Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Food starches and dental caries.

Sucrose and starches are the predominant dietary carbohydrates in modern societies. While the causal relationship between sucrose and dental caries development is indisputable, the relationship between food starch and dental caries continues to be debated and is the topic of this review. The current view of dental caries etiology suggests that in-depth evaluation of the starch-caries relationship requires the consideration of several critical cariogenic determinants: (1) the intensity (i.e., the amount and frequency) of exposure of tooth surfaces to both sugars and starches, (2) the bioavailability of the starches, (3) the nature of the microbial flora of dental plaque, (4) the pH-lowering capacity of dental plaque, and (5) the flow rate of saliva. Studies of caries in animals, human plaque pH response, and enamel/dentin demineralization leave no doubt that processed food starches in modern human diets possess a significant cariogenic potential. However, the available studies with humans do not provide unequivocal data on their actual cariogenicity. In this regard, we found it helpful to distinguish between two types of situations. The first, exemplified by our forebears, people in developing countries, and special subject groups in more modern countries, is characterized by starch consumption in combination with a low sugar intake, an eating frequency which is essentially limited to two or three meals per day, and a low-to-negligible caries activity. The second, exemplified by people in the more modern societies, e.g., urban populations, is characterized by starch consumption in combination with significantly increased sugar consumption, an eating frequency of three or more times per day, and a significantly elevated caries activity. It is in the first situation that food starches do not appear to be particularly caries-inducive. However, their contribution to caries development in the second situation is uncertain and requires further clarification. Although food starches do not appear to be particularly caries inducive in the first situation, the possibility cannot be excluded that they contribute significantly to caries activity in modern human populations. The commonly used term "dietary starch content" is misleading, since it represents a large array of single manufactured and processed foods of widely varying composition and potential cariogenicity. Hence, increased focus on the cariogenicity of single starchy foods is warranted. Other aspects of starchy foods consumption, deserving greater attention, include the bioavailability of starches in processed foods, their retentive properties, also in relation to sugars present (starches as co-cariogens), their consumption frequency, the effect of hyposalivation on their cariogenicity, and their impact on root caries. The starch-caries issue is a very complex problem, and much remains uncertain. More focused studies are needed. At present, it appears premature to consider or promote food starches in modern diets as safe for teeth.
Complement activation during and after open-heart surgery is only marginally affected by the choice of fluid for volume replacement

Forty patients undergoing CPB for coronary artery surgery, using a standardized technical setting, were randomized to receive either Ringer's acetate, dextran 70 (Macrodex), polygeline (Haemaccel) or albumin 4% for volume replacement during and after surgery. The choice of fluid did not affect early complement activation (C3 activation products). Higher values of the terminal complement complex (TCC) were found only at the end of the operation in patients receiving polygeline. There were no differences between any two of the four groups during the postoperative course. The use of blood transfusion or autotransfusion and the degree of haemodilution and hypothermia did not affect complement activation. We conclude that complement activation in association with open-heart surgery is only marginally affected by the choice of fluid for volume replacement.
Electrode Fusion for the Prediction of Self-Initiated Fine Movements from Single-Trial Readiness Potentials

Current human-machine interfaces (HMIs) for users with severe disabilities often have difficulty distinguishing between intentional and inadvertent activations. Pre-movement neuro-cortical activity may aid in this elusive discrimination task but has not been exploited in HMIs. This work investigates the utility of the readiness potential (RP), a slow negative cortical potential preceding voluntary movement, for detecting the intention of self-initiated fine movements prior to their motoric realization. We recorded electroencephalography from the frontal, central, parietal and occipital lobes of 10 participants using a self-initiated switch activation protocol. Eye movement artifacts were removed by regression and the RP was detected on a single-trial basis, in a narrow frequency range (0.1-1 Hz). Common average reference was applied prior to windowed-averaging for feature extraction. Electrodes were selected according to a separability measure based on Fisher projection. Our findings demonstrate that feature fusion from an optimal number of electrodes achieves a statistically significant lower classification error than the best single classifier. Finally, voluntary fine movement intention was detected on a single-trial basis at above-chance levels approximately 396 ms before physical switch activation. These findings encourage the development of rapid-response, intention-aware HMIs for individuals with severe disabilities who struggle with executing voluntary fine motor movements.
Winter intensification of the moist branch of the circulation in simulations of 21st century climate

In this paper, changes in isentropic circulations associated with global warming in the A1B model outputs for the 20th and 21st centuries are analyzed. The changes in the circulations on dry and moist isentropes are quantified through the use of three bulk measures of the circulations: mass transport, entropy transport and effective stratification. The circulation on dry isentropes is expected to weaken due to a reduction of the meridional heat transport and to an increase in stratification. In contrast, the moist branch of the circulation, measured in terms of the difference between the circulations on moist and dry isentropes, strengthens during the winter months. This intensification is characterized not only by an increase in the eddy latent heat transport but also by an increase in the mass transport. This indicate a larger poleward mass flow of warm moist subtropical air into the stormtracks leading to enhanced moist ascent within baroclinic eddies.
Neuropathologic Study of Resected Cerebral Tissue from Patients with Infantile Spasms

Summary: Studies to date on the neuropathologic substrates of infantile spasms have largely utilized autopsy material of children who die after a long and complicated seizure history. This makes the interpretation of primary versus secondary changes in the cerebral tissue difficult if not impossible. We have recently had the opportunity to review the neuropathologic changes in cortical tissue resected from infants and children with a history of infantile spasms. The major identifiable abnormalities were destructive lesions, sometimes classifiable as cystic‐gliotic encephalomalacia, and dysplastic changes of varying degree. The cortical dysplasias had some similarity to cerebral changes described in tuberous sclerosis, including the presence of bizarre gemistocytic “balloon” cells, and secondary cytoskeletal changes within neuronal cell bodies. Such material provides an opportunity to apply immunohistochemical and molecular techniques to epileptic tissue in an attempt to understand the morphologic substrates of infantile spasms and other types of generalized epilepsy.
Swelling-Induced Taurine Transport: Relationship with Chloride Channels, Anion-Exchangers and Other Swelling-Activated Transport Pathways

Cells have to regulate their volume in order to survive. Moreover, it is now evident that cell volume per se and the membrane transport processes which regulate it, comprise an important signalling unit. For example, macromolecular synthesis, apoptosis, cell growth and hormone secretion are all influenced by the cellular hydration state. Therefore, a thorough understanding of volume-activated transport processes could lead to new strategies being developed to control the function and growth of both normal and cancerous cells. Cell swelling stimulates the release of ions such as K+ and Cl- together with organic osmolytes, especially the β-amino acid taurine. Despite being the subject of intense research interest, the nature of the volume-activated taurine efflux pathway is still a matter of controversy. On the one hand it has been suggested that osmosensitive taurine efflux utilizes volume-sensitive anion channels whereas on the other it has been proposed that the band 3 anion-exchanger is a swelling-induced taurine efflux pathway. This article reviews the evidence for and against a role of anion channels and exchangers in osmosensitive taurine transport. Furthermore, the distinct possibility that neither pathway is involved in taurine transport is highlighted. The putative relationship between swelling-induced taurine transport and volume-activated anionic amino acid, α-neutral amino acid and K+ transport is also examined.
Robust model predictive control for multiple time delay systems with polytopic uncertainty description

This article addresses the robust model predictive control (MPC) for systems with polytopic uncertainty description. In the case of multiple state delays, some results are given in the previous works. However, previous works are not well established for input-delay systems. This article proposes new approaches that can effectively handle not only the input-delay, but also the multiple delayed input. For the time-delay system, a general MPC solution is based on the use of augmented delay-free state-space description, which can be computationally expensive. Hence, in general there are simplified formulations based on the time-delay description, which can be applied in different situations. This article proposes three simplified formulations, with the first incorporating a previous result as a special case, the second being a solution for a unique class of systems and the third being a more general solution without special assumptions on the plant. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.
High-Level Synthesis for Semi-Global Matching: Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

High-level synthesis (HLS)-based design methodologies are extremely viable for industries that are sensitive to production costs. In order to have competitive advantage, the ability to have several different implementations of the same algorithm satisfying a diverse range of resolution, cost, and performance constraints is highly desirable. In this paper, we present multiple hardware implementations of the semi-global matching (SGM) algorithm, which is used in stereo vision systems, e.g., for automotive applications. The hardware platform considered in this paper is a Xilinx Zynq system-on-chip. A performance comparison of both HLS-based design and a manual register transfer level (RTL) design in terms of quality of results, flexibility, and design time is also presented. SGM mainly includes a sequence of three processing steps, i.e., the “cost cube calculation” followed by the “path cost computation” and finally the “disparity approximation and minimization”. The path cost processor further performs a pixel-wise processing of the cost cube data along eight distinct path orientations. The baseline algorithmic model usually called the “golden” model utilizes considerably large arrays that are required to be mapped to an external DRAM and brought into the on-chip RAM when required. This necessitates adding both the memory transfer loops as well as insertion of calls to the AXI transactors for accessing the DRAM through the on-chip DDR slave. Furthermore, the initial algorithm (typically single-threaded) must be parallelized to fully exploit the concurrency offered by the target hardware platform. The design space exploration was thus performed by making several considerably different micro-architectural choices. Eventually, we were able to obtain an implementation comparable with the manual RTL design. Both the manual RTL and the HLS designs achieved the target real-time performance of 30 frames/s for the image resolution of $640\times 480$ with a disparity depth of 128 pixels per frame.
Le "paradoxe élaborationnel" et les deux espèces de dialectes dans l'étude de la constitution des langues romanes

Le "paradoxe élaborationnel" est un teme désignant un rapport apparemment antilogique qu'on entrevoit si l'on compare deux processus: l'émergence de nouvelles langues et la décadence de langues menacées. Ce phénomene que j'ai découvert et auquel j'ai donné ce nom a un r6le important dans ma révision du modele élaborationnel de Heinz Kloss (1904-19871, un modeste et grand sociologue, politologue et socioiinguiste aiiemana, actii a e 1928 jusqu'a sa mort.
Gastric emptying in chronic renal failure.

visual assessment of the tracings and photographic records. On reviewing the planimetry the reasons for deciding whether or not to change were unclear in four cases. Furthermore, traces of the dressing could often be seen, and the decision was thus not "blind. " The crossover figures must, therefore, be viewed critically. It is noteworthy that when the four cases mentioned were excluded from the analysis the results still favoured cadexomer iodine (p <0 05). Contrary to the findings of Skog et al3 we did not observe any significant effect on bacterial colonisation. Studies using a simulated wound model, however, have shown that although cadexomer iodine may not eliminate organisms, it does suppress growth for almost 18 hours and thereby significantly reduces bacterial mass. ' The action of bacteria in inhibiting the healing of wounds may relate to the production of cytotoxic chemicals,, 9 and reduction of bacterial mass for a substantial proportion of the day may be one of the mechanisms by which cadexomer iodine accelerates regrowth of the epithelium. Ulcers in both groups healed well. This study shows that selected patients (average age 68 years) can manage their own ulcers effectively. Patient compliance was remarkably good. Our former opinion, in common with that of many others, was that weekly dressing and bandaging provides adequate support for ulcers with minimal disturbance of new epithelium. On the basis of this study we suggest that daily bandaging and renewal of a non-adherent dressing may have distinct advantages over less demanding regimens. Bandages reapplied daily probably provide better support than those changed less regularly. Furthermore, many of our patients remarked how much the reduction in odour had improved their social lives. Although it takes time and patience to teach patients how to dress and bandage their ulcers-that is, five two hour sessionsthis seems to be repaid in terms of both healing of ulcers and, eventually, a reduction in demands on the doctor and nurse. Cadexomer iodine seems to be useful in this context.
Developmental problems in patients with oesophageal atresia: a longitudinal follow-up study

Objective To longitudinally evaluate motor development and predictive factors in school-age children with oesophageal atresia. Design Cohort study with prospective longitudinal follow-up. Setting Outpatient clinic of a tertiary university paediatric hospital. Patients Children with oesophageal atresia born between January 1999 and May 2006 were assessed at 5 and 8 years of age. Interventions None. Main outcome Motor performance was evaluated at 5 and 8 years using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC). Additionally, we evaluated perinatal characteristics, duration of anaesthesia within the first 24 months, socioeconomic status, sports participation and school performance at time of follow-up and intelligence and sustained attention at the age of 8 years. Results In 5-year-olds (n=54), the mean (SD) z-score M-ABC was slightly, but significantly lower than age-predicted normative values (−0.75 (0.83), p<0.001). In 8-year-olds (n=49), the z-score M-ABC was −0.53 (0.91) (p<0.001), intelligence was normal, but sustained attention was impaired: z-score speed (−1.50 (1.73)) and raw score attentional fluctuation (3.99 (1.90)) (both p<0.001). Motor problems mainly concerned gross motor performance. Duration of anaesthesia and sustained attention were negatively associated with motor development; sports participation was positively associated. Conclusions Longer duration of anaesthesia and sustained attention problems were associated with gross motor problems in school-age patients with oesophageal atresia. Parental awareness of risks for motor problems may provide the opportunity to offer timely intervention.
Differential Life History Trait Associations of Aphids with Nonpersistent Viruses in Cucurbits

ABSTRACT The diversity of vectors and fleeting nature of virus acquisition and transmission renders nonpersistent viruses a challenge to manage. We assessed the importance of noncolonizing versus colonizing vectors with a 2-yr survey of aphids and nonpersistent viruses on commercial pumpkin farms.We quantified aphid alightment using pan traps, while testing leaf samples with multiplex RT-PCR targeting cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), watermelon mosaic virus (WMV), and papaya ringspot virus (PRSV). Overall, we identified 53 aphid species (3,899 individuals), from which the melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, a pumpkin-colonizing species, predominated (76 and 37% of samples in 2010 and 2011, respectively). CMV and ZYMV were not detected, but WMV and PRSV were prevalent, both regionally (WMV: 28/29 fields, PRSV: 21/29 fields) and within fields (infection rates = 69 and 55% forWMVin 2010 and 2011; 28 and 25% for PRSV in 2010 and 2011). However, early-season samples showed extremely low infection levels, suggesting cucurbit viruses are not seed-transmitted and implicating aphid activity as a causal factor driving virus spread. Interestingly, neither noncolonizer and colonizer alightment nor total aphid alightment were good predictors of virus presence, but community analyses revealed species-specific relationships. For example, cowpea aphid (Aphis craccivora Koch) and spotted alfalfa aphid (Therioaphis trifolii Monell f. maculata) were associated with PRSV infection, whereas the oleander aphid (Aphis nerii Bover de Fonscolombe) was associated with WMV spread within fields. These outcomes highlight the need for tailored management plans targeting key vectors of nonpersistent viruses in agricultural systems.
OpenMP thread affinity for matrix factorization on multicore systems

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of thread affinity on computing performance for matrix factorization on shared memory multicore systems with hierarchical memory. We consider two parallel block matrix factorizations (LU and WZ) and employ thread affinity to improve their performance. We study decomposition without pivoting and we compare differences between various affinity strategies for diagonally dominant matrices. Our results show that the choice of thread affinity has the measurable impact on the performance of the matrice factorizations.
Development toward high-power sub-1-ohm DC-67 GHz RF switches using phase change materials for reconfigurable RF front-end

We report GeTe-based phase change material RF switches with on-state resistance of 0.07 ohm*mm and off-state capacitance of 20 fF/mm. The RF switch figure-of-merit, Ron*Coff is comparable to RF MEMS ohmic switches. The PCM RF shunt and series switches were fabricated for the first time in a lateral FET configuration to reduce parasitics, different from the vertical via switches. In a shunt switch configuration, isolation of 30 dB was achieved up to 67 GHz with return loss of 15 dB. RF power handling was tested with ~10 W for series and 3 W for shunt configurations. Harmonic powers were suppressed more than 100 dBc at fundamental power of 1 W, for future tunable and reconfigurable RF technology.
Chylomicron metabolism is markedly altered in systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE To verify the in vivo status of chylomicron metabolism in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) since there is a high incidence of atherosclerosis in this disease and chylomicrons may have an important role in atherogenesis. METHODS A chylomicron-like emulsion labeled with 14C-cholesteryl esters and 3H-triglycerides was injected intravenously into 10 female patients with inactive SLE and 10 healthy age- and sex-matched control subjects to determine the plasma kinetics of the emulsion lipids from consecutive plasma samples taken at regular intervals for 1 hour. Lipolytic activity was determined in vitro after incubation of the labeled emulsion with postheparin plasma. RESULTS The decay curves for the emulsion were markedly slowed in SLE. Chylomicron lipolysis, indicated by the fractional clearance rate (FCR) of emulsion 3H-triglyceride, was 2-fold smaller in SLE patients than in controls (mean +/- SD 0.023 +/- 0.011 versus 0.047 +/-0.015 minute(-1); P = 0.010). Chylomicron removal, indicated by emulsion 14C-cholesteryl ester FCR, was 3-fold smaller in SLE patients than in controls (0.007 +/-0.007 versus 0.023 +/- 0.011 minute(-1); P = 0.009). In vitro lipolysis in SLE patients was nearly half that of the controls (mean +/- SD 10,199 +/- 2,959 versus 6,598 +/-2,215; P = 0.014). Higher levels of very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides and lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I were also observed in the SLE patients. CONCLUSION SLE patients have disturbances in chylomicron metabolism that are characterized by decreased lipolysis and chylomicron remnant removal from the plasma. This finding, together with other alterations in lipid profiles that were confirmed in the present study, is largely accountable for the accelerated atherosclerotic process of the disease.
A high dynamic range 4th-order 4–8 GHz Q-enhanced LC band-pass filter with 2–25% tunable fractional bandwidth

This paper presents a fourth-order synthetic Q-enhanced LC band-pass filter (BPF) in 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS, where 4th-order BPF response has been synthesized by subtracting two 2nd-order BPF responses. Operating frequency of the filter is tunable from 4-8 GHz. Using a switched-varactor control for a high linearity, the filter achieves 150-166 dB · Hz normalized dynamic range (DR) with a tunable fractional bandwidth range of 2-25% at the center frequency of 6 GHz. The ultimate out-of-band rejection of the filter is > 65 dB and > 52 dB on the lower and upper side of the center frequency, respectively. The filter consumes 112-125 mW of DC power dissipation. The core chip size is 0.53×0.7 mm2.