157 research outputs found
The Randomized Shortened Dental Arch Study: Tooth Loss
The evidence concerning the management of shortened dental arch (SDA) cases is sparse. This multi-center study was aimed at generating data on outcomes and survival rates for two common treatments, removable dental prostheses (RDP) for molar replacement or no replacement (SDA). The hypothesis was that the treatments lead to different incidences of tooth loss. We included 215 patients with complete molar loss in one jaw. Molars were either replaced by RDP or not replaced, according to the SDA concept. First tooth loss after treatment was the primary outcome measure. This event occurred in 13 patients in the RDP group and nine patients in the SDA group. The respective Kaplan-Meier survival rates at 38 months were 0.83 (95% CI: 0.74-0.91) in the RDP group and 0.86 (95% CI: 0.78-0.95) in the SDA group, the difference being non-significant
Electrically-Controlled Nuclear Spin Polarization and Relaxation by Quantum-Hall states
We investigate interactions between electrons and nuclear spins by using the
resistance (Rxx) peak which develops near filling factor n = 2/3 as a probe. By
temporarily tuning n to a different value, ntemp, with a gate, the Rxx peak is
shown to relax quickly on both sides of ntemp = 1. This is due to enhanced
nuclear spin relaxation by Skyrmions, and demonstrates the dominant role of
nuclear spin in the transport anomaly near n = 2/3. We also observe an
additional enhancement in the nuclear spin relaxation around n = 1/2 and 3/2,
which suggests a Fermi sea of partially-polarized composite fermions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Spin-orbit coupling effect on quantum Hall ferromagnets with vanishing Zeeman energy
We present the phase diagram of a ferromagnetic quantum Hall effect liquid in
a narrow quantum well with vanishing single-particle Zeeman splitting,
and pronounced spin-orbit coupling. Upon decreasing
, the spin-polarization field of a liquid takes, first, the
easy-axis configuration, followed by the formation of a helical state, which
affects the transport and NMR properties of a liquid and the form of
topological defects in it. The analysis is extended over high odd integer
filling factors.Comment: This revised version takes into account easy-axis terms in the energy
and offers a corrected phase diagram of the ferromagnetic QHE liquid.
Analysis is extended over higher filling factor
SentiBench - a benchmark comparison of state-of-the-practice sentiment analysis methods
In the last few years thousands of scientific papers have investigated
sentiment analysis, several startups that measure opinions on real data have
emerged and a number of innovative products related to this theme have been
developed. There are multiple methods for measuring sentiments, including
lexical-based and supervised machine learning methods. Despite the vast
interest on the theme and wide popularity of some methods, it is unclear which
one is better for identifying the polarity (i.e., positive or negative) of a
message. Accordingly, there is a strong need to conduct a thorough
apple-to-apple comparison of sentiment analysis methods, \textit{as they are
used in practice}, across multiple datasets originated from different data
sources. Such a comparison is key for understanding the potential limitations,
advantages, and disadvantages of popular methods. This article aims at filling
this gap by presenting a benchmark comparison of twenty-four popular sentiment
analysis methods (which we call the state-of-the-practice methods). Our
evaluation is based on a benchmark of eighteen labeled datasets, covering
messages posted on social networks, movie and product reviews, as well as
opinions and comments in news articles. Our results highlight the extent to
which the prediction performance of these methods varies considerably across
datasets. Aiming at boosting the development of this research area, we open the
methods' codes and datasets used in this article, deploying them in a benchmark
system, which provides an open API for accessing and comparing sentence-level
sentiment analysis methods
Exciton Spin Dynamics in Semiconductor Quantum Wells
In this paper we will review Exciton Spin Dynamics in Semiconductor Quantum
Wells. The spin properties of excitons in nanostructures are determined by
their fine structure. We will mainly focus in this review on GaAs and InGaAs
quantum wells which are model systems.Comment: 55 pages, 27 figure
Variational quantum Monte Carlo study of two-dimensional Wigner crystals: exchange, correlation, and magnetic field effects
The two-dimensional Wigner crystals are studied with the variational quantum
Monte Carlo method. The close relationship between the ground-state
wavefunction and the collective excitations in the system is illustrated, and
used to guide the construction of the ground-state wavefunction of the strongly
correlated solid. Exchange, correlation, and magnetic field effects all give
rise to distinct physical phenomena. In the absence of any external magnetic
field, interesting spin-orderings are observed in the ground-state of the
electron crystal in various two-dimensional lattices. In particular,
two-dimensional bipartite lattices are shown not to lead necessarily to an
antiferromagnetic ground-state. In the quantum Hall effect regime, a strong
magnetic field introduces new energy and length scales. The magnetic field
quenches the kinetic energy and poses constraints on how the electrons may
correlate with each other. Care is taken to ensure the appropriate
translational properties of the wavefunction when the system is in a uniform
magnetic field. We have examined the exchange, intra-Landau-level correlation
as well as Landau-level-mixing effects with various variational wavefunctions.
We also determine their dependences on the experimental parameters such as the
carrier effective mass at a modulation-doped semiconductor heterojunction. Our
results, when combined with some recent calculations for the energy of the
fractional quantum Hall liquid including Landau-level-mixing, show
quantitatively that in going from -doping to -doping in
heterojunction systems, the crossover filling factor from the fractional
quantum Hall liquid to the Wigner crystal changes from filling factor to . This lends strong support to the claim that theComment: LaTex file, 14 figures available from [email protected]
Efficient in vitro RNA interference and immunofluorescence-based phenotype analysis in a human parasitic nematode, Brugia malayi
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>RNA interference (RNAi) is an efficient reverse genetics technique for investigating gene function in eukaryotes. The method has been widely used in model organisms, such as the free-living nematode <it>Caenorhabditis elegans</it>, where it has been deployed in genome-wide high throughput screens to identify genes involved in many cellular and developmental processes. However, RNAi techniques have not translated efficiently to animal parasitic nematodes that afflict humans, livestock and companion animals across the globe, creating a dependency on data tentatively inferred from <it>C. elegans</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report improved and effective <it>in vitro </it>RNAi procedures we have developed using heterogeneous short interfering RNA (hsiRNA) mixtures that when coupled with optimized immunostaining techniques yield detailed analysis of cytological defects in the human parasitic nematode, <it>Brugia malayi</it>. The cellular disorganization observed in <it>B. malayi </it>embryos following RNAi targeting the genes encoding γ-tubulin, and the polarity determinant protein, PAR-1, faithfully phenocopy the known defects associated with gene silencing of their <it>C. elegans </it>orthologs. Targeting the <it>B. malayi </it>cell junction protein, AJM-1 gave a similar but more severe phenotype than that observed in <it>C. elegans</it>. Cellular phenotypes induced by our <it>in vitro </it>RNAi procedure can be observed by immunofluorescence in as little as one week.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We observed cytological defects following RNAi targeting all seven <it>B. malayi </it>transcripts tested and the phenotypes mirror those documented for orthologous genes in the model organism <it>C. elegans</it>. This highlights the reliability, effectiveness and specificity of our RNAi and immunostaining procedures. We anticipate that these techniques will be widely applicable to other important animal parasitic nematodes, which have hitherto been mostly refractory to such genetic analysis.</p
The randomized shortened dental arch study (RaSDA): design and protocol
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Various treatment options for the prosthetic treatment of jaws where all molars are lost are under discussion. Besides the placement of implants, two main treatment types can be distinguished: replacement of the missing molars with removable dental prostheses and non-replacement of the molars, i.e. preservation of the shortened dental arch. Evidence is lacking regarding the long-term outcome and the clinical performance of these approaches. High treatment costs and the long time required for the treatment impede respective clinical trials.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>This 14-center randomized controlled investigator-initiated trial is ongoing. Last patient out will be in 2010. Patients over 35 years of age with all molars missing in one jaw and with at least both canines and one premolar left on each side were eligible. One group received a treatment with removable dental prostheses for molar replacement (treatment A). The other group received a treatment limited to the replacement of all missing anterior and premolar teeth using fixed bridges (treatment B). A pilot trial with 32 patients was carried out. Two hundred and fifteen patients were enrolled in the main trial where 109 patients were randomized for treatment A and 106 for treatment B. The primary outcome measure is further tooth loss during the 5-year follow-up. The secondary outcome measures encompassed clinical, technical and subjective variables. The study is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG WA 831/2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5).</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The particular value of this trial is the adaptation of common design components to the very specific features of complex dental prosthetic treatments. The pilot trial proved to be indispensable because it led to a number of adjustments in the study protocol that considerably improved the practicability. The expected results are of high clinical relevance and will show the efficacy of two common treatment approaches in terms of oral health. An array of secondary outcome measures will deliver valuable supplementary information. If the results can be implemented in the clinical practice, the daily dental care should strongly profit thereof.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under ISRCTN68590603 (pilot trial) and ISRCTN97265367 (main trial).</p
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