Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Similarity of the Effects ofErythritol and Xylitol on SomeRisk Factors of Dental Caries

Several sugar alcohols (polyols) have been promoted as potential sugar substitutes in caries limitation. However, differences in the effects of simple alditol-type sugar alcohol homologues on dental plaque have not been compared in clinical tests. The effects of 6-month use of erythritol (a sugar alcohol of the tetritol type), xylitol (a pentitol) and D-glucitol (sorbitol, a hexitol) were investigated in a cohort of 136 teenage subjects assigned to the respective polyol groups or to an untreated control group (n = 30–36 per group). The daily use of the polyols was 7.0 g in the form of chewable tablets, supplemented by twice-a-day use of a dentifrice containing those polyols. The use of erythritol and xylitol was associated with a statistically significant reduction (p < 0.001 in most cases) in the plaque and saliva levels of mutans streptococci. The amount of dental plaque was also significantly reduced in subjects receiving erythritol and xylitol. Such effects were not observed in other experimental groups. Chemical analyses showed D-glucitol to be a normal finding in dental plaque while xylitol was less consistently detected. Erythritol was detected in measurable amounts only in the plaque of subjects receiving this polyol. Erythritol and xylitol may exert similar effects on some risk factors of dental caries, although the biochemical mechanism of the effects may differ. These in vivo studies were supported by cultivation experiments in which xylitol, and especially erythritol, inhibited the growth of several strains of mutans streptococci.
Endoscopic Removal of an Aspirated Healing Abutment and Screwdriver Under Conscious Sedation

Purpose:Aspiration of foreign bodies during dental treatment is a medical emergency that requires prompt removal. In this study, aspiration of screwdriver and healing abutment is reported with literature review. Materials and Methods:A 26-year-old male patient was referred from a local dental clinic with the suspicion of ingestion of a screwdriver and healing abutment during the second-stage surgery. The patient reported symptoms including dyspnea, cough, and foreign body sensation. On the chest radiograph, a radiopaque foreign body resembling the screwdriver and healing abutment was observed at the right mid lung. Results:Bronchoscopic examination using flexible cable was performed under conscious sedation, and microforceps were used to remove the instruments. Aspirated screwdriver and healing abutment were removed safely under intravenous sedation. The patient did not have any symptoms associated with lung aspiration after removal of the foreign body during follow-up periods. Conclusion:Bronchoscopic removal is the most recommended procedure for removal of the aspirated foreign body. This can be performed under conscious sedation. Precautions, such as tethering the screwdriver, are recommended during implant procedures.
Out-of-Order Execution as a Cross-VM Side-Channel and Other Applications

Given the rise in popularity of cloud computing and platform-as-a-service, vulnerabilities in systems which share hardware have become more attractive targets to malicious actors. One of the vulnerabilities inherent to these systems is the potential for side-channels, especially ones that violate the isolation between virtual machines. In this paper, we introduce a novel side-channel which functions across virtual machines. The side-channel functions through the detection of out-of-order execution. We create a simple duplex channel as well as a broadcast channel. We discuss possible adversaries for the side-channel and propose further work to make the channel more secure, efficient and applicable in realistic scenarios. In addition, we consider seven possible malicious applications of this channel: theft of encryption keys, program identification, environmental keying, malicious triggers, determining virtual machine co-location, malicious data injection, and covert channels.
Initial experiences with point‐of‐care rapid thrombelastography for management of life‐threatening postinjury coagulopathy

BACKGROUND: Massive transfusion (MTP) protocol design is hindered by lack of accurate assessment of coagulation. Rapid thrombelastography (r‐TEG) provides point‐of‐care (POC) analysis of clot formation. We designed a prospective study to test the hypothesis that integrating TEG into our MTP would facilitate goal‐directed therapy and provide equivalent outcomes compared to conventional coagulation testing.
Family Recovery from Youth Substance Use Related Problems: A Pilot Study of the BEST Plus Program

Youth substance use related problems are increasingly common, and families experience considerable stress in attempting to cope with these problems. A pilot study of 34 Australian parents from 21 families (38% sole parent families) participating in an 8-week group program, designed to assist families recover from youth substance use related problems, provided the context to explore family change processes. Participants reported a number of significant improvements over the course of the four groups that ran from late 2003 and through 2004. Regression analyses found general support for the program logic model in identifying significant associations between program-targeted parent changes and post-program improvements in stress symptoms and cohesive family behaviors. The study's limitations are noted.
Lower PAC bound on Upper Conﬁdence Bound-based Q-learning with examples

Abstract Recently, there has been signiﬁcant progress in understanding reinforcement learning in Markov decision processes (MDP). We focus on improving Q-learning and analyze its sample complexity. We investigate the performance of tabular Q-learning, Approximate Q-learning and UCB-based Q-learning. We also derive a lower PAC bound Ω( |S| 2 |A| (cid:15) 2 ln |A| δ ) of UCB-based Q-learning. Two tasks, CartPole and Pac-Man, are each solved using these three methods. Some results and discussion are presented at last. UCB-based learning does better in exploration but lose its advantage in exploitation, compared to its alternatives.
Pharmacokinetic Study of Infusional Valspodar

The pharmacokinetics of valspodar (PSC 833), a selective second‐generation P‐glycoprotein modulator, was evaluated as part of a Phase I study to modulate paclitaxel therapy in 15 patients with refractory malignancies. Valspodar was given intravenously at 1.42 mg/kg/h for 2 hours, followed by a 27‐hour continuous infusion at 0.42 mg/kg/h. Serial blood samples were obtained after intravenous infusion of valspodar and paclitaxel. Valspodar disposition was best described by a linear two‐compartment model. The median (range) valspodar clearance was 0.40 ml/min/kg (0.07‐1.40 ml/min/kg). The 20‐fold interpatient variability in valspodar clearance was not correlated with age, body weight, or gender but might be associated with coadministered medications that were metabolized via cytochrome P450 3A‐mediated elimination. Valspodar whole‐blood concentrations were maintained above the target threshold of 1000 ng/ml for a median of 32 hours. The pharmacokinetic model generated from this study allows for application in future studies to optimize the use of valspodar.
Binding Algorithm for Power Optimization Based on Network Flow Method

We propose an efficient binding algorithm for power optimization in behavioral synthesis. In prior work, it has been shown that several binding problems for low-power can be formulated as multi-commodity flow problems (due to an iterative execution of data flow graph) and be solved optimally. However, since the multi-commodity flow problem is NP-hard, the application is limited to a class of small sized problems. To overcome the limitation, we address the problem of how we can effectively make use of the property of efficient flow computations in a network so that it is extensively applicable to practical designs while producing close-to-optimal results. To this end, we propose a two-step procedure, which (1) determines a feasible binding solution by partially utilizing the computation steps for finding a maximum flow of minimum cost in a network and then (2) refines it iteratively. Experiments with a set of benchmark examples show that the proposed algorithm saves the run time significantly while maintaining close-to-optimal bindings in most practical designs.
Effects of epilepsy treatments on sleep architecture and daytime sleepiness: An evidence‐based review of objective sleep metrics

Sleep is considered restorative, and good quantity and quality sleep is required for memory consolidation and synaptic plasticity. Sleep disorders are common in patients with epilepsy. Poor sleep quality or quantity may worsen seizure control. On the other end, seizures and epilepsy may worsen the sleep quality and set a vicious cycle. In addition, antiepileptic drugs have an effect on sleep architecture. We performed a systemic literature review with a goal to evaluate the effect of antiepileptic drugs and nondrug treatments for epilepsy on sleep architecture to help better understand treatment effects, especially in patients with epilepsy and sleep problems.
Widespread Application of Topical Steroids to Decrease Sore Throat, Hoarseness, and Cough After Tracheal Intubation

T racheal intubation for general anesthesia often leads to trauma of the airway mucosa, resulting in postoperative sore throat (ST), cough (C), and hoarseness (H), with reported incidences of 21%-65% (1,2). Although typically not incapacitating, these sequelae can be very uncomfortable and may be especially annoying to patients returning home after ambulatory procedures. The aforementioned effects are likely the consequences of local irritation and inflammation and hence may be amenable to locally administered steroids. However, relatively little research has been performed in this area. Topical application of 1% hydrocortisone near the endotracheal tube cuff was not beneficial (3), whereas one puff of a beclomethasone inhaler (50 pg) effectively reduced the incidence of ST from 55% to 10% (4). Neither of these studies evaluated the effect of the steroid on H and C. In light of the cost associated with pretreatment with inhalers, we sought to determine whether we could obtain a reduction of C and H as well as ST with a wider distribution of topical gel. We hypothesized that coating the endotracheal tube from the cuff to the 15-cm mark with betamethasone, a water-soluble steroid that has been used topically for the treatment of inflammatory lesions of the oral mucosa, would reduce these sequelae.
Effect of Surgical Treatment on Mortality After Acetabular Fracture in the Elderly: A Multicenter Study of 454 Patients

Objectives: Controversy exists regarding the effect of operative treatment on mortality after acetabular fracture in elderly patients. Our hypothesis was that operative treatment would confer a mortality benefit compared with nonoperative treatment even after adjusting for comorbidities associated with death. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Three University Level I Trauma Centers. Patients/Participants: All patients aged 60 years and older with acetabular fractures treated from 2002 to 2009 were included in the study. Four hundred fifty-four patients were identified with an average age of 74 years. Sixty-seven percent of the study group was male and 33% female. Intervention: One of 4 treatments: nonoperative management with early mobilization, percutaneous reduction and fixation, open reduction and internal fixation, acute total hip arthroplasty. Main Outcome Measurements: Kaplan–Meier survival curves were created, and Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for covariates of interest. Results: In contrast to previous smaller studies, the overall mortality was relatively low at 16% at 1 year [95% confidence interval (CI), 13–19]. Unadjusted survivorship curves suggested higher 1-year mortality rates for nonoperatively treated patients (21% vs. 13%, P < 0.001); however, nonoperative treatment was associated with other risk factors for higher mortality. By accounting for these patient risk factors, our final multivariate model of survival demonstrated no significant difference in hazard of death for nonoperative treatment (0.92, P = 0.6) nor for any of the 3 operative treatment subgroups (P range, 0.4–0.8). As expected, we did find a significantly increased hazard for factors such as the Charlson comorbidity index [HR, 1.25 per point (95% CI, 1.16–1.34)] and age [HR, 1.08 per year of age more than 70 years (95% CI, 1.05–1.11)]. In addition, associated fracture patterns (compared with elementary patterns) significantly increased the hazard of death with a ratio of 1.51 (95% CI, 1.10–2.06). Conclusions: The operative treatment of acetabular fractures does not increase or decrease mortality, once comorbidities are taken into account. The reasons for this are unknown. Regardless of the causes, the decision for operative versus nonoperative treatment of geriatric acetabular fractures should not be justified based on the concern for increased or decreased mortality alone. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
An Acupuncture Needle Remaining in a Lung for 17 years: Case Study and Review

The case of a 67-year-old patient with an acupuncture needle remaining in his left lung is described. This foreign body was a remnant of a procedure performed by a doctor 17 years previously for osteoarthritic back pain. On the basis of this case, a review was performed of literature available in the PubMed database dealing with acupuncture needles remaining in a patient's body. A total of 25 articles were found. The articles describe needles found in the bladder, shoulder girdle, spinal cord, right ventricle, L5 nerve root, medulla oblongata, skin, carpal tunnel, nuchal and occipital area, calf and paraspinal muscle. Migration of needle fragments to the liver, pancreas, stomach, colon, breast, kidney, muscles, and spinal cord has been reported in the literature. In cases where patients were operated on, the needles were removed without subsequent complications and the patients recovered fully.
PAND: A Distribution to Identify Functional Linkage from Networks with Preferential Attachment Property

Technology advances have immensely accelerated large-scale mapping of biological networks, which necessitates the development of accurate and powerful network-based algorithms to make functional inferences. A prevailing approach is to leverage functions of neighboring nodes to predict unknown molecular function. However, existing neighbor-based algorithms have ignored the scale-free property hidden in many biological networks. By assuming that neighbor sharing is constrained by the preferential attachment property, we developed a Preferential Attachment based common Neighbor Distribution (PAND) to calculate the probability of the neighbor-sharing event between any two nodes in scale-free networks, which nearly perfectly matched the observed probability in simulations. By applying PAND to a human protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, we showed that smaller probabilities represented closer functional linkages between proteins. With the PAND-derive linkages, we were able to build new networks where the links are more functionally reliable than those of the human PPI network. We then applied simple annotation schemes to a PAND-derived network to make reliable functional predictions for proteins. We also developed an R package called PANDA (PAND-derived functional Associations) to implement the methods proposed in this study. In conclusion, PAND is a useful distribution to calculate the probability of the neighbor-sharing events in scale-free networks. With PAND, we are able to extract reliable functional linkages from real biological networks and builds new networks that are better bases for further functional inference.
Two‐Color Two‐Photon Excitation of Fluorescence

Abstract— We report the observation of two‐photon excitation of an organic fluorophore with two different wavelengths, a phenomenon we refer to as two‐color two‐photon (2C2P) excitation. Ultraviolet emission of p‐Merphenyl at 340 nm was observed when the sample was illuminated with both 375 and 750 nm pulses from a picosecond dye laser. The emission of p‐terphenyl was about 100‐fold and more than 1000‐fold less for illumination at only 375 or 750 nm, respectively. Observation of the 2C2P signal required temporal and spatial overlap of the 375 and 750 nm pulses. The amplitude of the signal depended on the polarization of each beam. 2C2P excitation can have applications in fluorescence microscopy and elsewhere when spatially localized excitation is desirable.
Improved transplantation outcome through delivery of DNA encoding secretion signal peptide‐linked glucagon‐like peptide‐1 into mouse islets

Glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) stimulates cell proliferation and has anti‐apoptotic effects on pancreatic islet β cells. In our previous study, the transduction of mouse islets with a recombinant adenovirus containing GLP‐1 cDNA enhanced islet graft survival. In this study, we sought to deliver the GLP‐1 gene using a nonviral vector, which raises fewer safety issues in clinical application. We constructed a plasmid, pβ‐SP‐GLP‐1, in which a secretion signal peptide (SP) was inserted to increase GLP‐1 secretion, and transfected mouse islets using the nonviral carrier Effectene. Transfection of pβ‐SP‐GLP‐1 induced a significant increase in bioactive GLP‐1 levels in islet cultures. Islets transfected with pβ‐SP‐GLP‐1 were protected from H2O2‐induced cell damage in vitro. In addition, glucose‐stimulated insulin secretion was significantly increased in pβ‐SP‐GLP‐1‐transfected islets. Diabetic syngeneic mice transplanted under the kidney capsule with a marginal mass of pβ‐SP‐GLP‐1‐transfected islets rapidly became normoglycemic, with 88% of recipients being normoglycemic at 30 days post‐transplantation compared with 52% of mice that received pβ‐transfected islet grafts (P < 0.05). Islet grafts retrieved 7 days after transplantation revealed that the pβ‐SP‐GLP‐1‐transfected group had significantly more Ki67‐positive cells as compared with the pβ‐transfected group. In conclusion, delivery of a plasmid containing a secretion SP and GLP‐1 cDNA using a nonviral carrier leads to efficient secretion of GLP‐1 in mouse islet cells, enhances islet cell survival during the early post‐transplant period, and improves islet transplantation outcome.
A low-power and low-complexity chopper-stabilized amplifier

In this paper, a low-power, low-complexity chopper amplifier was proposed. The equivalent input noise and offset is reduced by using the chopper stabilization technique with a chopping frequency of 1.0 MHz. Based on a 0. 35µm CMOS technology with power supply of 3.3V, the chopper amplifier was designed successfully with chip area of 0.02 mm2 and power of 0.25 mW and achieved the PSRR of 112 dB and the CMRR of 108 dB.
Diversity of plasmids in Achromobacter xylosoxidans isolates responsible for a seemingly common-source nosocomial outbreak

Achromobacter xylosoxidans, an uncommon yet highly resistant opportunistic pathogen, was isolated from nine hospitalized patients during an 8-month period. It had been isolated from only seven patients with either nonfatal infection or colonization from 1981 to 1984. From June 1985 to January 1986, A. xylosoxidans was isolated 18 times from seven different sites (sputum, 7 times; urine, 4 times; blood, 3 times; and lung, pleural fluid, wound tissue, and tracheal aspirate, 1 time each). Four patients died, including the three with bacteremia. All but two patients had nosocomial infections and either were on the same ward or were cared for by the same staff members. Eleven A. xylosoxidans strains yielded eight distinct plasmids (8, 21, 23, 26, 38, 50, 51, and 64 megadaltons). Whole-cell peptide patterns of 10 of these strains were determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Isolates from the same patient contained the same plasmids and had identical peptide patterns but differed from other strains in both parameters. Plasmids were absent from the two community-acquired isolates. Although nosocomial strains showed similar antibiotic resistance patterns (only moxalactam and ticarcillin-clavulanic acid were uniformly active) and cross-contamination was strongly suggested epidemiologically, results of plasmid and peptide analyses did not support the possibility of a single-strain outbreak.
LOCALIZATION OF SH‐PTP1 TO SYNAPTIC VESICLES: A POSSIBLE ROLE IN NEUROTRANSMISSION

The tyrosine kinase pp60src is known to phosphorylate synaptophysin and in doing so may regulate neurotransmitter release. The tyrosyl phosphorylated state of synaptophysin is dependent on pp60src kinase and the unknown protein tyrosine phosphate phosphohydrolase (PTPase, EC 3.1.3.48). Here we report the protein tyrosine phosphate phosphohydrolase SH‐PTP1, to associate with synaptic vesicles and interact with synaptophysin. These studies identify SH‐PTP1 as a new member of the secretory machinery at the nerve terminal and suggest its involvement in neurotransmission.
Differential regulation of gene expression in the digit forming area of the mouse limb bud by SHH and gremlin 1/FGF-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal signalling

Spatially and temporally coordinated changes in gene expression are crucial to orderly progression of embryogenesis. We combine mouse genetics with experimental manipulation of signalling to analyze the kinetics by which the SHH morphogen and the BMP antagonist gremlin 1 (GREM1) control gene expression in the digit-forming mesenchyme of mouse limb buds. Although most mesenchymal cells respond rapidly to SHH signalling, the transcriptional upregulation of specific SHH target signals in the mesenchyme occurs with differential temporal kinetics and in a spatially restricted fashion. In particular, the expression of the BMP antagonist Grem1 is always upregulated in mesenchymal cells located distal to the SHH source and acts upstream of FGF signalling by the apical ectodermal ridge. GREM1/FGF-mediated feedback signalling is, in turn, required to propagate SHH and establish the presumptive digit expression domains of the Notch ligand jagged 1 (Jag1) and 5′Hoxd genes in the distal limb bud mesenchyme. Their establishment is significantly delayed in Grem1-deficient limb buds and cannot be rescued by specific restoration of SHH signalling in mutant limb buds. This shows that GREM1/FGF feedback signalling is required for regulation of the temporal kinetics of the mesenchymal response to SHH signalling. Finally, inhibition of SHH signal transduction at distinct time points reveals the differential temporal dependence of Grem1, Jag1 and 5′Hoxd gene expression on SHH signalling. In particular, the expression of Hoxd13 depends on SHH signal transduction significantly longer than does Hoxd11 expression, revealing that the reverse co-linear establishment, but not maintenance of their presumptive digit expression domains, depends on SHH signalling.
Schedulability-oriented replication of periodic tasks in distributed real-time systems

We consider the schedulability-oriented replication problem of a set of periodic real-time tasks where each task can be decomposed into several modules and intermodule communications. The objective is to find an allocation in which there exists a feasible schedule for the given task set. In this paper, we adopt a communication model where the replication of modules is not for the sake of fault tolerance but for increasing the degree of schedulability. To solve the problem, we develop a replication technique and embed the technique in a simulated annealing algorithm. Experimental results show that such replication may lead to a higher degree of schedulability and obtain a feasible solution.