The following article from International Endodontic Journal, ‘Postoperative pain after irrigation with Vibringe versus a conventional needle: a randomized controlled trial’ by D. Bilgili, S. Yilmaz, ...A. Dumani & O. Yoldas, published online on 29 February 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the Journal Editor in Chief, Prof. Paul Dummer, and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed because the corresponding author did not contact the first author who carried out the work before alterations to the article were made prior to submission. This damages the integrity of the work and there are additional concerns over the number of patients and the accuracy of the results and conclusions.
Infectious diseases that can be spread directly or indirectly from one person to another are caused by pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi. Infectious diseases ...remain one of the greatest threats to human health and the analysis of infectious disease data is among the most important application of statistics. In this article, we develop Bayesian methodology using parametric bivariate accelerated lifetime model to study dependency between the colonization and infection times for Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria which is leading cause of infection among the hospital infection agents. We also study their associations with covariates such as age, gender, apache score, antibiotics use 3 months before admission and invasive mechanical ventilation use. To account for singularity, we use Singular Bivariate Extreme Value distribution to model residuals in Bivariate Accelerated lifetime model under the fully Bayesian framework. We analyze a censored data related to the colonization and infection collected in five major hospitals in Turkey using our methodology. The data analysis done in this article is for illustration of our proposed method and can be applied to any situation that our model can be used.
RAS genes are mutated in approximately 30% of all human cancers. Interestingly, there exists a strong bias in favor of mutation of only one of the three major RAS genes in tumors of different ...cellular origins. NRAS mutations occur in approximately 20% of human melanomas, whereas HRAS and KRAS mutations are rare in this disease. To define the mechanism(s) responsible for this preference in melanocytes, we compared the transformation efficiencies of mutant NRAS and KRAS in immortal, non-transformed Ink4a/Arf-deficient melanocytes. NRAS mutation leads to increased cellular proliferation and is potently tumorigenic. In contrast, KRAS mutation does not enhance melanocyte proliferation and is only weakly tumorigenic on its own. Although both NRAS and KRAS activate mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling, only NRAS enhances MYC activity in these cells. Our data suggest that the activity of specific RAS isoforms is context-dependent and provide a possible explanation for the prevalence of NRAS mutations in melanoma. In addition, understanding this mechanism will have important implications for cancer therapies targeting RAS pathways.
Objective Excessive fluid administration during lung resections is a risk for pulmonary injury. We analyzed the effect of intraoperative fluids on postoperative pulmonary complications (PCs). Methods ...Patients who underwent anatomic pulmonary resections during 2012 to 2013 were included. Age, weight, pulmonary function data, smoking (pack-years), the infusion rate and the total amount of intraoperative fluids (including crystalloid, colloid, and blood products), duration of anesthesia, hospital stay, PCs, and mortality were recorded. PCs were defined as acute respiratory distress syndrome, need for intubation, bronchoscopy, atelectasis, pneumonia, prolonged air leak, and failure to expand. Univariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression were performed. A Lowess curve was drawn for intraoperative fluid threshold. Results In 139 patients, types of resections were segmentectomy-lobectomy (n = 69; extended n = 37; video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery n = 19) and pneumonectomy (n = 9; extended n = 5). One hundred sixty-one PCs were observed in 76 patients (acute respiratory distress syndrome n = 5, need for intubation n = 9, atelectasis n = 60, need for bronchoscopy n = 19, pneumonia n = 26, prolonged air leak n = 19, and failure to expand n = 23). Overall mortality was 4.3% (6 out of 139 patients). Mean hospital stay was 8.5 ± 4.8 days. Univariate analyses showed that smoking, intraoperative total amount of fluids, crystalloids, blood products, and infusion rate as well as total amount of crystalloids and infusion rate during the postoperative first 48 hours were significant for PCs ( P = .033, P < .0001, P = .001, P = .03, P < .0001, P = .002, and P < .0001, respectively). In multivariate logistic regression analysis intraoperative infusion rate ( P < .0001) and smoking were significant ( P = .023). An infusion rate of 6 mL/kg/h was found to be the threshold. Conclusions The occurrence of postoperative PCs is seen more frequently if the intraoperative infusion rate of fluids exceeds 6 mL/kg/h.
Tool flank wear monitoring can minimize machining downtime costs while increasing productivity and product quality. In some industrial applications, only a limited level of tool wear is allowed to ...attain necessary tolerances. It may become challenging to monitor a limited level of tool wear in the data collected from the machine due to the other components, such as the flexible vibrations of the machine, dominating the measurement signals. In this study, a tool wear monitoring technique to predict limited levels of tool wear from the spindle motor current and dynamometer measurements is presented. High-frequency spindle motor current data is collected with an industrial edge device while the cutting forces and torque are measured with a rotary dynamometer in drilling tests for a selected number of holes. Feature engineering is conducted to identify the statistical features of the measurement signals that are most sensitive to small changes in tool wear. A neural network based on the long short-term memory (LSTM) architecture is developed to predict tool flank wear from the measured spindle motor current and dynamometer signals. It is demonstrated that the proposed technique predicts tool flank wear with good accuracy and high computational efficiency. The proposed technique can easily be implemented in an industrial edge device as a real-time predictive maintenance application to minimize the costs due to manufacturing downtime and tool underuse or overuse.
In severe nasal deformities, the original cartilages are removed, or they become unusable because of previous operations. Costal cartilage (CC) is one of the most important tools for the replacement ...of deficient nasal osteocartilaginous framework. In 4 secondary and 1 tertiary rhinoplasty cases with severe deformities of medial and lateral crura of the lower lateral cartilages, we have prepared a long strut graft from a CC and then split the graft tip 5–6 mm vertically into 2 equal halves to create a gamma (υ)-shaped strut graft. We have sutured the base of this graft to the nasal spine and/or the bases of the medial crural remnants. Then, we have prepared lateral crural grafts and secured the grafts over lateral crural remnants. Then we curved the split tip winglets of the υ-shaped strut graft to both sides and sutured them to lateral crural grafts in order to create a new dome. Splitting of the CC strut graft reduces the need for extensive suturing at the tip, obtains smoother contours and ensures graft economy, and provides an original and stable dome shape. The bending capacity of the CC is limited in middle-aged patients. Costal allografts from a young cadaver can be a good alternative. υ-shaped costal crural graft is useful for medial crural and domal monobloc reconstruction in secondary and tertiary cases.
Abstract Abnormal musculotendinous distal extension of the peroneus brevis has been implicated as a possible cause of peroneus brevis tendon tears. We investigated this relationship in 58 (46 male) ...fresh human cadavers. Torn lesions were classified according to Sobel et al. Musculotendinous distal extension of the peroneus brevis was measured in each ankle as the vertical distance from the musculotendinous junction of the peroneus brevis to the tip of the fibula. Tendons with and without tears were compared by sex, age at death, height, musculotendinous distal extension of the peroneus brevis, the common sheath bifurcation-fibular tip distance, the peroneus brevis and longus width at the musculotendinous junction, fibular groove depth, peroneal tubercle height, superior-inferior peroneal retinaculum wideness, and the presence of the peroneus quartus or an accessory peroneal muscle. Of 115 evaluable tendons, 15 (13%) had tears. All came from men. The average distance from the musculotendinous junction to the tip of the fibula was 27.0 mm in tendons with tears and 16.4 mm in tendons without ( P = .04) Male sex ( P = .03), age at death ( P = .03), height ( P = .04), and fibular groove depth ( P = .003) were also related to the presence of tears. Our results do not support a relationship between abnormal musculotendinous distal extension of the peroneus brevis and peroneus brevis tendon tears; rather, proximal extension of the peroneus brevis musculotendinous junction may be related to peroneus brevis tendon tears.
ABSTRACT
Inherited genetic risk factors contribute toward breast cancer (BC) onset. BC risk variants can be divided into three categories of penetrance (high, moderate, and low) that reflect the ...probability of developing the disease. Traditional BC susceptibility gene discovery approaches that searched for high‐ and moderate‐risk variants in familial BC cases have had limited success; to date, these risk variants explain only ∼30% of familial BC cases. Next‐generation sequencing technologies can be used to search for novel high and moderate BC risk variants, and this manuscript reviews 12 familial BC whole‐exome sequencing efforts. Study design, filtering strategies, and segregation and validation analyses are discussed. Overall, only a modest number of novel BC risk genes were identified, and 90% and 97% of the exome‐sequenced families and cases, respectively, had no BC risk variants reported. It is important to learn from these studies and consider alternate strategies in order to make further advances. The discovery of new BC susceptibility genes is critical for improved risk assessment and to provide insight toward disease mechanisms for the development of more effective therapies.
Approximately 70% of familial breast cancer (BC) cases remain genetically unsolved. Whole‐exome sequencing is a promising method to overcome barriers towards BC susceptibility gene discovery and identify additional rare high/moderate‐risk variants. A review of 12 familial BC whole‐exome sequencing studies, including study design and filtering strategies, revealed a modest number of novel BC susceptibility genes. The current best approach, highlighted by the most successful (statistically significant) studies, selected cases/families from founder populations and used large case/control validation cohorts.
Reflectance spectroscopy can be used to nondestructively characterize materials for a wide range of applications. In this study, visible-near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VNIR) was evaluated ...for prediction of diverse soil properties related to four different soil series of the Entisol soil group within a single field in northern Turkey. Soil samples were collected from 512 locations in a 25
×
25
m sampling grid over a 32
ha (800
×
400
m) area. Air-dried soil samples were scanned at 1
nm resolution from 350 to 2500
nm, and calibrations between soil physical and chemical properties and reflectance spectra were developed using cross-validation under partial least squares regression (PLSR) and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS). Raw reflectance and first derivative reflectance data were used separately and combined for all samples in the data set. Data were additionally divided into two random subsets of 70 and 30% of the full data, which were each used for calibration and validation. Overall, MARS provided better predictions when under cross-validation. However, PLSR and MARS results were comparable in terms of prediction accuracy when using separate data sets for calibration and validation. No improvement was obtained by combining first derivative and raw data. Strongest correlations were obtained with exchangeable Ca and Mg, cation exchange capacity, and organic matter, clay, sand, and CaCO
3 contents. When soil data were classified into groups, VNIR spectroscopy estimated class memberships well, especially for soil texture. In conclusion, VNIR spectroscopy was variably successful in estimating soil properties at the field scale, and showed potential for substituting laboratory analyses or providing inexpensive co-variable data.
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