Aim
Periodontitis is caused by dysbiosis of oral microbes and is associated with increased cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and recently, a potential functional link was proposed ...between oral microbes and AD. We compared the oral microbiomes of patients with or without AD to evaluate the association between oral microbes and AD in periodontitis.
Materials and Methods
Periodontitis patients with AD (n = 15) and cognitively unimpaired periodontitis patients (CU) (n = 14) were recruited for this study. Each patient underwent an oral examination and neuropsychological evaluation. Buccal, supragingival and subgingival plaque samples were collected, and microbiomes were analysed by next‐generation sequencing. Alpha diversity, beta diversity, linear discriminant analysis effect size, analysis of variance‐like differential expression analysis and network analysis were used to compare group oral microbiomes.
Results
All 29 participants had moderate to severe periodontitis. Group buccal and supragingival samples were indistinguishable, but subgingival samples demonstrated significant alpha and beta diversity differences. Differential analysis showed subgingival samples of the AD group had higher prevalence of Atopobium rimae, Dialister pneumosintes, Olsenella sp. HMT 807, Saccharibacteria (TM7) sp. HMT 348 and several species of Prevotella than the CU group. Furthermore, subgingival microbiome network analysis revealed a distinct, closely connected network in the AD group comprised of various Prevotella spp. and several anaerobic bacteria.
Conclusions
A unique microbial composition was discovered in the subgingival region in the AD group. Specifically, potential periodontal pathogens were found to be more prevalent in the subgingival plaque samples of the AD group. These bacteria may possess a potential to worsen periodontitis and other systemic diseases. We recommend that AD patients receive regular, careful dental check‐ups to ensure proper oral hygiene management.
Electrochemical performance of lithium ion batteries is associated with structural and chemical stability of electrode materials. In the case of nickel-rich layered cathode materials ...LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2, cation mixing, which results from the migration of transition metal ions into vacant lithium sites, is accelerated owing to similar ionic radii between nickel and lithium. However, the inevitable lattice distortions and chemical evolution have not been investigated intensely. In this paper, we report the structural evolution localized at surface regions through electron diffraction and high resolution imaging analyses with aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy. Repetition of volumetric change generates cracks and voids associated with deterioration of electrochemical performance. Structural change is related with (003) intensity in electron diffraction and it can be presented by dark field transmission electron microscopy imaging at a glance. Drastic structural degradation during early cycling shows relation with rapid capacity and voltage fade. Electron energy loss spectroscopy elucidates that the structural evolution caused by the migration of Ni ions accompanies chemical modification of Mn ions and creation of hole states at the O2p level. This study provides an insight into correlating structural and chemical evolution with degradation mechanism on battery performances of LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 cathode materials.
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•Simulation and experiment for electron diffraction confirm the structural degradation.•Atomic resolution TEM/STEM imaging analyses represent structural degradation clearly.•The structural collapse is related with capacity fade during early cycling.•Migration of Ni ions to vacant Li sites changes the oxidation states of Mn.
Atomically thin semiconducting oxide on graphene carries a unique combination of wide band gap, high charge carrier mobility, and optical transparency, which can be widely applied for ...optoelectronics. However, study on the epitaxial formation and properties of oxide monolayer on graphene remains unexplored due to hydrophobic graphene surface and limits of conventional bulk deposition technique. Here, we report atomic scale study of heteroepitaxial growth and relationship of a single-atom-thick ZnO layer on graphene using atomic layer deposition. We demonstrate atom-by-atom growth of zinc and oxygen at the preferential zigzag edge of a ZnO monolayer on graphene through in situ observation. We experimentally determine that the thinnest ZnO monolayer has a wide band gap (up to 4.0 eV), due to quantum confinement and graphene-like structure, and high optical transparency. This study can lead to a new class of atomically thin two-dimensional heterostructures of semiconducting oxides formed by highly controlled epitaxial growth.
We report a patient with right‐predominant semantic variant primary progressive aphsia linked with p.Asp40Gly variant of ANXA11, which is the first description of frontotemporal dementia without ...clinical and electrophysiological evidences of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis associated with a known pathogenic variant of ANXA11.
Protein homo-oligomerization is an important molecular mechanism in many biological processes. Therefore, the ability to control protein homo-oligomerization allows the manipulation and interrogation ...of numerous cellular events. To achieve this, cryptochrome 2 (CRY2) from Arabidopsis thaliana has been recently utilized for blue light-dependent spatiotemporal control of protein homo-oligomerization. However, limited knowledge on molecular characteristics of CRY2 obscures its widespread applications. Here, we identify important determinants for efficient cryptochrome 2 clustering and introduce a new CRY2 module, named ''CRY2clust'', to induce rapid and efficient homo-oligomerization of target proteins by employing diverse fluorescent proteins and an extremely short peptide. Furthermore, we demonstrate advancement and versatility of CRY2clust by comparing against previously reported optogenetic tools. Our work not only expands the optogenetic clustering toolbox but also provides a guideline for designing CRY2-based new optogenetic modules.Cryptochrome 2 (CRY2) from A. thaliana can be used to control light-dependent protein homo-oligomerization, but the molecular mechanism of CRY2 clustering is not known, limiting its application. Here the authors identify determinants of CRY2 clustering and engineer fusion partners to modulate clustering efficiency.
This study compared the efficacy of several passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI) systems in removing intracanal medicament using 3-dimensionally printed root canal model assembled with dentin ...specimen. After the placement of the model in the agar container (37°C), the intracanal medicament was removed using three different PUI instruments including CK file, Irrisafe and Endosonic Blue. Then, the area coated by the medicament and the volumetric percentage of the remaining medicament was measured. Irrisafe and Endosonic Blue showed higher removal efficacy than CK and the control regarding both the coated area and remaining volume (p < 0.05). CK showed the lowest efficacy among the tested PUI systems (p > 0.05). Notably, Endosonic Blue group showed the smallest coated area among the tested groups (p < 0.05). Conclusively, PUI systems made of nickel-titanium alloy with small dimensions, such as Endosonic Blue, have advantages for the removal of intracanal medicaments from curved root canals.
The direct methylation of N‐heterocycles is an important transformation for the advancement of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, functional materials, and other chemical entities. Herein, the ...unprecedented C(sp2)‐H methylation of iminoamido heterocycles as nucleoside base analogues is described. Notably, trimethylsulfoxonium salt was employed as a methylating agent under aqueous conditions. A wide substrate scope and excellent level of functional‐group tolerance were attained. Moreover, this method can be readily applied to the site‐selective methylation of azauracil nucleosides. The feasibility of gram‐scale reactions and various transformations of the products highlight the synthetic potential of the developed method. Combined deuterium‐labeling experiments aided the elucidation of a plausible reaction mechanism.
An unprecedented methylation of various iminoamido heterocycles by using Corey—Chaykovsky reagents is described. The use of aqueous solvent in the coupling reaction and the selective methylation and alkylation of azauracil nucleosides are highlighted.
Delamination is one of the detrimental defects in laminated composite materials that often arose due to manufacturing defects or in-service loadings (e.g., low/high velocity impacts). Most of the ...contemporary research efforts are dedicated to high-frequency guided wave and mode shape-based methods for the assessment (i.e., detection, quantification, localization) of delamination. This paper presents a deep learning framework for structural vibration-based assessment of delamination in smart composite laminates. A number of small-sized (4.5% of total area) inner and edge delaminations are simulated using an electromechanically coupled model of the piezo-bonded laminated composite. Healthy and delaminated structures are stimulated with random loads and the corresponding transient responses are transformed into spectrograms using optimal values of window size, overlapping rate, window type, and fast Fourier transform (FFT) resolution. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is designed to automatically extract discriminative features from the vibration-based spectrograms and use those to distinguish the intact and delaminated cases of the smart composite laminate. The proposed architecture of the convolutional neural network showed a training accuracy of 99.9%, validation accuracy of 97.1%, and test accuracy of 94.5% on an unseen data set. The testing confusion chart of the pre-trained convolutional neural network revealed interesting results regarding the severity and detectability for the in-plane and through the thickness scenarios of delamination.
Whether a longer no-flow (NF) interval affects the magnitude of response to epinephrine in the resuscitation has not been well studied. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of NF ...interval on the vasopressor effect of initial epinephrine administration in a porcine model.
We enrolled 20 pigs from two randomized porcine experimental studies using a ventricular fibrillation (VF) cardiac arrest model. The first experiment subjects were resuscitated after 4 min of NF (Short NF group), followed by three cycles (6 min) of chest compression using a mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation device before epinephrine administration. Second experiment subjects received 6 min of NF (Long NF group), two cycles (4 min) of chest compressions, and administration of epinephrine. Defibrillation for VF was delivered 8 and 10 min after VF induction in the Short NF and Long NF groups, respectively. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) and cerebral perfusion pressure (CePP) in the 2-min resuscitation period after epinephrine administration were compared between the study groups using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The mean differences in the parameters between phases were also compared.
Seven pigs in the Short NF group and 13 pigs in the Long NF group were included in the analysis. All 2-min resuscitation phases from 6 to 16 min after VF induction were compared between the study groups. The Short NF group showed higher MAP and CePP in all phases (p < 0.01). Change of mean MAP after the epinephrine administration was significantly different between the study groups: mean difference (95% confidence interval) of 16.6 (15.8-17.4) mmHg in the Short NF group and 4.2 (3.9-4.5) mmHg in the Long NF group.
In the porcine VF cardiac arrest model, 6 min of NF before resuscitation may affect the vasopressor effect of the initial epinephrine administered compared to 4 min of NF. A short NF may play a role in maximizing the effect of epinephrine in advanced cardiovascular life support.
Although polyetherimide (PEI) has attracted attention owing to its good dielectric properties, superior mechanical properties, and thermal/chemical stabilities, there is still a lack of methodology ...to fabricate PEI films in desired shapes directly on devices. In this study, a dispenser printing method to fabricate sophisticated 2D PEI structures is introduced. As dispenser printing is a solution‐based process, PEI ink is prepared by dissolving PEI in N‐methyl pyrrolidone (NMP). The printing conditions are controlled by optimizing the pneumatic pressure and viscosity of the inks with various ratios of PEI and NMP, followed by a two‐step heat treatment to develop fine PEI films. The dielectric constant of the PEI film increases from 2.28 to 2.61 with the corresponding secondary heating time of 1–5 h, which is much lower than the theoretical value owing to the free volume and loosely entangled polymer chains generated from the shear forces in printing and solvent evaporation. Furthermore, the film exhibits anisotropic mechanical properties in different printing directions, stemming from the alignment effect of the polymer molecules. It is believed that the developed PEI films and the facile methodology can be diversely tuned to provide new insights into material utilization, further extending the application fields.
Dispenser printing for polyetherimide film fabrication is reported to widen materials system design and flexibilities, of which the printing conditions are optimized based on the viscosity of ink, pneumatic pressure, and heat treatment. Combined with the relatively low dielectric constant and unique anisotropic mechanical properties, the results suggest a new paradigm in processing for advanced engineering plastics.