Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation and evaluation of dental pulp stem cells from teeth with advanced periodontal disease.

INTRODUCTION Successful isolation of mesenchymal stem cells from waste tissues might be extremely promising for developing stem cell-based therapies. This study aimed to explore whether cells retrieved from teeth extracted due to advanced periodontal disease present mesenchymal stem cell-like properties. METHODS Pulp cells were isolated from 15 intact molars and 15 teeth with advanced periodontal disease. Cell proliferation and markers of mesenchymal stem cells were evaluated. RESULTS Based on the RT-PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis, nucleostemin, Oct-4 and jmj2c, but not Nanog, were expressed in undifferentiated mesenchymal stem cells of both groups. Interestingly, diseased pulp exhibited higher gene expressions although it was not statistically significant. The average percentage of BrdU positive cells in the diseased group (84.4%, n = 5) was significantly higher than that of the control group (65.4%, n = 5) (t-test, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION Our results indicate the successful isolation of mesenchymal stem cells from the pulp tissue of hopeless periodontally involved teeth.
Intestinal Helminth Infections in Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic at Kitale District Hospital, Kenya

Intestinal helminth infections during pregnancy are associated with adverse outcomes including low birth weight and prenatal mortality. The infections are a major public health problem in developing countries. A hospital based survey was undertaken for six months to determine the infection prevalence, intensity, and risk factors. The study involved expectant women attending antenatal clinic. Stool samples were screened microscopically for helminth ova using Kato Katz technique. Information on risk factors was collected using semistructured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS. Epidemiological data was analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis. The overall prevalence of infection was 21 (13.8%). Ascariasis was the most prevalent 10 (6.5%), hookworm infection was 6 (3.9%), and trichuriasis was 2 (1.3%). Pregnant women aged below 29 years (OR = 3.63, CI = 0.87–11.75) and those with primary level of education (OR = 3.21, CI = 0.88–11.75) were at a higher risk of infection compared to those aged ≥ 29 years with secondary level of education. Hand washing was significantly associated with reduced likelihood of infection (OR = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.06–0.57). It was concluded that intestinal helminth infections were prevalent among pregnant women. We recommended that all expectant women visiting antenatal clinics be screened for intestinal helminth infections and positive cases be advised to seek treatment.
Investigation of visual dream reports after transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) during REM sleep

Neuroimaging studies have revealed regional patterns of brain activation/deactivation during REM sleep, with the posterior parietal and frontal cortex implicated as key brain regions involved in dreaming. Using a novel brain stimulation technique (tDCS), this study addressed the ongoing debate over the neuroanatomical origins of dreaming. This study examined the effect of cathodal and anodal tDCS applied simultaneously to the right posterior parietal and frontal cortex (respectively) during REM sleep on dream recall reported on awakening. It was hypothesized that such stimulation would have an inhibitory effect on local posterior parietal cortical circuitry and an excitatory effect on local frontal cortical circuitry, and that such a combination would impair dream recall on awakening from REM sleep. Three conditions (tDCS, low tDCS, blank control) were administered in a counterbalanced order in two separate studies, one employing an interval design whereby tDCS was delivered for a fixed duration, the other adopting a threshold approach with tDCS delivered in an increasing fashion until reaching the participants’ arousal threshold. TDCS applied during REM sleep did not result in a significant decrease in the percentage of imagery reports, number of visualisable nouns, or imagery ratings. In sum, it appears that tDCS had no effect on reported dream imagery. However, further research would need to be carried out to determine whether such results reflect the unique properties of this stage of sleep or methodological limitations.
Consumption Trends of Processed Foods Among Rural Population Selected from South India

Nutrition transition is said to be one of the major causes of rising incidences of non-communicable diseases in Indian population. One of the major changes observed in dietary patterns is consumption of processed foods and eating away from home. This has impacted the nutritional status of populations across many regions. The objective of the study was to map out the consumption trends of processed and catered foods among selected rural population from South India. The study population were 500 respondents from five different villages of Mysore district, which answered a structured questionnaire regarding general background information, major driving forces for purchase of processed foods, and types and frequency of consumption of such foods. The data were collected and classified age wise. The results revealed that the study population mostly belonged to Hindu religion, the literacy and income levels were very low, and majority were non-vegetarians. The primary driving force for purchase of processed foods were mothers followed by media influence. Price and quality of foods were influencing factors for purchase whereas saving of time was major reason for selection of such foods. Snack foods were major items of daily purchase by majority of respondents. The study shows that dietary transition in terms of purchase of processed foods was also observed in rural population. Corresponding author: Jamuna Prakash, Professor, Department of Studies in Food Science and Nutrition, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore-570 006, Karnataka, India, Tel: 0821-2419634; E-mail: jampr55@hotmail.com Received Date: November 15, 2015 Accepted Date: December 03, 2015 Published Date: December 10, 2015
Field and laboratory studies of the etiology of liver neoplasms in marine fish from Puget Sound.

A series of field studies was conducted between 1979 and 1985 in Puget Sound, Washington State, to investigate etiological relationships between prevalences of hepatic neoplasms in bottom-dwelling marine fish species, with emphasis on English sole (Parophrys vetulus), and concentrations of toxic chemicals in sediments and affected fish. Statistically significant (p less than or equal to 0.05) correlations have been found between the prevalences of hepatic neoplasms in English sole and the following parameters: sediment concentrations of aromatic hydrocarbons, and concentrations of the metabolites of aromatic compounds in the bile of affected sole. A significant difference (p less than 0.001) was also found between the relative concentrations of aromatic free radicals in the liver microsomes of English sole with liver lesions compared to sole without liver lesions. Laboratory studies designed to evaluate the etiology of the liver neoplasms in English sole have also yielded evidence that is consistent with the view that high molecular weight aromatic hydrocarbons, e.g., benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), are hepatocarcinogens in English sole. The current status of a series of long-term (up to 18 months) exposures of English sole and rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) to selected fractions of Puget Sound sediment extracts, enriched with aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrogen-containing aromatic compounds, and to individual carcinogens (e.g., BaP) is discussed. ImagesFIGURE 6.FIGURE 7.FIGURE 8.FIGURE 9.FIGURE 10.FIGURE 11.FIGURE 12.
Functional Circuits and Anatomical Distribution of Response Properties in the Primate Amygdala

Recent electrophysiological studies on the primate amygdala have advanced our understanding of how individual neurons encode information relevant to emotional processes, but it remains unclear how these neurons are functionally and anatomically organized. To address this, we analyzed cross-correlograms of amygdala spike trains recorded during a task in which monkeys learned to associate novel images with rewarding and aversive outcomes. Using this task, we have recently described two populations of amygdala neurons: one that responds more strongly to images predicting reward (positive value-coding), and another that responds more strongly to images predicting an aversive stimulus (negative value-coding). Here, we report that these neural populations are organized into distinct, but anatomically intermingled, appetitive and aversive functional circuits, which are dynamically modulated as animals used the images to predict outcomes. Furthermore, we report that responses to sensory stimuli are prevalent in the lateral amygdala, and are also prevalent in the medial amygdala for sensory stimuli that are emotionally significant. The circuits identified here could potentially mediate valence-specific emotional behaviors thought to involve the amygdala.
Seismic facies characterization by monoscale analysis

Relating sedimentary records to seismic data is a major challenge. By shifting focus to a scale‐invariant sharpness characterization for the reflectors, we develop an attribute that can capture and categorize the main reflector features, without being sensitive to amplitudes. Sharpness is defined by a scale exponent, which expresses singularity order and determines the reflection signature/waveform. Local scale exponent estimates are obtained with a new monoscale method. Compared to multiscale wavelet analysis, our method has the advantage of measuring transition exponents at a single fixed scale using a simple on‐off criterion. The exponents contain amplitude variation information and describe lithological onsets. We create an image of the earth's local singularity structure by applying our method to seismic traces and well‐log data. The singularity map facilitates interpretation, facies characterization, and integration of well and seismic data.
Stability of mobile slotted ALOHA network with Rayleigh fading, shadowing, and near-far effect

Dynamic network behavior is investigated using the classical ALOHA queueing model extended to mobile channels. The focus is on the assessment of receiver capture probabilities, based on a general propagation model for mobile radio communications. Queueing of packets in a mobile slotted ALOHA network with Rayleigh fading, shadowing, and UHF groundwave propagation is studied, using a finite Markov chain model. It is shown that receiver capture, assisted by all three propagation mechanisms, reduces bistability of the network substantially compared to the retransmission strategy. Results are presented for a uniform spatial distribution of the packet traffic ordered to the ALOHA channel. The near-far effect is highlighted, since the total network performance and the spatial distribution of the attempted traffic interact. >
Repeatable evaluation of information retrieval effectiveness in dynamic environments

In dynamic environments, such as the World Wide Web, a changing document collection, query population, and set of search services demands frequent repetition of search effectiveness (relevance) evaluations. Reconstructing static test collections, such as in TREC, requires considerable human effort, as large collection sizes demand judgments deep into retrieved pools. In practice it is common to perform shallow evaluations over small numbers of conditions (often binary, A vs. B) without system pooling, not intending to construct reusable test collections. The query sample sizes required in such evaluations can be reliably estimated by leveraging the simple bootstrap estimate of the reproducibility probability (observed power) of hypothesis tests. However, they are typically much larger than those that are needed for static collections. We propose a semiautomatic evaluation framework to reduce this effort by enabling intelligent evaluation strategies. We validate this framework against a manual evaluation of the top ten results of ten web search engines across 896 queries in navigational and informational tasks. Augmenting manual judgments with pseudo-relevance judgments mined, even naively, from web taxonomies reduces both the chances of missing a correct binary conclusion and those of finding an errant conclusion by approximately half.
Differential Kullback-Leibler Divergence Based Anomaly Detection Scheme in Sensor Networks

The constrained capacity of wireless sensor nodes and harsh, unattended deploy environments make the data collected by sensor nodes usually unreliable. In this paper, we propose a Differential Kullback-Leibler Divergence based anomaly detection scheme with the goal of detecting anomaly data values. It first partitions the whole sensor network into several clusters in which the sensors in each cluster are physically close to each other and have the similar sensed values. Then, the cluster header detects the outliers within the current cluster using Kullback-Leibler Divergence in a differential manner. The proposed scheme is lightweight and energy efficient than the existing detection scheme while maintaining the similar detection performance in terms of detection accuracy ratio and false alarm ratio.
Specific patterns of premature beats tend to initiate ventricular tachyarrhythmias in human patients

Introduction. Previously, we demonstrated that certain patterns of abnormal rapid beats, notably “short-long-short-short” (SLSS) patterns, tend to produce action potential block in computer models, and tend to initiate VF in in vivo canine experiments, consistent with our theory based on electrical restitution. Here we present evidence that these same patterns often precede VF in human ECG recordings. Methods. Thirty-four ECG recordings from just prior to and during tachyarrhythmic events were obtained from ICDs implanted in several human patients. The distributions of the first four abnormal RR intervals prior to arrhythmia onset were fit to single-gaussian and dual-gaussian distributions. Results. Dual-gaussian distributions were obtained for the second and third abnormal beats, while single gaussian distributions were obtained for the first and fourth. These distributions are consistent with the tendency of the SLSS pattern of premature beats, as well as SLLS and SSSS patterns, to precede the tachyarrhythmic event, as described by our computer model. Conclusions. The results provide further evidence that electrical restitution theory, the basis for both our theory and computer model, although imperfect, is sufficient to both predict and understand the manner in which premature beats initiate VF. This understanding may, in the future, lead to new methods for preventing VF, through the imposition of stimuli designed to avoid the dangerous premature beat patterns described in this study.
Cultural intelligence and work engagement of expatriate academics: The role of psychological needs satisfaction

Cultural intelligence (CQ) has received considerable research attention in studies on expatriates. However, most of the studies on this have been conducted on business expatriates, neglecting other types of expatriates, such as self-initiated expatriate academics. The growing number of expatriate academics taking up faculty positions in universities in an upper middle-income economy, like Malaysia, which is known for its complex cultural, racial, and religious diversity, has posed greater challenges to human resource managers of the respective universities. This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of CQ on work engagement (WE) with the presence of psychological needs satisfaction (PNS) as a mediating factor. Using a sample of 152 expatriate academics employed in 20 Malaysian public universities, it is found that PNS partially mediates the relationship between CQ and WE. In other words, the relationship between CQ and WE is both direct and indirect and mediated through PNS. The findings give rise to a number of implications, both theoretical and practical, in cross-cultural management research.
Oil Price Shocks and Exchange Rate Movements

This study investigates the effects of oil price shocks on exchange rate movements in five major oil-exporting countries: Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Norway. The R2 of the fundamental model doubles in Russia and Brazil, but increases slightly in Canada and Norway when oil prices are added to it. The volatility of exchange rates associated with oil price shocks is significant in Russia, Brazil, and Mexico, but weak in Norway and Canada. It takes much longer for the exchange rate to reach the initial equilibrium level in Russia, Brazil, and Mexico than in Norway and Canada. The asymmetric behavior of exchange rate volatility among countries seems to be related to the efficiency of financial markets rather than to the importance of oil revenues in the economy.
Iterative Learning Control and Repetitive Control in Hard Disk Drive Industry - A Tutorial

This paper presents a tutorial on iterative learning control (ILC) and repetitive control (RC) techniques in hard disk drive (HDD) industry for compensation of repeatable runouts (RRO). After each tutorial, an application example is given. For ILC, a simple filtering-free implementation for written-in RRO compensation is presented. For the RC part, a new application of RC in dual stage HDD servo is presented. Finally, the widely used adaptive feedforward control (AFC) technique is explained from ILC point of view with discussions on challenges and issues in implementation in HDD industry
Use and Perceptions of the Availability of Local Government and Nonprofit Services in Diverse Urban Settings

This analysis tests fundamental nonprofit theory using individual-level demand-side data, which complements existing studies that have relied on organizational- and community-level variables alone. We use survey and administrative data to test the relationship between individuals’ perceptions and use of local government services and their reported use of nonprofit services, controlling for the density of organizations around respondents’ addresses. Individuals who report being better served by government services are significantly more likely to report using nonprofit services—while individuals who report being unserved by government are also less likely to report access to nonprofits, despite the actual density of organizations around them. These findings support theories of interdependence between government and nonprofit sectors. However, income-based disparities in perceived access to nonprofit services highlight persistent gaps in serving all individuals on the local level.
The TREC-8 Question Answering Track Report

The TREC-8 Question Answering track was the first large-scale evaluation of domain-independent question answering systems. This paper summarizes the results of the track by giving a brief overview of the different approaches taken to solve the problem. The most accurate systems found a correct response for more than 2/3 of the questions. Relatively simple bag-of-words approaches were adequate for finding answers when responses could be as long as a paragraph (250 bytes), but more sophisticated processing was necessary for more direct responses (50 bytes). The TREC-8 Question Answering track was an initial e ort to bring the bene ts of large-scale evaluation to bear on a question answering (QA) task. The goal in the QA task is to retrieve small snippets of text that contain the actual answer to a question rather than the document lists traditionally returned by text retrieval systems. The assumption is that users would usually prefer to be given the answer rather than and the answer themselves in a document. This paper summarizes the retrieval results of the track; a companion paper (\The TREC-8 Question Answering Track Evaluation") gives details about how the evaluation was implemented. By necessity, a track report can give only an overview of the different approaches used in the track. Readers are urged to consult the participants' papers elsewhere in the Proceedings for details regarding a particular approach.
Knowledge processes, knowledge-intensity and innovation: A moderated mediation analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine innovation from a knowledge‐based view by exploring the effect of knowledge processes and knowledge intensity on innovation performance.Design/methodology/approach – First, a theoretical model of the connections between knowledge processes, knowledge intensity and innovation performance is presented. The posited hypotheses are then tested statistically, using a survey dataset of 221 organizations.Findings – The result shows that while all knowledge processes have a beneficial impact on innovation, knowledge creation impacts innovation the most and fully mediates the impact of knowledge documentation, intra‐organizational knowledge sharing and external knowledge acquisition on innovation performance. Furthermore, knowledge intensity increases all knowledge processes. Knowledge intensity also moderates the relationship of documentation and knowledge sharing with knowledge creation. The interaction effect is negative, meaning that firms in less knowledge‐inte.
Reality Shock: A Transitional Challenge Faced By Intern Nurses at Labasa Hospital, Fiji

Introduction and Aim: Transition from being a student nurse to a full time registered nurse is a difficult phase in the lives of intern nurses. During this phase they face many challenges which influence their professional lives as well as their transitional experience. This study aimed to identify the transitional challenges experienced by intern nurses at Labasa Hospital, Fiji. Methodology: This qualitative study was conducted using a phenomenological approach. Data collection through semi structured in-depth interviews commenced after ethical approval was obtained. Each interview lasted between 40 to 60 minutes. The 22 participants were intern nurses of Labasa Hospital, Fiji who were either current intern nurses and had worked for more than 6 months or had completed internship within the past 5 years at Labasa Hospital and currently working as registered nurses within various units in the facility. Written consent was obtained from intern nurses who were willing to participate before the commencement of the interview on a one to one basis. The interview data was transcribed verbatim and interpreted thematically. Results: The intern nurses participating in the study were between the ages of 22 and 26 years old. Only one participant was 46 years old. 10 were current intern nurses while the remaining 12 had completed their internship and working as registered nurses. Reality shock is one of the challenges identified as a subtheme through thematic analysis in this study. The categories identifies under reality shock are role ambiguity, self-doubt, and work environment. Conclusion: The findings of the study identified reality shock as one of the many challenges experienced by intern nurses of today. There is an immediate need for healthcare providers and nursing leaders to recognize and address the reality shock in order to facilitate better transitional experiences for intern nurses. Easing the burden of reality shock will promote a healthy working environment as well as initiate better clinical outcomes.
Why It Hurts to Be Left Out: The Neurocognitive Overlap Between Physical and Social Pain.

Replace the word “friends,” as quoted above, with the word “air,” “water,” or “food” and Aristotle’s claim is indisputable. Without amending his statement, however, Aristotle’s claim seems more hyperbolic than truthful. If granted all the ‘real’ necessities of life, such as air, water, and food, would we not be able to live or, at least, not want to live, without the companionship of others? Are social relationships something we actually need or are they better