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Evaluating mouth rinsing skills is useful for assessing oral function, however current evaluation methods are subjective.This study compared mouth rinsing between adults and children using a contactless camera to capture lip motion.The subjects comprised 16 adults and 13 children with no oral dysfunction. A compact vital sensing camera adapted from a Microsoft Xbox One Kinect Sensor® (Kinect) was placed 100 cm from the floor and 120 cm from the subject; 5, 10 and 15 ml of water were used as samples. Participants were instructed to hold the sample in the oral cavity, close the lips and move the sample alternatively left and right for 15 s. Maximum/minimum displacement from the reference plane and rinsing cycle for each sample were analysed by one-way analysis of variance.In adults, there was no significant difference in the maximum/minimum displacement between the left and right sides of the angulus oris due to differences in sample amount. In children, the right maximum significantly differed between the 5- and 15-ml and 10- and 15-ml samples, while the left maximum significantly differed between the 5- and 10-ml and 5- and 15-ml samples. The right minimum significantly differed between the 5- and 10-ml samples, as did the duration of mouth rinsing between the 5- and 15-ml samples.In children, lip movement and mouth rinsing duration tended to decrease with increasing sample volume. Evaluating lip movement using a contactless vital sensing camera is useful for assessing children's development of oral function.

Nitroxide compounds have been used as redox-sensitive imaging probes by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) for assessing oxidative stress in vivo. Fast redox reactions of nitroxide radicals are favorable for assessment of higher redox sensitivity; however, a variety of nitroxides have not been trialed for use as imaging probes due to their very rapid in vivo reduction, which cannot be captured at the slow operation speed of existing EPR imagers. To overcome this limitation, we improved our EPR system to provide a stable and highly sensitive imaging operation. We challenged the improved EPR imager to perform three-dimensional (3D) EPR imaging of mouse brain using two useful nitroxide imaging probes, 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (Tempol) and 2,6-dispiro-4',4"-dipyrane-piperidine-4-one-N-oxyl (DiPy). The second-order rate constant of DiPy with ascorbic acid is 10 times larger than that of Tempol. The improved EPR imager obtained clear 3D EPR images of mouse brain and demonstrated that Tempol could exist with an unpaired electron. The imager also successfully obtained 3D EPR images of mouse head after administration of DiPy. As 126 projections can be acquired in a period of 6 s, 3D EPR imaging can visualize the sequential process of DiPy entering the brain, being distributed within the brain, and being reduced within the brain. These improvements to the EPR imager will enable useful nitroxide imaging probes that were previously unsuitable as imaging probes due to their rapid reduction to be considered for use for sensitive redox assessment in an in vivo system.

2,2,6,6-Tetramethylpiperidin-N-oxyl (TEMPO)-type nitroxides are susceptible to bioreduction, leading to a loss of radical properties. Although it has been reported that the steric and electronic environments around the N-O moiety of nitroxides affect the reduction, how the relative configuration of nitroxide derivatives alters it is unclear. In this study, we investigated the effect of diastereomers on the radical properties of C2- and C4-disubstituted TEMPO-type nitroxides. We succeeded in isolating the diastereomers of the studied nitroxides for the first time. In addition, we compared the reactivities of nitroxide derivatives with different substituents at the C2 and C4 positions toward ascorbate reduction. We found that the bulky substituents at both C2 and C4 and the electronic effect of C4 affected the reduction of the isomers. C2- and C4-disubstituted nitroxides were administered to mice for electron spin resonance imaging to assess bioreduction in the brain. Similar to the reactivity to reduction in vitro, a difference in the bioreduction of diastereomers was observed in brain tissues. Our research strongly indicates that bioreduction can be controlled by changing the relative configuration, which can be used in the design of nitroxide derivatives for biological applications.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive cognitive decline. Deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides is the most important pathophysiological hallmark of AD. Oxidative stress induced by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a prominent phenomenon in AD and is known to occur early in its course. Several reports have suggested a relationship between changes in redox status and AD pathology, including progressive Aβ deposition, glial cell activation, and inflammation. In the present study, we employed a newly designed three-dimensional continuous-wave digital electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imager with a blood-brain barrier (BBB)-permeable redox-sensitive piperidine nitroxide probe, 4-oxo-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperidine-d16-1-oxyl, for early detection of changed brain redox status. Using this system, we noninvasively compared age-matched 7-month-old AD model mice with normal littermates (WT mice). The obtained brain redox images of AD and WT mice clearly showed impaired brain redox status of AD mice compared to WT, suggesting that oxidative damage had already increased in 7-month-old AD mice compared with age-matched WT mice. The pathological changes in 7-month-old mice in this study were detected earlier than in previous studies in which only AD mice older than 9 months of age could be imaged. Since EPR images suggested that oxidative damage was already increased in 7-month-old AD mice compared to age-matched WT mice, we also evaluated antioxidant levels and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in brain tissue homogenates of 7-month-old AD and WT mice. Compared to WT mice, decreased levels of glutathione and mitochondrial SOD activity were found in AD mice, which supports the EPR imaging results indicating impaired brain redox status. These results indicate that the EPR imaging method developed in this study is useful for early noninvasive detection of altered brain redox status due to oxidative disease.

Organic material-based thermal switch is drawing much attention as one of the key thermal management devices in organic electronic devices. This study aims at tuning the switching temperature (

Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) technology is a promising approach to detect so-called “minimum metal” landmines, as it can look directly for their explosive content. Conventional commercially available NQR devices, however, are large and expensive, and they require a transmitter power amplifier with a power generator, which is not suitable for outdoor use and mass production. Here we present a small and inexpensive portable device developed for detecting landmines using NQR. The device uses a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and low-impedance transmission and reception circuits that include a dual supply class-D power amplifier powered by conventional batteries to ensure sufficient magnetic field excitation for mine detection. The pulse width modulation signals that are fed into the power amplifier have been designed to protect the low impedance transmit-receive switch circuit from the high voltage. The system has been tested successfully in the laboratory with 100g of explosive RDX at a distance of 10cm from the antenna, corresponding to a plausible anti-personal (AP) mine scenario. Detection was achieved with a signal to noise ratio (SNR) ~2 in 2/3 of the time that a previous prototype required (120 sec). Moreover, the new device can detect RDX explosives with a measurement time and SNR comparable to mine detectors built with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, but at lower cost and smaller form factor.

Objectives This study aimed to clarify the importance of dental support for eating problems of infants, young children and disabled children, based on a questionnaire survey administered to dentists and guardians. Materials and methods The respondents consisted of 1001 dentists, pediatric dentistry administrators randomly selected by each prefectural or municipal dental association, and 1031 guardians of preschoolers who attended kindergartens or children's day-care centers. Answers were received from 712 dentists and 844 guardians. We compared answers to question No. 16 for dentists and questions No. 23 & 26 for guardians. Furthermore, we compared free comments to question No. 16 for dentists and answers to No. 27 for guardians. Question No. 27 for dentists and question No. 21 for guardians similarly asked about children's eating problems, and we thus next compared the tendencies noted in answers to these questions. In addition, a componential analysis was conducted for free text answers to question No. 31 for dentists and question No. 34 for guardians to qualitatively examine “free comments to children's eating problems”. Free comments were statistically analyzed using a text-mining approach in IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys. Results The results revealed that guardians had more concerns about the following issues (relative to dentists): “vegetables” (23-fold) and “picky eating/fad eating/biased eating” (eight-fold). Issues of more concern to dentists (relative to guardians) were “mastication/chewing” (two-fold) and “dental caries/decay” (1.3-fold). Conclusions This study suggested that guardian's anxieties regarding children's eating problems have variable background factors.

A portable and compact electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imaging magnet was developed for building a 750 MHz EPR imaging system. To realize low-cost fabrication, it was shown that the magnetic homogeneity required for redox EPR imaging using nitroxyl probes can be approximately reproduced by regularly arranging small neodymium magnets that are easy to handle. A five-channel coil driver consisting of operational amplifiers and switching power supplies was developed for field sweep, field modulation, and three field gradients to downsize the imaging system. The EPR imaging of 4-oxo-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-d16-1-oxyl (tempone-d16) using a phantom was successfully performed by employing a 3D radial sequence controlled by a digital EPR console.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of oral pilocarpine (20 mg daily) for the treatment of dry eye in patients with Sjogren’s Syndrome. The frequency of side effects reported during the treatment was also investigated. Methods: In this placebo-controlled crossover study, 32 patients with Sjögren’s syndrome were enrolled to receive either oral pilocarpine or placebo for 10 weeks. Following a 2-week washout period, the treatment was inverted for each patient for the same duration. Assessments included the quality of life National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25), dry eye specific questionnaire Ocular Surface Disease Index, non-invasive breakup time, invasive breakup time with fluorescein, corneal and conjunctival staining patterns with the use of fluorescein and rose bengal staining, Schirmer’s test, and tear ferning test. Results: According to the NEI-VFQ-25, there was statistically significant improvement in the quality of life following oral pilocarpine. Similar results were observed for ocular discomfort, as determined by the Ocular Surface Disease Index. All clinical tests showed favorable and statistically significant results following the use of oral pilocarpine. Regarding the analysis of tear samples, there was an improvement in the quality of tear film. This was evidenced by the modification of the patterns observed in the tear ferning test. Side effects were reported by 96.8% and 56.2% of the patients who received pilocarpine and placebo, respectively. Sweating was the most frequently reported side effect (67.74% versus 11.11%, respectively). Conclusions: Although the treatment was associated with a high frequency of side effects, oral pilocarpine (20 mg daily) was able to relieve discomfort related to dry eyes in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome and induce favorable structural changes in the tear film. RESUMO Objetivos: Avaliar o alívio de sintomas e sinais relacionados à secura ocular e na qualidade de vida de pacientes com síndrome de Sjögren tratados com o uso oral de pilocarpina na dose diária de 20mg. A frequência dos efeitos colaterais relatados com o tratamento também foi estudada. Métodos: Trata-se de estudo cruzado e placebo-controlado, que envolveu 32 pacientes com síndrome de Sjögren em uso de pilocarpina oral ou placebo, por dez semanas. Após duas semanas sem medicações, houve a inversão dos tratamentos para cada paciente, por mais dez semanas. As avaliações foram feitas por meio do questionário de qualidade de vida NEI-VFQ-25, questionário olho seco específico Ocular Surface Disease Index, tempo de ruptura do filme lacrimal não invasivo, tempo de ruptura do filme lacrimal com fluoresceína, avaliação da superfície ocular com os corantes fluoresceína e rosa Bengala, teste de Schirmer e teste de cristalização do filme lacrimal. Resultados: Houve melhora estatisticamente significante na qualidade de vida medida pelo questionário NEI-VFQ-25 e no desconforto ocular avaliado pelo Ocular Surface Disease Index, após o tratamento. Todos os testes clínicos sofreram influência favorável e estatisticamente significante durante a fase de tratamento com pilocarpina oral. Em relação à análise de amostras de lágrimas, ocorreram alterações estruturais indicando melhora no padrão de cristalização do filme lacrimal. Os efeitos colaterais com o uso de pilocarpina foram relatados por 96,8% dos pacientes com a pilocarpina e 56,2% com placebo. Sudorese foi o efeito colateral mais frequentemente relatado (pilocarpina = 67,74%; placebo = 11,11%). Conclusões: O uso oral de pilocarpina na dose diária de 20mg foi capaz de aliviar as queixas de desconforto relacionadas ao ressecamento ocular em pacientes com síndrome de Sjögren, produzir impacto positivo na qualidade de vida dos pacientes e induzir mudanças estruturais favoráveis no filme lacrimal, embora os efeitos colaterais relatados tenham ocorrido com alta frequência.

Patient: Male, >60 Final Diagnosis: Pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis Symptoms: Dynpnea • general fatigue Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Pulmonology Objective: Rare disease Background: Pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis (PCH) and pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD) are rare diseases that share clinical, X-ray, and histological features. Most patients have poor prognosis due to severe respiratory impairment. Recently, EIF2AK4 mutations were found in some patients with PCH and PVOD, but the role of this mutation is still unknown. We report an autopsy case of PCH and discuss a mechanism of respiratory dysfunction based on an electron microscopy study. Case Report: The patient was a Japanese man in his sixties. He suffered from acute exacerbation of dyspnea during treatment of COPD. Respiratory function testing revealed DLCO’ 32.1% and DLCO’/VA 23.6%. Echocardiography demonstrated findings consistent with pulmonary hypertension. A CT scan showed mild emphysema and small ground-glass opacity in the lungs. However, we could not find the exact cause of his respiratory failure and he died 28 days after admission. At autopsy, the histology showed multilayering capillary proliferation within the alveolar walls. Electron microscopy examination revealed prominent widening of the air–blood barrier, scarce fusion of the epithelial and capillary basement membranes, and frequent narrowing of the capillary lumen. Conclusions: We reported an autopsy case with PCH with no histological findings of PVOD. Whether PCH and PVOD are 2 different histological patterns of the same disease remains to be verified. The changes in the air–blood barrier detected by electron microscopy may explain the respiratory impairment and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

The development of a digital console for in-vivo rapid scan electron paramagnetic resonance (RS-EPR) spectroscopy and imaging is described in detail. The console was build using field programmable gate array (FGPA) technology that permits real-time control of the resonator and scanning magnetic fields during the measurements. Automatic resonator tuning and matching are achieved by implementing a digital feedback control system and using voltage-tunable capacitors. A band-pass subsampling method is used to directly digitize EPR signals at the carrier frequencies of about 1.2 GHz. The magnetic field scan waveforms, excitation EPR frequency, and sampling clock are all internally synchronized. Full-cycle RS-EPR signals are accumulated in the FPGA in real time without any time gaps. The result is the elimination of the re-arm time, during which data are not acquired. The proposed design in this manuscript has a small footprint and is relatively low cost. The FPGA-based RS-EPR system was tested using standard LiNc-BuO and tempone-d16 samples. The RS-EPR linewidth of the LiNc-BuO sample was consistent with an independent pulsed EPR measurement.

We have studied the magnetic and electrical properties of double CoFeB–MgO interface magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with various W insertion layer thicknesses $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ annealed at 400 °C and evaluated $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ dependence of thermal stability factor $\Delta $ , intrinsic critical current $I_{\mathrm {C0}}$ and damping constant $\alpha $ . It was found that spin-transfer torque efficiency ( $\Delta /I_{\mathrm {C0}}$ ) values increased with decreasing $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ as compared with the same MTJ size $D$ . $\alpha $ measured by ferromagnetic resonance increased with an increase in $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ , which is consistent with those calculated from $\Delta /I_{\mathrm {C0}}$ . This result indicates that lower damping constant of MTJ with thin W insertion layer contributes to higher $\Delta /I_{\mathrm {C0}}$ .

To evaluate the efficacy of oral pilocarpine (20 mg daily) for the treatment of dry eye in patients with Sjogren's Syndrome. The frequency of side effects reported during the treatment was also investigated.In this placebo-controlled crossover study, 32 patients with Sjögren's syndrome were enrolled to receive either oral pilocarpine or placebo for 10 weeks. Following a 2-week washout period, the treatment was inverted for each patient for the same duration. Assessments included the quality of life National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25), dry eye specific questionnaire Ocular Surface Disease Index, non-invasive breakup time, invasive breakup time with fluorescein, corneal and conjunctival staining patterns with the use of fluorescein and rose bengal staining, Schirmer's test, and tear ferning test.According to the NEI-VFQ-25, there was statistically significant improvement in the quality of life following oral pilocarpine. Similar results were observed for ocular discomfort, as determined by the Ocular Surface Disease Index. All clinical tests showed favorable and statistically significant results following the use of oral pilocarpine. Regarding the analysis of tear samples, there was an improvement in the quality of tear film. This was evidenced by the modification of the patterns observed in the tear ferning test. Side effects were reported by 96.8% and 56.2% of the patients who received pilocarpine and placebo, respectively. Sweating was the most frequently reported side effect (67.74% versus 11.11%, respectively).Although the treatment was associated with a high frequency of side effects, oral pilocarpine (20 mg daily) was able to relieve discomfort related to dry eyes in patients with Sjögren's syndrome and induce favorable structural changes in the tear film.

We investigated an effect of sputtering gas species Ar, Kr, and Xe for deposition of a W insertion layer W(Ar, Kr, and Xe) in the synthetic ferrimagnetic reference layer consisting of [Co/Pt] multilayer/Ru/[Co/Pt] multilayer/W/CoFeB on magnetic properties of the reference layer and tunnel magnetoresistance ratio (TMR ratio) of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stacks with the reference layer. In all the cases, the TMR ratio increased with the increase of the W insertion layer thickness $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ and showed a maximum at certain $t_{W}$ . Although the maximum TMR ratio is almost the same for all the cases, $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ range in which we observed the maximum TMR ratio is dependent on the gas species; $t_{W} = 0.2$ nm for Ar, $t_{\mathrm {W}} = 0.2$ –0.4 nm for Kr, and $t_{\mathrm {W}} = 0.2$ –0.5 nm for Xe, indicating that $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ margin giving high-TMR ratio becomes wider with increasing atomic number of the gas species. The lower TMR ratio for W (Ar) at larger $t_{\mathrm {W}}$ region is due to the degradation of ferromagnetic coupling between the CoFeB and Co/Pt multilayer sandwiching W, resulting in canting of magnetization in the CoFeB layer. We found that an intermixing of Pt atoms in the Co/Pt multilayer occurred in the MTJ stack with W (Ar), whereas it did not intermix with W (Kr), indicating that the Pt interdiffusion caused the degradation of ferromagnetic coupling through W layer.

OBJECTIVES To clarify the associations among tongue volume, hyoid position, airway volume and maxillofacial form using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) data for children with Class-I, Class-II and Class-III malocclusion. SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION Sixty children (mean age, 9.2 years) divided into Class-I, Class-II and Class-III malocclusion groups according to the A-nasion-B angle. MATERIAL AND METHODS Cone beam computed tomography was used for three-dimensional reconstruction of the maxillofacial region and airway. The hyoid position and the tongue, airway and oral cavity volumes were evaluated. Upper airway ventilation status was calculated using computational fluid dynamics. The groups were compared using analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis tests; relationships among the parameters were assessed using Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation tests. RESULTS The tongue volume was larger in Class-III patients (50.63 cm3 ) than in Class-I patients (44.24 cm3 ; P

Asymmetric total syntheses and structure revisions of dihydroisocoumarin-type natural products, eurotiumide A and eurotiumide B have been described. The key features of these total syntheses are the asymmetric Shi epoxidation, regio and stereo-selective epoxide opening, C1 insertion/lactonization cascade reaction for constructing 4-methoxyisochroman-1-one skeleton. We confirmed the structures and configurations of eurotiumide A and B on the basis of X-ray crystallographic analysis of the key intermediate, and revealed that eurotiumide A and B have cis and trans configurations at H3/H4 positions, which are the opposite relationship of the stereochemistry from the previous report, respectively. The absolute configurations of them are also determined. These natural products exhibited highly fluorescence in several solvents with large Stokes shifts involving the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer mechanism, which is supported by time-dependent density functional theory. Eurotiumide A also emitted fluorescence in Bacillus cereus.

We investigated an effect of sputtering gas species (Ar, Kr, and Xe) for deposition of a W insertion layer in the CoFeB/W/CoFeB free layer on magnetic properties of the free layer and tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) stacks using the free layer annealed at 400 °C for 1 h. As the W insertion layer thickness $t_{W}$ increased, we found the degradation of perpendicular anisotropy and larger reduction of saturation magnetic moment per unit area $m_{S}$ in the free layer using Ar compared to those using Kr and Xe. We also found a smaller TMR ratio for the MTJ stack using Ar compared to those using Kr and Xe. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry line analysis revealed more significant interdiffusion between W and CoFeB layers in the free layer using Ar than those using Kr and Xe, that could result in the smaller $m_{S}$ and perpendicular anisotropy in the free layer and smaller TMR ratio for the MTJ stack using Ar than those using Kr and Xe. We also investigated concentration of Ar, Kr, and Xe in W layers deposited using Ar, Kr, and Xe, respectively, by high-resolution Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, revealing that 0.2 at% Ar was detected in the W layer using Ar, while Kr and Xe were not detected in W layers using Kr and Xe. Such a difference in concentration of inert gas atoms in the W layer could be one possible reason for the difference about degree of interdiffusion between W and CoFeB layers.

This paper describes the development of a digital console for three-dimensional (3D) continuous wave electron paramagnetic resonance (CW-EPR) imaging of a small animal to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and lower the cost of the EPR imaging system. A RF generation board, an RF acquisition board and a digital signal processing (DSP) & control board were built for the digital EPR detection. Direct sampling of the reflected RF signal from a resonator (approximately 750MHz), which contains the EPR signal, was carried out using a band-pass subsampling method. A direct automatic control system to reduce the reflection from the resonator was proposed and implemented in the digital EPR detection scheme. All DSP tasks were carried out in field programmable gate array ICs. In vivo 3D imaging of nitroxyl radicals in a mouse's head was successfully performed.

This paper shows the design of a radio-frequency transceiver coil for landmine detection in Colombia by nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR). The radio-frequency transceiver coil is of great importance as it is responsible for exciting the target explosive and for picking up the weak NQR signal; however, little detail is found on the literature about its design. The strategy followed on this work consisted on constructing and experimentally comparing five different radio-frequency transceiver coils, whose dimensions were selected according to four design parameters: noise rejection, magnetic flux density, coil sensitivity, and quality factor; taking into account the characteristics of landmines in Colombia, the second country most affected by anti-personnel mines in the world. The constructed coils were experimentally compared using a portable system and with three of them, the system was capable of detecting 200 g ammonium nitrate (the main substance used in Colombian landmines) up to 3 cm from the coil within 12 s, with a steady-state free precession pulse sequence. Conclusions from this work could help to guide RF coil design in other works that apply NQR for remote detection of substances in non-shielded environments and to direct future research about landmine detection in Colombia., Electromagnetism; Nuclear physics; Nuclear quadrupole resonance; Land mines – detection; Explosives – detection; Transceiver coil