Inverted and horizontal impacted third molars in an Early Modern skull from Wroclaw, Poland: a case report

Background: An impacted tooth is one of the most commonly occurring dental anomalies, although some types of impaction (i.e. inverted angulation) may be considered rare finding. There are many hypotheses regarding impaction aetiology. One of the most popular hypotheses suggested that this condition may result from insufficient space in retromolar space, other: improper angulation of tooth bud, malposition of the tooth germ or hereditary factors, insufficient interproximal attrition, ectopy or dysfunction of genes necessary for proper tooth eruption. This study aims to present the odontological and paleopathological assessment of the impacted molars observed within the skull excavated from an early modern cemetery in Wroclaw.  Materials and methods: The skull used in the study was complete and in a good state of preservation. It belonged to an adult individual whose body was buried at the former Salvator Cemetery (currently Czysty Square). The individual’s dentition was almost completely lost antemortem. Only second molars preserved within the maxillae (bilaterally) and the mandible was almost edentulous as well. The morphometric traits have been taken according to standards established by R. Martin. Macroscopic observations were supported by X-rays and computed tomography imaging.  Results: The age at death was estimated at 20–35 years. Comparison of the metric characteristics of skull with the reference material reveals that it is much smaller than the average female skull from this series. Morphometric indices calculated for both splanchocranium and neurocranium allow defining the skull and jaw as short, which could be an important factor involved in the teeth impaction.  Conclusions: Atypical impaction of the third molars could result from small size of skull and could have significantly deteriorated the quality of life of the individual.

The ICARUS T600 Experiment in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory

With a mass of about 600 tons of Liquid Argon (LAr), the ICARUS T600 detector is the biggest, up to now, LAr Time Projection Chamber (TPC). Following its successful test run, on the Earth surface, in Pavia (Italy) in 2001, the detector is now very close to start data taking in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The main features of the LAr TPC technique, together with a short discussion of some of the ICARUS T600 test run results, are presented in this paper

Experimental search for the LSND anomaly with the ICARUS detector in the CNGS neutrino beam

We report an early result from the ICARUS experiment on the search for nu_mu to nu_e signal due to the LSND anomaly. The search was performed with the ICARUS T600 detector located at the Gran Sasso Laboratory, receiving CNGS neutrinos from CERN at an average energy of about 20 GeV, after a flight path of about 730 km. The LSND anomaly would manifest as an excess of nu_e events, characterized by a fast energy oscillation averaging approximately to sin^2(1.27 Dm^2_new L/ E_nu) = 1/2. The present analysis is based on 1091 neutrino events, which are about 50% of the ICARUS data collected in 2010-2011. Two clear nu_e events have been found, compared with the expectation of 3.7 +/- 0.6 events from conventional sources. Within the range of our observations, this result is compatible with the absence of a LSND anomaly. At 90% and 99% confidence levels the limits of 3.4 and 7.3 events corresponding to oscillation probabilities of 5.4 10^-3 and 1.1 10^-2 are set respectively. The result strongly limits the window of open options for the LSND anomaly to a narrow region around (Dm^2, sin^2(2 theta))_new = (0.5 eV^2, 0.005), where there is an overall agreement (90% CL) between the present ICARUS limit, the published limits of KARMEN and the published positive signals of LSND and MiniBooNE Collaborations.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Measurement of Through-Going Particle Momentum By Means Of Multiple Scattering With The ICARUS T600 TPC

The ICARUS collaboration has demonstrated, following the operation of a 600 ton (T600) detector at shallow depth, that the technique based on liquid Argon TPCs is now mature. The study of rare events, not contemplated in the Standard Model, can greatly benefit from the use of this kind of detectors. In particular, a deeper understanding of atmospheric neutrino properties will be obtained thanks to the unprecedented quality of the data ICARUS provides. However if we concentrate on the T600 performance, most of the $\nu_\mu$ charged current sample will be partially contained, due to the reduced dimensions of the detector. In this article, we address the problem of how well we can determine the kinematics of events having partially contained tracks. The analysis of a large sample of atmospheric muons collected during the T600 test run demonstrate that, in case the recorded track is at least one meter long, the muon momentum can be reconstructed by an algorithm that measures the Multiple Coulomb Scattering along the particle's path. Moreover, we show that momentum resolution can be improved by a factor two using an algorithm based on the Kalman Filtering technique

A lightweight, flow-based toolkit for parallel and distributed bioinformatics pipelines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bioinformatic analyses typically proceed as chains of data-processing tasks. A pipeline, or 'workflow', is a well-defined protocol, with a specific structure defined by the topology of data-flow interdependencies, and a particular functionality arising from the data transformations applied at each step. In computer science, the dataflow programming (DFP) paradigm defines software systems constructed in this manner, as networks of message-passing components. Thus, bioinformatic workflows can be naturally mapped onto DFP concepts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To enable the flexible creation and execution of bioinformatics dataflows, we have written a modular framework for parallel pipelines in Python ('PaPy'). A PaPy workflow is created from re-usable components connected by data-pipes into a directed acyclic graph, which together define nested higher-order map functions. The successive functional transformations of input data are evaluated on flexibly pooled compute resources, either local or remote. Input items are processed in batches of adjustable size, all flowing one to tune the trade-off between parallelism and lazy-evaluation (memory consumption). An add-on module ('NuBio') facilitates the creation of bioinformatics workflows by providing domain specific data-containers (<it>e.g</it>., for biomolecular sequences, alignments, structures) and functionality (<it>e.g</it>., to parse/write standard file formats).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>PaPy offers a modular framework for the creation and deployment of parallel and distributed data-processing workflows. Pipelines derive their functionality from user-written, data-coupled components, so PaPy also can be viewed as a lightweight toolkit for extensible, flow-based bioinformatics data-processing. The simplicity and flexibility of distributed PaPy pipelines may help users bridge the gap between traditional desktop/workstation and grid computing. PaPy is freely distributed as open-source Python code at <url>http://muralab.org/PaPy</url>, and includes extensive documentation and annotated usage examples.</p

Keratin-Butyrate Scaffolds Promote Skin Wound Healing in Diabetic Rats Through Down-Regulation of IL-1β and Up-Regulation of Keratins 16 and 17

Impaired wound healing particularly in diabetics creates a significant healthcare burden. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of keratin-butyrate fibers (FKDP +0.1%NaBu) in a full-thickness skin wound model in 30 diabetic rats. Physicochemical examination showed that the obtained dressing possesses a heterogeneous structure and butyrate was slowly released into the wound. Moreover, the obtained dressing is nontoxic and supports cell growth. In vivo results showed that keratin-butyrate dressing accelerated wound healing on days 4 and 7 post-injury (p < .05). Histopathological and immunofluorescence examination revealed that applied dressing stimulated macrophage infiltration, which favors tissue remodeling and regeneration. The dressing was naturally incorporated into regenerating tissue. The highest mRNA expression level of interleukin 1β (IL-1β) was observed during the first 2 weeks in the control wounds compared to FKDP +0.1%NaBu treated wounds, in which IL-1β was significantly decreased. In FKDP +0.1%NaBu dressed wounds, mRNA expression of IL-10 and VEGF increased significantly (p < .05) from day 14. Keratin-butyrate treated wounds enhanced mRNA expression of keratin 16 and 17 and zonula occludens protein-1 and junctional adhesion molecules (p < .05) on days 14, 21, and 28 post-injuries. Our study showed that keratin butyrate dressing is safe and can efficiently accelerate skin wound healing in diabetic rats

Open problems on graph coloring for special graph classes.

For a given graph G and integer k, the Coloring problem is that of testing whether G has a k-coloring, that is, whether there exists a vertex mapping c:V→{1,2,…}c:V→{1,2,…} such that c(u)≠c(v)c(u)≠c(v) for every edge uv∈Euv∈E. We survey known results on the computational complexity of Coloring for graph classes that are hereditary or for which some graph parameter is bounded. We also consider coloring variants, such as precoloring extensions and list colorings and give some open problems in the area of on-line coloring

Sulforaphane-enriched extracts from glucoraphanin-rich broccoli exert antimicrobial activity against gut pathogens in vitro and innovative cooking methods increase in vivo intestinal delivery of sulforaphane

Purpose Studies on broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) indicate beneficial effects against a range of chronic diseases, commonly attributed to their bioactive phytochemicals. Sulforaphane, the bioactive form of glucoraphanin, is formed by the action of the indigenous enzyme myrosinase. This study explored the role that digestion and cooking practices play in bioactivity and bioavailability, especially the rarely considered dose delivered to the colon. Methods The antimicrobial activity of sulforaphane extracts from raw, cooked super broccoli and cooked super broccoli plus mustard seeds (as a source myrosinase) was assessed. The persistence of broccoli phytochemicals in the upper gastrointestinal tract was analysed in the ileal fluid of 11 ileostomates fed, in a cross-over design, super broccoli soup prepared with and without mustard seeds. Results The raw super broccoli had no antimicrobial activity, except against Bacillus cereus, but cooked super broccoli (with and without mustard seeds) showed considerable antimicrobial activity against various tested pathogens. The recovery of sulforaphane in ileal fluids post soup consumption was < 1% but addition of mustard seeds increased colon-available sulforaphane 6-fold. However, when sulforaphane was extracted from the ileal fluid with the highest sulforaphane content and tested against Escherichia coli K12, no inhibitory effects were observed. Analysis of glucosinolates composition in ileal fluids revealed noticeable inter-individual differences, with six “responding” participants showing increases in glucosinolates after broccoli soup consumption. Conclusions Sulforaphane-rich broccoli extracts caused potent antimicrobial effects in vitro, and the consumption of sulforaphane-enriched broccoli soup may inhibit bacterial growth in the stomach and upper small intestine, but not in the terminal ileum or the colon