Adhesion of streptococci to saliva-coated and uncoated composite-based resins

This study was designed to evaluate the bacterial adhesion to five types of experimental composite-based resins and a commercial composite resin used as a control. Physicochemical surface characteristics of composite resins with and without an artificial saliva coating were measured. The relationship between the numbers of adhering cells (Streptococcus sanguis, S. mutans and S. sobrinus) and surface characteristics was analysed. The values of contact angles and the number of adhering cells were small with saliva coating. S. sanguis ATCC 10557 showed a positive correlation (r=0.835, p<0.05) with the contact angles of uncoated resins, whereas no relationship was observed for saliva-coated resins. With S. mutans Ingbritt the cell numbers adhering to resins correlated strongly (p<0.01) with the values of zeta potential of resins for either saliva coated or uncoated. Electrical repulsion forces had a strong contribution to adherence of cells such as S. mutans and S. sobrinus which show a high absolute zeta potential.     

Computational medicine: bioelectric field problems

Applications of large-scale computer modeling and simulation to a class of bioelectric field problems in a variety of biomedical research areas, from single cells to full human structures, are described. The authors focus on a specific subset of bioelectric field problems that have applications in electrocardiography and electroencephalography. The physics and physiology of bioelectric volume conductors are introduced. A specific computational example and the authors' view on the future direction of computational medicine are presented     

Influence of doping on the electronic structure of (La,Sr)2CuO4

High-statistics (>4 × 10⁸ counts), room-temperature measurements of the electron-positron momentum density of La_2?x Sr _x CuO₄ have been performed for samples with Sr concentrations of x=0.0, 0.1, 0.13, and 0.2. These spectra have been analyzed in conjunction with theoretical calculations of the electron-positron momentum density. The metallic samples show features consistent with the presence of a Fermi surface, but its evolution with increasing Sr concentration does not follow the predictions of band theory. These results may indicate the effects of electron-electron correlation on the electron momentum distribution in the Cu-O plane.     

Paget's disease of the breast in a man without underlying breast carcinoma

A case of histologically confirmed Paget's disease of the breast in a 72 year old man, without underlying breast carcinoma, is reported. This report raises questions about the pathogenesis of this condition and suggests that Paget's disease is an independent, intraepidermal carcinoma rather than a direct extension of intraductal carcinoma of the breast to the nipple and areola.     

Inhibitory effect of bifemelane on superoxide generation by activated neutrophils measured using a simple chemiluminescence method

We evaluated the effect of 4-(2-benzylphenoxy)-N-methylbutylamine hydrochloride (bifemelane hydrochloride) on superoxide production by human neutrophils using an MCLA-dependent chemiluminescence assay. Bifemelane hydrochloride dose-dependently inhibited superoxide production by neutrophils stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate, opsonized zymosan, or N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine, while it had no effect on superoxide production by a hypoxanthine-xanthine oxidase system. These results indicate that bifemelane hydrochloride does not have a scavenging effect, but has an inhibitory effect on superoxide generation by neutrophils. Although this drug is commonly used for treating chronic cerebral infarction, it may also have a protective effect on acute ischemia/reperfusion injury.     

Wideband HEMT MMIC low-noise amplifier with temperaturecompensation

A wideband low-noise pseudomorphic HEMT MMIC variable-gain amplifier has been designed and fabricated. The amplifier has a nominal gain of 13 dB across the band 2-20 GHz, with gain flatness better than ±0.4 dB. The noise figure is less than 3 dB across the band 6-16 GHz. An on-chip temperature-sensing diode is used to provide a linear temperature correction which has been used to reduce the gain variation of the amplifier by a factor of 2 across the temperature range -50°C to +95°C     

Performance of asynchronous DS-CDMA system with long and shortspreading codes

The effect of spreading code length on the BER performance of an asynchronous DS-CDMA system is studied by means of Monte Carlo simulation. The probability of the crosscorrelation value between segments of long sequences is also discussed. Results indicate that the system performance with very long codes is ~1 dB worse compared to that of short CDMA codes     

A prototype 3D optically interconnected neural network

We report the implementation of a prototype three-dimensional (3D) optoelectronic neural network that combines free-space optical interconnects with silicon-VLSI-based optoelectronic circuits. The prototype system consists of a 16-node input, 4-neuron hidden, and a single-neuron output layer, where the denser input-to-hidden-layer connections are optical. The input layer uses PLZT light modulators to generate optical outputs which are distributed over an optoelectronic neural network chip through space-invariant holographic optical interconnects. Optical interconnections provide negligible fan-out delay and allow compact, purely on-chip electronic H-tree type fan-in structure. The small prototype system achieves a measured 8-bit electronic fan-in precision and a calculated maximum speed of 640 million interconnections per second. The system was tested using synaptic weights learned off system and was shown to distinguish any vertical line from any horizontal one in an image of 4×4 pixels. New, more efficient light detector and small-area analog synapse circuits and denser optoelectronic neuron layouts are proposed to scale up the system. A high-speed, feed-forward optoelectronic synapse implementation density of up to 10⁴/cm² seems feasible using new synapse design. A scaling analysis of the system shows that the optically interconnected neural network implementation can provide higher fan-in speed and lower power consumption characteristics than a purely electronic, crossbar-based neural network implementation