Instability of resin-dentin bonds is the Achilles’ heel of adhesive dentistry. To address this problem, a chelate-and-rinse extrafibrillar dentin demineralization strategy has been developed that ...keeps intrafibrillar minerals within collagen fibrils intact to prevent activation of endogenous proteases that are responsible for collagen degradation within hybrid layers. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the potential of using chitosan >40 kDa as an antimicrobial extrafibrillar dentin-chelating agent to enhance bond durability. Transmission electron microscopy provided evidence for retention of intrafibrillar minerals and smear plugs in dentin conditioned with 1 wt% chitosan. Analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance, Dunn’s statistic, and separate Mann-Whitney tests, tensile bond strengths to wet- and dry-bonded dentin indicated that chelating dentin with chitosan for 60 s prior to bonding did not result in a significant decline in resin-dentin bond strength when compared with that of phosphoric acid etching (P > 0.05). Gelatinolytic activity within the hybrid layers was examined via in situ zymography after 24-h storage or after thermomechanical cycling and analyzed with 3-factor analysis of variance. After 24 h, enzymatic activity was detected only within completely demineralized phosphoric acid–etched dentin, with values derived from dry bonding significantly higher than those derived from wet bonding (P < 0.05). Negligible fluorescence was detected within hybrid layers when dentin was conditioned with chitosan, even after thermomechanical cycling, as compared with the controls. Reduction in water permeability in chitosan-conditioned dentin, attributed to smear plug retention, also fostered long-term bond stability. Antibacterial testing performed with live/dead staining indicated that the acetic acid–solubilized chitosan possessed antibacterial activities against 3 single-species biofilms: Streptococcus mutans, Actinomyces naeslundii, and Enterococcus faecalis. Taken together, the new chitosan-based extrafibrillar demineralization strategy retains intrafibrillar minerals, reduces endogenous protease-initiated collagen degradation, prevents water permeation within hybrid layers, and kills bacteria on dentin surfaces, which are crucial factors for enhancing resin-dentin bond durability.
Dapsone is used in the treatment of infections and inflammatory diseases. The dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome, which is associated with a reported mortality of 9.9%, develops in about 0.5 to 3.6% ...of persons treated with the drug. Currently, no tests are available to predict the risk of the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome.
We performed a genomewide association study involving 872 participants who had received dapsone as part of multidrug therapy for leprosy (39 participants with the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome and 833 controls), using log-additive tests of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed HLA molecules. For a replication analysis, we genotyped 24 SNPs in an additional 31 participants with the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome and 1089 controls and performed next-generation sequencing for HLA-B and HLA-C typing at four-digit resolution in an independent series of 37 participants with the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome and 201 controls.
Genomewide association analysis showed that SNP rs2844573, located between the HLA-B and MICA loci, was significantly associated with the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome among patients with leprosy (odds ratio, 6.18; P=3.84×10(-13)). HLA-B*13:01 was confirmed to be a risk factor for the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome (odds ratio, 20.53; P=6.84×10(-25)). The presence of HLA-B*13:01 had a sensitivity of 85.5% and a specificity of 85.7% as a predictor of the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome, and its absence was associated with a reduction in risk by a factor of 7 (from 1.4% to 0.2%). HLA-B*13:01 is present in about 2 to 20% of Chinese persons, 1.5% of Japanese persons, 1 to 12% of Indians, and 2 to 4% of Southeast Asians but is largely absent in Europeans and Africans.
HLA-B*13:01 was associated with the development of the dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome among patients with leprosy. (Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and others.).
This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate factors that influence the likelihood of syphilis infection from risk-taking behaviours and medical conditions. A retrospective case-control study was ...conducted by enrolling 664 syphilis inpatients (excluding 11 congenital syphilis patients) and 800 sex- and age-matched controls. Medical histories, clinical data and patient interview data were collected and subjected to logistic regression analyses. The prevalence of syphilis in the study population was 3·9% (675/17 304). By univariate analysis, syphilis infection was associated with migration between cities, marital status, smoking, reproductive history, hypertension, elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) (P < 0·05). A high rate of syphilis-HBV co-infection was observed in HIV-negative patients and further research revealed an association between syphilis and specific HBV serological reactivity. Syphilis was also associated with the frequency, duration and status of tobacco use. Multivariate analysis indicated that syphilis infection was independently associated with migration between cities adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1·368, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·048–1·785, current smoking (aOR 1·607, 95% CI 1·177–2·195), elevated BUN (aOR 1·782, 95% CI 1·188–2·673) and some serological patterns of HBV infection. To prevent the spread of infectious diseases, inpatients and blood donors should be tested for HIV, syphilis, HBV and HCV simultaneously.
In this paper, a novel direct-drive double rotor Vernier panent magnet (DR-VPM) machine is proposed and analyzed. The key of the design is to incorporate two concentric rotors and the Vernier ...structure within one permanent magnet (PM) machine, while keeping the machine volume and slot number unchanged. The main merits of this proposed machine are its compact structure, improved torque density, reduced stator end winding length, and reduced copper loss. The operating principle of the machine is discussed and its steady and transient performances are analyzed using circuit-field-motion coupled time-stepping finite element method (CFM-TS-FEM). A dual-excitation PM Vernier (DE-VPM) machine and a single outer rotor PM Vernier (SR-VPM) machine are designed and compared with this proposed Vernier PM machine using CFM-TS-FEM. Comparison results as reported are used to confirm and validate the advantageous performance of the proposed machine.
Vernier permanent magnet (VPM) machines can be utilized for direct drive applications by virtue of their high torque density and high efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to develop a general ...design guideline for split-slot low-speed VPM machines, generalize the operation principle, and illustrate the relationship among the numbers of the stator slots, coil poles, permanent magnet (PM) pole pairs, thereby laying a solid foundation for the design of various kinds of VPM machines. Depending on the PM locations, three newly designed VPM machines are reported in this paper and they are referred to as 1) rotor-PM Vernier machine, 2) stator-tooth-PM Vernier machine, and 3) stator-yoke-PM Vernier machine. The back-electromotive force (back-EMF) waveforms, static torque, and air-gap field distribution are predicted using time-stepping finite element method (TS-FEM). The performances of the proposed VPM machines are compared and reported.
This paper proposes a novel magnetic-geared tubular linear machine for tidal and wave energy conversion. The key of the proposed machine is to embed the armature windings into slots adjacent to the ...modulating segments of a linear magnetic gear (LMG). The compact component designed can serve simultaneously as the modulating poles in the LMG and the armature stator in the generator. When compared with its existing counterparts, the proposed machine has an improved force density and a simpler mechanical structure by virtue of its gearing effect. Moreover, Halbach permanent-magnet (PM) array is used to build up the PM arrays in both the inner mover and outer mover of the LMG, resulting in increase in thrust force density, reduction in cogging force, and high machine efficiency. The working principle of the proposed machine is introduced, and the electromagnetic performance is investigated quantitatively using the time-stepping finite-element method.
Discoveries of the interfacial topological Hall effect (THE) provide an ideal platform for exploring the physics arising from the interplay between topology and magnetism. The interfacial topological ...Hall effect is closely related to the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) at an interface and topological spin textures. However, it is difficult to achieve a sizable THE in heterostructures due to the stringent constraints on the constituents of THE heterostructures, such as strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC). Here, we report the observation of a giant THE signal of 1.39 μΩ·cm in the van der Waals heterostructures of CrTe2/Bi2Te3 fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy, a prototype of two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnet (FM)/topological insulator (TI). This large magnitude of THE is attributed to an optimized combination of 2D ferromagnetism in CrTe2, strong SOC in Bi2Te3, and an atomically sharp interface. Our work reveals CrTe2/Bi2Te3 as a convenient platform for achieving large interfacial THE in hybrid systems, which could be utilized to develop quantum science and high-density information storage devices.
Microstructures and mechanical properties of Ti-45Al-2Nb-1.5V -1Mo-0.3Y+3vol% TiB2 in situ composite fabricated by induction skull melting (ISM) process were investigated. Results showed that ISM ...process is feasible to fabricate high-quality in situ TiB2/TiAl composite. The composite exhibits much finer lamellar colony size and lamellar spacing, compared with its TiAl base. Hexagonal primary and needlelike second TiB2 particles uniformly distribute mainly near lamellar colony boundaries with a few inside lamellar colonies. TiB2 crystals in current TiAl composite exhibit faceted growth mode along 0001 direction. The diverse morphologies of TiB2 are principally ascribed to intrinsic crystal structure and different growth stages during solidification. This composite exhibits much better tensile strength and ductility than its TiAl matrix, with tensile strength (UTS) 610MPa and elongation (E>) 0.7% at room temperature, and UTS 505MPa and E> 12% at 800 degree C, respectively.