Oral Hygiene Indirect Instruction and Periodic Reinforcements: Effects on Index Plaque in Schoolchildren

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the indirect instruction and the influence of the periodic reinforcement on the plaque index in schoolchildren. Forty schoolchildren aged from 7 to 9 years old were selected from a public school. After determining the initial O'Leary Plaque Index all schoolchildren were submitted to a program for oral hygiene through indirect instruction - "The Smiling Robot". The schoolchildren were divided into 2 groups: with and without motivation reinforcement. The index plaque exam was performed in both groups after 30, 60 and 90 days of the educational program. Comparing the groups, the plaque index decreasing could be observed in the group with reinforcement with statistically significant difference. For the group with reinforcement, statistically significant difference among the evaluations was found. For the group without reinforcement, significant decrease in the plaque index was found after 30 days when compared to the first, third and fourth evaluations. The indirect instruction with "The Smiling Robot "promoted a positive initial impact on the decrease of plaque index in the schoolchildren. The periodic reinforcements showed snore suitable results and significant reduction of the plaque index in the course of the evaluations.

Modal analysis of anisotropic diffused-channel waveguide by a scalar finite element method

A procedure to model optical diffused-channel waveguides is presented in this work. The dielectric waveguides present anisotropic refractive indexes which are calculated from the proton concentration. The proton concentration inside the channel is calculated by the anisotropic 2D-linear diffusion equation and converted to the refractive indexes using mathematical relations obtained from experimental data, the arbitrary refractive index profile is modeled by a. nodal expansion in the base functions. The TE and TM-like propagation properties (effective index) and the electromagnetic fields for well-annealed proton-exchanged (APE) LiNbO3 waveguides are computed by the finite element method.

Periodic solutions of abstract neutral functional differential equations

We characterize the existence of periodic solutions of some abstract neutral functional differential equations with finite and infinite delay when the underlying space is a UMD space. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Resonance in Bose-Einstein condensate oscillation from a periodic variation in scattering length

Using the explicit numerical solution of the axially symmetric Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we study the oscillation of the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) induced by a periodic variation in the atomic scattering length a. When the frequency of oscillation of a is an even multiple of the radial or axial trap frequency, respectively, the radial or axial oscillation of the condensate exhibits resonance with a novel feature. In this nonlinear problem without damping, at resonance in the steady state the amplitude of oscillation passes through a maximum and minimum. Such a growth and decay cycle of the amplitude may keep on repeating. Similar behaviour is also observed in a rotating BEC.

Quasiprobability distribution functions for periodic phase spaces: I. Theoretical aspects

An approach featuring s-parametrized quasiprobability distribution functions is developed for situations where a circular topology is observed. For such an approach, a suitable set of angle - angular momentum coherent states must be constructed in an appropriate fashion.

Non-planar double-box, massive and massless pentabox Feynman integrals in the negative-dimensional approach

The negative-dimensional integration method is a technique which can be applied, with success, in usual covariant gauge calculations. We consider three two-loop diagrams: the scalar massless non-planar double-box with six propagators and the scalar pentabox in two cases, where six virtual particles have the same mass, and in the case all of them are massless. Our results are given in terms of hypergeometric functions of Mandelstam variables and also for arbitrary exponents of propagators and dimension D.

Bose-Einstein condensates in 2D with time-periodic scattering length

We discuss two-dimensional Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC) under time-periodic variation of the scattering length. In particular we argue that for high-frequency variation there exist stable self-confined condensates without an external trap, when the do component of the scattering length is negative. Our results are based on a variational approximation, on direct averaging of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and on numerical simulations.

Stable periodic waves in coupled Kuramoto-Sivashinsky-Korteweg-de Vries equations

Periodic waves are investigated in a system composed of a Kuramoto-Sivashinsky-Korteweg-de Vries (KS-KdV) equation linearly coupled to an extra linear dissipative one. The model describes, e.g., a two-layer liquid film flowing down an inclined plane. It has been recently shown that the system supports stable solitary pulses. We demonstrate that a perturbation analysis, based on the balance equation for the net field momentum, predicts the existence of stable cnoidal waves (CnWs) in the same system. It is found that the mean value u(0) of the wave field u in the main subsystem, but not the mean value of the extra field, affects the stability of the periodic waves. Three different areas can be distinguished inside the stability region in the parameter plane (L, u(0)), where L is the wave's period. In these areas, stable are, respectively, CnWs with positive velocity, constant solutions, and CnWs with negative velocity. Multistability, i.e., the coexistence of several attractors, including the waves with several maxima per period, appears at large value of L. The analytical predictions are completely confirmed by direct simulations. Stable waves are also found numerically in the limit of vanishing dispersion, when the KS-KdV equation goes over into the KS one.

Lorentz symmetry breaking and planar effects from non-linear electrodynamics

We propose a modification of standard linear electrodynamics in four dimensions, where effective non-trivial interactions of the electromagnetic field with itself and with matter fields induce Lorentz violating Chern-Simons terms. This yields two consequences: it provides a more realistic and general scenario for the breakdown of Lorentz symmetry in electromagnetism and it may explain the effective behavior of the electromagnetic field in certain planar phenomena (for instance, Hall effect). A number of proposals for non-linear electrodynamics is discussed along the paper. Important physical implications of the breaking of Lorentz symmetry, such as optical birefringence and the possibility of having conductance in the vacuum are commented on.

Effects of time-periodic linear coupling on two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in two dimensions

We examine two-component Gross-Pitaevskii equations with nonlinear and linear couplings, assuming self-attraction in one species and self-repulsion in the other, while the nonlinear inter-species coupling is also repulsive. For initial states with the condensate placed in the self-attractive component, a sufficiently strong linear coupling switches the collapse into decay (in the free space). Setting the linear-coupling coefficient to be time-periodic (alternating between positive and negative values, with zero mean value) can make localized states quasi-stable for the parameter ranges considered herein, but they slowly decay. The 2D states can then be completely stabilized by a weak trapping potential. In the case of the high-frequency modulation of the coupling constant, averaged equations are derived, which demonstrate good agreement with numerical solutions of the full equations. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Searching for planar signatures in WMAP

We search for planar deviations of statistical isotropy in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data by applying a recently introduced angular-planar statistics both to full-sky and to masked temperature maps, including in our analysis the effect of the residual foreground contamination and systematics in the foreground removing process as sources of error. We confirm earlier findings that full-sky maps exhibit anomalies at the planar (l) and angular (l) scales (l; l) = (2; 5); (4; 7); and (6; 8), which seem to be due to unremoved foregrounds since this features are present in the full-sky map but not in the masked maps. on the other hand, our test detects slightly anomalous results at the scales (l; l) = (10; 8) and (2; 9) in the masked maps but not in the full-sky one, indicating that the foreground cleaning procedure (used to generate the full-sky map) could not only be creating false anomalies but also hiding existing ones. We also find a significant trace of an anomaly in the full-sky map at the scale (l; l) = (10; 5), which is still present when we consider galactic cuts of 18.3% and 28.4%. As regards the quadrupole (l = 2), we find a coherent over-modulation over the whole celestial sphere, for all full-sky and cut-sky maps. Overall, our results seem to indicate that current CMB maps derived from WMAP data do not show significant signs of anisotropies, as measured by our angular-planar estimator. However, we have detected a curious coherence of planar modulations at angular scales of the order of the galaxy's plane, which may be an indication of residual contaminations in the full-and cut-sky maps.

Angular-planar CMB power spectrum

Gaussianity and statistical isotropy of the Universe are modern cosmology's minimal set of hypotheses. In this work we introduce a new statistical test to detect observational deviations from this minimal set. By defining the temperature correlation function over the whole celestial sphere, we are able to independently quantify both angular and planar dependence (modulations) of the CMB temperature power spectrum over different slices of this sphere. Given that planar dependence leads to further modulations of the usual angular power spectrum C(l), this test can potentially reveal richer structures in the morphology of the primordial temperature field. We have also constructed an unbiased estimator for this angular-planar power spectrum which naturally generalizes the estimator for the usual C(l)'s. With the help of a chi-square analysis, we have used this estimator to search for observational deviations of statistical isotropy in WMAP's 5 year release data set (ILC5), where we found only slight anomalies on the angular scales l = 7 and l = 8. Since this angular-planar statistic is model-independent, it is ideal to employ in searches of statistical anisotropy (e.g., contaminations from the galactic plane) and to characterize non-Gaussianities.

Dynamics of two satellites in the 2/1 Mean-Motion resonance: application to the case of Enceladus and Dione

The dynamics of a pair of satellites similar to Enceladus-Dione is investigated with a two-degrees-of-freedom model written in the domain of the planar general three-body problem. Using surfaces of section and spectral analysis methods, we study the phase space of the system in terms of several parameters, including the most recent data. A detailed study of the main possible regimes of motion is presented, and in particular we show that, besides the two separated resonances, the phase space is replete of secondary resonances.

Corrugated waveguide under scaling investigation

Some scaling properties for classical light ray dynamics inside a periodically corrugated waveguide are studied by use of a simplified two-dimensional nonlinear area-preserving map. It is shown that the phase space is mixed. The chaotic sea is characterized using scaling arguments revealing critical exponents connected by an analytic relationship. The formalism is widely applicable to systems with mixed phase space, and especially in studies of the transition from integrability to nonintegrability, including that in classical billiard problems.