Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An in vivo study of dietary factors in the aetiology of tooth staining associated with the use of chlorhexidine.

An in vivo study was carried out to investigate the role of tea, coffe and cigarette smoking upon the staining of teeth associated with the use of chlorhexidine gluconate. Three groups of volunteers, one of which consisted of cigarette smokers, rinsed with a 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash three times a day throughout two 10 day periods. The two non smoking groups were allocated tea and coffe respectively for consumptionduring on 10 day period. The smoking group were allocated coffee during one 10 day period. During the other 10 day periods the volunteers refrained from all hot beverages. A fourth group refrained from all hot bevrages during a 21 day period. The staining which developed on the previously cleaned teeth and tongues of the volnteers at the end of the respective rinsing periods was scored. All volunteers kept a diet record throughout the whole study. The drinking of tea and coffe significantly increased staining of teeth and tongue when compared with not drinking. Staining by tea was significantly worse than staining by coffee. Cigarette smoking appeard to have an additive effect on the staining. Dietary analysis indicated that other factors ar important to development of chlorhexidine staining and some apeared particularly chromogenic in this respect.
A gate drive circuit of power MOSFETs and IGBTs for low switching losses

In order to increase the power density of power converters, reduction of the switching losses at a high-frequency switching condition is one of the most important issues. This paper presents a new gate drive circuit that enables to reduce the switching loss on both the power MOSFET and the IGBT. A distinctive feature of this method is that both the turn on loss and the turn off loss can be decreased simultaneously without using the conventional ZVS circuit, such as quasi-resonant adjunctive circuit. Some experimental results of the switching loss of power MOSFET and IGBT used on the buck-chopper circuit is shown and confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed circuit.
Stereotactic body radiation therapy for adrenal metastases: a retrospective review of a noninvasive therapeutic strategy.

AIMS The role of radiation therapy in the treatment of adrenal metastases has traditionally been a palliative one, achieving excellent pain control with very limited toxicity. Recent studies have focused on the potential role of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with curative intent in limited metastatic disease, its potential to reduce tumor burden and to prevent symptomatic progression. This study reports the single-institution outcomes of SBRT utilizing both single fraction and hypofractionated regimens in the treatment of adrenal metastases. METHODS A total of seven patients with nine adrenal metastases treated with SBRT at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute were retrospectively studied. The primary malignancies consisted of non-small-cell lung cancer (n = 4), small-cell lung cancer (n = 1) and hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 2). RESULTS Five lesions were treated in a single fraction to a median prescription dose of 16 Gy (range: 10-22 Gy) to the 80% isodose line. The remaining four lesions were treated over three fractions to a median prescription dose of 27 Gy (range: 24-36 Gy), with a median prescription isodose line of 94% (range: 80-94%). Median follow-up from the primary diagnosis was 38 months (range: 7-88 months) and from SBRT was 14 months (range: 1-60 months). Follow-up imaging for six patients, and eight metastatic lesions, revealed one complete response, two partial responses and five stable lesions. Five of the lesions eventually failed locally, with a median time to failure of 12 months and actuarial local control of 63% at 1 year. The median overall survival was 8 months from SBRT. CONCLUSION SBRT can be safely delivered in single fraction, or hypofractionated, regimens for the treatment of adrenal metastases.
Intermittent ethanol exposure induces inflammatory brain damage and causes long‐term behavioural alterations in adolescent rats

Adolescent brain development seems to be important for the maturation of brain structures and behaviour. Intermittent binge ethanol drinking is common among adolescents, and this type of drinking can induce brain damage. Because we have demonstrated that chronic ethanol treatment induces inflammatory processes in the brain, we investigate whether intermittent ethanol intoxication enhances cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in adolescent rats, and whether these mediators induce brain damage and cause permanent cognitive dysfunctions. Adolescent rats were exposed to ethanol (3.0 g/kg) for two consecutive days at 48‐h intervals over 14 days. Levels of COX‐2, iNOS and cell death were assessed in the neocortex, hippocampus and cerebellum 24 h after the final ethanol administration. The following day or 20 days after the final injection (adult stage), animals were tested for different behavioural tests (conditional discrimination learning, rotarod, object recognition, beam‐walking performance) to assess cognitive and motor functions. Our results show that intermittent ethanol intoxication upregulates COX‐2 and iNOS levels, and increases cell death in the neocortex, hippocampus and cerebellum. Furthermore, animals treated with ethanol during adolescence exhibited behavioural deficits that were evident at the end of ethanol treatments and at the adult stage. Administration of indomethacin, a COX‐2 inhibitor, abolishes the induction of COX‐2 and iNOS expression and cell death, preventing ethanol‐induced behavioural deficits. These findings indicate that binge pattern exposure to ethanol during adolescence induces brain damage by inflammatory processes and causes long‐lasting neurobehavioural consequences. Accordingly, administering indomethacin protects against ethanol‐induced brain damage and prevents detrimental ethanol effects on cognitive and motor processes.
Gestational low protein diet in the rat mediates Igf2 gene expression in male offspring via altered hepatic DNA methylation

Biological responses to environmental stress, including nutrient limitation are mediated in part by epigenetic modifications including DNA methylation. Insulin-like growth factor II (Igf2) and H19 are subject to epigenetic modifications leading to genomic imprinting. The present study was designed to test the effect of maternal low protein diet on the Igf2/H19 locus in offspring. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed diets containing 180 g/kg casein (control) or 90 g/kg (LP) casein with either 1 mg/kg (LP) or 3 mg/kg folic acid (LPF). LP diet increased Igf2 and H19 gene expression in the liver of day 0 male offspring and the addition of folic acid reduced the mRNA level in LPF rats to that of the control group. DNA methylation in Imprinting Control Region (ICR) of Igf2/H19 locus increased significantly following maternal LP diet but rats fed the LPF diet did not exhibit the hypermethylation. The Differential Methylation Region 2 (DMR2) did not show any change in methylation in either LP or LPF rats. The expression of Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a, the members of DNA methyltransferase family, and methyl CpG-binding domain 2 (Mbd2) was significantly increased following the maternal LP diet but did not differ between the control and LPF group. There is a strong correlation between methylation of ICR with the expression of Igf2 and H19. These results suggested that maternal exposure to a low protein diet and folic acid during gestation alters gene expression of Igf2 and H19 in the liver by regulating the DNA methylation of these genes. The DNA methyltransferase machinery may be involved into the programming of imprinted genes through the imprinted control region.
Circulating myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cells after allergen inhalation in asthmatic subjects

Background: Dendritic cells are key contributors to initiation and maintenance of T‐cell immunity to inhaled allergen. The purpose of this study was to enumerate the changes in peripheral blood myeloid (mDCs) and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), the DCs expressing chemokine receptor 6 (CCR6) and chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7), following diluent and allergen inhalation in asthmatic subjects.
Two-step boron and nitrogen doping in graphene for enhanced synergistic catalysis.

Don't be a dope: be a double dope! Graphene was doped with both boron and nitrogen at well-defined doping sites to induce a synergistic effect that boosts its catalytic activity for oxygen reduction (see structure). The excellent catalytic performance of the new metal-free catalyst is comparable to that of commercial Pt/C.
Sensory Neuron Degeneration in Familial Kugelberg-Welander Disease

ABSTRACT: A 53 year old man developed symptoms of motor neuron disease in childhood. There was a family history of a similar disorder and it was felt to represent a form of Kugelberg-Welander disease. In addition to the motor deficits, sensory abnormalities in his legs were documented during life. Autopsy revealed anterior horn cell loss throughout the length of the spinal cord, with preservation of the phrenic nucleus. The lumbar dorsal root ganglia showed active degeneration of sensory neurons, with nuclear changes exceeding cytoplasmic ones. The fasciculus gracilis showed Wallerian degeneration. The findings provide direct evidence that sensory neurons can degenerate in some forms of motor neuron disease, and that the “demyelination” or “degeneration” of posterior columns sometimes seen in the various forms of motor neuron disease may actually be secondary to cell body disease in the dorsal root ganglia.
Central core disease: Ultrastructure of the sarcoplasmic reticulum and T‐tubules

The modified Golgi staining method was used to study the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and t‐ tubules of skeletal muscle in central core disease. Significant pathological changes were documented in both of these organelles in seven patients. Pathological changes were seen in both core and non‐core regions, with the abnormalities being greatest in the cores. In noncore regions, distortions in the normal anatomy were minor. In cores, there was much more significant distortion of the normal anatomy and also an increase in the amount of SR and number of t‐tubules.
Investigation of the Reliability Behavior of Conductive-Bridging Memory Cells

Conductive-bridging memory can store information as different resistance states even when not powered. In order to check reliability challenges for nonvolatile-memory applications, the data retention has to be tested carefully. This letter describes a new test scheme using electrical bias for acceleration and enables the fast recording of such detailed information. Experimental data for memory devices based on Ag:GeS2 as the active-matrix material are presented. Excellent stability and reproducibility of the resistance states for more than 300 cycles are demonstrated in the temperature range from 25degC to 85degC. Based on the calculated activation energy, ten years of data retention is extrapolated.
Block-diagonal discriminant analysis and its bias-corrected rules

Abstract High-throughput expression profiling allows simultaneous measure of tens of thousands of genes at once. These data have motivated the development of reliable biomarkers for disease subtypes identification and diagnosis. Many methods have been developed in the literature for analyzing these data, such as diagonal discriminant analysis, support vector machines, and k-nearest neighbor methods. The diagonal discriminant methods have been shown to perform well for high-dimensional data with small sample sizes. Despite its popularity, the independence assumption is unlikely to be true in practice. Recently, a gene module based linear discriminant analysis strategy has been proposed by utilizing the correlation among genes in discriminant analysis. However, the approach can be underpowered when the samples of the two classes are unbalanced. In this paper, we propose to correct the biases in the discriminant scores of block-diagonal discriminant analysis. In simulation studies, our proposed method outperforms other approaches in various settings. We also illustrate our proposed discriminant analysis method for analyzing microarray data studies.
Minimax-LQG control of a flexible plate using frequency domain subspace identified models

In this paper identification and optimal robust Minimax-LQG control design are studied for active vibration control of a flexible plate. Two frequency domain subspace methods including maximum likelihood technique are used to identify the model of the plate. Since the identified models are unstable, an iterative algorithm is applied to stabilize them. The obtained models have a good fitness up to the frequency 220 Hz and this frequency range contains three modes of the flexible plate. These first three modes are selected for control and the rest are chosen as uncertainty. The Chebychev and Yule-Walker filters are designed to model the weighting function of uncertainties for design of Minimax-LQG controller. These weights have a great effect on robust stability and performance of the control system. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of designed controllers for all stabilized identified models and uncertainty weights. The results confirm that the obtained indices for identified models are good measures to predict the performance of the designed controllers based on them.
Student’s perceptions towards using e-learning via Facebook

ABSTRACT Research on utilising social networks for teaching and learning is relatively scarce in the context of information systems. There is far more emphasis on studying the usage of social networks towards fulfilling individuals’ basic social needs. This study uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) to analyse students’ intention to use and use of e-learning via Facebook. It incorporates playfulness into the UTAUT2 model and categorises the determinants of intention to use e-learning via Facebook into three categories, namely, hedonic values, utilitarian values, and communication values. The data were collected in a two-stage survey from 170 undergraduate students, and the model was tested using structural equation modelling. We found that hedonic motivation, perceived playfulness, and performance expectancy were strong determinants of students’ intention to use e-learning, while habit and facilitating conditions all positively affected students’ use of e-learning via Facebook. The results of this study report new knowledge that academic institutions can utilise to create appropriate e-learning environments for teaching and learning. A number of theoretical and managerial implications for universities’ implementation technologies were also identified.
A Simple Structure Passive MPPT Standalone Wind Turbine Generator System

Conventional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods for standalone wind turbine generator systems (SWTGSs) rely on a dc/dc converter or some other electrical control device. However, the electronic components contained in the electrical control device are likely to break down when exposed to extreme weathers, thereby resulting in the low reliability of SWTGS for outdoor use. To overcome this drawback, this paper proposes a simple structure passive MPPT SWTGS that can track the MPPs automatically without the use of a dc/dc converter or any other electrical control device. Thus, the proposed system is highly reliable for outdoor use. Moreover, the novel permanent magnet synchronous generator contained in the proposed system has a very simple structure. Therefore, the proposed system is easy to manufacture, and thus presents a practical solution. This paper explains the passive MPPT process, and analyzes the operating principle of the proposed system. A prototype is manufactured, and its MPPT performance is confirmed by experimental results.
Reduction in Proximal Femoral Strength in Patients With Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Bone loss after spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with an increased risk of fracture resulting from minor trauma. Proximal femoral fractures account for approximately 10% to 20% of the fractures in this population and are among the most serious of injuries. Our purpose was to quantify changes to proximal femoral strength in patients with acute SCI. Thirteen subjects received dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) and clinical computed tomography (CT) scans at serial time points during acute SCI separated by a mean of 3.5 months (range 2.6 to 4.8 months). Areal bone mineral density (aBMD) at the proximal femur was quantified from DXA, and proximal femoral strength was predicted using CT‐based finite element (FE) modeling in a sideways fall configuration. During the acute period of SCI, femoral neck and total proximal femur aBMD decreased by 2.0 ± 1.1%/month (p < 0.001) and 2.2 ± 0.7%/month (p < 0.001), respectively. The observed reductions in aBMD were associated with a 6.9 ± 2.0%/month (p < 0.001) reduction in femoral strength. Thus, changes in femoral strength were some 3 times greater than the observed changes in aBMD (p < 0.001). It was interesting to note that in just 3.5 months of acute SCI, reductions in strength for some patients were on the order of that predicted for lifetime declines owing to aging. Therefore, it is important that therapeutic interventions are implemented soon after SCI in an effort to halt bone loss and decrease fracture risk. In addition, clinicians utilizing DXA to monitor bone health after SCI should be aware of the potential discrepancy between changes in aBMD and strength. © 2014 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Partial Matrix Completion Algorithm for Efficient Data Gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks

To enable efficient data gathering in wireless sensor networks, a novel partial matrix completion algorithm is proposed by introducing historical data to the original data matrix. The recovery accuracy is further improved by making full use of the band-limited feature of the sensory data. We analyzed the recovery error of the proposed algorithm and derived a theoretical error upper bound. Experimental results on two real-world data sets show that the proposed algorithm achieves good recovery accuracy even when the sampling ratio is very low, which outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Epidermal Growth Factor Activates the Rho GTPase-activating Protein (GAP) Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 via Focal Adhesion Kinase and Protein Phosphatase 2A*

Background: DLC1 is a RhoGAP tumor suppressor that inactivates Rho GTPases, but its link to growth factor regulation remains unknown. Results: EGF activates the DLC1 phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle via MEK, FAK, and PP2A. Conclusion: EGF regulates the spatiotemporal activation of DLC1 to control cell migration. Significance: Signaling via the MEK/ERK-DLC1-FAK-PP2A quartet could integrate biochemical and mechanical cues to regulate cell dynamics. Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 (DLC1) is a RHO GTPase-activating protein (GAP) that negatively regulates RHO. Through its GAP activity, it modulates the actin cytoskeleton network and focal adhesion dynamics, ultimately leading to suppression of cell invasion and metastasis. Despite its presence in various structural and signaling components, little is known about how the activity of DLC1 is regulated at focal adhesions. Here we show that EGF stimulation activates the GAP activity of DLC1 through a concerted mechanism involving DLC1 phosphorylation by MEK/ERK and its subsequent dephosphorylation by protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and inhibition of focal adhesion kinase by MEK/ERK to allow the binding between DLC1 and PP2A. Phosphoproteomics and mutation studies revealed that threonine 301 and serine 308 on DLC1, known previously to be mutated in certain cancers, are required for DLC1-PP2A interaction and the subsequent activation of DLC1 upon their dephosphorylation. The intricate interplay of this “MEK/ERK-focal adhesion kinase-DLC1-PP2A” quartet provides a novel checkpoint in the spatiotemporal control of cell spreading and cell motility.
Physiological state of Escherichia coli BJ4 growing in the large intestines of streptomycin-treated mice

Growth rates of Escherichia coli BJ4 colonizing the large intestine of streptomycin-treated mice were estimated by quantitative hybridization with rRNA target probes and by epifluorescence microscopy. The ribosomal contents in bacteria isolated from the cecal mucus, cecal contents, and feces were measured and correlated with the ribosomal contents of bacteria growing in vitro at defined rates. The data suggest that E. coli BJ4 grows at an overall high rate in the intestine. However, when taking into account the total intestinal volume and numbers of bacteria present in cecal mucus, cecal contents, and feces, we suggest that E. coli BJ4 in the intestine consists of two populations, one in the mucus which has an apparent generation time of 40 to 80 min and one in the luminal contents which is static.
In vitro studies with mammalian cell lines and gum arabic‐coated magnetic nanoparticles

Iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized by the chemical co‐precipitation method and coated with gum arabic (GA) by physical adsorption and covalent attachment. Cultures of mammalian cell lines (HEK293, CHO and TE671) were grown in the presence of uncoated and GA‐coated MNPs. Cellular growth was followed by optical microscopy in order to assess the proportion of cells with particles, alterations in cellular density and the presence of debris. The in vitro assays demonstrated that cells from different origins are affected differently by the presence of the nanoparticles. Also, the methods followed for GA coating of MNPs endow distinct surface characteristics that probably underlie the observed differences when in contact with the cells. In general, the nanoparticles to which the GA was adsorbed had a smaller ability to attach to the cells' surface and to compromise the viability of the cultures. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Advances and future challenges in non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma

The mortality and morbidity burden of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is increasing within the human immunodeficiency virus- (HIV-) infected population. Recent improvements in HIV management has meant overall reductions in deaths, especially those due to opportunistic infections, and while the outcome of HIV-related NHL may now be somewhat less grim, the incidence remains high and outcome poor. The median survival of those with HIV-related NHL is only approximately 7 months, although those with high CD4 lymphocyte counts seem to do somewhat better. Improved management of the underlying HIV infection, more effective infusional chemotherapy regimens, moderately effective second line regimens, and new investigational approaches all offer promising hope that improvements will soon be seen for the treatment of HIV-related systemic NHL. Immunotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, and adoptive immunotherapy targeting Epstein Barr virus (EBV) all represent novel experimental treatment approaches that are becoming possible based on our increased understanding of the pathogenesis of HIV-related lymphoma. Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) in HIV patients has declined in incidence and there now is a rapid, less invasive diagnostic test. The presence of EBV DNA in the cerebral spinal fluid of HIV patients with focal brain lesions strongly suggests a diagnosis of PCNSL. Unfortunately, this disease remains difficult to treat in such an immunocompromised patient population. Further work is needed in order to prevent and effectively manage these diseases.