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In severe atrophy of the mandible, implant placement in original bone may not be possible. In this field, augmentation procedures have already been described and controversially discussed. By the use of distraction osteogenesis, bone augmentation without donor morbidity is obtained, while the implant-bone interface remains in original bone. Despite soft tissue expansion during the distraction process, a lack of attached gingiva may cause difficulties at the implant site. In certain cases, an additional soft tissue augmentation procedure has to be performed for a good long-term functional and esthetic rehabilitation. The connective tissue graft and the free gingival graft are recommended to be standard procedures to create a stable periimplant mucosa, but the morbidity and the size limitation of the donor site have to be taken into consideration in selected patients. Transplantation of in vitro-cultured keratinocytes could be an alternative. Distraction osteogenesis and tissue engineering of keratinocytes, as well as bone-cultivating techniques, may increasingly be valuable adjuncts to current augmentation procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American societal enmity following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, drove the narrative of the Global War on Terror and its legal justification in the Authorization to Use Military Force. The commitment of regular and special operations military forces into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reflected this enmity that Carl von Clausewitz noted was the wellspring of war. As American enmity and these wars wind down after eighteen years, anxiety replaces enmity. Special operations become ever more the force of choice by policymakers in pursuit of objectives within the narrative to reduce societal anxiety over terror attack at home. Outside a theater of the active form of war that conforms to the model of the phenomenon of war in politics that Clausewitz defined, can Special Operations be a military task at all—or solely an actor in a world of broken windows—answering only to itself and to a political directive in response to society's anxiety toward personal safety, crime in the form of terror, and a legal opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barrier interface condition is critical for spin-polarized tunneling and spin-transfer torque switching in CoFeB∣MgO∣CoFeB-based magnetic tunnel junctions. The differential tunnel conductance g V contains information on CoFeB's magnetic properties at tunnel interfaces. Experimentally, we find g V to follow a "cross-normalization" relationship between the parallel and antiparallel alignments. This we show originates from the leading order spin-flip scatter terms related to CoFeB interface magnetic properties such as its exchange-stiffness. By connecting the observable g V slopes to electrode-specific spin-flip scatter rates, we obtain an efficient measurement for mass-screening of junctions for interface magnetic differences. This provides valuable information for device and fabrication process optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Interferon (IFN)‐free direct‐acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have revolutionized chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment; early studies suggest excellent efficacy in acute HCV. However, changes in innate immune responses during DAA therapy for acute HCV are unknown. We studied interferon‐stimulated gene (ISG) expression and related cytokines/chemokines in HIV‐infected patients with acute HCV receiving sofosbuvir plus ribavirin (SOF+RBV) as part of the A5327 clinical trial. ISG expression was determined from PBMCs, and circulating cytokines/chemokines were quantified from serum from study participants. The overall sustained virologic response (SVR) was 57%; all treatment failures were due to virologic relapse. Apart from NOS2a, baseline ISG/chemokine/cytokine levels were similar irrespective of treatment outcome. Downregulation of ISGs was observed at treatment week four and end of treatment (EOT), implicating HCV in establishing elevated ISGs early during HCV infection. Levels of many of these ISGs increased at post‐treatment week 12 (PTW12) in relapsers only, coinciding with recurrent HCV RNA. Eleven ISGs were differentially expressed in responders vs relapsers. On‐treatment viral suppression was also associated with a reduction in IP‐10, CXCL11 and MIP‐1β levels. In contrast, circulating IFN‐α levels were significantly higher at EOT and PTW12 in responders vs relapsers. Upregulation of peripheral ISG expression is established early in the course of HCV infection during acute HCV infection, but did not predict subsequent treatment outcome with SOF+RBV. ISGs were downregulated during therapy and increased post‐therapy in relapsers. IFN‐α levels were higher in responders at EOT/PTW12, suggesting that impaired type I IFN production/secretion may contribute to relapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-continental phylogenetic analysis is important to understand subtle molecular differences of currently circulating hepatitis C virus (HCV) subtypes. Existence of such differences can be crucial in pursuing a universal hepatitis C vaccine. We characterized molecular epidemiology of early HCV infections identified across nine cohorts [North America (n=4), Australia (n=4) and Europe (n=1)] in the International Collaborative of Incident HIV and Hepatitis C in Injecting Cohorts (InC3). One hundred and ninety-two full-length HCV genomes were amplified from plasma of incident infections and subjected to next generation sequencing to establish the largest cross-continental, full-length acute HCV genomic data set available to date. Genomes from the most common subtypes (1a: n=94, 2b: n=15 and 3a: n=68) were used in phylogenetic analysis. Using full genome trees, 78 sequences (44%) were found to lie within 29 phylogenetic clusters/pairs defined on the basis of molecular similarity of consensus sequences. Of these, 26 each had exclusively Australian or North American sequences indicating a strong geographical bias for molecular similarity. On further analysis of behavioural and demographic associations, binary logistic regression analysis showed that older age and non-Caucasian ethnicity were significantly associated with clustering. HCV probably evolves in micro-epidemics within geographically isolated communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]