Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Crevicular fluid levels of interleukin-8, interleukin-17 and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 after regenerative periodontal therapy

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of regenerative periodontal therapy on clinical parameters and interleukin-8 (IL-8), IL-17 and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) levels in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of subjects with chronic periodontitis (CP). Materials and Methods: Fifteen patients received demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft (DFDBA) surgically to the site of infrabony defect. Clinical periodontal indices were recorded, and GCF samples were collected at baseline and at the 6 th and the 9 th month after the surgery. Results: Except plaque index, all clinical parameters improved following surgery (P < 0.05). The volume of GCF diminished from baseline to follow-up periods (P < 0.05). However, no effect was observed on the total amount of IL-8, IL-17 and sICAM-1 in GCF. Conclusion: DFDBA improved clinical outcome in CP subjects and was effective on decreasing the volume of GCF, but no effect was determined on IL-8, IL-17 and sICAM-1. Findings did not indicate a direct relationship between biochemical parameters and periodontal healing after demineralized freeze-dried bone grafting.
Are Volunteer Satisfaction and Enjoyment Related to Cessation of Volunteering by Older Adults?

OBJECTIVES Previous research indicates that volunteer satisfaction and enjoyment do not exert direct effects on the cessation of volunteering by older adults. This study examined whether satisfaction with and enjoyment of volunteering indirectly affect volunteer cessation via hours volunteered. METHOD Our sample consisted of participants in the Americans' Changing Lives study (N = 380) who were 65 years old and older and who volunteered at Wave 1. Volunteer satisfaction, volunteer enjoyment, hours volunteered, and several covariates were assessed at Wave 1, and volunteer cessation was assessed 3 years later at Wave 2. RESULTS Volunteer satisfaction and volunteer enjoyment were positively associated with hours volunteered, and more hours volunteered was associated with decreased likelihood of volunteer cessation. The indirect effects of volunteer satisfaction and volunteer enjoyment on volunteer cessation via hours volunteered were -. 023 (p = .059) and -. 036 (p = .015), respectively. DISCUSSION The dynamics of volunteer cessation are important because a volunteer shortage is forecasted and because the benefits of volunteering may attenuate when volunteering stops. Future research should test the proposed causal sequence using longitudinal data with at least 3 waves.
Impact on Disease Development, Genomic Location and Biological Function of Copy Number Alterations in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer, of which more than 80% is non-small cell, is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Copy number alterations (CNAs) in lung cancer have been shown to be positionally clustered in certain genomic regions. However, it remains unclear whether genes with copy number changes are functionally clustered. Using a dense single nucleotide polymorphism array, we performed genome-wide copy number analyses of a large collection of non-small cell lung tumors (n = 301). We proposed a formal statistical test for CNAs between different groups (e.g., non-involved lung vs. tumors, early vs. late stage tumors). We also customized the gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) algorithm to investigate the overrepresentation of genes with CNAs in predefined biological pathways and gene sets (i.e., functional clustering). We found that CNAs events increase substantially from germline, early stage to late stage tumor. In addition to genomic position, CNAs tend to occur away from the gene locations, especially in germline, non-involved tissue and early stage tumors. Such tendency decreases from germline to early stage and then to late stage tumors, suggesting a relaxation of selection during tumor progression. Furthermore, genes with CNAs in non-small cell lung tumors were enriched in certain gene sets and biological pathways that play crucial roles in oncogenesis and cancer progression, demonstrating the functional aspect of CNAs in the context of biological pathways that were overlooked previously. We conclude that CNAs increase with disease progression and CNAs are both positionally and functionally clustered. The potential functional capabilities acquired via CNAs may be sufficient for normal cells to transform into malignant cells.
Are snoring medical students at risk of failing their exams?

STUDY OBJECTIVES To compare the examination results of self-reported snoring and nonsnoring medical students DESIGN We studied the examination scores obtained by medical students answering a multiple-choice test forming part of their final examinations. The students were asked to classify themselves as "nonsnorers," "occasional snorers," or "frequent snorers," and to state their age, sex, height and weight. SETTING University Hospital, Erlangen, Germany PARTICIPANTS 201 medical students (61% males/39% females; mean age 24.6 +/- 2.1 years; BMI 22.4 +/- 2.5 kg/m2) taking their final examinations in internal medicine. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Seventy-eight students (38.8%) claimed to be nonsnorers, 99 (49.3%) occasional snorers and 24 (11.9%) frequent snorers. The mean examination scores (adjusted for age, sex, and BMI) were 69.6 +/- 9.9% for the nonsnorers, 65.3 +/- 10.0% for the occasional snorers and 62.0 +/- 8.2% for the frequent snorers (p < 0.0001). 12.8% of the nonsnorers failed the exam, compared with 22.2% of the occasional snorers and 41.7% of the frequent snorers (p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed an association between failing the exam and snoring (p = 0.013), but not between failure and age, BMI, or sex (relative risk for snorers adjusted for age, sex and BMI: 1.26; 95%--CI 1.01-1.57). CONCLUSIONS In medical students, snoring seems to be associated with an increased risk of failing exams in a dose-response manner, even after controlling for age, sex and BMI. For the present, the mechanisms underlying this association must remain a matter of speculation. Snoring-related sleep fragmentation ("upper airway resistance syndrome") might be a causal factor.
JENA ECONOMIC RESEARCH PAPERS # 2009 – 074 On the Independence of Observations between Experiments by

In experimental economics there exists a lively debate about the independence of observations. Although opinions on the issue differ widely, all concerns regard the independence of subjects’ behavior within one session or experiment. This paper attempts to shed some light on the independence of observations between experiments, if they are generated by the same subjects. We analyze experiments with an allocation decision and find that participation in previous experiments tends to increase the amount subjects allocate to themselves. Hence, independence between experiments cannot be presumed if subjects participate repeatedly. The finding has implications for the interpretation of previous allocation decision results and deserves attention when running future experiments. JEL classification: C90, D03, D84
Adaptive Functional Divergence Among Triplicated α-Globin Genes in Rodents

The functional divergence of duplicated genes is thought to play an important role in the evolution of new developmental and physiological pathways, but the role of positive selection in driving this process remains controversial. The objective of this study was to test whether amino acid differences among triplicated α-globin paralogs of the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) are attributable to a relaxation of purifying selection or to a history of positive selection that has adapted the gene products to new or modified physiological tasks. In each rodent species, the two paralogs at the 5′-end of the α-globin gene cluster (HBA-T1 and HBA-T2) are evolving in concert and are therefore identical or nearly identical in sequence. However, in each case, the HBA-T1 and HBA-T2 paralogs are distinguished from the third paralog at the 3′-end of the gene cluster (HBA-T3) by multiple amino acid substitutions. An analysis of genomic sequence data from several rodent species revealed that the HBA-T3 genes of Rattus and Peromyscus originated via independent, lineage-specific duplication events. In the independently derived HBA-T3 genes of both species, a likelihood analysis based on a codon-substitution model revealed that accelerated rates of amino acid substitution are attributable to positive directional selection, not to a relaxation of purifying selection. As a result of functional divergence among the triplicated α-globin genes in Rattus and Peromyscus, the red blood cells of both rodent species contain a mixture of functionally distinct α-chain hemoglobin isoforms that are predicted to have different oxygen-binding affinities. In P. maniculatus, a species that is able to sustain physiological function under conditions of chronic hypoxia at high altitude, the coexpression of distinct hemoglobin isoforms with graded oxygen affinities is expected to broaden the permissible range of arterial oxygen tensions for pulmonary/tissue oxygen transport.
Block Copolymer Nanocomposites: Perspectives for Tailored Functional Materials

Heterogeneous materials in which the characteristic length scale of the filler material is in the nanometer range—i.e., nanocomposites—is currently one of the fastest growing areas of materials research. Polymer nanocomposites have expanded beyond the original scope of polymer–nanocrystal dispersions for refractive‐index tuning or clay‐filled homopolymers primarily pursued for mechanical reinforcement, to include a wide range of applications. This article highlights recent research efforts in the field of structure formation in block copolymer‐based nanocomposite materials, and points out opportunities for novel materials based on inclusion of different types of nanoparticles. The use of block copolymers instead of homopolymers as the matrix is shown to afford opportunities for controlling the spatial and orientational distribution of the nanoelements. This, in turn, allows much more sophisticated tailoring of the overall properties of the composite material.
Designing Efficient Mechanisms for Dynamic Bilateral Trading Games

This paper studies the problem of allocating a good between two players in each period of an infinite-horizon game. The players' valuations in each period are private information, and the valuations change over time. We analyze two special cases for the dynamics of valuations: "serially correlated valuations," where players' valuations are exogenous but serially correlated; and "learning by doing," where a player's past consumption improves his current distribution of valuations, but his valuations are otherwise uncorrelated. We analyze conditions under which there exists an efficient, Bayesian incentive-compatible (BIC), individually rational (IR), budget-balanced (BB) mechanism, when the mechanism designer has commitment power. We consider
Quality Metrics to Evaluate Flexible Timeline-Based Plans

Timeline-based Planning has been successfully applied in several contexts to solve Planning and Scheduling (P&S) problems. A key enabling feature of the timeline-based approach to planning is its capability of dealing with temporal flexibility. Temporal flexibility is an important feature in real world scenarios. Indeed, it can be exploited by an executive system for robust on-line execution of flexible plans in order to absorb possible delays during the execution. In this regard, it is useful to define quality metrics to evaluate the robustness of flexible timeline-based plans. In this paper, a set of quality metrics for flexible timelinebased plans are defined and discussed when applied to a specific timeline-based framework. In fact, we consider the framework EPSL, developed to support the design of P&S applications, that allows the definition of different planners endowed with specific heuristics. Then, an experimental analysis is presented exploiting the planners to solve planning problem instances related to a real-world manufacturing case study. And, finally, an evaluation of planners performance is presented and discussed comparing results also considering robustness of generated plans.
Construction materials : their nature and behaviour

Part 1 Fundamentals: states of matter energy and equilibrium atomic structure and interatomic bonding elasticity and plasticity surfaces fracture and fatigue electrical and thermal conductivity. Part 2 Metals and alloys: physical metallurgy mechanical properties of metals forming of metals oxidation and corrosion metals, their differences and uses. Part 3 Concrete: introduction portland cements admixtures cement replacement materials aggregates for concrete properties of fresh concrete early age properties of concrete deformation of concrete strength and failure of concrete concrete mix design non-destructive testing of hardened concrete durability of concrete high performance concrete. Part 4 Bituminous materials: introduction structure of bituminous materials viscosity and deformation of bituminous materials strength and failure of bituminous materials durability of bituminous materials practice and processing of bituminous materials. Part 5 Brickwork and blockwork: introduction materials and components for brickwork and blockwork masonry construction and forms structural behaviour and movement of masonry durability and non-structural properties of masonry. Part 6 Polymers: introduction polymers - types, properties and applications. Part 7 Fibre composites: introduction polymer composites introduction fibres for polymer composites analysis of the behaviour of polymer composites manufacturing techniques for polymer composites uses of polymer composites fibre reinforced cements and concrete properties of fibre and matrices structure and post-cracking composite theory fibre reinforced cements fibre reinforced concrete. Part 8 Timber: introduction structure of timber and the presence of moisture deformation in timber strength and failure in timber durability of timber processing of timber.
Human Care Theory and Influences on the Life Quality Index of Cancer Patients in Household Life

To investigatetheinfluences of the application of human care theory on the life quality and happiness of cancer patients after they receiveda community nursing care which was implemented by the human care theory. The quality life and the happiness index of 93 patients with cancer living in the six communities in Jillin were assessed, the assessment of the life quality was based on a life quality scale (SF-36) and that of the happiness index was based on Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH). The community nurses cared for these patients by applying the theory of human care and the life quality and the happiness index of the patients were observed after the care. The results showed that there were significant differences in the score of 5 dimensions in the eight dimensions of the life quality between before the care and after the care (<0.05), and there were significant differences in the average sores of the positive emotion, positive experience, negative emotion, negative experience and level of happiness included in the happiness index between before the care and after the care (<0.05), suggesting that the theory of human care can be used for the care of patients with cancer and the application of the theory can effectively improve the life quality and the happiness index of the patients, strengthen their problem-solving abilities and let them have a positive attitude towards their lives.
Destabilizing Role of Cathepsin S in Murine Atherosclerotic Plaques

Objective—Lysosomal proteinases have been implicated in a number of pathologies associated with extracellular matrix breakdown. Therefore, we investigated the possibility that the lysosomal proteinase cathepsin S may be involved in atherosclerotic plaque destabilization. Methods and Results—Atherosclerotic plaques in the brachiocephalic arteries of fat-fed apolipoprotein E/cathepsin S double knockout mice had 73% fewer acute plaque ruptures (P=0.026) and were 46% smaller (P=0.025) than those in age-, strain-, and sex-matched apolipoprotein E single knockout controls. When the incidence of acute plaque rupture was normalized for plaque size, the reduction in the double knockouts was 72% (P=0.039). The number of buried fibrous layers, indicative of an unstable plaque phenotype, was reduced by 67% in the double knockouts (P=0.008). The cysteine proteinase inhibitor, egg white cystatin, was biotinylated and used as an active-site-directed probe for cathepsins. Biotinylated cystatin selectively detected cathepsin S in extracts of human carotid atherosclerotic plaque. Active cathepsin S was detectable in extracts of human atherosclerotic plaque but not in nondiseased carotid arteries. Active cathepsins were especially prominent in macrophages in the shoulder regions of plaques, areas considered to be vulnerable to rupture. Cathepsin S protein colocalized with regions of elastin degradation in human coronary plaques. Conclusion—These data provide direct evidence that an endogenous proteinase, cathepsin S, plays an important role in atherosclerotic plaque destabilization and rupture.
A New Reliable and Self-Stabilizing Data Fusion Scheme in Unsafe Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we deal with the problem of distributed data fusion in unsafe large-scale sensor networks. Data fusion application is the phase of processing the collected data by sensor nodes before sending it the end user. During this phase, resource failures are more likely to occur and can have an adverse effect on the application. Hence, we introduce first an efficient self-stabilizing algorithm to achieve/ensure the convergence of node states to the average of the initial measurements of the network. Next, we present a fault tolerant scheme to resist to frequent and unexpected not concomitant fail-silent/fail-stop node failures. The major contribution of this paper is the design of an analytical expression (an upper bound) of the actual number of moves/iterations required by the algorithm. We provide a comprehensive set of experimental results, that fully demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed schemes.
Geology and thermochronology of Tertiary Cordilleran-style metamorphic core complexes in the Saghand region of central Iran

An ~100-km-long north-south belt of metamorphic core complexes is localized along the boundary between the Yazd and Tabas tectonic blocks of the central Iranian micro-continent, between the towns of Saghand and Posht-e-Badam. Amphibolite facies mylonitic gneisses are structurally overlain by east-tilted supracrustal rocks including thick (>1 km), steeply dipping, nonmarine siliciclastic and volcanic strata. Near the detachment (the Neybaz-Chatak fault), the gneisses are generally overprinted by chlorite brecciation. Crosscutting relationships along with U-Pb zircon and ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar age data indicate that migmatization, mylonitic deformation, volcanism, and sedimentation all occurred in the middle Eocene, between ca. 49 and 41 Ma. The westernmost portion of the Tabas block immediately east of the complexes is an east-tilted crustal section of Neoproterozoic–Cambrian crystalline rocks and metasedi-mentary strata >10 km thick. The ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar biotite ages of 150–160 Ma from structurally deep parts of the section contrast with ages of 218–295 Ma from shallower parts, and suggest Late Jurassic tilting of the crustal section. These results define three events: (1) a Late Jurassic period of upper crustal cooling of the western Tabas block that corresponds to regional Jurassic–Cretaceous tectonism and erosion recorded by a strong angular unconformity below mid-Cretaceous strata throughout central Iran; (2) profound, approximately east-west middle Eocene crustal extension, plutonism, and volcanism (ca. 44–40 Ma); and (3) ~2–3 km of early Miocene (ca. 20 Ma) erosional exhumation of both core complex and Tabas block assemblages at uppermost crustal levels, resulting from significant north-south shortening. The discovery of these and other complexes within the mid-Tertiary magmatic arcs of Iran demonstrates that Cordilleran-style core complexes are an important tectonic element in all major segments of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic system.
A Resource Allocation with Balanced Data Throughput and Power Consumption under QoS Constraint in MIMO Interference Systems: A Noncooperative Game Approach

In this paper, we investigate resource allocation in MIMO interference systems where multiple MIMO links share the same frequency band and interfere with each other. For MIMO transmission scheme, we consider a spatial multiplexing scheme that uses linear precoder and decoder. We impose the SINR constraint that the received SINR of each data sub-stream should be larger than a predetermined threshold, and the QoS constraint that the data throughput of individual link should be larger than a required level. In this system, a trade-off exists between the data throughput and the power consumption due to the co-channel interference among the multiple MIMO links. So we arrange a new resource allocation algorithm such that the data throughput and the power consumption are balanced and the QoS constraint is met for each link. We model the resource allocation problem as a noncooperative game and devise a distributed resource allocation algorithm in which the constituent links find a Nash equilibrium point without coordination. The proposed algorithm turns out to perform close to the optimal point achieved by centralized optimization.
Peritoneal dialysis solutions and patient survival: does wishing make it so?

In this issue of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation, Lee and colleagues [1] compare outcomes of Korean peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients who received standard dialysis fluid vs newer, ‘biocompatible’dialysis solutions. This very interesting report found no significant difference in outcome of PD technique survival or its complications, such as peritonitis. However, those who received the new solution had a reduced risk of death. The authors suggest that the newer dialysis solutions may lead to sustained reduction in circulating levels of advanced glycosylation endproducts (AGEs), with a concomitant reduction in microvascular and macrovascular disease. Furthermore, the authors point to downstream effects of AGE binding with its receptors (RAGE), and suggest that reduced AGE production with new solutions could be followed by a parallel decline in the AGE–RAGE production of mediators of inflammation and fibrosis. The authors reported similar findings last year [2]. In the previous report, they noted the weakness inherent in an uncontrolled, observational study, and quite correctly concluded that an ‘appropriately designed, randomized, controlled clinical trial’ was needed [2]. However, instead of proceeding with such a study, they report herein the results of the same observational study, with two modifications: firstly, the period of observation has been extended another 18 months. Secondly, the sub-cohort of patients who started PD on standard solution and were subsequently changed to the new, ‘biocompatible’ solution during the period of observation are now removed from the analysis, whereas they were included in the ‘intention to treat’ analysis in the first publication [2]. This is important, because the ‘excluded’ 305 patients who switched solutions had remarkable survival of 96, 89 and 87% at 1, 2 and 3 years. Had they not been excluded, these 305 patients would have counted as part of the standard solution group, and would have improved the overall survival of the remaining 514 patients in that group.