COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF ORAL MICROBIOTA OF CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES BORN TO CARIES FREE MOTHERS

Objectives: To compare the level of mutans streptococci in children with and without Early childhood caries (ECC) born to caries free mothers.Methods: Twenty children aged between 3 and 6 years were selected depending on their caries experience, and the mother should be caries free inboth the groups. The children were divided into two groups. Group I had an active carious lesion and Group II were caries free. Saliva samples werecollected from the child and the mother in a sterile tube and bacterial culture was carried out to estimate the colony count.Results: There was a highly significant difference in the colony forming unit (CFU) between the 2 groups, indicating higher CFU in children with ECC.Conclusions: Even though there are higher chances of vertical transmission of MS from mother to their child, this study provides a new view thatmother alone is not a potential factor for mutans streptococci transmission to their child.Keywords: Mutans streptocci, Early childhood caries, Colony forming unit

Histone deacetylase expression patterns in developing murine optic nerve

BACKGROUND: Histone deacetylases (HDACs) play important roles in glial cell development and in disease states within multiple regions of the central nervous system. However, little is known about HDAC expression or function within the optic nerve. As a first step in understanding the role of HDACs in optic nerve, this study examines the spatio-temporal expression patterns of methylated histone 3 (K9), acetylated histone 3 (K18), and HDACs 1–6 and 8–11 in the developing murine optic nerve head. RESULTS: Using RT-qPCR, western blot and immunofluorescence, three stages were analyzed: embryonic day 16 (E16), when astrocyte precursors are found in the optic stalk, postnatal day 5 (P5), when immature astrocytes and oligodendrocytes are found throughout the optic nerve, and P30, when optic nerve astrocytes and oligodendrocytes are mature. Acetylated and methylated histone H3 immunoreactivity was co-localized in the nuclei of most SOX2 positive glia within the optic nerve head and adjacent optic nerve at all developmental stages. HDACs 1–11 were expressed in the optic nerve glial cells at all three stages of optic nerve development in the mouse, but showed temporal differences in overall levels and subcellular localization. HDACs 1 and 2 were predominantly nuclear throughout optic nerve development and glial cell maturation. HDACs 3, 5, 6, 8, and 11 were predominantly cytoplasmic, but showed nuclear localization in at least one stage of optic nerve development. HDACs 4, 9 and10 were predominantly cytoplasmic, with little to no nuclear expression at any time during the developmental stages examined. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showing that HDACs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 11 were each localized to the nuclei of SOX2 positive glia at some stages of optic nerve development and maturation and extend previous reports of HDAC expression in the aging optic nerve. These HDACs are candidates for further research to understand how chromatin remodeling through acetylation, deacetylation and methylation contributes to glial development as well as their injury response

An Optimistic-Robust Approach for Dynamic Positioning of Omnichannel Inventories

We introduce a new class of data-driven and distribution-free optimistic-robust bimodal inventory optimization (BIO) strategy to effectively allocate inventory across a retail chain to meet time-varying, uncertain omnichannel demand. While prior Robust optimization (RO) methods emphasize the downside, i.e., worst-case adversarial demand, BIO also considers the upside to remain resilient like RO while also reaping the rewards of improved average-case performance by overcoming the presence of endogenous outliers. This bimodal strategy is particularly valuable for balancing the tradeoff between lost sales at the store and the costs of cross-channel e-commerce fulfillment, which is at the core of our inventory optimization model. These factors are asymmetric due to the heterogenous behavior of the channels, with a bias towards the former in terms of lost-sales cost and a dependence on network effects for the latter. We provide structural insights about the BIO solution and how it can be tuned to achieve a preferred tradeoff between robustness and the average-case. Our experiments show that significant benefits can be achieved by rethinking traditional approaches to inventory management, which are siloed by channel and location. Using a real-world dataset from a large American omnichannel retail chain, a business value assessment during a peak period indicates over a 15% profitability gain for BIO over RO and other baselines while also preserving the (practical) worst case performance

Continuum Representation for Simulating Discrete Events of Battery Operation

A mathematical approach for representing the discrete events in the cycling studies of lithium-ion batteries as a continuum event has been proposed to generate charge/discharge curves for N number of battery cycles. Simulations of up to 5000 cycles have been performed using this technique using the solid-phase diffusion model. A nonlinear electrochemical engineering model, which describes the galvanostatic charge/open-circuit/discharge processes of a thin-film nickel electrode, has also been investigated to test and validate the computational performance of the continuum representation technique. Finally, the tested technique is implemented for an existing full-order pseudo-two-dimensional lithium-ion battery model that has several coupled and nonlinear partial differential equations in multiple domains. The continuum representation, which is expressed as a function of a dependent variable in time t, works efficiently for several cycles with very minimal model initialization efforts and computation cost. However, it is not ideal for state detection. The mathematical simulation approaches that are currently followed for the modeling of charge/discharge cycles of lithium-ion batteries involve different computational schemes. 1-10 The complexity arises because of steep variations in the dependent variables ͑concentrations and potentials͒ between charge and discharge processes, difficulty in obtaining consistent initial values for the model equations, solver failure after a certain number of cycles due to high charge/discharge cutoff voltages, thermal effects, etc. We came up with a shooting method in a spatial direction 11 based on the steadystate model equations that work well for providing consistent initialization during a charge or discharge process. Wu and White 12 devised an initialization subroutine called differential algebraic equation initialization subroutine ͑DAEIS͒ to overcome numerical inconsistency and discussed in detail the initialization problems of battery models. Consistent initial values of the dependent variables for index-1 differential algebraic equation ͑DAE͒ systems can be obtained using DAEIS. DAEIS is effective in handling a DAE system with combined continuous processes and discrete events that are frequently encountered in battery operations. Before the advancement of computation capability, Tafel approximation of the electrokinetic expression and Ohm's law in electrolyte were used to calculate initial guesses for algebraic variables. 13 In this work, the complete protocol that includes many discrete events to constitute one cycle of lithium-ion battery was reformulated as a single continuous process. Then, this continuous process was repeatedly simulated up to the desired number of cycles. This was achieved by carefully changing the model variables that directly influence the cycling parameters, for example, changing the independent variable ͑in time͒ or the dependent variable ͑in solid-phase concentration at the surface of the intercalating particles͒ and expressing the same as an additional algebraic equation in terms of the number of battery cycles. This approach was attempted to overcome the difficulties mentioned during the conventional cycle studies, and it was an efficient method for many situations. Adding an additional nonlinear algebraic equation does not contribute to the significant computation cost for the model simulation; rather, it helps in effectively handling large cycle numbers and in generating the cycle data for further analysis. The proposed mathematical representation has been demonstrated for models with different degrees of complexity and in comparison with the results from those using the conventional approach. 14-16 The combination of this continuum representation and this efficient reformulated model helps in the use of meaningful models of batteries for emerging applications such as satellites, military, hybrid electric vehicles, etc. The combination of the continuum representation and the reformulated model is helpful in a way that solving the full-order physicsbased lithium-ion battery model with less computation cost was facilitated by the reformulated version of the full-order model that does not require a large system of differential and algebraic equations to be solved for each parameter in a cycle, for example, charge or discharge. Though the objective of this investigation is to devise a continuum representation for generating cycle data using a fullorder physics-based lithium-ion battery model, two other simple electrochemical models ͑mentioned above͒ are also discussed with the intention to provide more details and insight into the proposed continuum approach that can help readers to easily adopt the approach for other interesting cases

Systemic inflammation in the genesis of frailty and sarcopenia: An overview of the preventative and therapeutic role of exercise and the potential for drug treatments

© 2017 by the author. The clinical, pathological and biological characteristics of frailty and sarcopenia are becoming better understood and defined, including the role of systemic inflammation. It is increasingly apparent that in older adults there is a tendency for the innate immune network to shift toward a pro-inflammatory setting, often due to the presence of chronic inflammatory diseases but also associated with age alone in some individuals. Furthermore, acute inflammation tends to resolve more slowly and less completely in many elderly people. Inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis of sarcopenia and other components of the frailty syndrome. Blood levels of inflammatory cytokines and acute phase proteins, are reduced by exercise, and there is a growing body of epidemiological, observational and intervention research that indicates that regular moderate exercise improves strength, function, morbidity and mortality in middle-aged and elderly adults. There is also an increasing awareness of the potential role of drugs to ameliorate inflammation in the context of frail old age, which might be particularly useful for people who are unable to take part in exercise programs, or as adjunctive treatment for those who can. Drugs that shift the innate immune biochemical network toward an anti-inflammatory setting, such as methyl-xanthines and 4-amino quinolones, could be of value. For example, theophylline has been shown to induce a 20 percent fall in pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and 180 percent rise in anti-inflammatory interleukin-10 production by peripheral blood monocytes, and a fall of 45 percent in interferon-gamma (IF-gamma) release. Such properties could be of therapeutic benefit, particularly to re-establish a less inflamed baseline after acute episodes such as sepsis and trauma