Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Flow Rate, pH, Buffering Capacity, Calcium, Total Protein and Total Antioxidant Levels of Saliva in Caries Free and Caries Active Children—An In Vivo Study

Background and objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the physicochemical properties of saliva such as flow rate, pH, buffering capacity, calcium level, total protein and total antioxidant levels in caries free and caries active children. Materials and methods: The present study included one hundred and twenty healthy children who were divided into two groups and subdivided according to gender. They were further divided into caries free and caries active children with 15 children in each group. Unstimulated saliva was collected by suction method and flow rates were determined. The samples were then analyzed for pH, buffering capacity, total protein, calcium and total antioxidant levels. The data was then statistically analyzed using student’s ‘t’ test {unpaired}. Results: The results revealed that when all these parameters were compared among the caries free and caries active children, the flow rate, pH and buffering capacity were slightly reduced in caries active children, but the total protein and total antioxidant capacity of saliva increased significantly in caries active children and the total calcium decreased significantly in caries active children. Conclusion: Within the limitation of this study, we can conclude that, the physicochemical properties of saliva play a major role in the development of caries.
Asymptotically Optimal Decision Rules for Joint Detection and Source Coding

The problem of joint detection and lossless source coding is considered. We derive asymptotically optimal decision rules for deciding whether or not a sequence of observations has emerged from a desired information source, and to compress it if has. In particular, our decision rules asymptotically minimize the cost of compression in the case that the data have been classified as desirable, subject to given constraints on the two kinds of the probability of error. In another version of this performance criterion, the constraint on the false alarm probability is replaced by a constraint on the cost of compression in the false alarm event. We then analyze the asymptotic performance of these decision rules. We also derive universal decision rules for the case where the underlying sources (under either hypothesis or both) are unknown, and training sequences from each source may or may not be available. Finally, we discuss how our framework can be extended in several directions.
Effects of Whole Body Vibration and Resistance Training on Bone Mineral Density and Anthropometry in Obese Postmenopausal Women

Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of two exercise programs, whole body vibration and resistance training on bone mineral density (BMD) and anthropometry in obese postmenopausal women. Material and Methods. Eighty Egyptian obese postmenopausal women were enrolled in this study; their age ranged from 50 to 68 years. Their body mass index ranged (30–36 kg/m2). The exercise prescription consisted of whole body vibration (WBV) and resistance training. Bone mineral density (BMD) and anthropometrical parameters were measured at the beginning and at the end of the study. Changes from baseline to eight months in BMD and anthropometric parameters were investigated. Results. BMD at the greater trochanter, at ward's triangle, and at lumbar spine were significantly higher after physical training, using both WBV and resistive training. Moreover, both exercise programs were effective in BMI and waist to the hip ratio. Simple and multiple regression analyses showed significant associations between physical activity duration and BMD at all sites. The highest values of R 2 were found for the models incorporating WBV plus BMI. Conclusion. The study suggests that both types of exercise modalities had a similar positive effect on BMD at all sites in obese postmenopausal women. Significant association was noted between physical activity and anthropometric variables and BMD measures at all sites.
Injury of the mammillothalamic tract in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage: a retrospective diffusion tensor imaging study

Objective Few studies have reported on injury of the mammillothalamic tract (MTT) in patients with stroke. However, no study in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) has been reported. Using diffusion tensor tractography, we attempted to investigate injury of the MTT in patients with SAH. Methods We recruited 16 patients with SAH and 15 control participants. DTI was obtained at 5.7±1.5 weeks after onset and reconstruction of the MTT was performed using the probabilistic tractography method. The fractional anisotropy (FA) value and tract number of the MTT and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score were determined. Values of FA and tract volume showing a decrement of more than two SDs that of normal control were defined as abnormal. Results The FA value and tract volume in the patient group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p<0.05). In addition, MMSE showed strong (r=0.67, p=0.005) positive correlation with tract volume without correlation with FA. In the individual analysis, 16 MTTs of 32 MTTs in 16 patients showed abnormalities of the MTT in terms of the FA value, the tract volume or the presence of a reconstructed MTT. As a result, 10 (62.5%) of 16 patients showed abnormality of the MTT in at least one hemisphere. Conclusions We found that patients with SAH showed injury of the MTT and this injury showed correlation with cognitive dysfunction.
Independent and tissue‐specific prognostic impact of miR‐126 in nonsmall cell lung cancer

Angiogenesis is pivotal in tumor development. Vascular endothelial growth factor‐A (VEGF‐A) is considered one of the most important angiogenic factors, but lately several microRNAs (miRs) have been associated with vascular development. miR‐126 has been related to tumor angiogenesis and in the regulation of VEGF‐A. The authors aimed to investigate the prognostic impact of miR‐126 and its co‐expression with VEGF‐A in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.
Review: Current trends in inflammatory bowel disease: the natural history

The description of the prognosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is based on systematic follow-up of population-based cohorts. A steady increase in incidence of IBD has occurred. The distribution of ulcerative colitis (UC) is fairly uniform with a preponderance of left-sided disease. One-third of Crohn’s disease (CD) patients present with colonic disease, one-third with ileocolonic disease and one-third with small bowel disease. IBD is associated with extra-intestinal manifestations (EIMs) in up to 36% of patients. Uveitis and episcleritis are the most common. The cumulative probability of a relapsing course in UC is 90% after 25 years. In CD disease behaviour varies substantially with time. At diagnosis behaviour is inflammatory in 70% of patients. At follow-up there is a change to either stricturing or penetrating disease. Most patients with CD will eventually require surgery. Risk factors for CD recurrence after surgery include penetrating/fistulizing disease behaviour, young age, short duration of disease before first surgery and ileocolonic disease. The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in UC seems to be decreasing. The risk of CRC in CD seems to be equivalent to the risk in UC. Patients with small bowel CD are also at increased risk of small bowel adenocarcinoma. CD is associated with a mortality rate 20-70% higher than expected, whereas mortality in UC is equivalent to that of the general population. The improved prognosis of IBD, especially UC, could be due to a chemopreventive effect of the medications used. Further studies are needed to develop the best strategy for the reduction of mortality and cancer risk in IBD.
The Structure of Corporate Political Action: Interfirm Relations and Their Consequences. By Mark S. Mizruchi. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. 299p. $37.50.

who feared that the missile's accuracy threatened stability by reducing the survivability of Soviet forces and also from an extensive, well-organized grassroots campaign against the weapon. Once this put MX on the congressional agenda, both Carter and Reagan's inability to find a basing mode that was both environmentally acceptable and survivable provided an argument that helped bring moderate-to-conservative legislators into the anti-MX camp, as well. Thus, Lindsay is right in identifying this departure from existing nuclear doctrine as a factor that put the MX in danger of cancellation, but he is not right to see this as the primary reason that the system got onto the congressional agenda in the first place. I believe Congress and Nuclear Weapons would make an excellent text for an upper-level undergraduate class on Congress or on U.S. foreign policy formulation. It should also be brought to the attention of nonscholarly audiences, because it contains a first-rate discussion of why critics of congressional involvement in nuclear weapons policymaking have exaggerated the problems and overlooked the benefits of such involvement. Lindsay's scholarly contribution is limited, however, by the somewhat narrow scope of the book. Although he notes that its topic falls at the intersection of the traditionally separate subfields of American politics and international relations, he draws very little on the literature and ideas of the latter subfield, relying almost entirely on the literature on Congress. Lindsay also explicitly excludes nuclear arms control from his purview. Yet inclusion of some arms control cases might have permitted a more fruitful discussion of relations between Congress and the larger domestic political environment. For example, examination of congressional response to the nuclear weapons freeze campaign in the early 1980s might have improved and strengthened Lindsay's inferences regarding how electoral and policy incentives interact. Within the framework and parameters he sets up, Lindsay's analysis is sensible and hard to fault. Lindsay makes a good case for considering Congress a significant player in defense policy, as well as domestic policy. Congress and Nuclear Weapons also suggests that the importance of the electoral connection relative to policy motivations may have been exaggerated in the previous literature. This book could have done more, however, if it had devoted more attention to the public and international context within which Congress acts and explored the full range of nuclear weapons decisions, both procurement and arms control.
From Interpersonal to Interorganizational Trust: The Role of Indirect Reciprocity

How does interpersonal trust (i.e. between individuals) lead to interorganisational trust (i.e. between groups of individuals)? I build a bottom-up theory in which interorganisational trust arises from individuals and their dispositions, actions and observations. The theory is based on indirect reciprocity, whereby A helps B and then C helps A. Using a simulation model, I analyse (a) whether indirect reciprocity can lead to trust between two organisations even when many people are involved, when the extent of their indirect reciprocation differs, and when helping others is costly; and (b) how the presence of a boundary spanner affects this process. The main findings are that (a) indirect reciprocity can indeed create interorganisational trust under such conditions, and that, in fact, indirect may outperform direct reciprocity. Furthermore, (b) boundary spanners can decrease or increase interorganisational trust: they may decrease it by boosting their own trust at the expense of that of others, and they may increase it by enhancing indirect reciprocity for everyone through four mechanisms: contributing, discriminating, initiating and consolidating.
Techniques for Interface Stress Measurements within Prosthetic Sockets of Transtibial Amputees: A Review of the Past 50 Years of Research

The distribution of interface stresses between the residual limb and prosthetic socket of a transtibial amputee has been considered as a direct indicator of the socket quality fit and comfort. Therefore, researchers have been very interested in quantifying these interface stresses in order to evaluate the extent of any potential damage caused by the socket to the residual limb tissues. During the past 50 years a variety of measurement techniques have been employed in an effort to identify sites of excessive stresses which may lead to skin breakdown, compare stress distributions in various socket designs, and evaluate interface cushioning and suspension systems, among others. The outcomes of such measurement techniques have contributed to improving the design and fitting of transtibial sockets. This article aims to review the operating principles, advantages, and disadvantages of conventional and emerging techniques used for interface stress measurements inside transtibial sockets. It also reviews and discusses the evolution of different socket concepts and interface stress investigations conducted in the past five decades, providing valuable insights into the latest trends in socket designs and the crucial considerations for effective stress measurement tools that lead to a functional prosthetic socket.
Inconsistencies among secondary sources of Chukar Partridge (Alectoris chukar) introductions to the United States

The propagule pressure hypothesis asserts that the number of individuals released is the key determinant of whether an introduction will succeed or not. It remains to be shown whether propagule pressure is more important than either species-level or site-level factors in determining the fate of an introduction. Studies claiming to show that propagule pressure is the primary determinant of introduction success must assume that the historical record as reported by secondary sources is complete and accurate. Here, examine a widely introduced game bird, the Chukar (Alectoris chukar), to the USA. We compare the records reported by two secondary sources (Long, 1981; Lever, 1987) to those in a primary source (Christensen, 1970) and to a recent study by Sol et al. (2012). Numerous inconsistencies exist in the records reported by Sol et al. (2012), Long (1981) and Lever (1987) when compared to the primary record of Christensen (1970). As reported by Christensen (1970), very large numbers of Chukars were released unsuccessfully in some states. Our results strongly imply that factors other than sheer numbers are more important. Site-to-site differences are the most likely explanation for the variation in success.
Sanctions and Deviance: Evidence and Remaining Questions

The last few years have witnessed a resurgence of interest among social scientists in the possible effects of negative sanctions in producing conformity to norms. During the first half of this century deterrence ideas were often the object of debate and research. Debate, however, was usually conducted on an ideological level, and the extant research generally suggested that punishment was of minor importance as a behavioral influence (Ball, 1955; Tappan, 1960: 243-255). As a result, many social scientists came to regard the question as either theoretically uninteresting or as empirically non-problematic. For instance, most major theories of deviance developed in this century have given little attention to the role of sanctions. Instead they have emphasized special motivations stemming from socialization into unusual normative contexts, failure of conventional socialization, psychodynamic problems, or pressures generated by social contexts (Cohen, 1966). In addition, general theories of social order or social organization have seldom attributed major significance to sanctions as a means of generating conformity. Confidence that the deterrence issue has been empirically resolved is evident in much criminological writing. For instance, one criminological classic unabashedly asserts that punishment "does not deter . [nor] does it act as a deterrent upon others . " (Tannenbaum, 1938: 478), while a well-known contemporary criminology text concludes that one of the limitations of legal punishment is that "it does not prevent crime in others or prevent relapse into crime" (Reckless, 1967: 508). Such conclusions are typically based on two kinds of evidence. The most widely cited concerns the relationship between capital punishment and homicide (Sutherland and Cressey, 1966: 335-353). This literature includes studies comparing homicide rates of similar social units differing in legal provision for capital punishment (Schuessler, 1952; Sellin, 1967), studies comparing homicide rates of the same social units at
Approaching space: Zadie Smith’s North London fiction

AbstractThis article traces Zadie Smith’s recurring, but shifting, engagement with North London in her works White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and The Embassy of Cambodia. It argues that underlying Smith’s changing aesthetic approaches to this particular space is an ethical agenda: an emphasis on the necessity to engage critically and responsibly with space (which Doreen Massey has read as a social construction that impacts powerfully on individuals and groups). After a consideration of the different approaches to, and functions of, North London in Smith’s first three novels, it focuses on her structural and metanarrative engagement with space in her more recent works. This gives way to reflections on agency, in light of the social determination of concrete spaces. Whereas Smith set out to create in White Teeth a representation of a quintessentially British space, it is what Massey refers to as a “global sense of space” – one that shapes national discourses – that manifests itself in her more .
Dystrophin rescue by trans-splicing: a strategy for DMD genotypes not eligible for exon skipping approaches

RNA-based therapeutic approaches using splice-switching oligonucleotides have been successfully applied to rescue dystrophin in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) preclinical models and are currently being evaluated in DMD patients. Although the modular structure of dystrophin protein tolerates internal deletions, many mutations that affect nondispensable domains of the protein require further strategies. Among these, trans-splicing technology is particularly attractive, as it allows the replacement of any mutated exon by its normal version as well as introducing missing exons or correcting duplication mutations. We have applied such a strategy in vitro by using cotransfection of pre–trans-splicing molecule (PTM) constructs along with a reporter minigene containing part of the dystrophin gene harboring the stop-codon mutation found in the mdx mouse model of DMD. Optimization of the different functional domains of the PTMs allowed achieving accurate and efficient trans-splicing of up to 30% of the transcript encoded by the cotransfected minigene. Optimized parameters included mRNA stabilization, choice of splice site sequence, inclusion of exon splice enhancers and artificial intronic sequence. Intramuscular delivery of adeno-associated virus vectors expressing PTMs allowed detectable levels of dystrophin in mdx and mdx4Cv, illustrating that a given PTM can be suitable for a variety of mutations.
Stimulation of Homologous Recombination through Targeted Cleavage by Chimeric Nucleases

ABSTRACT Chimeric nucleases that are hybrids between a nonspecific DNA cleavage domain and a zinc finger DNA recognition domain were tested for their ability to find and cleave their target sites in living cells. Both engineered DNA substrates and the nucleases were injected into Xenopus laevis oocyte nuclei, in which DNA cleavage and subsequent homologous recombination were observed. Specific cleavage required two inverted copies of the zinc finger recognition site in close proximity, reflecting the need for dimerization of the cleavage domain. Cleaved DNA molecules were activated for homologous recombination; in optimum conditions, essentially 100% of the substrate recombined, even though the DNA was assembled into chromatin. The original nuclease has an 18-amino-acid linker between the zinc finger and cleavage domains, and this enzyme cleaved in oocytes at paired sites separated by spacers in the range of 6 to 18 bp, with a rather sharp optimum at 8 bp. By shortening the linker, we found that the range of effective site separations could be narrowed significantly. With no intentional linker between the binding and cleavage domains, only binding sites exactly 6 bp apart supported efficient cleavage in oocytes. We also showed that two chimeric enzymes with different binding specificities could collaborate to stimulate recombination when their individual sites were appropriately placed. Because the recognition specificity of zinc fingers can be altered experimentally, this approach holds great promise for inducing targeted recombination in a variety of organisms.
Disentangling SLI and bilingualism using sentence repetition tasks: the impact of L1 and L2 properties

The current study investigated performance on morpho-syntax in Russian–Hebrew sequential bilingual preschool children with and without specific language impairment (SLI) in both languages (L1 Russian and L2 Hebrew) using sentence repetition (SRep) tasks with a fundamental aim to disentangle the language abilities of bilingual children with typical language development (biTLD) from those of bilingual children with SLI (biSLI). Four groups of children participated (N=85) in the study: 45 L1 Russian–L2 Hebrew sequential bilinguals (30 biTLD and 15 biSLI), 20 monolingual Russian-speaking children and 20 monolingual Hebrew-speaking children. The SRep tasks in Russian and in Hebrew were based on Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) SRep developed within COST Action IS0804 titled “Language Impairment in a Multilingual Society: Linguistic Patterns and the Road to Assessment”. The tasks in Russian and in Hebrew contained 56 sentences of different length and complexity. The bilingual–monolingual comparisons yielded differences only in L1 Russian, where the monolingual Russian-speaking children outperformed bilingual children with typical language development (TLD) in their first language. In L2 Hebrew, no significant differences emerged between monolingual speakers of Hebrew and bilinguals. Comparisons of bilingual children with and without SLI showed that both the quantity and the quality of errors differentiate the two bilingual groups. In both languages (L1 and L2), bilingual children with TLD outperformed their peers with SLI. Bilingual children with SLI produced specific error patterns like those previously reported for monolingual children with SLI, i.e. omission of coordinators and subordinators, omission of prepositions, and simplification of wh-questions and relative clauses. These error patterns are unique to children with SLI and cannot be attributed to L1–L2 influence, while the errors of children in the biTLD group can be traced to cross-linguistic influence (mostly L2 influence on L1). We conclude that SRep tasks are an effective means to bring us closer to distinguishing bilingual children with SLI from those with TLD. They allow us to make quantitative and qualitative comparisons of performance and errors. But, perhaps more importantly, they point to underlying grammatical representations, in particular those linked to cross-linguistic influence and reduced exposure, as a way of distinguishing bilingual children with and without SLI.