Electric Fields around Molecules: Shaping the Development of Virtual Nanoscience Learning Environments

Recent educational research has suggested that immersive multisensory virtual environments offer learners unique and exciting knowledge-building opportunities for the construction of scientific knowledge. This paper delivers a case-based study of students’ immersive interaction with electric fields around molecules in a multisensory visuohaptic virtual environment. The virtual architecture presented here also has conceptual connections to the flourishing quest in contemporary literature for the pressing need to communicate nanoscientific ideas to learners. Five upper secondary school students’ prior conceptual understanding of electric fields and their application of this knowledge to molecular contexts, were probed prior to exposure to the virtual model. Subsequently, four students interacted with the visuohaptic model while performing think-aloud tasks. An inductive and heuristic treatment of videotaped verbal and behavioural data revealed distinct interrelationships between students’ interactive strategies implemented when executing tasks in the virtual system and the nature of their conceptual knowledge deployed. The obtained qualitative case study evidence could serve as an empirical basis for informing the rendering and communication of overarching nanoscale ideas. At the time of composing this paper for publication in the current journal, the research findings of this study have been put into motion in informing a broader project goal of developing educational virtual environments for depicting nanophenomena.
Detection and Management of Personality and Psychosomatic Disorders among Industrial Personnel

&NA; Lowered working efficiency, absenteeism, high accident rate, and grievances may result from conflicts among workers superior, equal or inferior in the industrial scale and from stresses such as pressure of production. A method, using psychiatric interviews and the Cornell Selectee Index and Cornell‐Word Form, was instituted at the Caterpillar Tractor Co. to insure proper placement and to maintain the mental health of employees. Seven hundred and fourteen employees were interviewed by a psychiatrist; 415 completed, in addition, either the Cornell Selectee Index or the Cornell Word Form; 350 completed both. Veterans and personnel having no military experience were studied separately. Of 508 veterans applying for employment 15% were found to have moderately severe or severe personality disturbances. These men were at first given work which did not involve heavy machinery or continuous pressure for production, while those without personality disturbances were fitted immediately into the production routine. Twenty‐three per cent of veterans with personality disturbance at the time of employment were referred for psychiatric care; whereas 4% of those considered “normal” were referred. Such care was indicated because of poor work adjustment and complaints such as anxiety, depression or headaches. As a result of the selective placement and psychotherapy the percentage of those with and without personality disturbance still working, were almost the same. Two hundred and seven persons without military experience were examined to determine the effectiveness of psychiatric appraisal and care in other aspects of the industrial situation. These were grouped as follows: a) Persons applying for employment, including those formerly employed. b) Persons already employed, in order to discover the incidence of personality disturbance and the effect of therapy with a view toward instituting periodic psychiatric examinations. c) Employees requesting transfers to other positions. d) A group of employees who recognized the origin of their difficulties in working and requested therapy. Of the small series of employees without military experience who had personality disturbances and received psychotherapy, the large majority were benefited.
Impaired excitation–contraction coupling in muscle fibres from the dynamin2R465W mouse model of centronuclear myopathy

Dynamin 2 is a ubiquitously expressed protein involved in membrane trafficking processes. Mutations in the gene encoding dynamin 2 are responsible for a congenital myopathy associated with centrally located nuclei in the muscle fibres. Using muscle fibres from a mouse model of the most common mutation responsible for this disease in humans, we tested whether altered Ca2+ signalling and excitation–contraction coupling contribute to muscle weakness. The plasma membrane network that carries the electrical excitation is moderately perturbed in the diseased muscle fibres. The excitation‐activated Ca2+ input fluxes across both the plasma membrane and the membrane of the sarcoplasmic reticulum are defective in the diseased fibres, which probably contributes to muscle weakness in patients.
Testability measurements for data flow designs

The paper focuses on data flow designs. It presents a testability measurement based on the controllability/observability pair of attributes. A case study provided by AEROSPATIALE illustrates the testability analysis of an embedded data flow design. Applying such an analysis during the specification stage allows detection of weaknesses and appraisal of improvements in terms of testability.
Differential Activation of Smads in HeLa and SiHa Cells That Differ in Their Response to Transforming Growth Factor-β*

We assessed the responsiveness of six human cervical cancer cell lines to transforming growth factor (TGF)-β with p3TP-lux reporter assay and found that HeLa and SiHa cells were highly responsive to TGF-β. However, when pSBE4-BV/Luc reporter with four Smad binding elements was used, only the SiHa, not the HeLa, cells showed Smad activation. Smad DNA binding activity was relatively more in SiHa than in HeLa cells upon TGF-β treatment, and the active complex contained Smad 2 and Smad 4. In 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays, HeLa cells treated with 5 ng/ml of TGF-β for 24 h showed proliferation, whereas SiHa cells showed growth inhibition under the same conditions. TGF-β treatment resulted in G0/G1 arrest with a reduction in S-phase only in SiHa cells. A chemical inhibitor of Smad activation (SB203580) blocked the growth inhibitory effect of TGF-β in SiHa, whereas the proliferative response in HeLa was unaffected. TGF-β-induced translocation of phospho-Smad 2 was relatively less in HeLa than in SiHa cells. MAPK activation occurred within 5 min and persisted up to 15 min upon TGF-β treatment in HeLa but was negligible in SiHa cells. TGF-β activated JNK in HeLa, but SiHa cells showed a down-regulation of its activity. When an inhibitor of MAPK (U0126) was used, the TGF-β-mediated proliferative response in HeLa cells was completely abolished. SB203580 did not affect MAPK activation induced by TGF-β in HeLa cells. We report for the first time an activation, presumably independent of Smad activation, of TGF-β-dependent MAPK within 5 min of treatment that resulted in cell cycle progression in a cervical adenocarcinoma cell line, HeLa.
Improving backpropagation with sliding mode control

Sliding mode control is applied as a procedure to adapt weights of a multilayer perceptron. Standard backpropagation weight update equations are used for providing error estimates for the output and hidden layers, similarly to the classical algorithm. The sliding mode procedures are then introduced to adapt weights taking into consideration the standard backpropagation errors. As demonstrated throughout this paper, the introduction of sliding mode has resulted in a much faster version of the standard backpropagation. The speed-up achieved is around two times the standard version.