Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dental care of frail older people and those caring for them.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To describe oral health utilisation patterns of frail older people and contrast these with attitudes and utilisation patterns of nursing staff who are caring for them. BACKGROUND In view of widespread poor oral health of frail older people in long-term care, staff attitudes have been identified as an area of interest. In addition to data on attitudes, the current study contributes a description of aspects of oral health related behaviour of staff and clients. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. METHODS Structured interviews of a random selection of long-term care staff (n=320) and frail older people (n=172), within the two groups of home-care services (HCS) and long-term care facilities (LTCF). RESULTS Of staff members, 55·3% attach the same importance to their own oral health compared to that of clients and 35·7% regard their own oral health as more important; 98·4% of staff attended two or more dental examinations per year; 3·4% of HCS and 37·1% of LTCF routinely arranged oral examinations. In 81·4% HCS and in 34·4% of LTCF, there was no routine dental service available. Patterns of oral health service attendance greatly differ between staff and clients. CONCLUSION The oral health awareness of the majority of long-term care staff did not translate into adequate oral health care for clients. A gap exists between attitudes supportive of oral health, adequate and prevention driven own oral health related behaviour of staff and actual oral health care delivered to clients. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE To bridge the gap identified, a concept is suggested for nursing educators and managers of LTCF targeting educational measures while taking into account individual attitudes.
An approach to safe object sharing

It is essential for security to be able to isolate mistrusting programs from one another, and to protect the host platform from programs. Isolation is difficult in object-oriented systems because objects can easily become aliased. Aliases that cross program boundaries can allow programs to exchange information without using a system provided interface that could control information exchange. In Java, mistrusting programs are placed in distinct loader spaces but uncontrolled sharing of system classes can still lead to aliases between programs. This paper presents the object spaces protection model for an object-oriented system. The model decomposes an application into a set of spaces, and each object is assigned to one space. All method calls between objects in different spaces are mediated by a security policy. An implementation of the model in Java is presented.
BODY COMPOSITION AND PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE DURING A NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION DIVISION IMEN'S SOCCER SEASON

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in body composition (BC) and physical performance tests (PT) resulting from a competitive season in soccer. Twenty-five male collegiate players (age = 19.9 ± 1.3 years; height = 177.6 ± 6.4 cm; body mass = 77.6 ± 8.6 kg, and percentage body fat = 12.8 ± 5.2%) were tested before (PRE) and after (POST) the 2003–2004 National Collegiate Athletic Association season. The following tests were performed: BC (anthropometric and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry measurements), vertical jump (VJ), 9.1-m (9 m) and 36.5-m (36 m) sprint, lower-body power (LP), total body power (TP), and cardiorespiratory endurance (&OV0312;O2max). Training was divided into soccer-specific training: field warm-up drills, practices, games, and additional conditioning sessions. A daily, unplanned, nonlinear periodization model was used to assign session volume and intensity for strength sessions (total repetitions ≤96 and workload was ≥80% of 1 repetition maximum). For the entire team, body mass significantly increased by 1.5 ± 0.4 kg from PRE to POST due to a significant increase in total lean tissue (0.9 ± 0.2 kg). Regionally, lean tissue mass significantly increased in the legs (0.4 ± 0.0 kg) and trunk (0.3 ± 0.1 kg). Physical performance variables were very similar for the entire team at PRE and POST; VJ (cm) = 61.9 ± 7.1 PRE vs. 63.3 ± 8.0 POST, 9.1-m (s) = 1.7 ± 0.1 PRE and POST, 36.5-m (s) = 5.0 ± 0.2 PRE and POST, predicted &OV0312;O2max (ml·kg·min−1)= 59.8 ± 3.3 PRE vs. 60.9 ± 3.4 POST. The only significant improvements across the season were for TP (17.3%) and for LP (10.7%). In conclusion, soccer athletes who begin a season with a high level of fitness can maintain, and in some cases improve, body composition and physical performance from before to after a competitive season. A correct combination of soccer-specific practices and strength and conditioning programs can maintain and develop physical performance, allowing a soccer athlete to perform optimally throughout pre-, in-, and postseason play.
Use of Knowledge Management for Competitive Advantage: The Case Study of Max Life Insurance

In the Asian subcontinent, the insurance business is highly competitive. The Indian insurance industry too witnessed tremendous growth and competition in the last few years. Both public and private insurance companies are currently facing two main challenges: struggling to retain their customer base and knowledge loss resulting from employee turnover. Insurance companies are realizing that efficiently managing its customer and employee knowledge and utilizing the same in designing insurance products and services is a key to survival. While effective knowledge management (KM) has been acknowledged as the key driver for new knowledge and new idea generation, the fact that academics still write about it and organizations are actively pursuing the concept makes us believe that this trend is going to continue in future too. This article discusses the KM planning and implementation journey undertaken by Max Life Insurance Company Limited, India. The company not only has successfully implemented KM but also has plans to roll out the project in other group companies. The case presents instances and examples of how the company has used KM for real business improvements with measurable outcomes. It also investigates the critical success factors for KM implementation using secondary and primary data collected from published literature besides the company under study. The study will be beneficial to organizations that are willing to implement KM but do not have a clear idea of how to proceed with it. It also provides directions for future research and implications for global managers for having KM into place.
Decidual Regulatory T Cells in Placental Pathology and Pregnancy Complications

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) have been identified as immunomodulatory cells, which induce tolerance. Evidence from numerous recent studies implicates these cells as critical for maternal tolerance to the fetal‐derived placenta, proper functioning of which is required for normal gestation and growth and development of the fetus in utero. This review focuses on the recent studies of Tregs at the maternal–fetal interface in pregnancy complications, as well as their identification in specific inflammatory lesions in the placenta.
Adeno-associated virus serotype 9 vectors transduce murine alveolar and nasal epithelia and can be readministered

Airway-directed gene transfer has emerged as a promising approach for the treatment of the two genetic diseases of the lung, namely cystic fibrosis and α-1-antitrypsin deficiency. Herein we describe the transduction efficiency of a novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector, AAV2/9, across murine nasal and lung airway epithelia. At the peak of gene expression AAV2/9-mediated human α-1-antitrypsin gene expression in serum was ≈60-fold better than that of AAV2/5. We found that AAV2/9-mediated nLacZ gene transfer in nasal and lung airways was relatively stable for 9 months, suggesting that a progenitor airway cell population was transduced. Most interestingly, we show that AAV2/9 can be readministered in the presence of high levels of serum-circulating neutralizing antibodies as early as 1 month after initial exposure, with minimal effect on overall reporter gene expression, rendering it a promising gene transfer vector candidate for use in humans.
Response to Comment on “Homeostasis of the Naive CD4+ T Cell Compartment during Aging”

Despite thymic involution, the number of naive CD4(+) T cells diminishes slowly during aging, suggesting considerable peripheral homeostatic expansion of these cells. To investigate the mechanisms behind, and consequences of, naive CD4+ T cell homeostasis, we evaluated the age-dependent dynamics of the naive CD4+ T cell subsets CD45RA+CD31+ and CD45RA+CD31-. Using both a cross-sectional and longitudinal study design, we measured the relative proportion of both subsets in individuals ranging from 22 to 73 years of age and quantified TCR excision circle content within those subsets as an indicator of proliferative history. Our findings demonstrate that waning thymic output results in a decrease in CD45RA+CD31+ naive CD4+ T cells over time, although we noted considerable individual variability in the kinetics of this change. In contrast, there was no significant decline in the CD45RA+CD31- naive CD4+ T cell subset due to extensive peripheral proliferation. Our longitudinal data are the first to demonstrate that the CD45RA+CD31+CD4+ subset also undergoes some in vivo proliferation without immediate loss of CD31, resulting in an accumulation of CD45RA+CD31+ proliferative offspring. Aging was associated with telomere shortening within both subsets, raising the possibility that accumulation of proliferative offspring contributes to senescence of the naive CD4+ T cell compartment in the elderly. In contrast, we observed retention of clonal TCR diversity despite peripheral expansion, although this analysis did not include individuals over 65 years of age. Our results provide insight into naive CD4+ T cell homeostasis during aging that can be used to better understand the mechanisms that may contribute to immunosenescence within this compartment.
Luteolin , a flavonoid with potentials for cancer prevention and therapy

Luteolin, 3′,4′,5,7-tetrahydroxyflavone, is a common flavonoid that exists in many types of plants including fruits, vegetables, and medicinal herbs. Plants rich in luteolin have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for treating various diseases such as hypertension, inflammatory disorders, and cancer. Having multiple biological effects such as anti-inflammation, anti-allergy and anticancer, luteolin functions as either an antioxidant or a pro-oxidant biochemically. The biological effects of luteolin could be functionally related to each other. For instance, the anti-inflammatory activity may be linked to its anticancer property. Luteolin's anticancer property is associated with the induction of apoptosis, and inhibition of cell proliferation, metastasis and angiogenesis. Furthermore, luteolin sensitizes cancer cells to therapeutic-induced cytotoxicity through suppressing cell survival pathways such as phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), and X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP), and stimulating apoptosis pathways including those that induce the tumor suppressor p53. These observations suggest that luteolin could be an anticancer agent for various cancers. Furthermore, recent epidemiological studies have attributed a cancer prevention property to luteolin. In this review, we summarize the progress of recent research on luteolin, with a particular focus on its anticancer role and molecular mechanisms underlying this property of luteolin.
The effect of fluoride on apatite structure and growth.

Fluoride participates in many aspects of calcium phosphate formation in vivo and has enormous effects on the process and on the nature and properties of formed mineral. The most well-documented effect of fluoride is that this ion substitutes for a column hydroxyl in the apatite structure, giving rise to a reduction of crystal volume and a concomitant increase in structural stability. In the process of enamel mineralization during amelogenesis (a unique model for the cell-mediated formation of well-crystallized carbonatoapatite), free fluoride ions in the fluid phase are supposed to accelerate the hydrolysis of acidic precursor(s) and increase the driving force for the growth of apatitic mineral. Once fluoride is incorporated into the enamel mineral, the ion likely affects the subsequent mineralization process by reducing the solubility of the mineral and thereby modulating the ionic composition in the fluid surrounding the mineral, and enhancing the matrix protein-mineral interaction. But excess fluoride leads to anomalous enamel formation by retarding tissue maturation. It is worth noting that enameloid/enamel minerals found in vertebrate teeth have a wide range of CO3 and fluoride substitutions. In the evolutionary process from elasmobranch through enameloid to mammalian enamel, the biosystems appear to develop regulatory functions for limiting the fluoridation of the formed mineral, but this development is accompanied by an increase of carbonate substitution or defects in the mineral. In research on the cariostatic effect of fluoride, considerable emphasis is placed on the roles of free fluoride ions (i.e., preventing the dissolution and accelerating the kinetics of remineralization) in the oral fluid bathing tooth mineral. Fluoride also has been used for the treatment of osteoporosis, but much still remains to be learned about maximizing the benefit and minimizing the risk of fluoride when used as a public health measure.
High Resolution Beacon-Based Proximity Detection for Dense Deployment

The emergence of Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons has promoted the development of proximity-based service (PBS), which is a context-aware application delivered subject to the Proximity of Interest (PoI). Most commercial applications use the sequential proximity detection with a fixed scanning mechanism to identify the target PoI. Such sequential execution, though is able to produce reliable detection, suffers severe performance degradation especially when the number of deployed beacons in the vicinity increases. To understand the effects of dense deployment, we conduct an empirical investigation and derive the statistical properties of both received signal strength (RSS) and signal inter-arrival time. In light of the statistical insights, this paper proposes a high resolution proximity detection using an adaptive scanning mechanism fusion with a spontaneous Differential Evolution (<italic>AS+sDE </italic>). This novel approach enables the receiver to adapt its scanning duration conditioned on the deployment density and make an almost spontaneous detection in parallel with the scanning. The feasibility of the proposed approach is verified by both simulations and real-world implementations. For a density of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\leq 5\ beacons/m^2$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="ng-ieq1-2759734.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> , <italic>AS+sDE</italic> achieves a superior performance with a high accuracy rate, i.e., on average <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$<1s$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="ng-ieq2-2759734.gif"/> </alternatives></inline-formula> is spent to guarantee at least 90 percent accuracy.
Abnormal sex ratios in human populations: Causes and consequences

In the absence of manipulation, both the sex ratio at birth and the population sex ratio are remarkably constant in human populations. Small alterations do occur naturally; for example, a small excess of male births has been reported to occur during and after war. The tradition of son preference, however, has distorted these natural sex ratios in large parts of Asia and North Africa. This son preference is manifest in sex-selective abortion and in discrimination in care practices for girls, both of which lead to higher female mortality. Differential gender mortality has been a documented problem for decades and led to reports in the early 1990s of 100 million “missing women” across the developing world. Since that time, improved health care and conditions for women have resulted in reductions in female mortality, but these advances have now been offset by a huge increase in the use of sex-selective abortion, which became available in the mid-1980s. Largely as a result of this practice, there are now an estimated 80 million missing females in India and China alone. The large cohorts of “surplus” males now reaching adulthood are predominantly of low socioeconomic class, and concerns have been expressed that their lack of marriageability, and consequent marginalization in society, may lead to antisocial behavior and violence, threatening societal stability and security. Measures to reduce sex selection must include strict enforcement of existing legislation, the ensuring of equal rights for women, and public awareness campaigns about the dangers of gender imbalance.
Von Insidern, „marginal traders“ und Glücksrittern: Zur Relevanz von Entscheidungsanomalien in politischen Börsen / About Insiders, Marginal Traders and Lucky Beggars in Political Stock Markets

Zusammenfassung In diesem Aufsatz werden drei Wahlbörsen untersucht, die in den Jahren 1990, 1991 und 1994 in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland installiert waren. Wahlbörsen dieses Typs wurden erstmalig von Forsythe et al. (1992, 1993) zu den amerikanischen Präsidentschaftswahlen eingesetzt. Sie hatten dort den Ausgang der Wahlen weit besser prognostiziert, als das Meinungsumfragen vermochten. Die deutschen Börsen lieferten zwar zufriedenstellende Ergebnisse, waren jedoch nicht besser als die Umfragen. Forsythe et al. (1992) führen den Erfolg der Wahlbörse auf die Existenz sogenannter marginal traders zurück, die von ihnen lokalisierte Entscheidungsanomalien neutralisiert haben sollen. Diese Entscheidungsanomalien sind zwar auch in den bundesdeutschen Börsen existent, marginal traders scheiden jedoch als Korrekturfaktor aus, da sie nicht erfolgreicher waren als der Rest der Population. Das Konzept der marginal traders eignet sich nicht, das Verhalten der deutschen Wahlbörsen zu erklären. Aus diesem Grund wird ein Erklärungsansatz entworfen, der stärker die jeweiligen institutionellen Begebenheiten einbezieht. Zudem werden Argumente hinsichtlich der Relevanz der von Forsythe et al. (1992) durchgeführten Untersuchungen zur Überprüfung der sogenannten Hayek-Hypothese diskutiert, die erstmalig von Smith (1982) experimentell untersucht wurde. Summary In this paper we investigated three political stock markets, installed in Germany during three elections in 1990, 1991, and 1994. Markets of this type were first organized by Forsythe et al. (1992, 1993). As a result the predictive performance of the American markets was much better than that of opinion polls. In Germany markets worked quite good but none of them gave better predictions than the best polls did. As an explanation for the markets’ efficiency Forsythe et al. (1992) separate a subgroup of marginal traders capable to offset the judgement bias of other market participants. It is shown that a judgement bias also existed in the German markets. However, a group of marginal traders earning significantly higher returns could not be found. We argue that this approach is not adequate to explain the behavior within the German political stock markets. An alternative concept is therefore outlined with special regards to the institutional environment of the markets. Furthermore some theoretical aspects are discussed concerning the relationship between the marginal traders concept and the so-called Hayek hypothesis (see Smith 1982).
Identifying Chromosomal Fragile Sites from a Hierarchical‐Clustering Point of View

Summary. Identification of fragile sites is a way to investigate the genetic abnormalities that are the hallmark of cancer and play an important role in carcinogenesis. Manifestation of nonrandom breakage at a chromosome band is an essential criterion for determination of the fragility of the band. In this article, a new detection procedure is proposed. This new procedure takes the relationship of one site with the others into consideration and can be applied to tests of the randomness of breakpoints under either the proportional probability model (PPM) or the equiprobability model (EPM). The procedure can form a grouping structure that classifies all sites into several clusters. It is applied to identification of fragile sites for a real data set for Chinese patients with colorectal carcinoma for illustration of the proposed method.
The Relationship between a Mother's Menstrual Status and her Response to Illness in Her Child

&NA; From over 1500 women who brought children to the Los Angeles County—U.S.C. Pediatric Outpatient Department during a 1 month period, 140 were randomly selected and interviewed to determine whether a woman's menstrual status (her position within the menstrual cycle) affects the way she responds to illness in her child. The study found that paramenstrual women (those who were about to have or who were having their period) were more apt to bring their children to the Pediatric OPD than women between periods (intermenstrual women). Children brought in by paramenstrual women were considered to be less sick, to be suffering from different types of illnesses, and to have been sick for a shorter period of time than children brought in by intermenstrual women. The study presents evidence suggesting that paramenstrual and intermenstrual women have different motivations for bringing their children to the doctor.
Vulvodynia is not created equally: empirical classification of women with vulvodynia

Background Vulvodynia classification is based on the sensory dimensions of pain and does not include psychological factors associated with the pain experience and treatment outcomes. Previous work has shown that individuals with chronic pain can be classified into subgroups based on pain sensitivity, psychological distress, mood, and symptom severity. Objective The aim of this study was to identify distinct subgroups of women with vulvodynia enrolled in the National Vulvodynia Registry. We hypothesized that women with vulvodynia can be clustered into subgroups based on distress and pain sensitivity. Design A cross-sectional study. Methods We conducted an exploratory hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis using Ward’s cluster method and squared Euclidean distances to identify unique subgroups based on baseline psychological distress and pain sensitivity. The variables included the catastrophizing subscale of the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, the State Trait Anxiety Index-Trait scale, McGill Pain Questionnaire-Affective subscale, and vulvar and pelvic muscle pressure pain sensitivity. Subjects Eight sites enrolled women who presented with vaginal or vulval pain of at least 3-month duration. Results Two distinct subgroups, high pain sensitivity with high distress (n=27) and low pain sensitivity with low distress (n=100), emerged from the cluster analysis. Validation indicated that subgroups differed in terms of clinical pain intensity, sensory aspects of pain, and intercourse pain. Conclusion Empirical classification indicates that unique subgroups exist in women with vulvodynia. Providers should be aware of the heterogeneity of this condition with respect to pain-related distress and pain sensitivity.