Association between polymorphisms in the IL-1β, TNFRSF11B, CASP1, and IL-6 genes and orthodontic-induced external apical root resorption

Orthodontic-induced external apical root resorption (EARR) is a severe condition affecting the roots of the teeth, whose genetic causes have been inconclusive to date. The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) IL-1β, TNFRSF11B, CASP1, and IL-6 genes on post-orthodontic EARR. A sample of 101 patients with clearly assessable orthopantomograms and lateral cephalometric radiographs taken before and at the end of the orthodontic treatment was used to evaluate the presence of EARR. The association between genetic polymorphisms and EARR was assessed with the Chi2 test. A binary logistic multi-level model was built to evaluate the ability of patient- and tooth-level variables to predict EARR occurrence. The overall prevalence of EARR resulted to be around 40%. Within the limitations of this study, a significant association was found between EARR presence and the SNP for the IL-1β gene but not for the TNFRSF11B, CASP1, and the IL-6 genes. The final multi-level model demonstrated that the SNP for the IL-1β gene increases the odds of developing EARR by around four times. Since there is currently no accurate method to determine which patients will develop EARR prior to orthodontic treatment, further studies are needed to investigate the predictive ability of further genetic variants on EARR development

How to reduce the number of rating scale items without predictability loss?

Rating scales are used to elicit data about qualitative entities (e.g., research collaboration). This study presents an innovative method for reducing the number of rating scale items without the predictability loss. The "area under the receiver operator curve method" (AUC ROC) is used. The presented method has reduced the number of rating scale items (variables) to 28.57\% (from 21 to 6) making over 70\% of collected data unnecessary. Results have been verified by two methods of analysis: Graded Response Model (GRM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). GRM revealed that the new method differentiates observations of high and middle scores. CFA proved that the reliability of the rating scale has not deteriorated by the scale item reduction. Both statistical analysis evidenced usefulness of the AUC ROC reduction method.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

A comparison of the Antileukaemic Effects of Recombinant Human Tumour Necrosis Factor-α and its Muteins on Leukaemia L1210 and Leukaemia P388 in Mice

We investigated the influence of recombinant human tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and its derivatives termed muteins III, V, VI—in which the first 3 to 7 amino acids of native TNF-α have been replaced—on the survival time of mice inoculated with leukaemia L1210 or leukaemia P338. TNF-α prolonged the survival of mice with leukaemia L1210 but did not have any therapeutic activity in leukaemia P388-bearing mice. Muteins-treated mice with leukaemia P388 lived longer than animals receiving TNF-α, while those inoculated with leukaemia L1210 did not show any significant prolongation of life compared with the TNF-α treated group. The results presented in this report indicate that the antileukaemic activity of TNF-α is governed at least in part by the nature of the N-terminal amino acids

Coherently driven microcavity-polaritons and the question of superfluidity

M.H.S. acknowledges financial support from EPSRC (Grants no. EP/I028900/2 and no. EP/K003623/2) and J.K. from EPSRC program Hybrid Polaritonics (EP/M025330/1).Due to their driven-dissipative nature, photonic quantum fluids present new challenges in understanding superfluidity. Some associated effects have been observed, and notably the report of nearly dissipationless flow for coherently driven microcavity-polaritons was taken as a 'smoking gun' for superflow. Here we show that the superfluid response - the difference between responses to longitudinal and transverse forces - is zero for coherently driven polaritons. This is a direct consequence of the gapped excitation spectrum caused by external phase locking. Furthermore, while a normal component exists at finite pump momentum, the remainder forms a rigid state that does not respond to either longitudinal or transverse perturbations. Interestingly, the total response almost vanishes when the real part of the excitation spectrum has a linear dispersion at low frequency, characteristic of equilibrium bosonic superfluids, which was the regime investigated experimentally. These results suggest that the observed suppression of scattering should be interpreted as a sign of this new rigid state and not of a superfluid.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Halophyte–Endophyte Interactions: Linking Microbiome Community Distribution and Functionality to Salinity

Many plants are unable to adapt to rapid environmental changes (e.g., salinity, drought, or limited nutrients) and may acquire assistance from microbes that have the capacity to increase tolerance of host-plants in stress conditions. By having the right microbes, the plants are more resilient! Such microbes include endophytes that inhabit inner tissues of the plant without causing symptoms of disease in their host. However, this plant–endophytic association exists only when chemical equilibrium is maintained between both, therefore making this mutualistic interaction even more unique. Therefore it is interesting to decode the endophytic community composition in halophytes specifically in the most salt-tolerant halophyte species Salicornia europaea, and further determine the factors that could affect this association. Moreover, understanding the endophytes potential plant growth-promoting activities in association with host (S. europaea) and non-host plant (non-halophytes) are the focus of this chapter

Adiabatic Phase Diagram of an Ultracold Atomic Fermi Gas with a Feshbach Resonance

We determine the adiabatic phase diagram of a resonantly-coupled system of Fermi atoms and Bose molecules confined in the harmonic trap by using the local density approximation. The adiabatic phase diagram shows the fermionic condensate fraction composed of condensed molecules and Cooper pair atoms. The key idea of our work is conservation of entropy through the adiabatic process, extending the study of Williams et al. [Williams et al., New J. Phys. 6, 123 (2004)] for an ideal gas mixture to include the resonant interaction in a mean-field theory. We also calculate the molecular conversion efficiency as a function of initial temperature. Our work helps to understand recent experiments on the BCS-BEC crossover, in terms of the initial temperature measured before a sweep of the magnetic field.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures. In press, "Journal of the Physical Society of Japan", Vol.76, No.

The potential of dietary treatment in patients with glycogen storage disease type IV

There is paucity of literature on dietary treatment in glycogen storage disease (GSD) type IV and formal guidelines are not available. Traditionally, liver transplantation was considered the only treatment option for GSD IV. In light of the success of dietary treatment for the other hepatic forms of GSD, we have initiated this observational study to assess the outcomes of medical diets, which limit the accumulation of glycogen. Clinical, dietary, laboratory, and imaging data for 15 GSD IV patients from three centres are presented. Medical diets may have the potential to delay or prevent liver transplantation, improve growth and normalize serum aminotransferases. Individual care plans aim to avoid both hyperglycaemia, hypoglycaemia and/or hyperketosis, to minimize glycogen accumulation and catabolism, respectively. Multidisciplinary monitoring includes balancing between traditional markers of metabolic control (ie, growth, liver size, serum aminotransferases, glucose homeostasis, lactate, and ketones), liver function (ie, synthesis, bile flow and detoxification of protein), and symptoms and signs of portal hypertension

Corpora as open educational resources for language teaching

Corpora, large electronic collections of texts, have been used in language teaching for several decades. Also known as Data‐Driven Learning (DDL), this method has been gaining popularity because empirical research has consistently shown its effectiveness for learning. However, corpora are still underutilized, especially with learners of languages other than English, at lower proficiency levels, and in non‐university contexts. This is regrettable because DDL has a great potential for developing modular flipped content, especially for hybrid, remote, and online courses. This article first provides an overview of DDL applications and findings of empirical research. Next, it outlines obstacles to wider DDL implementation as well as available and possible solutions. Corpus user guides and exercise collections tied to specific corpora are discussed as one promising direction, and an example of such new open educational resources for teaching German is presented. The article concludes with a discussion of implications and future directions