Search results for "math"
showing 10 items of 25151 documents
In vitro comparison of passive and continuous ultrasonic irrigation in curved root canals
2016
BACKGROUND The efficacy of endodontic irrigation procedures can be compromised by the complexity of the root canal system. Delivering irrigants to the apical third of curved canals presents a particular challenge to endodontists. This study compared the effects of two ultrasonic irrigation techniques on the penetration of sodium hypochlorite into the main canal and simulated lateral canals of curved roots in extracted teeth. MATERIAL AND METHODS Two sets of simulated lateral canals were created at 2, 4, and 6 mm from the working length in 60 single-rooted teeth (6 canals/tooth, n = 360 canals). The teeth were randomly divided into three experimental irrigation groups: group 1 (n = 20), posi…
Linear-time sequence comparison using minimal absent words & applications
2016
Sequence comparison is a prerequisite to virtually all comparative genomic analyses. It is often realized by sequence alignment techniques, which are computationally expensive. This has led to increased research into alignment-free techniques, which are based on measures referring to the composition of sequences in terms of their constituent patterns. These measures, such as q-gram distance, are usually computed in time linear with respect to the length of the sequences. In this article, we focus on the complementary idea: how two sequences can be efficiently compared based on information that does not occur in the sequences. A word is an absent word of some sequence if it does not occur in…
Association between Leptin and Complement in Hepatitis C Patients with Viral Clearance: Homeostasis of Metabolism and Immunity
2016
Background The association between leptin and complement in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains unknown. Methods A prospective study was conducted including 474 (250 genotype 1, 224 genotype 2) consecutive chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients who had completed an anti-HCV therapy course and undergone pre-therapy and 24-week post-therapy assessments of interferon λ3-rs12979860 and HCV RNA/genotypes, anthropometric measurements, metabolic and liver profiles, and complement component 3 (C3), C4, and leptin levels. Results Of the 474 patients, 395 had a sustained virological response (SVR). Pre-therapy leptin levels did not differ between patients with and without an SVR. Univariate and mul…
Studying Tumor-ReacTive T Cells: A Personalized Organoid Model.
2018
Cancer immunotherapies have shown substantial clinical activity for a subset of patients with epithelial cancers. Still, technological platforms to study cancer – T cell interactions for individual patients, and understand determinants of responsiveness, are presently lacking. Here, we establish and validate a platform to induce and analyze tumor-specific T cell responses for epithelial cancers in a personalized manner. We demonstrate that co-cultures of autologous tumor organoids and peripheral blood lymphocytes can be used to enrich for tumor-reactive T cells from peripheral blood of patients with mismatch repair deficient colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Furthermore, we …
Interactions between immune challenges and cancer cells proliferation: timing does matter!
2015
Using first a theoretical framework, we show that repeated short immune challenges could impact the accumulation of cancerous cells through continuous perturbation of immune system efficiency. We discuss for a new indirect role for infectious disease in cancer progression.
The Potential Role of Direct and Indirect Contacts on Infection Spread in Dairy Farm Networks.
2017
Animals’ exchanges are considered the most effective route of between-farm infectious disease transmission. However, despite being often overlooked, the infection spread due to contaminated equipment, vehicles, or personnel proved to be important for several livestock epidemics. This study investigated the role of indirect contacts in a potential infection spread in the dairy farm network of the Province of Parma (Northern Italy). We built between-farm contact networks using data on cattle exchange (direct contacts), and on-farm visits by veterinarians (indirect contacts). We compared the features of the contact structures by using measures on static and temporal networks. We assessed the d…
Expression quantitative trait loci for PAX8 contributes to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma
2017
Paired-box family member PAX8 encodes a transcription factor that has a role in cell differentiation and cell growth and may participate in the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). By bioinformatics analysis, we identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within a newly identified long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) AC016683.6 as expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) for PAX8. Hence, we hypothesized that PAX8eQTLs in lncRNA AC016683.6 may influence the HCC prognosis. We then performed a case-only study to assess the association between the two SNPs as well as the prognosis of HCC in 331 HBV-positive HCC patients without surgical treatment. Cox proportional hazard models …
Selection of the Optimal Algorithm for Real-Time Estimation of Beta Band Power during DBS Surgeries in Patients with Parkinson's Disease
2017
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure for the treatment of motor disorders in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). DBS involves the application of controlled electrical stimuli to a given brain structure. The implantation of the electrodes for DBS is performed by a minimally invasive stereotactic surgery where neuroimaging and microelectrode recordings (MER) are used to locate the target brain structure. The Subthalamic Nucleus (STN) is often chosen for the implantation of stimulation electrodes in DBS therapy. During the surgery, an intraoperative validation is performed to locate the dorsolateral region of STN. Patients with PD reveal a high power in the β band (frequenc…
Objective Assessment of Nuclear and Cortical Cataracts through Scheimpflug Images: Agreement with the LOCS III Scale.
2016
Purpose To assess nuclear and cortical opacities through the objective analysis of Scheimpflug images, and to check the correlation with the Lens Opacity Classification System III (LOCS III). Methods Nuclear and cortical opacities were graded according to the LOCS III rules after pupil dilation. The maximum and average pixel intensity values along an elliptical mask within the lens nucleus were taken to analyse nuclear cataracts. A new metric based on the percentage of opaque pixels within a region of interest was used to analyse cortical cataracts. The percentage of opaque pixels was also calculated for half, third and quarter areas from the region of interest’s periphery. Results The maxi…
On the role of material properties in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms
2019
One of the obstacles standing before the biomechanical analysis of an ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) is the difficulty in obtaining patient-specific material properties. This study aimed to evaluate differences on ATAA-related stress predictions resulting from the elastostatic analysis based on the optimization of arbitrary material properties versus the application of patient-specific material properties determined from ex-vivo biaxial testing. Specifically, the elastostatic analysis relies the on the fact that, if the aortic wall stress does not depend on material properties, the aorta has to be statistically determinate. Finite element analysis (FEA) was applied to a group of …