A novel technique for measurement of orthodontic mini-implant stability using the Osstell ISQ device

© 2019 by The EH Angle Education and Research Foundation, Inc. Objectives: To develop and validate a method for application of the Osstell ISQ device in the assessment of mini-implant stability. Materials and Methods: An adaptor was developed for attachment of Osstell\u27s SmartPeg onto a variety of orthodontic mini-implants. For validation of the adaptor, Benefit mini-implants were inserted into bone blocks that mimicked different stability conditions. The Osstell device was used to assess mini-implant stability with the adaptor (test measurement) and conventional SmartPeg attachment (gold-standard measurement). Implant stability quotient (ISQ) values were assessed for agreement, repeatability, and reproducibility. Results: Strong positive correlations were found between ISQ values obtained using the novel adaptor and the conventional attachment. Repeatability and reproducibility of ISQ values with the adaptor were similar to those obtained with the conventional attachment. Conclusions: A method was developed and validated to assess the stability of orthodontic mini-implants using the Osstell system. The novel mini-implant adaptor provided repeatable and reproducible measurements of mini-implant stability, which agreed with those obtained using a conventional SmartPeg attachment. This adaptor permits noninvasive stability assessment of various designs of mini-implants, most of which are incompatible with the conventional SmartPeg attachment

SURVEILLANCE OF MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT UROPATHOGENIC ESCHERICHIA COLI IN HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS AND COMMUNITY SETTINGS IN THE SOUTH OF LEBANON

Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is one of the common infectious diseases in both hospitals as well as community settings; they are recognized to be among the most serious worldwide bacterial infections impacting 150 million people globally every year. The purpose of this study was to assess the changing antibiotics resistance profile for uropathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from community and hospital setting over a period of time (2018–2019) with a special emphasis on ESBL/MDR producing Escherichia coli. A descriptive retrospective study was conducted among patients with uropathogenic Escherichia coli from both community and hospital settings in south Lebanon. Out of 863 patients with positive uropathogenic Escherichia coli, 451 (52.25 %) comes from the community while 412 (47.74 %) came from the hospital settings. Almost 60.83 % are not Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBL), 31.4 % ESBL, and 7.76 % Multiple drug resistance (MDR). The majority of urinary tract infections are related to the female population (78.21 %). The most vulnerable age for both gender to develop UTI belong to elderly population (\u3e64 years) which account 37.19 % of all isolates. Statistically, we observed a high resistance rate toward all antibiotics using in the treatment of urinary tract infections such as Cefixime (45.30 %), Sulfamethoxazole (44.95 %), Ciprofloxacin (38.23 %) and Augmentin (38.93 %). A statistically significant association was observed between risk factors for hospitalized patients and all age categories with (P \u3c 0.05). Susceptibility profiles are critical to be evaluated in countries such as Lebanon where excessive use of antibiotics is observed at all levels. Therefore, this finding is useful for the determination of appropriate antimicrobial treatment in UTI patients that are caused by Escherichia coli and to follow the antimicrobial stewardship program to reduce the rate of resistance toward antibiotics

Expression of a secreted fibroblast growth factor binding protein-1 (FGFBP1) in angioproliferative Kaposi sarcoma

Objective: Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is an angioproliferative disease frequently seen in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Previous studies suggest that the HIV-1 protein Tat and Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF-2) have synergistic angiogenic effects in AIDS-KS tumors. However, the mechanisms by which FGF-2 is released and activated in KS tumors are not clearly defined. We carried out this study to determine whether an FGFbinding protein (FGFBP1 or BP1) that enhances the angiogenic activity of FGF-2 is expressed in AIDS-KS tumors, and to define whether BP1, FGF-2, and HIV-Tat protein-protein interactions could play a potential clinically role in the pathogenesis of AIDS-KS. Methods: BP1 was localized in AIDS-KS lesions by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization studies. The binding of radiolabeled FGF-2 to His-tagged BP1 or the FGF-receptor 1 was assessed in the presence and absence of HIV-Tat and other viral proteins. Mice carrying tetracycline-regulated BP1 transgene mice were used to determine whether activation of BP1 during wound healing induces KS-like lesions. Results: BP1 expression was detected in AIDS-KS tumor keratinocytes, spindle cells, and infiltrating mononuclear cells. In addition, HIV-Tat competed for the binding of FGF-2 to immobilized BP1, but does not affect the interactions of FGF-2 with its high affinity receptor (FGFR-1). In contrast, two other HIV-proteins, Nef and gp120, did not affect the binding of FGF-2 to BP1 or to FGFR-1. Finally, up-regulation of BP1 expression in tetracycline-regulated –conditional BP1 transgenic mice subjected to skin wounds, induced KS-like skin lesions. Conclusion: Taking into consideration the results of previous studies showing that both HIV-Tat and BP1 enhance the mitogenic and angiogenic activity of locally-stored FGF-2, both in vitro and in vivo, our findings suggest a novel mechanism by which the release and activity of FGFs can be modulated in AIDS-KS tumors by HIV-Tat as well as BP1

A survey of uncertainty in deep neural networks

Over the last decade, neural networks have reached almost every field of science and become a crucial part of various real world applications. Due to the increasing spread, confidence in neural network predictions has become more and more important. However, basic neural networks do not deliver certainty estimates or suffer from over- or under-confidence, i.e. are badly calibrated. To overcome this, many researchers have been working on understanding and quantifying uncertainty in a neural network's prediction. As a result, different types and sources of uncertainty have been identified and various approaches to measure and quantify uncertainty in neural networks have been proposed. This work gives a comprehensive overview of uncertainty estimation in neural networks, reviews recent advances in the field, highlights current challenges, and identifies potential research opportunities. It is intended to give anyone interested in uncertainty estimation in neural networks a broad overview and introduction, without presupposing prior knowledge in this field. For that, a comprehensive introduction to the most crucial sources of uncertainty is given and their separation into reducible model uncertainty and irreducible data uncertainty is presented. The modeling of these uncertainties based on deterministic neural networks, Bayesian neural networks (BNNs), ensemble of neural networks, and test-time data augmentation approaches is introduced and different branches of these fields as well as the latest developments are discussed. For a practical application, we discuss different measures of uncertainty, approaches for calibrating neural networks, and give an overview of existing baselines and available implementations. Different examples from the wide spectrum of challenges in the fields of medical image analysis, robotics, and earth observation give an idea of the needs and challenges regarding uncertainties in the practical applications of neural networks. Additionally, the practical limitations of uncertainty quantification methods in neural networks for mission- and safety-critical real world applications are discussed and an outlook on the next steps towards a broader usage of such methods is given

Molybdenum (Mo) increases endogenous phenolics, proline and photosynthetic pigments and the phytoremediation potential of the industrially important plant Ricinus communis L. for removal of cadmium from contaminated soil.

Cadmium (Cd) in agricultural soil negatively affects crops yield and compromises food safety. Remediation of polluted soil is necessary for the re-establishment of sustainable agriculture and to prevent hazards to human health and environmental pollution. Phytoremediation is a promising technology for decontamination of polluted soil. The present study investigated the effect of molybdenum (Mo) (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 ppm) on endogenous production of total phenolics and free proline, plant biomass and photosynthetic pigments in Ricinus communis plants grown in Cd (25, 50 and 100 ppm) contaminated soils and the potential for Cd phytoextraction. Mo was applied via seed soaking, soil addition and foliar spray. Foliar sprays significantly increased plant biomass, Cd accumulation and bioconcentration. Phenolic concentrations showed significantly positive correlations with Cd accumulation in roots (R 2 = 0.793, 0.807 and 0.739) and leaves (R 2 = 0.707, 721 and 0.866). Similarly, proline was significantly positively correlated with Cd accumulation in roots (R 2 = 0.668, 0.694 and 0.673) and leaves (R 2 = 0.831, 0.964 and 0.930). Foliar application was found to be the most effective way to deliver Mo in terms of increase in plant growth, Cd accumulation and production of phenolics and proline

D* Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel $D^{*+}\to (D^0 \to K^- \pi^+) \pi^+$ (+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The $e^+p$ cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with $5<Q^2<100 GeV^2$ and $y<0.7$ is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region {$1.3<p_T(D^{*\pm})<9.0$ GeV and $| \eta(D^{*\pm}) |<1.5$}. Differential cross sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), $\eta(D^{*\pm}), W$ and $Q^2$ are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and $\eta$(D^{*\pm}), the charm contribution $F_2^{c\bar{c}}(x,Q^2)$ to the proton structure function is determined for Bjorken $x$ between 2 $\cdot$ 10$^{-4}$ and 5 $\cdot$ 10$^{-3}$.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure

Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure

A non-tight junction function of claudin-7—Interaction with integrin signaling in suppressing lung cancer cell proliferation and detachment

Background Claudins are a family of tight junction (TJ) membrane proteins involved in a broad spectrum of human diseases including cancer. Claudin-7 is a unique TJ membrane protein in that it has a strong basolateral membrane distribution in epithelial cells and in tissues. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the functional significance of this non-TJ localization of claudin-7 in human lung cancer cells. Methods Claudin-7 expression was suppressed or deleted by lentivirus shRNA or by targeted-gene deletion. Cell cycle analysis and antibody blocking methods were employed to assay cell proliferation and cell attachment, respectively. Electron microscopy and transepthelial electrical resistance measurement were performed to examine the TJ ultrastructure and barrier function. Co-immunolocalization and co-immunoprecipitation was used to study claudin-7 interaction with integrin β1. Tumor growth in vivo were analyzed using athymic nude mice. Results Claudin-7 co-localizes and forms a stable complex with integrin β1. Both suppressing claudin-7 expression by lentivirus shRNA in human lung cancer cells (KD cells) and deletion of claudin-7 in mouse lungs lead to the reduction in integrin β1 and phospho-FAK levels. Suppressing claudin-7 expression increases cell growth and cell cycle progression. More significantly, claudin-7 KD cells have severe defects in cell-matrix interactions and adhere poorly to culture plates with a remarkably reduced integrin β1 expression. When cultured on uncoated glass coverslips, claudin-7 KD cells grow on top of each other and form spheroids while the control cells adhere well and grow as a monolayer. Reintroducing claudin-7 reduces cell proliferation, upregulates integrin β1 expression and increases cell-matrix adhesion. Integrin β1 transfection partially rescues the cell attachment defect. When inoculated into nude mice, claudin-7 KD cells produced significantly larger tumors than control cells. Conclusion In this study, we identified a previously unrecognized function of claudin-7 in regulating cell proliferation and maintaining epithelial cell attachment through engaging integrin β1

Observation of hard scattering in photoproduction events with a large rapidity gap at HERA

Events with a large rapidity gap and total transverse energy greater than 5 GeV have been observed in quasi-real photoproduction at HERA with the ZEUS detector. The distribution of these events as a function of the $\gamma p$ centre of mass energy is consistent with diffractive scattering. For total transverse energies above 12 GeV, the hadronic final states show predominantly a two-jet structure with each jet having a transverse energy greater than 4 GeV. For the two-jet events, little energy flow is found outside the jets. This observation is consistent with the hard scattering of a quasi-real photon with a colourless object in the proton.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 4 figures appended as uuencoded fil