Outcomes in Trials for Management of Caries Lesions (OuTMaC):protocol

Background Clinical trials on caries lesion management use an abundance of outcomes, hampering comparison or combination of different study results and their efficient translation into clinical practice. Core outcome sets are an agreed standardized collection of outcomes which should be measured and reported in all trials for a specific clinical area. We aim to develop a core outcome set for trials investigating management of caries lesions in primary or permanent teeth conducted in primary or secondary care encompassing all stages of disease. Methods To identify existing outcomes, trials on prevention and trials on management of caries lesions will be screened systematically in four databases. Screening, extraction and deduplication will be performed by two researchers until consensus is reached. The definition of the core outcome set will by based on an e-Delhi consensus process involving key stakeholders namely patients, dentists, clinical researchers, health economists, statisticians, policy-makers and industry representatives. For the first stage of the Delphi process, a patient panel and a separate panel consisting of researchers, clinicians, teachers, industry affiliated researchers, policy-makers, and other interested parties will be held. An inclusive approach will be taken to involve panelists from a wide variety of socio-economic and geographic backgrounds. Results from the first round will be summarized and fed back to individuals for the second round, where panels will be combined and allowed to modify their scoring in light of the full panel’s opinion. Necessity for a third round will be dependent on the outcome of the first two. Agreement will be measured via defined consensus rules; up to a maximum of seven outcomes. If resources allow, we will investigate features that influence decision making for different groups. Discussion By using an explicit, transparent and inclusive multi-step consensus process, the planned core outcome set should be justifiable, relevant and comprehensive. The dissemination and application of this core outcome set should improve clinical trials on managing caries lesions and allow comparison, synthesis and implementation of scientific data. Trial registration Registered 12 April 2015 at COMET (http://www.comet-initiative.org

Non-thermal Origin of the EUV and Soft X-rays from the Coma Cluster - Cosmic Rays in Equipartition with the Thermal Medium

The role of cosmic rays (CR) in the formation and evolution of clusters of galaxies has been much debated. It may well be related to other fundamental questions, such as the mechanism which heats and virializes the intracluster medium (ICM), and the frequency at which the ICM is shocked. There is now compelling evidence both from the cluster soft excess (CSE) and the `hard-tail' emissions at energies above 10 keV, that many clusters are luminous sources of inverse-Compton (IC) emission. This is the first direct measurement of cluster CR: the technique is free from our uncertainties in the ICM magnetic field, and is not limited to the small subset of clusters which exhibit radio halos. The CSE emitting electrons fall within a crucial decade of energy where they have the least spectral evolution, and where most of the CR pressure resides. However their survival times do not date them back to the relic CR population. By using the CSE data of the Coma cluster, we demonstrate that the CR are energetically as important as the thermal ICM: the two components are in pressure equiparition. Thus, contrary to previous expectations, CR are a dominant component of the ICM, and their origin and effects should be explored. The best-fit CR spectral index is in agreement with the Galactic value.Comment: ApJ accepted; 10 pages LaTeX; 2 figures and 1 table in PostScrip

In situ micropillar deformation of hydrides in Zircaloy-4

Deformation of hydrided Zircaloy-4 has been examined using in situ loading of hydrided micropillars in the scanning electron microscope and using synchrotron X-ray Laue microbeam diffraction. Results suggest that both the matrix and hydride can co-deform, with storage of deformation defects observed within the hydrides, which were twinned. Hydrides placed at the plane of maximum shear stress showed deformation within the hydride packet, whilst packets in other pillars arrested the propagation of shear bands. X-ray Laue peak broadening, prior to deformation, was associated with the precipitation of hydrides, and during deformation plastic rotation and broadening of both the matrix and hydride peaks were observed. Post-mortem TEM of the deformed pillars has indicated a greater density of dislocations associated with the precipitated hydride packets, while the observed broadening of the hydride electron diffraction spots further suggests that plastic strain gradients were induced in the hydrides by compression

Planet Formation in the Outer Solar System

This paper reviews coagulation models for planet formation in the Kuiper Belt, emphasizing links to recent observations of our and other solar systems. At heliocentric distances of 35-50 AU, single annulus and multiannulus planetesimal accretion calculations produce several 1000 km or larger planets and many 50-500 km objects on timescales of 10-30 Myr in a Minimum Mass Solar Nebula. Planets form more rapidly in more massive nebulae. All models yield two power law cumulative size distributions, N_C propto r^{-q} with q = 3.0-3.5 for radii larger than 10 km and N_C propto r^{-2.5} for radii less than 1 km. These size distributions are consistent with observations of Kuiper Belt objects acquired during the past decade. Once large objects form at 35-50 AU, gravitational stirring leads to a collisional cascade where 0.1-10 km objects are ground to dust. The collisional cascade removes 80% to 90% of the initial mass in the nebula in roughly 1 Gyr. This dust production rate is comparable to rates inferred for alpha Lyr, beta Pic, and other extrasolar debris disk systems.Comment: invited review for PASP, March 2002. 33 pages of text and 12 figure

Theoretical study of Ga-based nanowires and the interaction of Ga with single-wall carbon nanotubes

Gallium displays physical properties which can make it a potential element to produce metallic nanowires and high-conducting interconnects in nanoelectronics. Using first-principles pseudopotential plane method we showed that Ga can form stable metallic linear and zigzag monatomic chain structures. The interaction between individual Ga atom and single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) leads to a chemisorption bond involving charge transfer. Doping of SWNT with Ga atom gives rise to donor states. Owing to a significant interaction between individual Ga atom and SWNT, continuous Ga coverage of the tube can be achieved. Ga nanowires produced by the coating of carbon nanotube templates are found to be stable and high conducting.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Superoleophobic surfaces on stainless steel substrates obtained by chemical bath deposition

Superhydrophobic surfaces have shown great potential in domestic and industrial applications. However, these surfaces lose their superhydrophobic functions once being contaminated by oily liquids. In this work a simple chemical bath deposition method is reported to fabricate superoleophobic surfaces on steel substrates that repel both water and oil. The synthesis of superoleophobic surfaces involves the fabrication of the micro/nanometre-scale origami-ball-like structures on steel substrates, followed by the modification of low surface energy material. The fabricated surfaces have glycerol, peanut oil and hexadecane contact angles larger than 150° and roll-off angles smaller than 10°. This method is highly efficient because it takes only 5 min to create the surface re-entrant structures that are required by superoleophobicity. The prepared surfaces showed remarkable durability and retained superoleophobicity even after exposure to high and low temperatures (−30 and 100°C), and UV irradiation. This work will enrich the processing methods of the superoleophobic surfaces on stainless steel substrates

Evolution of Li, Be and B in the Galaxy

In this paper we study the production of Li, Be and B nuclei by Galactic cosmic ray spallation processes. We include three kinds of processes: (i) spallation by light cosmic rays impinging on interstellar CNO nuclei (direct processes); (ii) spallation by CNO cosmic ray nuclei impinging on interstellar p and 4He (inverse processes); and (iii) alpha-alpha fusion reactions. The latter dominate the production of 6Li and 7Li. We calculate production rates for a closed-box Galactic model, verifying the quadratic dependence of the Be and B abundances for low values of Z. These are quite general results and are known to disagree with observations. We then show that the multi-zone multi-population model we used previously for other aspects of Galactic evolution produces quite good agreement with the linear trend observed at low metallicities without fine tuning. We argue that reported discrepancies between theory and observations do not represent a nucleosynthetic problem, but instead are the consequences of inaccurate treatments of Galactic evolution.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX. The Astrophysical Journal, in pres

Activation of Smoothened in the Hedgehog pathway unexpectedly increases Gα(s)-dependent cAMP levels in Drosophila

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling plays a key role in the development and maintenance of animal tissues. This signaling is mediated by the atypical G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) Smoothened (Smo). Smo activation leads to signaling through several well-characterized effectors to activate Hh target gene expression. Recent studies have implicated activation of the heterotrimeric G protein subunit Gα(i) and the subsequent decrease in cellular cAMP levels in promoting the Hh response in flies and mammals. Although Hh stimulation decreases cAMP levels in some insect cell lines, here using a bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET)-based assay we found that this stimulation had no detectable effect in Drosophila S2-R+ cells. However, we observed an unexpected and significant Gα(s)-dependent increase in cAMP levels in response to strong Smo activation in Smo-transfected cells. This effect was mediated by Smo's broadly conserved core, and was specifically activated in response to phosphorylation of the Smo C-terminus by GPCR kinase 2 (Gprk2). Genetic analysis of heterotrimeric G protein function in the developing Drosophila wing revealed a positive role for cAMP in the endogenous Hh response. Specifically, we found that mutation or depletion of Gα(s) diminished low-threshold Hh responses in Drosophila, whereas depletion of Gα(i) potentiated them (in contrast to previous findings). Our analysis suggested that regulated cAMP production is important for controlling the sensitivity of cellular responses to Hh in Drosophila

Causality in AdS/CFT and Lovelock theory

We explore the constraints imposed on higher curvature corrections of the Lovelock type due to causality restrictions in the boundary of asymptotically AdS space-time. In the framework of AdS/CFT, this is related to positivity of the energy constraints that arise in conformal collider physics. We present explicit analytic results that fully address these issues for cubic Lovelock gravity in arbitrary dimensions and give the formal analytic results that comprehend general Lovelock theory. The computations can be performed in two ways, both by considering a thermal setup in a black hole background and by studying the scattering of gravitons with a shock wave in AdS. We show that both computations coincide in Lovelock theory. The different helicities, as expected, provide the boundaries defining the region of allowed couplings. We generalize these results to arbitrary higher dimensions and discuss their consequences on the shear viscosity to energy density ratio of CFT plasmas, the possible existence of Boulware-Deser instabilities in Lovelock theory and the extent to which the AdS/CFT correspondence might be valid for arbitrary dimensions.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures; v2: minor amendments and clarifications include