Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical and microbiological characterization of localized aggressive periodontitis: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND Localized aggressive periodontitis (LAgP) is an infectious periodontal disease which generally affects young people. Recent data suggest the involvement of different bacterial species in different populations. The causative bacterial species in Israel has never been identified despite a high prevalence of LAgP in this population. The objectives of this study were to characterize the bacterial microbiota of periodontal pockets within an Israeli LAgP population who were also clinically assessed. METHODS Twenty-one LAgP patients (test) and 12 chronic periodontitis patients (control) were examined. Bacterial samples were collected from periodontal pockets and analysed by both culture and polymerase chain reaction techniques. Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test were used to compare results between the groups. RESULTS Higher levels of Parvimonas micra (>10(6) ), Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (>10(5) ), Fusobacterium nucleatum/F. periodonticum (>10(6) ), and Tannerella forsythia (levels of 10(5) to 10(6) bacteria) were detected in the LAgP group compared to the control (p < 0.05), while levels of Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia were higher in the CP group. CONCLUSIONS The characteristic periodontal bacterial flora of LAgP patients in Israel is mainly comprised of P. micra, A. actinomycetemcomitans, F. nucleatum/F. periodonticum and T. forsythia. Similar population based studies of each population will improve the quality of treatment of LAgP when individual sampling is not possible.
Effects of Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy on IGF-Related Parameters and on the Pituitary-Gonadal Axis in GH-Deficient Males

It has been suggested that growth hormone (GH) may play a regulatory role in male reproductive function. To express full anabolic effect in immature boys testosterone apparently requires the presence of GH. In GH-deficient adults, GH replacement therapy exerts a variety of anabolic actions, some of which are similar to the effects of gonadal steroids. However, little is known about the potential effects of GH on gonadal steroids and on dynamic tests of pituitary-gonadal function in adults with GH deficiency. We evaluated the pituitary-gonadal axis in a 4-month double-blind, placebo-controlled GH study in 13 young males with childhood-onset GH deficiency of which 6 had isolated GH deficiency. GH treatment significantly increased serum levels of total IGF-I from 98 (68) to 323 (126) µg/l, free IGF-I from 0.48 (0.47) to 2.24 (1.66) µg/l, IGFBP-3 from 1,874 (1,178) to 3,520 (778) µg/l and ALS levels from 9,182 (5,524) to 16,872 (6,278) µg/l (all p < 0.0001). We found no differences in basal testosterone levels in the 13 patients between the GH and placebo treatment periods (21.9 (5.1) vs. 24.5 (8.1) nmol/l, nonsignificant). Furthermore, no effect of GH on the testicular response to hCG after 72 h was seen compared to placebo (36.2 (6.4) vs. 38.8 (10.3) nmol/l). In addition, no differences existed in basal SHBG, DHT, free testosterone, Δ4-adion and DHEA-S levels. There were no statistically significant differences in maximal FSH and LH response to a GnRH challenge between the GH and the placebo periods (15.7 (5.3) vs. 18.0 (8.8) U/l and 47.0 (26.4) vs. 40.4 (26.5) U/l, respectively). Furthermore, there was no effect on cortisol responses after ACTH between the GH and the placebo periods. However, significantly higher estradiol levels were seen after GH treatment (110 (50) pmol/l) compared to after placebo (89 (34) pmol/l, p = 0.03). Prostate-specific antigen levels decreased after GH treatment compared to after placebo (0.42 (0.54) vs. 0.47 (0.48) µg/l) and this difference almost reached statistical significance (p = 0.059). Inhibin-B levels were significantly lower in hypogonadal patients substituted with androgens, but GH had no effect on inhibin-B levels. In conclusion, GH replacement therapy in 13 GH-deficient young adult males resulted in significant increases in total and free IGF-I as well as in ALS levels in all patients, but had no significant effect on: (1) the pituitary FSH and LH response to GnRH; (2) basal and hCG-stimulated levels of androgens and SHBG; (3) basal inhibin-B levels; (4) ACTH-stimulated cortisol secretion. By contrast, GH administration had subtle anti-androgenic effects in terms of elevated elevated estradiol levels and decreased prostate-specific antigen levels, although both parameters remained within the normal range. Thus, at the level of blood chemistry the effects of GH administration do not appear to involve major alterations in the pituitary-gonadal axis.
Sources of occupational stress in NSW and ACT dentists.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to identify and understand the chronic sources of work stress in the NSW and ACT dentistry context. Further, the study examines whether Australian dentists are exposed to similar sources of work stress as dentists internationally. METHODS A purposive sample of registered members of the NSW Branch of the Australian Dental Association (ADA) were interviewed. Participants were selected because they represented the key characteristics of the broader ADA population. Interviews were recorded and fully transcribed. Themes were identified, developed, refined and clarified using established and rigorous methods of interview investigation and analysis. RESULTS A total of 18 dentists participated in the study. Inductive content analysis was used to develop six main categories of chronic sources of stress. These groupings were time and scheduling pressures, professional concerns, patient/public perceptions of dentists, staffing problems, pressures associated with treating patients and business process stressors. CONCLUSIONS Like their international counterparts, Australian dentists are subject to a variety of job-specific stressors. However, the most notable difference between Australian and international dentists relates to the business side of dentistry. It would appear that the Australian statutory, regulatory and industrial relations environment place unique and profound pressures on Australian dentists.
Updated classification and management of pulmonary hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a severe disease characterised by a progressive increase of pulmonary pressure and resistance leading to right heart failure. PAH is commonly diagnosed at a late stage of the disease and is associated with progressive clinical deterioration and premature death. According to the most recent consensus conference, pulmonary hypertension (PH) is categorised into five main groups: group 1, PAH; group 2, PH associated with left sided heart diseases; group 3, PH associated with lung disease and/or hypoxaemia; group 4, PH due to chronic thrombotic and/or embolic disease; and group 5, miscellaneous—summarising a variety of rare and not well characterised disorders characterised by non-specific signs and symptoms.1 Screening for PH is usually made by transthoracic echocardiography on the basis of the velocity of the regurgitant tricuspid jet, and final confirmation is done by right heart catheterisation.2 Without treatment, the prognosis for patients with significant PH is poor. The reported median life expectancy of idiopathic PAH is 2.8 years from the diagnosisw1; however, recent meta-analysis of trials in the field of PAH have provided indications of a beneficial influence of PAH treatments on survival.3 Current PAH specific medications, including prostanoids, endothelin receptor antagonists (ERA), and phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors (PDE5i), have sought to address the pulmonary vascular endothelial dysfunction and vasoconstriction associated with this condition. Several novel drugs that have already produced encouraging results in animal models aim to target more directly the structural vascular changes (remodelling) and are currently under clinical investigation (eg, soluble guanylyl cyclase activators/stimulators, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, 5-HT2B receptor antagonists). This article reviews the clinical classification, which has been recently updated. Moreover, established approaches to evaluate PH and the currently recommended treatments for PAH are summarised. The haemodynamic definition of PH has not been evidence based. Under normal circumstances, resting …
Post Colonoscopy Splenic Injuries: Case Series and Recommendations

Splenic injury is an uncommon, but serious complication of colonoscopy. Any cause of excessive spleno-colic adhesions, splenomegaly, or underlying splenic disease would be a predisposing factor for splenic injury during colonoscopy. A delay in diagnosis has been noted as many physicians are not aware of this complication of colonoscopy. We report two cases of splenic injury secondary to screening colonoscopy. The first refers to a 61-year-old male, who was involved in a motor vehicle accident a month prior to the procedure; with the second case that of a 46-year-old healthy female. Clinical, biochemical and radiological findings were suggestive of a splenic rupture and hemoperitoneum. Both patients had grade III splenic ruptures with hemodynamic instability, which warranted urgent splenectomy. Both patients had an uneventful recovery. Proposed mechanisms are traction on the spleno-colic ligament leading to splenic capsule avulsion or direct splenic trauma due to colonoscopic manipulation. So-called “ looping of the colonoscope ” in the bowel, followed by aggressive straightening can cause strain on the spleno-colic ligament and tearing of blood vessels. The presence of Kehr ’ s sign in an hemodynamically unstable patient is a very sensitive pointer towards splenic rupture. Patients with recent abdominal trauma should be properly screened with appropriate history and investigations prior to colonoscopy. CT scan of the abdomen is the test of choice for the evaluation of splenic injury. Splenectomy is the most commonly performed procedure for post-colonoscopy injuries of the spleen. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.4021/jmc1498w
Reliability of the Cervical Range of Motion Device in Measuring Upper Cervical Motion

AbstractLimitations in upper cervical range of motion (occiput, Cl and C2) correlate highly with many pathological dysfunctions, including acute and chronic neck pain, headache, and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain. Although methods have been developed which provide valid and reliable measures of the middle and lower cervical spine, a quantitative method to evaluate upper cervical range of motion has not been documented in the literature thus far. The purpose of this study was to investigate the intra-tester and inter-tester reliability of the Cervical Range of Motion device (CROM) in measuring upper cervical flexion and extension. Thirty healthy volunteers, ages 23 to 37, were measured three times by three testers. Moderate to high reliability was observed for upper cervical measurements with ICC’s of . 65 to . 81 among testers and . 89 to . 97 between testers. Therefore, this method of evaluation can be used to obtain consistent quantitative measures in documenting changes in upper cervical range of motion.
Joint analysis of additive, dominant and first-order epistatic effects of four genes (IGF2, MC4R, PRKAG3 and LEPR) with known effects on fat content and fat distribution in pigs.

LEPR, MC4R, IGF2 and PRKAG3 are genes with known effects on fat content and distribution in pig carcass and pork. In a study performed with Duroc × Landrace/Large White pigs, we have found that IGF2 has strong additive effects on several carcass conformational traits and on fatty acid composition in several anatomical locations. MC4R shows additive effects on saturated fatty acid content in several muscles. On the other side, almost no additive effect has been found for PRKAG3 and very few for LEPR. In this work, no dominant effect has been found for any of the four genes. Using a Bayesian Lasso approach, we have been able now to find first-order epistatic (mainly dominant-additive) effects between LEPR and PRKAG3 for intramuscular fat content and for saturated fatty acid content in L. dorsii, B. femoralis, Ps. major and whole ham. The presence of interactions between genes in the shaping of traits of such importance as intramuscular fat content and composition highlights the complexity of heritable traits and the difficulty of gene-assisted selection for such traits.
Network models for large cities: the European experience

Optimal treatment for ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has largely been defined and recently published in guidelines of the international societies of cardiology.1 2 Both reperfusion strategies—primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) and thrombolytic therapy (TT)—dramatically improve clinical outcome compared to conservative treatment strategies if offered with short time delay from symptom onset. Unfortunately, 25–30% of patients with acute STEMI are still not reperfused at all, even though they are seen by physicians within 12 h of symptom onset, due to lack of organised, around the clock, 24 h care. Even in existing but not optimised networks, reperfusion strategies are offered after unacceptably long time delays in real world settings as demonstrated by the Euro Heart acute coronary syndrome survey,3 the Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes with Early Implementation of the ACC/AHA Guidelines (CRUSADE) initiative,4 and the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE),5 respectively. Very few patients receive all the guideline indicated treatments promptly.6 Reasons for this are: the long delay until patients call medical services for ongoing chest pain (patient delay); long transfer times of patients seen by emergency medical systems (EMS), especially the inter-hospital transfer (transportation delay); and the delay which occurs within PCI capable hospitals if the personnel is not sufficiently trained, if the annual caseload is low, or if the patient is not directly transferred to the catheter laboratory and time is lost in emergency rooms or coronary care units (in-hospital delay). 7 This unfavourable situation can be improved by building up and optimising systems of care (STEMI networks), in which EMS, non-PCI capable hospitals, and hospitals with PCI facilities cooperate closely with the goal to reduce total ischaemic time, offer pPCI to the majority of patients within the recommended time, and use prehospital …
RNA interference and its therapeutic potential against HIV infection

Background: HIV-1 infection is the major cause of AIDS. RNA interference (RNAi) has great potential to work as a powerful tool against HIV infection. Therefore, the possibilities of use of siRNA (small-interfering RNA) as a tool to deal with HIV infection are discussed in this article. Objective: Highly active anti retroviral therapy (HAART) has been successful in reducing the rate of progression to AIDS, but HIV utilizes various tricks to escape from the inhibitory effect of HAART. Therefore, new tools are required to delay progression of infection or block the replication cycle of HIV. Methods: This article has been written on the basis of informations available in the form of published literature in various journals. Conclusion: RNAi is a very promising strategy that in principle will provide many new targets against HIV infection. The mechanism of sequence complementarity utilized by siRNAs against their targets provides a new approach to fight against HIV infection. However, this technology still needs many fine refinements before its potential for HIV treatment strategies can be utilized. This review discusses the possibilities of using siRNA as a therapeutic tool for HIV treatment.
An updated felCat5 SNP manifest for the Illumina Feline 63k SNP genotyping array.

Genotypes and analysis: The deletion variant was g. 29500068_29500069delAT relative to NC_019477. 1 (rs397514112). Genotyping was performed as described (Table S1). Analysis employed the mixed model or glimmix procedure in SAS v9.2 (SAS Institute) as described. For each analysis, the production trait of interest was included as the dependent variable. Other model terms included breed, sire, year of birth, age in years, age at last lambing and genotype as described (Appendix S1). Bonferroni correction accounted for multiple testing.
Handbook of Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology

It is now ten years since the American Physiological Society published its Handbook of Physiology, Section I, Neurophysiology , and the intervening decade has seen extraordinary advances in electrophysiology. Therefore, the promise of a " Handbook" of Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology led one naturally to anticipate thick, information-packed volumes that would provide comprehensive surveys of this material. Sadly these first two volumes fall far short of that goal and the reader must be advised to wait and look at each section for himself before deciding to buy. Both sections received in this office were paper-bound in the format and length of a monthly periodical rather than a book. Such a preparation will necessarily demand that libraries bind the sections themselves, which seems like asking a lot when each installment of 500 pages is to cost $36. Beyond that, the presentation is surprisingly uneven. Volume 1 includes essays on the history, future potentials,
Adaptive nodes scheduling approach for clustered sensor networks

Energy efficiency is an important issue in wireless sensor networks. One available power saving strategy is having only a portion of nodes work, but this would always compromise data quality as a result. In this paper, we propose an adaptive nodes scheduling approach (ADNS) to conserve energy while maintaining the overall data quality. ADNS selects a subset of nodes to be active and puts the others into sleep mode to save energy. An efficient active node selection (ANS) algorithm is presented. Using the spatial correlation among sensor readings as the prediction model, the values of sleep nodes are predicted by data collected from active nodes to ensure the data quality. In order to maintain the data quality throughout network operation, the prediction errors are validated timely and prediction models are adaptively reconstructed if necessary. We evaluate ADNS on a real-world sensor network data set and validate its effectiveness.
Association analysis of KIT, MITF, and PAX3 variants with white markings in Spanish horses.

Several variants in the KIT, PAX3 and MITF genes have previously been associated with white markings in horses. In this study, we examined eight variants of these genes in 70 Menorca Purebred horses (PRMe, only black solid-coloured horses) and 70 Spanish Purebred horses (PRE, different coat colour patterns) that were scored for the extent of white markings. A maximum-likelihood chi-square test, logistic regression model and ridge regression analyses showed that a missense mutation (p.Arg682His) in KIT was associated with white facial markings (P < 0.05) and with total white markings (P < 0.05) in PRMe horses. The relative contribution of this variant to white markings in PRMe horses was estimated at 47.6% (head) and 43.4% (total score). In PRE horses, this variant was also associated with hindlimb scores (P < 0.05) with a relative contribution of 41.2%. The g.20147039C>T intronic variant located 29.9 kb downstream from the transcription start site of the MITF gene was associated with less white markings on forelimbs (P < 0.05) in PRMe horses, with a relative contribution of 63.9%, whereas in PRE horses this variant was associated with white facial markings (P < 0.05), with a relative contribution of 63.9%. No significant associations were found for PAX3 variants in these breeds. These results show that KIT and MITF variants are involved in the white marking patterns of both PRMe and PRE horses, providing breeders with an opportunity to use genetic testing to aid in breeding for their desired level of white markings.
Comparison of SDN OpenFlow network simulator and emulators: EstiNet vs. Mininet

In this paper, we compare and evaluate the correctness, performance, and scalability of EstiNet OpenFlow simulator, EstiNet OpenFlow emulator, and Mininet OpenFlow emulator over a set of grid networks. The popular Floodlight OpenFlow controller is used without any modification to control the simulated/emulated OpenFlow switches created in these tools. We performed experiments over a set of N × N grid networks, where N = 5, 6, . , 31 and used the real-world ping program to observe whether the average RTTs reported by these ping packets are correct or not over these tools. We found that in EstiNet simulation, the simulated results of the average RTT are always correct and repeatable, but EstiNet simulator needs more time to finish the simulation when the network size becomes larger. As for emulation, we found that Mininet emulator generated strange results that cannot be explained over some network sizes. In addition, Mininet emulator spends a huge amount of time on its program launch, network setup, and resource releasing when the network size is large. As for EstiNet emulator, we found that it generated good performance and scalability and it used less time to obtain results.
Focused Deep Heating with an Inductive Type Applicator

身体深部にRFエネルギーを収束するために, 身体周囲にInductive Aperture-Type Applicator (IATA) を配置する方法を提案する. この方法においては, 脂肪層を過熱することなく, 身体中心部の発熱を最大にすることが, 有限要素法による計算によって示された. 直径0. 30m高さ0. 54mの脂肪-筋肉円柱状ファントムの周囲に開口面の高さが0. 20m, または0. 30mのIATAで取り囲み, それに13. 56MHz, または27. 12MHzの高周波電流を流した場合, 計算結果は筋肉中心部の発熱が最大となることを示した. 中心部の発熱は辺縁の極大値に比較して1. 11～1. 27倍になった. 脂肪の発熱は筋肉中心部の発熱に比較して20％程度にとどまった.
A clustering based approach for energy efficient routing

One of the most significant issues the research community has focused on during the last decades, is the reduction of the energy consumed in every aspect of everyday life. A standout amongst the most important factors of energy consumption is transportation. To this end, a lot of work in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems concentrates on enhancing energy efficiency. This trend was reinforced by the appearance of Fully Electric Vehicles (FEVs), where it is more crucial to increase their energy efficiency in any manner. Eco-routing refers to the choice of the most energy efficient route towards a destination and seems very promising for reducing everyday energy consumption. In this paper, we present a novel method for predicting energy consumption levels, based on machine learning techniques. In addition, addressing the problem of ever increasing amounts of tracking data acquired from vehicles, we introduce a clustering based prediction method and apply it on real world measurements in order to evaluate its performance.