Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incidence and prevalence of myofascial pain in the jaw–face region. A one-year prospective study on dental students

Objective. The aims of this study were to examine the 1-year period prevalence, incidence, and course of myofascial pain in the jaw–face region, and to analyze whether female gender, dental occlusion, and oral parafunctions have any influence on these signs and symptoms. Material and methods. The study population comprised 308 dental students examined at the start of their dentistry course and re-examined after 1 year. Case histories were collected using a questionnaire. The clinical examination included palpation sites of muscles, a submaximal clenching test, measurements of maximal mandibular mobility, and classification of morphological and functional dental occlusion. Results. The 1-year period prevalence of frequent myofascial symptoms was 19%. The incidence of myofascial pain, according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TemporoMandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD), was 4%. The female students presented an almost 4-fold incidence rate of myofascial symptoms compared to the male students. Non-symptomatic subjects were found predominantly among men, among those unaware of bruxism with bilateral contact in the retruded contact position (RCP), and among those with a stable intercuspal position (ICP). Variations in morphological occlusion did not show any relation to myofascial symptoms, nor did contact patterns in eccentric positions. Conclusions. Female dental students were more prone to developing frequent myofascial pain and to perceiving local muscle soreness than were male students during a 1-year period. Both self-reported bruxism and registered mandibular instability in ICP showed association with the 1-year period prevalence of myofascial signs and symptoms in the jaw–face region.
Risks associated with low doses and low dose rates of ionizing radiation: why linearity may be (almost) the best we can do.

Deterministic and stochastic effects associated with high-dose ionizing radiation (x-ray) exposure have been known for almost as long as ionizing radiation itself (1–3). At lower doses, radiation risks are primarily stochastic effects, in particular, somatic effects (cancer) rather than the deterministic effects characteristic of higher-dose exposure (4–6). In contrast to deterministic effects, for stochastic effects, scientific committees generally assume that at sufficiently low doses there is a positive linear component to the dose response—that is, that there is no threshold (4–6). This does not preclude there being higher-order (eg, quadratic) powers of dose in the dose response that may be of importance at higher doses. It is on this basis that models linear (or linear-quadratic) in dose are often used to extrapolate the experience of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors (who were typically exposed at a high dose rate to moderate doses [average, 0.1 Sv]) to estimate risks from low doses and low dose rates (4–6). Most population-based cancer risk estimates are based primarily on the Japanese atomic bomb survivor Life Span Study (LSS) cohort data (4–6). However, evidence of excess risks comes from a large number of other studies as well. In the parallel editorial (7), evidence is presented for possible real (or at least “practical”) thresholds or “hormetic” (beneficial) effects of low doses of ionizing radiation. As we summarize here, and in contrast to the arguments of Tubiana et al (7), we judge that there is little epidemiologic or biologic evidence for these for cancer. The arguments are of three forms: (a) assessment of the degree of curvature in the cancer dose response within the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and other exposed groups (in particular, departure from linear or linear-quadratic curvature), (b) consistency of risks between the Japanese and other moderate- and low-dose cohorts, and (c) assessment of biologic data on mechanisms. Most of the information on radiation-induced cancer risk comes from (a) the Japanese atomic bomb survivors, (b) medically exposed populations, (c) occupationally exposed groups, and (d) environmentally exposed groups (6). In the higher-dose radiation therapy studies, where doses received are very much higher than in the LSS, sometimes in the range at which cell sterilization occurs, excess cancer risks per unit dose tend to be less than in comparable subsets of the LSS (8,9). However, as we show, risks in moderate- and low-dose medically and occupationally exposed groups are generally consistent with those in the LSS.
A small outbreak of human cryptosporidiosis associated with calves at a dairy farm in Norway

Cryptosporidiosis is rarely diagnosed in Norway. This is the first report of a human outbreak in Norway and involved 3 calves and 5 people. Sequencing studies were performed. Although 4 of the people acquired their infections from the calves, the other probably became infected from other calves or contaminated pens.
Integration of Asynchronously Released Quanta Prolongs the Postsynaptic Spike Window

Classically, the release of glutamate in response to a presynaptic action potential causes a brief increase in postsynaptic excitability. Previous reports indicate that at some central synapses, a single action potential can elicit multiple, asynchronous release events. This raises the possibility that the temporal dynamics of neurotransmitter release may determine the duration of altered postsynaptic excitability. In response to physiological challenges, the magnocellular neurosecretory cells (MNCs) in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) exhibit robust and prolonged increases in neuronal activity. Although the postsynaptic conductances that may facilitate this form of activity have been investigated thoroughly, the role of presynaptic release has been largely overlooked. Because the specific patterns of activity generated by MNCs require the activation of excitatory synaptic inputs, we sought to characterize the release dynamics at these synapses and determine whether they contribute to prolonged excitability in these cells. We obtained whole-cell recordings from MNCs in brain slices of postnatal day 21–44 rats. Stimulation of glutamatergic inputs elicited large and prolonged postsynaptic events that resulted from the summation of multiple, asynchronously released quanta. Asynchronous release was selectively inhibited by the slow calcium buffer EGTA-AM and potentiated by brief high-frequency stimulus trains. These trains caused a prolonged increase in postsynaptic spike activity that could also be eliminated by EGTA-AM. Our results demonstrate that glutamatergic terminals in PVN exhibit asynchronous release, which is important in generating large postsynaptic depolarizations and prolonged spiking in response to brief, high-frequency bursts of presynaptic activity.
DESERCIÓN EN EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR EN AMÉRICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE

Se dimensiona la magnitud de la desercion en la educacion superior en 15 paises de America Latina y el Caribe, analizando las causas, implicancias, y vias de superacion. Como principal referente se emplearon estudios nacionales. A nivel de resultados, el estudio revela que la desercion alcanza en promedio al 57,5%, siendo un poco mayor en las universidades privadas y entre los varones. La situacion es especialmente critica en las areas de humanidades e ingenierias. Se detectaron causas externas al sistema (socioeconomicas y culturales); internas (carencia de ayudas estudiantiles y de apoyo academico), academicas y personales. Para reducirla se propone a nivel de sistema mejorar los diagnosticos, la informacion y la articulacion y, a nivel institucional, identificar tempranamente a los potenciales desertores y readecuar los procesos de ensenanza-aprendizaje.
Deep-brain photoreception links luminance detection to motor output in Xenopus frog tadpoles

Significance Detecting and responding to light are basic requirements of nearly all life forms. Species from bacteria to man use light to regulate diverse behaviors from acute phototropism and visual processing to seasonal breeding cycles. Here, we describe a previously unidentified form of photoreception in the brain of frog tadpoles. The photoreceptors are preferentially activated by UV light and link ambient light levels to swimming activity. The pathway may be a simple method to optimize lighting conditions for feeding and avoiding predation, or may overlay and reinforce classical circadian systems. Deep-brain photoreception is of broad significance because the proteins involved are phylogenetically conserved. Nonvisual photoreceptors are widely distributed in the retina and brain, but their roles in animal behavior remain poorly understood. Here we document a previously unidentified form of deep-brain photoreception in Xenopus laevis frog tadpoles. The isolated nervous system retains sensitivity to light even when devoid of input from classical eye and pineal photoreceptors. These preparations produce regular bouts of rhythmic swimming activity in ambient light but fall silent in the dark. This sensitivity is tuned to short-wavelength UV light; illumination at 400 nm initiates motor activity over a broad range of intensities, whereas longer wavelengths do not cause a response. The photosensitive tissue is located in a small region of caudal diencephalon—this region is necessary to retain responses to illumination, whereas its focal illumination is sufficient to drive them. We present evidence for photoreception via the light-sensitive proteins opsin (OPN)5 and/or cryptochrome 1, because populations of OPN5-positive and cryptochrome-positive cells reside within the caudal diencephalon. This discovery represents a hitherto undescribed vertebrate pathway that links luminance detection to motor output. The pathway provides a simple mechanism for light avoidance and/or may reinforce classical circadian systems.
A novel architecture for lifting-based discrete wavelet transform for JPEG2000 standard suitable for VLSI implementation

This paper presents a novel architecture for the implementation of a 2-D discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for image compression. The architecture is designed for lifting based DWT The advantages of the lifting based DWT and its inverse, IDWT, over the convolution based scheme are lower computational complexity and reduced memory requirements. Hence, the lifting based DWT and IDWT implementations are faster, consume less power and occupy smaller area compared to the implementations based on the convolution scheme. An optimum architecture has been arrived at after conducting a thorough analysis of data interdependencies, lifetime and flow Reduction of scaling coefficient multiplications has also been effected. CSD arithmetic has been incorporated in the architecture in order to speed up the implementation. The hardware has been implemented for the image blocks of size 9/spl times/9 pixels based on single sample overlap scheme as recommended in the JPEG2000 standard.
Soluble Recombinant CMVpp65 Spanning Multiple HLA Alleles for Reconstitution of Antiviral CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cell Responses After Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

The reactivation of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) can be prevented or controlled by the adoptive transfer of ex vivo expanded donor-derived CMV-specific T lymphocytes. Several methods for expansion and adoptive transfer of CMV-specific T cells have been developed using either defined CMV peptides or peptide pools for antigen-specific T-cell stimulation. The majority of studies have focused on the lower matrix protein (pp65) and the immediate-early protein-1 (IE-1) of CMV as immunodominant targets. We investigated the behavior of secretory CMVpp65 (sCMVpp65) with respect to its capacity to stimulate pp65-specific T cells independently of human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) type and even in donors unresponsive to the immunodominant HLA-A*0201–restricted CMVpp65495–503 peptide. To facilitate the eukaryotic expression and isolation procedures, we constructed an HLA-A*0201/CMVpp65 fusion protein that is secreted into the supernatant of human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells. CMV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells generated by culturing unfractionated peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the presence of recombinant sCMVpp65 did not differ in function with regard to cytotoxicity and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) production compared with cytotoxic T cells induced using the well-studied HLA-A*0201–restricted CMVpp65495–503 peptide. We demonstrated that polyclonal CMV-specific T cells could be generated from CMV-seropositive individuals expressing HLA alleles for which no immunogenic epitopes have been identified so far. The production of recombinant sCMVpp65 can easily be adapted to good manufacturing practice conditions and can be used to generate large numbers of immunogenic pathogen-derived proteins for therapeutic applications.
MicroRNAs in plants

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression in eukaryotes. In plants, most miRNAs exist in multiple copies throughout the genome and many of these miRNAs target multiple messenger RNA (mRNA) transcripts. Mutations at miRNAs in natural populations could facilitate evolutionary changes within and between species because of their positions at critical nodes in gene regulatory networks. Dissecting the contribution of miRNAs to plant evolution requires the identification of potentially functional mutations at miRNAs within and between species. Recently, we and others have published papers focused on this topic, laying the foundation for studying the contributions of miRNAs to the phenotypic diversification of plants. Addendum to: Ehrenreich IM, Purugganan MD. Sequence variation of microRNAs and their binding sites in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiol 2008; In press.
Squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus

Background. A number of studies have indicated that the ki-67 proliferation index is of important prognostic significance for a variety of neoplasias. It was the aim of this study to investigate whether any correlation exits between the MIB-1 proliferation index and various clinicopathologic parameters in squamous cell carcinomas of the esophagus from 72 patients (20 women: median age, 64 years; range, 45-79 years; and 52 men: median age, 61 years; range, 43-77 years). Methods. Proliferative activity was determined using an immunohistochemical method with monoclonal antibody MIB-1 (ABC method), for tumor samples obtained from individuals who underwent esophagectomy in the period from 1983 to 1991. The percentage proliferation index (PI) was calculated as the number of positive cells divided by the total number of cells examined. Thirtynine patients (54%) died of recurrence of esophageal cancer, with a median survival span of 15 months (range, 158 months]. Thirty-three patients (46%] were still alive at the time of this study; their median follow up was 57 months (range, 40-98 months]. Results, Significant differences between proliferative
Congenital anomalies in the rat produced by excessive intake of vitamin A during pregnancy.

Excessive intake of vitamin A during pregnancy in the rat results in a marked litter failure. However, when litters are carried to term a variety of gross congenital anomalies are produced which include: encephaly, eye malformations, cleft palate, shortening of the mandible and maxilla, spina bifida with meningocele and hydrocephalus. Of 148 offspring of vitamin A-fed maternal rats, 77 exhibited gross malformations (an anomaly rate of 52%). There were no congenital anomalies observed in 1201 control young. The 7th to 10th day of gestation was found to be the period critically susceptible to the teratogenic effect of vitamin A excess. The stage specificity of various environmental agents and the possible mechanism of action of the teratogenic effect of maternal vitamin A excess are discussed.
Increased Mortality Rates in Late-life Depression

Physical illness at referral and subsequent mortality were studied in a group of elderly patients with depression, and compared with age/sex-matched controls. The depressed group was significantly less well at first interview, and had a significantly higher 4–year mortality. When the effect of physical illness was controlled, the depressed patients (particularly the men) still had a significantly higher 4–year mortality, suggesting that the greater mortality in the depressed group was not due to differences in physical health alone.
StepCity: a preliminary investigation of a personal informatics-based social game on behavior change

Encouraging physical activity is an important public health issue. In this study, we set out to see if a game could be used to motivate people to be more active. We recruited 74 subjects to wear Fitbits -- a personal activity monitoring device that tracked the number of steps taken in a day -- and compared step totals in three experimental conditions: a control, a social interaction experience, and a social game we developed called StepCity. We found that for newer Fitbit users, the game led to users taking more steps than they did in a control condition. In this poster, we present the details of our system and the results of a controlled experiment.
Study on the performance management system of service-oriented manufacturing enterprises

In view of the manufacturing enterprises' servitization, the performance of the management system is established by combining Balanced Scorecard, Service Profit Chain and System Dynamics, which is suitable for service-oriented manufacturing enterprises. Take S enterprise for example, the strategy map, the causal relationship and the graph of system dynamic flow are built. On this basis, the enterprise's internal and external changes are simulated to observe the changes of key performance indicators by computer, and then compare the results arising from different policies through the study of the policy simulation, finally make a strategic choice.
Deep Columnar Convolutional Neural Network

Recent developments in the field of deep learning have shown that convolutional networks with several layers can approach human level accuracy in tasks such as handwritten digit classification and object recognition. It is observed that the state-of-the-art performance is obtained from model ensembles, where several models are trained on the same data and their predictions probabilities are averaged or voted on. Here, the proposed model is a single deep and wide neural network architecture that offers near state-of-the-art performance on various image classification challenges, such as the MNIST dataset and the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets. On the competitive MNIST handwritten image classification challenge, the proposed model approaches the near state-of-the-art 35 model ensemble in terms of accuracy. On testing the model on the CIFAR datasets, it is found that the proposed model approaches the performance of the top two ensemble models. The architecture is also analyzed on the SVHN dataset.
Stochasticity or Noise in Biochemical Reactions

Heterogeneity in gene expression across isogenic cell populations can give rise to phenotypic diversity, even when cells are in homogenous environments. This diversity arises from the discrete, stochastic nature of biochemical reactions, which naturally arise due to the very small numbers of genes, RNA, or protein molecules in single cells. Modern measurements of single biomolecules have created a vast wealth of information about the fluctuations of these molecules, but a quantitative understanding of these complex, stochastic systems requires precise computational tools. In this article, we present modern tools necessary to model variability in biological system and to compare model results to experimental data. We review the Chemical Master Equation and approaches to solve for probability distributions of discrete numbers of biomolecules. We discuss how to fit probability distributions to single-cell data using likelihood based approaches. Finally, we provide examples of fitting discrete stochastic models to single-molecule fluorescent in-situ hybridization data that quantifies RNA levels across populations of cells in bacteria and yeast.
Low body mass index can be associated with the risk and poor outcomes of neuromyelitis optica with aquaporin-4 immunoglobulin G in women

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder with aquaporin-4 immunoglobulin G (NMOSD-AQP4) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Recent studies have demonstrated that body mass index (BMI) can be associated with the risk and/or outcomes of diverse inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the clinical implication of BMI in NMOSD-AQP4 is still unknown. ### Patients A total of 157 patients with NMOSD-AQP4 who had their first episodes between 1982 and 2016, from six nationwide tertiary referral hospitals, were finally included (see figure 1 in the online Supplementary file 1). Patients were tested for antiaquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody using either the fluorescence-activated cell sorting assay or cell-based assay.1 In the NMOSD-AQP4 group, BMI measured within 1 month of the first symptom of NMOSD-AQP4 and before any steroid treatment, immune suppressant, or immune modifying treatment (BMInaive) and the lowest BMI measured within 1 year of the first symptoms of NMOSD-AQP4 (BMImin-1yr) were obtained, respectively. BMI values less than 18.5 kg/m2 were classified as low according to the WHO recommendation. Demographic information, number and location of attacks, results of the cerebrospinal fluid examination and maximal score of the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) on disease onset were assessed. Prognosis was evaluated in terms of the time to a confirmed EDSS of 6 (EDSS6), functional system score of 4 for visual function (VF4) and mortality. ### Supplementary file 1 [jnnp-2017-317202-SP1.jpg] ### Healthy controls and MS controls A matched case–control study was performed to evaluate the association between BMI and risk for NMOSD-AQP4. The controls were selected from the 96 146 participants included in the nationwide population-based survey of the health and nutritional status of Korea (Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES))2 conducted in 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2007–2015. Four controls were matched to each case based on age, sex and year of BMI measurement (within …
Snake Pedals: Compact and Versatile Geometric Models with Physics-Based Control

We introduce a geometric shape modeling scheme which allows for representation of global and local shape characteristics of an object. Geometric models are well-suited for representing global shapes without local detail, but we propose a scheme which represents global shapes with local detail and permits model shaping as well as topological changes via physics-based control. The scheme represents shapes by pedal curves and surfaces, i.e. the loci of the foot of perpendiculars to the tangents of a fixed curve/surface from a fixed point called the pedal point. By varying the location of the pedal point, one can synthesize a large class of shapes which exhibit both local and global deformations. We introduce physics-based control for shaping these geometric models by letting the pedal point vary and use a snake to represent the position of this varying point. The model, a "snake pedal", allows for interactive manipulation via forces applied to the snake. We develop a fast numerical iterative algorithm for shape recovery from image data using this scheme. The algorithm involves the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) method in the outer loop for solving the global parameters and the alternating direction implicit (ADI) method in the inner loop for solving the local parameters of the model. The combination of the global and local scheme leads to an efficient numerical solution to the model fitting problem. We demonstrate the applicability of this modeling scheme via examples of shape synthesis and shape estimation from real image data.