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The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare leveling of the curve of Spee (COS) achieved by traditional fixed appliances and Invisalign clear aligners (Align Technology, Santa Clara, Calif).This retrospective study involved 2 groups of subjects with an increased COS depth. Patients treated with the Invisalign system (I group) and patients treated with the standard edgewise full-fixed appliance (F group). The I group included 30 subjects (13 males, 17 females; mean age, 24 years 5 months ± 19 months). The F group included 32 subjects (12 males, 20 females; mean age, 22 years 4 months ± 21 months). The 2 groups were matched for sex, age, vertical pattern, and observation period. Pretreatment (T0) and posttreatment (T1) lateral cephalograms were analyzed. COS depth was measured on digital dental casts. The intragroup variation between T0 and T1 was analyzed with a paired t test. The intergroup variation was evaluated using an unpaired t test.The leveling of COS was statistically significant, comparing T0 and T1 within the groups. The F group presented a statistically significant extrusion of posterior teeth, with a flaring of the mandibular incisors. The I group showed a statistically significant intrusion of the mandibular incisors, with excellent control in the proclination of incisors during the intrusion movement.Traditional continuous archwire treatment and the Invisalign system effectively level the COS.

Background Gender-related cardiac mechanics following the electrical activity has been investigated from basic to clinical research, but results are still controversial. The aim of this work is to study the gender related cardiac mechanics and to focus on its heart rate dependency. Methods We employed 12 Sprague Dawley rats (5 males and 7 females) of the same age and, through a novel high resolution artificial vision contactless approach, we evaluated in-situ cardiac kinematic. The hearts were paced on the right atria appendage via cathodal stimuli at rising frequency. Results Kinematic data obtained at rising pacing rates are different between male and female rat hearts: male tended to maintain the same level of cardiac force, energy and contractility, while female responded with an increment of such parameters at increasing heart rate. Female hearts preserved their pattern of contraction and epicardial torsion (vorticity) at rising pacing rates compared to male. Furthermore, we observed a difference in the mechanical restitution: systolic time vs. diastolic time, as an index of cardiac performance, reached higher value in male compared to female hearts. Conclusion Our innovative technology was capable to evaluate in-situ rat epicardial kinematic at high stimulation frequency, revealing that male preserved kinematic parameters but varying the pattern of contraction/relaxation. On the contrary, female preserved the pattern of contraction/relaxation increasing kinematic parameters.

Developing and implementing a rehabilitation program is one of the most challenging patient care skills because it requires a firm grasp of the healing process and available treatment options, which must then be serially compared with the pathologic condition of the injury and the patient's progress. This cyclical problem-based approach to rehabilitation allows clinicians to most effectively individualize the rehabilitation plan to the patient's individual needs and progress. In each phase of the rehabilitation process, problems should be identified and goals developed taking into consideration the phase of healing.

The Magellanic Sub-Antarctic Channels ecoregion supports one of the greatest number of macroalgae species in South America. In this ecoregion, the majority of macroalgae research has been associated with spatial ecology. In contrast, the temporal scale has received little attention. Here, we report the seasonal changes of taxa richness, wet biomass and assemblage structure for intertidal macroalgae in Robalo Bay (55 °S), situated within the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. Overall, forty-nine macroalgae taxa were identified. We found a higher taxa richness and wet biomass in the summer than in the winter, but the strength of seasonal variations varied spatially across intertidal sites and levels. A similar seasonal pattern was detected with multivariate analysis. The seasonal changes are explained by the rise of seasonal algae such as Adenocystis utricularis. In turn, we found temporally-persistent algae such as Ceramium virgatum and Nothogenia fastigiata which did not show sharp seasonal variation. In conclusion, we suggest that macroalgal seasonality might be strongly modulated by coupled factors such as light, nutrient availability, sea surface temperature, relative humidity, and species composition. These factors would support an increase of taxa richness and wet biomass in the summertime on the rocky shores in high latitudes of South America.

Background: Single-agent taxanes are commonly used as salvage systemic therapy for patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). Objective: To study the impact of combination chemotherapy delivering a taxane plus other chemotherapeutic agents compared with single-agent taxane as salvage therapy. Design, setting, and participants: Individual patient-level data from phase 2 trials of salvage systemic therapy were used. Interventions: Trials evaluating either single agents (paclitaxel or docetaxel) or combination chemotherapy (taxane plus one other chemotherapeutic agent or more) following prior platinum-based therapy were used. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: Information regarding the known major baseline prognostic factors was required: time from prior chemotherapy, hemoglobin, performance status, albumin, and liver metastasis status. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the association of prognostic factors and combination versus single-agent chemotherapy with overall survival (OS). Results and limitations: Data were available from eight trials including 370 patients; two trials (n = 109) evaluated single-agent chemotherapy with docetaxel (n = 72) and cremophor-free paclitaxel (n = 37), and six trials (n = 261) evaluated combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine-paclitaxel (two trials, with n = 99 and n = 24), paclitaxel-cyclophosphamide (n = 32), paclitaxel-ifosfamide-nedaplatin (n = 45), docetaxelifosfamide-cisplatin (n = 26), and paclitaxel-epirubicin (n = 35). On multivariable analysis after adjustment for baseline prognostic factors, combination chemotherapy was independently and significantly associated with improved OS (hazard ratio: 0.60; 95% confidence interval, 0.45-0.82; p = 0.001). The retrospective design of this analysis and the trial-eligible population were inherent limitations. Conclusions: Patients enrolled in trials of combination chemotherapy exhibited improved OS compared with patients enrolled in trials of single-agent chemotherapy as salvage therapy for advanced UC. Prospective randomized trials are required to validate a potential role for rational and tolerable combination chemotherapeutic regimens for the salvage therapy of advanced UC. Patient summary: This retrospective study suggests that a combination of chemotherapy agents may extend survival compared with single-agent chemotherapy in selected patients with metastatic urothelial cancer progressing after prior chemotherapy. (C) 2015 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

New Jersey law requires police officers to document motor vehicle collisions on a standardized form known as NJTR-1. The data collected via this form contain detailed information about motor vehicle crashes as well as drivers, vehicles & pedestrians involved in crashes, a valuable, but often underutilized resource for studying road safety in New Jersey. This paper presents njtr1, an R package that enables road safety and urban planning research in New Jersey by facilitating the easy download, automated cleaning and analysis of the raw crash table data published by the New Jersey Department of Transportation using the R programming language.

The increasing penetration of distributed renewable energy sources involves the development of efficient energy storage solutions. Hydrogen is a viable alternative, or complement, to electric batteries for long-term and high-capacity storage. This article assesses the benefits of hydrogen storage in microporous adsorption materials at room temperature. The integrated Power-to-Power system dynamic behavior is modelled. We assessed the system performance looking at hydrogen adsorption in four porous materials (MSC-30, IRMOF-1, NU-110, and C/Be2) at room temperature for high-storage capacity. Hydrogen storage in an empty pressurized vessel by means of mechanical compression only is evaluated for comparison of the previous cases. The best performance in terms of tank volume size and round-trip efficiency are obtained by adopting adsorbent materials as follows: C/Be2 > IRMOF-1 > NU-110 > MSC-30 > empty storage. Indeed, under the same operating conditions, the volume size of the storage tank is reduced by 38 to 88% compared to the empty vessel, and the round-trip efficiency gain ranges between 0.6 and 2.8 percentage points according to the properties of the adsorbent material. Finally, by filling the storage tank with adsorbent materials the DOE targets are met at a pressure from 45% (MSC-30) to 83% (C/Be2) lower than in an empty tank.

Older patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) are under-represented in clinical trials, and data regarding outcomes for second-line therapy is limited.Individual data for patients with metastatic UC, aged ≥ 70 years, were pooled from 10 second-line studies. The influence of potential prognostic factors on overall survival (OS) was assessed via univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis.In total, 102 patients were included; the median age was 74.0 years (range, 70-88 years). Second-line chemotherapy was single-agent in 42 (41%) patients and combination regimens in 60 (59%) patients. Median progression-free and OS were 4.3 and 9.7 months, respectively. In multivariate analysis, age75 years, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≥ 1, serum hemoglobin 10 g/dL, and non-lymph node only metastasis predicted inferior OS. Median OS for patients with 0, 1, 2, and ≥ 3 adverse factors was unreached, 15.5, 9.8, and 4.8 months, respectively (P .001). There was no difference in OS between patients treated with single-agent or combination chemotherapy. Combination regimens were associated with higher occurrences of any ≥ grade 2 toxicity (80% vs. 38%; P .001), ≥ grade 2 hematologic (78% vs. 12%; P .001), and ≥ grade 2 gastrointestinal toxicity (36% vs. 7%; P .001).In this pooled analysis of older patients with metastatic UC, combination chemotherapy for second-line treatment was associated with greater toxicity without improvement in OS. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≥1, serum hemoglobin 10 g/dL, and age75 years predicted worse survival, whereas isolated lymph node metastasis predicted a favorable outcome.

In primates, neural mechanisms for controlling skilled hand actions primarily rely on sensorimotor transformations. These transformations are mediated by circuits linking specific inferior parietal with ventral premotor areas in which sensory coding of objects' features automatically triggers appropriate hand motor programs. Recently, connectional studies in macaques showed that these parietal and premotor areas are nodes of a large-scale cortical network, designated as "lateral grasping network," including specific temporal and prefrontal sectors involved in object recognition and executive functions, respectively. These data extend grasping models so far proposed in providing a possible substrate for interfacing perceptual, cognitive, and hand-related sensorimotor processes for controlling hand actions based on object identity, goals, and memory-based or contextual information and for the contribution of motor signals to cognitive motor functions. Human studies provided evidence for a possible counterpart of the macaque lateral grasping network, suggesting that in primate evolution the neural mechanisms for controlling hand actions described in the macaque have been retained and exploited for the emergence of human-specific motor and cognitive motor capacities.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) assigns unique identifiers for postal service areas known as ZIP codes which are commonly used to identify cities and regions throughout the United States in datasets. Despite the widespread use of ZIP codes, there are challenges in using them for geospatial analysis in the social sciences. This paper presents zipcodeR, an R package that facilitates analysis of ZIP code-level data by providing an offline database of ZIP codes and functions for geocoding, normalizing and retrieving data about ZIP codes and relating them to other geographies in R without depending on any external services.

Two types of domestic water buffalo are currently recognized: the river buffalo from the Indian subcontinent and Mediterranean countries and the swamp buffalo from China and Southeast Asia. To test the hypothesis of two separate species of water buffalo, we sequenced the genome of the lowland anoa, Bubalus depressicornis, which is a dwarf wild buffalo endemic to Sulawesi, and two genomes of swamp buffalo, and made comparisons with 12 additional genomes. Three genomic data sets were constructed to infer phylogenetic relationships: the mitochondrial genome (15,468 bp; maternal transmission), two concatenated Y-chromosomal genes, AMELY and DDX3Y (20,036 bp; paternal transmission), and a selection of 30 nuclear genes representing all cattle chromosomes (364,887 bp; biparental transmission). The comparisons between our 30 nuclear gene sequences obtained by read mapping and those directly extracted from Bos taurus and Bubalus bubalis genome assemblies show that the mapping approach revealed higher levels of heterozygosity at both nucleotide sites and indels (insertions and deletions) (0.09–0.15%), as well as several sequence errors (0.07%). Our phylogenetic and molecular dating analyses provide strong evidence that the lowland anoa, river buffalo, and swamp buffalo are three distinct taxa which separated rapidly from each other during the Pleistocene epoch. We therefore conclude that two species of domestic water buffalo should be distinguished: Bubalus bubalis for the river buffalo and Bubalus kerabau for the swamp buffalo. The new classification can have deep implications for understanding the evolution and selection of domesticated forms and for the conservation and management of wild buffalo populations in South and Southeast Asia.

A novel enzyme-labelled voltammetric magnetogenoassay for DNA sensing based on the use of carboxyl-surface coated magnetic microbeads functionalized with PNA probes and subsequent read-out on screen-printed electrode (SPE) substrates was developed. The assay was validated for determination of non-amplified genomic DNA from genetically modified Roundup Ready soy. Outstanding performance with respect to other genoassays requiring preliminary amplification of target DNA via PCR was demonstrated. The analytical performance was also improved compared to previous methods based on the immobilization of the same PNA probes on SPE substrates, since the method was found capable of achieving LOD and LOQ of 415 fM and 995 fM, respectively. The ability of the magnetogenoassay to detect the presence of Roundup Ready soy DNA sequence was tested on genomic DNA extract from European Reference Material soy flours, demonstrating the capability of the method to match the European Union regulation for labelling of food containing a percentage of GM products greater than 0,9%.

The fossil and extant faunas of Sulawesi, the largest island within the Wallacea biogeographic region, exhibit a high degree of endemism. The lowland anoa Bubalus depressicornis and the mountain anoa Bubalus quarlesi, two closely-related dwarfed buffaloes, are among the most peculiar endemic mammals of the region. Here, I describe a new species, Bubalus grovesi, from the Late Pleistocene/Holocene of South Sulawesi and I give a revised diagnosis of Anoa. Bubalus grovesi sp. nov. differs from all previously described Bubalus in both the size and proportions of the skeleton and in possessing a unique combination of discrete character states. Body mass estimates suggest an average mass of 117 kg for Bubalus grovesi sp. nov. and a body size reduction of about 90% with respect to a typical water buffalo. A comprehensive overview of body mass estimates of dwarfed buffaloes and differences in their dental and postcranial features is included. Finally, new evidence on the taxonomy and island dwarfing of the anoas and available data from different disciplines are used to discuss the timing and mode of their evolution. The representatives of the subgenus Anoa would be dwarfed forms of the Asian water buffalo that arose following dispersal to Sulawesi during the Middle/Late Pleistocene.

A prognostic model for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) progressing after platinum-based therapy was constructed from data from the phase III vinflunine trial. However, prognostic information for patients treated with other regimens is limited.We pooled individual patient data from 7 second-line studies and analyzed the influence of factors of interest on overall survival (OS) through univariate and multivariate analysis. A prognostic model was constructed, and data from an independent series were used for validation.The data from 193 patients were pooled. The second-line chemotherapy regimen was single-agent taxane in 54 patients (28%), a platinum-based combination in 47 (24%), and a non-platinum combination in 92 (48%). On multivariate analysis, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≥ 1, hemoglobin 10 g/dL, and metastatic patterns other than lymph node-only metastasis emerged as independent adverse prognostic factors. Patients with all 3 factors (poor risk), 1 to 2 factors (intermediate risk), and no factors (good risk) had a median OS of 3.1, 8.7, and 16.5 months, respectively (P .0001). The corresponding median OS for the validation series (n = 44) was 3.3, 8.1, and 13.3 months (P = .023). Furthermore, platinum-based regimens were independently associated with an OS benefit compared with other regimens (hazard ratio, 0.31; 95% confidence interval, 0.18-0.53; P .0001).We have proposed and validated a prognostic model for patients with metastatic UC who were eligible for second-line therapy. The proposed model could prove helpful for risk stratification. Furthermore, our data suggest that testing second-line platinum-based regimens in randomized trials is warranted.

Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) are diverse and ecologically and evolutionarily significant yet genome scale data sets and analyses remain extremely sparse relative to other groups of plants, and are completely lacking at the infraspecific level. By sequencing the complete organellar genomes and nuclear ribosomal repeat from seven patches of a South American sub-Antarctic neo-endemic non-model moss, we present the first characterization of infraspecific polymorphism within and across the three genomic compartments for a bryophyte. Diversity within patches is accounted for by both intraindividual and interindividual variation for the nuclear ribosomal repeat and plastid genome, respectively. This represents the most extensive infraspecific genomic dataset generated for an early land plant lineage thus far and provides insight into relative rates of substitution between organellar genomes, including high rates of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions.

Recent studies have provided great insight into hominin life history evolution by utilizing incremental lines found in dental tissues to reconstruct and compare the growth records of extant and extinct humans versus other ape taxa. Among the hominins, studies that have examined Retzius periodicity (RP) variation have come to contradictory conclusions in some instances. To clarify RP variation among hominins and better place this variation in its broader evolutionary context, we conduct the most comprehensive analysis of published RP values for hominins and great apes to date. We gathered all available data from the literature on RP data from extant humans, great apes, and fossil hominins and assessed their variation using parametric and nonparametric analyses of variance. We also performed phylogenetic generalized least-squares regressions of RP data for these taxa as well as a larger set of hominoids for which RP data have been published against data for body mass, encephalization, and mean semicircular canal radius (a proxy for metabolic rate). Our results show that modern humans have a mean RP significantly differing from that of other hominins. Pongo also is significantly different from nearly all other taxa in all analyses. Our results also demonstrate that RP variation among hominins scales with respect to body mass, encephalization, and semicircular canal radius similarly to other hominids but that modern humans and Pongo stand out in this regard. Operating within the hypothesis that RP reflects autonomic biorhythms that regulate multiple life history variables, our results reinforce the idea that Homo sapiens has evolved a life history distinct from other hominins, even from other members of Homo, and suggest that many of these life history differences may be driven by hypothalamic output from the brain.