Analysis of the complement sensitivity of oral treponemes and the potential influence of FH binding, FH cleavage and dentilisin activity on the pathogenesis of periodontal disease

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108655/1/omi12054.pd

Application of long period gratings sensors to respiratory function monitoring

A series of in-line curvature sensors on a garment are used to monitor the thoracic and abdominal movements of a human during respiration. These results are used to obtain volumetric tidal changes of the human torso showing reasonable agreement with a spirometer used simultaneously to record the volume at the mouth during breathing. The curvature sensors are based upon long period gratings written in a progressive three layered fibre that are insensitive to refractive index changes. The sensor platform consists of the long period grating laid upon a carbon fibre ribbon, which is encapsulated in a low temperature curing silicone rubber. An array of sensors is also used to reconstruct the shape changes of a resuscitation manikin during simulated respiration. The data for reconstruction is obtained by two methods of multiplexing and interrogation: firstly using the transmission spectral profile of the LPG's attenuation bands measured using an optical spectrum analyser; secondly using a derivative spectroscopy technique

Respiratory monitoring using fibre long period grating sensors

We demonstrate the use of a series of in-line fibre long period grating curvature sensors on a garment, used to monitor the thoracic and abdominal volumetric tidal movements of a human subject. These results are used to obtain volumetric tidal changes of the human torso showing reasonable agreement with a spirometer used simultaneously to record the volume at the mouth during breathing. The curvature sensors are based upon long period gratings written in a progressive three layered fibre that are insensitive to refractive index changes. The sensor platform consists of the long period grating laid upon a carbon fibre ribbon, which is encapsulated in a low temperature curing silicone rubber

Hopping Conduction in Disordered Carbon Nanotubes

We report electrical transport measurements on individual disordered carbon nanotubes, grown catalytically in a nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide template. In both as-grown and annealed types of nanotubes, the low-field conductance shows as exp[-(T_{0}/T)^{1/2}] dependence on temperature T, suggesting that hopping conduction is the dominant transport mechanism, albeit with different disorder-related coefficients T_{0}. The field dependence of low-temperature conductance behaves an exp[-(xi_{0}/xi)^{1/2}] with high electric field xi at sufficiently low T. Finally, both annealed and unannealed nanotubes exhibit weak positive magnetoresistance at low T = 1.7 K. Comparison with theory indicates that our data are best explained by Coulomb-gap variable range hopping conduction and permits the extraction of disorder-dependent localization length and dielectric constant.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Estimating the feasibility of transition paths in extended finite state machines

There has been significant interest in automating testing on the basis of an extended finite state machine (EFSM) model of the required behaviour of the implementation under test (IUT). Many test criteria require that certain parts of the EFSM are executed. For example, we may want to execute every transition of the EFSM. In order to find a test suite (set of input sequences) that achieves this we might first derive a set of paths through the EFSM that satisfy the criterion using, for example, algorithms from graph theory. We then attempt to produce input sequences that trigger these paths. Unfortunately, however, the EFSM might have infeasible paths and the problem of determining whether a path is feasible is generally undecidable. This paper describes an approach in which a fitness function is used to estimate how easy it is to find an input sequence to trigger a given path through an EFSM. Such a fitness function could be used in a search-based approach in which we search for a path with good fitness that achieves a test objective, such as executing a particular transition, and then search for an input sequence that triggers the path. If this second search fails then we search for another path with good fitness and repeat the process. We give a computationally inexpensive approach (fitness function) that estimates the feasibility of a path. In order to evaluate this fitness function we compared the fitness of a path with the ease with which an input sequence can be produced using search to trigger the path and we used random sampling in order to estimate this. The empirical evidence suggests that a reasonably good correlation (0.72 and 0.62) exists between the fitness of a path, produced using the proposed fitness function, and an estimate of the ease with which we can randomly generate an input sequence to trigger the path

Effects of total and regional fat loss on plasma CRP and IL-6 in overweight and obese, older adults with knee osteoarthritis

SummaryObjectiveTo describe associations between total and regional body fat mass loss and reduction of systemic levels of inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)) in obese, older adults with osteoarthritis (OA), undergoing intentional weight loss.DesignData come from a single-blind, 18-month, randomized controlled trial in adults (age: 65.6 ± 6.2; Body mass index (BMI): 33.6 ± 3.7) with knee OA. Participants were randomized to diet-induced weight loss plus exercise (D + E; n = 150), diet-induced weight loss-only (D; n = 149), or exercise-only (E; n = 151). Total body and region-specific (abdomen and thigh) fat mass were measured at baseline and 18 months. High-sensitivity CRP and IL-6 were measured at baseline, six and 18 months. Intervention effects were assessed using mixed models and associations between inflammation and adiposity were compared using logistic and mixed linear regression models.ResultsIntentional total body fat mass reduction was associated with significant reductions in log-adjusted CRP (β = 0.06 (95% CI = 0.04, 0.08) mg/L) and IL-6 (β = 0.02 (95% CI = 0.01, 0.04) pg/mL). Loss of abdominal fat volume was also associated with reduced inflammation, independent of total body fat mass; although models containing measures of total adiposity yielded the best fit. The odds of achieving clinically desirable levels of CRP (<3.0 mg/L) and IL-6 (<2.5 pg/mL) were 3.8 (95% CI = 1.6, 8.9) and 2.2 (95% CI = 1.1, 4.6), respectively, with 5% total weight and fat mass loss.ConclusionsAchievement of clinically desirable levels of CRP and IL-6 more than double with intentional 5% loss of total body weight and fat mass. Global, rather than regional, measures of adiposity are better predictors of change in inflammatory burden.Clinical Trial Registration NumberNCT00381290

Charged and Pseudoscalar Higgs production at a Muon Collider

We consider single charged Higgs ($H^{\pm}$) and pseudoscalar Higgs ($A^0$) production in association with a gauge boson at $\mu^+\mu^-$ colliders. We find that the tree-level t-channel and s-channel contributions to $\mu^+\mu^-\to H^{\pm}W^{\mp}, A^0Z$ are enhanced for large values of $\tan\beta$, allowing sizeable cross-sections whose analogies at $e^+e^-$ colliders would be very small. These processes provide attractive new ways of producing such particles at $\mu^+\mu^-$ colliders and are superior to the conventional methods in regions of parameter space.Comment: 11 pages Latex, 5 figures, formulae added in sections 2.2 and 2.3, extra discussion in section 2.3, references adde

Ferromagnetism in Oriented Graphite Samples

We have studied the magnetization of various, well characterized samples of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG), Kish graphite and natural graphite to investigate the recently reported ferromagnetic-like signal and its possible relation to ferromagnetic impurities. The magnetization results obtained for HOPG samples for applied fields parallel to the graphene layers - to minimize the diamagnetic background - show no correlation with the magnetic impurity concentration. Our overall results suggest an intrinsic origin for the ferromagnetism found in graphite. We discuss possible origins of the ferromagnetic signal.Comment: 11 figure

Temperature dependence of Vortex Charges in High Temperature Superconductors

Using a model Hamiltonian with d-wave superconductivity and competing antiferromagnetic (AF) interactions, the temperature (T) dependence of the vortex charge in high T_c superconductors is investigated by numerically solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. The strength of the induced AF order inside the vortex core is T dependent. The vortex charge could be negative when the AF order with sufficient strength is present at low temperatures. At higher temperatures, the AF order may be completely suppressed and the vortex charge becomes positive. A first order like transition in the T dependent vortex charge is seen near the critical temperature T_{AF}. For underdoped sample, the spatial profiles of the induced spin-density wave and charge-density wave orders could have stripe like structures at T < T_s, and change to two-dimensional isotropic ones at T > T_s. As a result, a vortex charge discontinuity occurs at T_s.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Properties of the random field Ising model in a transverse magnetic field

We consider the effect of a random longitudinal field on the Ising model in a transverse magnetic field. For spatial dimension $d > 2$, there is at low strength of randomness and transverse field, a phase with true long range order which is destroyed at higher values of the randomness or transverse field. The properties of the quantum phase transition at zero temperature are controlled by a fixed point with no quantum fluctuations. This fixed point also controls the classical finite temperature phase transition in this model. Many critical properties of the quantum transition are therefore identical to those of the classical transition. In particular, we argue that the dynamical scaling is activated, i.e, the logarithm of the diverging time scale rises as a power of the diverging length scale