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Despite the cariogenic role of Candida suggested from recent studies, oral Candida acquisition in children at high risk for early childhood caries (ECC) and its association with cariogenic bacteria Streptococcus mutans remain unclear. Although ECC disproportionately afflicts socioeconomically disadvantaged and racial-minority children, microbiological studies focusing on the underserved group are scarce. Our prospective cohort study examined the oral colonization of Candida and S. mutans among 101 infants exclusively from a low-income and racial-minority background in the first year of life. The Cox hazard proportional model was fitted to assess factors associated with the time to event of the emergence of oral Candida and S. mutans. Oral Candida colonization started as early as 1 wk among 13% of infants, increased to 40% by 2 mo, escalated to 48% by 6 mo, and remained the same level until 12 mo. S. mutans in saliva was detected among 20% infants by 12 mo. The emergence of S. mutans by year 1 was 3.5 times higher (hazard ratio [HR], 3.5; confidence interval [CI], 1.1–11.3) in infants who had early colonization of oral Candida compared to those who were free of oral Candida ( P = 0.04) and 3 times higher (HR, 3.0; CI, 1.3–6.9)more »among infants whose mother had more than 3 decayed teeth ( P = 0.01), even after adjusting demographics, feeding, mother’s education, and employment status. Infants’ salivary S. mutans abundance was positively correlated with infants’ Candida albicans ( P < 0.01) and Candida krusei levels ( P < 0.05). Infants’ oral colonization of C. albicans was positively associated with mother’s oral C. albicans carriage and education ( P < 0.01) but negatively associated with mother’s employment status ( P = 0.01). Future studies are warranted to examine whether oral Candida modulates the oral bacterial community as a whole to become cariogenic during the onset and progression of ECC, which could lead to developing novel ECC predictive and preventive strategies from a fungal perspective.« less

This paper investigates the idea of introducing learning algorithms into parking guidance and information systems that employ a central server, in order to provide estimated optimal parking searching strategies to travelers. The parking searching process on a network with uncertain parking availability can naturally be modeled as a Markov Decision Process (MDP). Such an MDP with full information can easily be solved by dynamic programming approaches. However, the probabilities of finding parking are difficult to define and calculate, even with accurate occupancy data. Learning algorithms are suitable for addressing this issue. The central server collects data from numerous travelers’ parking search experiences in the same area within a time window, computes approximated optimal parking searching strategy using a learning algorithm, and distributes the strategy to travelers. We propose an algorithm based on Q-learning, where the topology of the underlying transportation network is incorporated. This modification allows us to reduce the size of the problem dramatically, and thus the amount of data required to learn the optimal strategy. Numerical experiments conducted on a toy network show that the proposed learning algorithm outperforms the nearest-node greedy search strategy and the original Q-learning algorithm. Sensitivity analysis regarding the desired amount of training datamore »is also performed.« less

Searching for parking has been a problem faced by many drivers, especially in urban areas. With an increasing public demand for parking information and services, as well as the proliferation of advanced smartphones, a range of smartphone-based parking management services began to emerge. Funded by the National Science Foundation, our research aims to explore the potential of smartphone-based parking management services as a solution to parking problems, to deepen our understandings of travelers’ parking behaviors, and to further advance the analytical foundations and methodologies for modeling and assessing parking solutions. This paper summarizes progress and results from our research projects on smartphone-based parking management, including parking availability information prediction, parking searching strategy, the development of a mobile parking application, and our next steps to learn and discover new knowledge from its deployment. To predict future parking occupancy, we proposed a practical framework that integrates machine-learning techniques with a model-based core approach that explicitly models the stochastic parking process. The framework is able to predict future parking occupancy from historical occupancy data alone, and can handle complex arrival and departure patterns in real-world case studies, including special event. With the predicted probabilistic availability information, a cost-minimizing parking searching strategy is developed.more »The parking searching problem for an individual user is a stochastic Markov decision process and is formalized as a dynamic programming problem. The cost-minimizing parking searching strategy is solved by value iteration. Our simulated experiments showed that cost-minimizing strategy has the lowest expected cost but tends to direct a user to visit more parking facilities compared with two greedy strategies. Currently, we are working on implementing the predictive framework and the searching algorithm in a mobile phone application. We are working closely with Arizona State University (ASU) Parking and Transit Services to implement a three-stage pilot deployment of the prototype application around the ASU main campus. In the first stage, our application will provide real-time information and we will incorporate availability prediction and searching guidance in the second and third stages. Once the mobile application is deployed, it will provide unique opportunities to collect data on parking search behaviors, discover emerging scenarios of smartphone-based parking management services, and assess the impacts of such systems.« less

Searching for parking has been a problem faced by many drivers, especially in urban areas. With an increasing public demand for parking information and services, as well as the proliferation of advanced smartphones, a range of smartphone-based parking management services began to emerge. Funded by the National Science Foundation, our research aims to explore the potential of smartphone-based parking management services as a solution to parking problems, to deepen our understandings of travelers’ parking behaviors, and to further advance the analytical foundations and methodologies for modeling and assessing parking solutions. This paper summarizes progress and results from our research projects on smartphone-based parking management, including parking availability information prediction, parking searching strategy, the development of a mobile parking application, and our next steps to learn and discover new knowledge from its deployment. To predict future parking occupancy, we proposed a practical framework that integrates machine-learning techniques with a model-based core approach that explicitly models the stochastic parking process. The framework is able to predict future parking occupancy from historical occupancy data alone, and can handle complex arrival and departure patterns in real-world case studies, including special event. With the predicted probabilistic availability information, a cost-minimizing parking searching strategy is developed.more »The parking searching problem for an individual user is a stochastic Markov decision process and is formalized as a dynamic programming problem. The cost-minimizing parking searching strategy is solved by value iteration. Our simulated experiments showed that cost-minimizing strategy has the lowest expected cost but tends to direct a user to visit more parking facilities compared with two greedy strategies. Currently, we are working on implementing the predictive framework and the searching algorithm in a mobile phone application. We are working closely with Arizona State University (ASU) Parking and Transit Services to implement a three-stage pilot deployment of the prototype application around the ASU main campus. In the first stage, our application will provide real-time information and we will incorporate availability prediction and searching guidance in the second and third stages. Once the mobile application is deployed, it will provide unique opportunities to collect data on parking search behaviors, discover emerging scenarios of smartphone-based parking management services, and assess the impacts of such systems.« less

A bstract A search is presented for a heavy W′ boson resonance decaying to a B or T vector-like quark and a t or a b quark, respectively. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb − 1 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Both decay channels result in a signature with a t quark, a Higgs or Z boson, and a b quark, each produced with a significant Lorentz boost. The all-hadronic decays of the Higgs or Z boson and of the t quark are selected using jet substructure techniques to reduce standard model backgrounds, resulting in a distinct three-jet W′ boson decay signature. No significant deviation in data with respect to the standard model background prediction is observed. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the product of the W′ boson cross section and the final state branching fraction. A W′ boson with a mass below 3.1 TeV is excluded, given the benchmark model assumption of democratic branching fractions. In addition, limits are set based on generalizations of these assumptions. These are the most sensitive limits to datemore »for this final state.« less