Analysis of nasal airway symmetry and pharyngeal airway following rapid maxillary expansion

OBJECTIVES: This retrospective cohort study tested the effect of Rapid Maxillary Expansion (RME) on symmetrical volumetric changes in the nasal cavity. Volumetric changes in overall nasal cavity, nasopharynx, and oropharynx were also assessed as well as minimum cross-sectional width changes and molar angulation in association with RME. METHODS: CBCT scans of before and after RME treatment for 28 subjects (17 females, 11 males, average age 9.85 ± 2.42 years) were collected from a previously de-identified database. All subjects were treated for maxillary constriction using banded hyrax expanders. Mimics software was utilized to segment the nasal and pharyngeal airways and create various compartments (left and right nasal cavity, nasopharynx, and oropharynx) for volumetric analysis. Minimum cross-sectional width measurements and maxillary first molar angulation were also assessed. Paired T-test was used to quantify the changes brought about by expansion. Statistical significance was set at the 0.05 level. RESULTS: Posterior expansion as measured between right and left greater palatine foramen (GPF) averaged 2.41 mm (SD = 1.03 mm). There were statistically significant differences in overall nasal cavity (2249.6 ± 2102.5 mm3), right nasal cavity (968.8 ± 1082.7), left nasal cavity (1197.3 ± 1587.0), nasopharyngeal (1000.6 ± 917.7), and oropharyngeal (2349.2 ± 2520.8) volumes. In comparing the right to left nasal cavity, no significant changes were noted for initial volume, post-expansion volume, or pre to post-expansion changes (T2-T1). For cross-sectional analysis, the right nasal cavity (0.13 ± 0.07 mm) and left nasal cavity (0.11 ± 0.06 mm) showed significant increases in minimum crosssectional width measurements. Initial maxillary molar angulation had no significant correlation to initial nasal cavity volume on either side. CONCLUSIONS: RME has significant benefits to increasing nasal and pharyngeal airway cavity volumes in all segments of the airway. Nasal cavity expands symmetrically. Minimum cross-sectional width of the left and right nasal cavities showed highly symmetrical improvements. Initial maxillary molar angulation has no relationship to initial nasal cavity volume

Soluble carbohydrate fiber production for food ingredient applications

Soluble carbohydrate polymers that are not significantly hydrolyzed by the endogenous enzymes in the upper gastrointestinal tract, and additionally are not significantly fermented by the microbiota present in the lower gastrointestinal tract, are often added to a variety of foods to provide dietary fiber. Glucosyltransferases (glucansucrases) convert sucrose to D-glucose polysaccharides (glucan) or oligosaccharides, together with fructose as co-product. The anomeric linkage composition of the polysaccharides or oligosaccharides varies depending on the glucosyltransferase, and the solubility, viscosity, digestibility and fermentability of these carbohydrate products are each independently related to the anomeric linkage composition. Glucosyltransferases have been screened for production of polysaccharides or oligosaccharides that were evaluated for functionality and flavor in food products such as yogurt, beverages and food bars. Homologs and truncated forms of selected glucosyltransferases were evaluated to determine the optimal enzyme or enzyme combination for production of both soluble carbohydrate fiber and fructose. Further modification of one or more of the properties of the polysaccharide or oligosaccharide fiber was accomplished using glucan endo-(1,3)-alpha-glucosidases or glucosyltransferases having alpha-(1,2)-branching sucrase activity. After separation from the soluble carbohydrate fiber, the fructose co-product was further purified by using alpha-glucosidases to convert low concentrations of disaccharides and oligosaccharides present into glucose and additional fructose

Casting aside that ficticious self. : Deciphering female identity in The Awakening

Kate Chopin’s female protagonists have long since fascinated literary critics, raising serious questions concerning the influence of nineteenth-century female gender roles in her writing. Published in 1899, The Awakening demonstrates the changeability of the various representations of woman. In the nineteenth century, the subject of women may be divided into two categories: the True Woman and the New Woman. The former were expected to “cherish and maintain the four cardinal virtues of piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (Khoshnood et al.), while the latter sought to move away from hearth and home in order to focus on education, professions, and political and/or social reform. Both categories of women point to the socially constructed ideas surrounding femininity in the late nineteenth century. In her highly influential work Gender Trouble, Judith Butler argues: The very subject of woman is no longer understood in stable or abiding terms. There is a great deal of material that not only questions the viability of “the subject” as the ultimate candidate for representation or, indeed, liberation, but there is very little agreement after all on what it is that constitutes, or ought to constitute, the category of women. (2) The Awakening coincided with a proliferation of magazines that helped craft and define the social roles and expectations of the nineteenth-century woman. However, since the subject of woman does not signify one common identity, issues concerning differences in religion, class, and ethnicity arise, resulting in exclusionary practices within nineteenth-century society. The problem with endeavoring to construct the True Woman or the New Woman lies in the inability to negotiate these multiple intersecting identities, and in the failure to combine them into one unifying concept. Thus far, critics remain divided when it comes to Edna Pontellier’s “awakening;” however the general consensus views her suicide as a failure to conform to either the True Woman or the New Woman identity. One critic argues that the “hegemonic institutions of the nineteenth century required women to be objects in marriage and in motherhood…with little opportunity for individuality” (Gray 53)1. However, while it is true that opportunities for women were limited in the nineteenth century, the emergence of the New Woman, an identity that manifested itself through the development of women’s social clubs, the creation of ladies’ magazines, etc., gave women the ability to step outside of traditional domestic roles. Edna, in an attempt to experiment with the roles of both the True Woman and the New Woman (the former embodied by Adèle Ratignolle, the latter by Mademoiselle Reisz), does not fit into either category. Nevertheless, this is not due to a failure on her part to conform. It is instead a triumph in that, right before her death, she eventually manages to live outside of the power structures that exist in order to shape and restrict female identity. Another critic explains that the novella is not simply about repression, but is instead: a novel about a woman whose shaping culture has, in general, refused her right to speak out freely; this is, moreover, a culture that construes a woman’s self-expression as a violation of sexual “purity” and a culture that has denied the existence of women’s libidinous potential altogether—has eliminated the very concept of sexual passion for “normal” women. (Wolff 6)2 While it is true that nineteenth-century American women were not permitted to express their sexuality (nor was it believed that they possessed sexuality at all), they did hold the right to speak out freely against fictitious gender roles and sexist male ideology in women’s magazines and journals. Wolff’s argument, however, implies the existence of a “normal” woman, or a common subject that denotes “woman.” Finally, another critic posits that Edna’s death at the end of the novella serves as an “example of what can happen to a protagonist whose unwillingness to continue dedicating herself to any of the available social roles leads her to abandon all of them in favor of an…elusive freedom [associated] with…idyllic childhood” (Ramos 147)3. While Ramos sees Edna’s unwillingness to dedicate herself to any of the available nineteenth-century social roles because she favors the idea of freedom associated with a so-called “idyllic childhood,” it is far more likely that her inability to conform to a socially constructed female identity (be it the identity of the True Woman or the New Woman) stems from the impossibility of overcoming religious, class, and ethnic barriers. This thesis will argue that while articles and images published in magazines and journals during the late nineteenth century, such as Ladies’ Home Journal, The Delineator, and the North American Review, helped produce the “cultural values and ideals against which…Edna Pontellier was measured and found wanting” (Walker 140), the social constructions of the True Woman and of the New Woman were still restrictive despite their seemingly opposite ideologies. Furthermore, Edna’s suicide did not indicate a failure on her part to conform to one identity or another. Instead, Edna triumphs at the end of the novella through her dismissal of either constructed female identity. Though her religious background, class, ethnicity, and sexuality precluded the possibility of her ever coming to embody the morals of the True Woman, as Adèle Ratignolle does, and though she never quite manages to succeed in becoming a New Woman, like Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna transcends these limiting categories of woman, eventually freeing herself from oppression in the final moments before her implied death. Like the contrasting identities, the setting of the novella is divided: the first half takes place in Grand Isle, where Edna befriends Adèle Ratignolle, the exemplary True Woman. The second half traces Edna’s friendship with Mademoiselle Reisz—a spinster, though a fiercely self-sufficient New Woman—along with her attempts at becoming independent. Even the novel itself, with its interesting split in representation of women causes the reader to ask: is this a New Woman novel or a True woman novel? Did Chopin mean it to be one or the other? Did she simply intend to write a study of women in her era? Or is it an examination of an empty marriage

A cell-free platform for the directed evolution of toxic enzymes and proteins

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Engineering enzymes for microbial control: Cell-free methods for enhancing antimicrobial efficacy through directed evolution

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ORIGIN: Metal Creation and Evolution from the Cosmic Dawn

ORIGIN is a proposal for the M3 mission call of ESA aimed at the study of metal creation from the epoch of cosmic dawn. Using high-spectral resolution in the soft X-ray band, ORIGIN will be able to identify the physical conditions of all abundant elements between C and Ni to red-shifts of z=10, and beyond. The mission will answer questions such as: When were the first metals created? How does the cosmic metal content evolve? Where do most of the metals reside in the Universe? What is the role of metals in structure formation and evolution? To reach out to the early Universe ORIGIN will use Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) to study their local environments in their host galaxies. This requires the capability to slew the satellite in less than a minute to the GRB location. By studying the chemical composition and properties of clusters of galaxies we can extend the range of exploration to lower redshifts (z approx. 0.2). For this task we need a high-resolution spectral imaging instrument with a large field of view. Using the same instrument, we can also study the so far only partially detected baryons in the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM). The less dense part of the WHIM will be studied using absorption lines at low redshift in the spectra for GRBs. The ORIGIN mission includes a Transient Event Detector (coded mask with a sensitivity of 0.4 photon/sq cm/s in 10 s in the 5-150 keV band) to identify and localize 2000 GRBs over a five year mission, of which approx.65 GRBs have a redshift >7. The Cryogenic Imaging Spectrometer, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV, a field of view of 30 arcmin and large effective area below 1 keV has the sensitivity to study clusters up to a significant fraction of the virial radius and to map the denser parts of the WHIM (factor 30 higher than achievable with current instruments). The payload is complemented by a Burst InfraRed Telescope to enable onboard red-shift determination of GRBs (hence securing proper follow up of high-z bursts) and also probes the mildly ionized state of the gas. Fast repointing is achieved by a dedicated Controlled Momentum Gyro and a low background is achieved by the selected low Earth orbit

Cellulose: from biocompatible to bioactive material

International audienceSince the papyri, cellulose has played a significant role in human culture, especially as paper. Nowadays, this ancient product has found new scientific applications in the expanding sector of paper-based technology. Among paper-based devices, paper-based biosensors raise a special interest. The high selectivity of biomolecules for target analytes makes these sensors efficient. Moreover, simple paper-based detection devices do not require hardware or specific technical skill. They are inexpensive, rapid, user-friendly and therefore highly promising for providing resource-limited settings with point-of-care diagnostics. The immobilization of biomolecules onto cellulose is a key step in the development of these sensing devices. Following an overview of cellulose structural features and physicochemical properties, this article reviews current techniques for the immobilization of biomolecules on paper membranes. These procedures are categorized into physical, biological and chemical approaches. There is no universal method for biomolecule immobilization. Thus, for a given paper-based biochip, each strategy can be considered

Characterization of graphite-supported platinum catalysts by electrochemical methods and XPS

XPS and cyclic voltammetry were used to characterize 4.9 wt.% platinum-on-graphite catalysts used for the oxidn. with O2 of Me a-D-glucoside in aq. soln. Cyclic voltammetry indicates that a surface oxidic layer is formed on the Pt particles upon exposure to air. This oxidn. could not be confirmed by XPS. The oxidn. of Me a-D-glucoside in the liq. phase is accompanied by growth of the Pt particles. Open-circuit potential measurements indicated an increasing O coverage of the Pt surface during reaction