Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
REGISTRATION BETWEEN 3D OBJECT AND VIDEO IMAGE FOR BRACKETS ALIGNMENT ON DENTAL CAST

This paper presents the technique for registration between 3D object and video image for aided orthodontics application, which helps dentist to have more accurate brackets alignment on dental cast. This paper gives the development and features of the registration technique that allow the user to place the bracket to the real cast follow to the computerized orthodontics planning. The program will track the right position of the 3D object model to match the video image in order to transfer the brackets position from the 3D model to the real dental cast. During the placement of the brackets on real dental cast, the user is allowed to see the correctness of aligned brackets position in color. The results of the registration between 3D model and video image show effectiveness of the brackets aligned on the real cast from using this technique.
A Web-Based Environment to Teach Introductory Programming based on a Bi-Directional Layered Notional Machine

We present a novel browser-based environment to teach introductory programming. This platform combines gamification with peer-to-peer interaction. Students write programs (bots) that play simple board games on their behalf, and can exercise these bots by playing against the bots developed by their peers. The tool is web-based in order to facilitate lowcost delivery and collaboration. The user interface provides unique tracing features based on a bi-directional layered notional machine. This creates some interesting technical challenges due to the limitations of traditional tracing technologies such as debugger interfaces and continuations. We discuss how we solved these problems, and present several experiments used to validate the scalability of our approach. The proof-of-concept implementation is based on the SoGaCo platform and the PrimeGame, using Java as the programming language.
PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF Aegle marmelos LEAF

INTRODUCTION Inflammation is caused by a variety of stimuli including physical damage, ultra violet irradiation, microbial invasion, and immune reactions. The classical key features of inflammation are redness, warmth, swelling, and pain. Inflammation cascades can lead to the development of diseases such as chronic asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis. Many of these diseases are debilitating and are becoming increasingly common in our aging society. Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are the major inflammatory diseases affecting people worldwide. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory condition that usually affects multiple joints. It affects 0.3– 1.0% of the general population and is more prevalent among women in developed countries. Persistent inflammation leads to joint destruction, but the disease can be controlled with drugs. Osteoarthritis, which is characterized by loss of joint cartilage that leads to pain and loss of function primarily in the knees and hips, affects 9.6% of men and 18% of women aged more than 60 years. Increases in life expectancy and aging populations are expected to make osteoarthritis the fourth leading cause of disability by the year 2020 (Woolf and Peger, 2003; Smit, 2005) A number of natural products are used in the traditional medical systems in many countries. Alternative medicine for treatment of various diseases is getting more popular. Making medicinal plants provide relief of symptoms comparable to that obtained from allopathic medicines. The majority of clinically important medicines belong to steroidal or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory ABSTRACT
A Clustering Method of Non-stationary Time Series and its Application in CSI 300 Analysis

Correlation analysis is the basic work for discovering the inner connection between sequences and has important implications to subsequent work like classification and dynamic analysis. This paper has studied the correlation measurement method of clustering non-stationary time series. Unlike most of the studies using Pearson's correlation coefficient, we propose to calculate the correlation between stocks combing the log-return and Spearman correlation coefficient. Using this method, the stocks in CSI 300, the most popular stock indicator in China, have been clustered and we use three evaluation methods to observe the clustering effect. The result shows this cluster method can come up with a satisfactory classification. Further analysis indicates that the implicit links between stocks, such as equity relationship, are implied in clusters. In general, the correlation between stocks is measured accurately and the proposed method can solve the correlation measurement problem of clustering non-stationary time series more reasonably.
Economic convergence in the EU and Eurozone

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether several groups of European countries are on track for real “conditional” economic convergence in per capita income and the likely speed of convergence. The paper focusses also on the changes of the convergence processes over time. Design/methodology/approach Unlike the simple “absolute convergence”, it explores the concept of “conditional” or “club” convergence. Moreover, it adopts the approach of extending the univariate model to take into account the panel dimension over an extended time interval and endogeneity. Findings A process of real economic convergence has characterised the period under investigation (1995–2016), but, in general, the size and significance of the parameter is greater for the wide European Union (EU) area (EU25 and above) rather than the Eurozone (EZ). However, the crises occurred after 2008 caused most of such lower convergence in the Euro area. Research limitations/implications This paper gives an estimate of the speed/time needed to several groups of European countries (EZ, in particular) to achieve real economic convergence. Future research could further develop the “stochastic” convergence concept. Originality/value This is an analysis of convergence in enlarging EU and EZ for an extended period (including the big crisis period and the subsequent recovery). It shows that EZ experienced a drop in the speed of real convergence after 2008 and converge at lower speed than the EU. As a consequence, a specific budget for EZ would be important to provide adjustment mechanisms after potentially large shocks.
Democracy and Growth Nexus in Indonesia

The objective of this study is to analyze the causality between democracy and economic growth in Indonesia for the period of 1995 to 2017. More specifically, this paper also attends to investigate the existence of a long-run relationship between them. This study perform a multivariate cointegration test with political stability as a control variable and cross-check this long-run relationship with an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model approach to cointegration. This study also use the Granger causality test within a vector error correction model (VECM) framework and estimate three different models using a non-linear specification: Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation, Fully Modified OLS (FM-OLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS). The results show cointegration among the variables specified in the model when political stability is taken into account. Indeed, for economic growth and democracy to move together in the long run, they need to be associated with political stability. The tests for Granger causality conducted show a long-run causality running from GDP and political stability to democracy. In other word, the economic growth and political stability Granger cause democracy. It is the economic performance that influences democracy and not the reverse. In short-run, there is neutrality causation between democracy and growth, democracy and political stability, growth and political stability. These results suggest that economic growth through strong institutions is a precondition for democratization .
Gender Inequality in Precarious Academic Work: Female Adjunct Professors in Italy

International research studies and national reports point out two specific aspects which characterize women's academic careers (cf. Eagly, 2003; Glass and Cook, 2016). First, few women advance to senior academic roles. Second, although female academics progress in numbers equivalent to their male colleagues up to a certain point, in most cases their academic career paths either stop before they arrive at tenured positions or they remain in the lower ranks of the hierarchical academic structure. Thus, while the numeric growth and temporal extension of fixed-term positions has, overall, increased women's opportunities for researching and teaching at universities, on the other hand, it has impeded their access to tenured positions. To better highlight this dynamic, this article focuses on the situation of female adjunct professors in Italy. The interest in adjunct professors is twofold: on the one hand, the social and economic status of adjunct professors in the Italian academic system have worsened over time, from independent to formal independent workers; on the other hand, compared with other non-tenured positions, there are substantially fewer female adjunct professors than male. We first provide an overall picture of the historical and juridical transformations of the rank distribution of faculty in Italian universities from the perspective of gender. As a second step, we compare the actual working conditions of female and male adjunct professors on the basis of a survey carried out from January to October 2018 (5,556 respondents corresponding to more than 20% of the population) and semi-structured interviews with 31 adjunct professors. The aim of the analysis is to pinpoint objective and subjective gender similarities and differences regarding both socio-economic variables and the ways male and female adjunct professors think about their academic and extra-academic work; how they experience the academic environment between paid and unpaid work, construct their professional/academic identity, and imagine their professional future and perceive problems related to the administration and organization of their academic work.
Gait Generation and Its Energy Efficiency Based on Rat Neuromusculoskeletal Model

Changing gait is crucial for adaptive and smooth animal locomotion. Although it remains unclear what makes animals decide on a specific gait, energy efficiency is an important factor. It has been reported that the relationship of oxygen consumption with speed is U-shaped for each horse gait and that different gaits have different speeds at which oxygen consumption is minimized. This allows the horse to produce energy-efficient locomotion in a wide speed range by changing gait. However, the underlying mechanisms causing oxygen consumption to be U-shaped and the speeds for the minimum consumption to be different between different gaits are unclear. In the present study, we used a neuromusculoskeletal model of the rat to examine the mechanism from a dynamic viewpoint. Specifically, we constructed the musculoskeletal part of the model based on empirical anatomical data on rats and the motor control model based on the physiological concepts of the spinal central pattern generator and muscle synergy. We also incorporated the posture and speed regulation models at the levels of the brainstem and cerebellum. Our model achieved walking through forward dynamic simulation, and the simulated joint kinematics and muscle activities were compared with animal data. Our model also achieved trotting by changing only the phase difference of the muscle-synergy-based motor commands between the forelimb and hindlimb. Furthermore, the speed of each gait varied by changing only the extension phase duration and amplitude of the muscle synergy-based motor commands and the reference values for the regulation models. The relationship between cost of transport (CoT) and speed was U-shaped for both the generated walking and trotting, and the speeds for the minimum CoT were different for the two gaits, as observed in the oxygen consumption of horses. We found that the resonance property and the posture and speed regulations contributed to the CoT shape and difference in speeds for the minimum CoT. We further discussed the energy efficiency of gait based on the simulation results.
New Perspective in Diabetic Neuropathy: From the Periphery to the Brain, a Call for Early Detection, and Precision Medicine

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common chronic complication of diabetes mellitus. It leads to distressing and expensive clinical sequelae such as foot ulceration, leg amputation, and neuropathic pain (painful-DPN). Unfortunately, DPN is often diagnosed late when irreversible nerve injury has occurred and its first presentation may be with a diabetic foot ulcer. Several novel diagnostic techniques are available which may supplement clinical assessment and aid the early detection of DPN. Moreover, treatments for DPN and painful-DPN are limited. Only tight glucose control in type 1 diabetes has robust evidence in reducing the risk of developing DPN. However, neither glucose control nor pathogenetic treatments are effective in painful-DPN and symptomatic treatments are often inadequate. It has recently been hypothesized that using various patient characteristics it may be possible to stratify individuals and assign them targeted therapies to produce better pain relief. We review the diagnostic techniques which may aid the early detection of DPN in the clinical and research environment, and recent advances in precision medicine techniques for the treatment of painful-DPN.
Assessment of the Angiogenic Potential of 2-Deoxy-D-Ribose Using a Novel in vitro 3D Dynamic Model in Comparison With Established in vitro Assays

Angiogenesis is a highly ordered physiological process regulated by the interaction of endothelial cells with an extensive variety of growth factors, extracellular matrix components and mechanical stimuli. One of the most important challenges in tissue engineering is the rapid neovascularization of constructs to ensure their survival after transplantation. To achieve this, the use of pro-angiogenic agents is a widely accepted approach. The study of angiogenesis has gained momentum over the last two decades. Although there are various in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo angiogenesis models that enable testing of newly discovered pro-angiogenic agents, the problem with researching angiogenesis is the choice of the most appropriate assay. In vivo assays are the most representative and reliable models, but they are expensive, time-consuming and can cause ethical concerns whereas in vitro assays are relatively inexpensive, practical, and reproducible, but they are usually lack of enabling the study of more than one aspect of angiogenesis, and they do not fully represent the complexity of physiological angiogenesis. Therefore, there is a need for the development of an angiogenesis model that allows the study of angiogenesis under physiologically more relevant, dynamic conditions without causing ethical concerns. Accordingly, in this study, we developed 3D in vitro dynamic angiogenesis model, and we tested the angiogenic potential of 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR) in comparison with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) using newly developed in vitro 3D dynamic model and well-established in vitro models. Our results obtained using conventional in vitro assays demonstrated that 2dDR promoted proliferation, migration and tube formation of human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) in a dose-dependent manner. Then, the angiogenic activity of 2dDR was further assessed using the newly developed 3D in vitro model, which enabled the monitoring of cell proliferation and infiltration simultaneously under dynamic conditions. Our results showed that the administration of 2dDR and VEGF significantly enhanced the outgrowth of HAECs and the cellular density under either static or dynamic conditions.
Myocardial Function Maturation in Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants and Development of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

Background: Myocardial function in very-low-birth-weight infants (VLBWIs) develops during early postnatal life, but different patterns of temporal evolution that might be related to the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) are not completely understood. Methods: A prospective cohort study including VLBWIs admitted to our NICU from January 2015 to 2017 was conducted. Plasma N-terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) levels were measured, and echocardiograms were performed at 24 and 72 h of life and weekly thereafter until 36 weeks of postmenstrual age (PMA). We measured the tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) by M-mode; the lateral tricuspid E', A', and S' waves; and the myocardial performance index (MPI) by tissue doppler imaging (TDI). The subjects were divided into non-BPD and BPD groups. Results: We included 101 VLBWIs. The TAPSE and E', A', and S' waves increased while MPI-TDI decreased over time. Birth gestational age (GA) and postnatal PMA impacted these parameters, which evolved differently in those who developed BPD compared to those in the non-BPD group. The NTproBNP levels at 14 days of life and different echocardiographic parameters were associated with the development of BPD in different multivariate models. Conclusion: TAPSE and TDI values depend on GA and PMA and follow a different temporal evolution that is related to the later development of BPD. Combined biochemical and echocardiographic biomarkers can help identify which VLBWIs are at higher risk of developing BDP.
Proteomic Profiling Reveals the Architecture of Granulomatous Lesions Caused by Tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium Complex Lung Disease

Tuberculosis (TB) and Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease (MAC-LD) are both characterized pathologically by granuloma lesions, which are typically composed of a necrotic caseum at the center surrounded by fibrotic cells and lymphocytes. Although the histological characterization of TB and MAC-LD granulomas has been well-documented, their molecular signatures have not been fully evaluated. In this research we applied mass spectrometry-based proteomics combined with laser microdissection to investigate the unique protein markers in human mycobacterial granulomatous lesions. Comparing the protein abundance between caseous and cellular sub-compartments of mycobacterial granulomas, we found distinct differences. Proteins involved in cellular metabolism in transcription and translation were abundant in cellular regions, while in caseous regions proteins related to antimicrobial response accumulated. To investigate the determinants of their heterogeneity, we compared the protein abundance in caseous regions between TB and MAC-LD granulomas. We found that several proteins were significantly abundant in the MAC-LD caseum of which proteomic profiles were different from those of the TB caseum. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that one of these proteins, Angiogenin, specifically localized to the caseous regions of selected MAC-LD granulomas. We also detected peptides derived from mycobacterial proteins in the granulomas of both diseases. This study provides new insights into the architecture of granulomatous lesions in TB and MAC-LD.
Comparative Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Key Pathways and Hub Genes in Rapeseed During the Early Stage of Plasmodiophora brassicae Infection

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L., AACC, 2n = 38) is one of the most important oil crops around the world. With intensified rapeseed cultivation, the incidence and severity of clubroot infected by Plasmodiophora brassicae Wor. (P. brassicae) has increased very fast, which seriously impedes the development of rapeseed industry. Therefore, it is very important and timely to investigate the mechanisms and genes regulating clubroot resistance (CR) in rapeseed. In this study, comparative transcriptome analysis was carried out on two rapeseed accessions of R- (resistant) and S- (susceptible) line. Three thousand one hundred seventy-one and 714 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in the R- and S-line compared with the control groups, respectively. The results indicated that the CR difference between the R- and S-line had already shown during the early stage of P. brassicae infection and the change of gene expression pattern of R-line exhibited a more intense defensive response than that of S-line. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis of 2,163 relative-DEGs, identified between the R- and S-line, revealed that genes participated in plant hormone signal transduction, fatty acid metabolism, and glucosinolate biosynthesis were involved in regulation of CR. Further, 12 hub genes were identified from all relative-DEGs with the help of weighted gene co-expression network analysis. Haplotype analysis indicated that the natural variations in the coding regions of some hub genes also made contributed to CR. This study not only provides valuable information for CR molecular mechanisms, but also has applied implications for CR breeding in rapeseed.
“Metastatic Cancer of Unknown Primary” or “Primary Metastatic Cancer”?

Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) is an umbrella term used to classify a heterogeneous group of metastatic cancers based on the absence of an identifiable primary tumor. Clinically, CUPs are characterized by a set of distinct features comprising early metastatic dissemination in an atypical pattern, an aggressive clinical course, poor response to empiric chemotherapy and, consequently, a short life expectancy. Two opposing strategies to change the dismal prognosis for the better are pursued. On the one hand, following the traditional tissue-gnostic approach, more and more sophisticated tissue-of-origin (TOO) classifier assays are employed to push identification of the putative primary to its limits with the clear intent of allowing tumor-site specific treatment. However, robust evidence supporting its routine clinical use is still lacking, notably with two recent randomized clinical trials failing to show a patient benefit of TOO-prediction based site-specific treatment over empiric chemotherapy in CUP. On the other hand, with regards to a tissue-agnostic strategy, precision medicine approaches targeting actionable genomic alterations have already transformed the treatment for many known tumor types. Yet, an unmet need remains for well-designed clinical trials to scrutinize its potential role in CUP beyond anecdotal case reports. In the absence of practice changing results, we believe that the emphasis on finding the presumed unknown primary tumor at all costs, implicit in the term CUP, has biased recent research in the field. Focusing on the distinct clinical features shared by all CUPs, we advocate adopting the term primary metastatic cancer (PMC) to denominate a distinct cancer entity instead. In our view, PMC should be considered the archetype of metastatic disease and as such, despite accounting for a mere 2–3% of malignancies, unraveling the mechanisms at play goes beyond improving the prognosis of patients with PMC and promises to greatly enhance our understanding of the metastatic process and carcinogenesis across all cancer types.