A Many-to-Many 'Rural Hospital Theorem'

We show that the full version of the so-called ‘rural hospital theorem’ generalizes to many-to-many matching problems where agents on both sides of the problem have substitutable and weakly separable preferences. We reinforce our result by showing that when agents’ preferences satisfy substitutability, the domain of weakly separable preferences is also maximal for the rural hospital theorem to hold

In vitro assessment of the recurrent doses of topical gaseous ozone in the removal of Enterococcus faecalis biofilms in root canals

Aim: To evaluate the potential antibacterial effect of recurrent doses of topical gaseous ozone on the Enterococcus faecalis biofilms growth in human root canals in vitro.Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirty four human single.rooted mandibular premolars were enlarged to a size 35 K.File. Each root canal were inoculated with an overnight culture of Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 in tryptic soy broth for 24 hours and incubated for 7 days at 37‹C. At 7.day interval, 4 specimens were prepared for Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis to confirm the presence and purity of biofilms whilst the other contaminated root canals were irrigated and disinfected. One hundred root canals of total 134 specimens were selected to create the  experimental groups and divided into 5 subgroups. In each experimental group (n = 20) root canals), recurrent ozone doses were applied with different irrigation and disinfection protocols in 5 different time intervals. Bacterial growth was analyzed by counting viable E. faecalis on tryptic soy agar plates.Results: According to intergroup comparison results observed in the final sample collection analysis, the amount of remaining bacteria in the positive control group were found to be significantly higher compared to Groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the material control group (P < 0.01). The remaining amount of bacteria in the last count of Group 1 were found to be significantly higher compared to Group 2 (P < 0.05), Group 4 (P < 0.01), Group 5 (P < 0.05) and the material control group (P < 0.01).Conclusion: The application of topical gaseous ozone in recurrent doses provides a positive effect in the removal of E. faecalis biofilm from root canals. However, during disinfection procedure, the combined use of recurrent doses of topical gaseous ozone with 2% NaOCl enhanced its antibacterial effect against E. faecalis biofilm.Key words: Antibacterial effect, disinfection, Enterococcus faecalis biofilm, irrigation, recurrent doses, root canals, topical gaseous ozon

An adaptive, energy-aware and distributed fault-tolerant topology-control algorithm for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks

This paper introduces an adaptive, energy-aware and distributed fault-tolerant topology-control algorithm, namely the Adaptive Disjoint Path Vector (ADPV) algorithm, for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. In this heterogeneous model, we have resource-rich supernodes as well as ordinary sensor nodes that are supposed to be connected to the supernodes. Unlike the static alternative Disjoint Path Vector (DPV) algorithm, the focus of ADPV is to secure supernode connectivity in the presence of node failures, and ADPV achieves this goal by dynamically adjusting the sensor nodes' transmission powers. The ADPV algorithm involves two phases: a single initialization phase, which occurs at the beginning, and restoration phases, which are invoked each time the network's supernode connectivity is broken. Restoration phases utilize alternative routes that are computed at the initialization phase by the help of a novel optimization based on the well-known set-packing problem. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that ADPV is superior in preserving supernode connectivity. In particular, ADPV achieves this goal up to a failure of 95% of the sensor nodes; while the performance of DPV is limited to 5%. In turn, by our adaptive algorithm, we obtain a two-fold increase in supernode-connected lifetimes compared to DPV algorithm. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Investigation of temporal bone asymmetry in cases with unilateral tinnitus: morphometric and multicentric clinical study

The aim of this multicentric study was to compare the anatomical structures of temporal bone in patients with unilateral tinnitus with their healthy ears. We also aimed at evaluating whether age and gender-related asymmetrical changes occur in temporal bones or not. Fifty two ears of 26 patients who had unilateral tinnitus were included into the retrospective study. The patients who had subjective nonpulsatile tinnitus and who previously had temporal computed tomography according to their file records were accepted to study. Temporal CT scans and audiometric results of patients were examined retrospectively. Middle ear volume, diameter of internal acoustic meats and diameter of jugular bulb were evaluated by both anatomist and radiologist, interobserverly. Internal acoustic meats and jugular bulb were found larger in the ears that had tinnitus than healthy ears; however, there was no statistically significance. The stereological morphometrical study of temporal bone asymmetry in humans correlate with sex is of importance for both otolarygologs and anatomists. These results will contribute to data on middle ear volume, internal acustic meats and jugular bulb sizes

Mass Dependence of M3Y-Type Interactions and the Effects of Tensor Correlations

The mass dependence of the M3Y-type effective interactions and the effects of tensor correlations are examined. Two-body nuclear matrix elements are obtained by the lowest order constrained variational (LOCV) technique with and without tensor correlations. We have found that the tensor correlations are important especially in the triplet-even (TE) and tensor-even (TNE) channels in order to reproduce the G-matrix elements obtained previously. Then M3Y-type potentials for inelastic scattering are obtained by fitting our two-body matrix elements to those of a sum of Yukawa functions for the mass numbers A=24, A=40 and A=90.Comment: 13 pages, 6 table

Vehicular traffic flow at an intersection with the possibility of turning

We have developed a Nagel-Schreckenberg cellular automata model for describing of vehicular traffic flow at a single intersection. A set of traffic lights operating in fixed-time scheme controls the traffic flow. Open boundary condition is applied to the streets each of which conduct a uni-directional flow. Streets are single-lane and cars can turn upon reaching to the intersection with prescribed probabilities. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations are carried out to find the model flow characteristics. In particular, we investigate the flows dependence on the signalisation parameters, turning probabilities and input rates. It is shown that for each set of parameters, there exist a plateau region inside which the total outflow from the intersection remains almost constant. We also compute total waiting time of vehicles per cycle behind red lights for various control parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 17 eps figures, Late

Effect of dental materials calcium hydroxide-containing cement, mineral trioxide aggregate, and enamel matrix derivative on proliferation and differentiation of human tooth germ stem cells

Introduction: Biocompatibility of pulp capping materials is important for successful use in dentistry. These materials should be nontoxic and permissive for proliferation and induction of odontogenic differentiation of pulp cells. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of enamel matrix derivative (EMD), mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), and calcium hydroxide-containing cement (DYCAL) on proliferation and odontogenic differentiation of human tooth germ stem cells (hTGSCs) in which cells belonging to both pulp tissue and dental follicle exist. Methods: The 96-well plates, 24-well plates, and special chamber slides were coated with biomaterials for cell proliferation, differentiation, and scanning electron microscopy analysis. Odontogenic differentiation of hTGSCs was evaluated by analyzing mRNA expression of dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) by real-time polymerase chain reaction expression analysis, measurement of alkaline phosphatase activity, and visualization of calcium depositions by von Kossa staining. Results: Our results demonstrate that EMD is the best material in terms of inducing differentiation and proliferation of hTGSCs. DYCAL was found to be toxic to hTGSCs; however, EMD-coated DYCAL showed less toxicity. EMD-coated MTA was not efficient at inducing proliferation and differentiation. Conclusions: Pulp capping materials come in direct contact with dental pulp cells; thus, they require comprehensive evaluation of interactions between cells and biomaterials. Therefore, we cultured hTGSCs, capable of odontogenic differentiation, on pulp capping materials directly. Our results suggest that combination of capping materials with EMD would increase the quality of capping by increasing biocompatibility of capping materials. Copyright © 2011 American Association of Endodontists

Techniques for assessing knee joint pain in arthritis

The assessment of pain is of critical importance for mechanistic studies as well as for the validation of drug targets. This review will focus on knee joint pain associated with arthritis. Different animal models have been developed for the study of knee joint arthritis. Behavioral tests in animal models of knee joint arthritis typically measure knee joint pain rather indirectly. In recent years, however, progress has been made in the development of tests that actually evaluate the sensitivity of the knee joint in arthritis models. They include measurements of the knee extension angle struggle threshold, hind limb withdrawal reflex threshold of knee compression force, and vocalizations in response to stimulation of the knee. A discussion of pain assessment in humans with arthritis pain conditions concludes this review