Autoimmunity and the oral cavity

Purpose of Review: This review aims to make the oral health practitioner and researcher aware of autoimmune diseases that present in the mouth and have implications for oral health. Specifically, the autoimmune pathophysiology, examples of treatments, sequelae, and impact on oral health will be discussed. The limitations of our current knowledge and understanding of these diseases will also be highlighted. Recent Findings: Over the past decade, it has become clear that there is a bidirectional relationship between oral health and autoimmune disease at other body sites; including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. Improving the oral health of patients with autoimmune diseases may reduce morbidity associated with such diseases. Summary: Autoimmune diseases impact the oral cavity both directly and indirectly and are increasing in prevalence. As such, there is a growing need for the oral health practitioners to be aware of how autoimmune disease impacts the oral cavity. Further research is necessary to improve our understanding of the bidirectional relationship between oral health and autoimmune disease

Research Sets Patterns for the Central Blacklands.

29 pg

Cryptic photosynthesis, Extrasolar planetary oxygen without a surface biological signature

On the Earth, photosynthetic organisms are responsible for the production of virtually all of the oxygen in the atmosphere. On the land, vegetation reflects in the visible, leading to a red edge that developed about 450 Myr ago and has been proposed as a biosignature for life on extrasolar planets. However, in many regions of the Earth, and particularly where surface conditions are extreme, for example in hot and cold deserts, photosynthetic organisms can be driven into and under substrates where light is still sufficient for photosynthesis. These communities exhibit no detectable surface spectral signature to indicate life. The same is true of the assemblages of photosynthetic organisms at more than a few metres depth in water bodies. These communities are widespread and dominate local photosynthetic productivity. We review known cryptic photosynthetic communities and their productivity. We link geomicrobiology with observational astronomy by calculating the disk-averaged spectra of cryptic habitats and identifying detectable features on an exoplanet dominated by such a biota. The hypothetical cryptic photosynthesis worlds discussed here are Earth-analogs that show detectable atmospheric biomarkers like our own planet, but do not exhibit a discernable biological surface feature in the disc-averaged spectrum.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, Astrobiology (TBP) - updated Table 1, typo in detectable O2 correcte

Dynamical Properties of Two Coupled Hubbard Chains at Half-filling

Using grand canonical Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations combined with Maximum Entropy analytic continuation, as well as analytical methods, we examine the one- and two-particle dynamical properties of the Hubbard model on two coupled chains at half-filling. The one-particle spectral weight function, $A({\bf k},\omega)$, undergoes a qualitative change with interchain hopping $t_\perp$ associated with a transition from a four-band insulator to a two-band insulator. A simple analytical model based on the propagation of exact rung singlet states gives a good description of the features at large $t_\perp$. For smaller $t_\perp$, $A({\bf k}, \omega)$ is similar to that of the one-dimensional model, with a coherent band of width the effective antiferromagnetic exchange $J$ reasonably well-described by renormalized spin-wave theory. The coherent band rides on a broad background of width several times the parallel hopping integral $t$, an incoherent structure similar to that found in calculations on both the one- and two-dimensional models. We also present QMC results for the two-particle spin and charge excitation spectra, and relate their behavior to the rung singlet picture for large $t_\perp$ and to the results of spin-wave theory for small $t_\perp$.Comment: 9 pages + 10 postscript figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.B, revised version with isotropic t_perp=t data include

Building Performance Assessment Protocol for Timber Dwellings – Conducting Thermography Tests on Live Construction sites

This paper introduces the pan-Wales (UK) Home-Grown Homes (HGH) project (2018 to 2020) which focusses on three areas of improvement for delivering high performance, affordable and healthy homes. The HGH project is funded by Powys County Council, through the European Regional Development Fund’s Agricultural Stream. The HGH project is being delivered by Woodknowledge Wales in a consortium with Cardiff Metropolitan University (CMU), TRADA and Coed Cymru, with seven work packages. ‘More and Better Homes from Wood’ (work package (WP) WP3) focusses on the assessment of building performance for dwellings using timber, and is being delivered by a multi-disciplinary team at CMU through the Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment (SuRBe) group. This paper discusses the context and need for the HGH project as Wales launched its low carbon agenda in March 2019. The focus of this paper on introducing the building performance assessment (BPA) protocol to be implemented by SuRBe across several housing case studies in Wales, through the design, in-construction and occupancy phases, to address thermal and fire (TaF) performance issues, and impacts on occupants’ quality of life, comfort and safety. Preliminary results of in-construction testing on a live construction site are presented, with the challenges of conducting thermography tests whilst construction is in progress and weather conditions in spring in the UK (April 2019). This paper will be useful for academics, architects, building contractors, housing developers and professionals undertaking building performance assessment and evaluation on live construction sites

Observational Constraints on the Modified Gravity Model (MOG) Proposed by Moffat: Using the Magellanic System

A simple model for the dynamics of the Magellanic Stream (MS), in the framework of modified gravity models is investigated. We assume that the galaxy is made up of baryonic matter out of context of dark matter scenario. The model we used here is named Modified Gravity (MOG) proposed by Moffat (2005). In order to examine the compatibility of the overall properties of the MS under the MOG theory, the observational radial velocity profile of the MS is compared with the numerical results using the $\chi^2$ fit method. In order to obtain the best model parameters, a maximum likelihood analysis is performed. We also compare the results of this model with the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) halo model and the other alternative gravity model that proposed by Bekenstein (2004), so called TeVeS. We show that by selecting the appropriate values for the free parameters, the MOG theory seems to be plausible to explain the dynamics of the MS as well as the CDM and the TeVeS models.Comment: 14 pages, 3 Figures, accepted in Int. J. Theor. Phy

The 'Safety Gap' in buildings: Perceptions of Welsh Fire Safety Professionals

This paper presents evidence of a 'Safety Gap' in buildings for fire performance and reviews different approaches to achieving Fire safety in England and Wales, UK, for a Research & Enterprise Innovation Funded project at Cardiff Metropolitan University. One aspect of the safety Gap is for potential defects in construction from incorrect installation, missing, inappropriate or defective components, that make up compartmentation, fire stoppings and workmanship errors, to enable rapid smoke spread across compartments, so preventing the safe evacuation of occupants. A questionnaire survey was conducted with fire rescue and safety professionals in South Wales, UK in 2016. Results show that more than 75% of the respondents think that in-built performance of fire safety measures including compartmentation are difficult to assess during fire risk assessments and fire risk audits, using current visual inspection methods. The majority of the participants agreed that a non-intrusive and non-destructive test method could help in ascertaining the integrity of building compartmentation and in-built performance of other fire safety measures and to ensure the safety gap is not present. It is discussed that these findings give fire industry backing for the non-destructive test, measurement and reporting protocol that the first two authors of this paper are developing for assessing the effectiveness of active and passive fire protection systems in buildings. This paper will be useful for academics, building owners and landlords, developers and fire and rescue services investigating and involved in ensuring the fire protection of buildings and of the health, safety and wellbeing of their occupants.

A calibration method for broad-bandwidth cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy performed with supercontinuum radiation

An efficient calibration method has been developed for broad-bandwidth cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy. The calibration is performed using phase shift cavity ring-down spectroscopy, which is conveniently implemented through use of an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). The AOTF permits a narrowband portion of the SC spectrum to be scanned over the full high-reflectivity bandwidth of the cavity mirrors. After calibration the AOTF is switched off and broad-bandwidth CEAS can be performed with the same light source without any loss of alignment to the set-up. We demonstrate the merits of the method by probing transitions of oxygen molecules O-2 and collisional pairs of oxygen molecules (O-2)(2) in the visible spectral range

Crossover and scaling in a nearly antiferromagnetic Fermi liquid in two dimensions

We consider two-dimensional Fermi liquids in the vicinity of a quantum transition to a phase with commensurate, antiferromagnetic long-range order. Depending upon the Fermi surface topology, mean-field spin-density-wave theory predicts two different types of such transitions, with mean-field dynamic critical exponents $z=1$ (when the Fermi surface does not cross the magnetic zone boundary, type $A$) and $z=2$ (when the Fermi surface crosses the magnetic zone boundary, type $B$). The type $A$ system only displays $z=1$ behavior at all energies and its scaling properties are similar (though not identical) to those of an insulating Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Under suitable conditions precisely stated in this paper, the type $B$ system displays a crossover from relaxational behavior at low energies to type $A$ behavior at high energies. A scaling hypothesis is proposed to describe this crossover: we postulate a universal scaling function which determines the entire, temperature-, wavevector-, and frequency-dependent, dynamic, staggered spin susceptibility in terms of 4 measurable, $T=0$, parameters (determining the distance, energy, and order parameter scales, plus one crossover parameter). The scaling function contains the full scaling behavior in all regimes for both type $A$ and $B$ systems. The crossover behavior of the uniform susceptibility and the specific heat is somewhat more complicated and is also discussed. Explicit computation of the crossover functions is carried out in a large $N$ expansion on a mean-field model. Some new results for the critical properties on the ordered side of the transition are also obtained in a spin-density wave formalism. The possible relevance of our results to the doped cuprate compounds is briefly discussed.Comment: 20 pages, REVTeX, 6 figures (uuencoded compressed PostScript file for figures is appended