Effects of metformin on inflammation, oxidative stress, and bone loss in a rat model of periodontitis.

AimTo evaluate the effects of metformin (Met) on inflammation, oxidative stress, and bone loss in a rat model of ligature-induced periodontitis.Materials & methodsMale albino Wistar rats were divided randomly into five groups of twenty-one rats each, and given the following treatments for 10 days: (1) no ligature + water, (2) ligature + water, (3) ligature + 50 mg/kg Met, (4) ligature + 100 mg/kg Met, and (5) ligature + 200 mg/kg Met. Water or Met was administered orally. Maxillae were fixed and scanned using Micro-computed Tomography (μCT) to quantitate linear and bone volume/tissue volume (BV/TV) volumetric bone loss. Histopathological characteristics were assessed through immunohistochemical staining for MMP-9, COX-2, the RANKL/RANK/OPG pathway, SOD-1, and GPx-1. Additionally, confocal microscopy was used to analyze osteocalcin fluorescence. UV-VIS analysis was used to examine the levels of malondialdehyde, glutathione, IL-1β and TNF-α from gingival tissues. Quantitative RT-PCR reaction was used to gene expression of AMPK, NF-κB (p65), and Hmgb1 from gingival tissues. Significance among groups were analysed using a one-way ANOVA. A p-value of p<0.05 indicated a significant difference.ResultsTreatment with 50 mg/kg Met significantly reduced concentrations of malondialdehyde, IL-1β, and TNF-α (p < 0.05). Additionally, weak staining was observed for COX-2, MMP-9, RANK, RANKL, SOD-1, and GPx-1 after 50 mg/kg Met. OPG and Osteocalcin showed strong staining in the same group. Radiographically, linear measurements showed a statistically significant reduction in bone loss after 50 mg/kg Met compared to the ligature and Met 200 mg/kg groups. The same pattern was observed volumetrically in BV/TV and decreased osteoclast number (p<0.05). RT-PCR showed increased AMPK expression and decreased expression of NF-κB (p65) and HMGB1 after 50 mg/kg Met.ConclusionsMetformin, at a concentration of 50 mg/kg, decreases the inflammatory response, oxidative stress and bone loss in ligature-induced periodontitis in rats

Ventilação não invasiva em pacientes com doença pulmonar ostrutiva crônica: Non-invasive ventilation in patients with chronic ostructive pulmonary disease

Apresentação: A DPOC trata-se de uma doença obstrutiva crônica e progressiva associada ao comprometimento dos pulmões provocando infecções pulmonares frequentes, chiado no peito e tosse crônica, afetando os pulmões e brônquios. Caracterizada por sinais e sintomas como tosse, dispneia, sibilância e expectoração crônicos. Associada a um quadro inflamatório sistêmico, com manifestações como perda de peso e redução da massa muscular nas fases avançadas. Objetivo: Analisar a eficácia do uso da Ventilação Não Invasiva em pacientes em pacientes com DPOC. Metodologia: Refere-se a uma revisão de literatura utilizando métodos hipotéticos. Resultados Esperados: Elucidar a melhora do quadro analítico do paciente, e o quanto é importante para o tratamento terapêutico com o uso da Ventilação Não Invasiva em pacientes com DPOC e consequentemente concedendo uma boa qualidade de vida.&nbsp

<b>Message Journal, Issue 4</b>: DESIGN POLITICS What are the politics of your design and what is the design of your politics?

In the Message journal issue 4 we wanted to create an arena where our discipline could discuss the nature and context of its role from an overtly political perspective. Whilst we felt in our bones there was an appetite for this, we were far from certain about its nature, scope and size. Consequently, the call for Message 4 was, to say the least, somewhat of a gamble. Thankfully, our hunches and speculations seem to have been close to the mark. We received more submissions for this call than the previous three issues combined. There was also an anticipation (albeit in hindsight a rather naive one) that some submissions might be positioned around conventional left, right and/or sustainable ecological perspectives. This did not really transpire. Nonetheless, we are very happy to say that the creative, eclectic and diverse nature of the responses has resulted in a range of exemplars that reflect the varied nature, concerns and foci of our vibrant discipline. These extend from John Calvelli’s philosophical dialectic on the fundamental nature and origin of images, their use and effects, to Elizabeth Herrmann’s self-initiated craft-based approach, to do good locally and make a social contribution. Both of these papers are also examples of the higher than usual number of submissions from North America, a substantial proportion of which relate to the politics of cultural and/or racial identity, such as Omari Souza’s, ‘Racist Motifs in Everyday Branding’. Message is dedicated to the development of Graphic Communication Design research. Particularly (although not exclusively) through authors’ analysis of and reflection on their own practice-based research. Through peer reviewed submissions and occasional commissioned essays, Message explores, discusses and challenges the boundaries, roles, practices and outputs of Graphic Communication Design. Past, present and future.Introduction – Peter Jones Rethinking Graphic Design and the Design of Historical Arguments– Camila Afanador-Llach The Intersection of Electoral Politics and Design Education - Anne Berry & Sarah Rutherford Ecological Mourning and the Work of Graphic Communication Design – John Calvelli From High to Low and High Again – Kristen Coogan Speculative Graphic Design: The Idiot’s-Eye-View – James Dyer Free!* Reclaiming ‘freedom’ from the neoliberal lexicon - Cathy Gale Countering ‘Fake News’ in the Design Classroom - Anne M. Giangiulio Cards for Humanity: Constructing Meaningful Communities Through Unsolicited Do-Good Design - Elizabeth Herrmann Political Awareness and Engagement Through Banknote Design - Chae Ho Lee Personal value thinking in graphic communication design education – The introduction of a clarification tool for students - Gwen Lettis, Pamela Napier, Adam de Eyto & Muireann McMahon Passive, Brutish, or Civil? Racist Motifs in Everyday Branding - Omari Souza Countering the Othering of Others: Illustration Facilitating Empathy - Dave Wood Re-contextualising Illustration to Inform Sexual Consent – #JustSoYouKnow - Dave Woo

The Ontology of Biological Attributes (OBA)-computational traits for the life sciences.

Existing phenotype ontologies were originally developed to represent phenotypes that manifest as a character state in relation to a wild-type or other reference. However, these do not include the phenotypic trait or attribute categories required for the annotation of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) mappings or any population-focussed measurable trait data. The integration of trait and biological attribute information with an ever increasing body of chemical, environmental and biological data greatly facilitates computational analyses and it is also highly relevant to biomedical and clinical applications. The Ontology of Biological Attributes (OBA) is a formalised, species-independent collection of interoperable phenotypic trait categories that is intended to fulfil a data integration role. OBA is a standardised representational framework for observable attributes that are characteristics of biological entities, organisms, or parts of organisms. OBA has a modular design which provides several benefits for users and data integrators, including an automated and meaningful classification of trait terms computed on the basis of logical inferences drawn from domain-specific ontologies for cells, anatomical and other relevant entities. The logical axioms in OBA also provide a previously missing bridge that can computationally link Mendelian phenotypes with GWAS and quantitative traits. The term components in OBA provide semantic links and enable knowledge and data integration across specialised research community boundaries, thereby breaking silos

The Southern Ocean mixed layer and its boundary fluxes: Fine-scale observational progress and future research priorities

Interactions between the upper ocean and air-ice-ocean fluxes in the Southern Ocean play a critical role in global climate by impacting the overturning circulation and oceanic heat and carbon uptake. Remote and challenging conditions have led to sparse observational coverage, while ongoing field programmes often fail to collect sufficient information in the right place or at the time-space scales required to constrain the variability occurring in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system. Only within the last 10 years have we been able to directly observe and assess the role of the fine-scale ocean and rapidly evolving atmospheric marine boundary layer on the upper limb of the Southern Ocean's overturning circulation. This review summarizes advances in mechanistic understanding, arising in part from observational programmes using autonomous platforms, of the fine-scale processes (1-100 km, hours-seasons) influencing the Southern Ocean mixed layer and its variability. We also review progress in observing the ocean interior connections and the coupled interactions between the ocean, atmosphere and cryosphere that moderate air-sea fluxes of heat and carbon. Most examples provided are for the ice-free Southern Ocean, while major challenges remain for observing the ice-covered ocean. We attempt to elucidate contemporary research gaps and ongoing/future efforts needed to address them. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Heat and carbon uptake in the Southern Ocean: the state of the art and future priorities'

Relação entre circunferência abdominal e pressão arterial sistólica em policiais militares do estado do Maranhão

Obesity is a non-communicable, complex and multifactorial chronic disease whose main characteristic is the excessive accumulation of fat, increasing the abdominal circumference (WC). The aim of this study was to analyze whether WC is directly related to the increase in systolic blood pressure (SBP) in military police (PM) during the operational period. The sample consisted of 415 female and male police officers. Through the physical evaluation, the body mass (kg); height (m); SBP (mmHg) and WC (cm). For data analysis, the sample was stratified into less or more than 60 months (5 years) of military service time (TTM), using Pearson's Correlation to verify the relationship between WC and SBP, with values ​​presented by mean and standard deviation. With TTM less than 60 months, there were 249 police officers aged = 29.95±4.49 years, TTM = 30.79±18.92 months, WC=90.68±9.59 cm and SBP 130.102±15.12 mmHg. With TTM greater than 60 months, there were 166 police officers aged = 44.08±6.99 years, TTM=257.95±93.86 months, WC=97.29±10.16 cm and SBP=133.97± 18.40 mmHg. There was a moderate and significant correlation between WC and PAS for officers with less than five years in the position (r=0.30; p&lt;0.01) and low and significant for officers with more than five years in the position (r=0.27; p&lt;0.01). The WC value does not seem to be an indication that explains the SBP variation in this population and context, suggesting that other factors are more important in this variation.A obesidade é uma doença crônica não transmissível, complexa e multifatorial que tem como característica principal o acúmulo excessivo de gordura, aumentando a circunferência abdominal (CA). O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar se a CA está diretamente relacionada ao aumento da pressão arterial sistólica (PAS) em policiais militares (PM). A amostra foi de 415 policiais dos sexos feminino e masculino. Através da avaliação física foram mensuradas a massa corporal (kg); estatura (m); PAS (mmHg) e CA (cm). Para análise dos dados houve a estratificação da amostra em menos ou mais que 60 meses (5 anos) de tempo de trabalho militar (TTM), utilizando-se da Correlação de Pearson para verificar a relação entre a CA e PAS, com valores apresentados por média e desvio padrão. Com TTM menor que 60 meses foram 249 policiais com idade = 29,95±4,49 anos, TTM=30,79±18,92 meses, CA = 90,68±9,59 cm e PAS 130,102±15,12 mmHg. Com TTM maior que 60 meses, foram 166 policiais com idade = 44,08±6,99 anos, TTM = 257,95±93,86 meses, CA=97,29±10,16 cm e PAS=133,97±18,40 mmHg. Houve correlação moderada e significativa entre CA e PAS para policiais com menos de cinco anos no cargo (r=0,30; p&lt;0,01) e baixa e significativa para policiais com mais de cinco anos no cargo (r=0,27; p&lt;0,01). O valor da CA não parece um indicativo que explique a variação da PAS nessa população e contexto, sugerindo que outros fatores tenham maior importância nesta variação

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO