Schulze and Ranked-Pairs Voting are Fixed-Parameter Tractable to Bribe, Manipulate, and Control

Schulze and ranked-pairs elections have received much attention recently, and the former has quickly become a quite widely used election system. For many cases these systems have been proven resistant to bribery, control, or manipulation, with ranked pairs being particularly praised for being NP-hard for all three of those. Nonetheless, the present paper shows that with respect to the number of candidates, Schulze and ranked-pairs elections are fixed-parameter tractable to bribe, control, and manipulate: we obtain uniform, polynomial-time algorithms whose degree does not depend on the number of candidates. We also provide such algorithms for some weighted variants of these problems

Waste to Energy (WTE): Conventional and Plasma-assisted Gasification - Experimental and Modeling Studies

Ever-increasing amounts of industrial and residential wastes and their environmental footprint dictates the need for effective Waste Management practices. Thermal waste processing technologies play an important role in energy recovery from the waste. Conventional and more importantly Plasma-assisted Gasification, an advanced thermal processing technology, have been introduced as promising and environmentally benign ways for energy utilization from biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW). This work aims to study the thermal technologies, which result in production of synthesis gas that is useful for heat and power generation; therefore, conventional and plasma-assisted gasification of biomass/MSW are reviewed. In addition, various economic, environmental and policy-related issues are examined in this study. From the experimental and modeling perspective, this study also reports on the work conducted to characterize the gasification process using a gasification reactor called Gasifier Experimenters Kit (GEK) level IV. Both the syngas quality and quantity have been investigated based on a variety of feedstock, such as wood charcoal, poplar and tamarack wood chips. Moreover, the composition of the gas has been analyzed using a Gas Chromatography (GC) unit and the exact concentrations of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane and nitrogen were measured. In this study, a thermochemical model based on the experimental setup (GEK IV) has also been developed in the AspenPlus® environment, an established simulation tool in chemical engineering and the energy industry. This model is capable of predicting the syngas composition, the energy required for the gasification reactions. A comparative analysis involving the experimental and simulation results is presented in this study.1 yea

Homeopathy in Dentistry and Oral Medicine: A review

Objectives: Homeopathy is the most important field of alternative medicine. At present, over 3000 organic medications have been registered in the homeopathy pharmacopeia; out of which, 70% have herbal, 20% have mineral and the remaining have animal origins. Evidence shows that homeopathy may be beneficial in dentistry and oral medicine. However, this is a less known field for dentists. Therefore, this study aimed to do a review on the most common homeopathy medicines used for oral and dental problfems and to present it in a simple and practical way for general dental practitioners.Review of Literature: Google Scholar and PubMed data bases were searched for any article related to both homeopathy and dentistry. Several recent meta-analyses, randomized control trials, animal and laboratory trials, and other interventional papers were studied.Homeopathy drugs are basically produced from natural origin; they have less side effects in comparison with chemical drugs. In this method, only small doses of medications with low cost are used. The positive effects of homeopathy drugs on several oral conditions have been emphasized.Conclusion: Homeopathy may be a suitable adjunct to conventional medicine for management of many conditions since it is affordable, effective and uplifting for patients

Antifungal effect of sesame medicinal herb on Candida Species: original study and mini-review

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal susceptibility patterns of three antifungals, methanolic extracts and N-hexane oil of sesame seeds on C. albicans and C. glabrata, isolated from oral cavity of liver transplant recipients. The results were compared with other reports to develop a mini review as well. Candida species were isolated from liver transplant recipients. To evaluate the antifungal activity of sesame seed oil and methanolic extract, fluconazole, caspofungin and nystatin, the corresponding minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined by CLSI M27-A3 standard method. Minimum fungicidal concentration was also evaluated. The most prevalent species was C. albicans, followed by C. glabrata. Findings indicated sensitivity to antifungal agents and resistance to methanolic extract and N-hexane oil for all C. albicans and C. glabrata isolates. The rate of Candida colonization in the oral cavity of liver transplant recipients was high. Our results revealed that the methanolic and N-hexan extracts of sesame seeds are not effective on C. albicans and C. glabrata species, isolated from the patients. The sesame seed oil pulling and mouthwash cannot effectively cleanse and remove the Candida species in the mouth. Investigation of other medicinal plants or other parts of sesame like leaves and roots are suggested

Experimental Evaluation of the Effect of Zinc Salt on Inhibition of Streptococcus mutans

Statement of the Problem: The rate of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and side effects of antibiotics and oral and teeth health care products are increasing. Therefore, researchers aim at finding new alternatives to control bacteria of dental caries. Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the inhibitory and bactericidal effects of different concentrations of zinc sulfate and zinc acetate solutions on the main recognized agent of dental caries, Streptococcus mutans. Materials and Method: In this experimental study, different concentrations of aqueous zinc sulfate and zinc acetate solutions were prepared and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of these salts for Streptococcus mutans were determined in compare with penicillin, chlorhexidine by micro-serial dilution method. In addition, the diameters of zone of inhibition for these salt solutions in four concentrations along with chlorhexidine, as the control, were detected by the disc diffusion method. Results: MIC and MBC of zinc sulfate solution were higher than penicillin and chlorhexidine. There were not statistically significant differences between the MIC and MBC of zinc acetate solution, penicillin, and chlorhexidine. In 25 and 50 µg/mL concentrations, the diameters of inhibition zone for zinc sulfate were more than zinc ac Conclusion: Zinc sulfate and zinc acetate salts with 37.19 and 31.25 µgr/mL concentration had inhibitory effect on Streptococcus mutans growth respectively, although, no priority in antibacterial activity of the studied zinc salts was determined in comparison with penicillin and chlorhexidine

Uncertainty-aware Language Modeling for Selective Question Answering

We present an automatic large language model (LLM) conversion approach that produces uncertainty-aware LLMs capable of estimating uncertainty with every prediction. Our approach is model- and data-agnostic, is computationally-efficient, and does not rely on external models or systems. We evaluate converted models on the selective question answering setting -- to answer as many questions as possible while maintaining a given accuracy, forgoing providing predictions when necessary. As part of our results, we test BERT and Llama 2 model variants on the SQuAD extractive QA task and the TruthfulQA generative QA task. We show that using the uncertainty estimates provided by our approach to selectively answer questions leads to significantly higher accuracy over directly using model probabilities

Evaluation of the serum level of estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, and testosterone in patients with trigeminal neuralgia compared to a healthy population

Abstract Objectives The goal of this study is to measure and compare the hormonal serum levels (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, prolactin, dihydrotestosterone [DHT]) in trigeminal neuroglia (TN) menopausal women and healthy women. Materials and Methods This cross‐sectional and case‐control study was performed in 2018 and 2019. For this study, menopausal women with confirmed TN were enrolled. Twenty‐two healthy women in the control group and 19 in the case group participated. Blood samples were taken from participants for assessment of hormonal serum levels (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, prolactin, DHT). Data were analyzed by SPSS version 18. Mann−Whitney, T‐test, kormography test, nonmetric, χ2 test, and odds ratios have been used. Results In patients with TN, the serum level of testosterone was significantly higher (p = .036), and the serum level of prolactin (p = .016) was significantly lower. Other evaluated hormones' serum level was identical in the two groups. Patients with abnormal estrogen levels were more in the TN group in comparison with the healthy group. The abnormality of progesterone in TN patients was more in comparison to the healthy control group. Conclusions Estrogen and progesterone serum levels in TN patients are higher in comparison with the healthy group, while prolactin and testosterone serum levels are lower in the control group. Moreover, the DHE serum level is similar in both groups

An In vitro Analysis of the Effects of Iron Sulfate and Iron Acetate on Streptococcus mutans

Statement of problem: Dental caries is a common infectious disease induced by Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans). Objectives: Due to the high incidence rate of dental caries and iron deficiency in the Iranian population, we have conducted this study to analyze the effects of iron acetate and iron sulfate on controlling the growth of S. mutans. Materials and Methods: In this in vitro study, we evaluated the antibacterial effects of iron sulfate and iron acetate on S. mutans by the disk diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The results were compared to those for 0.2% chlorhexidine and penicillin as the controls. Results: Iron sulfate had higher MIC and MBC values compared to penicillin and chlorhexidine (P<0.001). Iron acetate MIC and MBC values did not significantly differ with penicillin and chlorhexidine. The iron sulfate inhibition zones at the 25 and 50 µg/mL doses were more than those of iron acetate. Conclusions: Iron sulfate and iron acetate solutions can inhibit the growth of S. mutans. Hence, different compounds that contain iron salts such as toothpastes, mouth washes, and food supplements can be produced to prevent dental caries and iron deficiency