829 research outputs found
Synthesis of a novel electrospun polycaprolactone scaffold functionalized with ibuprofen for periodontal regeneration: An in vitro and in vivo study
Ibuprofen (IBU) has been shown to improve periodontal treatment outcomes. The aimof this study was to develop a new anti-inflammatory scaffold by functionalizing an electrospun nanofibrous poly-e-caprolactone membrane with IBU (IBU-PCL) and to evaluate its impact on periodontal inflammation, wound healing and regeneration in vitro and in vivo. IBU-PCL was synthesized through electrospinning. The effects of IBU-PCL on the proliferation and migration of epithelial cells (EC) and fibroblasts (FB) exposed to Porphyromonas gingivlais lipopolysaccharide (Pg-LPS) were evaluated through the AlamarBlue test and scratch assay, respectively. Anti-inflammatory and remodeling properties were investigated through Real time qPCR. Finally, the in vivo efficacy of the IBU-PCL membrane was assessed in an experimental periodontitis mouse model through histomorphometric analysis. The results showed that the anti-inflammatory effects of IBU on gingival cells were effectively amplified using the functionalizedmembrane. IBU-PCL reduced the proliferation and migration of cells challenged by Pg-LPS, as well as the expression of fibronectin-1, collagen-IV, integrin a3ß1 and laminin-5. In vivo, the membranes significantly improved the clinical attachment and IBU-PCL also reduced inflammation-induced bone destruction. These data showed that the IBU-PCL membrane could efficiently and differentially control inflammatory and migratory gingival cell responses and potentially promote periodontal regeneration
Classification of non-Riemannian doubled-yet-gauged spacetime
Assuming covariant fields as the `fundamental' variables,
Double Field Theory can accommodate novel geometries where a Riemannian metric
cannot be defined, even locally. Here we present a complete classification of
such non-Riemannian spacetimes in terms of two non-negative integers,
, . Upon these backgrounds, strings become
chiral and anti-chiral over and directions respectively, while
particles and strings are frozen over the directions. In
particular, we identify as Riemannian manifolds, as
non-relativistic spacetime, as Gomis-Ooguri non-relativistic string,
as ultra-relativistic Carroll geometry, and as Siegel's
chiral string. Combined with a covariant Kaluza-Klein ansatz which we further
spell, leads to Newton-Cartan gravity. Alternative to the conventional
string compactifications on small manifolds, non-Riemannian spacetime such as
, may open a new scheme of the dimensional reduction from ten to
four.Comment: 1+41 pages; v2) Refs added; v3) Published version; v4) Sign error in
(2.51) correcte
Visual activity in the human frontal eye field
Although visual information processing in the monkey frontal eye field (FEF) has been well demonstrated, the contribution of its human homologue to vision is still unknown. Here we report a study of intracranial visual evoked potentials (VEPs) recorded from the human FEF which was identified by electrical cortical stimulation. Electrical stimulations and EEG recordings were carried out via subdural grid electrodes placed over the frontal cortex in three epileptic patients. Evoked eye movements were mainly horizontal and always directed to the hemispace contralateral to the stimulation site. Intracranial VEPs showed responses predominately to stimuli in the contralateral visual field. Our findings demonstrate a close relationship between the direction of the electrically elicited eye movements and the visual stimulus location which predominantly leads to neural responses in the FEF. These findings provide evidence for the functional role of the human FEF in the analysis of visual stimuli from the contralateral visual field as well as in the generation of eye movements towards these conspicuous targets
Traffic-related pollution and asthma prevalence in children. Quantification of associations with nitrogen dioxide.
Ambient nitrogen dioxide is a widely available measure of traffic-related air pollution and is inconsistently associated with the prevalence of asthma symptoms in children. The use of this relationship to evaluate the health impact of policies affecting traffic management and traffic emissions is limited by the lack of a concentration-response function based on systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant studies. Using systematic methods, we identified papers containing quantitative estimates for nitrogen dioxide and the 12 month period prevalence of asthma symptoms in children in which the exposure contrast was within-community and dominated by traffic pollution. One estimate was selected from each study according to an a priori algorithm. Odds ratios were standardised to 10 μg/m(3) and summary estimates were obtained using random- and fixed-effects estimates. Eighteen studies were identified. Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide were estimated for the home address (12) and/or school (8) using a range of methods; land use regression (6), study monitors (6), dispersion modelling (4) and interpolation (2). Fourteen studies showed positive associations but only two associations were statistically significant at the 5 % level. There was moderate heterogeneity (I(2) = 32.8 %) and the random-effects estimate for the odds ratio was 1.06 (95 % CI 1.00 to 1.11). There was no evidence of small study bias. Individual studies tended to have only weak positive associations between nitrogen dioxide and asthma prevalence but the summary estimate bordered on statistical significance at the 5 % level. Although small, the potential impact on asthma prevalence could be considerable because of the high level of baseline prevalence in many cities. Whether the association is causal or indicates the effects of a correlated pollutant or other confounders, the estimate obtained by the meta-analysis would be appropriate for estimating impacts of traffic pollution on asthma prevalence
Internally driven vs. externally cued movement selection: a study on the timing of brain activity
Brain imaging studies in man and single cell recordings in monkey have suggested that medial supplementary motor areas (SMA) and lateral pre-motor areas (PMA) are functionally dissociated concerning their involvement in internally driven and externally cued movements. This dichotomy, however, seems to be relative rather than absolute. Here, we searched for further evidence of relative differences and aimed to determine by what aspect of brain activity (duration, strength, or both) these might be accounted for. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while healthy, right-handed subjects selected one of three possible right hand digit movements based either on 'internal' choice or 'external' cues. The results obtained from ERP mapping suggest that movement selection evokes the same electrical brain activity patterns in terms of surface potential configurations in the same order and at the same strength independent of the selection mode. These identical configurations, however, differed in their duration. Combined with the results of a distributed source localization procedure, our data are suggestive of longer lasting activity in SMA during the 'internal' and longer lasting activity in PMA during the 'external' condition. Our results confirm previous findings in showing that SMA and PMA are distinctively involved in the two tasks and that this functional dichotomy is relative rather than absolute but indicate that such a dissociation can result from differences in duration rather than pure strength of activation
Search for pentaquark in high statistics measurement of at CLAS
The exclusive reaction was studied in the
photon energy range between 1.6-3.8 GeV searching for evidence of the exotic
baryon . The decay to requires the assignment of
strangeness to any observed resonance. Data were collected with the CLAS
detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility corresponding to
an integrated luminosity of 70 . No evidence for the
pentaquark was found. Upper limits were set on the production cross section as
function of center-of-mass angle and mass. The 95% CL upper limit on the
total cross section for a narrow resonance at 1540 MeV was found to be 0.8 nb.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
New Measurement of Parity Violation in Elastic Electron-Proton Scattering and Implications for Strange Form Factors
We have measured the parity-violating electroweak asymmetry in the elastic
scattering of polarized electrons from the proton. The result is A = -15.05 +-
0.98(stat) +- 0.56(syst) ppm at the kinematic point theta_lab = 12.3 degrees
and Q^2 = 0.477 (GeV/c)^2. The measurement implies that the value for the
strange form factor (G_E^s + 0.392 G_M^s) = 0.025 +- 0.020 +- 0.014, where the
first error is experimental and the second arises from the uncertainties in
electromagnetic form factors. This measurement is the first fixed-target parity
violation experiment that used either a `strained' GaAs photocathode to produce
highly polarized electrons or a Compton polarimeter to continuously monitor the
electron beam polarization.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Tex, elsart.cls; revised version as accepted for
Phys. Lett.
Projet de zone atelier du delta intérieur du Niger au Mali : synthèse des travaux de concertation et de réflexion suite au séminaire
Measurement of the Polarized Structure Function for in the Resonance Region
The polarized longitudinal-transverse structure function
has been measured using the reaction in the
resonance region at and 0.65 GeV. No previous
data exist for this reaction channel. The kinematically
complete experiment was performed at Jefferson Lab with the CEBAF Large
Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) using longitudinally polarized electrons at an
energy of 1.515 GeV. A partial wave analysis of the data shows generally better
agreement with recent phenomenological models of pion electroproduction
compared to the previously measured channel. A fit to both
and channels using a unitary isobar model suggests the unitarized
Born terms provide a consistent description of the non-resonant background. The
-channel pion pole term is important in the channel through a
rescattering correction, which could be model-dependent.Comment: 6 pages, LaTex, 5 eps figures: Submitted to PRC/Brief Reports v2:
Updated referenc
Deeply virtual and exclusive electroproduction of omega mesons
The exclusive omega electroproduction off the proton was studied in a large
kinematical domain above the nucleon resonance region and for the highest
possible photon virtuality (Q2) with the 5.75 GeV beam at CEBAF and the CLAS
spectrometer. Cross sections were measured up to large values of the
four-momentum transfer (-t < 2.7 GeV2) to the proton. The contributions of the
interference terms sigma_TT and sigma_TL to the cross sections, as well as an
analysis of the omega spin density matrix, indicate that helicity is not
conserved in this process. The t-channel pi0 exchange, or more generally the
exchange of the associated Regge trajectory, seems to dominate the reaction
gamma* p -> omega p, even for Q2 as large as 5 GeV2. Contributions of handbag
diagrams, related to Generalized Parton Distributions in the nucleon, are
therefore difficult to extract for this process. Remarkably, the high-t
behaviour of the cross sections is nearly Q2-independent, which may be
interpreted as a coupling of the photon to a point-like object in this
kinematical limit.Comment: 15 pages,19 figure
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