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Magnesium Nanocomposite Hydrogel Reverses the Pathologies to Enhance Mandible Regeneration
No full textThe healing of bone defects after debridement in medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is a challenging medical condition with impaired angiogenesis, susceptible infection, and pro-inflammatory responses. Magnesium (Mg) nanocomposite hydrogel is developed to specifically tackle multiple factors involved in MRONJ. Mg-oxide nanoparticles tune the gelation kinetics in the reaction between N-hydroxysuccinimide-functionalized hyperbranched poly (ethylene glycol) and proteins. This reaction allows an enhanced mechanical property after instant solidification and, more importantly, also stable gelation in challenging environments such as wet and hemorrhagic conditions. The synthesized hydrogel guides mandible regeneration in MRONJ rats by triggering the formation of type H vessels, activating Osterix+ osteoprogenitor cells, and generating anti-inflammatory microenvironments. Additionally, this approach demonstrates its ability to suppress infection by inhibiting specific pathogens while strengthening stress tolerance in the affected alveolar bone. Furthermore, the enhanced osteogenic properties and feasibility of implantation of the hydrogel are validated in mandible defect and iliac crest defect created in minipigs, respectively. Collectively, this study offers an injectable and innovative bone substitute to enhance mandible defect healing by tackling multiple detrimental pathologies
Magnetic bimeron traveling on the domain wall
No full textDomain wall bimerons are nanoscale spin textures residing within the magnetic domain walls of in-plane magnets. In this study, we employ both numerical and analytical methods to explore the stabilization of Néel-type domain wall bimerons and their dynamics when excited by spin-orbit torque. Our findings reveal two unique and intriguing dynamic mechanisms, which depend on the polarization direction of the spin current: In the first scenario, the magnetic domain wall serves as a track that confines the motion of the bimeron and effectively suppresses the skyrmion Hall effect. In the second scenario, pushing the magnetic domain wall triggers a rapid sliding of the bimeron along the wall. This process significantly enhances the dynamics of the bimeron, resulting in a velocity increase by approximately 40 times compared to skyrmions and bimeron solitons. Our results highlight the potential advantages of the skyrmion Hall effect in developing energy-efficient spintronic devices based on domain wall bimerons
Efficacy of electrical vestibular stimulation (VeNS) on adults with insomnia: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial
No full textIntroduction: Insomnia, a widespread sleep disorder, affects a significant portion of the global population. This study is the first in Asia to evaluate the efficacy of electrical vestibular stimulation (VeNS) as a treatment for insomnia in Hong Kong adults, addressing a gap in non-pharmacological interventions. Methods: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial was conducted with 101 adults exhibiting insomnia symptoms. Participants were randomized into active VeNS or sham groups (1:1 ratio) and underwent twenty 30-minute VeNS sessions over four weeks. Psychological outcomes, including insomnia severity, sleep quality, and quality of life were assessed at baseline (T1), post-intervention (T2). Follow-up assessments were conducted at one- (T3) and three-month (T4) to evaluate the sustainability of VeNS effects. Results: Of 83 participants (40 VeNS and 43 sham-VeNS), the VeNS group showed significant reductions in insomnia severity at T2 (p = 0.03, d = -0.47) and T4 (p = 0.02, d = -0.32), alongside improved quality of life (i.e., role-physical) at T2. Conclusion: VeNS is a novel, non-invasive and safe neuromodulation device that may serve as an adjunct treatment for primary insomnia. The present findings provide a foundation for future multisite comparison studies to further evaluate VeNS efficacy. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04452981
Data Objects: New Things or No-Thing More than Ignis Fatuus
No full textEnglish academics have belatedly awoken to the challenge to the law posed by the computer revolution that started in the late twentieth century. Inspired by American jurisprudence, technophile lawyers unfamiliar with the complexities of conceptualising property liberally propose to extend property law concepts to digital files, including a recent attempt to do so by postulating a three-layer model of digital files to enable ‘ownership’ at the logical layer. Meanwhile, American academics, facing some resistance in the courts, have continued to propound the case for data property. This paper exposes the many dangers of the concept of property within the common law, the failures of recent proposals on both sides of the Atlantic to address the underlying technical workings of computing, and the perils that such ill-considered extensions of property will pose to legal development.</p
Peri-implantitis Risk Assessment (PiRA) Part 1: Umbrella review of a Multifactorial Disease With Many Risk Factors
No full textAim: An objective pre-operative assessment of patients' susceptibility to peri-implantitis could reduce the incidence of the disease and may be helpful in convincing patients to change their lifestyle, thereby reducing risk factors, or to forgo implant therapy in high-risk conditions.Material & methods: An umbrella review was performed to identify patientrelated risk factors, together with their relative impact (odds ratio/relative risk). Potential treatment-related confounders for the development of peri-implantitis were also searched for.Results: Ten relevant patient-related risk factors for peri-implantitis were identified. While some of them are modifiable (smoking, bleeding on probing, plaque control, number of sites with PPD ≥ 5 mm, recall frequency, occlusal overload), others are not (history of periodontitis, implant location, number of teeth lost, systemic diseases). The relative impact of these factors differed largely between systematic reviews, most of which unfortunately limited their analysis to one or only a few factors, without taking other factors into consideration, with the potential risk of misinterpretation/overrating. Moreover, patients' susceptibility might change due to a number of confounders (iatrogenic factors, surgical protocol, implant and implant site characteristics, etc.), and these factors should also be considered.Conclusions: The number of risk factors and potential confounders underline the complexity and multi-factorial etiology of peri-implantitis.</div
Association Between Longitudinal Changes in Left Ventricular Structure and Function and 24-Hour Urinary Free Cortisol in Essential Hypertension
No full textThis study aimed to investigate the associations between 24-hour urinary cortisol levels (24 h-UFC) and alterations in left ventricular (LV) structure and function in patients with essential hypertension. A prospective cohort study was conducted, including 315 patients with essential hypertension who underwent baseline 24 h-UFC measurement and echocardiographic evaluation of left ventricular mass (LVM), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and the E/e′ ratio. Over a mean follow-up period of 28.54 ± 14.21 months, patients were grouped into tertiles based on baseline 24 h-UFC levels. Higher baseline 24 h-UFC levels were significantly associated with greater increases in LVM and E/e′, reflecting adverse LV remodeling and diastolic dysfunction. These associations persisted after adjusting for potential confounders, including age, gender, baseline blood pressure, and their changes during follow-up. Moreover, patients in the highest 24 h-UFC tertile showed an increased prevalence of LV hypertrophy, contrasting with a reduction observed in the lower tertiles. These findings underscore the independent role of elevated 24 h-UFC levels in driving adverse cardiac structural and functional changes in essential hypertension
VAR Model with Sparse Group LASSO for Multi-population Mortality Forecasting
No full textWe introduce a spatial–temporally weighted vector autoregressive (SWVAR) model for modeling and forecasting mortality rates across multiple populations. First, we stack the mortality rates of the populations and build a vector autoregressive (VAR) model. Next, we apply the sparse group least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (sparse group LASSO) for fitting to avoid overparameterization. Furthermore, we integrate spatial–temporal weights, derived from age differences and geographic centroid distances, into the grouped penalty term. These approaches allow the resulting model to effectively combine information from multiple populations and reduce confounding factors associated with combined modeling. We demonstrate through a series of empirical experiments that the spatial–temporally weighted VAR model enhances estimation accuracy and exhibits superior in-sample fitting and out-of-sample forecasting performance
TOWARD DERANDOMIZING MARKOV CHAIN MONTE CARLO
No full textWe present a new framework to derandomize certain Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. As in MCMC, we first reduce counting problems to sampling from a sequence of marginal distributions. For the latter task, we introduce a method called coupling toward the past that can, in logarithmic time, evaluate one or a constant number of variables from a stationary Markov chain state. Since there are at most logarithmic random choices, this leads to very simple derandomization. As an application, we provide an efficient deterministic approximate counting algorithm for hypergraph independent sets, under local lemma type conditions matching, up to lower-order factors, their state-of-the-art randomized counterparts
Video Understanding with Large Language Models: A Survey
No full textWith the rapid growth of online video platforms and the escalating volume of video content, the need for proficient video understanding tools has increased significantly. Given the remarkable capabilities of large language models (LLMs) in language and multimodal tasks, this survey provides a detailed overview of recent advances in video understanding that harness the power of LLMs (Vid-LLMs). The emergent capabilities of Vid-LLMs are surprisingly advanced, particularly their ability for open-ended multi-granularity (abstract, temporal, and spatiotemporal) reasoning combined with common-sense knowledge, suggesting a promising path for future video understanding. We examine the unique characteristics and capabilities of Vid-LLMs, categorizing the approaches into three main types: Video Analyzer × LLM, Video Embedder × LLM, and (Analyzer + Embedder) × LLM. We identify five subtypes based on the functions of LLMs in Vid-LLMs: LLM as Summarizer, LLM as Manager, LLM as Text Decoder, LLM as Regressor, and LLM as Hidden Layer. This survey also presents a comprehensive study of the tasks, datasets, benchmarks, and evaluation methods for Vid-LLMs. Additionally, it explores the extensive applications of Vid-LLMs in various domains, highlighting their remarkable scalability and versatility in real-world video understanding challenges. Additionally, it summarizes the limitations of existing Vid-LLMs and outlines directions for future research. For more information, readers are encouraged to visit the repository at https://github.com/yunlong10/Awesome-LLMs-for-Video-Understanding
