Retrospective Evaluation of Implants Placed in Iliac Crest Autografts and Pristine Bone.

OBJECTIVE Iliac crest autografts can compensate for severe mandibular atrophy before implant placement. However, the implant success in the augmented bone is not entirely predictable. Here we performed a retrospective cohort study to determine the success and related parameters of implants placed in augmented bone and pristine bone for up to 11 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS We analyzed 18 patients where 72 implants were placed six months after iliac crest transplantation and 19 patients where 76 implants were placed in pristine bone. The primary endpoint was implant loss. Secondary endpoints were the implant success, peri-implant bone loss, and the clinical parameters related to peri-implantitis. Moreover, we evaluated the oral-health-related quality of life (OHIP). RESULTS Within a mean follow-up of 5.8 ± 2.2 and 7.6 ± 2.8 years, six but no implants were lost when placed in augmented and pristine bone, respectively. Among those implants remaining in situ, 58% and 68% were rated as implant success (p = 0.09). A total of 11% and 16% of the implants placed in the augmented and the pristine bone were identified as peri-implantitis (p = 0.08). Bone loss was similar in both groups, with a mean of 2.95 ± 1.72 mm and 2.44 ± 0.76 mm. The mean OHIP scores were 16.36 ± 13.76 and 8.78 ± 7.21 in the augmentation and the control group, respectively (p = 0.35). CONCLUSIONS Implants placed in iliac crest autografts have a higher risk for implant loss and lower implant success rates compared to those placed in the pristine bone

GWP-ASan: Sampling-Based Detection of Memory-Safety Bugs in Production

Despite the recent advances in pre-production bug detection, heap-use-after-free and heap-buffer-overflow bugs remain the primary problem for security, reliability, and developer productivity for applications written in C or C++, across all major software ecosystems. Memory-safe languages solve this problem when they are used, but the existing code bases consisting of billions of lines of C and C++ continue to grow, and we need additional bug detection mechanisms. This paper describes a family of tools that detect these two classes of memory-safety bugs, while running in production, at near-zero overhead. These tools combine page-granular guarded allocation and low-rate sampling. In other words, we added an "if" statement to a 36-year-old idea and made it work at scale. We describe the basic algorithm, several of its variants and implementations, and the results of multi-year deployments across mobile, desktop, and server applications

Strain-Tuning of the Optical Properties of Semiconductor Nanomaterials by Integration onto Piezoelectric Actuators

The tailoring of the physical properties of semiconductor nanomaterials by strain has been gaining increasing attention over the last years for a wide range of applications such as electronics, optoelectronics and photonics. The ability to introduce deliberate strain fields with controlled magnitude and in a reversible manner is essential for fundamental studies of novel materials and may lead to the realization of advanced multi-functional devices. A prominent approach consists in the integration of active nanomaterials, in thin epitaxial films or embedded within carrier nanomembranes, onto Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3-based piezoelectric actuators, which convert electrical signals into mechanical deformation (strain). In this review, we mainly focus on recent advances in strain-tunable properties of self-assembled InAs quantum dots embedded in semiconductor nanomembranes and photonic structures. Additionally, recent works on other nanomaterials like rare-earth and metal-ion doped thin films, graphene and MoS2 or WSe2 semiconductor two-dimensional materials are also reviewed. For the sake of completeness, a comprehensive comparison between different procedures employed throughout the literature to fabricate such hybrid piezoelectric-semiconductor devices is presented. Very recently, a novel class of micro-machined piezoelectric actuators have been demonstrated for a full control of in-plane stress fields in nanomembranes, which enables producing energy-tunable sources of polarization-entangled photons in arbitrary quantum dots. Future research directions and prospects are discussed.Comment: review manuscript, 78 pages, 27 figure

An Elementary Quantum Network of Single Atoms in Optical Cavities

Quantum networks are distributed quantum many-body systems with tailored topology and controlled information exchange. They are the backbone of distributed quantum computing architectures and quantum communication. Here we present a prototype of such a quantum network based on single atoms embedded in optical cavities. We show that atom-cavity systems form universal nodes capable of sending, receiving, storing and releasing photonic quantum information. Quantum connectivity between nodes is achieved in the conceptually most fundamental way: by the coherent exchange of a single photon. We demonstrate the faithful transfer of an atomic quantum state and the creation of entanglement between two identical nodes in independent laboratories. The created nonlocal state is manipulated by local qubit rotation. This efficient cavity-based approach to quantum networking is particularly promising as it offers a clear perspective for scalability, thus paving the way towards large-scale quantum networks and their applications.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Sexual Dimorphic Regulation of Body Weight Dynamics and Adipose Tissue Lipolysis

BACKGROUND: Successful reduction of body weight (BW) is often followed by recidivism to obesity. BW-changes including BW-loss and -regain is associated with marked alterations in energy expenditure (EE) and adipose tissue (AT) metabolism. Since these processes are sex-specifically controlled, we investigated sexual dimorphisms in metabolic processes during BW-dynamics (gain-loss-regain). RESEARCH DESIGN: Obesity was induced in C57BL/6J male (m) and female (f) mice by 15 weeks high-fat diet (HFD) feeding. Subsequently BW was reduced (-20%) by caloric restriction (CR) followed by adaptive feeding, and a regain-phase. Measurement of EE, body composition, blood/organ sampling were performed after each feeding period. Lipolysis was analyzed ex-vivo in gonadal AT. RESULTS: Male mice exhibited accelerated BW-gain compared to females (relative BW-gain m:140.5±3.2%; f:103.7±6.5%; p<0.001). In consonance, lean mass-specific EE was significantly higher in females compared to males during BW-gain. Under CR female mice reached their target-BW significantly faster than male mice (m:12.2 days; f:7.6 days; p<0.001) accompanied by a sustained sex-difference in EE. In addition, female mice predominantly downsized gonadal AT whereas the relation between gonadal and total body fat was not altered in males. Accordingly, only females exhibited an increased rate of forskolin-stimulated lipolysis in AT associated with significantly higher glycerol concentrations, lower RER-values, and increased AT expression of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) and hormone sensitive lipase (HSL). Analysis of AT lipolysis in estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)-deficient mice revealed a reduced lipolytic rate in the absence of ERα exclusively in females. Finally, re-feeding caused BW-regain faster in males than in females. CONCLUSION: The present study shows sex-specific dynamics during BW-gain-loss-regain. Female mice responded to CR with an increase in lipolytic activity, and augmented lipid-oxidation leading to more efficient weight loss. These processes likely involve ERα-dependent signaling in AT and sexual dimorphic regulation of genes involved in lipid metabolism

Untersuchungen zur Kulturlandschaftsentwicklung und landschaftsökologischen Situation am Alpennordrand des südwestlichen Niederösterreich

[A] Dynamik ist ein wesentliches Charakteristikum von Landschaften und besonders im Falle von Kulturlandschaften – als Folge eines komplexen Wechselspiels zwischen naturräumlichen Gegebenheiten und anthropogenen Eingriffen oder schlicht als Ergebnis der Beziehungen zwischen Natur und Gesellschaft – evident. Die europäischen Kulturlandschaften wurden über Jahrhunderte hinweg langsam und durch traditionelle, an die lokalen oder regionalen Bedingungen angepasste Nutzungspraktiken modifiziert, wobei allerdings im 19. und besonders im 20. Jahrhundert in vielen Teilen Europas eine rasche Umwandlung von traditionellen Kulturlandschaften in neuartige Landschaften stattgefunden hat. In der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit wurde mittels randomisierter Auswahl von 20 Untersuchungsflächen (à 25 ha) mit jeweils weniger als 50 Prozent Waldbedeckung ein neuartiger Ansatz gewählt, um die Kulturlandschaftsentwicklung und Landschaftsgeschichte eines rund 80 Quadratkilometer großen Untersuchungsgebiets in der Region Mostviertel-Eisenwurzen (Niederösterreich) repräsentativ zu untersuchen. Auf Basis des Franziszeischen Katasters von 1822 sowie einer ausführlichen Felderhebung wurden die langfristigen Entwicklungen flächenbezogen analysiert und die landschaftliche Situation in vorindustrieller Zeit mit der rezenten Situation verglichen. Die räumlich-zeitlichen Vergleiche offenbaren in erster Linie eine Reorganisation der Landnutzung weg von einer durch Subsistenzwirtschaft geprägten, hin zu einer spezialisierten, grünlanddominierten Landwirtschaft. Neben der beinahe vollständigen Aufgabe der ackerbaulichen Nutzung lassen sich in den knapp 200 Jahren auch Änderungsprozesse feststellen, die als „Nutzungspolarisierung“ zusammengefasst werden können. Hier zeigt sich eine deutlichen Zunahme an bewaldeten Flächen und somit ein Verlust an landwirtschaftlich genutzter Fläche und damit einhergehend eine Zunahme bebauter Flächen sowie eine Intensivierung der verbliebenen landwirtschaftlich genutzten Flächen. Die langfristigen Veränderungen werden ausführlich diskutiert und unterschiedliche landschaftsökologische und naturschutzfachliche Aspekte der historischen und rezenten Situation, sowie regionale Besonderheiten beleuchtet. [B] In der offenen Kulturlandschaft des Untersuchungsgebiets sind Hecken und heckenartige Landschaftselemente als landschaftsprägende Strukturen von besonderer Bedeutung und charakteristisch, weshalb in der vorliegenden Arbeit ein zusätzlicher Fokus auf die Untersuchung der Flora und Vegetation der ruralen Hecken gelegt wurde. Obwohl es sich um funktionell mit der Landnutzung verknüpfte Vegetationsstrukturen – und somit um anthropogene Pflanzengesellschaften – handelt, stellen rurale Hecken vielfach persistente Landschaftselemente und/oder traditionelle Nutzungstypen dar und sind als naturnahe Restelemente in Kulturlandschaften von großer Bedeutung. Hecken wurden und werden seit jeher auf unterschiedlichste Art und Weise genutzt und übernehmen eine Vielzahl an sowohl ökologisch als auch ökonomisch und soziokulturell relevanten Funktionen und Rollen. Als Grundlage für die floristische und pflanzensoziologische Analyse wurden pro Untersuchungsfläche zwei Hecken zufällig ausgewählt und so insgesamt 40 Vegetationsaufnahmen nach dem „Braun-Blanquet-Ansatz“ durchgeführt. Die erhobenen Daten wurden mittels JUICE 7.0 analysiert und werden im Kontext der aktuellen Synopsis der Gebüsch- und Waldgesellschaften Österreichs syntaxonomisch interpretiert und diskutiert. Insgesamt wurden 270 Gefäßpflanzentaxa (davon 55 Phanerophyten) erfasst, wobei die Gesamtartenzahl je Vegetationsaufnahme zwischen 35 und 82 (die der Phanerophyten zwischen 11 und 26) variiert. Die untersuchten ruralen Hecken und heckenartigen Landschaftselemente lassen sich provisorisch als submontane bis montane Hasel-Eschen-Hecken des östlichen Alpennordrands charakterisieren. Die Vegetationsaufnahmen zeigen eine deutliche Affinität zum Verband Populo tremulae-Corylion (Klasse Rhamno-Prunetea) und wurden als drei unscharfe Gesellschaften ohne Assoziationsrang ausgewiesen. Die unterschiedlich starke Affinität zu den beiden Assoziationen Populo tremulae-Coryletum und Senecioni ovati-Coryletum bzw. eine intermediäre Stellung wird ausführlich diskutiert und diverse ökologische und naturschutzfachliche Aspekte beleuchtet. Als regionale Besonderheit werden die geflochtenen Staudenhage näher behandelt.[A] A fundamental feature of landscapes is their dynamic character and, as a result of a complex interplay between natural conditions and human interventions or simply as a result of the relations between nature and society, this is particularly evident in the case of cultural landscapes. For hundreds of years, European cultural landscapes were altered slowly by traditional land use practices adapted to local or regional conditions, though during the 19th and especially in the 20th century a rapid transition of traditional cultural landscapes to novel landscapes has frequently taken place in many parts of Europe. In the present study, 20 study sites (25 ha each) with less than 50 percent forest cover were randomly selected to representatively investigate the development of the cultural landscape and the landscape history of an approximately 80 square kilometer study area in the “Mostviertel-Eisenwurzen” region (Lower Austria). Based on the Cadastre of Francis I dating from 1822 as well as an extensive field survey, long-term developments were analyzed and the landscape situation in pre-industrial times was compared to the present situation. The spatio-temporal comparisons primarily revealed a reorganization of agricultural practices from subsistence farming to a specialized livestock and dairy farming. Beside the almost total disappearance of arable fields during the past 200 years, results show processes of change which can be summarized as “land use polarization”. A substantial increase in forested areas and therefore a coincident decline of utilized agricultural area was observed, accompanied by an increase in built-up areas as well as intensification of the remaining agricultural land. The long-term changes are discussed in detail together with various aspects of landscape ecology, nature conservation and regional peculiarities with regard to the historical and present situation. [B] Hedgerows and hedge-Iike landscape elements are of particular importance and characteristic as landscape-shaping structures in the open cultural landscape of the study area, and therefore a further focus of the present study was on the investigation of the flora and vegetation of rural hedgerows. Although they are structures functionally linked to land use, and thus are anthropogenic plant communities, rural hedgerows in many cases represent persistent landscape elements and/or traditional land use types and are of major importance as near-natural elements in cultural landscapes. Hedgerows always were and are used in diverse ways and perform a multitude of ecologically as well as economically and socioculturally relevant functions and roles in cultural landscapes. As basis for the floristic and phytosociological analysis, two hedgerows were selected randomly per study site, and thus 40 vegetation relevés were carried out altogether using the “Braun-Blanquet approach”. The collected data were analyzed by JUICE 7.0, and interpreted and discussed in the context of the current synopsis of shrub and forest communities in Austria. A total of 270 different vascular plant taxa were recorded, including 55 phanerophytes. The total number of species per vegetation relevé varied between 35 and 82, and in case of phanerophytes between 11 and 26. The investigated rural hedgerows and hedge-like landscape elements can be provisionally characterized as submontane to montane hazel and ash hedgerows of the northern border of the Eastern Alps. The vegetation relevés show a clear affinity to the Alliance Populo tremulae-Corylion (Class Rhamno-Prunetea) and were assigned to three communities without association rank. The varying degree of affinity to the Associations Populo tremulae-Coryletum and Senecioni ovati-Coryletum or an intermediate position is discussed in detail. Different aspects of ecology and nature conservation as well as a regional peculiarity, the so-called “geflochtene Staudenhage”, are explained

Adaptive heat pump and battery storage demand side energy management

An adaptive linear model predictive control strategy is introduced for the problem of demand side energy management, involving a photovoltaic device, a battery, and a heat pump. Moreover, the heating influence of solar radiation via the glass house effect is considered. Global sunlight radiation intensity and the outside temperature are updated by weather forecast data. The identification is carried out after adapting to a time frame witch sufficiently homogeneous weather. In this way, in spite of the linearity an increase in precision and cost reduction of up to 46% is achieved. It is validated for an open and closed loop version of the MPC problem using real data of the ambient temperature and the global radiation

Adaptive heat pump and battery storage demand side energy management

An adaptive linear model predictive control strategy is introduced for the problem of demand side energy management, involving a photovoltaic device, a battery, and a heat pump. Moreover, the heating influence of solar radiation via the glass house effect is considered. Global sunlight radiation intensity and the outside temperature are updated by weather forecast data. The identification is carried out after adapting to a time frame witch sufficiently homogeneous weather. In this way, in spite of the linearity an increase in precision and cost reduction of up to 46% is achieved. It is validated for an open and closed loop version of the MPC problem using real data of the ambient temperature and the global radiation

Devitalization of adjacent teeth following maxillary sinus floor augmentation : A retrospective radiographic study

Background: Elevation of the schneiderian membrane, during maxillary sinus floor augmentation (MSFA) may theoretically result in devitalization of adjacent teeth, which are in a close spatial relationship to the sinus floor. Purpose: To assess retrospectively the probability of devitalization of teeth adjacent to the osteotomy site after MSFA in a relatively large number of patients. Materials and Methods: All MSFA procedures, performed at a university oral surgery clinic within a time period of 10 years, were assessed on the following eligibility criteria: (1) presence of vital teeth (ie, not root canal treated and no periapical radiolucency on a panoramic radio- graph taken just after MSFA), (2) presence of a 3 to 12 months postoperative radiograph of the teeth adjacent to the osteotomy site displaying the root apices, and (3) complete medical records up to at least 12 months postoperatively. The radiographs of the different time points were compared and any changes in the radiographic status of the adjacent teeth (eg, develop- ment of a periapical lesion, root canal treatment, etc.) were recorded and the spatial relationship of the adjacent teeth to the maxillary sinus classified. Results: Out of 684 MSFAs, 257 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and involved 357 adjacent teeth, of which 221 presented close to and/or intimate relationship to the sinus. In only a single case, tooth vitality might have been lost due to the procedure. Thus, the probability for tooth devitali- zation for teeth with close to and/or intimate spatial relationship to the sinus floor ranged from 0.45% to 0.7%. Conclusions: Even for teeth with apices very close to and/or intimately related to the sinus tooth devitalization after MSFA is an extremely rare complication; that is, the probability of tooth devitalization after MSFA is ≤0.7%

Prediction of post-traumatic neuropathy following impacted mandibular third molar removal.

OBJECTIVES The extraction of impacted mandibular third molars is a common surgical procedure often associated with complications including post-traumatic neuropathy. Previous work has focused on identifying confounding factors, but a robust preoperative risk prediction model remains elusive. METHODS Using a dataset of 648 patients and 812 impacted mandibular third molars, we used least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) to fit prediction models based on risk factors assessed at both the tooth and patient levels. In addition, we fitted multivariable logistic regression models with the Firth correction for generalized estimating equations (GEE). RESULTS The LASSO model for post-traumatic neuropathy identified distoangular impaction of ≥ 45° (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9), proximity to the inferior alveolar nerve of ≤ 3 mm (OR = 1.9), disadvantageous curving (OR = 1.4), and psychiatric conditions (OR = 2.1) as predictors [area under the receiving operator characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.75]. Among other complications analyzed, the LASSO model for bleeding identified deep embedding or full impaction (OR = 1.8), psychiatric conditions (OR = 1.3), and age (OR = 0.9) as predictors (AUC = 0.64). These associations between predictors and postoperative complications were fundamentally reinforced by the corresponding GEE models. CONCLUSIONS Our findings point to the predictability of post-traumatic neuropathy and bleeding based on tooth anatomy and patient characteristics, overall suggesting that preoperatively identifiable factors can predict the risk of adverse outcomes in the extraction of impacted mandibular third molars. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Mandibular third molar extraction is both a routine procedure and a leading cause of trigeminal neuropathy. Prevention of post-traumatic neuropathy, aided by individualized preoperative risk prediction, is of high clinical relevance