Inequality in Political Representation

In many countries the near-universal right to vote in elections has been a core attribute of their democratic institutions for decades, and in some cases over a century. However, the political experience of many of these very countries over the past decade have often alternated between apathy and frustration in these democratic institutions. Stark economic inequalities have mirrored inequalities in political influence, voters observing that elected officials who determine policy are disproportionately from a political elite or establishment. Why, after decades of near-universal voting rights, are only five percent of MPs in the UK House of Commons from the working class, and only one in four legislators in the United States are women

Role of NLRP3 Inflammasome in Pathogenesis of Pulpal Disease

Pulpal disease, specifically dental pulpitis, is triggered by exogeneous stimuli from cariogenic bacteria or traumatic injury. The specific host defense in the dental pulp is regulated by the innate and adaptive immunity, of which the pulp-dentin complex odontoblasts play an essential role in the early stage of the dental immune response. It has been reported that the NLRP3 inflammasome is expressed in human dental pulp cells and tissues of inflamed pulp. However whether the activation of NLRP3 contributes to dental immune defense remains unclear. Inflammasome activation is important for antimicrobial defense because it induces cell death and regulates the secretion of IL-1 family cytokines, which play a critical role in innate inflammatory responses. IL-1β production is regulated by the intracellular multi-protein structure, NLRP3/caspase-1 inflammasome complex. It is unknown whether NLRP3/caspase-1/IL-1β activation in macrophages constitutes the host immune response in pulpal disease. In this study, normal healthy teeth and teeth diagnosed with reversible or irreversible pulpitis were collected and processed to evaluate the expression of activated NLRP3 and caspase-1 using IHC, western blotting and ELISA. Although a baseline of NLRP3 activity was detected in normal pulp, specifically at the rimming odontoblast layer, a significant elevation of activated NLRP3/caspase-1/IL-1b signals was detected in pulp tissues, diagnosed as pulpitis, particularly in areas adjacent to the caries front as well as the rimming odontoblasts, fibroblasts, and inflammatory cells. Interestingly, NLRP3 expression was abundant in M1 macrophages and resident macrophages/monocytes and the expression pattern and cellular distribution shifted from the pulp chamber to the root apex as pulpitis progresses. To confirm these findings, pulpitis was experimentally induced in rat molars that allowed a closer investigation of the progress of dental pulp inflammation from reversible to irreversible pulpitis. Histological and multicolor immunofluorescence studies showed co-expression of activated NLRP3/caspase-1 signals in ED1 positive macrophages in areas of incipient coronal injuries at early stage of pulpitis. The zone of dense NLRP3/caspase-1/ED1 positive cells migrated from the pulp chamber to the root apex as the inflamed pulp converted to tissue necrosis. These findings suggest that the activated NLRP3/caspase-1 signals and cellular distribution potentially serve as biomarkers to distinguish the transition of inflamed pulp to necrosis with clinical application for pulpal diagnosis in conjunction with existing clinical and radiographic assessments. Next, to determine whether mesenchymal stem cells derived from inflamed human pulp (I-DPSCs) are capable of similar immunomodulatory functions as those from normal healthy pulp (DPSCs), co-culture with differentiated THP-1 cells with/without stimulation of LPS and/or nigericin was carried out and secreted TNF-α and IL-1β were detected by ELISA. Co-culture of DPSC/I-DPSC and differentiated THP-1 macrophages markedly suppressed not IL-1β but TNF-α secretion in response to stimulation with LPS and/or nigericin. Treatment with IDO inhibitor abolished DPSC-mediated suppression of TNF-α secretion by macrophages, suggesting the role of IDO as a mediator. Furthermore, IDO expression was abundant in both macrophages and mesenchymal stromal cells in pulp tissues diagnosed as irreversible pulpitis. In conclusion, the study suggests that NLRP3/caspase-1 inflammasome activation plays a pivotal role in pulpal inflammation and its expression correlates with the progress of pulpal disease. I-DPSCs, similar to DPSCs, preserve stem cell properties and immunosuppressive effects on the production of TNF-α by macrophages. IDO activity partly contributes to DPSC-mediated inhibitory effects on macrophage, suggesting a role in stem cell immunomodulatory function in dental immune defense

Long-Term Follow-up for Immature Teeth Treated with Regenerative Endodontic Procedures That Underwent Orthodontic Treatment

Although regenerative endodontic procedures (REPs) have become one of the widely accepted treatment modalities for necrotic immature teeth with apical periodontitis, little is known about the long-term outcomes and the effect of orthodontic tooth movement on this procedure. This report presents a case that underwent two REPs and orthodontic treatment over a period of seven years. A 9-year-old male was referred for evaluation of traumatized maxillary central incisors. Based on clinical and radiographic examinations, a diagnosis of pulp necrosis with acute apical abscess was established. REP was performed for both teeth, and the patient was brought in for follow-up annually. Orthodontic treatment was performed during the followup period. Annual follow-up visits demonstrated complete resolution of signs and symptoms of disease with the thickening of the roots. At the six-year follow-up visit, the patient presented with a sinus tract and periapical radiolucency. A second REP was performed for both teeth. The one-year recall visit after the second REP revealed complete resolution of clinical symptoms and radiographic signs of healing of apical pathology with further development of the roots. In conclusion, the effect of orthodontic treatment on teeth undergoing REP should be investigated and yearly follow-up visits should be recommended for patients undergoing REP as this case showed signs of deterioration six years after the treatment. © 2021 Kare Publishing. All rights reserved

Generative Pre-Training of Time-Series Data for Unsupervised Fault Detection in Semiconductor Manufacturing

This paper introduces TRACE-GPT, which stands for Time-seRies Anomaly-detection with Convolutional Embedding and Generative Pre-trained Transformers. TRACE-GPT is designed to pre-train univariate time-series sensor data and detect faults on unlabeled datasets in semiconductor manufacturing. In semiconductor industry, classifying abnormal time-series sensor data from normal data is important because it is directly related to wafer defect. However, small, unlabeled, and even mixed training data without enough anomalies make classification tasks difficult. In this research, we capture features of time-series data with temporal convolutional embedding and Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) to classify abnormal sequences from normal sequences using cross entropy loss. We prove that our model shows better performance than previous unsupervised models with both an open dataset, the University of California Riverside (UCR) time-series classification archive, and the process log of our Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) equipment. Our model has the highest F1 score at Equal Error Rate (EER) across all datasets and is only 0.026 below the supervised state-of-the-art baseline on the open dataset

Dental Stem Cells: Sources and Potential Applications

In recent years, stem cell research in dentistry has grown rapidly with the potential application for oral and maxillofacial tissue regeneration. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the oral and maxillofacial region are easy to access, have a high proliferation rate, multipotency, and potent immunomodulatory functions. They are excellent cell sources not only for stem cell-based therapy of dental and craniofacial diseases, but also with the potential for the treatment of other inflammatory diseases. In this review, we provide an overview of different types of MSCs that have been isolated and characterized from several origins such as dental pulp, exfoliated deciduous teeth, the periodontal ligament, the dental follicle, the dental papilla, oral mucosa, and gingiva, with the focus on the potential clinical applications for each type of dental stem cell. © 2014, Springer International Publishing AG

Association between work-related health problems and job insecurity in permanent and temporary employees

OBJECTIVES: This research was conducted with an aim of determining the correlation between job insecurity and an employee’s work-related health problems among permanent and temporary workers. METHODS: Using the data from the First Korean Working Conditions Survey conducted in 2006, a total of 7,071 workers, excluding employers and the self-employed, were analyzed. Work-related health problems were categorized as backache, headache, abdominal pain, muscular pain, stress, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety or depression. Each problem was then analyzed for its relationship to job insecurity through logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Among the 7,071 workers, 5,294 (74.9%) were permanent workers and 1,777 (25.1%) were temporary workers. For the permanent workers, presence of high or moderate job insecurity appeared more closely linked to backache, headache, abdominal pain, muscular pain, stress, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, and depression compared to absence of job insecurity. However, for the temporary workers, only depression appeared to be associated with the presence of high job insecurity. CONCLUSION: The study showed that the presence of job insecurity is correlated with work-related health problems. The deleterious effects of job insecurity appeared to be stronger in permanent than temporary workers. Additional research should investigate ways to effectively reduce job insecurity

Case Study on the Enterprise Microblog Usage: Focusing on Knowledge Learning

Knowledge Management Strategy can be classified by codification strategy and personalization strategy (Hansen et. al., 1999), and how to manage the two strategies were always studied. Also, current studies regarding the knowledge management strategy were targeted mostly for major companies, resulting in lack of studies in how it can be applied on SMEs. This research, with the knowledge management strategy suited for SMEs, sets an Enterprise Microblog (EMB), and with the EMB applied on SMEs’ Knowledge Management Strategy, it is reviewed on the perspective of SMEs’ Codification and Personalization Strategies. Through the advanced research regarding Knowledge Management Strategy and EMB, the hypothesis is set that “Depending on the development of the company, the main application of EMB alters from Codification Strategy to Personalization Strategy.” To check the hypothesis, SME that have used the EMB called ‘Yammer’ was analyzed from the data of their foundation until today. The case study has implemented longitudinal analysis which divides the period when the EMBs were used into three stages and analyzes the contents. As the result of the study, this suggests a substantial implication regarding the application of Knowledge Management Strategy and its Knowledge Management System that is suitable for SME