Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of nickel ion release from various orthodontic arch wires: An in vitro study

Aim: The high incidence of nickel (Ni) allergy and the increasing use of Ni-containing dental biomaterials have been of growing concern. The purpose of this investigation was to analyze and evaluate the rate of Ni ion release from different types arch wires used in orthodontics. Materials and Methods: Four groups of arch wires (nickel titanium [NiTi], SS, Cu NiTi and ion implanted NiTi) with twelve samples were stored in artificial saliva with a pH 5.6-7.0 thermostated at (36.5°C) and tested at different intervals i.e., 7th day, 14th day, and 21st day. The amount of Ni and Ti ions released from the sample were evaluated using an atomic adsorption spectrophotometer. The solution was replaced with a fresh bottle to avoid sediments. Results: Statistical analysis was performed by nonparametric tests (Student's paired t-test, one-way analysis of variance and multiple comparison test by Tukey “Honestly significant difference”). The statistical package SPSS PC plus (version 4.0.1) was used for data processing and statistical analysis. Results showed significantly statistical influence on the release amount of Ni and Ti ions. Large variation in concentration of Ni released from brackets and bands combined. However, the amount of Ni ions released in all test solutions diminished with time and was below the critical value necessary to induce allergy and below daily dietary intake level. Conclusions: The daily release of NiTi, SS, Cu NiTi and ion implanted NiTi by an orthodontic appliance in acid pH, particularly favorable to corrosion, was well below that ingested with a normal daily diet. It is therefore concluded that the quantities of metal ions released in our experimental conditions should not be cause for concern in utilizing the appliance.
Life Sounds Extraction and Classification in Noisy Environment

This paper deals with the sound event detection in a noisy environment and presents a first classification approach. Detection is the first step of our sound analysis system and is necessary to extract the significant sounds before ini-tiating the classification step. We present three original event detection algorithms. Among these algorithms, one is based on the wavelet and gives the best performances. We evaluate and compare their performance in a noisy en-vironment with the state of the art algorithms in the field. Then, we present a statistical study to obtain the acous-tical parameters necessary for the training and, the sound classification results. The detection algorithms and sound classification are applied to medical telemonitoring. We re-place video camera by microphones surveying life sounds in order to preserve patient's privacy.
Solar Wind Sputtering Rates of Small Bodies and Ion Mass Spectrometry Detection of Secondary Ions

Solar wind interactions with the surfaces of asteroids and small moons eject atoms and molecules from the uppermost several nanometers of regolith grains through a process called sputtering. A small fraction of the sputtered species, called secondary ions, leave the surface in an ionized state, and these are diagnostic of the surface composition. Detection of secondary ions using ion mass spectrometry (IMS) provides a powerful method of analysis due to low backgrounds and high instrument sensitivities. However, the sputtered secondary ion yield and the atomic composition of the surface are not 1‐to‐1 correlated. Thus, relative yield fractions based on experimental measurements are needed to convert measured spectra to surface composition. Here available experimental results are combined with computationally derived solar wind sputtering yields to estimate secondary ion fluxes from asteroid‐sized bodies in the solar system. The Monte Carlo simulation code SDTrimSP is used to estimate the total sputtering yield due to solar wind ion bombardment for a diverse suite of meteorite and lunar soil compositions. Experimentally measured relative secondary ion yields are analyzed to determine the abundance of refractory species (Mg+, Al+, Ca+, and Fe+) relative to Si+, and it is shown that relative abundances indicate whether a body is primitive or has undergone significant geologic reprocessing. Finally, estimates of the sputtered secondary ion fluxes are used to determine the IMS sensitivity required to adequately resolve major element ratios for nominal orbital geometries.
Guidelines on Urological Infections

Introduction Infections of the urinary tract (UTIs) pose a serious health problem for patients at high cost for society. UTIs are also the most frequent healthcare associated infections. E. coli is the predominating pathogen in uncomplicated UTIs while other Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococcus spp are isolated in higher frequency in patients with urological diseases. The present state of microbial resistance development is alarming and the rates of resistance are related to the amount of antibiotics used in the different countries. Particularly worrisome is the increasing resistance to broad spectrum antibiotics. It is thus essential to limit the use of antibiotics in general and fluoroquinolones and cephalosporins in particular, especially in uncomplicated infections and asymptomatic bacteriuria.
Mitogenic response of human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells to insulin-like growth factor I and II is dependent on the stage of differentiation

Human insulin-like growth factor I and II (IGF-I and IGF-II) in concentrations of 1-30 ng/ml, were shown to stimulate ornithine decarboxylase activity and [3H]thymidine incorporation in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Proliferation of these cells was also stimulated by IGF-I and II when added to RPMI 1640 medium, fortified with selenium, hydrocortisone, transferrin, and beta-estradiol. Labeled IGF- I and II bound to SH-SY5Y cells. The cross-reaction pattern of IGF-I, IGF-II, and insulin in competing with the binding of labeled IGF-I and IGF-II, respectively, indicated that SH-SY5Y cells express both type I and type II IGF receptors. Treatment of SH-SY5Y cells for 4 d with 12-O- tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), which resulted in morphological and functional differentiation and growth inhibition, abolished the mitogenic response to both IGF-I and II. Concomitantly, the binding of IGF-II disappeared almost totally, which offers a possible explanation for the reduced biological response to IGF-II after TPA treatment. In contrast, the IGF-I binding in TPA-treated cells was only reduced to approximately 70% of the binding to control cells. It is therefore not excluded that the IGF-I receptor could be uncoupled by TPA, with persistent binding capacity for IGF-I.
Evaluating Human Factors in Augmented Reality Systems

Augmented reality (AR) has been part of computer graphics methodology for decades. A number of prototype AR systems have shown the possibilities this paradigm creates. Mixing graphical annotations and objects in a user's view of the surrounding environment offers a powerful metaphor for conveying information about that environment. AR systems' potential still exceeds the practice. In fact, most AR systems remain laboratory prototypes. There are several reasons for this; two of the most prominent are that researchers need more advanced hardware than currently available to implement the systems, and (the subject of this article) the AR research community needs to resolve human factors issues. AR systems are usually interactive; thus, we must verify usability to determine if the system is effective.
Automatic generation of data processing workflows for transportation modeling

Scientists, economists, and planners in government, industry and academia spend much of their time accessing, integrating, and analyzing data. However, many of their studies are one-of-a-kind with little sharing and reuse for subsequent endeavors. The Argos project seeks to improve the productivity of analysts by providing a framework that encourages reuse of data sources and data processing operations, and by developing tools to generate data processing workflows. In this paper, we present an approach to automatically generate data processing workflows. First, we define a methodology for assigning formal semantics to data and operations according to a domain ontology, which allows sharing and reuse. Specifically, we define data contents using relational descriptions in an expressive logic. Second, we develop a novel planner that uses relational subsumption to connect the output of a data processing operation with the input of another. Our modeling methodology has the significant advantage that the planner can automatically insert adaptor operations wherever necessary to bridge the inputs and outputs of operations in the workflow. We have implemented the approach in a transportation modeling domain.
Comparison of effectiveness of 4% articaine associated with 1: 100,000 or 1: 200,000 epinephrine in inferior alveolar nerve block.

This comparative study using 20 healthy volunteers evaluated the anesthetic efficacy of 4% articaine in association with 2 different concentrations of epinephrine, 1:200,000 (G1) and 1:100,000 (G2). The first premolars were tested with a pulp tester to verify the anesthesia induced by the inferior alveolar nerve block. The following parameters were measured: period of latency (PL; interval between the end of anesthetic injection and absence of response to the maximum output--80 reading--of the pulp tester); complete pulpal anesthesia (CPA; period in which the subject had no response to maximal output of the pulp tester 80 reading); partial anesthesia (PA; interval between the first reading below 80 and the return to basal levels); and the anesthesia of the soft tissues (AST; period of time from onset of anesthesia until the return to normal sensation of the lip). The Wilcoxon test (alpha = 0.05) was used to analyze the data. No significant difference was found regarding PL (P = .47), CPA (P = .88), PA (P = .46), and AST (P = .85). The results indicated that both solutions presented the same clinical effectiveness in blocking the inferior alveolar nerve.
Sequence Features and Transcriptional Stalling within Centromere DNA Promote Establishment of CENP-A Chromatin

Centromere sequences are not conserved between species, and there is compelling evidence for epigenetic regulation of centromere identity, with location being dictated by the presence of chromatin containing the histone H3 variant CENP-A. Paradoxically, in most organisms CENP-A chromatin generally occurs on particular sequences. To investigate the contribution of primary DNA sequence to establishment of CENP-A chromatin in vivo, we utilised the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. CENP-ACnp1 chromatin is normally assembled on ∼10 kb of central domain DNA within these regional centromeres. We demonstrate that overproduction of S. pombe CENP-ACnp1 bypasses the usual requirement for adjacent heterochromatin in establishing CENP-ACnp1 chromatin, and show that central domain DNA is a preferred substrate for de novo establishment of CENP-ACnp1 chromatin. When multimerised, a 2 kb sub-region can establish CENP-ACnp1 chromatin and form functional centromeres. Randomization of the 2 kb sequence to generate a sequence that maintains AT content and predicted nucleosome positioning is unable to establish CENP-ACnp1 chromatin. These analyses indicate that central domain DNA from fission yeast centromeres contains specific information that promotes CENP-ACnp1 incorporation into chromatin. Numerous transcriptional start sites were detected on the forward and reverse strands within the functional 2 kb sub-region and active promoters were identified. RNAPII is enriched on central domain DNA in wild-type cells, but only low levels of transcripts are detected, consistent with RNAPII stalling during transcription of centromeric DNA. Cells lacking factors involved in restarting transcription—TFIIS and Ubp3—assemble CENP-ACnp1 on central domain DNA when CENP-ACnp1 is at wild-type levels, suggesting that persistent stalling of RNAPII on centromere DNA triggers chromatin remodelling events that deposit CENP-ACnp1. Thus, sequence-encoded features of centromeric DNA create an environment of pervasive low quality RNAPII transcription that is an important determinant of CENP-ACnp1 assembly. These observations emphasise roles for both genetic and epigenetic processes in centromere establishment.
Predictors of Complicated Grief: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies

A systematic review of the literature on predictors of complicated grief (CG) was undertaken with the aim of clarifying the current knowledge and to inform future planning and work in CG following bereavement. Predictors of CG prior to the death include previous loss, exposure to trauma, a previous psychiatric history, attachment style, and the relationship to the deceased. Factors associated with the death include violent death, the quality of the caregiving or dying experience, close kinship relationship to the deceased, marital closeness and dependency, and lack of preparation for the death. Perceived social support played a key role after death, along with cognitive appraisals and high distress at the time of the death. Inconsistent definitions of CG and measurement tools were noted in the earlier studies reviewed. Limitations identified in the studies included use of cross-sectional designs, heterogeneous samples, high attrition, demographic differences between cases and controls, differences in length of time since death, and differences in types of death experienced. Notwithstanding these limitations, some consistent findings have emerged. Further research into conceptualizations of CG in terms of attachment theory and constructivist and cognitive-behavioral concepts of finding purpose and meaning after bereavement is warranted.
Acoustic-phonetic speech parameters for speaker-independent speech recognition

Coping with inter-speaker variability (i.e., differences in the vocal tract characteristics of speakers) is still a major challenge for Automatic Speech Recognizers. In this paper, we discuss a method that compensates for differences in speaker characteristics. In particular, we demonstrate that when continuous density hidden Markov model based system is used as the back-end, a Knowledge-Based Front End (KBFE) can outperform the traditional Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs), particularly when there is a mismatch in the gender and ages of the subjects used to train and test the recognizer. This work was supported by NSF grant # SBR-9729688 and NIH grant # IK02DCOOI49.
Temporal data mining in history data of hospital information systems

Rapid progress in electronization of hospital information gives an opportunity to realize evidence-based hospital management and services. This paper presents a preliminary approach to service innovation in a hospital by using data mining in which temporal behavior of global hospital activities are visualized. The results show that the reuse of stored data will give a powerful tool for hospital management and lead to improvement of hospital services.
Spatial Scan Statistics for Graph Clustering

In this paper, we present a measure associated with detection and inference of statistically anomalous clusters of a graph based on the likelihood test of observed and expected edges in a subgraph. This measure is adapted from spatial scan statistics for point sets and provides quantitative assessment for clusters. We discuss some important properties of this statistic and its relation to modularity and Bregman divergences. We apply a simple clustering algorithm to find clusters with large values of this measure in a variety of real-world data sets, and we illustrate its ability to identify statistically significant clusters of selected granularity.
Spectral Graph and Minimal Spanning Tree for 3D Polygonal Meshes Fingerprinting

In this paper, the authors present a robust three-dimensional fingerprint algorithm for verification, indexing, and identification. The core idea behind our technique is to apply the eigen-decomposition to the mesh Laplacian matrix, and then compute minimum spanning trees MST of several concentrations of the mesh shape structure. The fixed size hash vector of a 3D mesh is defined in terms of the MST values and number of the initial patches. The extensive experimental results on several 3D meshes prove the uniqueness of the extracted hash vectors and the robustness of the proposed technique against the most common attacks including distortion-less attacks, compression, noise, smoothing, scaling, rotation as well as mixtures of these attacks.
The Riparian Tree Species Composition and Diversity of the Midstream of Halda River in Chittagong, Bangladesh

Riparian vegetation has been depleting in the many river basins of Bangladesh. Consequently, this study assessed the tree species composition, structure and diversity of the midstream area of the Halda River in Bangladesh. Twenty two quadrats (20 × 20m in size) were sampled. A total of 414 individual tree stems of ≥10 cm DBH of 36 tree species belonging to 31 genera and 15 families were enumerated. Density, Basal area and volume of the tree species were measured. Different diversity indices, i.e. Shannon-Wienners Diversity Index, Simpson's Dominance Index, Pielou’s Species Evenness Index, Margalef's and Menhinick’s richness index were calculated. Fabaceae was the most represented family with nine species, followed by Moraceae, Meliaceae and Anacardiaceae. Density, basal area and volume of the trees were 470.45 stem/ha, 19. 09m²/ha and 139. 42m³/ha, respectively. Samanea saman was found to be dominant, showing a maximum IVI, followed by v, Mangifer aindica, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Artocarpus heterophyllus. The findings of the study will be helpful for the posterior researchers in their research work and their future tree based planning programs and conservation. So it is recommended that greater emphasis should be taken to proper management and conservation against over extraction and illegal felling for the maintenance of existing tree species composition and density.
Protein kinase C activity blocks neuropeptide Y‐mediated inhibition of glutamate release and contributes to excitability of the hippocampus in status epilepticus

The unbalanced excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitter function in the neuronal network afflicted by seizures is the main biochemical and biophysical hallmark of epilepsy. The aim of this work was to identify changes in the signaling mechanisms associated with neuropeptide Y (NPY)‐mediated inhibition of glutamate release that may contribute to hyperexcitabil‐ity. Using isolated rat hippocampal nerve terminals, we showed that the KCl‐evoked glutamate release is inhibited by NPY Y2 receptor activation and is potentiated by the stimulation of protein kinase C (PKC). Moreover, we observed that immediately after status epilepticus (6 h postinjection with kainate, 10 mg/kg), the functional inhibition of glutamate release by NPY Y2 receptors was transiently blocked concomitantly with PKC hyperacti‐vation. The pharmacological blockade of seizure‐activated PKC revealed again the Y2 receptor‐mediated inhibition of glutamate release. The functional activity of PKC immediately after status epilepticus was as‐sessed by evaluating phosphorylation of the AMPA receptor subunit GluRl (Ser‐831), a substrate for PKC. Moreover, NPY‐stimulated [35S]GTPγS autoradiographic binding studies indicated that the common target for Y2 receptor and PKC on the inhibition/ potentiation of glutamate release was located downstream of the Y2 receptor, or its interacting G‐protein, and involves voltage‐gated calcium channels. —Silva, A. P., Lourenco, J., Xapelli, S. , Ferreira, R. , Kristiansen, H. , Woldbye, D. P. D. , Oliveira, C. R. , Malva, J. O. Protein kinase C activity blocks neuropeptide Y‐mediated inhibition of glutamate release and contributes to excitability of the hippocampus in status epilepticus. FASEB J. 21, 671–681 (2007)
Molecular mechanisms of muscarinic receptors in mouse scleral fibroblasts: Prior to and after induction of experimental myopia with atropine treatment

Purpose To investigate the effect of atropine on the development of spectacle lens induced myopia in the mouse and to determine if the level of mRNAs for the muscarinic receptor subtypes (M1 - M5) is affected by atropine treatment. Methods Experimental myopia was developed in Balb/CJ (BJ) mice by placing −10 diopter spectacle lens on post-natal day 10 over the right eyes of 150 mice (n=10 in each group, 5 repetitions) for six weeks. After 2 weeks of lens wearing, the atropine group received a daily sub-conjunctival injection (10 µl) of 1% atropine sulfate and the saline group received daily 10 µl of 0.9% normal saline for 4 weeks. In addition, myopia was developed in C57BL/6 (B6) mice by placing −10 D spectacle lens on post-natal day 10 over the right eyes of 60 mice (n=10 in each group, 2 repetitions) for six weeks with and without atropine treatment. Refraction and axial length was measured at 2, 4, and 6 weeks after treatments. RT–PCR and northern blots were performed using specific primers for M1-M5, and products sequenced. Real-time PCR was used to quantify message levels. Results Axial length of myopic eyes was 111% of their controls without atropine treatment and 103% of controls after atropine (p<0.01). Refraction shifted from myopic to emmetropic after atropine was administered in both pigmented and non-pigmented eyes. Corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth, corneal curvature and retinal thickness were not significantly different with and without atropine treatment (p=0.14). The lens thickness and vitreous chamber depth were significantly reduced after receiving atropine (p<0.05). Real-time PCR showed that message levels for M1, M3, and M4 were upregulated in myopic sclera after atropine treatment, but M2 and M5 showed little change. Conclusions The present study shows that 1% atropine reduces myopia progression in both pigmented and non-pigmented mice eyes. Axial length and vitreous chamber depth appear to be the main morphological parameters related to myopia. The results suggest that atropine may act on one or more muscarinic receptors to differentially regulate expression levels of specific receptors.
HIGH INTENSITY FOCUSED ULTRASOUND AND OXYGEN LOAD NANOBUBBLES: TWO DIFFERENT APPROCHES FOR CANCER TREATMENT

The study of applications based on the use of ultrasound in medicine and biology for therapeutic purposes is under strong development at international level and joins the notoriously well-established and widespread use of diagnostic applications [1]. In the past few years, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) has developed from a scientific curiosity to an accepted therapeutic modality. HIFU is a non invasive technique for the treatment of various types of cancer, as well as non-malignant pathologies, by inducing localized hyperthermia that causes necrosis of the tissue. Beside HIFU technology, other innovative therapeutic modalities to treat cancer are emerging. Among them, an extremely innovative technique is represented by oxygen loaded nanobubbles (OLNs): gas cavities confined by an appropriately functionalized coating. This is an oxygenating drugs aimed at re-oxygenation of cancerous tissue. Oxygen deficiency, in fact, is the main hallmark of cancerous solid tumors and a major factor limiting the effectiveness of radiotherapy. In this work, these two approaches to treat tumours are under study from a metrological point of view. In particular, a complete characterization of an HIFU fields regarding power, pressure and temperature is provided while oxygen load nanobubbles are synthesized, characterized and applied in in vitro and in vivo experiments