Incidental Finding of an Extensive Oropharyngeal Mass in Magnetic Resonance Imaging of a Patient With Temporomandibular Disorder: A Case Report

In this report, we describe the incidental finding of an oropharyngeal mass in a patient who presented with a chief complaint of temporomandibular pain. The patient was initially evaluated by an otorhinolaryngologist for complaints of headaches, earache, and sinus congestion. Due to worsening headaches and trismus, he was further referred for the management of temporomandibular disorder. The clinical evaluation was uneventful except for limited mouth opening (trismus). An advanced radiological evaluation using magnetic resonance imaging revealed a mass in the nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal region. The mass occupied the masticatory space and extended superioinferiorly from the skull base to the mandible. A diagnostic biopsy of the lesion revealed a long-standing human papilloma virus (HPV-16)-positive squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx. This case illustrates the need for the timely radiological evaluation of seemingly innocuous orofacial pain

Supercritical thermodynamic property evaluation via adaptive mesh tabulation

Obtaining accurate computational simulations of fluid flows with a complex thermodynamic behaviour is difficult. This is partly due to the non-linear variation of thermophysical properties in the vicinity of critical point. Supercritical fluid flows are observed in a wide range of applications such as caffeine extraction, supercritical diesel fuel injection, nuclear reactors, and liquid rocket engines. In the near-critical regime, thermodynamic properties are accurately described by a multi-parametric equation of state, but most often using such complex state equations involve expensive computations, thereby consuming a significant portion of the available computational resources. To mitigate this issue, tabulation of state equations stands as an alternative yet they are inefficient due to the strong non-linear property variation in the proximity of critical point. In this thesis a novel tabulation method based on adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) approach is presented, it enabled accurate thermodynamic and physical property evaluation with minimal computational effort. Detailed analyses in the form of error validation, computational cost comparison were performed with reference to the commonly used cubic equations of state. In order to demonstrate the grid scaling effects on total computational cost of a real-fluid CFD simulation, a one dimensional harmonic acoustic wave case was chosen. We show a significant computational cost reduction with the adaptive tabulation approach relative to the cubic state equations (with an underlying iterative root-finding method). It also offered an accurate emulation of the backend equation of state with significantly less computation cost. The developed adaptive tabular equation of state is also integrated into a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code which has numerical techniques enabling computation of flows with large density gradients. To validate this CFD solver and to observe accurate thermodynamics effects in gasdynamics simulations, the Sod-shock tube and Shu-Osher shock tube problems were solved computationally for both perfect, real fluid thermodynamics. Also the sod-shock tube problem was simulated with three different thermodynamic initial conditions (supercritical, nearcritical, subcritical regions) the nearcritical case has shown a relatively smaller change in temperature, pressure at the shock contact while having a large change in density compared to two other scenarios. It represented the underlying supercritical thermodynamic behaviour that the density increases drastically with a relatively small change in temperature

Late-Stage Chemoenzymatic Installation of Hydroxy-Bearing Allyl Moiety on the Indole Ring of Tryptophan-Containing Peptides

The late-stage functionalization of indole- and tryptophan-containing compounds with reactive moieties facilitates downstream diversification and leads to changes in their biological properties. Here, the synthesis of two hydroxy-bearing allyl pyrophosphates is described. A chemoenzymatic method is demonstrated which uses a promiscuous indole prenyltransferase enzyme to install a dual reactive hydroxy-bearing allyl moiety directly on the indole ring of tryptophan-containing peptides. This is the first report of late-stage indole modifications with this reactive group

Extensive Pneumatization of the Temporal Bone and Articular Eminence: An Incidental Finding in a Patient With Facial Pain. Case Report and Review of Literature

A 53-year-old Caucasian female presented to the Oral Medicine Department at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for consultation regarding facial pain. A panoramic radiograph revealed multilocular radiolucencies in the right articular eminence. A CT scan was then performed, and the radiolucencies were determined to be pneumatization of the articular eminence

Low Molecular Weight Components in Aqueous Echinacea Purpurea Leaf Extract Inhibit Melanoma Cell Growth

Melanoma is a skin cancer associated with high mortality. The three year survival rate from advanced melanoma is between 10-15%. One reason for this high mortality rate is that melanoma cells are resistant to traditional chemotherapeutics. Echinacea is a plant genus native to North America with putative anticancer properties. Here, we examined effects of aqueous Echinacea purpurea leaf extract on the growth of melanoma cells and nontransformed fibroblasts. This aqueous extract reduced B16 mouse melanoma cell growth at concentrations that did not inhibit the growth of nontransformed NIH3T3 fibroblasts, suggesting that the extract had biological specificity against transformed cells. We also examined the effect of different fractions of the extract on melanoma cell growth. These data indicate that components less than 3 kD in size exhibited the greatest inhibitory action on melanoma cell growth. In addition, these data indicated that larger components in the extract ameliorate the ability of these low molecular weight compounds to inhibit melanoma cell growth. Furthermore, Echinacea extract inhibited the growth of v-Src transformed LA25 cells without reducing Src kinase activity. Taken together, these results suggest that aqueous Echinacea purpurea extract contains low molecular weight compounds that preferentially inhibit tumor cell growth in the face of oncogenic tyrosine kinase activity. These data suggest future studies to better define bioactive compounds in Echinacea purpurea and evaluate their therapeutic efficacy in vivo

Structure-Guided Mutagenesis Reveals the Catalytic Residue that Controls the Regiospecificity of C6-Indole Prenyltransferases

Indole is a significant structural moiety and functionalization of the C−H bond in indole-containing molecules expands their chemical space, and modifies their properties and/or activities. Indole prenyltransferases (IPTs) catalyze the direct regiospecific installation of prenyl moieties on indole-derived compounds. IPTs have shown relaxed substrate flexibility enabling them to be used as tools for indole functionalization. However, the mechanism by which certain IPTs target a specific carbon position is not fully understood. Herein, we use structure-guided site-directed mutagenesis, in vitro enzymatic reactions, kinetics and structural-elucidation of analogs to verify the key catalytic residues that control the regiospecificity of all characterized regiospecific C6 IPTs. The presented results also demonstrate that substitution of PriB_His312 to Tyr leads to the synthesis of analogs prenylated at different positions than C6. This work contributes to understanding of how certain IPTs can access a challenging position in indole-derived compounds

Unusual intraosseous transmigration of impacted tooth

Transmigration of an impacted tooth through the symphyseal suture is a rare and special developmental anomaly of unknown etiology that is unique to the mandibular canine. Maxillary canine transmigration is even rarer. Transmigrated canines are particularly significant due to the aesthetic and functional importance. A maxillary lateral incisor crossing the mid-palatal suture has never been reported in the literature. The aim of this report is to present the first case of simultaneous transmigration of a lateral incisor and canine in the maxilla. The paper also reports four unusual cases of unilateral canine transmigration in the maxilla and mandible and successful eruption of one of the transmigrated mandibular canines following orthodontic traction. Etiology of transmigration and its clinical considerations are also discussed

High-Frequency Light Rectification by Nanoscale Plasmonic Conical Antenna in Point-Contact-Insulator-Metal Architecture

Numerous efforts have been undertaken to develop rectifying antennas operating at high frequencies, especially dedicated to light harvesting and photodetection applications. However, the development of efficient high frequency rectifying antennas has been a major technological challenge both due to a lack of comprehension of the underlying physics and limitations in the fabrication techniques. Various rectification strategies have been implemented, including metal-insulator-metal traveling-wave diodes, plasmonic nanogap optical antennas, and whisker diodes, although all show limited high-frequency operation and modest conversion efficiencies. Here a new type of rectifying antenna based on plasmonic carrier generation is demonstrated. The proposed structure consists of a resonant metallic conical nano-antenna tip in contact with the oxide surface of an oxide/metal bilayer. The conical shape allows for an improved current generation based on plasmon-mediated electromagnetic-to-electron conversion, an effect exploiting the nanoscale-tip contact of the rectifying antenna, and proportional to the antenna resonance and to the surface-electron scattering. Importantly, this solution provides rectification operation at 280 THz (1064 nm) with a 100-fold increase in efficiency compared to previously reported results. Finally, the conical rectifying antenna is also demonstrated to operate at 384 THz (780 nm), hence paving a way toward efficient rectennas toward the visible range