Publications by authors named "Shifman A"

Neurons can use different aspects of their spiking to simultaneously represent (multiplex) different features of a stimulus. For example, some pyramidal neurons in primary somatosensory cortex (S1) use the rate and timing of their spikes to, respectively, encode the intensity and frequency of vibrotactile stimuli. Doing so has several requirements.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The precise timing of neuronal activity is critical for normal brain function. In weakly electric fish, the medullary pacemaker network (PN) sets the timing for an oscillating electric organ discharge (EOD) used for electric sensing. This network is the most precise biological oscillator known, with sub-microsecond variation in oscillator period.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The transmembrane ionic currents that underlie changes in a cell's membrane potential give rise to electric fields in the extracellular space. In the context of brain activity, these electric fields form the basis for extracellularly recorded signals, such as multiunit activity, local field potentials and electroencephalograms. Understanding the underlying neuronal dynamics and localizing current sources using these signals is often challenging, and therefore effective computational modeling approaches are critical.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sensory systems encode environmental information that is necessary for adaptive behavioural choices, and thus greatly influence the evolution of animal behaviour and the underlying neural circuits. Here, we evaluate how the quality of sensory information impacts the jamming avoidance response (JAR) in weakly electric fish. To sense their environment, these fish generate an oscillating electric field: the electric organ discharge (EOD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Computer science offers a large set of tools for prototyping, writing, running, testing, validating, sharing and reproducing results; however, computational science lags behind. In the best case, authors may provide their source code as a compressed archive and they may feel confident their research is reproducible. But this is not exactly true.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

At the core of all therapeutic and medical practice lies ethics. By applying an expanded Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior formulation, the present investigation tested a model for explaining psychologists' intention to behave ethically. In the pretest, dual relationships and money conflicts were seen as the most prevalent dilemmas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cancer genomics projects are producing ever-increasing amounts of rich and diverse data from patient samples. The ability to easily visualize this data in an integrated an intuitive way is currently limited by the current software available. As a result, users typically must use several different tools to view the different data types for their cohort, making it difficult to have a simple unified view of their data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Identifying and understanding the current sources that give rise to bioelectric fields is a fundamental problem in the biological sciences. It is very difficult, for example, to attribute the time-varying features of an electroencephalogram recorded from the head surface to the neural activity of specific brain areas; model systems can provide important insight into such problems. Some species of fish actively generate an oscillating (c.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The evolutionary history of all life forms is usually represented as a vertical tree-like process. In prokaryotes, however, the vertical signal is partly obscured by the massive influence of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). The HGT creates widespread discordance between evolutionary histories of different genes as genomes become mosaics of gene histories.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To compare the effect of endodontic access cavity location--labial versus palatal--on the resistance to fracture of maxillary incisors.

Method And Materials: Sixty intact human maxillary incisors were selected: 20 pairs of central incisors and 10 pairs of lateral incisors. From each pair, 1 tooth was randomly selected to receive a palatal access cavity; the other tooth of the same pair received a labial access cavity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This clinical report describes the prosthetic management of a patient following total glossectomy and total laryngectomy that severely compromised his oral function, caused facial disfigurement, and limited the patient's quality of life. A feeding aid prosthesis was designed to address the patient's chief complaint of difficulty in feeding and mastication. The prosthesis was designed as an implant-retained overdenture with a lingual metal plate to facilitate food introduction into the oropharynx.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the resistance to fracture of crowned endodontically treated premolars with varying ceramic and metal post systems under simulated occlusal load.

Method And Materials: The study consisted of 60 extracted intact premolars with similar root diameter and length. Teeth were divided equally into 4 groups (n = 15) and prepared for posts and cast crowns as follows: group 1 = preformed metal post, composite core, and cast crown; group 2 = cast post and core and cast crown; group 3 = zirconia post, composite core, and cast crown; and group 4 = zirconia post and heat-pressed ceramic core and cast crown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Dental implant placement in atrophic alveolar ridges often necessitates grafting procedures, followed by immediate or delayed implant placement. This study assessed the survival of immediately loaded dental implants placed in deficient alveolar bone sites at bone grafting.

Materials: From 1999 to May 2002, 1 operator (A.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Implant-supported fixed prosthesis is a treatment option to restore missing teeth. Occasionally, it is necessary to connect teeth and implants as abutments for these restorations. Whether such restorations can be recommended is a matter of debate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chewing side preference is a factor that could effect prosthodontic treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether chewing side was another type of hemispheric lateralization comparable with footedness, handedness, eyedness and earedness. Chewing side preference was tested in 189 subjects of whom 84 were partially edentulous, 98 had a full compliment of dental units (81 included implant-supported restoration restoring the missing teeth and 17 with fully intact dentitions), and seven were fully edentulous, restored with complete dentures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A technique is described that enables adaptation of a surgical obturator to accommodate anterior teeth that may or may not be resected with the lesion at surgery. This is designed and fabricated by placing additional clasps on the teeth in question and providing for a clasp on one of the anterior teeth that can be determined at the time of surgery, thereby allowing anterior retention of the obturator immediately postoperatively. This technique is cost-effective and useful, especially if no prosthodontist is available at the time of surgery to perform obturator modifications.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This clinical report describes an unusual situation of nasal discharge that was initially considered to be caused by a leaking obturator prosthesis in a partially repaired cleft palate patient. Ultimately, the diagnosis was rhinorrhea induced by the loading of dental implants that supported the obturator. The differential diagnoses of nasal irritation, blocking of nasal drainage posterior or anterior through a premaxillary defect, vasomotor rhinitis, and gustatory rhinorrhea are presented and discussed, as well as the measures taken to reach the final diagnosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Taurodontism is a morphoanatomical change in the shape of a tooth, which usually occurs in multirooted teeth. An enlarged body and pulp chamber, as well as apical displacement of the pulpal floor, are characteristic features. Endodontic treatment of a taurodont tooth is challenging, because it requires special care in handling and identifying the number of root canals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This study evaluated the effect of increasing occlusal vertical dimension (OVD) on the face height in completely dentate young adults.

Materials And Methods: Faces of 22 subjects were photographed in a standardized manner in an anterior view. Sequential photographs were taken at intercuspation and clinical rest position, with four complete arch maxillary occlusal overlays increasing OVD in interincisal increments of 2, 4, 6, and 8 mm.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Variations in the bulk of wash in a putty-wash impression technique can result in dimensional changes proportional to the thickness of the wash material during setting. The purpose of the study was to determine the amount of wash necessary to achieve accurate stone models while using a two-step putty-wash impression technique with polyvinyl siloxane (PVS) impression material. A total of 45 impressions were made of a stainless steel master model, 15 impressions for each wash thickness (1, 2 and 3 mm).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article describes a diagnostic chart that is organized for a versatile representation of various conditions of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). It facilitates the grading of disorder severity and visualization of probable mutual effects between groups of disorders. It also enhances the clinician's awareness of potential systemic involvement in TMD by incorporating it into the chart.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Statement Of Problem: Unfavorable stress distribution and occlusal overload have been reported to result in failures ranging from screw loosening to loss of osseointegration.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of different tightening forces and sequences, with different operators, on stresses generated on an accurately fitting implant superstructure on multiple working casts made with a splinted impression technique.

Material And Methods: The effects of different tightening forces (10 and 20 Ncm) were assessed with the use of 30 stone casts made from a metal master model with a splinted impression technique.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sound mandibular first premolars can be used as sole abutments for bilateral distal-extension removable partial dentures, if the denture is designed to minimise the torque applied to the abutment teeth. A simplified modification of the conventional torque-releasing clasp-assembly designs is suggested for these teeth. This modification entails a mesial rest on each abutment tooth connected to the distal proximal plate via a lingual bracing arm.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF