Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sugar Alcohols: What Is the Evidence for Caries-Preventive and Caries-Therapeutic Effects?

The most widely used sugar alcohols are: xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, lactitol and the products Lycasin® and Palatinit®. It is often claimed that xylitol is superior to the other sugar alcohols for caries control. This paper examines clinical studies on the caries-preventive and therapeutic effects of sugar alcohols with emphasis on sorbitol and xylitol. It is concluded that chewing sugar-free gum 3 or more times daily for prolonged periods of time may reduce caries incidence irrespective of the type of sugar alcohol used. It may be sufficient to do this only on school days. Sucking xylitol-containing candies or tablets may have a similar effect as chewing xylitol chewing gum. Clinical trials suggest greater caries reductions from chewing gums sweetened with xylitol than from gums sweetened with sorbitol. However, the superiority of xylitol was not confirmed in 2 out of 4 clinical trials comparing the caries-preventive effect of xylitol- with sorbitol-sweetened gums. The caries-preventive effects of polyol-containing gums and candies seem to be based on stimulation of the salivary flow, although an antimicrobial effect cannot be excluded. There is no evidence for a caries-therapeutic effect of xylitol. These conclusions are in line with those of recent reviews and with the conclusions of the Scientific Committee on Medicinal Products and Medical Devices of the EU Commission.
SVM versus MAP on Accelerometer Data to Distinguish among Locomotor Activities Executed at Different Speeds

Two approaches to the classification of different locomotor activities performed at various speeds are here presented and evaluated: a maximum a posteriori (MAP) Bayes' classification scheme and a Support Vector Machine (SVM) are applied on a 2D projection of 16 features extracted from accelerometer data. The locomotor activities (level walking, stair climbing, and stair descending) were recorded by an inertial sensor placed on the shank (preferred leg), performed in a natural indoor-outdoor scenario by 10 healthy young adults (age 25–35 yrs.). From each segmented activity epoch, sixteen features were chosen in the frequency and time domain. Dimension reduction was then performed through 2D Sammon's mapping. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was trained to mimic Sammon's mapping on the whole dataset. In the Bayes' approach, the two features were then fed to a Bayes' classifier that incorporates an update rule, while, in the SVM scheme, the ANN was considered as the kernel function of the classifier. Bayes' approach performed slightly better than SVM on both the training set (91.4% versus 90.7%) and the testing set (84.2% versus 76.0%), favoring the proposed Bayes' scheme as more suitable than the proposed SVM in distinguishing among the different monitored activities.
Continued Professional Learning: A Topical Life History

The purpose of this topical life history was to gain insight into the individual and socializing conditions that influenced an experienced elementary school physical education teacher’s perceptions and actions regarding continued professional learning. The teacher was interviewed in a series of five interviews over a 3-year period. The audiotaped transcriptions were subjected to the constant comparison data analysis technique, with the emergent patterns reported as results. Continued professional learning was valued as an essential concept associated with being a professional because it ultimately increased the teacher’s potential for helping students learn. Professional development experiences associated with the teacher’s undergraduate professional preparation institution and participation in a national curriculum project contributed most significantly to the teacher’s continued professional learning. The teacher’s continued professional learning was influenced by (a) students, (b) status, (c) administr.
Effects of Learner Characteristics on Learning Outcomes in the Learning Situation Incorporating SNS

This study is conducted to know how the learner characteristics such as the goalorientation, the self-efficacy, self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies and motivations of using social network sites (SNS) affect the learning satisfaction and academic achievement in the learning situation incorporating SNS. For the purpose of the study, we conducted a SNSintegrated Chinese language course for six weeks on 33 undergraduate students, and then we distributed and retrieved questionnaires in offline circumstances. After excluding three insincere survey papers, 30 survey papers were analyzed. We used SPSS 19.0 Statistics Solution for the correlation analysis and the multiple regression analysis. The results are as follows: first, there is a significant correlation between the learners' SRL strategy and the learning satisfaction; however, the goal-orientation, the self-efficacy and motivations of using SNS do not affect the learning satisfaction in the learning situation incorporating SNS. Second, learners' self-efficacy shows effects on the academic achievement in the SNS learning situation; however, learners' goal-orientation, SRL strategies and motivations of using SNS do not affect the academic achievement. The result hints the need for considering learners' SRL strategies in order to raise the learning satisfaction and it also inspires the need for teaching strategies for enhancing self-efficacy in order to raise the academic achievement.
Effect of chlorhexidine and ethanol on push-out bond strength of fiber posts under cyclic loading.

PURPOSE To investigate the effects of pretreatment with 2% chlorhexidine in a gel base (CHX) and 100% ethanol (EtOH) on the bond strength between fiber posts relined with resin composite and root dentin under cyclic loading. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty bovine incisor roots were divided into four groups after phosphoric acid etching: group 1 (control), irrigation with physiological saline solution; group 2, 5 min pretreatment with CHX; group 3, 1 min pretreatment with EtOH; group 4, 5 min pretreatment with CHX followed by 1 min with EtOH. Fiber posts relined with resin composite were cemented with RelyX ARC and the etch-and-rinse adhesive system Scotchbond Multi-Purpose. Each group was randomly divided into two subgroups: 24 h of storage (immediate groups) and cyclic loading (loading groups) with 250,000 cycles in a controlled chewing simulator. All roots were sectioned transversely and push-out tests were performed. Failure modes were observed and the bond strength means were analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey's test (a = 0.05). RESULTS The mean values for the bond strength test (MPa) in immediate groups were: group 1, 5.44 ± 1.48; group 2, 5.57 ± 1.41; group 3, 5.49 ± 1.48; group 4, 5.57 ± 1.42. Immediate groups showed similar bond strength values (p > 0.05). In the cyclic loading groups, the bond strength values were: group 1, 2.80 ± 0.79; group 2, 4.02 (1.30); group 3, 4.50 ± 1.67; group 4, 4.97 ± 2.00. After cyclic loading, a significant decrease in the control group was observed (p < 0.05), while CHX pretreatment resulted in intermediate values (p < 0.05) and EtOH alone or associated with CHX preserved the bond strength values (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION Chlorhexidine and/or ethanol pretreatment preserved the bond strength of the fiber post after cyclic loading.
Effect of Cymbopogon citratus and Citral on Vascular Smooth Muscle of the Isolated Thoracic Rat Aorta

Cymbopogon citratus has been shown to have antioxidant, antimicrobial, antispasmodic and chemo-protective properties. Citral, is the major constituent of C. citratus. This study investigated the effects of methanolic extracts of leaves (LE), stems (SE), and roots (RE) of C. citratus and citral on vascular smooth muscle and explored their possible mechanisms of action. The experiment was conducted using isolated tissue preparations, where citral, LE, SE, and RE were added separately into a tissue bath that contained aortic rings, which were pre-contracted with phenylephrine (PE). Citral, LE, and RE exhibited a dose-dependent relaxant effect on the PE-induced contractions. Citral appeared to partially act via NO as its vasorelaxant effect was attenuated by L-NAME. However, the effect of LE may involve prostacyclin as indomethacin reversed the relaxant effect of LE on the PE-induced contraction. Furthermore, citral, LE, and RE abolished the restoration of PE-induced contraction caused by the addition of increasing doses of calcium in both endothelium intact and denuded rings. These findings suggest that the relaxation effect of citral, LE, and RE is endothelium-independent and may be mainly by affecting the intracellular concentration of calcium. Citral may partially act through the NO pathway while a vasodilator prostaglandin may mediate the effect of LE.
Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon

Preface. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations and Symbols. Part I: Aims and Evidence:. 1. Welcome to Dictionopolis! The human word-store. 2. Links in the Chain. Assessing the evidence. 3. Programming Dumbella. Modelling the mental lexicon. Part II: Basic Ingredients:. 4. Slippery Customers. Attempts to pin down the meaning of words. 5. Bad Birds and Better Birds. Prototype theories. 6. Whispering Chambers of the Imagination. Mental models. 7. The Primordial Atomic Globule Hunt. The search for semantic primitives. 8. Word-webs. Semantic networks. 9. Lexical All-sorts. Parts of speech. 10. Verb Power. The role of verbs. 11. Bits of Words. The internal architecture of words. 12. Taking Care of the Sounds. Dealing with the sound patterns. Part III: Newcomers:. 13. Drifting Words. Layering and meaning change. 14. Interpreting Ice-cream Cones. Extending old words. 15. Globbering Mattresses. Creating new words. 16. What is a Bongaloo, Daddy? How children learn the meaning of words. 17. Aggergog Miggers, Wips and Gucks. How children cope with the sound structure of words. Part IV: The Overall Picture:. 18. Seeking and Finding. Selecting words. 19. Organized Guesswork. Recognizing words. 20. Odd Arrangements and Funny Solutions. The organization of the mental lexicon. 21. Last Word. Final comments and future questions. Notes. References. Index.
Ribosome-Associated Mba1 Escorts Cox2 from Insertion Machinery to Maturing Assembly Intermediates

ABSTRACT The three conserved core subunits of the cytochrome c oxidase are encoded by mitochondria in close to all eukaryotes. The Cox2 subunit spans the inner membrane twice, exposing the N and C termini to the intermembrane space. For this, the N terminus is exported cotranslationally by Oxa1 and subsequently undergoes proteolytic maturation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Little is known about the translocation of the C terminus, but Cox18 has been identified to be a critical protein in this process. Here we find that the scaffold protein Cox20, which promotes processing of Cox2, is in complex with the ribosome receptor Mba1 and translating mitochondrial ribosomes in a Cox2-dependent manner. The Mba1-Cox20 complex accumulates when export of the C terminus of Cox2 is blocked by the loss of the Cox18 protein. While Cox20 engages with Cox18, Mba1 is no longer present at this stage. Our analyses indicate that Cox20 associates with nascent Cox2 and Mba1 to promote Cox2 maturation cotranslationally. We suggest that Mba1 stabilizes the Cox20-ribosome complex and supports the handover of Cox2 to the Cox18 tail export machinery.
Reducing Age Bias and Turnover Intentions by Enhancing Intergenerational Contact Quality in the Workplace: The Role of Opportunities for Generativity and Development

Based on socio-emotional selectivity and self-categorization theories, we developed and tested a model on how the interplay between employee age and opportunities for generativity and development predicts age bias and turnover intentions via intergenerational contact quality in the workplace. We hypothesized indirect effects of opportunities for generativity on outcomes through intergenerational contact quality among older workers only, whereas we expected that the indirect effects of opportunities for development are stronger for young compared with older workers. Data came from 321 employees in Belgium who responded to an online questionnaire. Results showed that age moderated the relationships of opportunities for generativity and development with intergenerational contact quality consistent with the expected patterns. Furthermore, age moderated the indirect effects of opportunities for generativity and development on age bias through intergenerational contact quality, but not on turnover intentions. Implications for future research and practical suggestions for managing intergenerational contact at work are discussed.
Ontology integration: Experiences with medical terminologies

ONIONS is a methodology for ontology analysis and integration. It has been applied to some relevant and very large medical terminologies (e.g. the 332,000 medical concepts singled out by the National Library of Medicine in the UMLS project). Current results include the alignment of the top-level ontologies of the terminologies considered. The paper reviews the formal and conceptual tools employed in this task, presents the most significant results obtained, and discusses two case studies.
Solid-state synthesis of a conducting polythiophene via an unprecedented heterocyclic coupling reaction.

Prolonged storage ( approximately 2 years) or gentle heating (50-80 degrees C) of crystalline 2,5-dibromo-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (DBEDOT) affords a highly conducting, bromine-doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), as confirmed by solid-state NMR, FTIR, CV, and vis-NIR spectroscopies. The novel solid-state polymerization (SSP) does not occur for 2,5-dichloro-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (DCEDOT), and requires a much higher temperature (>130 degrees C) for 2,5-diiodo-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (DIEDOT). X-ray structural analysis of the above dihalothiophenes reveals short Hal.Hal distances between adjacent molecules in DBEDOT and DIEDOT, but not in DCEDOT. The polymerization may also occur in the melt but is significantly slower and leads to poorly conductive material. Detailed studies of the reaction were performed using ESR, DSC, microscopy, and gravimetric analyses. SSP starts on crystal defect sites; it is exothermic by 14 kcal/mol and requires activation energy of approximately 26 kcal/mol (for DBEDOT). The temperature dependence of the conductivity of SSP-PEDOT (sigma(rt) = 20-80 S/cm) reveals a slight thermal activation. It can be further increased by a factor of 2 by doping with iodine. Using this approach, thin films of PEDOT with conductivity as high as 20 S/cm were fabricated on insulating flexible plastic surfaces.
Risk Differential Between Medicare Beneficiaries Enrolled and Not Enrolled in an HMO

Medicare provides incentive reimbursements to health maintenance organizations (HMOs) which enroll Medicare beneficiaries on a risk option and provide care at a lower cost than expected. The incentive reimbursements are tied to an actuarial calculation of Medicare Adjusted Average Per Capita Cost (AAPCC). The AAPCC adjusts for a number of variables which affect Medicare reimbursements and for which data are available: place of residence, age, sex, welfare status, and institutional status of beneficiaries. These factors account for much of the expected difference in health care reimbursements. They do not, however, account for differences in health status. Because of this, AAPCC calculations of expected costs may be too high if a selected group of beneficiaries is healthier than average, or too low if the selected group has a poorer health status than average. This case study examines the utilization behavior and reimbursement experience of a group of Medicare beneficiaries prior to their Joining an HMO (during an open enrollment period) under a risk-sharing option. Their use was compared with a comparable Medicare population (the comparison group) to determine If their usage rates were greater, equal, or less than average. Results show that beneficiaries who joined during open enrollment had a rate of hospital inpatient use over 50 percent below the comparison group and a reimbursement rate for inpatient services 47 percent below the comparison group. These beneficiaries' use of Part B services also appears to be lower than the comparison group. These results must be interpreted with care. The information came from a single case study. Specific aspects of the open enrollment process, described in the paper, further limit the general liability of the findings. Also, while some studies of the same subject support the results, many others do not.
Community violence and mental health among Iraqi women, a population-based study

Background: The recent events in Iraq following the 2003 war render Iraq as a country with a high level of all types of violence. Exposure to violence, as a witness or a victim, is related to a number of longer term emotional, behavioral and social problems. Objectives: To investigate the impact of witnessing and experiencing community violence and tragedy as a factor contributing to mental health disorders among Iraqi women in the city of Mosul. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study of 500 women were selected by a multi-stage random sampling technique. Four catchment areas of primary health centers of Mosul city were selected. Community violence with nine commonly associated social, economic, emotional, physical and mental health symptoms were recorded by questionnaire. Results: The study revealed that all the participating women had a history of exposure to at least one type of community violence within the last twelve months. A mainstream consequence of exposure to community violence was transportation difficulties, loss of husband's job, and family displacement. More than half of the women were classified as having severe emotional disturbances that may evolve to mental health problems in future. Conclusion: Women are bearing the consequences of the violence in Iraq. National commitment and action needs to be taken to curb the violence which is hugely affecting the people of Iraq. Treatment programs targeted at promoting emotional resilience may be effective at preventing mental health problems.
Mechanism and pharmacological rescue of berberine-induced hERG channel deficiency

Berberine (BBR), an isoquinoline alkaloid mainly isolated from plants of Berberidaceae family, is extensively used to treat gastrointestinal infections in clinics. It has been reported that BBR can block human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channel and inhibit its membrane expression. The hERG channel plays crucial role in cardiac repolarization and is the target of diverse proarrhythmic drugs. Dysfunction of hERG channel can cause long QT syndrome. However, the regulatory mechanisms of BBR effects on hERG at cell membrane level remain unknown. This study was designed to investigate in detail how BBR decreased hERG expression on cell surface and further explore its pharmacological rescue strategies. In this study, BBR decreases caveolin-1 expression in a concentration-dependent manner in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells stably expressing hERG channel. Knocking down the basal expression of caveolin-1 alleviates BBR-induced hERG reduction. In addition, we found that aromatic tyrosine (Tyr652) and phenylalanine (Phe656) in S6 domain mediate the long-term effect of BBR on hERG by using mutation techniques. Considering both our previous and present work, we propose that BBR reduces hERG membrane stability with multiple mechanisms. Furthermore, we found that fexofenadine and resveratrol shorten action potential duration prolongated by BBR, thus having the potential effects of alleviating the cardiotoxicity of BBR.
Sex, War And Disease: The Effects Of Infection On Horn Size And Intra-sexual Competition In The Broad-horned Flour Beetle, Gnathocerus cornutus

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to Dr. Jeff Demuth for his advice and exceptional guidance throughout my project. I am thankful that I got an opportunity to learn under the supervision of such an awesome research scientist. I would like to convey my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Laura Mydlarz for her continued support and for allowing me to use her lab for my research work. I would like to thank Dr. Daniel Formanowicz for kindly serving on my committee. and other fellow graduate students and friends for their invaluable assistance. Thank you to Dr. Sherman Hendrix at Gettysburg College who provided the parasite eggs to infect my beetles with. I dedicate this work to my father, Raju Naidu, who wanted to see me enjoy a life of sensitivity, accomplishment, goodness and love but did not live to realize it. Had it not been for the continuous encouragement and unfailing support from my mother, Bela Naidu, I would never have made it to the US. Thank you mom for believing in my abilities and thank you to my sisters Archana Basnyat and Deepika Naidu for standing by me always. Words are not enough for me to thank my husband, Shankar Bhandari, for going above and beyond anyone's expectations to see to it that I completed my degree.
An Attempt to Arouse the Achievement Motivation of Young Women by Experimental Intervention

The aim was to study short and medium-term effects of a structured achievement motivation course on the achievement motivation of adolescent women. Hypotheses were that (a) achievement motivation could be experimentally aroused by means of the course and, (b) experimentally aroused achievement motivation would persist over the medium term, i.e., for six months following the course. The research group consisted of 121 adolescent women students at a military training unit. Subjects were divided into an experimental group (n = 58) and a control group (n = 63). Both groups participated in four testing sessions which were scheduled for January, before and after the experimental intervention in June, and December. The experimental intervention was an adaptation of McClelland's original achievement motivation course. Questionnaires constructed to assess cognitive conscious dimensions of achievement motivation were used as dependent variable measures. Dimensions assessed were autonomous and social achievement values, hope of success and fear of failure, internal and external locus of control, sensitivity to rejection, and affiliation tendency, as well as dogmatism, level of autonomy, and values. Data were analysed by means of Hotelling's T2 test. No significant differences existed between levels of achievement motivation for the experimental and control groups in January or before the intervention in June. The hypothesis that the course would cause a significant increase in the level of achievement motivation of the experimental group was not supported. The results suggested that situational factors and personal characteristics of the experimental group contributed to the failure of the experimental intervention.
The Intergenerational Transmission of Occupational Status and Sex-Typing at Children's Labour Market Entry

To what extent do the mother's and father's jobs and occupational sex-typing influence the status and sex-typing of their children's occupation at first entry into the labour market? Referring to a database containing 5027 respondents of two merged Dutch surveys held between 1992 and 1995, this study finds that the effect of the mother's occupational status on her daughter's is significant, but smaller than either the effect of father's status on his son's or his daughter's status. The mother's occupational sex-typing is related to her daughter's occupational sex-typing. The more female sex-typed the daughter's occupation, the lower her occupational status. In the same way, the father's occupational sex-typing is related to his son's occupational sex-typing. While the extension of the classical status attainment models by the mother's occupation and occupational sex-typing leads to interesting and new coefficients, the authors conclude that the more elementary classical model is not invalidated by these new perspectives.