The Relationship Between Excessive Anterior Overlap And Dental Status

Aim: This study was designed to analyze the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survery (NHANES III) database to determine whether excessive overlap of the anterior teeth was related to an increase in structural dental problems. Materials and Methods: The NHANES III database was procured from the National Center for Healthcare Statistics for the purpose of investigating whether a relationship exists between tooth condition and occlusal characteristics of horizontal and vertical overlap. The sample population was limited to those aged 18-50 to incorporate those people who had both Restoration and Tooth Condition Scores and Occlusal Characteristics. The subject set was statistically analyzed using SAS v9.2 software to demonstrate any possible relationships. Results: Our study reaffirmed the characteristics of naturally occurring occlusions. It was shown that 59.5% of the population has a horizontal overlap between 1-3mm, 56% of the population has a vertical overlap of 1-3mm, and 4.6% of the population has an open bite. It was also suggested that the majority of the population has a sound dentition with 83.61% of all teeth recorded being sound. The anterior relationship to tooth condition score comparison was also made for individual at-risk teeth. Teeth numbers 9 (maxillary left central incisor), 12 (maxillary left first premolar), and 14 (maxillary left first molar) were analyzed. The vast majority of teeth were again found to be sound, approximately 85% (tooth 9), 75% (tooth 12), and 71% (tooth 14). No association was found between overlap and tooth condition scores for any individual tooth. Conclusions: According to the NHANES III data file documentation currently available through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, no relationship exists between the degree of anterior overlap and tooth condition. Due to large differences in the raw data found within this database when compared to previously published data, the reliability of the NHANES III database can be called into question

Chronic morphine treatment attenuates cell growth of human BT474 breast cancer cells by rearrangement of the ErbB signalling network.

There is increasing evidence that opioid analgesics may interfere with tumour growth. It is currently thought that these effects are mediated by transactivation of receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)-controlled ERK1/2 and Akt signalling. The growth of many breast cancer cells is dependent on hyperactive ErbB receptor networks and one of the most successful approaches in antineoplastic therapy during the last decade was the development of ErbB-targeted therapies. However, the response rates of single therapies are often poor and resistance mechanisms evolve rapidly. To date there is no information about the ability of opioid analgesics to interfere with the growth of ErbB-driven cancers. Here we demonstrate that ErbB2 overexpressing BT474 human breast cancer cells carry fully functional endogenous µ-opioid receptors. Most interestingly, the acute opioid effects on basal and Heregulin-stimulated ERK1/2 and Akt phosphorylation changed considerably during chronic Morphine treatment. Investigation of the underlying mechanism by the use of protein kinase inhibitors and co-immunoprecipitation studies revealed that chronic Morphine treatment results in rearrangement of the ErbB signalling network leading to dissociation of ERK1/2 from Akt signalling and a switch from ErbB1/ErbB3 to ErbB1/ErbB2-dependent cell growth. In chronically Morphine-treated cells Heregulin-stimulated ERK1/2 signalling is redirected via a newly established PI3K- and metalloproteinase-dependent feedback loop. Together, these alterations result in apoptosis of BT474 cells. A similar switch in Heregulin-stimulated ERK1/2 signalling from an ErbB2-independent to an ErbB2-, PI3K- and metalloproteinase-dependent mechanism was also observed in κ-opioid receptor expressing SKBR3 human mammary adenocarcinoma cells. The present data demonstrate that the ErbB receptor network of human breast cancer cells represents a target for chronic Morphine treatment. Rearrangement of ErbB signalling by chronic Morphine may provide a promising strategy to enhance the sensitivity of breast cancer cells to ErbB-directed therapies and to prevent the development of escape mechanisms

Flexible electrical conductors for high-temperature switchgear

Arch-shaped conductors fabricated from flat strips of beryllium oxide dispersion-strengthened copper alloy serve as flexible electrical connectors capable of operating in 1000 deg F temperature range, under vacuum conditions for periods of 10,000 hours or more without failure

Long Live Life Settlements: The Current Status and Proposed Direction of the Life Settlement Market

The payment of life insurance policy benefits to the insured’s suriving spouse or child is something with which most people are both familiar and comfortable. However, when those benefits are instead paid to a third party investor who has no interest in the insured’s life, some people cry foul. Yet this is the basic premise of the secondary market for life insurance. In this market, insured individuals assign their policy benefits to an investor who agrees to pay the insured a lump sum of money in addition to assuming responsibility for the policy’s premiums. While the underlying concepts that support the secondary market for life insurance policies are not new, the young and imperfectly regulated market has been strained by an increase in supply and demand for these products. Because of the limited guidance within the market, fraud and uncertainty have pervaded many transactions. As a result, many validly settled policies may face challenges in the courts. In an effort to help stabilize and legitimize the secondary market, this Comment recommends coupling a strict judicial interpretation of the incontestability periods contained in many life insurance policies with a five year holding period on newly issued life insurance policies. This framework will help deter fraudulent transactions while promoting certainty among investors

System reliability analysis through corona testing

A corona vacuum test facility for nondestructive testing of power system components was built in the Reliability and Quality Engineering Test Laboratories at the NASA Lewis Research Center. The facility was developed to simulate operating temperature and vacuum while monitoring corona discharges with residual gases. The facility is being used to test various high-voltage power system components

First Supramolecular Sensors for Phosphonate Anions

Fluorescent tripodal anion sensors with a 1,3,5-triethylbenzene core display a turn-on fluorescence response to phosphonate and phosphate anions and may be used as optical sensors. The properties of the receptors and sensors as well as their anion binding behavior were investigated both in solution and in solid state. The turn-on fluorescence response can be leveraged in sensing of phosphate anions and, most importantly, hydrolysis products of the nerve gas sarin, isopropyl methylphosphonate (IMP), and methylphosphonate (MP). The fluorescence signal amplification in the presence of anions allows for application of these molecules in a sensor microarray suitable for high-throughput screening.NSF CHE 0750303, EXP-LA 0731153BGSU (TIE Grant)Chemistr

Tidal and spatial variability of flow speed and seismicity near the grounding zone of Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica

GPS measurements of tidal modulation of ice flow and seismicity within the grounding zone of Beardmore Glacier show that tidally induced fluctuations of horizontal flow are largest near the grounding line and decrease downstream. Seismic activity is continuous, but peaks occur on falling and rising tides. Beamforming methods reveal that most seismic events originate from two distinct locations, one on the grid-north side of the grounding zone, and one on the grid-south side. The broad pattern of deformation generated as Beardmore Glacier merges with the Ross Ice Shelf results in net extension along the grid-north side of the grounding zone and net compression along the grid-south side. During falling tides, seismic activity peaks on both sides because of increased vertical flexure across the grounding line. During rising tides, seismic activity in the region of extension on the grid-north side is relatively low because the tidal influence on both horizontal strain rate and vertical flexure is small. On the gridsouth side during rising tides, however, tidally induced horizontal strain rates promote increased seismicity in regions of long-term compressional flow paths. Our study highlights how concurrent geodetic and seismic measurements provide insight into grounding-zone mechanics and their influence on ice-shelf buttressing

Infinite-Horizon Differentiable Model Predictive Control

This paper proposes a differentiable linear quadratic Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework for safe imitation learning. The infinite-horizon cost is enforced using a terminal cost function obtained from the discrete-time algebraic Riccati equation (DARE), so that the learned controller can be proven to be stabilizing in closed-loop. A central contribution is the derivation of the analytical derivative of the solution of the DARE, thereby allowing the use of differentiation-based learning methods. A further contribution is the structure of the MPC optimization problem: an augmented Lagrangian method ensures that the MPC optimization is feasible throughout training whilst enforcing hard constraints on state and input, and a pre-stabilizing controller ensures that the MPC solution and derivatives are accurate at each iteration. The learning capabilities of the framework are demonstrated in a set of numerical studies

South Polar Layered Deposits of Mars: The cratering record

Data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) and Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) instruments aboard the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) were used in a detailed search of a selected part of the South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD) for impact craters. Impact craters with diameters from 0.8 to 5 km were identified from a MOLA-derived shaded relief map and were primarily validated using individual MOLA tracks and, in select cases, MOC narrow angle images. The resultant crater population determined in this study is at least four times the density of the crater population previously recognized. From these new statistics, we estimate the mean apparent surface age of the SPLD to be 30–100 Ma, depending on the established production model isochrons used. All of these craters are considerably shallower than other Martian craters in the same diameter range. We attribute this shallowness to be the cause of the lower detection rates of previous studies. There is a correlation between crater depth and rim height, which suggests that both erosion and infilling have affected the crater forms. A similar study of the north polar layered deposits uncovered no craters in this diameter range. A limited population of craters smaller than 800 m was uncovered in higher-resolution MOC narrow angle images. These do not appear to have been degraded to the same degree. This separate population implies a surface exposure age of only 100,000 years and perhaps indicates an event that erased all small craters and degraded and infilled the larger ones