Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quality of life in patients with temporomandibular disorders. A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature concerning the quality of life of patients with temporomandibular joint disorder. MATERIAL AND METHODS Systematic review was performed with the information contained in international databases: PubMed and Google Scholar. Keywords and their combinations were used to find relevant articles and publications concerning the subject. RESULTS A total of 320 publications were initially retrieved. After further examination 12 articles were selected due to their relevance to inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. The selected 12 articles published between year 2006 and 2016. CONCLUSION In this systematic review it was found that there is a direct correlation between temporomandibular disorders and lower quality of life. Out of questionnaires used for identification of patient satisfaction SF-36 and OHIP-14 were most popular in these studies. Statistical analysis of studies mentioned lead us to believe that psychological and physical ailments caused by TMD result in lower quality of life in patients.
Analgesic Use and Ovarian Cancer Risk: An Analysis in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium

BACKGROUND Aspirin use is associated with reduced risk of several cancers. A pooled analysis of 12 case-control studies showed a 10% decrease in ovarian cancer risk with regular aspirin use, which was stronger for daily and low-dose users. To prospectively investigate associations of analgesic use with ovarian cancer, we analyzed data from 13 studies in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium (OC3). METHODS The current study included 758 829 women who at study enrollment self-reported analgesic use, among whom 3514 developed ovarian cancer. Using Cox regression, we assessed associations between frequent medication use and risk of ovarian cancer. Dose and duration were also evaluated. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Women who used aspirin almost daily (≥6 days/wk) vs infrequent/nonuse experienced a 10% reduction in ovarian cancer risk (rate ratio [RR] = 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.82 to 1.00, P = .05). Frequent use (≥4 days/wk) of aspirin (RR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.88 to 1.03), nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs; RR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.90 to 1.11), or acetaminophen (RR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.88 to 1.24) was not associated with risk. Daily acetaminophen use (RR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.00 to 1.65, P = .05) was associated with elevated ovarian cancer risk. Risk estimates for frequent, long-term (10+ years) use of aspirin (RR = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.98 to 1.34) or nonaspirin NSAIDs (RR = 1.19, 95% CI = 0.84 to 1.68) were modestly elevated, although not statistically significantly so. CONCLUSIONS This large, prospective analysis suggests that women who use aspirin daily have a slightly lower risk of developing ovarian cancer (∼10% lower than infrequent/nonuse)-similar to the risk reduction observed in case-control analyses. The observed potential elevated risks for 10+ years of frequent aspirin and NSAID use require further study but could be due to confounding by medical indications for use or variation in drug dosing.
Efficient genetic transformation of Impatiens hawkerii Bull. (Balsamiaceae) using agrobacterium rhizogenes

Transformation of Impatiens hawkerii Bull. mediated by Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain A4M70GUS was studied. Hairy roots developed 10 days after inoculation were excised from the shoot explants and transferred onto Murashige and Skoog's (MS) basal medium lacking plant growth regulators. More than 20 hairy root clones were established and eight of them were further analyzed. Each clone differed significantly from the others in growth capacity and lateral branching. Clone C2 showed the highest biomass (20.6 g L-1) as well as the highest number of lateral roots (37 ± 2.2). The transgenic nature of the established hairy root clones was confirmed by GUS assay and PCR analysis. In conclusion, hairy roots were developed for the first time in I. hawkerii Bull., and transgenic hairy root clones showed a distinct morphological nature and growth patterns.
Synthesized textures in 3 D rendering

In 3D rendering a common task is to render large textured surfaces, such as walls and terrains. Ideally you would want a texture that is not obviously repeating itself, but memory limits often work against this goal. This thesis explores a method using texture synthesis that aims to reduce visual repetition and memory usage at the cost of a preprocessing step and higher run time performance requirements. Various optimizations for rendering single and multiple textures using this method are compared and evaluated. A simple method to parallelize patch-based texture synthesis is also introduced. The results show that good quality and real-time performance is possible.
Epigenetic silencing of miR-200b is associated with cisplatin resistance in bladder cancer

In this study, we identified microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in cisplatin (CDDP) resistance in bladder cancer (BCa). After establishing CDDP-resistant BCa cell lines (T24RC and EJ138RC), TaqMan arrays revealed that members of the miR-200 family (miR-200b, miR-200a and miR-429) were downregulated in T24RC as compared to parental T24 cells. miR-200b was associated with CDDP sensitivity in BCa cells, and its downregulation was associated with CpG island hypermethylation. Pharmacological demethylation using 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine restored miR-200b expression, and the combination of 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine + CDDP strongly inhibited T24RC cell proliferation. Microarray analysis revealed that miR-200b + CDDP induced genes involved in CDDP sensitivity or cytotoxicity, including IGFBP3, ICAM1 and TNFSF10, in the resistant cells. Expression and DNA methylation of miR-200b were inversely associated in primary BCa, and low expression/high methylation was associated with poor overall survival. These results suggest downregulation of miR-200b is associated with CDDP resistance in BCa. Epigenetic silencing of miR-200b may be a marker of CDDP resistance and a useful therapeutic target for overcoming CDDP resistance in BCa.
SoS Notebook: an interactive multi-language data analysis environment

Motivation Complex bioinformatic data analysis workflows involving multiple scripts in different languages can be difficult to consolidate, share, and reproduce. An environment that streamlines the entire processes of data collection, analysis, visualization and reporting of such multi-language analyses is currently lacking. Results We developed Script of Scripts (SoS) Notebook, a web-based notebook environment that allows the use of multiple scripting language in a single notebook, with data flowing freely within and across languages. SoS Notebook enables researchers to perform sophisticated bioinformatic analysis using the most suitable tools for different parts of the workflow, without the limitations of a particular language or complications of cross-language communications. Availability SoS Notebook is hosted at http://vatlab.github. io/SoS/ and is distributed under a BSD license. Contact bpeng@mdanderson.org
Severe Arctic ozone loss in the winter 2004/2005: observations from ACE‐FTS

The severe Arctic ozone reduction in the winter 2004/2005 is analyzed using ACE‐FTS observations and four different analysis techniques: correlations between ozone and long‐lived tracers (adjusted to account for mixing), an artificial tracer correlation method, a profile‐descent technique, and the empirical relationship between ozone loss and potential PSC volume. The average maximum ozone loss was about 2.1 ppmv at 475 K–500 K (∼18 km–20 km). Over 60% of the ozone between 425 K–475 K (∼16 km–18 km) was destroyed. The average total column ozone loss was 119 DU, ∼20–30 DU larger than the largest previously observed Arctic ozone loss in the winter 1999/2000.
Adolescent Social Anxiety and Substance Use: The Role of Susceptibility to Peer Pressure

The aim of this study was to further our understanding of the link between social anxiety and substance use in adolescents, in particular the role susceptibility to peer pressure plays in this link. The relation between social anxiety and susceptibility to peer pressure was studied in two community samples ( and ) each consisting of two age groups (12-13 and 15–17 years). The relation of these two variables with substance use was evaluated in the second sample using regression analysis. Social anxiety was related to susceptibility to peer pressure in both groups and not related to substance use in the younger group and negatively related to substance use in the older group. Susceptibility to peer pressure acted as a suppressor in the relation between social anxiety and substance use. Results suggest that socially anxious adolescents basically avoid substance use but, if susceptible, may yield to peer pressure and start using substances. Parents, teachers, and therapists should be aware of this susceptibility to possibly negative peer pressure of socially anxious adolescents.
Nonlinear Inductive Matrix Completion based on One-layer Neural Networks

The goal of a recommendation system is to predict the interest of a user in a given item by exploiting the existing set of ratings as well as certain user/item features. A standard approach to modeling this problem is Inductive Matrix Completion where the predicted rating is modeled as an inner product of the user and the item features projected onto a latent space. In order to learn the parameters effectively from a small number of observed ratings, the latent space is constrained to be low-dimensional which implies that the parameter matrix is constrained to be low-rank. However, such bilinear modeling of the ratings can be limiting in practice and non-linear prediction functions can lead to significant improvements. A natural approach to introducing non-linearity in the prediction function is to apply a non-linear activation function on top of the projected user/item features. Imposition of non-linearities further complicates an already challenging problem that has two sources of non-convexity: a) low-rank structure of the parameter matrix, and b) non-linear activation function. We show that one can still solve the non-linear Inductive Matrix Completion problem using gradient descent type methods as long as the solution is initialized well. That is, close to the optima, the optimization function is strongly convex and hence admits standard optimization techniques, at least for certain activation functions, such as Sigmoid and tanh. We also highlight the importance of the activation function and show how ReLU can behave significantly differently than say a sigmoid function. Finally, we apply our proposed technique to recommendation systems and semi-supervised clustering, and show that our method can lead to much better performance than standard linear Inductive Matrix Completion methods.
Best practices in e-assessments with a special focus on cheating prevention

In this digital age of the computer, Internet, and social media and Internet of Things, e-assessments have become an accepted method to determine if students have learned materials presented in a course. With acceptance of this electronic means of assessing students, many questions arise about this method. What should be the format of e-assessment? What amount of time? What kinds of questions should be asked (multiple choice, short answer, etc.)? These are only a few of the many different questions. In addition, educators have always had to contend with the possibility that some students might cheat on an examination. It is widely known that students are often times more technologically savvy than their professors. So how does one prevent students from cheating on an e-assessment? Understandably, given the amount of information available on e-assessments and the variety of formats to choose from, choosing to administer e-assessments over paper-based assessments can lead to confusion on the part of the professor. This paper presents helpful guidance for lecturers who want to introduce e-assessments in their class, and it provides recommendations about the technical infrastructure to implement to avoid students cheating. It is based on literature review, on an international survey that gathers insights and experiences from lecturers who are using e-assessment in their class, and on technological evaluation of e-assessment infrastructure.
Asset price momentum and monetary policy: time-varying parameter estimation of Taylor Rules

ABSTRACT In this article, we consider two new independent variables as inputs to the Taylor Rule. These are the equity and housing momentum variables and are introduced to investigate the potential usefulness of these two variables in guiding the Fed to lean against potential bubbles. Such effectiveness cannot adequately be evaluated if the Taylor Rule estimation follows the standard regression methodology that has been criticized in the literature to be econometrically incorrect. Using a time-varying parameter estimation methodology, we find that equity momentum as an input in the Taylor Rule does not contribute to changes in Fed Funds. However, the housing momentum plays an important role econometrically and can be a useful tool in setting Fed Funds rates.
Internal shoulder impingement in overhead athletes: an ultrasound imaging proposal

How to cite this article: Tramontana A, Monteleone G, Tiloca A, Page JCM. Internal shoulder impingement in overhead ath letes : an u l t rasound imaging proposal. Ultrasonography. 2018 Jul;37(3):275-276. Alfonso Tramontana, Giovanni Monteleone, Alessandra Tiloca, Juan Carlos Miangolarra Page Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid; Department of Biomedicine and Preventative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome; School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy
On the mobile radio capacity increase through SDMA

In a cellular mobile radio system an SDMA component can be implemented for the reuse of radio channels physically incorporated by time, frequency or code slots. In this paper we will present simulation results on an SDMA downlink channel allocation scheme operating in a typical urban mobile radio cell. Based on the resulting blocking probabilities we will give estimations on the capacity increase which can be expected after adding an SDMA component to a conventional mobile radio system.
Cereal-Based Snack Bar with Added Plant Stanol Ester (Benecol®) Consumed between Meals Lowers Serum Total and LDL Cholesterol Effectively in Mildly to Moderately Hypercholesterolemic Subjects

The cholesterol-lowering effect of foods with added plant sterols or stanols consumed as snacks might be compromised. The purpose of this study was to confirm the cholesterol-lowering efficacy of a specially formulated cereal-based snack bar with added plant stanol ester (1.6 g plant stanols/day) when consumed between meals twice a day. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 4-week parallel-design study, 71 mildly to moderately hypercholesterolemic subjects were randomized into one of two groups, stanol or placebo group. Subjects were advised to replace their ordinary snacks with test products in an isocaloric manner and otherwise keep their habitual diet unchanged. The study showed that a snack bar product with added plant stanol ester lowered LDL and non-HDL cholesterol by 8.6% and 9.2% (mean%-change), respectively, as compared to the placebo product. The change in LDL cholesterol was statistically significantly different (P = 0.001) between the groups while the change in HDL cholesterol or triglycerides did not differ between the groups. In conclusion, the cereal-based snack bar with added plant stanol ester ingested without a meal reduced LDL cholesterol significantly without affecting HDL cholesterol or triglyceride concentrations in mildly hypercholesterolemic men and women. The study is registered as NCT03284918.
Differential Item Functioning Detection Across Two Methods of Defining Group Comparisons

This study compares two methods of defining groups for the detection of differential item functioning (DIF): (a) pairwise comparisons and (b) composite group comparisons. We aim to emphasize and empirically support the notion that the choice of pairwise versus composite group definitions in DIF is a reflection of how one defines fairness in DIF studies. In this study, a simulation was conducted based on data from a 60-item ACT Mathematics test (ACT; Hanson & Béguin). The unsigned area measure method (Raju) was used as the DIF detection method. An application to operational data was also completed in the study, as well as a comparison of observed Type I error rates and false discovery rates across the two methods of defining groups. Results indicate that the amount of flagged DIF or interpretations about DIF in all conditions were not the same across the two methods, and there may be some benefits to using composite group approaches. The results are discussed in connection to differing definitions of fairness. Recommendations for practice are made.
Observer-based LPV stabilization system for a riderless bicycle

This paper presents the development of an observer-based stabilization system applied to a riderless bicycle. Because the bicycle dynamics depends on the velocity, a linear parameter varying (LPV) approach is used to design both, the observer to estimate the unmeasurables states and the stabilization controller. The main contribution is to propose the closed-loop stability conditions by using a set of linear matrix inequalities obtained by means of a Lyapunov analysis. The closed-loop poles, of both the observer and the controller, are located in predefined stable regions in order to ensure an adequate performance of the stabilization system even if the velocity of the bicycle varies.
Towards a Massively Parallel simulations with PFEM-2

In this work an implementation of the Particle Finite Element Method Two (PFEM-2) based on the distributed-memory architecture is presented. PFEM-2 consists on a material derivative based formulation of the transport equations with an hybrid spatial discretization which uses an eulerian mesh and lagrangian particles. Strategies for the parallelization of eulerian methods based on mesh or lagrangian solutions based on particles which solve uid-dynamics problems are widely studied separately, however not enough works treat the use of both approaches together. Typical solutions for domain- distribution on eulerian frames are not proper to balance the work-load on some lagrangian stages, then to achieve good performance must be analyzed the use of weighted decomposition to the partitioning. Performance analysis of the implementation running over a beowulf cluster are presented. The weighted partitioning can be used to improve the speed-up when the diusion
Contingent Negative Variation and Working Memory Maintenance in Adolescents with Low and High Motor Competencies

Although it has been suggested that motor and cognitive development is interrelated, the link between motor competencies and neurophysiological indices of working memory operations has not yet been examined in adolescents. This study is aimed at comparing contingent negative variation and working memory performance between adolescents with low and high motor competencies. In eighty-two adolescents, motor competencies were assessed with the MOBAK-5 (basic motor competencies, 5th grade) test battery and a median split was performed on this variable to divide them into low and high performers. Additionally, all participants completed a Sternberg paradigm to assess working memory maintenance. The initial (iCNV) and terminal (tCNV) components of the contingent negative variation elicited by the cognitive task were recorded using electroencephalography. Higher working memory maintenance was found in adolescents with high motor competencies compared to those with low motor competencies. Cluster-based permutation testing further revealed increased iCNV in adolescents with higher motor competencies. In contrast, there was no difference in tCNV between groups. The findings suggest that high working memory maintenance and effective task preparation are both linked to high motor competencies. Thus, high performers on complex motor tasks seem to rely more on a proactive control strategy, which is optimal in tasks with high working memory demands.
Prevalence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) degrading bacteria in contaminated tropical soil in Lagos, Nigeria: involvement of plasmid in degradation

Recalcitrant pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are difficult to degrade and have been the focus for biodegradation. They form a class of pollutant on a global scale. In an attempt to contribute to the search for suitable microbial culture with potential to biodegrade low and high molecular weight PAHs, bacterial strains were isolated from engine-oil polluted sites in Lagos, Nigeria. These isolates were evaluated for possession of plasmid DNA and the role it played in PAH degradation. Out of sixteen strains isolated, two were Gram negative while the others were Gram positive isolates. They belonged to genera Micrococcus, Staphylococcus, Kurthia sp. , Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Corynebacterium. All the isolates grew on the PAHs (anthracene, fluoranthene and pyrene) at varying rates utilizing them as sole source of carbon and energy. All the isolates also possessed plasmid DNA ranging from 17.8 to 38.9 kbp. Subjection of plasmid cured isolates to PAHs biodegradation suggest that PAHs degradation may be plasmid and/or chromosomally mediated depending on the bacterial isolate and PAHs being degraded. This study has revealed that different compounds induce varied genetic changes in bacterial isolates in response to the stimuli.
Combined assessment of the TNM stage and BRAF mutational status at diagnosis in sporadic colorectal cancer patients

The prognostic impact of KRAS mutations and other KRAS-related and non-related genes such as BRAF, NRAS and TP53, on sporadic colorectal cancer (sCRC) remain controversial and/or have not been fully established. Here we investigated the frequency of such mutations in primary sCRC tumors and their impact on patient progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Primary tumor tissues from 87 sCRC patients were analysed using a custom-built next generation sequencing (NGS) panel to assess the hotspot mutated regions of KRAS/NRAS (exons 2, 3 and 4), BRAF (exon 15) and TP53 (all exons). Overall, mutations in these genes were detected in 46/87 sCRC tumors analyzed (53%) with the following frequencies per gene: TP53, 33%; KRAS, 28%; BRAF, 7%; and NRAS, 1%. A significant association was found between KRAS mutations and right side colon tumor location (p=0.05), well-differentiated tumors (p=0.04) and absence of lymphovascular invasion (p=0.05). In turn, BRAF-mutated tumors frequently corresponded to poorly- or moderately-differentiated sCRC (p=0.02) and showed a higher frequency of peritoneal carcinomatosis (p=0.006) and microsatellite instability (p=0.007). From the prognostic point of view, the BRAF mutational status together with the TNM stage were the only variables that showed an independent adverse impact on patient outcome in the multivariate analyses for both PFS and OS. Based on these results a scoring system was built and patients were classified into three prognostic subgroups with different PFS rates at 2 years: 91% vs. 77% vs. 0%, respectively (p<0.0001). Additional prospective studies in larger series of sCRC patients where mutations in genes other than those investigated here are required to validate the utility of the proposed predictive model.