Top quark spin and HtbHtb interaction in charged Higgs and top quark associated production at LHC

We study the charged Higgs production at LHC via its associated production with top quark. The kinematic cuts are optimized to suppress the background processes so that the reconstruction of the charged Higgs and top quark is possible. The angular distributions with respect to top quark spin are explored to study the $Htb$ interaction at LHC.Comment: 10 pages,5 figures, to appear in PR

Apical Sealing Ability of Bioceramic Paste and Mineral Trioxide Aggregate Retrofillings: A Dye Leakage Study

Introduction: This study compared the apical sealing ability of a bioceramic based root canalrepair filling material (iRoot FS) with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA). Methods and materials: Forty single-canal teeth were prepared and randomly divided into two experimental groups (n=18) and two control groups (n=2). Teeth in experimental groups were retrofilled with either MTA or iRoot FS. After setting of the retrofillings, all roots were exposed to 0.2% Rhodamine B solution for 48 h and were then washed for 12 h before longitudinal sectioning. The extent of dye penetration was measured under fluorescence microscope. Results: The mean leakage values in MTA and iRoot FS samples were 35.63 and 35.15 µm, respectively. There was no significant differences between the two materials in this regard (P=0.584). Conclusion: According to dye leakage results, iRoot FS had similar apical sealing ability to MTA and might be considered as a promising root-end filling material

Single application on iris localization technology in excimer laser for astigmatism

AIM:To discuss the single application on iris localization technology in excimer laser for the treatment of astigmatism. <p>METHODS:Totally 203 cases(406 eyes)of laser <i>in situ</i> keratomileusis(LASIK)in the treatment of compound myopic astigmatism patients were operated from November 2011 to November 2012 in our hospital. They were divided into two groups. One was observation group using iris localization and the other was control group using routine operation. Patients in the observation group of 100 cases(200 eyes), aged 18-43 years old, spherical diopter was -1.25 to -8.75D, astigmatism was -1.0 to -3.25D. In control group, 103 patients(206 eyes), aged 19-44 years old, spherical diopter was -1.75-9.50D, astigmatism was -1.0 to -3.25D. The patients in the observation group before the application of WaveScan aberrometer check for iris image, spherical lens, cylindrical lens and astigmatism axis data operation, only single application of iris location, without using wavefront aberration guided technology, laser cutting patterns for conventional LASIK model, spherical, cylindrical mirror and astigmatism axis data source to preoperative wavefront aberration results. The control group received routine LASIK. It was applicated comprehensive optometry optometry respectively to examine astigmatism and axial, based on the computer analysis during the preoperative, 1wk after the operation, and 6mo. Analysis of using SPSS 17 statistical software, it was independent-sample <i>t</i> test between the two groups of residual astigmatism and astigmatism axis. <p>RESULTS:Postoperative residual astigmatism, the observation group was significantly better than the control group. Astigmatism axial measurement after operation, the observation group was significantly less than that of the control group. Postoperative visual acuity at 6mo, the observation group was better than that of the control group. The difference was statistically significant. <p>CONCLUSION: For patients who cannot complete the wavefront aberration guided treatment of astigmatism, can separate the application of wavefront aberration analyzer automatic iris recognition technology to improve precision of astigmatism treatment, give full play to advanced technical performance of equipment, which has good application value

Numerical Analysis of Cold Injury of Skin in Cryogen Spray Cooling for Laser Dermatologic Surgery

In laser dermatologic surgery, cryogen spray cooling (CSC) is used to avoid unwanted thermal damage such as scars from skin burning due to the melanin absorption of the laser beam. As the cryogen is fully atomized from the nozzle, temperature of the droplets can quickly drop below -60 oC because of evaporation. Such low temperature may lead to cold injury of skin. Therefore, spray cooling process should be accurately controlled during clinical practice to achieve sufficient protection and avoid cold injury. This study presents a numerical analysis for cold injury of skin in cryogen spray cooling for dermatologic laser surgery by a newly developed hest transfer model. For the freezing of skin cells, heat conduction equation was used to describe frozen and unfrozen zones, and heat capacity method was utilized for mushy zone to consider the phase change of tissue. A realistic boundary condition was implemented to simulate the cooling effect during cryogen spray cooling by a generalized correlation for the dynamic heat transfer coefficient. By tracking the front of the tissue phase change, the model can be used to predict the movement of the harmful isothermals. With this model, the severity of cold injury is quantified under various clinical conditions and the effects of initial temperature as well as the spurt duration on possible cold injury of skin are investigated. The results show that 100~150ms spray cooling duration is appropriate to avoid non-uniform cooling along the radial direction and also prevent potential cold injury. Lower room temperature (10~20oC) is recommended to achieve a deep penetration protection. Further development of new candidate cryogens with lower boiling point (e.g. R407C or R404a) are highly recommended to achieved a better cooling effect

Factors influencing participant compliance in acupuncture trials: An in-depth interview study.

INTRODUCTION:Little is known of acupuncture patients' experiences and opinions of clinical trials, and what may influence their compliance when participating in an acupuncture trial. OBJECTIVES:To explore the potential factors that influence patients' choice and determinants to participate in acupuncture clinical trials. METHODS:Ten qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with patients from acupuncture clinics in Beijing, who had previously participated in acupuncture clinical trials. RESULTS:Four main themes emerged from the interview data: effectiveness of the treatment, convenience of participating in a trial, doctor-participant communication, and participant acceptance of the treatment (or the trial). Effectiveness of acupuncture in treating the health condition was the most important factor for participant adherence. Pragmatics of treatment schedules, travel and attendance burden, together with confidence in the doctor's ability additionally influenced trial and treatment compliance. CONCLUSIONS:In-depth interviews suggest that treatment effectiveness, the pragmatics of attending treatment sessions, and the expertise and attitudes of acupuncturists are determining factors of participation and compliance in acupuncture clinical trials. Participants' confidence in, and expectation of, acupuncture may facilitate compliance, while their fear of acupuncture and negative perceptions of the trial's purpose may reduce treatment compliance. Compliance may be facilitated by enhanced doctor-patient communication, personalized treatment programs, and feedback on treatment outcomes

Antidyskinetic Treatment with MTEP Affects Multiple Molecular Pathways in the Parkinsonian Striatum

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by dopaminergic neuron loss and dopamine (DA) depletion in the striatum. Standard treatment is still focused on the restoration of dopamine with exogenous L-Dopa, which however causes L-Dopa-induced dyskinesia (LID). Several studies have shown that antagonism of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 alleviates LID, but the underlying mechanisms have remained unclear. We set out to determine where this alleviation may depend on restoring the equilibrium between the two main striatofugal pathways. For this purpose, we examined molecular markers of direct and indirect pathway involvement (prodynorphin and proenkephalin, resp.) in a rat model of LID treated with the mGluR5 antagonist MTEP. Our results show that MTEP cotreatment significantly attenuates the upregulation of prodynorphin mRNA induced by L-Dopa while also decreasing the expression levels of proenkephalin mRNA. We also examined markers of the mGluR5-related PKC/MEK/ERK1/2 signaling pathway, finding that both the expression of PKC epsilon and the phosphorylation of MEK and ERK1/2 had decreased significantly in the MTEP-treated group. Taken together, our results show that pharmacological antagonism of mGluR5 normalizes several abnormal molecular responses in the striatum in this experimental model of LID

A Comparison of Computational Methods for Identifying Virulence Factors

Bacterial pathogens continue to threaten public health worldwide today. Identification of bacterial virulence factors can help to find novel drug/vaccine targets against pathogenicity. It can also help to reveal the mechanisms of the related diseases at the molecular level. With the explosive growth in protein sequences generated in the postgenomic age, it is highly desired to develop computational methods for rapidly and effectively identifying virulence factors according to their sequence information alone. In this study, based on the protein-protein interaction networks from the STRING database, a novel network-based method was proposed for identifying the virulence factors in the proteomes of UPEC 536, UPEC CFT073, P. aeruginosa PAO1, L. pneumophila Philadelphia 1, C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and M. tuberculosis H37Rv. Evaluated on the same benchmark datasets derived from the aforementioned species, the identification accuracies achieved by the network-based method were around 0.9, significantly higher than those by the sequence-based methods such as BLAST, feature selection and VirulentPred. Further analysis showed that the functional associations such as the gene neighborhood and co-occurrence were the primary associations between these virulence factors in the STRING database. The high success rates indicate that the network-based method is quite promising. The novel approach holds high potential for identifying virulence factors in many other various organisms as well because it can be easily extended to identify the virulence factors in many other bacterial species, as long as the relevant significant statistical data are available for them