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Digital dentistry plays a pivotal role in dental health care. A critical step in many digital dental systems is to accurately delineate individual teeth and the gingiva in the 3-dimension intraoral scanned mesh data. However, previous state-of-the-art methods are either time-consuming or error prone, hence hindering their clinical applicability. This article presents an accurate, efficient, and fully automated deep learning model trained on a data set of 4,000 intraoral scanned data annotated by experienced human experts. On a holdout data set of 200 scans, our model achieves a per-face accuracy, average-area accuracy, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 96.94%, 98.26%, and 0.9991, respectively, significantly outperforming the state-of-the-art baselines. In addition, our model takes only about 24 s to generate segmentation outputs, as opposed to >5 min by the baseline and 15 min by human experts. A clinical performance test of 500 patients with malocclusion and/or abnormal teeth shows that 96.9% of the segmentations are satisfactory for clinical applications, 2.9% automatically trigger alarms for human improvement, and only 0.2% of them need rework. Our research demonstrates the potential for deep learning to improve the efficacy and efficiency of dental treatment and digital dentistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) can improve the growth performance of bulls. This study investigated the influences of GAA addition on growth, nutrient digestion, ruminal fermentation and serum metabolites in bulls. Forty-eight Angus bulls were randomly allocated to experimental treatments, that is, control, low-GAA (LGAA), medium-GAA (MGAA) and high-GAA (HGAA), with GAA supplementation at 0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 g/kg DM, respectively. Bulls were fed a basal diet containing 500 g/kg DM concentrate and 500 g/kg DM roughage. The experimental period was 104 days, with 14 days for adaptation and 90 days for data collection. Bulls in the MGAA and HGAA groups had higher DM intake and average daily gain than bulls in the LGAA and control groups. The feed conversion ratio was lowest in MGAA and highest in the control. Bulls receiving 0.9 g/kg DM GAA addition had higher digestibility of DM, organic matter, NDF and ADF than bulls in other groups. The digestibility of CP was higher for HGAA than for LGAA and control. The ruminal pH was lower for MGAA, and the total volatile fatty acid concentration was greater for MGAA and HGAA than for the control. The acetate proportion and acetate-to-propionate ratio were lower for MGAA than for LGAA and control. The propionate proportion was higher for MGAA than for control. Bulls receiving GAA addition showed decreased ruminal ammonia N. Bulls in MGAA and HGAA had higher cellobiase, pectinase and protease activities and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens , Prevotella ruminicola and Ruminobacter amylophilus populations than bulls in LGAA and control. However, the total protozoan population was lower for MGAA and HGAA than for LGAA and control. The total bacterial and Ruminococcus flavefaciens populations increased with GAA addition. The blood level of creatine was higher for HGAA, and the activity of l -arginine glycine amidine transferase was lower for MGAA and HGAA, than for control. The blood activity of guanidine acetate N-methyltransferase and the level of folate decreased in the GAA addition groups. The results indicated that dietary addition of 0.6 or 0.9 g/kg DM GAA improved growth performance, nutrient digestion and ruminal fermentation in bulls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: Psychosocial concerns represent important outcomes in studies of treatments for acne and acne scarring. Also important, but largely overlooked, is the concept of appearance. Objectives: To design an acne‐specific patient‐reported outcome measure for acne and acne scarring. Methods: We used a mixed‐methods approach. Phase I involved 21 patient interviews that were audio‐recorded, transcribed and coded. Concepts were identified and developed into scales that were refined through 10 cognitive interviews and input from 16 clinical experts. Phase II involved data collection at hospital and community‐based dermatology clinics in Canada and the U.S.A. Eligible participants were aged 12 years and older with acne and/or acne scars on the face, chest and/or back. Rasch Measurement Theory (RMT) analyses were performed to examine psychometric properties. Results: Phase I led to the development of seven scales that measure appearance of facial skin, acne (face, chest and back) and acne scars, acne‐specific symptoms and appearance‐related distress. In phase II, 256 patients completed the ACNE‐Q. RMT analysis provided evidence that the items of each scale worked together conceptually and statistically. Most participants scored within the range of measurement for each scale (81·9–93·1%). Reliability was high, with person separation index values and Cronbach alpha values > 0·90 for the appearance scales, ≥ 0·87 for appearance‐related distress and ≥ 0·75 for symptoms. Worse scores on appearance scales correlated with worse symptom scores and more appearance‐related distress. Conclusions: The ACNE‐Q is a rigorously developed instrument that can be used to measure appearance and other patient‐centred concerns. What's already known about this topic? Acne is a common dermatological condition that can have an important impact on psychosocial function.Current patient‐reported outcome measures specific to acne focus mostly on measuring psychological and social impact. What does this study add? The ACNE‐Q provides a set of independently functioning scales that measure appearance of facial, back and chest acne, acne scarring and facial skin.Additional scales measure appearance‐related distress and acne symptoms. What are the clinical implications of this work? ACNE‐Q provides the dermatology community with a rigorously developed patient‐reported measure for acne that can be applied in clinical trials, research and patient care.The measurement of appearance by ACNE‐Q scales is more comprehensive than in other instruments providing important information on appearance of their acne and/or acne scars from the patient perspective. Respond to this article Linked Comment: Gabes. Br J Dermatol 2019; 181:1121–1122. Plain language summary available online [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar (BC) application could improve plant nitrogen (N) utilisation and potentially reduce N fertiliser requirements. However, the fate of N in crop–soil systems and the metabolic responses of crops under conditions of BC co‐applied with reduced N are not well understood.The urea‐15N isotope and pot experiments with three BC rates (0%, 5% and 15%; w/w) combined with three N fertiliser levels (100% N, 85% N and 55% N) were conducted for maize. The metabolome, 15N abundance and gene expression in plants were analysed using nuclear magnetic resonance, gas isotope mass spectrometry and quantitative real‐time reverse transcription PCR, respectively.The results showed that recovery of N by maize ranged from 27.4% to 23.6% and decreased as the N application rate decreased (from 100% to 55%) without BC addition, but ranged from 24.6% to 29.4% when BC was added at a rate of 5% and increased as the N application rate decreased. BC addition had major effects on global metabolic profiles and metabolic networks at the metabolomics level as well as on the expression of related genes (zmGS1and zmAS1) and the content of mineral N (NO3−, NO2− and NH4+) in maize seedlings; moreover, the interaction effects of the BC application rates and N fertiliser levels were evident (P ≤ 0.001).BC addition induced a decrease in the flux toward sugar hydrolysis and maintained homeostasis in the amino acid pool, which was perturbed by reduced N levels; after which the maize plants adapted to the reduced N condition, and the N recovery efficiency ultimately improved with reduced N loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The aim of this study was to analyze brain functional connectivity and its relationship to cognition in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Methods: Twenty-five patients with mTBI and 25 healthy control subjects were studied using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). Amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) and functional connectivity (FC) were calculated and correlated with cognition. Results: Compared with the normal control group, the mTBI patients showed a significant decrease in working memory index (WMI) and processing speed index (PSI), as well as significantly decreased ALFFs in the cingulate gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. In contrast, the mTBI patients' ALFFs in the left middle occipital gyrus, the left precuneus, and lingual gyrus increased. Additionally, FC significantly decreased in the thalamus, caudate nucleus, and right hippocampus in the mTBI patients. Statistical analysis further showed a significant positive correlation between the ALFF in the cingulate gyrus and the WMI ( R = 0.423, P < 0.05) and a significant positive correlation between the FC in the left thalamus and left middle frontal gyrus and the WMI ( R = 0.381, P < 0.05). Conclusion: rs-fMRI can reveal the functional state of the brain in patients with mTBI. This finding differed from observations of the normal control group and was significantly associated with clinical cognitive dysfunction. Therefore, rs-fMRI offers an objective imaging modality for treatment planning and prognosis assessment in patients with mTBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is hypoxic, which plays an important role in maintaining their self-renewal potential and undifferentiated state. MSCs have been proven to possess immunomodulatory properties and have been used clinically to treat autoimmune diseases. Here, we tested the effects of hypoxia on the immunomodulatory properties of MSCs and examined its possible underlying mechanisms. We found that hypoxic stimulation promoted the immunomodulatory properties of human gingiva–derived mesenchymal stem cells (hGMSCs) by enhancing the suppressive effects of hGMSCs on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The proliferation of PBMCs was significantly inhibited, while the apoptosis of PBMCs was increased, which was associated with the Fas ligand (FasL) expression of hGMSCs. The in vivo study showed that systemically infused hGMSCs could enhance skin wound repair, and 24-h hypoxic stimulation significantly promoted the reparative capacity of hGMSCs. For mechanism, hGMSC treatment inhibited the local inflammation of injured skin by suppressing the inflammatory cells, reducing the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and increasing anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10), which was promoted by hypoxia. Hypoxia preconditioning may be a good optimizing method to promote the potential of MSCs for the future cell-based therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology is used to model a spouted bed(SB). The multifluid Eulerian-Eulerian approach based on kinetic theory of granular flows and Gidaspow's drag model for the interaction between gas and particles are applied in the modeling. The effects of the SB properties—that is, cone angle, particle size, cylinder diameter, and static bed height of particles—on its dynamics performance are investigated. The simulated results—that is, flow pattern of particles, fountain height, voidage, and particle velocity of the spout zone—are presented. It is shown that periodic fluctuation of spouting appears in an SB with conical angle of 30° and inlet velocity at 16.6 m/s. When the SB cylinder diameter becomes 0.52 m, periodic fluctuation appears, too. The stable spouting of the SB with a 90° cone angle could be obtained at an inlet air velocity of 24.3 m/s. The fountain height of particles decreased with an increase in particle size and the static bed height of particles. It is kept at about 0.19 m when different SB cylinder diameters in the range of 0.36 to 0.48 m are used. In the spouting region, the voidage decreased with static particle height in bed, but the particle velocity increased. For a certain particle size, the voidage decreased with an increase in particle height, but the velocity of the particles increased. It was also found that the cylinder diameter did not affect the volume fraction of particles except for the cylinder diameter 0.52 m and the change in particle velocity was minimal in the spout zone. With the different static bed height of particles used, the voidage and particle velocity did not change much at the same level of spout zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A generalized formulation of Cauchy method for multiplexer rational model extraction is presented in this paper. This new technique can extract the multiplexer rational models from either measurement or electromagnetic simulation results. The generalized formulation of Cauchy method takes into account the relationship between the transmission coefficients and reflection coefficients of each channel filter. It is suitable for multiplexers whose chan-nel filters are connected through resonating junction. The total least square method is applied to solve the system matrix. The new technique presented in this paper is suitable for lossless case as well as lossy case and is verified by lossless triplexer and circuit simu-lation lossy triplexer examples successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The detection of crack initiation in steel Q235, 16MnR and 20 g was carried out by metal magnetic memory (MMM) technique. Fifty specimens of welded and base metal were tested. Both MMM testing and metallographic examination were done to them when unloaded at the different phase of high-cycle fatigue testing, and hence MMM signals before and after crack initiation could be recorded. The values of magnetic intensity gradient were calculated, and whose critical value was determined and proposed for early defects detection. The results show that the magnetic intensity (Hp) curve became concave responding to the occurrence of stress concentration, and its gradient (dHp/dx) increased greatly; at the critical dHp/dx, no change occurred to the microstructure, but beyond the critical value, dHp/dx increased suddenly and a large number of intragranular slips were found in the microstructure. Three different kinds of materials have different critical values of magnetic intensity gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Banna miniature pig (BNMP) is a representative miniature pig breed in China. Even though BNMP dwarfism is obvious, its underlying causative mutations remain unknown. In this study, the BNMP and Large White pig (LWP) serum growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) levels were detected by ELISA and compared. BNMP serum IGF-1 levels were significantly lower than LWP levels (P<0.05). The miniature condition may arise from mutations in the GH and GH receptor (GHR) genes. Therefore, GH and GHR cDNA from the BNMP were cloned into a pMD18-T vector by RT-PCR using the total RNA obtained from the BNMP's pituitary and liver tissues. Sequencing results indicated that the open reading frame of the BNMP GH gene is composed of a 26-residue signal peptide and a 191-residue mature peptide. The coding sequence of the BNMP GHR gene contained 639 amino acids, including a signal peptide that is 18 amino acids long. Two amino acid substitutions, A09V and R22Q, were found in the signal peptide of the GH gene. Additionally, the S104P mutation was found in the BNMP's mature GH protein. Four mutations in the cytoplasmic domain of GHR may influence the downstream signal transduction of GHR, which needs further experimental evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyamines play a variety of physiological roles in plant growth and development. To investigate whether exogenous putrescine (Put) has roles in protecting plants against salt stress, Put (100 μ M) was added to nutrient solution three days before cucumber (Cucumis sativusL. cv. “Jinyan No.4') seedlings were exposed to 100 mM sodium chloride (NaCl) treatment. Putrescine treatment significantly ameliorated the detrimental effects of NaCl on root growth and this was associated with a decrease of Na uptake and an increase in potassium accumulation in roots. Manganese (Mn) content in roots was decreased by salinity stress but increased by Put pretreatment. Furthermore, osmotic stress associated with NaCl treatment decreased leaf water potential and water content, while these effects were alleviated by Put pretreatment. The decreases in net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and stomatal conductance (Gs) by NaCl were also diminished by Put treatment. The results indicate that Put may play an important role in protecting cucumber plants against salt stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytoene synthase (Psy), a critical enzyme in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, demonstrated high association with the yellow pigment (YP) content in wheat grain. Characterization of Psy genes and the development of functional markers for them are of importance for marker-assisted selection in wheat breeding. In this study, the full-length genomic DNA sequence of a Psy gene ( Psy-A1) located on chromosome 7A, was characterized by in silico cloning and experimental validation. The cloned Psy-A1 comprises six exons and five introns, 4,175 bp in total, and an ORF of 1,284 bp. A co-dominant marker, YP7A, was developed based on polymorphisms of two haplotypes of Psy-A1, yielding 194 and 231-bp fragments in cultivars with high and low YP content, respectively. The marker YP7A was mapped on chromosome 7AL using an RIL population from cross PH82-2/Neixing 188, and a set of Chinese Spring nullisomic–tetrasomic lines and ditelosomic line 7AS. Psy-A1, co-segregating with the STS marker YP7A, was linked to SSR marker Xwmc809 on chromosome 7AL with a genetic distance of 5.8 cM, and explained 20–28% of the phenotypic variance for YP content across three environments. A total of 217 Chinese wheat cultivars and advanced lines were used to validate the association between the polymorphic band pattern and grain YP content. The results showed that the functional marker YP7A was closely related to grain YP content and, therefore, could be used in wheat breeding programs targeting of YP content for various wheat-based products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Split root solution culture experiments were conducted to study the effects of the rare earth element lanthanum (La) on rice (Oryza sativa) growth, nutrient uptake and distribution. Results showed that low concentrations of La could promote rice growth including yield (0.05 mg L-1 to 1.5 mg L-1), dry root weight (0.05 mg L-1 to 0.75 mg L-1) and grain numbers (0.05 mg L-1 to 6 mg L-1). High concentrations depressed grain formation (9 mg L-1 to 30 mg L-1) and root elongation (1.5 mg L-1 to 30 mg L-1). No significant influence on straw dry weight was found over the whole concentration range except for the 0.05 mg L-1 treatment. In the pot and field experiments, the addition of La had no significant influence on rice growth.Lanthanum had variable influence on nutrient uptake in different parts of rice. Low concentrations (0.05 mg L-1 to 0.75 mg L-1) increased the root copper (Cu), iron (Fe), and magnesium (Mg), and grain Cu, calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), manganese (Mn), and Mg uptake. High concentrations (9 to 30 mg L-1) decreased the grain Ca, zinc (Zn), P, Mn, Fe and Mg, and straw Ca, Mn, and Mg uptake. With increasing La concentration, root Zn, P, Mn, Cu, and Ca concentrations increased, and grain Ca and Fe, and straw Mn, Mg, and Ca concentrations decreased. Possible reasons are discussed for the differences between the effects of La in nutrient solutions and in pot and field experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a deteriorating simple repairable system with k + 1 states, including k failure states and one working state, is studied. The system after repair is not 'as good as new' and the deterioration of the system is stochastic. Under these assumptions, we study a replacement policy, called policy N, based on the failure number of the system. The objective is to maximize the long-run expected profit per unit time. The explicit expression of the long-run expected profit per unit time is derived and the corresponding optimal solution may be determined analytically or numerically. Furthermore, we prove that the model for the multistate system in this paper forms a general monotone process model which includes the geometric process repair model as a special case. A numerical example is given to illustrate the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen in percolation water was observed in paddy field soil under rice/wheat rotation. Different N-application rates were designed. Porous pipes were installed in triplicate at depths of 30, 60 and 90 cm to collect the water in the period of wheat growth. Suction cups were installed in triplicate at the same depths to collect the water during the period of rice growth. NH4 +, NO3 - and total N in the water were analysed with a continuous-flow nitrogen analyzer. Results showed that nitrate was the predominant form of nitrogen in percolation water during the period of wheat growth. Nitrate leaching was high in early spring after the `tillering fertilisation'. More than 50 mg l-1 of nitrate concentration in percolation water was observed for 30 and 60 cm in depth and more than 15 mg l-1 were observed for 90 cm. The concentration decreased quickly and was very low, less than 2 mg l-1 usually, in the earring stage of wheat. Nitrate in water was low, less than 1.5 mg l-1 usually, when the field was flooded during the period of rice growth. Some soluble organic N existed in the water. Nitrate in percolation water increased when the field was drained. The leaching loss of nitrogen during winter wheat growth period was estimated to be about 3.4% of the N-fertiliser applied at the normal application rate of farmers; for the rice growth period it was around 1.8%. Although a reduced N-application decreased N leaching, it caused a marked decrease in crop yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Summary: Acne is a common skin condition that affects many adolescents and adults. This study, from Canada and the USA, aimed to create a patient‐reported outcome measure (i.e., questionnaire) called the ACNE‐Q. Patient‐reported outcome measures have many uses, for example they can be used before and after a treatment to assess any improvement in a patient's symptoms, or their quality of care. The ACNE‐Q measures outcomes that matter to people with acne. To develop the ACNE‐Q, the authors interviewed 21 people with acne and acne scars to identify their concerns. From this information, the authors drafted seven scales that measure appearance (of facial, chest and back acne, acne scars and facial skin), symptoms and appearance‐related distress. The scales were shown to 10 patients and 16 experts to make sure they were easy to understand and covered the issues that matter the most to patients. The authors then tested the ACNE‐Q in a sample of 256 patients with acne and/or acne scars. The research team found that the seven scales worked well (were reliable and valid). The ACNE‐Q can now be used in research to measure change in appearance, symptoms and distress following treatment for acne and/or acne scars. The ACNE‐Q can also be used by healthcare providers with their patients to identify concerns, and in shared decision‐making. Linked Article: Klassen et al. Br J Dermatol 2019; 181:1207–1215 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]