Treatment Planning: Facially Generated, Digitally Guided, Manually Fabricated Smile Design

A clinical case presentation of a smile design that consists of 10 units of minimally invasive indirect restorations

Effect of forced deflation maneuvers upon measurements of respiratory mechanics in ventilated infants

Objective: To determine the effect of forced deflation maneuvers on respiratory mechanics and to assess the reproducibility of such measurements in intubated infants with lung disease. Design and setting: Prospective study in the pediatric intensive care unit of a university children's hospital. Patients: Ten clinically stable infants requiring mechanically assisted ventilation for acute pulmonary disease, mean age 5.9months (1-18), mean weight 5.8kg (3.2-13). Interventions: Two sets of measurements of compliance (Crs) and resistance (Rrs) were obtained at 20-min intervals both before and after +40/−40cmH2O forced deflation maneuvers. Forced deflation measurements were repeated at the end of the study. Results: Forced deflation caused a significant increase in Crs from 0.53±0.09 and 0.58±0.11ml/cmH2O/kg to 0.71±0.11 and 0.68±0.11ml/cmH2O/kg. Rrs measurements did not differ. The low coefficients of variation for repeated measures of the baseline measurements (Crs 4.2±0.5%, Rrs 7.1±0.8%, for forced vital capacity 8.6±2.5%, maximum expiratory flows at 25% vital capacity 16.0%±3.3%) confirmed the good reproducibility during stable conditions. Conclusions: Inflation and deflation maneuvers affect subsequent measurements of respiratory system compliance but not measurements of maximum expiratory flow-volume relationships in intubated infants, probably through recruitment of lung volume. Careful interpretation and planning of the sequence of infant pulmonary function testing is necessary to reassure that changes are not related to short-term alterations in volume histor

Yamato: Bringing the Moon to the Earth ... Again

The Yamato mission to the lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin returns samples that enable dating of lunar formation and the lunar bombardment period. The design of the Yamato mission is based on a systems engineering process which takes an advanced consideration of cost and mission risk to give the mission a high probability of success

Associations of inflammatory and hemostatic variables with the risk of recurrent stroke

<p><b>Background and Purpose:</b> Several prospective studies have shown significant associations between plasma fibrinogen, viscosity, C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrin D-dimer, or tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) antigen and the risk of primary cardiovascular events. Little has been published on the associations of these variables with recurrent stroke. We studied such associations in a nested case-control study derived from the Perindopril Protection Against Recurrent Stroke Study (PROGRESS).</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> Nested case-control study of ischemic (n=472) and hemorrhagic (n=83) strokes occurring during a randomized, placebo-controlled multicenter trial of perindopril-based therapy in 6105 patients with a history of stroke or transient ischemic attack. Controls were matched for age, treatment group, sex, region, and most recent qualifying event at entry to the parent trial.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Fibrinogen and CRP were associated with an increased risk of recurrent ischemic stroke after accounting for the matching variables and adjusting for systolic blood pressure, smoking, peripheral vascular disease, and statin and antiplatelet therapy. The odds ratio for the last compared with the first third of fibrinogen was 1.34 (95% CI, 1.01 to 1.78) and for CRP was 1.39 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.85). After additional adjustment for each other, these 2 odds ratios stayed virtually unchanged. Plasma viscosity, tPA, and D-dimer showed no relationship with recurrent ischemic stroke, although tPA was significant for lacunar and large artery subtypes. Although each of these variables showed a negative relationship with recurrent hemorrhagic stroke, none of these relationships achieved statistical significance.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Fibrinogen and CRP are risk predictors for ischemic but not hemorrhagic stroke, independent of potential confounders.</p&gt

The role of sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A narrative review of potential mechanisms

Sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a class of medication with broad cardiovascular benefits in those with type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and heart failure. These include reductions in major adverse cardiac events and cardiovascular death. The mechanisms that underlie their benefits in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) are not well understood, but they extend beyond glucose lowering. This narrative review summarises the ASCVD benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors seen in large human outcome trials, as well as the mechanisms of action explored in rodent and small human studies. Potential pathways include favourable alterations in lipid metabolism, inflammation, and endothelial function. These all require further investigation in large human clinical trials with mechanistic endpoints, to further elucidate the disease modifying benefits of this drug class and those who will benefit most from it

Quantitative Models of Protein Dynamics in Synaptic Plasticity: Analysis of Spatial and Stochastic Effects

Memory formation within neurons depends on complex protein signaling networks, which become dysregulated in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. To characterize therapeutic strategies for these disorders, we require a better understanding of the how the protein interactions are regulated. Conventionally, protein interactions are studied by experimental techniques and complemented by computational models. However, most models are deterministic, limiting their biophysical accuracy. First, deterministic models exclude the stochastic effects necessitated by the small protein concentrations often observed within neurons. Second, deterministic models exclude the effects of spatial localizations on neuronal protein binding and activation. Third, many different models exclude an explicit representation of competition for binding to the essential protein calmodulin when multiple calmodulin-binding proteins are known to simultaneously coordinate the regulation of synaptic plasticity. Therefore, here we present a highly detailed model that explicitly accounts for stochastic effects, spatial localizations, and competitive binding, using the open source software MCell. Using our model, we compare against previous models and experimental data to analyze how spatial and stochastic effects determine the dynamics observed. These conclusions will be drawn from the concentrations of various neuronal protein activations and chemical modifications. In the future, our model may be used as a tool to identify and characterize therapeutic targets for neurological disorders

Erasing Quantum Distinguishability via Single-Mode Filtering

Erasing quantum-mechanical distinguishability is of fundamental interest and also of practical importance, particularly in subject areas related to quantum information processing. We demonstrate a method applicable to optical systems in which single-mode filtering is used with only linear optical instruments to achieve quantum indistinguishability. Through "heralded" Hong-Ou-Mandel interference experiments we measure and quantify the improvement of indistinguishability between single photons generated via spontaneous four-wave mixing in optical fibers. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with predictions of a quantum-multimode theory we develop for such systems, without the need for any fitting parameter.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure