Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synergistic Efficacy of Plaque Control with Intralesional Triamcinolone Acetonide Injection on Erosive Non-Gingival Oral Lichen Planus: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

This study is the first time to assess the synergistic efficacy and safety of plaque control on erosive non-gingival oral lichen planus (OLP). A randomized, controlled, clinical trial with blind evaluation was designed, and 48 OLP patients with erosive non-gingival OLP lesions were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 25, receiving intralesional triamcinolone acetonide injection, periodontal scaling, and oral hygiene instruction) and the control group (n = 23, only receiving intralesional triamcinolone acetonide injection) once a week for 2 weeks. Erosion size, pain level, plaque index, and community periodontal index were measured at every visit. Patients cured of erosion were followed up for 3 months to evaluate the recurrence rate. Adverse reactions were also recorded. At day 14 ± 2, the experimental group showed a higher completely healed percentage of erosion, a greater reduction of erosion size and pain level. However, no significant difference was observed in the recurrence rate. No participants had any severe adverse reactions. In conclusion, an improvement was observed in patients with plaque control, and future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to reinforce the external validity of this study.
Preclinical Evaluation of CRISPR-Edited CAR-NK-92 Cells for Off-the-Shelf Treatment of AML and B-ALL

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) are severe blood malignancies affecting both adults and children. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based immunotherapies have proven highly efficacious in the treatment of leukemia. However, the challenge of the immune escape of cancer cells remains. The development of more affordable and ready-to-use therapies is essential in view of the costly and time-consuming preparation of primary cell-based treatments. In order to promote the antitumor function against AML and B-ALL, we transduced NK-92 cells with CD276-CAR or CD19-CAR constructs. We also attempted to enhance cytotoxicity by a gene knockout of three different inhibitory checkpoints in NK cell function (CBLB, NKG2A, TIGIT) with CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The antileukemic activity of the generated cell lines was tested with calcein and luciferase-based cytotoxicity assays in various leukemia cell lines. Both CAR-NK-92 exhibited targeted cytotoxicity and a significant boost in antileukemic function in comparison to parental NK-92. CRISPR-Cas9 knock-outs did not improve B-ALL cytotoxicity. However, triple knock-out CD276-CAR-NK-92 cells, as well as CBLB or TIGIT knock-out NK-92 cells, showed significantly enhanced cytotoxicity against U-937 or U-937 CD19/tag AML cell lines. These results indicate that the CD19-CAR and CD276-CAR-NK-92 cell lines’ cytotoxic performance is suitable for leukemia killing, making them promising off-the-shelf therapeutic candidates. The knock-out of CBLB and TIGIT in NK-92 and CD276-CAR-NK-92 should be further investigated for the treatment of AML.
An experimental investigation on the fluid flow mixing process in agitated vessel

The fluid mixing process is a common supportive phenomenon that often occurs in a large number of industrial systems. This phenomenon is the subject of many numerical and experimental analysis. The mixing process effectiveness depends on: mixing tank construction, mixing phases viscosity, temperature, density of liquids and, what is crucial, the impeller shape. The optimal design of impeller geometry is still an open issue. In this research work, the main objective is experimental investigations of the influence of the newly constructed impeller type on the fluid flow motion phenomena and energy consumption. Flow field values were evaluated using PIV measurement and the power consumption using precise torquemeter. The comparison between the Rushton turbine and a novel impeller is presented and discussed. The basis for the assessment of the intensity degree and efficiency of mixing was the analysis of velocity vectors distribution and power number. Results show that the power number for both impellers are similar but the fluid motion is quite different. The pumping capacity Qz for the novel impeller in reference to the Rushton turbine is for many cases at least one order of magnitude higher. This shows that the proposed impeller can be a very promising alternative to the classic blades and non-blades based impeller types.
Obesity and periodontitis: A systematic review and updated meta-analysis

Background A previous 2014 meta-analysis reported a positive association between obesity and periodontitis. It was considered necessary to update the recently published papers and to analyse subgroups on important clinical variables that could affect the association between obesity and periodontitis. Therefore, we updated the latest studies and attempted to derive more refined results. Methods All observational studies were eligible for inclusion. The Newcastle–Ottawa scale was used to qualitatively evaluate the risk of bias. Subgroup analyses were conducted for patients aged 18–34, 35–54, and 55+ years and the countries (European countries, USA, Brazil, Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries). Results Thirty-seven full-text articles were included. Obesity conferred increased odds of periodontal disease with an odds ratio (1.35, 95% CI: 1.05–1.75). In the subgroup analysis by age, the odds ratio was the highest in the 18–34 years group (2.21, 95% CI: 1.26–3.89). In the subgroup analysis by country, European countries had the highest odds ratio (2.46, 95% CI: 1.11–5.46). Conclusion Despite the differences in degree, a positive association between obesity and periodontitis was found regardless of country or age. Therefore, medical professionals should try to prevent periodontitis by controlling patient weights, and more studies should be conducted to determine the association between obesity and oral health. Systematic Review Registration https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42022301343.
Effects of Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) as a Prebiotic Supplement in the Diet of Red Tilapia (Oreochromis spp.)

Simple Summary Factors such as changes in water quality, the transport and handling of the fish, the presence of pollutants, and the high densities used in intensive farming of red tilapia, among others, can cause oxidative stress in fish, which can lead to immune system suppression and increase the risk of opportunistic infections. The use of Jerusalem artichoke (JA) as an oligofructose-rich prebiotic dietary supplement in fish feed could enhance growth performance, hematological and immunological parameters, as well as disease resistance. However, the effect of JA in diets for red tilapia is poorly reported. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of a Jerusalem artichoke-supplemented diet on the blood chemistry, growth performance, intestinal morphology, expression of antioxidant-related genes, and disease resistance against Aeromonas veronii challenge in juvenile red tilapia. The results of JA-supplemented (JA5 and JA10) diets showed beneficial effects in terms of growth performance, blood chemistry, and intestinal morphology. Importantly, the prebiotic diets (JA5 and JA10) were associated with a significant increase in the expression of gpx1 and gst antioxidant-related genes and disease resistance against A. veronii. In conclusion, prebiotic diets have the potential to be employed as prospective supplements in sustainable red tilapia farming. Abstract The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a Jerusalem artichoke-supplemented diet on the blood chemistry, growth performance, intestinal morphology, expression of antioxidant-related genes, and disease resistance against Aeromonas veronii challenge in juvenile red tilapia. A completely randomized design (CRD) was followed to feed red tilapias with three experimental diets: control, 5.0 g/kg JA-supplemented (JA5), or 10.0 g/kg JA-supplemented (JA10) diets in triplicates for 4 weeks. The results revealed that the growth performance, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), and average daily gain (ADG) of fish fed diets JA5 and JA10 were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those of fish fed the control diet. Fish fed the control diet had significantly higher T-bilirubin, D-bilirubin, and ALT in blood serum than fish fed JA5 and JA10, as well as higher BUN than fish fed JA5. The number of goblet cells in the proximal and distal parts of the intestine revealed that the number of acid, neutral, and double-staining mucous cells of fish fed diets JA5 and JA10 was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than in fish fed the control diet. The diets including the prebiotic (JA5 and JA10) were associated with a significant increase in the expression of gpx1 and gst antioxidant-related genes and disease resistance against A. veronii in juvenile red tilapia. Therefore, JA5 and JA10 can be employed as promising prebiotics for sustainable red tilapia farming.
Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Leisure Time Physical Exercise after a Citizen Science-Based Worksite Health Promotion Program for Blue-Collar Workers

Blue-collar workers have, on average, poorer health than white-collar workers. Existing worksite health promotion programs (WHPPs) are often not successful among blue-collar workers. This study evaluates the effect of the Citizen Science-based WHPP on the targeted lifestyle behaviors among construction workers. The data of 114 participants were retrieved from questionnaires before (T0) and after (T1) the WHPP. Outcome measures were mean and categorical changes in daily fruit and vegetable intake and weekly leisure time physical exercise. Changes were tested using Wilcoxon signed rank tests and McNemar tests. No statistically significant changes were found between T0 and T1. In total, 73.7% of the participants felt involved in the WHPP. Changes in the outcome measures were not significantly different between subgroups based on age, nor in subgroups based on feelings of involvedness. The low intensity of the developed program could be an explanation for this lack of significant change. Future studies using the Citizen Science approach in an occupational setting should aim at developing a more intensified program and should test its effectiveness by comparing changes in a (randomized) controlled trial.
Quantum states satisfying classical probability constraints

For linear combinations of quantum product averages in an arbitrary bipartite state, we derive new quantum Bell-form and CHSH-form inequalities with the right-hand sides expressed in terms of a bipartite state. This allows us to specify in a general setting bipartite state properties sufficient for the validity of a classical CHSH-form inequality and the perfect correlation form of the original Bell inequality for any bounded quantum observables. We also introduce a new general condition on a bipartite state and quantum observables sufficient for the validity of the original Bell inequality, in its perfect correlation or anticorrelation forms. Under this general sufficient condition, a bipartite quantum state does not necessarily exhibit perfect correlations or anticorrelations.
Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation during Hemodialysis Suppresses Postprandial Hyperglycemia in Patients with End-Stage Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Crossover Controlled Trial

Hemodialysis patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) experience blood glucose fluctuations owing to insulin removal. We evaluated the effects of single and long-term application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) during hemodialysis on glycemic control. This trial was conducted in two stages: Stage 1, following a crossover design and 4 week washout period, eleven outpatients with DKD either underwent a single bout of NMES for 30 min (NMES period) or rested (control period) after receiving nutritional support during hemodialysis; Stage 2, following a crossover design and 4 week washout period, each participant received the intervention for 12 weeks. NMES was administered for 30 min at the maximum tolerable intensity. The mean subcutaneous glucose concentration and mean amplitude of glycemic excursion (MAGE) were determined by flash glucose monitoring for 24 h. Changes in glycoalbumin and MAGE before and after NMES initiation were evaluated. The mean blood glucose level and MAGE after a single bout of NMES were significantly lower than those after rest. Glycoalbumin levels and echo intensity of the rectus femoris tended to decrease, but not significantly by ANOVA due to a lack in statistical power after the dropout of three patients. NMES in end-stage DKD decreased blood glucose levels during and after hemodialysis.
Gut microbiota diversity and specific composition during immunotherapy in responders with non-small cell lung cancer

Cancer immunotherapy including immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has revolutionized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) therapy. Recently, the microbiota status “before” initiation of ICI therapy has been emphasized as a predictive biomarker in patients undergoing ICI therapy. However, the microbiota diversity and composition “during” ICI therapy is unknown. This multicenter, prospective observational study analyzed both saliva and feces from 28 patients with NSCLC. We performed 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing, then analyzed associations of oral and gut microbiota diversity or composition with ICI response. At the genus level, the alpha diversity of the gut microbiota was significantly greater in responders (n = 17) than in non-responders (n = 11) (Chao 1, p = 0.0174; PD whole tree, p = 0.0219; observed species, p = 0.0238; Shannon, p = 0.0362), while the beta diversity of the gut microbiota was significantly different (principal coordinates analysis, p = 0.035). Compositional differences in the gut microbiota were observed between the two groups; in particular, g_Blautia was enriched in responders, whereas o_RF32 order unclassified was enriched in non-responders. The progression-free survival (PFS) of patients enriched gut microbiota of g_Blautia was significantly longer [median survival time (MST): not reached vs. 549 days, p = 0.0480] and the PFS of patients with gut microbiota of o_RF32 unclassified was significantly shorter (MST: 49 vs. 757 days, p = 0.0205). There were no significant differences between groups in the oral microbiota. This study revealed a strong association between gut microbiota diversity and ICI response in NSCLC patients. Moreover, specific gut microbiota compositions may influence the ICI response. These findings might be useful in identifying biomarkers to predict ICI response.
CNN-Based Classification for Highly Similar Vehicle Model Using Multi-Task Learning

Vehicle make and model classification is crucial to the operation of an intelligent transportation system (ITS). Fine-grained vehicle information such as make and model can help officers uncover cases of traffic violations when license plate information cannot be obtained. Various techniques have been developed to perform vehicle make and model classification. However, it is very hard to identify the make and model of vehicles with highly similar visual appearances. The classifier contains a lot of potential for mistakes because the vehicles look very similar but have different models and manufacturers. To solve this problem, a fine-grained classifier based on convolutional neural networks with a multi-task learning approach is proposed in this paper. The proposed method takes a vehicle image as input and extracts features using the VGG-16 architecture. The extracted features will then be sent to two different branches, with one branch being used to classify the vehicle model and the other to classify the vehicle make. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated using the InaV-Dash dataset, which contains an Indonesian vehicle model with a highly similar visual appearance. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves 98.73% accuracy for vehicle make and 97.69% accuracy for vehicle model. Our study also demonstrates that the proposed method is able to improve the performance of the baseline method on highly similar vehicle classification problems.
High-harmonic generation in Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains

Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chains are the simplest model systems that display topological edge states. We calculate high-harmonic spectra of SSH chains that are coupled to an external laser field of a frequency much smaller than the band gap. We find huge differences between the harmonic yield for the two topological phases, similar to recent results obtained with more demanding time-dependent density functional calculations [D. Bauer, K.K. Hansen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 177401 (2018)]. This shows that the tight-binding SSH model captures the essential topological aspects of the laser-chain interaction (while higher harmonics involving higher bands or screening in the metal phase are absent). We study the robustness of the topological difference with respect to disorder, a continuous phase transition in position space, and on-site potentials. Further, we address the question whether the edges need to be illuminated by the laser for the huge difference in the harmonic spectra to be present.
Representation and Extrapolation: Evidence from Clinical Trials

This article examines the consequences and causes of low enrollment of Black patients in clinical trials. We develop a simple model of similarity-based extrapolation that predicts that evidence is more relevant for decision-making by physicians and patients when it is more representative of the group that is being treated. This generates the key result that the perceived benefit of a medicine for a group depends not only on the average benefit from a trial, but also on the share of patients from that group who were enrolled in the trial. In survey experiments, we find that physicians who care for Black patients are more willing to prescribe drugs tested in representative samples, an effect substantial enough to close observed gaps in the prescribing rates of new medicines. Black patients update more on drug efficacy when the sample that the drug is tested on is more representative, reducing Black-White patient gaps in beliefs about whether the drug will work as described. Despite these benefits of representative data, our framework and evidence suggest that those who have benefited more from past medical breakthroughs are less costly to enroll in the present, leading to persistence in who is represented in the evidence base.
Graphene photodetectors with a bandwidth  >76 GHz fabricated in a 6″ wafer process line

In recent years, the data traffic has grown exponentially and the forecasts indicate a huge market that could be addressed by communication infrastructure and service providers. However, the processing capacity, space, and energy consumption of the available technology is a serious bottleneck for the exploitation of these markets. Chip-integrated optical communication systems hold the promise of significantly improving these issues related to the current technology. At the moment, the answer to the question which material is best suited for ultrafast chip integrated communication systems is still open. In this manuscript we report on ultrafast graphene photodetectors with a bandwidth of more than 76 GHz well suitable for communication links faster than 100 GBit s−1 per channel. We extract an upper value of 7.2 ps for the timescale in which the bolometric photoresponse in graphene is generated. The photodetectors were fabricated on 6″ silicon-on-insulator wafers in a semiconductor pilot line, demonstrating the scalable fabrication of high-performance graphene based devices.
The Impact of Locally Enhanced Vertical Diffusivity on the Cross-Shelf Transport of Tracers Induced by a Submarine Canyon

The exchanges of water, nutrients, and oxygen between the coastal and open ocean are key components of on-shelf nutrient budgets and biogeochemical cycles. On a regional scale, submarine canyons enhance physical processes such as shelf–slope mass exchange and mixing. There is good understanding of the flow around upwelling submarine canyons; however, the flux of biologically relevant tracers is less understood. This work investigates the impact of submarine canyons on the cross-shelf exchange of tracers and water, taking into account the impact of locally enhanced mixing within the canyon, and develops a scaling estimate for canyon-induced upwelling of tracers, proportional to local concentration, vertical diffusivity, and previously scaled upwelling flux. For that purpose, we performed numerical experiments simulating an upwelling event near an idealized canyon, adding a passive tracer with an initially linear profile. We varied the geographic distribution of vertical eddy diffusivity and its magnitude, the initial stratification, the Coriolis parameter, and the strength of the incoming flow. We find that a canyon of width 5% of the along-shelf length of the shelf upwells between 25% and 89% more tracer mass onto the shelf than shelfbreak upwelling. Locally enhanced vertical diffusivity has a positive effect on the tracer that is advected by the upwelling flow and can increase canyon-upwelled tracer flux by up to 27%.
Predicting credit ratings and transition probabilities: a simple cumulative link model with firm-specific frailty

There has been a relatively large body of literature addressing the question of predicting credit ratings and transition probabilities. Using frailties to model and predict credit events has generally been shown to provide better prediction outcomes than models without frailties. The paper takes this approach and uses it to extend the general class of cumulative link models (CLM). In particular we impose a positive correlation structure on CLM between repeated ratings from the same firm by assigning an unobservable frailty variable to each firm. We first apply the resulting model to predict credit rating distributions for individual firms and then transform the results to make our target predictions of credit ratings and transition probabilities. Our predictions enjoy using firm-specific and macroeconomic covariate information and having simple computation and interpretation. As an empirical illustration, S&P long-term issuer credit rating (LTR) examples are provided. Using an expanding rolling window approach, our empirical results confirm that the extended model provides better and more robust out-of-time performance than its alternatives because the former yields more accurate predictions of S&P LTRs and transition probabilities.