Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reducing the incidence of denture stomatitis: are denture cleansers sufficient?

PURPOSE Candida albicans is the predominant oral yeast associated with denture stomatitis. With an increasing population of denture wearers, the incidence of denture stomatitis is increasing. Effective management of these patients will alleviate the morbidity associated with this disease. The aim of this study was to examine the capacity of four denture cleansers to efficiently decontaminate and sterilize surfaces covered by C. albicans biofilms. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixteen C. albicans strains isolated from denture stomatitis patients and strain ATCC 90028 were grown as mature confluent biofilms on a 96-well format and immersed in Dentural, Medical Interporous, Steradent Active Plus, and Boots Smile denture cleansers according to the manufacturers' instructions or overnight. The metabolic activity and biomass of the biofilms were then quantified, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) used to examine treated biofilms. RESULTS Dentural was the most effective denture cleanser, reducing the biomass by greater than 90% after 20 minutes. Steradent Active plus was significantly more effective following 10-minute immersion than overnight (p < 0.001). All cleansers reduced the metabolic activity by greater than 80% following overnight immersion; however, Boots Smile exhibited significantly reduced metabolic activity following only a 15-minute immersion (p < 0.001). SEM revealed residual C. albicans material following Dentural treatment. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that denture cleansers exhibit effective anti-C. albicans biofilm activity, both in terms of removal and disinfection; however, residual biofilm retention that could lead to regrowth and denture colonization was observed. Therefore, alternative mechanical disruptive methods are required to enhance biofilm removal.
An Interior Trust Region Approach for Nonlinear Minimization Subject to Bounds

We propose a new trust region approach for minimizing nonlinear functions subject to simple bounds. By choosing an appropriate quadratic model and scaling matrix at each iteration, we show that it is not necessary to solve a quadratic programming subproblem, with linear inequalities, to obtain an improved step using the trust region idea. Instead, a solution to a trust region subproblem is defined by minimizing a quadratic function subject only to an ellipsoidal constraint. The iterates generated by these methods are always strictly feasible. Our proposed methods reduce to a standard trust region approach for the unconstrained problem when there are no upper or lower bounds on the variables. Global and quadratic convergence of the methods is established; preliminary numerical experiments are reported.
Feedback Capacity over Networks

In this paper, we investigate the fundamental limitations of feedback mechanism in dealing with uncertainties for network systems. The study of maximum capability of feedback control was pioneered in Xie and Guo (2000) for scalar systems with nonparametric nonlinear uncertainty. In a network setting, nodes with unknown and nonlinear dynamics are interconnected through a directed interaction graph. Nodes can design feedback controls based on all available information, where the objective is to stabilize the network state. Using information structure and decision pattern as criteria, we specify three categories of network feedback laws, namely the global-knowledge/global-decision, network-flow/local-decision, and local-flow/local-decision feedback. We establish a series of network capacity characterizations for these three fundamental types of network control laws. First of all, we prove that for global-knowledge/global-decision and network-flow/local-decision control where nodes know the information flow across the entire network, there exists a critical number $\big(3/2+\sqrt{2}\big)/\|A_{\mathrm{G}}\|_\infty$, where $3/2+\sqrt{2}$ is as known as the Xie-Guo constant and $A_{\mathrm{G}}$ is the network adjacency matrix, defining exactly how much uncertainty in the node dynamics can be overcome by feedback. Interestingly enough, the same feedback capacity can be achieved under max-consensus enhanced local flows where nodes only observe information flows from neighbors as well as extreme (max and min) states in the network. Next, for local-flow/local-decision control, we prove that there exists a structure-determined value being a lower bound of the network feedback capacity. These results reveal the important connection between network structure and fundamental capabilities of in-network feedback control.
Munich-Edinburgh-Stuttgart Submissions of OSM Systems at WMT13

This paper describes Munich-EdinburghStuttgart’s submissions to the Eighth Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation. We report results of the translation tasks from German, Spanish, Czech and Russian into English and from English to German, Spanish, Czech, French and Russian. The systems described in this paper use OSM (Operation Sequence Model). We explain different pre-/post-processing steps that we carried out for different language pairs. For German-English we used constituent parsing for reordering and compound splitting as preprocessing steps. For Russian-English we transliterated the unknown words. The transliteration system is learned with the help of an unsupervised transliteration mining algorithm.
Factors of felon disfranchisement in the United States

There is no doubt that participating in election process is a very basic right for citizens living in democratic society regardless of their background, race, and socio-economic status. In the U.S., states disfranchise a large number of citizens from election process because of their felony convictions. The states have different laws and policy implementations pertaining to felon disfranchisement. It is suggested that these policy differences result from the states’ different characteristics such as political cultures, demographic features, and crime rates. Using an interdisciplinary approach to this policy issue, this study aims to empirically investigate the relationship between felon disfranchisement and states attributes such as political culture and criminal justice facts. First, the results of this study suggest that traditionalistic southern states have a higher rate of disfranchisement than other states, which supports the assumption that political culture has impact on felon disfranchisement. Second, political climate of a region is likely to affect disfranchisement of people more than criminal justice facts.
Japanese Language Socialization: Indexing the Modes of Self.

From the perspective of language socialization, this article examines the use of addressee honorifics (the masu form) and their nonhonorific counterpart (the plain form) at home and in classroom interactions in elementary schools in Japan. Unlike the usual assumption that these forms are polite or nonpolite speech markers, this study finds that both at home and school the masu and plain forms are used as indexes of the modes of self, namely, “disciplined” and “spontaneous. ” Children by the age of 3 understand these meanings and they continually participate in classroom activities that are regulated by the alternation of these forms. The study suggests that in this process children are socialized into the key cultural distinction in Japanese society, uchi and soto ‘inside and outside. ’
Half beast–half man: hybrid figures in animal art

Abstract This paper seeks to explore ideas about the human-animal relationship prevailing in Scandinavian, pre-Christian society from the perspective of representations in Nordic animal art. After an introduction on art, meaning and context, it focuses on expressions of hybridity. Hybrid motifs are represented in the animal art in complex and dense expressions argued to reveal a basic transformative logic which challenges and transcends settled categories. The investment of creativity in these motifs, an investment which is argued also to be present in the periphrastic style of Old Norse poetry, is taken as an indication of their essentiality in respect of ideas of a transgressive relationship between animals and humans.
Randomized function fitting-based empirical value iteration

Randomization is notable for being much less computationally expensive than optimization but often yielding comparable numerical performance. In this paper, we consider randomized function fitting combined with empirical value iteration for approximate dynamic programming on continuous state spaces. The method we propose is universal (i.e., not problem-dependent) and yields good approximations with high probability. A random operator theoretic framework is introduced for convergence analysis which uses a novel stochastic dominance argument. A non-asymptotic rate of convergence is obtained as a byproduct of the analysis. Numerical experiments confirm good performance of the algorithm proposed.
The Pursuit of Chronically Reliable Neural Interfaces: A Materials Perspective

Brain–computer interfaces represent one of the most astonishing technologies in our era. However, the grand challenge of chronic instability and limited throughput of the electrode–tissue interface has significantly hindered the further development and ultimate deployment of such exciting technologies. A multidisciplinary research workforce has been called upon to respond to this engineering need. In this paper, I briefly review this multidisciplinary pursuit of chronically reliable neural interfaces from a materials perspective by analyzing the problem, abstracting the engineering principles, and summarizing the corresponding engineering strategies. I further draw my future perspectives by extending the proposed engineering principles.
Probable and possible transfusion‐transmitted dengue associated with NS1 antigen–negative but RNA confirmed‐positive red blood cells

In the absence of active blood donation screening, dengue viruses (DENV) have been implicated in only a limited number of transfusion transmissions worldwide. This study attempted to identify if blood from donors testing negative by an NS1‐antigen (Ag) enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) but confirmed positive for DENV RNA caused DENV‐related disease in recipients during the epidemic years of 2010 to 2012 in Puerto Rico.
AC coupled three op-amp biopotential amplifier with active DC suppression

A three op-amps instrumentation amplifier (IA) with active DC suppression is presented. DC suppression is achieved by means of a controlled floating source at the input stage, to compensate electrode and op-amps offset voltages. This isolated floating source is built around an optical-isolated device using a general-purpose optocoupler, working as a photovoltaic generator. The proposed circuit has many interesting characteristics regarding simplicity and cost, while preserving common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) and high input impedance characteristics of the classic three op-amps IA. As an example, a biopotential amplifier with a gain of 80 dB, a lower cutoff frequency of 0.1 Hz, and a DC input range of /spl plusmn/8 mV was built and tested. Using general-purpose op-amps, a CMRR of 105 was achieved without trimmings.
Fault Classification of a Doubly FED Induction Machine Using Neural Network

Rapid progress in process automation and tightening quality standards result in a growing demand being placed on fault detection and diagnostics methods to provide both speed and reliability of motor quality testing. Doubly fed induction generators are used mainly for wind energy conversion in MW power plants. This paper presents a detection of an inter turn stator and an open phase faults, in a doubly fed induction machine whose stator and rotor are supplied by two pulse width modulation (PWM) inverters. The method used in this article to detect these faults, is based on Park’s Vector Approach, using a neural network. Keywords—Doubly fed induction machine, inter turn stator fault, neural network, open phase fault, Park's vector approach, PWM inverter.
Correlates of anaemia in pregnant urban South Indian women: a possible role of dietary intake of nutrients that inhibit iron absorption

Abstract Objective To identify correlates of anaemia during the first trimester of pregnancy among 366 urban South Indian pregnant women. Design Cross-sectional study evaluating demographic, socio-economic, anthropometric and dietary intake data on haematological outcomes. Setting A government maternity health-care centre catering predominantly to the needs of pregnant women from the lower socio-economic strata of urban Bangalore. Subjects Pregnant women (n 366) aged ≥18 and ≤40 years, who registered for antenatal screening at ≤14 weeks of gestation. Results Mean age was 22·6 (sd 3·4) years, mean BMI was 20·4 (sd 3·3) kg/m2 and 236 (64·5 %) of the pregnant women were primiparous. The prevalence of anaemia (Hb <11·0 g/dl) was 30·3 % and of microcytic anaemia (anaemia with mean corpuscular volume <80 fl) 20·2 %. Mean dietary intakes of energy, Ca, Fe and folate were well below the Indian RDA. In multivariable log-binomial regression analysis, anaemia was independently associated with high dietary intakes of Ca (relative risk; 95 % CI: 1·79; 1·16, 2·76) and P (1·96; 1·31, 2·96) and high intake of meat, fish and poultry (1·94; 1·29, 2·91). Conclusions Low dietary intake of multiple micronutrients, but higher intakes of nutrients that inhibit Fe absorption such as Ca and P, may help explain high rates of maternal anaemia in India.
Perceptual stability during head movement in virtual reality

Virtual reality displays introduce spatial distortions that are very hard to correct because of the difficulty of precisely modelling the camera from the nodal point of each eye. How significant are these distortions for spatial perception in virtual reality? In this study, we used a helmet-mounted display and a mechanical head tracker to investigate the tolerance to errors between head motions and the resulting visual display. The relationship between the head movement and the associated updating of the visual display was adjusted by subjects until the image was judged as stable relative to the world. Both rotational and translational movements were tested, and the relationship between the movements and the direction of gravity was varied systematically. Typically, for the display to be judged as stable, subjects needed the visual world to be moved in the opposite direction to the head movement by an amount greater than the head movement itself, during both rotational and translational head movements, although a large range of movement was tolerated and judged as appearing stable. These results suggest that it not necessary to model the visual geometry accurately and suggest circumstances when tracker drift can be corrected by jumps in the display which will pass unnoticed by the user.
FORECASTING ENROLLMENTS BASED ON HIGH-ORDER FUZZY TIME SERIES

A drawback of existing fuzzy forecasting methods based on fuzzy time series is that they use the first-order fuzzy time series to deal with forecasting problems in which the forecasting results are not good enough. Using a high-order fuzzy time series to deal with fuzzy forecasting problems can overcome this drawback. In this paper, we propose a new fuzzy time series model called the high-order fuzzy time series model to deal with forecasting problems. Based on the proposed model, we develop an algorithm to forecast the enrollments of the University of Alabama, where the historical enrollment data at the University of Alabama (Song and Chissom 1993a, 1994) are used to illustrate the forecasting process. The forecasting accuracy of the proposed method is better than that of the existing methods.
Hybrid Parallelization for Multi-View Visualization of Time-Dependent Simulation Data

Interactive analysis using multiple linked views has been successfully applied to time-dependent simulation data. In this paper we extend previous work by embedding multiple views in a virtual environment. Here, we combine 3D scatterplots with direct interaction and natural stereoscopic viewing. In order to deal with today's simulation data effectively, we propose a hybrid parallelization scheme based on distributing the workload between a powerful compute back-end and a rendering client. It minimizes the amount of latency introduced by the distributed setup, which is vital in order to facilitate highly interactive operations such as brushing. We illustrate the effectiveness of our approach in a case study from the field of flow visualization.
Constraint monitoring in TOSCA

The Job-Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP) deals with the allocation of resources over time to factory operations. Allocations are subject to various constraints (e.g., production precedence relationships, factory capacity constraints, and limits on the allowable number of machine setups) which must be satisfied for a schedule to be valid. The identification of constraint violations and the monitoring of constraint threats plays a vital role in schedule generation in terms of the following: (1) directing the scheduling process; and (2) informing scheduling decisions. This paper describes a general mechanism for identifying constraint violations and monitoring threats to the satisfaction of constraints throughout schedule generation.
Biology or Culture Alone Cannot Account for Human Sex Differences and Similarities

In the target article, Stewart-Williams and Thomas (this issue) contrast evolutionary psychology models of human sex differences and similarities with our social role theory, along with its more recent elaboration as biosocial construction theory (Wood & Eagly, 2010, 2012). In so doing, they make several fundamental errors. The first is their inaccurate rendition of our theory, which they incorrectly classify as a nurture-only account of human sex differences. Our analysis does not perpetuate false distinctions between nature and nurture but, as we explain next, integrates the broad classes of biological and social-cultural factors into a comprehensive theory of the behavior of women and men. A second error is their characterization of sex differences in human behavior as being relatively small, whereas the research literature indicates instead that sex differences are highly variable depending on context. Thus, the overall size of sex effects cannot be used to arbitrate a particular account of gender. Instead, all viable theories need to provide a principled account of the systematic variability across contexts in men’s and women’s behavior. A third error is Stewart-Williams and Thomas’s conclusion that our theory cannot effectively explain the variation in sex differences across cultures and over historical time. As we show, biosocial construction theory correctly situates women’s and men’s behavior within cultural and historical contexts.
Bioactive benzophenones from Garcinia xanthochymus fruits.

A MeOH extract of Garcinia xanthochymus fruits was subjected to activity-guided fractionation, yielding two new benzophenones, guttiferone H (1) and gambogenone (2). Compound 1 contains a seven-membered ring attached to the bicyclo[3.3. 1]nonane system at positions 7 and 8 and displayed cytotoxicity in the SW-480 colon cancer cell line (IC(50) = 12 microM). Compound 2 has a novel benzophenone bicyclo[3.3. 2]decane system and displayed cytotoxicity in the SW-480 colon cancer cell line (IC(50) = 188 microM). Both 1 and 2 induced apoptosis in SW-480 colon cancer cells and displayed antioxidant activity in the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay (IC(50) = 64 and 38.7 microM, respectively). The structures of 1 and 2 were established by 1D and 2D NMR data analysis. Eleven known compounds, aristophenone A, alloathyriol, amentoflavone, 3,8' '-biapigenin, cycloxanthochymol, (+/-)-fukugetin, (+/-)-fukugiside, guttiferone E, isoxanthochymol, (+/-)-volkensiflavone, and xanthochymol, were also obtained. The 11 known compounds were also tested against SW-480 colon cancer cells and in the DPPH assay.
Common Chromosomal Fragile Site Gene WWOX in Metabolic Disorders and Tumors

WWOX, a gene that spans the second most common chromosomal fragile site (FRA16D), often exhibits homozygous deletions and translocation breakpoints under multiple cellular stresses induced by extrinsic or intrinsic factors, such as hypoxia, UV, and DNA damage regents. Loss of WWOX is closely related to genomic instability, tumorigenesis, cancer progression and therapy resistance. WWOX heterozygous knockout mice show an increased incidence of spontaneous or induced tumors. WWOX can interact via the WW domain with proteins that possess proline PPxY motifs and is involved in a variety of cellular processes. Accumulating evidence has shown that WWOX that contains a short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) domain is involved in steroid metabolism and bone development. Reduced or lost expression of WWOX will lead to development of metabolic disease. In this review, we focus on the roles of WWOX in metabolic disorders and tumors.
Fully parallel fractional motion estimation for H.264/AVC encoder

Fractional motion estimation always takes much processing time because of variety of motion vectors and two-step sequential half-quarter pel. In this paper, we propose the architecture of fractional engine in fully parallel manner. Instead of sequential processing two-step of half-quarter refinement, integer-half-quarter pel is processed in parallel manner in order to double the speed as well as the throughput. Using Chartard 0.18 µm CMOS 1P5M technology, the proposed architecture is implemented with 412k logic gates and achieves the throughput of 255 kMBs/s supporting HDTV1080p 30 fps when operating at the frequency of 220MHz.
Quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories using ultracold atoms in optical lattices

Can high-energy physics be simulated by low-energy, non-relativistic, many-body systems such as ultracold atoms? Such ultracold atomic systems lack the type of symmetries and dynamical properties of high energy physics models: in particular, they manifest neither local gauge invariance nor Lorentz invariance, which are crucial properties of the quantum field theories which are the building blocks of the standard model of elementary particles. However, it turns out, surprisingly, that there are ways to configure an atomic system to manifest both local gauge invariance and Lorentz invariance. In particular, local gauge invariance can arise either as an effective low-energy symmetry, or as an exact symmetry, following from the conservation laws in atomic interactions. Hence, one could hope that such quantum simulators may lead to a new type of (table-top) experiments which will be used to study various QCD (quantum chromodynamics) phenomena, such as the confinement of dynamical quarks, phase transitions and other effects, which are inaccessible using the currently known computational methods. In this report, we review the Hamiltonian formulation of lattice gauge theories, and then describe our recent progress in constructing the quantum simulation of Abelian and non-Abelian lattice gauge theories in 1 + 1 and 2 + 1 dimensions using ultracold atoms in optical lattices.