Is there a flight to quality due to inflation uncertainty?

After two types of inflation uncertainty are derived within a time-varying parameter model with GARCH specification, the relationship between inflation uncertainty and interest rates for safe assets is investigated. The results support the existence of a "flight to quality" effect. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A retrospective evaluation of traumatic dental injury in children who applied to the dental hospital, Turkey

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze traumatic dental injuries in children visiting the dental hospital emergency department in Samsun of Turkey, in the period from 2007 to 2011.Materials and Methods: Data of age, gender, causes of dental trauma, injured teeth, type of dental injuries, the application period, the dental treatments, and traumatic dental injuries according to the seasons were obtained from the records at dental hospital.Results: Of all 320 patients with traumatic dental injury, 205 were boys and 115 were girls with a boys/girls ratio 1.78:1. Traumatic dental injury was observed more frequently in the 7.12 age groups: 52.5% in girls and 67.8% in boys. Falls are the major cause of traumatic dental injury in the age group 6.12 (51.4%). Sport activities are a common cause of traumatic dental injury in the 7.12 age group (34.2%). Patients visited a dentist within approximately 2 h (57.1%). The upper anterior teeth were subjected to trauma more frequently than the lower anterior teeth. The maxillary central incisors were the most commonly affected teeth, and the  mandibular canins were the least affected teeth. In primary teeth, avulsion was the most common type of dental injury (23%); on the other hand, enamel fractures were the most common type of dental injury (30.6%) observed in permanent teeth. In the primary dentition, the most commonly performed treatments were dental examination and prescribing (70%). The most common treatment choices in permanent teeth were restoration and dental examination (49.7 and 15.8%, respectively).Conclusion: The results of the study show that the emergency intervention to traumatized teeth is important for good prognosis of teeth and oral tissues. Therefore, the parents should be informed about dental trauma in schools, and dental hospital physicians should be subjected to postgraduate training.Key words: Classification, emergency treatment, teeth, traum

Metal-free restorations: esthetic considerations, treatment planning, preparation, manufacturing, luting, and followup

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Bone-Like Mineral Nucleating Peptide Nanofibers Induce Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Mature Osteoblasts

Cataloged from PDF version of article.A bone implant should integrate to the tissue through a bone-like mineralized interface, which requires increased osteoblast activity at the implant-tissue boundary. Modification of the implant surface with synthetic bioinstructive cues facilitates on-site differentiation of progenitor stem cells to functional mature osteoblasts and results in subsequent mineralization. Inspired by the bioactive domains of the bone extracellular matrix proteins and the mussel adhesive proteins, we synthesized peptide nanofibers to promote bone-like mineralization on the implant surface. Nanofibers functionalized with osteoinductive collagen I derived Asp-Gly-Glu-Ala (DGEA) peptide sequence provide an advantage in initial adhesion, spreading, and early commitment to osteogenic differentiation for mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). In this study, we demonstrated that this early osteogenic commitment, however, does not necessarily guarantee a priority for maturation into functional osteoblasts. Similar to natural biological cascades, early commitment should be further supported with additional signals to provide a long-term effect on differentiation. Here, we showed that peptide nanofibers functionalized with Glu-Glu-Glu (EEE) sequence enhanced mineralization abilities due to osteoinductive properties for late-stage differentiation of hMSCs. Mussel-inspired functionalization not only enables robust immobilization on metal surfaces, but also improves bone-like mineralization under physiologically simulated conditions. The multifunctional osteoinductive peptide nanofiber biointerfaces presented here facilitate osseointegration for long-term clinical stability. © 2014 American Chemical Society

Supramolecular Nanostructure Formation of Coassembled Amyloid Inspired Peptides

Characterization of amyloid-like aggregates through converging approaches can yield deeper understanding of their complex self-assembly mechanisms and the nature of their strong mechanical stability, which may in turn contribute to the design of novel supramolecular peptide nanostructures as functional materials. In this study, we investigated the coassembly kinetics of oppositely charged short amyloid-inspired peptides (AIPs) into supramolecular nanostructures by using confocal fluorescence imaging of thioflavin T binding, turbidity assay and in situ small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis. We showed that coassembly kinetics of the AIP nanostructures were consistent with nucleation-dependent amyloid-like aggregation, and aggregation behavior of the AIPs was affected by the initial monomer concentration and sonication. Moreover, SAXS analysis was performed to gain structural information on the size, shape, electron density, and internal organization of the coassembled AIP nanostructures. The scattering data of the coassembled AIP nanostructures were best fitted into to a combination of polydisperse core-shell cylinder (PCSC) and decoupling flexible cylinder (FCPR) models, and the structural parameters were estimated based on the fitting results of the scattering data. The stability of the coassembled AIP nanostructures in both fiber organization and bulk viscoelastic properties was also revealed via temperature-dependent SAXS analysis and oscillatory rheology measurements, respectively. © 2016 American Chemical Society

Design of a Gd-DOTA-Phthalocyanine Conjugate Combining MRI Contrast Imaging and Photosensitization Properties as a Potential Molecular Theranostic

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The design and synthesis of a phthalocyanine - Gd-DOTA conjugate is presented to open the way to novel molecular theranostics, combining the properties of MRI contrast imaging with photodynamic therapy. The rational design of the conjugate integrates isomeric purity of the phthalocyanine core substitution, suitable biocompatibility with the use of polyoxo water-solubilizing substituents, and a convergent synthetic strategy ended by the use of click chemistry to graft the Gd-DOTA moiety to the phthalocyanine. Photophysical and photochemical properties, contrast imaging experiments and preliminary in vitro investigations proved that such a combination is relevant and lead to a new type of potential theranostic agent

First events from the CNGS neutrino beam detected in the OPERA experiment

The OPERA neutrino detector at the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in appearance mode, through the study of nu_mu to nu_tau oscillations. The apparatus consists of a lead/emulsion-film target complemented by electronic detectors. It is placed in the high-energy, long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. In August 2006 a first run with CNGS neutrinos was successfully conducted. A first sample of neutrino events was collected, statistically consistent with the integrated beam intensity. After a brief description of the beam and of the various sub-detectors, we report on the achievement of this milestone, presenting the first data and some analysis results.Comment: Submitted to the New Journal of Physic

The detection of neutrino interactions in the emulsion/lead target of the OPERA experiment

The OPERA neutrino detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in appearance mode through the study of $\nu_\mu\to\nu_\tau$ oscillations. The apparatus consists of an emulsion/lead target complemented by electronic detectors and it is placed in the high energy long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. Runs with CNGS neutrinos were successfully carried out in 2007 and 2008 with the detector fully operational with its related facilities for the emulsion handling and analysis. After a brief description of the beam and of the experimental setup we report on the collection, reconstruction and analysis procedures of first samples of neutrino interaction events

Measurement of the atmospheric muon charge ratio with the OPERA detector

The OPERA detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) was used to measure the atmospheric muon charge ratio in the TeV energy region. We analyzed 403069 atmospheric muons corresponding to 113.4 days of livetime during the 2008 CNGS run. We computed separately the muon charge ratio for single and for multiple muon events in order to select different energy regions of the primary cosmic ray spectrum and to test the charge ratio dependence on the primary composition. The measured charge ratio values were corrected taking into account the charge-misidentification errors. Data have also been grouped in five bins of the "vertical surface energy". A fit to a simplified model of muon production in the atmosphere allowed the determination of the pion and kaon charge ratios weighted by the cosmic ray energy spectrum.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Emulsion sheet doublets as interface trackers for the OPERA experiment

New methods for efficient and unambiguous interconnection between electronic counters and target units based on nuclear photographic emulsion films have been developed. The application to the OPERA experiment, that aims at detecting oscillations between mu neutrino and tau neutrino in the CNGS neutrino beam, is reported in this paper. In order to reduce background due to latent tracks collected before installation in the detector, on-site large-scale treatments of the emulsions ("refreshing") have been applied. Changeable Sheet (CSd) packages, each made of a doublet of emulsion films, have been designed, assembled and coupled to the OPERA target units ("ECC bricks"). A device has been built to print X-ray spots for accurate interconnection both within the CSd and between the CSd and the related ECC brick. Sample emulsion films have been extensively scanned with state-of-the-art automated optical microscopes. Efficient track-matching and powerful background rejection have been achieved in tests with electronically tagged penetrating muons. Further improvement of in-doublet film alignment was obtained by matching the pattern of low-energy electron tracks. The commissioning of the overall OPERA alignment procedure is in progress.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figure