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The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) can act as a useful index of nonspecific disease activity in the diagnosis of inflammatory conditions. However, there are several drawbacks, including long time measurement. To promote ESR tendency, a micro-vibrational erythrocyte sedimentation rate (MV-ESR) was proposed. By controlling the profile of injecting flow rate into blood sample, air between the syringe pump and bottom of blood column was compressed and released. Micro-vibration (MV) is simple reciprocating flow including motion in both positive and negative directions in a line. It is determined as the edge of the interface between top of blood column and air is pinned under the pressure wave. From that, shear rate generated by determined MV is from 0 to 10–2 (s−1) in this study. Extremely low shear conditions may enhance the probability of erythrocyte aggregation formation. During measurement, a meniscus of separated plasma and sedimented erythrocytes was recorded using a camera. For validation of the proposed MV-ESR method, the effects of hematocrit as well as the frequency and amplitude of flow in the sedimentation tube were investigated. To quantify the enhancement of MV-ESR, the area of relative gradient (ARG) based on a relative gradient of 1 was used. When MV with a maximum flow rate of 1 mL/min and a period of 100 ms was produced until 15 min, MV-ESR exhibited the best performance. Then, the proposed technique was used to diagnose the ESR difference between a normal and periodontitis patient. The characteristic time (λESR), indicating the degree completion of the erythrocyte sedimentation, of the periodontitis patients was lower than that of the control. Based on the experimental demonstrations, λESR of the MV-ESR method has significant potential in the diagnosis of inflammatory conditions and prognosis of non-inflammatory conditions.

The formation of droplets or bubbles in a microfluidic system is a significant topic requiring device miniaturization and a small volume of samples. Especially, a two-phase segmented flow can be applied to micro-mixing for chemical reactions and the treatment of heat and mass transfer. In this study, a flow of liquid slugs and bubbles was generated in a 3D-printed chip and controlled by a single pump creating a vacuum at the outlet. The pump and chip device were integrated to form a simple and portable system. The size and flow rate of liquid slugs, obtained through image processing techniques, were analyzed considering several parameters related to hydraulic resistance and pressure drop. In addition, the effect of segmentation on mixing was observed by measuring the intensity change using two different colored inks. The hydraulic resistance of air and liquid flows can be controlled by changing the tube length of air flow and the viscosity of liquid flow. Because the total pressure drop along the channel was produced using a single pump at the outlet of the channel, the size and flow rate of the liquid slugs showed a near linear relation depending on the hydraulic resistances. In contrast, as the total pressure varied with the flow rate of the pump, the size of the liquid slugs showed a nonlinear trend. This indicates that the frequency of the liquid slug formation induced by the squeezed bubble may be affected by several forces during the development of the liquid slugs and bubbles. In addition, each volume of liquid slug segmented by the air is within the range of 10–1 to 2 µL for this microfluidic system. The segmentation contributes to mixing efficiency based on the increased homogeneity factor of liquid. This study provides a new insight to better understand the liquid slug or droplet formation and predict the segmented flow based on the relationship between the resistance, flow rate, and pressure drop.

The practicability of deep learning techniques has been demonstrated by their successful implementation in varied fields, including diagnostic imaging for clinicians. In accordance with the increasing demands in the healthcare industry, techniques for automatic prediction and detection are being widely researched. Particularly in dentistry, for various reasons, automated mandibular canal detection has become highly desirable. The positioning of the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN), which is one of the major structures in the mandible, is crucial to prevent nerve injury during surgical procedures. However, automatic segmentation using Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) poses certain difficulties, such as the complex appearance of the human skull, limited number of datasets, unclear edges, and noisy images. Using work-in-progress automation software, experiments were conducted with models based on 2D SegNet, 2D and 3D U-Nets as preliminary research for a dental segmentation automation tool. The 2D U-Net with adjacent images demonstrates higher global accuracy of 0.82 than naïve U-Net variants. The 2D SegNet showed the second highest global accuracy of 0.96, and the 3D U-Net showed the best global accuracy of 0.99. The automated canal detection system through deep learning will contribute significantly to efficient treatment planning and to reducing patients’ discomfort by a dentist. This study will be a preliminary report and an opportunity to explore the application of deep learning to other dental fields.

Accurate measurement of viscosity using small samples is important considering the role of viscosity in the dynamics of physical, chemical, and biological systems. The microfluidic viscometer proposed in previous studies can measure the viscosity of fluids by estimating the pressure between samples and reference flows from the interfacial width. Therefore, accurate detection of the interfacial width is important in terms of the performance of a viscometer. We investigate flow behaviors in the microfluidic viscometer depending on their shape. In the simulation results, sample and reference flows are accelerated around the sharp corners of the viscometer. Flow disturbance around corners results in regions with a high-shear rate. The area of the high-shear region becomes wider as the confluence angle increases. To experimentally check the variation of flow conditions depending on the confluence angle, the flow rate and interfacial width were measured in a microfluidic viscometer designed using mold fabricated with a 3D printer. The width ratios obtained from the experiment results are varied depending on the confluence angle of the viscometer. This indicates that a high-shear region around a sharp corner can lead to inaccurate measurement of the microfluidic viscometer. To reduce the high-shear regions, the distributions of the shear rate were investigated depending on the degree of the rounded corners. A region with a high-shear rate is significantly decreased by increasing the radius of curvature. From the results, a microfluidic viscometer with a confluence angle of 30° and rounded curves is suitable for measuring the viscosity based on an estimation of the pressure. By using the selected design of the microfluidic viscometer, the viscosity of a blood sample is reasonably measured depending on the shear rate. A microfluidic viscometer with a suitable design can be utilized as a viscometer with significant advantages in terms of mobility and ease of operation by combining it with mobile sensing equipment.

Background Despite the growing demand for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) for clinical use as an alternative approach against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the manufacture of AMPs relies on expensive, small-scale chemical methods. The small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) tag is industrially practical for increasing the yield of recombinant proteins by increasing solubility and preventing degradation in expression systems. Results A new vector system, pKSEC1, was designed to produce AMPs, which can work in prokaryotic systems such as Escherichia coli and plant chloroplasts. 6xHis was tagged to SUMO for purification of SUMO-fused AMPs. Abaecin, a 34-aa-long antimicrobial peptide from honeybees, was expressed in a fusion form to 6xHis-SUMO in a new vector system to evaluate the prokaryotic expression platform of the antimicrobial peptides. The fusion sequences were codon-optimized in three different combinations and expressed in E. coli. The combination of the native SUMO sequence with codon-optimized abaecin showed the highest expression level among the three combinations, and most of the expressed fusion proteins were detected in soluble fractions. Cleavage of the SUMO tag by sumoase produced a 29-aa-long abaecin derivative with a C-terminal deletion. However, this abaecin derivative still retained the binding sequence for its target protein, DnaK. Antibacterial activity of the 29-aa long abaecin was tested against Bacillus subtilis alone or in combination with cecropin B. The combined treatment of the abaecin derivative and cecropin B showed bacteriolytic activity 2 to 3 times greater than that of abaecin alone. Conclusions Using a SUMO-tag with an appropriate codon-optimization strategy could be an approach for the production of antimicrobial peptides in E.coli without affecting the viability of the host cell. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12896-019-0506-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The threat of a major human influenza pandemic such as the avian H5N1 or the 2009 new H1N1 has emphasized the need for effective prevention strategies to combat these pathogens. Although egg based influenza vaccines have been well established for a long time, it remains an ongoing public health need to develop alternative production methods that ensures improved safety, efficacy, and ease of administration compared with conventional influenza vaccines. This article is intended to cover some of the recent advances and related patents on the development of influenza vaccines including live attenuated, cell based, genomic and synthetic peptide vaccines.

The effects of microstructural changes in heavy-section Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel on Charpy impact properties were investigated using a 210 mm thick reactor pressure vessel. Specimens were sampled from 5 different positions at intervals of 1/4 thickness from the inner surface to the outer surface. A detailed microstructural analysis of impact-fractured specimens showed that coarse carbides along the lath boundaries acted as fracture initiation sites, and cleavage cracks deviated at prior-austenite grain boundaries and bainite lath boundaries. Upper shelf energy was higher and energy transition temperature was lower at the surface positon, where fine bainitic microstructure with homogeneously distributed fine carbides were present. Toward the center, coarse upper bainite and precipitation of coarse inter-lath carbides were observed, which deteriorated impact properties. At the 1/4T position, the Charpy impact properties were worse than those at other positions owing to the combination of elongated-coarse inter-lath carbides and large effective grain size.

This study aimed to utilize micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) analysis to compare new bone formation in rat calvarial defects using chitosan/fibroin–hydroxyapatite (CFB–HAP) or collagen (Bio-Gide) membranes. Fifty-four (54) rats were studied. A circular bony defect (8 mm diameter) was formed in the centre of the calvaria using a trephine bur. The CFB–HAP membrane was prepared by thermally induced phase separation. In the experimental group (n=18), the CFB–HAP membrane was used to cover the bony defect, and in the control group (n=18), a resorbable collagen membrane (Bio-Gide) was used. In the negative control group (n=18), no membrane was used. In each group, six animals were euthanized at 2, 4 and 8 weeks after surgery. The specimens were then analysed using micro-CT. There were significant differences in bone volume (BV) and bone mineral density (BMD) (P

Bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) is a side effect of bisphosphonate therapy. However, its pathophysiology is not yet fully elucidated, and effective treatment of BRONJ remains unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of alendronate on oral keratinocytes and of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on alendronate-treated keratinocytes, specifically by evaluating their viability, apoptosis, and wound healing function after irradiation. Oral keratinocyte cells (HaCaT) were exposed to 25 μM alendronate. Then, laser irradiation was performed with a low-level Ga-Al-As laser (λ = 808 ± 3 nm, 80 mW, and 80 mA; NDLux, Seoul, Korea) using 1.2 J/cm(2) energy dose. Viability was analyzed using MTT assay. Apoptosis was measured by Hoechst staining, caspase assay. Changes in secretion of IL-8, VEGF, and collagen type I were studied by ELISA and immunofluorescence microscopy. Scratch wound assays were also performed to measure cellular migration. Our results show that alendronate inhibits keratinocyte viability, expression of IL-8, VEGF, and collagen type I which are intimately related to healing events and cell migration while promoting apoptosis. Our results serve to demonstrate the utility of LLLT in partially overcoming the inhibitory effects of this bisphosphonate. From these results, the authors believe that the present study will provide an experimental basis for a fuller explanation of the clinical effects of LLLT as a BRONJ treatment modality.

Background The aim of this report is to present a new reference for aesthetic mandible surgery using three-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography-based treatment planning for orthognathic surgery which can be implemented in surgical planning and perioperative procedure. Methods To make an objective standard for evaluating aesthetic mandibular outline, we make an aesthetic scoring criteria with consideration of asymmetry, broad mandibular border line, and prominent mandibular angle. Two maxillofacial surgeons and two orthodontists rated their aesthetical evaluation from 1 to 5. Experimental group consisting of 47 female and 38 male patients who had rotational orthognathic two-jaw surgery from 2010 to 2011 were chosen according to aesthetic scoring done by two maxillofacial surgeons and two orthodontists. A high aesthetic score (≥16) means the facial contour is symmetric, with no broad and narrow aesthetic mandible frontal profiles. Control A group consisted of ten female and ten male patients who had no orthognathic surgery experience and low aesthetic score (≤10). Control B group consisted of ten female and ten male patients who had no orthognathic surgery experience and had anaesthetic mandibular frontal profile and a high aesthetic score (≥16). The three-dimensional image of the patient was taken from dental cone-beam CT (DCT) scanning (experimental group and control A group: 6 months DCT after surgery, control B group: 1st visit DCT). Each DCT was reformatted to reorient the 3D image using 3D analyzing program (OnDemand3D, cybermed Inc, CA, USA). After selection of 12 landmarks and the construction of reoriented horizontal, vertical, and coronal reference lines, 15 measurements were taken in 3D analysis of frontal mandibular morphology. Afterwards, horizontal and vertical linear measurements and angular measurements, linear ratio were obtained. Results Mean Go’Rt-Me’-Go’Lt angular measurement was 100.74 ± 2.14 in female patients and 105.37 ± 3.62 in male patients. These showed significant difference with control A group in both genders. Ratio of Go’Rt,Go’Lt-Me’ length to some linear measurements (ratio of Me’-Cd’RtCd’Lt to Me’-Go’RtGo’Lt, ratio of Me’-Go’ to Me’-Go’RtGo’Lt, ratio of Go’Rt-Go’Lt to Me’-Go’RtGo’Lt) showed significant difference with control A group in both genders. Conclusion This study was intended to find some standard measurement of mandible frontal view in 3D analysis of aesthetic patient. So, these potential measurement value may be helpful for orthognathic treatment planning to have more aesthetic and perspective outcomes.

Background In guided bone regeneration (GBR) technique, many materials have been used for improving biological effectiveness by adding on membranes. The new membrane which was constructed with chitin-fibroin-hydroxyapatite (CNF/HAP) was compared with a collagen membrane (Bio-Gide®) by means of micro-computed tomography. Methods Fifty-four rats were used in this study. A critical-sized (8 mm) bony defect was created in the calvaria with a trephine bur. The CNF/HAP membrane was prepared by thermally induced phase separation. In the experimental group (n = 18), the CNF/HAP membrane was used to cover the bony defect, and in the control group (n = 18), a resorbable collagen membrane (Bio-Gide®) was used. In the negative control group (n = 18), no membrane was used. In each group, six animals were euthanized at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after surgery. The specimens were analyzed using micro-CT. Results Bone volume (BV) and bone mineral density (BMD) of the new bone showed significant difference between the negative control group and membrane groups (P

Emerging outbreaks of newly found, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N8) viruses have been reported globally. Previous studies have indicated that H5N8 pathogenicity in mice is relatively moderate compared with H5N1 pathogenicity. However, detailed mechanisms underlying avian influenza pathogenicity are still undetermined. We used a high-throughput RNA-seq method to analyse host and pathogen transcriptomes in the lungs of mice infected with A/MD/Korea/W452/2014 (H5N8) and A/EM/Korea/W149/2006 (H5N1) viruses. Sequenced numbers of viral transcripts and expression levels of host immune-related genes at 1 day post infection (dpi) were higher in H5N8-infected than H5N1-infected mice. Dual sequencing of viral transcripts revealed that in contrast to the observations at 1 dpi, higher number of H5N1 genes than H5N8 genes was sequenced at 3 and 7 dpi, which is consistent with higher viral titres and virulence observed in infected lungs in vivo. Ingenuity pathway analysis revealed a more significant upregulation of death receptor signalling, driven by H5N1 than with H5N8 infection at 3 and 7 dpi. Early induction of immune response-related genes may elicit protection in H5N8-infected mice, which correlates with moderate pathogenicity in vivo. Collectively, our data provide new insight into the underlying mechanisms of the differential pathogenicity of avian influenza viruses.

Emerging outbreaks of newly found, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N8) viruses have been reported globally. Previous studies have indicated that H5N8 pathogenicity in mice is relatively moderate compared with H5N1 pathogenicity. However, detailed mechanisms underlying avian influenza pathogenicity are still undetermined. We used a high-throughput RNA-seq method to analyse host and pathogen transcriptomes in the lungs of mice infected with A/MD/Korea/W452/2014 (H5N8) and A/EM/Korea/W149/2006 (H5N1) viruses. Sequenced numbers of viral transcripts and expression levels of host immune-related genes at 1 day post infection (dpi) were higher in H5N8-infected than H5N1-infected mice. Dual sequencing of viral transcripts revealed that in contrast to the observations at 1 dpi, higher number of H5N1 genes than H5N8 genes was sequenced at 3 and 7 dpi, which is consistent with higher viral titres and virulence observed in infected lungs in vivo. Ingenuity pathway analysis revealed a more significant upregulation of death receptor signalling, driven by H5N1 than with H5N8 infection at 3 and 7 dpi. Early induction of immune response-related genes may elicit protection in H5N8-infected mice, which correlates with moderate pathogenicity in vivo. Collectively, our data provide new insight into the underlying mechanisms of the differential pathogenicity of avian influenza viruses.

Background This study are to identify the symptomatic changes and condylar stability after 2 jaw surgery without preceding treatments for Temporomandibular joints(TMJ) in class III patients with the TMJ symptoms; and to assess therapeutic effect of 2 jaw surgery and the necessity of preceding treatment for alleviation of TMJ symptoms. Methods 30 prognathic patients with preexisting TMJ symptoms were divided into 2 groups according to presence or absence of preceding treatments before the surgery. We evaluated symptomatic changes on both TMJ by questionnaires and clinical examinations. And we reconstructed 3D cone beam computed tomography images before 2 jaw surgery, immediately after the surgery, and 6 months or more after the surgery with SimPlant software, and analyzed the stability of condylar position on 3D reconstruction model. Significances were assessed by the Wilcoxon signed rank test on SPSS ver. 20.0. Results Both groups had favorable changes of TMJ symptoms after orthognathic surgery. And postoperative position of condyle had good stability during follow-up period. Conclusion 2 jaw surgery without preceding treatments for TMD can have therapeutic effect for TMD patients with class III malocclusion.