Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Push-out bond strength of different endodontic obturation material at three different sites - In-vitro study

Background The key to success of any root canal therapy is adequate obturation of the prepared root canal space. Root canal sealers are not dimensionally stable and might dissolve partially over a period of time. The objective of this in vitro study is to evaluate the push-out bond strength to intraradicular dentin of two endodontic obturation materials. Material and Methods Forty extracted single rooted permanent teeth were used. Canals orifice was explored, teeth were instrumented. The samples were divided into two groups each containing twenty specimens obturated with different obturation material (Group1 Epiphany/Resilon and Group 2 Gutta Percha/AH Plus). The obturation systems used in this study was Element Obturation unit (Sybron Endo). Each tooth root was horizontally sectioned in approximately 2-mm thick slices from the coronal 1/3rd, middle 1/3rd and apical 1/3rd. The push-out bond strength of each specimen was calculated using Universal Testing Machine. The statistical analysis was done using two way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and tukey’s test. Results There was significant difference between push out bond strength of Resilon/Epiphany and AH Plus/Gutta Percha. Gutta percha group was superior with push out bond strength of 2.22 (± 0.16) Mpa in comparison to Resilon/Epiphany group with 1.61 (±0.14) Mpa (p<0.001). Conclusions The interfacial bond strength achieved with Resilon/Epiphany self-etch (SE) to intraradicular dentine was not superior to that of AH Plus/Gutta Percha. Key words:AH Plus, Apical leakage, Epiphany, Gutta percha, Push-out test Resilon.
Anesthesia and Analgesia Practice Pathway Options for Total Knee Arthroplasty: An Evidence-Based Review by the American and European Societies of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine

Abstract In 2014, the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine in collaboration with the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy convened a group of experts to compare pathways for anesthetic and analgesic management for patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty in North America and Europe and to develop a practice pathway. This review is intended to be an analysis of the current literature to assist individuals and institutions in designing a pathway for total knee arthroplasty that is based on existing evidence and expert recommendation and may be customized according to individual settings.
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF WELDING RESIDUAL STRESS OF U-RIB STIFFENED PLATE

In order to take into account the change of stress and deformation during the whole process of welding and the thermal field distribution of a U-rib stiffened plate,a thermal elastic-plastic FEM model was adopted and element birth and death was used to simulate the weld seam fill-in and heat input.And the residual stress distribution was investigated by numerical simulations and experiments.The comparison of numerical analyses and experimental results of distribution and magnitude of residual stress showed that residual stress near the weld seam is close to material yielding stress,the average value of the residual stress far from weld seam on the mother board was around 0.2 time of material yielding stress.The residual stress distribution tendency derived from numerical simulation was close to the experiment result,which proved the validity of the numerical simulation.
Ethnic disparities in attendance at New Zealand's chronic pain services.

AIMS It is unknown how well New Zealand's chronic pain services serve the country's diverse ethnic population. The goal of the study was to determine the attendance rates and clinical presentation of patients presenting at district health board (DHB) chronic pain services across the main ethnicities. METHODS Demographic data of patients attending for an initial assessment in 2015 were requested from all DHBs that offered a multidisciplinary chronic pain service. Actual and expected attendance rates for European, Māori, Pasifika, Asian and Other ethnicities were determined based on census data. In addition, baseline clinical assessment data were obtained from two large DHBs for all patients attending over a two-year period and compared among ethnicities. RESULTS Across all services that provided data, Europeans were over-represented by 9%, while Pasifika and Asians were under-represented by 58% and 49%, respectively. Māori patients scored significantly worse than Europeans in all clinical assessment measures, while Pasifika and Asian patients scored worse on the majority of measures. CONCLUSIONS Ethnic disparities in access to chronic pain services are evident by the marked under-attendance of Pasifika and Asian ethnicities. Māori, in particular, also have a greater need for healthcare related to pain.
CITRININOTOXINOGENICITY OF PENICILLIUM SPP. ISOLATED FROM DECAYING APPLES

Nesse estudo, foi examinada a ocorrencia de citrinina e a capacidade de producao do citrinina por cepas de Penicillum spp. isoladas de macas deterioradas, recolhidas em pomares domesticos no territorio da Croacia. De 100 amostras de macas examinadas, foram isoladas 37 cepas de Penicillium spp. incluindo P. expansum, P. roqueforti, P. impicatum e P. purpurogenum. A capacidade de producao de citrinina por 11 cepas de P. expansun foi determinada em meio liquido obtendo-se concentracoes variando entre 0,07 e 9,00 mg.kg-¹. A citrinina foi detectada em 19% das amostras de macas, com concentracao variando entre 0,05 e 0,24 mg.kg-¹. O efeito antimicrobiano da citrinina foi determinado em testes com Bacillus subtilis, com zona de inibicao variando entre 5 mm e 1 cm. A concentracao minima inibitoria (CMI) foi 0,0072 µg. mL-1 para o efeito bacteriostatico e 0,0144 µg. mL-1 para o efeito bactericida.
Differing cytotoxicity and bioavailability of selenite, methylselenocysteine, selenomethionine, selenosugar 1 and trimethylselenonium ion and their underlying metabolic transformations in human cells.

SCOPE The trace element selenium (Se) is an integral component of our diet. However, its metabolism and toxicity following elevated uptake are not fully understood. Since the either adverse or beneficial health effects strongly depend on the ingested Se species, five low molecular weight species were investigated regarding their toxicological effects, cellular bioavailability and species-specific metabolism in human cells. METHODS AND RESULTS For the first time, the urinary metabolites methyl-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-1-seleno-β-D-galactopyranoside (selenosugar 1) and trimethylselenonium ion (TMSe) were toxicologically characterised in comparison to the food relevant species methylselenocysteine (MeSeCys), selenomethionine (SeMet) and selenite in human urothelial, astrocytoma and hepatoma cells. In all cell lines selenosugar 1 and TMSe showed no cytotoxicity. Selenite, MeSeCys and SeMet exerted substantial cytotoxicity, which was strongest in the urothelial cells. There was no correlation between the potencies of the respective toxic effects and the measured cellular Se concentrations. Se speciation indicated that metabolism of the respective species is likely to affect cellular toxicity. CONCLUSION Despite being taken up, selenosugar 1 and TMSe are non-cytotoxic to urothelial cells, most likely because they are not metabolically activated. The absent cytotoxicity of selenosugar 1 and TMSe up to supra-physiological concentrations, support their importance as metabolites for Se detoxification.
Comparison of Gated Audiovisual Speech Identification in Elderly Hearing Aid Users and Elderly Normal-Hearing Individuals

The present study compared elderly hearing aid (EHA) users (n = 20) with elderly normal-hearing (ENH) listeners (n = 20) in terms of isolation points (IPs, the shortest time required for correct identification of a speech stimulus) and accuracy of audiovisual gated speech stimuli (consonants, words, and final words in highly and less predictable sentences) presented in silence. In addition, we compared the IPs of audiovisual speech stimuli from the present study with auditory ones extracted from a previous study, to determine the impact of the addition of visual cues. Both participant groups achieved ceiling levels in terms of accuracy in the audiovisual identification of gated speech stimuli; however, the EHA group needed longer IPs for the audiovisual identification of consonants and words. The benefit of adding visual cues to auditory speech stimuli was more evident in the EHA group, as audiovisual presentation significantly shortened the IPs for consonants, words, and final words in less predictable sentences; in the ENH group, audiovisual presentation only shortened the IPs for consonants and words. In conclusion, although the audiovisual benefit was greater for EHA group, this group had inferior performance compared with the ENH group in terms of IPs when supportive semantic context was lacking. Consequently, EHA users needed the initial part of the audiovisual speech signal to be longer than did their counterparts with normal hearing to reach the same level of accuracy in the absence of a semantic context.
Human - robot collision detection and identification based on fuzzy and time series modelling

SUMMARY In this paper, two methods are proposed and implemented for collision detection between the robot and a human based on fuzzy identification and time series modelling. Both methods include a collision detection system for each joint of the robot that is trained to approximate the external torque. In addition, the proposed methods are able to detect the occurrence of a collision, the link that collided and to some extent the magnitude of the collision without using the explicit model of the robot. Since the speed of the detection is of critical importance for mitigating the danger, attention is paid to recognise a collision as soon as possible. Experimental results conducted with a KUKALWR manipulator using two joints in planar motion, verify the validity on both methods.
Mechanical control of growth: ideas, facts and challenges

In his classic book On Growth and Form, D'Arcy Thompson discussed the necessity of a physical and mathematical approach to understanding the relationship between growth and form. The past century has seen extraordinary advances in our understanding of biological components and processes contributing to organismal morphogenesis, but the mathematical and physical principles involved have not received comparable attention. The most obvious entry of physics into morphogenesis is via tissue mechanics. In this Review, we discuss the fundamental role of mechanical interactions between cells induced by growth in shaping a tissue. Non-uniform growth can lead to accumulation of mechanical stress, which in the context of two-dimensional sheets of tissue can specify the shape it assumes in three dimensions. A special class of growth patterns – conformal growth – does not lead to the accumulation of stress and can generate a rich variety of planar tissue shapes. Conversely, mechanical stress can provide a regulatory feedback signal into the growth control circuit. Both theory and experiment support a key role for mechanical interactions in shaping tissues and, via mechanical feedback, controlling epithelial growth. Summary: This Review considers how tissue growth can be influenced by mechanical inputs and feedback, using the Drosophila wing disc as an example and focussing on the Hippo pathway as a key integrator of mechanical and biochemical signals.
Minimizing charging delay in wireless rechargeable sensor networks

As a pioneering experimental platform of wireless rechargeable sensor networks, the Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) is an open-source platform that integrates sensing and computation capabilities to the traditional RFID tags. Different from traditional tags, a RFID-based wireless rechargeable sensor node needs to charge its onboard energy storage above a threshold in order to power its sensing, computation and communication components. Consequently, such charging delay imposes a unique design challenge for deploying wireless rechargeable sensor networks. In this paper, we tackle this problem by planning the optimal movement strategy of the RFID reader, such that the time to charge all nodes in the network above their energy threshold is minimized. We first propose an optimal solution using the linear programming method. To further reduce the computational complexity, we then introduce a heuristic solution with a provable approximation ratio of (1 + θ)/(1 - ε) by discretizing the charging power on a two-dimensional space. Through extensive evaluations, we demonstrate that our design outperforms the set-cover-based design by an average of 24.7% while the computational complexity is O((N/ε)2).
Interactive relevance feedback with graded relevance and sentence extraction: simulated user experiments

Research on relevance feedback (RFB) in information retrieval (IR) has given mixed results. Success in RFB seems to depend on the searcher's willingness to provide feedback and ability to identify relevant documents or query keys. The paper is based on simulating many user scenarios regarding the amount and quality of RFB. In addition, we experiment with query-biased sentence extraction for query reformulation. The baselines are initial no-feedback queries and queries based on pseudo-relevance feedback. The core question is: under which conditions would RFB based on sentence extraction be successful? The answer depends on user's behavior, implementation of feedback query formulation, and the evaluation methods. A small amount of feedback from a short browsing window seems to improve the final ranking the most. Longer browsing allows more feedback and better queries but also consumes the available relevant documents.
Facile synthesis of homogeneous CuInS2 quantum dots with tunable near-infrared emission

The near-infrared (NIR) and homogeneously emitting CuInS2 quantum dots (QDs) have been successfully prepared by a one-pot thermolysis route using air-stable indium stearate as a precursor/reactant. The CuInS2 QDs exhibit a tunable emission peak in the range of 693–835 nm with a photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) of up to 8.7%. The QDs with uniform diameter can be assigned to a typical zinc blende structure according to XRD analysis. Time-resolved PL spectroscopy of CuInS2 QDs shows a biexponential trait in which the donor–acceptor recombination (a lifetime of 100–240 nm) occupied 74–92% of the whole PL emission. The type-I structure CuInS2/ZnS core/shell QDs were synthesized in situ for surface passivation, which leads to a dramatic enhancement of PL QY by over six-fold/time (up to 40.1%). The PL decay curve of CuInS2/ZnS QDs retained the biexponential character with a longer lifetime. The as-prepared CuInS2 based QDs with lower toxicity and desirable optical features are good candidates for biomedical fluorescence labelling.
Opportunities for exercise during pullet rearing, Part II: Long-term effects on bone characteristics of adult laying hens at the end-of-lay

&NA; Osteoporosis in laying hens has been a production and welfare concern for several decades. The objective of this study was to determine whether differing opportunities for exercise during pullet rearing influences long‐term bone quality characteristics in end‐of‐lay hens. A secondary objective was to assess whether differing opportunities for exercise in adult housing systems alters bone quality characteristics in end‐of‐lay hens. Four flock replicates of 588 Lohmann Selected Leghorn‐Lite pullets were reared in either conventional cages (Conv) or an aviary rearing system (Avi) and placed into conventional cages (CC), 30‐bird furnished cages (FC‐S), or 60‐bird furnished cages (FC‐L) for adult housing. Wing and leg bones were collected at the end‐of‐lay to quantify bone composition and strength using quantitative computed tomography and bone breaking strength (BBS). At the end‐of‐lay, Avi hens had greater total and cortical cross‐sectional area (P < 0.05) for the radius and tibia, greater total bone mineral content of the radius (P < 0.001), and greater tibial cortical bone mineral content (P = 0.029) than the Conv hens; however, total bone mineral density of the radius (P < 0.001) and cortical bone mineral density of the radius and tibia (P < 0.001) were greater in the Conv hens. Hens in the FC‐L had greater total bone mineral density for the radius and tibia (P < 0.05) and greater trabecular bone mineral density for the radius (P = 0.027), compared to hens in the FC‐S and CC. Total bone mineral content of the tibia (P = 0.030) and cortical bone mineral content of the radius (P = 0.030) and tibia (P = 0.013) were greater in the FC‐L compared to the CC. The humerus of Conv hens had greater BBS than the Avi hens (P < 0.001), and the tibiae of FC‐L and FC‐S hens had greater BBS than CC hens (P = 0.006). Increased opportunities for exercise offered by the aviary rearing system provided improved bone quality characteristics lasting through to the end‐of‐lay.
Control of interstitial fluid pressure: role of beta1-integrins.

This review has summarized experiments which show that the connective tissue cells can actively modulate the physical properties of the interstitial matrix so that it becomes an "active" participant in transcapillary fluid exchange and thereby interstitial fluid homeostasis. The beta1-integrin system seems to provide a common pathway by which the cells can both raise and lower the interstitial fluid pressure. The experiments with alpha-trinositol and platelet-derived growth factor-BB suggest that the connective tissue can serve as a novel target for pharmacologic intervention in inflammation.
New bone formation after transcrestal sinus floor elevation was influenced by sinus cavity dimensions: A prospective histologic and histomorphometric study

OBJECTIVE The aim of this multicenter prospective study was to analyze clinically and histologically the influence of sinus cavity dimensions on new bone formation after transcrestal sinus floor elevation (tSFE). MATERIAL AND METHODS Patients needing maxillary sinus augmentation (residual crest height <5 mm) were treated with tSFE using xenogeneic granules. Six months later, bone-core biopsies were retrieved for histological analysis in implant insertion sites. Bucco-palatal sinus width (SW) and contact between graft and bone walls (WGC) were evaluated on cone beam computed tomography, and correlations between histomorphometric and anatomical parameters were quantified by means of forward multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS Fifty consecutive patients were enrolled and underwent tSFE procedures, and forty-four were included in the final analysis. Mean percentage of newly formed bone (NFB) at 6 months was 21.2 ± 16.9%. Multivariate analysis showed a strong negative correlation between SW and NFB (R2 = .793) and a strong positive correlation between WGC and NFB (R2 = .781). Furthermore, when SW was stratified into three groups (<12 mm, 12 to 15 mm, and >15 mm), NFB percentages (36%, 13% and 3%, respectively) resulted significantly different. CONCLUSIONS This study represented the first confirmation based on histomorphometric data that NFB after tSFE was strongly influenced by sinus width and occurred consistently only in narrow sinus cavities (SW <12 mm, measured between buccal and palatal walls at 10-mm level, comprising the residual alveolar crest).
Fatigue behaviour of the chemically treated titanium grade 4 implant material

“As-received” and “sand-blasted” commercially pure titanium plates were chemically treated in alkaline and hydogen peroxide solutions in order to improve osseointegration. Both surface modification methods were carried out under optimum conditions stated in the literature. The samples were subjected to a bending cyclic loading under a stress amplitude of 250 MPa and R=0. The fatigue life of the as-received samples decreased from 4.10 to 2.10 due to surface roughening effect of the surface treatments. On the other hand, sand blasting increased the fatigue life of the sample significantly, although it also increased the surface roughness. The reason is the blasting induced deformation and in turn compressive stresses in the surface vicinity. Chemical treatments applied did not affect the surface roughness of the sand blasted samples. However the fatigue life of the sand blasted samples decreased drastically after chemical treatment. Chemical surface treatments are generally accompanied by a post heat treatment. The decrease in the fatigue life of the sand blasted plates is stemmed from stress relieving effect of the post heat treatment. As a result surface modification methods applied for bioactivity should be also evaluated with respect to its effects on the fatigue performance of the material. The process parameters of the chemical surface treatment should be optimized taking into the account the fatigue life of the implant.
21st Century Electronica: MIR Techniques for Classification and Performance

The performance of electronica by Disc Jockys (DJs) presents a unique opportunity to develop interactions between performer and music. Through recent research in the MIR field, new tools for expanding DJ performance are emerging. The use of spectral, loudness, and temporal descriptors for the classification of electronica is explored. Our research also introduces the use of a multitouch interface to drive a performance-oriented DJ application utilizing the feature set. Furthermore, we present that a multi-touch surface provides an extensible and collaborative interface for browsing and manipulating MIRrelated data in real time.
A giant negative piezoresistance effect in 3C-SiC nanowires with B dopants

Silicon carbide (SiC) is recognized as a promising substitute for the currently used Si for exploring robust pressure sensors with desired high sensitivities and excellent abilities to serve under harsh work conditions. In the present work, we reported the giant piezoresistance effect of p-type 3C-SiC nanowires with B dopants, which were synthesized by catalyst-assisted pyrolysis of polysilazane. The transverse electromechanical properties of SiC nanowires were investigated at loading forces applied using a conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) tip. The resistances of the as-synthesized SiC nanowires exhibit an increase with the increase of compressed stresses at the same bias voltages, representing their negative piezoresistance behaviors. The measured negative piezoresistance coefficient π[10] of the nanowire fell in the range of −8.83 to −103.42 × 10−11 Pa−1 as the applied loading forces ranged from 51.7 to 181.0 nN. The giant gauge factor (GF) could be up to −620.5, which was enhanced by more than 10 times compared to the highest ever reported for SiC nanostructures.