309 research outputs found
Design of the Xylitol for Adult Caries Trial (X-ACT)
Abstract Background Dental caries incidence in adults is similar to that in children and adolescents, but few caries preventive agents have been evaluated for effectiveness in adults populations. In addition, dentists direct fewer preventive services to their adult patients. Xylitol, an over-the-counter sweetener, has shown some potential as a caries preventive agent, but the evidence for its effectiveness is not yet conclusive and is based largely on studies in child populations. Methods/Design X-ACT is a three-year, multi-center, placebo controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trial that tests the effects of daily use of xylitol lozenges versus placebo lozenges on the prevention of adult caries. The trial has randomized 691 participants (ages 21-80) to the two arms. The primary outcome is the increment of cavitated lesions. Discussion This trial should help resolve the overall issue of the effectiveness of xylitol in preventing caries by contributing evidence with a low risk of bias. Just as importantly, the trial will provide much-needed information about the effectiveness of a promising caries prevention agent in adults. An effective xylitol-based caries prevention intervention would represent an easily disseminated method to extend caries prevention to individuals not receiving caries preventive treatment in the dental office. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.Gov NCT0039305
Enhanced solid-state multi-spin metrology using dynamical decoupling
We use multi-pulse dynamical decoupling to increase the coherence lifetime
(T2) of large numbers of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) electronic spins in room
temperature diamond, thus enabling scalable applications of multi-spin quantum
information processing and metrology. We realize an order-of-magnitude
extension of the NV multi-spin T2 for diamond samples with widely differing
spin environments. For samples with nitrogen impurity concentration <~1 ppm, we
find T2 > 2 ms, comparable to the longest coherence time reported for single NV
centers, and demonstrate a ten-fold enhancement in NV multi-spin sensing of AC
magnetic fields
Structure and Ionic Conductivity in the Mixed-Network Former Chalcogenide Glass System [Na2S]2/3[(B2S3)x(P2S5)1âx]1/3
Glasses in the system [Na2S]2/3[(B2S3)x(P2S5)1âx]1/3 (0.0 †x †1.0) were prepared by the melt quenching technique, and their properties were characterized by thermal analysis and impedance spectroscopy. Their atomic-level structures were comprehensively characterized by Raman spectroscopy and 11B, 31P, and 23Na high resolution solid state magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR techniques. 31P MAS NMR peak assignments were made by the presence or absence of homonuclear indirect 31Pâ31P spinâspin interactions as detected using homonuclear J-resolved and refocused INADEQUATE techniques. The extent of BâSâP connectivity in the glassy network was quantified by 31P{11B} and 11B{31P} rotational echo double resonance spectroscopy. The results clearly illustrate that the network modifier alkali sulfide, Na2S, is not proportionally shared between the two network former components, B and P. Rather, the thiophosphate (P) component tends to attract a larger concentration of network modifier species than predicted by the bulk composition, and this results in the conversion of P2S74â, pyrothiophosphate, Na/P = 2:1, units into PS43â, orthothiophosphate, Na/P = 3:1, groups. Charge balance is maintained by increasing the net degree of polymerization of the thioborate (B) units through the formation of covalent bridging sulfur (BS) units, BâSâB. Detailed inspection of the 11B MAS NMR spectra reveals that multiple thioborate units are formed, ranging from neutral BS3/2 groups all the way to the fully depolymerized orthothioborate (BS33â) species. On the basis of these results, a comprehensive and quantitative structural model is developed for these glasses, on the basis of which the compositional trends in the glass transition temperatures (Tg) and ionic conductivities can be rationalized. Up to x = 0.4, the dominant process can be described in a simplified way by the net reaction equation P1 + B1 P0 + B4, where the superscripts denote the number of BS atoms for the respective network former species. Above x = 0.4, all of the thiophosphate units are of the P0 type and both pyro- (B1) and orthothioborate (B0) species make increasing contributions to the network structure with increasing x. In sharp contrast to the situation in sodium borophosphate glasses, four-coordinated thioborate species are generally less abundant and heteroatomic BâSâP linkages appear to not exist. On the basis of this structural information, compositional trends in the ionic conductivities are discussed in relation to the nature of the charge-compensating anionic species and the spatial distribution of the charge carriers
Comparison of dynamical decoupling protocols for a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond
We perform a detailed theoretical-experimental study of the dynamical
decoupling (DD) of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. We investigate
the DD sequences applied to suppress the dephasing of the electron spin of the
NV center induced by the coupling to a spin bath composed of the substitutional
nitrogen atoms. The decoupling efficiency of various DD schemes is studied,
including both periodic and periodic pulse sequences. For ideal control pulses,
we find that the DD protocols with the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) timing
of the pulses provides best performance. We show that, as the number of control
pulses increases, the decoupling fidelity scaling differs qualitatively from
the predictions of the Magnus expansion, and explain the origin of this
difference. In particular, more advanced symmetrized or concatenated protocols
do not improve the DD performance. Next, we investigate the impact of the
systematic instrumental pulse errors in different periodic and aperiodic pulse
sequences. The DD protocols with the single-axis control do not preserve all
spin components in the presence of the pulse errors, and the two-axis control
is needed. We demonstrate that the two-axis control sequence with the CPMG
timing is very robust with respect to the pulse errors. The impact of the pulse
errors can be diminished further by symmetrizing this protocol. For all
protocols studied here, we present a detailed account of the pulse error
parameters which make strongest impact on the DD performance. In conclusion, we
give specific recommendations about choosing the decoupling protocol for the
system under investigation.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure
Design of the Xylitol for Adult Caries Trial (X-ACT)
Abstract Background Dental caries incidence in adults is similar to that in children and adolescents, but few caries preventive agents have been evaluated for effectiveness in adults populations. In addition, dentists direct fewer preventive services to their adult patients. Xylitol, an over-the-counter sweetener, has shown some potential as a caries preventive agent, but the evidence for its effectiveness is not yet conclusive and is based largely on studies in child populations. Methods/Design X-ACT is a three-year, multi-center, placebo controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trial that tests the effects of daily use of xylitol lozenges versus placebo lozenges on the prevention of adult caries. The trial has randomized 691 participants (ages 21-80) to the two arms. The primary outcome is the increment of cavitated lesions. Discussion This trial should help resolve the overall issue of the effectiveness of xylitol in preventing caries by contributing evidence with a low risk of bias. Just as importantly, the trial will provide much-needed information about the effectiveness of a promising caries prevention agent in adults. An effective xylitol-based caries prevention intervention would represent an easily disseminated method to extend caries prevention to individuals not receiving caries preventive treatment in the dental office. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.Gov NCT0039305
Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens
Nanoscale magnetic imaging of a single electron spin under ambient conditions
The detection of ensembles of spins under ambient conditions has revolutionized the biological, chemical and physical sciences through magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance . Pushing sensing capabilities to the individual-spin level would enable unprecedented applications such as single-molecule structural imaging; however, the weak magnetic fields from single spins are undetectable by conventional far-field resonance techniques . In recent years, there has been a considerable effort to develop nanoscale scanning magnetometers , which are able to measure fewer spins by bringing the sensor in close proximity to its target. The most sensitive of these magnetometers generally require low temperatures for operation, but the ability to measure under ambient conditions (standard temperature and pressure) is critical for many imaging applications, particularly in biological systems. Here we demonstrate detection and nanoscale imaging of the magnetic field from an initialized single electron spin under ambient conditions using a scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometer. Real-space, quantitative magnetic-field images are obtained by deterministically scanning our nitrogen-vacancy magnetometer 50 nm above a target electron spin, while measuring the local magnetic field using dynamically decoupled magnetometry protocols. We discuss how this single-spin detection enables the study of a variety of room-temperature phenomena in condensed-matter physics with an unprecedented combination of spatial resolution and spin sensitivity
Examiner Training and Reliability in Two Randomized Clinical Trials of Adult Dental Caries
This report describes the training of dental examiners participating in two dental caries clinical trials and reports the inter- and intra- examiner reliability scores from the initial standardization sessions
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