Autism treatment challenges: need for accelerated research in pharmacological interventions

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD

Comparative Evaluation of Efficacy of Three Different Storage Media in Maintaining the Viability of Periodontal Ligament Cells: An In Vitro Study

Introduction: Dental trauma is the most common injury which occurs in oro-facial region. Traumatic dental injuries are often seen among injuries to the face. Among them, tooth avulsion (0.5%-16%) is a complex traumatic injury characterized by the rupture of the neurovascular bundle and periodontal ligament (PDL) exposing the tooth to the outer environment. It occurs most often in the age group of 7-10 years, when the alveolar bone is resilient and offers minimal resistance to extrusive forces. Avulsion is a potential threat to the vitality of Periodontal ligament cells which are essential for the healing of replanted avulsed teeth. Hence management protocols should include management of the pulp and the periodontal ligament cells in the long-term survival and prognosis of avulsed teeth.2 The types of healing that takes place after the avulsion injury are as follows: 1.Favorable healing: a. Healing with a normal periodontal ligament (without root resorption) b. Healing with surface resorption (repair-related resorption) 2.Unfavorable healing: a. Healing with ankylosis (replacement). b. Healing with inflammatory resorption (infection related resorption).3 Two of the most critical factors affecting the prognosis of an avulsed tooth after replantation are extra oral dry time and the storage medium in which the tooth is placed.4As replantation of avulsed teeth occurs more frequently between 1 and 4 hours after avulsion, degeneration of cemental periodontal ligament fibers is a common event and the presence of necrotic Periodontal ligament remnants on root surface stimulates the occurrence of inflammatory root resorption, which is the major cause of loss of replanted teeth.5Secondly, storage or transport medium to support cell viability is more important than the extra oral Introduction: An ideal storage medium should be one that is capable of preserving the viability, mitogenicity and clonogenic capacity of the damaged Periodontal ligament cells to facilitate proliferation of these cells over the denuded root surface, thereby preventing further root resorption.Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphate as a storage media for avulsed tooth in maintaining periodontal ligament cell viability in comparison with Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution and Oral Rehydration Solution.Materials and Methods: Forty freshly extracted human premolar teeth with normal periodontium and closed apices were taken. Forty teeth were randomly assigned into five experimental groups. It was then incubated for 30 minutes in falcon tubes with 2.5 ml solution of 0.2 mg/ml of collagenase II and 2.4 mg/ml solution of dispase grade II in phosphate buffered saline. After incubation, 50 μl of fetal bovine serum was added to each tube with the help of micropipette. Cells were labelled with 0.4% trypan blue for determination of viability. The number of viable cells in a grid of Neubauer’s chamber were counted under a light microscope at 40X magnification.Results: Results were analysed using Kruskul-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test.Conclusion: GC Tooth Mousse, Hanks balanced salt solution and Oral rehydration solution can be used as storage medium. GC Tooth Mousse is better than Hanks balanced salt solution and Oral rehydration solution as a storage medium

Study of prenatal, natal, and neonatal risk factors associated with autism

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder is one of the common developmental disabilities. Underlying autism etiology is most likely polygenic but environmental factors may also contribute. Obstetrical and neonatal risk factors have been considered for the development of autism. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to know the presence of antenatal, perinatal and neonatal complications in autistic children. Materials and Methods: Children who were diagnosed with autism were included in the study. Visits were made to the special school for the collection of data with prior consent, and birth details were collected from the parents. Results: A total of 54 children were included in the study. Age of the children ranged from 3 years to 17 years with the mean age of 10.93 years. 39 (72.2%) were boys and 15 (27.8 %) were girls. Advanced maternal age at delivery was noted in 24% of the cases. Antenatal risk factors were seen in 24% of cases and natal risk factors in 20% of the cases. 17% had birth asphyxia. Neonatal intensive care unit admission was noted in 20% of cases, neonatal seizures in 5.6%, respiratory distress in 9.3%, and low birth weight in 17% of cases. 60% of them were first born. Overall, the presence of antenatal, natal, and postnatal risk factors were noted in 57% autism cases. Conclusion: In children with autism, there is increased prevalence of obstetric and neonatal risk factors. These variables should be examined in future for precise assessments of exposures

Integration of high-fidelity CO2 sorbent models at the process scale using dynamic discrepancy

A high-fidelity model of a mesoporous silica supported, polyethylenimine (PEI)-impregnated solid sorbent for CO2 capture has been incorporated into a model of a bubbling fluidized bed adsorber using Dynamic Discrepancy Reduced Modeling (DDRM). The sorbent model includes a detailed treatment of transport and amine-CO2-H2O interactions based on quantum chemistry calculations. Using a Bayesian approach, we calibrate the sorbent model to Thermogravimetric (TGA) data. Discrepancy functions are included within the diffusion coefficients for diffusive species within the PEI bulk, enabling a 20-fold reduction in model order. Additional discrepancy functions account for non-ideal behavior in the adsorption of CO2 and H2O. The discrepancy functions are based on a Gaussian process in the Bayesian Smoothing Splines ANOVA framework, which provides a convenient parametric form for calibration and upscaling. The dynamic discrepancy method for scale-bridging produces probabilistic predictions at larger scales, quantifying uncertainty due to model reduction and the extrapolation inherent in model upscaling. The dynamic discrepancy method is demonstrated using TGA data for a PEI-based sorbent and model of a bubbling fluidized bed adsorber. Acknowledgements: This work is supported by the Carbon Capture Simulation Initiative, funded through the Office of Fossil Energy, US Department of Energy

Baysian uncertainty quantification and calibration of a clean-coal design code

Current concerns about atmospheric carbon levels have sparked demands for massively reduced carbon emissions. These demands, both environmental and regulatory, exceed the capacity for near-term deployment of emission free technologies. Therefore, to simultaneously meet carbon emission targets and supply the vast global energy demands in the foreseeable future, energy generation must incorporate carbon-capture and sequestration technologies on point source CO­2 emitters such as coal-fired power plants. Coal-fired power plants have long been the primary energy pillar of industrialized nations, and while reduced utilization is an important target for CO2 reduction, coal combustion remains the most intensive and prevalent point emission source, and represents hundreds of billions of dollars globally in infrastructure that cannot easily be abandoned. As such, it is the most important target for carbon-capture technologies, particularly retrofit technologies that could allow for near-term, relatively rapid deployment in current infrastructure. The present work supports near-term deployment of oxy-coal combustion as a CO2 capture strategy through computer modeling for both retrofitted boilers and new construction. Oxy-coal combustion is a clean coal technology that uses either a high purity O2 stream, or a mixture of O2 and recycled flue gas to burn coal and produce a CO2 emission stream for capture without the need for post-combustion separation. This combustion environment is a radical departure from the air-fired pulverized coal boiler. Exa-scale Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling codes enable relatively low-cost, rapid design in this new environment; however, they depend on physically accurate and predictive sub-models. The present work improves the predictive capacity and quantifies the uncertainty of the Carbon Conversion Kinetics oxy-fuel (CCK/oxy) code, a comprehensive coal char conversion model designed to predict coal char burnout in the intense oxy-fuel environment. A recent sensitivity analysis of the CCK/oxy model strongly implicated the char thermal deactivation routine as a key sub-model to accurately predict char conversion, and the present work uses Bayesian uncertainty quantification and calibration in conjunction with literature data to quantify and reduce the uncertainty in the vital annealing sub-model. The suite of Bayesian statistical tools used here were originally extended to facilitate computational design of CCS technologies. Specifically, the tools used here are based upon GPMSA (Gaussian Process Models for Simulation Analysis), and provide the capability for relatively low-cost calibration, uncertainty quantification, sensitivity analysis, and model response prediction based upon a reasonable number of model executions. We present the results of the calibration using these tools which incorporate the information from both empirical physical measurements and detailed physics-based simulation models. Acknowledgements: The work at LANL is supported by the Carbon Capture Simulation Initiative with funding through the Office of Fossil Energy, US Department of Energy. The work at BYU is supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, under Award Number DE-NA0002375

Effectiveness of chitosan mouthwash on plaque formation and levels of salivary Streptococcus and Lactobacillus count: an in vivo study

Background: The objectives of the present study were to clinically evaluate the effectiveness of chitosan mouthwash on Plaque formation and to evaluate the antimicrobial activity against salivary Streptococcus mutans (SM) and Lactobacillus (LB).Methods: A total of 20 participants with decay-missing-filled index ≥4 and simplified oral hygiene index score >1.3 were recruited for the study after taking informed consent. All the participants were provided a bottle of chitosan mouthwash in addition to their usual oral hygiene procedure. Baseline salivary SM and LB levels were determined, using chair-side CRT® bacteria test prior giving chitosan mouthwash and after 14 days, during which children are advised to use 10 ml of mouthwash for 60 seconds two times daily. Plaque index score recorded using Silness and Loe plaque index. Paired t-test (or corresponding non-parametric) and percentage comparison method using cross tables were used for statistical analysis.Results: The baseline plaque index score of 0.758 and after 14 days of mouthwash use, it reduced to 0.434. The mean difference in the plaque index showed significant reduction in the plaque score (i.e., with the difference of 0.324). The results showed the antiplaque effects with a short duration of 14 days use of chitosan (CH) mouthwash. The antibacterial activity demonstrated a range of inhibitory effect on salivary SM and LB.Conclusions: CH showed an evident strong effect against salivary SM and LB levels and controlling the plaque biofilm formation. So water soluble CH can be used in new formulations for oral applications not only as antimicrobial agent but also for plaque biofilm control

Assessing variations of extreme indices inducing weather-hazards on critical infrastructures over Europe?the INTACT framework

Extreme weather events are projected to be more frequent and severe across the globe because of global warming. This poses challenging problems for critical infrastructures, which could be dramatically affected (or disrupted), and may require adaptation plans to the changing climate conditions. The INTACT FP7-European project evaluated the resilience and vulnerability of critical infrastructures to extreme weather events in a climate change scenario. To identify changes in the hazard induced by climate change, appropriate extreme weather indicators (EWIs), as proxies of the main atmospheric features triggering events with high impact on the infrastructures, were defined for a number of case studies and different approaches were analyzed to obtain local climate projections. We considered the influence of weighting and bias correction schemes on the delta approach followed to obtain the resulting projections, considering data from the Euro-CORDEX ensemble of regional future climate scenarios over Europe. The aim is to provide practitioners, decision-makers, and administrators with appropriate methods to obtain actionable and plausible results on local/regional future climate scenarios. Our results show a small sensitivity to the weighting approach and a large sensitivity to bias correcting the future projections.This work has been carried out within the activities of INTACT project, receiving funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° FP7-SEC-2013-1-606799. The information and views set out in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme's Working Group on Regional Climate, and the Working Group on Coupled Modelling, former coordinating body of CORDEX and responsible panel for CMIP5

Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties. Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.Comment: invited review, 36 figures, 900+ references; minor stylistic changes from the published versio

Genome-Wide Association Study in Asian Populations Identifies Variants in ETS1 and WDFY4 Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a complex and potentially fatal autoimmune disease, characterized by autoantibody production and multi-organ damage. By a genome-wide association study (320 patients and 1,500 controls) and subsequent replication altogether involving a total of 3,300 Asian SLE patients from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Thailand, as well as 4,200 ethnically and geographically matched controls, genetic variants in ETS1 and WDFY4 were found to be associated with SLE (ETS1: rs1128334, P = 2.33×10−11, OR = 1.29; WDFY4: rs7097397, P = 8.15×10−12, OR = 1.30). ETS1 encodes for a transcription factor known to be involved in a wide range of immune functions, including Th17 cell development and terminal differentiation of B lymphocytes. SNP rs1128334 is located in the 3′-UTR of ETS1, and allelic expression analysis from peripheral blood mononuclear cells showed significantly lower expression level from the risk allele. WDFY4 is a conserved protein with unknown function, but is predominantly expressed in primary and secondary immune tissues, and rs7097397 in WDFY4 changes an arginine residue to glutamine (R1816Q) in this protein. Our study also confirmed association of the HLA locus, STAT4, TNFSF4, BLK, BANK1, IRF5, and TNFAIP3 with SLE in Asians. These new genetic findings may help us to gain a better understanding of the disease and the functions of the genes involved