Antimicrobial Property of Titanium Plates Treated with Silica-Bound Protamine

Antimicrobial activity is necessary for dental prosthetic devices to maintain oral and systemic health in elderly people wearing prostheses. In particular, dental prosthetic devices with antifungal properties are urgently needed to prevent aspiration pneumonia. However, practical application methods to deliver antimicrobial properties to dental prosthetic devices have not yet been established. Therefore, in this study we aimed to fix protamine on titanium plates treated with silica coating using a Silano-Pen, and to evaluate the antimicrobial properties of the titanium plates against Candida albicans. Strong antifungal properties were obtained by soaking titanium plates in an aqueous protamine solution after silica coating treatment. Since this brand-new method is simple, its practical application is expected in the near future

Time-resolved photoelectron angular distributions from nonadiabatically aligned CO2 molecules with SX-FEL at SACLA

Weperformed time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of valence orbitals of alignedCO2 molecules using the femtosecond soft x-ray free-electron laser and the synchronized near-infrared laser. By properly ordering the individual single-shot ion images, we successfully obtained the photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) of theCO2 molecules aligned in the laboratory frame (LF). The simulations using the dipole matrix elements due to the time dependent density functional theory calculations well reproduce the experimental PADs by considering the axis distributions of the molecules. The simulations further suggest that, when the degrees of alignment can be increased up to \ue1 cos2 q\uf1 > 0.8, themolecular geometries during photochemical reactions can be extracted fromthe measured LFPADs once the accurate matrix elements are given by the calculations

Study of the plutino object (208996) 2003 AZ84 from stellar occultations: size, shape and topographic features

We present results derived from four stellar occultations by the plutino object (208996) 2003~AZ$_{84}$, detected at January 8, 2011 (single-chord event), February 3, 2012 (multi-chord), December 2, 2013 (single-chord) and November 15, 2014 (multi-chord). Our observations rule out an oblate spheroid solution for 2003~AZ$_{84}$'s shape. Instead, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, we find that a Jacobi triaxial solution with semi axes $(470 \pm 20) \times (383 \pm 10) \times (245 \pm 8)$~km % axis ratios $b/a= 0.82 \pm 0.05$ and $c/a= 0.52 \pm 0.02$, can better account for all our occultation observations. Combining these dimensions with the rotation period of the body (6.75~h) and the amplitude of its rotation light curve, we derive a density $\rho=0.87 \pm 0.01$~g~cm$^{-3}$ a geometric albedo $p_V= 0.097 \pm 0.009$. A grazing chord observed during the 2014 occultation reveals a topographic feature along 2003~AZ$_{84}$'s limb, that can be interpreted as an abrupt chasm of width $\sim 23$~km and depth $> 8$~km or a smooth depression of width $\sim 80$~km and depth $\sim 13$~km (or an intermediate feature between those two extremes)

Prognostic Impact of Hypoxia-Inducible miRNA-210

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of MicroRNA-210 (miR-210) expression in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods. We examined the miR-210 expression of samples of 80 patients, who underwent surgical resection at Fukushima Medical University from 2004 to 2007, by using quantitative RT-PCR. The relationship between miR-210 expression and clinicopathological factors as well as histological subtype was statistically analyzed. Results. miR-210 expression showed an inverse correlation with disease-free and overall survival in patients with NSCLC. Significant correlations were found between miR-210 expression and lymph node metastasis, late disease stages, and poor prognosis in patients with adenocarcinoma. Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that miR-210 expression was an independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival in patients with adenocarcinoma. Conclusions. We showed that miR-210 may be a prognostic biomarker for patients with NSCLC, especially for those with lung adenocarcinoma

The effect of hypothermia therapy on cortical laminar disruption following ischemic injury in neonatal mice.

Hypothermia has been proposed as a treatment for reducing neuronal damage in the brain induced by hypoxic ischemia. In the developing brain, hypoxic ischemia-induced injury may give rise to cerebral palsy (CP). However, it is unknown whether hypothermia might affect the development of CP. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether hypothermia would have a protective effect on the brains of immature, 3-day old (P3) mice after a challenge of cerebral ischemia. Cerebral ischemia was induced in P3 mice with a right common carotid artery ligation followed by hypoxia (6% O2, 37°C) for 30 min. Immediately after hypoxic ischemia, mice were exposed to hypothermia (32°C) or normothermia (37°C) for 24 h. At 4 weeks of age, mouse motor development was tested in a behavioral test. Mice were sacrificed at P4, P7, and 5 weeks to examine brain morphology. The laminar structure of the cortex was examined with immunohistochemistry (Cux1/Ctip2); the number of neurons was counted; and the expression of myelin basic protein (MBP) was determined. The hypothermia treatment was associated with improved neurological outcomes in the behavioral test. In the normothermia group, histological analyses indicated reduced numbers of neurons, reduced cortical laminar thickness in the deep, ischemic cortical layers, and significant reduction in MBP expression in the ischemic cortex compared to the contralateral cortex. In the hypothermia group, no reductions were noted in deep cortical layer thickness and in MBP expression in the ischemic cortex compared to the contralateral cortex. At 24 h after the hypothermia treatment prevented the neuronal cell death that had predominantly occurred in the ischemic cortical deep layers with normothermia treatment. Our findings may provide a preclinical basis for testing hypothermal therapies in patients with CP induced by hypoxic ischemia in the preterm period