Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison between diamond bur and diode laser to treat gingival hyperpigmentation

Gingival hyperpigmentation can be treated using a diamond bur or a diode laser. This research aimed to compare both techniques in terms of wound healing rates and pain experienced by patients. We used the split-mouth technique to treat gingival hyperpigmentation in 19 individuals. We recorded clinical parameters such as the degree of pain using Visual Analog Scale and the speed of healing using the PUSH (pressure, ulcer, scale, and healing) criteria. Our results showed that wound healing rate was faster and less pain was experienced by patients when a diode laser was used. We found that using a diode laser resulted in significantly less pain and faster healing rate than using a diamond bur for gingival depigmentation.
Spectral ranking

Abstract We sketch the history of spectral ranking—a general umbrella name for techniques that apply the theory of linear maps (in particular, eigenvalues and eigenvectors) to matrices that do not represent geometric transformations, but rather some kind of relationship between entities. Albeit recently made famous by the ample press coverage of Google's PageRank algorithm, spectral ranking was devised more than 60 years ago, almost exactly in the same terms, and has been studied in psychology, social sciences, bibliometrics, economy, and choice theory. We describe the contribution given by previous scholars in precise and modern mathematical terms: Along the way, we show how to express in a general way damped rankings, such as Katz's index, as dominant eigenvectors of perturbed matrices, and then use results on the Drazin inverse to go back to the dominant eigenvectors by a limit process. The result suggests a regularized definition of spectral ranking that yields for a general matrix a unique vector depending on a boundary condition.
Association and interaction analyses of genetic variants in ADIPOQ, ENPP1, GHSR, PPARgamma and TCF7L2 genes for diabetic nephropathy in a Taiwanese population with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common microvascular complication of diabetes. In this study, we aimed to explore both primary effects of single-locus and multilocus interactions to test the hypothesis that the type 2 diabetes (T2D) genes may contribute to the aetiology of DN in T2D independently and/or through complex interactions in a Taiwanese population with T2D. METHODS We genotyped six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for five common T2D genes including adiponectin, C1Q and collagen domain containing (ADIPOQ), ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/ phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1), growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) and transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2). There were 216 T2D patients diagnosed with DN and 178 age-similar T2D without DN (control) subjects. To investigate gene-gene interactions, we employed both generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) method and logistic regression models. RESULTS Single-locus analyses showed significant main effects of ENPP1 (P = 0.0032; adjusted OR = 1.85; 95% CI = 1.17-2.92) on the risk of DN in T2D. Furthermore, a potential gene-gene interaction involving ENPP1 and GHSR was suggested in the best two-locus GMDR model (P = 0.021). The significant three-locus GMDR model (P < 0.001) was also identified among ADIPOQ, GHSR and TCF7L2. Analyses using logistic regression models confirmed the gene-gene interactions. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that the SNPs from the T2D-related genes may contribute to the risk of DN in T2D independently and/or in an interactive manner in Taiwanese T2D patients.
Molecular Cloning and Characterization of the 120-Kilodalton Protein Gene of Ehrlichia canis and Application of the Recombinant 120-Kilodalton Protein for Serodiagnosis of Canine Ehrlichiosis

ABSTRACT The 120-kDa outer membrane protein (p120) is a potential adhesin ofEhrlichia chaffeensis, and recombinant p120 is very useful for serodiagnosis of human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis. The analogous gene of p120 in Ehrlichia canis was cloned, sequenced, and expressed. Like the E. chaffeensis p120, the E. canis p120 contains tandem repeat units. However, neither the repeat number nor the amino acid sequences in the repeats are identical in the two Ehrlichia species. The repeat units are hydrophilic and by probability analysis are predicted to be surface exposed in both species. The repeat regions of the p120s of the two species have common amino acid sequences that are predicted to be surface exposed. The overall amino acid sequence of the E. canis p120 is 30% homologous to that of E. chaffeensis p120. Protein immunoblotting demonstrated that the recombinant E. canis p120 reacted with convalescent sera from dogs with canine ehrlichiosis. These results indicate that the recombinant p120 is a potential antigen for the serodiagnosis of canine ehrlichiosis.
A Review on the Control of the Mechanical Properties of Ankle Foot Orthosis for Gait Assistance

In the past decade, advanced technologies in robotics have been explored to enhance the rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. Previous works have shown that gait assistance for post-stroke patients can be provided through the use of robotics technology in ancillary equipment, such as Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO). An AFO is usually used to assist patients with spasticity or foot drop problems. There are several types of AFOs, depending on the flexibility of the joint, such as rigid, flexible rigid, and articulated AFOs. A rigid AFO has a fixed joint, and a flexible rigid AFO has a more flexible joint, while the articulated AFO has a freely rotating ankle joint, where the mechanical properties of the AFO are more controllable compared to the other two types of AFOs. This paper reviews the control of the mechanical properties of existing AFOs for gait assistance in post-stroke patients. Several aspects that affect the control of the mechanical properties of an AFO, such as the controller input, number of gait phases, controller output reference, and controller performance evaluation are discussed and compared. Thus, this paper will be of interest to AFO researchers or developers who would like to design their own AFOs with the most suitable mechanical properties based on their application. The controller input and the number of gait phases are discussed first. Then, the discussion moves forward to the methods of estimating the controller output reference, which is the main focus of this study. Based on the estimation method, the gait control strategies can be classified into subject-oriented estimations and phase-oriented estimations. Finally, suggestions for future studies are addressed, one of which is the application of the adaptive controller output reference to maximize the benefits of the AFO to users.
Effects of A 60 Hz Magnetic Field of Up to 50 milliTesla on Human Tremor and EEG: A Pilot Study

Humans are surrounded by sources of daily exposure to power-frequency (60 Hz in North America) magnetic fields (MFs). Such time-varying MFs induce electric fields and currents in living structures which possibly lead to biological effects. The present pilot study examined possible extremely low frequency (ELF) MF effects on human neuromotor control in general, and physiological postural tremor and electroencephalography (EEG) in particular. Since the EEG cortical mu-rhythm (8–12 Hz) from the primary motor cortex and physiological tremor are related, it was hypothesized that a 60 Hz MF exposure focused on this cortical region could acutely modulate human physiological tremor. Ten healthy volunteers (age: 23.8 ± 4 SD) were fitted with a MRI-compatible EEG cap while exposed to 11 MF conditions (60 Hz, 0 to 50 mTrms, 5 mTrms increments). Simultaneously, physiological tremor (recorded from the contralateral index finger) and EEG (from associated motor and somatosensory brain regions) were measured. Results showed no significant main effect of MF exposure conditions on any of the analyzed physiological tremor characteristics. In terms of EEG, no significant effects of the MF were observed for C1, C3, C5 and CP1 electrodes. However, a significant main effect was found for CP3 and CP5 electrodes, both suggesting a decreased mu-rhythm spectral power with increasing MF flux density. This is however not confirmed by Bonferroni corrected pairwise comparisons. Considering both EEG and tremor findings, no effect of the MF exposure on human motor control was observed. However, MF exposure had a subtle effect on the mu-rhythm amplitude in the brain region involved in tactile perception. Current findings are to be considered with caution due to the small size of this pilot work, but they provide preliminary insights to international agencies establishing guidelines regarding electromagnetic field exposure with new experimental data acquired in humans exposed to high mT-range MFs.
Variability of the dendritic cell response triggered by different serotypes of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans or Porphyromonas gingivalis is toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) or TLR4 dependent.

BACKGROUND Different serotypes of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis have been shown to induce differential dendritic cell (DC) responses. This study investigates whether cytokine and CC-chemokine receptor (CCR) production by DCs stimulated with different serotypes of A. actinomycetemcomitans or P. gingivalis is Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and/or TLR4 dependent. METHODS DCs were obtained from healthy individuals and primed at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10(2) with different A. actinomycetemcomitans or P. gingivalis serotypes in the presence or absence of anti-TLR2 or anti-TLR4 blocking antibodies. TLR2 and TLR4 expression, CCR5 and CCR6 expression, and interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-10, IL-12, and IL-23 expression and secretion were quantified by flow cytometry, real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS When DCs were stimulated with serotype b of A. actinomycetemcomitans or serotype K1 of P. gingivalis, higher levels of TLR2 or TLR4, respectively, were detected compared to DCs stimulated with the other serotypes. Similarly, higher levels of cytokines and CCRs were detected in serotype b- or serotype K1-primed DCs compared to the others, and these increased levels positively correlated with levels of TLR2 or TLR4. When TLR2 signaling was blocked using a specific anti-TLR2 monoclonal antibody, serotype b-induced cytokine and CCR expression was inhibited; when TLR4 signaling was blocked, serotype K1-induced response was inhibited. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that the variability of secretion of cytokines and expression of CCRs detected in DCs stimulated with different serotypes of A. actinomycetemcomitans or P. gingivalis is TLR2 or TLR4 dependent, respectively.
ALD assisted nanoplasmonic slot waveguide for on-chip enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a widely known sensing technique that uses a plasmonic enhancement to probe analytes in ultra-small volumes. Recently, the integration of plasmonic structures with photonic integrated waveguides promised the full integration of a SERS system on a chip. Unfortunately, the previously reported sensors provide modest overall SERS enhancement resulting in a limited signal to noise ratio. Here, we report a photonic waveguide interfaced SERS sensor that shows an order of magnitude higher pump to Stokes conversion efficiency and lower background than previous realizations. Moreover, the plasmonic structure is fabricated without the use of e-beam lithography but rather using a combination of atomic layer deposition and deep UV photolithography. We investigate numerically the performance of the sensor in terms of Raman conversion efficiency for various design parameters. The experimental results are presented via the acquisition of SERS spectra that show a conversion efficiency of 10−9 for a monolayer of 4-nitrothiophenol. To explore the broadband characteristic of our sensor in the therapeutic spectral window, two different pump wavelengths, i.e., 632 and 785 nm, are used. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ever broadband SERS demonstration of an on-chip Raman sensor. We further study the reproducibility of our SERS sensor, reaching a relative standard deviation of the acquired spectra (RSD) < 5%.
Mechanical and electro-mechanical reliability of transparent oxide thin films for flexible electronics applications

Flexible electronic devices such as solar cells, touch panels and wearable displays have developed industrially and commercially in recent years because they are flexible and light weight at low cost. Since such devices constitute a brittle oxide layer applied to a polymer substrate, the cracking and/or film damage of the brittle inorganic coating when the device is under different mechanical and environmental loading during processing and service is one of the most important problems in the flexible electronic industry. This can lead to degradation and reduction in electrical functionality of the entire device; therefore, it is important to assess the behaviour of such layers under different mechanical deformation and environmental loads and to develop new mechanical testing for predicting reliability. This research focusses on the investigation of the reliability of two types of flexible components; indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), and Ag-alloy based indium tin oxide (ITO/Ag-alloy /ITO), that are typically used as a channel layer, and as an anode in thin film transistor and solar cell applications respectively. IGZO was deposited on both polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates for investigation including uniaxial tensile and buckling tests coupled with in situ confocal laser scanning microscopy. Ex situ scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were performed to investigate the cracking morphology of the IGZO films after testing. Furthermore, the electro-mechanical performance and corrosion resistance of ITO/Ag-alloy /ITO were investigated using in situ twisting tests, twisting fatigue, corrosion by aggressive salt environments, bending fatigue, bending fatigue-corrosion and long term bending under different temperature and humidity conditions.
Prize-based contingency management for the treatment of substance abusers: a meta-analysis.

AIM To review randomized controlled trials to assess efficacy of a prize-based contingency management procedure in reducing substance use (where a drug-free breath or urine sample provides a chance of winning a prize). METHODS A meta-analysis was conducted on papers published from January 2000 to February 2013 to determine the effect size of studies comparing prize-based contingency management to a treatment-as-usual control condition (k = 19 studies). Parallel analyses evaluated the efficacy of both short- (k = nine studies) and long-term outcomes (k = six studies) of prize-based contingency management. RESULTS The average end-of-treatment effect size (Cohen's d) was 0.46 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.37, 0.54]. This effect size decreased at the short-term (≤3-month) post-intervention follow-up to 0.33 (95% CI = 0.12, 0.54) and at the 6-month follow-up time-point there was no detectable effect [d = -0.09 (95% CI = -0.28, 0.10)]. CONCLUSION Adding prize-based contingency management to behavioral support for substance use disorders can increase short-term abstinence, but the effect does not appear to persist to 6 months.
An alkali-free method to manufacture ramie fiber

Ramie is one of the most important fiber resources and it needs the degumming process to produce fibers. The traditional manufacturing process of ramie fibers requires a large amount of alkali, which causes serious environmental issues. This paper provides a novel path to manufacture ramie fibers without alkali. In this study, ramie bast was pretreated by steam explosion and then treated with deep eutectic solvent. The properties of ramie fibers prepared by the novel alkali-free method, including physical properties, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), were compared with that produced by the traditional alkali process. Results showed that the fiber qualities, including residual gum content (4.68%), average fiber fineness (1419.99 Nm) and breaking tenacity (5.98 cN/dtex), were comparable with the traditional alkali process, which all meet the requirement of the relevant Chinese National Standards. The FTIR, SEM and XRD results all confirmed the degumming ability of the novel method to manufacture ramie fibers. Moreover, the novel method was proved to be eco-friendly. Taken together, these data indicate that the novel alkali-free method is green and effective in manufacturing ramie fibers.
Customer Relationship Management in Electronic Environment

Purpose – Internet and electronic networks tend to be used to provide customers with services and to facilitate understanding of common variable demands by which many organizations may increase services' quality from the customers' point of view. In addition, e‐libraries, though in some ways run for noncommercial goals, have been faced with great attention from customers, which makes them maintain and develop their services. The authors have come to a conclusion that the only way to increased financial benefits is through better service. Organizations as a part of the domestic information community therefore, have turned to implementation of new methods such as management of customer relationships. This paper aims to develop a valid and reliable method for evaluating and measuring the management relationship level with customers in e‐libraries. In addition, the research tries to find how successful Yazd University Libraries has been to meet students' expectations, as a guideline to take steps toward impro.
TCAV: R ELATIVE CONCEPT IMPORTANCE TESTING WITH L INEAR C ONCEPT A CTIVATION V ECTORS

Neural networks commonly offer high utility but remain difficult to interpret. Developing methods to explain their decisions is challenging due to their large size, complex structure, and inscrutable internal representations. This work argues that the language of explanations should be expanded from that of input features (e.g., assigning importance weightings to pixels) to include that of higher-level, humanfriendly concepts. For example, an understandable explanation of why an image classifier outputs the label “zebra” would ideally relate to concepts such as “stripes” rather than a set of particular pixel values. This paper introduces the “concept activation vector” (CAV) which allows quantitative analysis of a concept’s relative importance to classification, with a user-provided set of input data examples defining the concept. CAVs may be easily used by non-experts, who need only provide examples, and with CAVs the high-dimensional structure of neural networks turns into an aid to interpretation, rather than an obstacle. Using the domain of image classification as a testing ground, we describe how CAVs may be used to test hypotheses about classifiers and also generate insights into the deficiencies and correlations in training data. CAVs also provide us a directed approach to choose the combinations of neurons to visualize with the DeepDream technique, which traditionally has chosen neurons or linear combinations of neurons at random to visualize.
A systematic review of post-extractional alveolar hard and soft tissue dimensional changes in humans.

BACKGROUND Removal of teeth results in both horizontal and vertical changes of hard and soft tissue dimensions. The magnitude of these changes is important for decision-making and comprehensive treatment planning, with provisions for possible solutions to expected complications during prosthetic rehabilitation. OBJECTIVES To review all English dental literature to assess the magnitude of dimensional changes of both the hard and soft tissues of the alveolar ridge up to 12 months following tooth extraction in humans. METHODS An electronic MEDLINE and CENTRAL search complemented by manual searching was conducted to identify randomized controlled clinical trials and prospective cohort studies on hard and soft tissue dimensional changes after tooth extraction. Only studies reporting on undisturbed post-extraction dimensional changes relative to a fixed reference point over a clearly stated time period were included. Assessment of the identified studies and data extraction was performed independently by two reviewers. Data collected were reported by descriptive methods. Weighted means and percentages of the dimensional changes over time were calculated where appropriate. RESULTS The search provided 3954 titles and 238 abstracts. Full text analysis was performed for 104 articles resulting in 20 studies that met the inclusion criteria. In human hard tissue, horizontal dimensional reduction (3.79 ± 0.23 mm) was more than vertical reduction (1.24 ± 0.11 mm on buccal, 0.84 ± 0.62 mm on mesial and 0.80 ± 0.71 mm on distal sites) at 6 months. Percentage vertical dimensional change was 11-22% at 6 months. Percentage horizontal dimensional change was 32% at 3 months, and 29-63% at 6-7 months. Soft tissue changes demonstrated 0.4-0.5 mm gain of thickness at 6 months on the buccal and lingual aspects. Horizontal dimensional changes of hard and soft tissue (loss of 0.1-6.1 mm) was more substantial than vertical change (loss 0.9 mm to gain 0.4 mm) during observation periods of up to 12 months, when study casts were utilized as a means of documenting the changes. CONCLUSIONS Human re-entry studies showed horizontal bone loss of 29-63% and vertical bone loss of 11-22% after 6 months following tooth extraction. These studies demonstrated rapid reductions in the first 3-6 months that was followed by gradual reductions in dimensions thereafter.
Real Benefits of Active Caching in the WWW

We present our research on active caching in the WWW. We drew some key conclusions on the service properties and its significance, according to the results of our analysis of the WWW content. These conclusions include the percentage values of the potentially outdated Web content in the overall Web content after an object`s lifetime has passed. This paper provides reasons for using active caching
Performance on Antibacterial Finishes for Textile Applications

Microorganisms are found everywhere in our world and most of them cause infectious diseases to human beings such as viruses, fungi, pathogenic bacteria etc. Suitable conditions like nutrients, warmth and humidity may accelerate the growth of these harmful microbes on textiles which not only increase the risk of spreading diseases but also cause some unwanted effects to textile products including loss of strength, decoloration and unpleasant smell. Antimicrobial agents are ultimate solution which inhibit and kill the microorganisms and are applied to textile products. Antimicrobial textiles are consumed continuously where fabric surface is expected to contact microorganisms. Much attentions have paid for development and finishing of these functional agents onto textiles. Various kinds of antimicrobial agents and finishes which provides superior safety, recharge ability, durability and excellent disinfection power are discussed in this article.