The correlation between autoradiographic and volumetric leakage measurements was evaluated. Seventy-two anterior teeth with a single canal were selected and divided into three groups of 24. Group 1 ...served as control (no obturation), group 2 was obturated with gutta-percha only, and group 3 was obturated with gutta-percha and endodontic sealer. Samples were placed in a vertical position in 48-well cell culture plates and immersed in 1 ml of
14Curea for 14 days. One-mm-thick horizontal serial sections were cut with a diamond disk cooled with liquid-nitrogen gas. Linear penetration was recorded by five independent evaluators from autoradiographs. Volumetric results were based on counts per minute registered in a liquid scitillation spectrometer. Pearson's correlation coefficient test was used to determine the lineal correlation between both methods of evaluation. No acceptable correlation values were found in any of the three groups (group 1,
r = 0.34; group 2,
r = 0.23; group 3,
r = 0.20). Our results indicate that there is no correlation between linear and volumetric measurements of leakage.
The real-time generation of information about pathogen genomes has become a vital goal for transmission analysis and characterisation in rapid outbreak responses. In response to the recently ...established genomic capacity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we explored the real-time generation of genomic information at the start of the 2018 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu Province.
We used targeted-enrichment sequencing to produce two coding-complete Ebola virus genomes 5 days after declaration of the EVD outbreak in North Kivu. Subsequent sequencing efforts yielded an additional 46 genomes. Genomic information was used to assess early transmission, medical countermeasures, and evolution of Ebola virus.
The genomic information demonstrated that the EVD outbreak in the North Kivu and Ituri Provinces was distinct from the 2018 EVD outbreak in Équateur Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Primer and probe mismatches to Ebola virus were identified in silico for all deployed diagnostic PCR assays, with the exception of the Cepheid GeneXpert GP assay.
The first two coding-complete genomes provided actionable information in real-time for the deployment of the rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein vaccine, available therapeutics, and sequence-based diagnostic assays. Based on the mutations identified in the Ebola virus surface glycoprotein (GP12) observed in all 48 genomes, deployed monoclonal antibody therapeutics (mAb114 and ZMapp) should be efficacious against the circulating Ebola virus variant. Rapid Ebola virus genomic characterisation should be included in routine EVD outbreak response procedures to ascertain efficacy of medical countermeasures.
Defense Biological Product Assurance Office.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with a higher risk of diabetes mellitus (DM). Our aim was to determine associations between inflammatory disease activity (including evaluation of specific ...cytokines and chemokines) and incident DM.
Participants were adults with physician-confirmed RA from Veteran's Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry. Disease activity and clinical assessments occur longitudinally as part of clinical care. Thirty cytokines and chemokines were measured in banked serum obtained at the time of enrolment. Cytokine/chemokine values were log-adjusted and standardised (per SD). Incident DM was defined based on validated algorithms using diagnostic codes and medications. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models evaluated associations between clinical factors and incident DM. Independent associations between cytokines/chemokines and incident DM were assessed adjusting for age, sex, race, smoking, body mass index (BMI) and medication use at baseline.
Among 1866 patients with RA without prevalent DM at enrolment, there were 130 incident cases over 9223 person-years of follow-up. High Disease Activity Score (DAS28)-C reactive protein (CRP), obese BMI, older age and male sex were associated with greater risk for incident DM while current smoking and methotrexate use were protective. Patients using methotrexate were at lower risk. Several cytokines/chemokines evaluated were independently associated (per 1 SD) with DM incidence including interleukin(IL)-1, IL-6 and select macrophage-derived cytokines/chemokines (HR range 1.11-1.26). These associations were independent of the DAS28-CRP.
Higher disease activity and elevated levels of cytokines/chemokines are associated with a higher risk of incident DM in patients with RA. Future study may help to determine if targeted treatments in at-risk individuals could prevent the development of DM.
The Spitzer South Pole Telescope Deep Field (SSDF) is a wide-area survey using Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) to cover 94 deg super(2) of extragalactic sky, making it the largest IRAC survey ...completed to date outside the Milky Way midplane. The SSDF is centered at ( alpha , delta ) = (23:30, ?55:00), in a region that combines observations spanning a broad wavelength range from numerous facilities. These include millimeter imaging from the South Pole Telescope, far-infrared observations from Herschel/SPIRE, X-ray observations from the XMM XXL survey, near-infrared observations from the VISTA Hemisphere Survey, and radio-wavelength imaging from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, in a panchromatic project designed to address major outstanding questions surrounding galaxy clusters and the baryon budget. Here we describe the Spitzer/IRAC observations of the SSDF, including the survey design, observations, processing, source extraction, and publicly available data products. In particular, we present two band-merged catalogs, one for each of the two warm IRAC selection bands. They contain roughly 5.5 and 3.7 million distinct sources, the vast majority of which are galaxies, down to the SSDF 5sigma sensitivity limits of 19.0 and 18.2 Vega mag (7.0 and 9.4 mu Jy) at 3.6 and 4.5 mu m, respectively.
The scientific performance of the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) after one year of in-orbit operation is presented. We describe the main optical parameters and discuss photometric calibration, ...white noise sensitivity, and noise properties. A preliminary evaluation of the impact of the main systematic effects is presented. For each of the performance parameters, we outline the methods used to obtain them from the flight data and provide a comparison with pre-launch ground assessments, which are essentially confirmed in flight.
Phys. Rev. C 101, 055503 (2020) We report the measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry for the inelastic
scattering of electrons from the proton, at $Q^2 = 0.082$ GeV$^2$ and $ W =
2.23$ GeV, ...above the resonance region. The result $A_{\rm Inel} = - 13.5 \pm
2.0 ({\rm stat}) \pm 3.9 ({\rm syst})$~ppm agrees with theoretical
calculations, and helps to validate the modeling of the $\gamma Z$ interference
structure functions $F_1^{\gamma Z}$ and $F_2^{\gamma Z}$ used in those
calculations, which are also used for determination of the two-boson exchange
box diagram ($\Box_{\gamma Z}$) contribution to parity-violating elastic
scattering measurements. A positive parity-violating asymmetry for inclusive
$\pi^-$ production was observed, as well as positive beam-normal single-spin
asymmetry for scattered electrons and a negative beam-normal single-spin
asymmetry for inclusive $\pi^-$ production.
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