Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of different irrigation protocols on the radicular dentin interface and bond strength with a metacrylate‐based endodontic sealer

This study assessed the influence of different endodontic chemical substances on the adhesion of the Epiphany SE/Resilon system (with and without resinous solvent) to radicular dentin walls, using the push‐out test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Forty‐eight root canals of human canines were prepared biomechanically with ProTaper rotary files (crown‐down technique) and the radicular dentin was treated with either 17% EDTA, 2% chlorhexidine gel (CHX) or 2.5% NaOCl (control). The root canals were filled with Resilon cones and Epiphany SE sealer with and without resinous solvent. Six groups of eight canals each had their roots sectioned transversally to obtain 1‐mm thick slices. Data were subjected to statistical analysis by ANOVA and Tukey's tests. The specimens treated with 17% EDTA (1.59 ± 0.91) presented higher bond strength (P < 0.05) than those treated with 2.5% NaOCl (0.93 ± 0.27) and 2% CHX (0.92 ± 0.22). Significantly higher bond strength (P < 0.05) was observed when the Epiphany SE was prepared with (1.37 ± 0.78) than without (0.92 ± 0.33) solvent. Adhesive failures were predominant in all groups. SEM analysis showed greater homogeneity of the filling mass when the solvent was added to the sealer. Treatment of root canal walls with 17% EDTA, and addition of a resinous solvent to Epiphany SE produced the highest adhesion to radicular dentin. Microsc. Res. Tech. 77:446–452, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Hot city, cool city: explaining neighbourhood-level losses in low-cost rental housing in southern US cities

We examine losses in affordable rental units in central cities in a key region of the United States, the South. We examine changes in low-cost rented units across eight large central cities, and then identify neighbourhood characteristics associated with such changes. Finally, we estimate a similar model in two of the cities with the greatest amount of loss in low-cost units and that have different overall housing market conditions – one a ‘hot market’ (Nashville, Tennessee) and one a ‘cool market’ (Memphis, Tennessee). We find that, generally, a number of neighbourhood conditions are associated with greater losses of low-cost units, including more young (25–34) adults, fewer public housing units, more initial low-cost units, and a larger percentage of newer units. However, these relationships do not show up consistently in the Memphis and Nashville models. The presence of younger adults (especially those aged 25–34) is a strong predictor of losing low-cost rental units in Nashville but is not a significant predictor in Memphis. Second, the presence of public housing units appears to serve as a buffer against the loss in low-cost units in a neighbourhood, but not in Memphis or Nashville, perhaps because they have fewer public housing units altogether.
Implementation of universal directly observed therapy at a New York City hospital and evaluation of an out-patient directly observed therapy program.

SETTING Directly observed therapy (DOT) program for tuberculosis (TB) at a New York City hospital. OBJECTIVE To describe a specific TB DOT program model utilizing active prospective identification of inpatients, and identify factors associated with patient acceptance of voluntary DOT and with their retention in therapy. METHODS Recruitment for DOT by daily surveillance of in-patients. DOT was offered as the patient's choice together with concrete services and incentives. On-site DOT was offered in an out-patient clinic. Outreach efforts were initiated when a patient missed one or more DOT visit. RESULTS During the study period, 95% of 176 in-patients with TB were evaluated for DOT. Of the 137 who were eligible for DOT, 85% (95% confidence interval [CI], 77.5% to 90%) elected to receive DOT. Illicit drug use was independently associated with a higher likelihood of acceptance of DOT (odds ratio[OR], 4.88; 95% CI, 1.5-15.7). Among the 101 patients who received onsite DOT, illicit drug use (OR, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.08-0.6) and previous TB therapy (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.27-0.7) were both independently associated with lower retention in therapy. However, with intensive case management, only 1% of this cohort was lost to follow-up and the overall treatment completion index was 98%. CONCLUSION In-patient surveillance is a highly effective DOT recruitment strategy. A DOT model which elicits patient participation in discharge plans and offers incentives can yield a high rate of voluntary acceptance. Outpatient case management is a highly effective means of ensuring treatment completion, especially in those at risk for poor retention.
mm-Wave large-scale phased array based on randomly tiled rectangular sub-arrays for 5G communications

In this paper, a high-gain, steerable mm-Wave large-scale phased array is designed for 5G communication. In order to reduce system/circuit complexity, 8-element sub-arrays are used. These sub-arrays are randomly tiled to disrupt the periodicity in the array in order to keep side lobe level (SLL) and grating lobe level (GLL) low. Limited field of view (LFOV) of ±15o in both Azimuth and Elevation planes is achieved with < −10dBc SLL and 60% efficiency. A boresight and a +15o θ0, φ0 beam steered 256-element Eband phased arrays were prototyped with LTCC technology to validate the concept. Measured results are presented and compared with simulations. This design is also scalable if higher antenna gain is required making this proposed phased array a good candidate for next generation high speed 5G communications.
Logistics clusters, including inter-firm relations through community detection

This paper studies clusters in the logistics sector. Like traditional cluster research, indicators of concentration to detect co-location of employment are calculated. However, this approach is enhanced by including a quantitative analysis of the inter-firm relations between logistics companies through the use of a community detection algorithm on a microeconomic dataset of buyer-supplier relations. Combining both results in a typology of logistics clusters. Next to the big clusters characterized by employment concentration and many internal and external relations, spill-over and polycentric clusters are identified. This approach seems promising to detect in future research clusters in other sectors and places
Molecular basis for the rhino Yurlovo (hrrhY) phenotype: severe skin abnormalities and female reproductive defects associated with an insertion in the hairless gene

In 1989, mice bearing mutations at the hr (hairless) locus were first proposed as a model for the human hair growth disorder papular atrichia, since in both these mice and in corresponding patients, a complete hair loss develops due to disintegration of the normal follicle structure into dermal cysts and so‐called utriculi. Recently, the human hairless gene was characterized, and pathogenetic mutations were found to be associated with a recessively inherited form atrichia with papular lesions; however, the functions of hr gene remain unclear. Allelic mutations in the murine hairless gene represent a potentially powerful tool to elucidate the role of the hairless gene protein product in hair follicle physiology. In 1980, several naked animals were discovered in a breeding colony of B10.R109/Y mice maintained in the Laboratory of Experimental Biological Models (L.E.B.M., Yurlovo, Moscow District, Russia). By cross breeding with hairles HRS/J hr/hr mice, this mutation was shown to be allelic with hairless. Here, we describe the molecular basis of the hrrhY mutation in mice, which consists of a 13 bp insertion in exon 16 of the hr gene. Histological evaluation of Yurlovo mouse skin revealed some differences as compared to the hairless and rhino mutations, with the formation of dermal megacysts being the most specific peculiarity of the Yurlovo mutation. These results, together with previous studies of hrrhY/hrrhY mutant mice, suggest that the rhino Yurlovo (hrrhY) mutation represents a third and potentially more severe variation of the hairless phenotype.
The role of peripheral Na+ channels in triggering the central excitatory effects of intravenous cocaine

While alterations in dopamine (DA) uptake appear to be a critical mechanism underlying locomotor and reinforcing effects of cocaine (COC), many centrally mediated physiological and affective effects of this drug are resistant to DA receptor blockade and are expressed more quickly following an intravenous (i.v.) injection than expected based on the dynamics of drug concentration in the brain. Because COC is also a potent local anesthetic, its rapid action on Na+ channels may be responsible for triggering these effects. We monitored temperatures in the nucleus accumbens, temporal muscle and skin together with conventional locomotion during a single i.v. injection of COC (1 mg/kg), procaine (PRO, 5 mg/kg; equipotential anesthetic dose), a short‐acting local anesthetic drug that, like COC, interacts with Na+ channels, and cocaine methiodide (COC‐MET, 1.31 mg/kg, equimolar dose), a quaternary COC derivative that is unable to cross the blood–brain barrier. In this way, we explored not only the importance of Na+ channels in general, but also the importance of central vs. peripheral Na+ channels specifically. COC induced locomotor activation, temperature increase in the brain and muscle, and a biphasic temperature fluctuation in skin. Though PRO did not induce locomotor activation, it mimicked, to a greater degree, the temperature effects of COC. Therefore, Na+ channels appear to be a key substrate for COC‐induced temperature fluctuations in the brain and periphery. Similar to PRO, COC‐MET had minimal effects on locomotion, but mimicked COC in its ability to increase brain and muscle temperature, and induce transient skin hypothermia. It appears therefore that COC's interaction with peripherally located Na+ channels triggers its central excitatory effects manifested by brain temperature increase, thereby playing a major role in drug sensing and possibly contributing to COC reinforcement.
Evidence of association of the ecNOS gene polymorphism with plasma NO metabolite levels in humans.

Nitric oxide (NO) synthesized by the vascular endothelium regulates mammalian blood vessels and other systems in humans. Recently, an endothelial nitric oxide synthase (ecNOS) gene polymorphism, the 27-bp repeat in intron 4 (ecNOS4), was reported to be related to the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease and terminal renal failure. We analyzed this polymorphism in a group of 413 healthy subjects, and measured their plasma nitrite and nitrate (NOx) levels. The frequency of the b allele was 89.8% , and the frequency of the a allele was 10.2%. The frequency of ecNOS4 b/b, ecNOS4 b/a, and ecNOS4 a/a in the healthy subjects in this study was 0.814 (n=336), 0.169 (n=70) and 0.017 (n=7), respectively. Using this polymorphism as a DNA marker, we found a strong association between the alleles of the ecNOS gene polymorphism and the plasma NOx levels. The basal NO metabolite levels were 28.8 micromol/L in subjects with ecNOS4 a/a, 31.4 micromol/L in those with ecNOS4 b/a, and 35.5 micromol/L in those with ecNOS4 b/b. The mean plasma NOx level of the subjects who were homozygous for the a allele was nearly 20% lower than in the subjects with the b allele. The plasma NOx level of the subjects with the a allele was 31.2+/-2.00 micromol/L, and significantly lower than the 35.5+/-0.93 micromol/L in those without the a allele (P <0.05). The results of this study indicate that the ecNOS4 gene locus may be responsible for variations in the genetic control of plasma NOx and that analysis of ecNOS4 gene polymorphism may be a useful tool for studying the relation between NO and diseases.
Electronic Intermediary Functional Roles and Profitability

Internet start-ups and traditional firms expanding existing offerings and services through the Net have seen both success and failure. For such business model pursuits, electronic intermediation possesses the ability to cultivate new marketplaces and restructure supply chains. The economic literature identifies four distinct intermediary roles, specifically: (i) information and (ii) logistics management, (iii) transaction securitization, as well as (iv) insurance/market-making and liquidity management. Research notes that electronic intermediaries, while possessing clear advantages in their ability to manage information, face greater challenges in allowing parties to benefit from the facilitation of more complex coordination activities, namely transaction securitization in addition to insurance/market-making and liquidity management. In an effort to better understand pursuit of functional intermediary roles, our analysis of data collected on 182 electronic intermediaries explores relationships between intermediation roles and profitability. Business models relying solely upon the provision of information management are likely to realize lower levels of profitability. Alternately, the intermediary roles of logistics management as well as insurance/market-making and liquidity management realize higher levels of profitability. Moreover, when comparing commodity- and service-based intermediaries, the provision of logistics management on the part of commodity-based firms sees higher levels of profitability, with insurance and liquidity provisions associated with greater profitability for both commodity- and service-based firms. Finally, when contrasting traditional firms expanding operations in digital markets with Internet pure-plays, we find transaction securitization functions increase the likelihood of realizing greater profitability for non-Internet pure-plays.
Eye detection in unrestrained settings using efficient match kernels and SVM classification

Eye detection is a front end problem to be solved efficiently by face detection and human surveillance systems. Features such as accuracy and computational cost are to be considered for a successful approach. We describe an integrated approach that takes the ROIs outputted by a Viola and Jones detector, constructs HOGs features on those and learn an special function to mapping these features to a higher dimension space where the detection achieves a better accuracy. This mapping follows the efficient kernels match approach which was shown possible but had not been done for this problem before. Linear SVM is then used as classifiers for eye detection from those mapped features. Extensive experiments are shown with different databases and the proposed method achieves higher accuracy with low added computational cost than Viola and Jones detector. The approach can also be extended to deal with other appearance models.
Emergence of multiple genotypes of H5N1 avian influenza viruses in Hong Kong SAR

Although A/Hong Kong/156/97 (H5N1/97)-like viruses associated with the “bird flu” incident in Hong Kong SAR have not been detected since the slaughter of poultry in 1997, its putative precursors continue to persist in the region. One of these, Goose/Guangdong/1/96 (H5N1 Gs/Gd)-like viruses, reassorted with other avian viruses to generate multiple genotypes of H5N1 viruses that crossed to chickens and other terrestrial poultry from its reservoir in geese. Whereas none of these recent reassortants had acquired the gene constellation of H5N1/97, these events provide insight into how such a virus may have been generated. The recent H5N1 reassortants readily infect and kill chicken and quail after experimental infection, and some were associated with significant mortality of chickens within the poultry retail markets in Hong Kong. Some genotypes are lethal for mice after intra-nasal inoculation and spread to the brain. On this occasion, the early detection of H5N1 viruses in the retail, live poultry markets led to preemptive intervention before the occurrence of human disease, but these newly emerging, highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses provide cause for pandemic concern.
Smoking cessation: what have we learned over the past decade?

This article discusses developments in understanding smoking and smoking cessation, methodological issues, and intervention approaches over the past 10 years. Although effective multisession clinic interventions have been developed, such programs reach relatively few smokers. This has led to self-help, work site, health care setting, and community interventions aimed at delivering less intensive programs to larger populations. Conceptual and empirical developments and trends within these above delivery contexts are reviewed, and avenues of research are identified. Nicotine replacement strategies have benefited from technological advances (e.g., transdermal patches) and present continuing challenges with respect to integration with behavioral strategies and incorporation into primary care medical settings. Research over the next decade should focus on the development of cost-effective interventions that can reach representative and high-risk smokers.
Electrical and physical characterization of remote plasma oxidized HfO/sub 2/ gate dielectrics

Bi-layer gate stacks consisting of a HfO/sub 2/ and an interfacial layer are fabricated by remote plasma oxidation (RPO) of Hf metal deposited on an Si substrate. Hf metal is fully oxidized by the RPO even at a temperature as low as 400/spl deg/C due to radical oxygens, leading to an improvement in the quality of HfO/sub 2/ with less impact to the interfacial layer growth. An insufficient oxidation leads to a deterioration of mobility with increasing interface traps and positive bias temperature instability, which is likely caused by the oxygen vacancies acting as traps induced by the remaining Hf metal. The SiO/sub 2/-like interface improves the mobility with reduced interface states. Full oxidation and the controlled SiO/sub 2/-like interface demonstrate RPO as a promising way for gate-stack optimization.
Relaxant effect of Thymus vulgaris on guinea‐pig tracheal chains and its possible mechanism(s)

Thymus vulgaris for the treatment of respiratory diseases is indicated widely, and relaxant effects on smooth muscle have been shown previously. In the present study, the relaxant effects of macerated and aqueous extracts of Thymus vulgaris on tracheal chains of guinea‐pigs were examined using cumulative concentrations of macerated and aqueous extracts in comparison with saline (as the negative control) and theophylline (as the positive control). The relaxant effects of four cumulative concentrations of macerated and aqueous extracts (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 g %) in comparison with saline (as the negative control) and four cumulative concentrations of theophylline (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 mm; as the positive control) were examined for their relaxant effects on precontracted tracheal chains of guinea‐pig by 60 mm KCl and 10 µm methacholine in two different conditions: non‐incubated tissues and incubated tissues with 1 µm propranolol and 1 µm chlorphenamine. There were significant correlations between the relaxant effects and the concentrations for both extracts and theophylline in all experimental groups (p < 0.01 to p < 0.001). These results demonstrated a potent relaxant effect of Thymus vulgaris on guinea‐pig tracheal chains that was comparable to theophylline at the concentrations used. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An improved understanding of IGBT behavior under thermal stress

Two dimensional numerical simulation is carried out to demonstrate the static and dynamic performance of two commercial IGBTs, IRGBC40F for International Rectifier and IXHG40N60A for IXYS and to analyze the forward voltage drops of IGBTs (IR and IXYS) as function of its conception and of temperature. Furthermore, this paper provides detailed analyses of the (dv/dt) capability for (IR and IXYS) IGBTs devices and examination of their response at turn-off with variations in gate resistor, Cd freewheeling diode capacitance and in temperature. At the same time, we try to study and investigate the evolution of electrical properties of IGBT submitted to thermal stress where the influence of temperature during IGBT operation is dominant. Thermal stress technique can be used to simulated and evaluated natural ageing and its resulting parameters degradation of the device when the later found to operate under normal conditions. Our study is then validated by use of two (2D) dimensional modeling tool (Pspice, Spice). The authors hope that this paper can contribute to the understanding the dv/dt capability, to detect impending degradation under thermal stress of commercial IGBT (IR, IXYS) devices operation, show how it relates to some underlying physical mechanisms and achieve high power switching efficiency, reduced cost, improved reliability and reduced parasitic. Comparison between measurements and simulation shows good agreement.
Stepwise Evolution of Coral Biomineralization Revealed with Genome-Wide Proteomics and Transcriptomics

Despite the importance of stony corals in many research fields related to global issues, such as marine ecology, climate change, paleoclimatogy, and metazoan evolution, very little is known about the evolutionary origin of coral skeleton formation. In order to investigate the evolution of coral biomineralization, we have identified skeletal organic matrix proteins (SOMPs) in the skeletal proteome of the scleractinian coral, Acropora digitifera, for which large genomic and transcriptomic datasets are available. Scrupulous gene annotation was conducted based on comparisons of functional domain structures among metazoans. We found that SOMPs include not only coral-specific proteins, but also protein families that are widely conserved among cnidarians and other metazoans. We also identified several conserved transmembrane proteins in the skeletal proteome. Gene expression analysis revealed that expression of these conserved genes continues throughout development. Therefore, these genes are involved not only skeleton formation, but also in basic cellular functions, such as cell-cell interaction and signaling. On the other hand, genes encoding coral-specific proteins, including extracellular matrix domain-containing proteins, galaxins, and acidic proteins, were prominently expressed in post-settlement stages, indicating their role in skeleton formation. Taken together, the process of coral skeleton formation is hypothesized as: 1) formation of initial extracellular matrix between epithelial cells and substrate, employing pre-existing transmembrane proteins; 2) additional extracellular matrix formation using novel proteins that have emerged by domain shuffling and rapid molecular evolution and; 3) calcification controlled by coral-specific SOMPs.
On the rôle of angiogenesis in wound healing

Angiogenesis, the formation of blood vessels, may be described as a process whereby capillary sprouts are formed in response to externally supplied chemical stimuli. The sprouts then develop and organize themselves into a dendritic structure. Angiogenesis occurs during embryogenesis, wound healing, arthritis and during the growth of solid tumours. In this paper we present a mathematical model which describes the rôle of angiogenesis as observed during (soft-tissue) wound healing. We focus attention on certain principal players involved in this complex process, namely capillary tips, capillary sprouts, fibroblasts, macrophage-derived chemical attractants, oxygen and extracellular matrix. The model consists of a system of nonlinear partial differential equations describing the interactions in space and time of the above substances. Numerical simulations are presented which are in very good qualitative agreement with experimental observations.