Plasma Levels of 14:0, 16:0, 16:1n-7, and 20:3n-6 are Positively Associated,but 18:0 and 18:2n-6 are Inversely Associated with Markers of Inflammation in Young Healthy Adults

Inflammation is a recognized risk factor for the development of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Evidence suggests that individual fatty acids (FA) may have distinct influences on inflammatory processes. The goal of this study was to conduct a cross-sectional analysis to examine the associations between circulating FA and markers of inflammation in a population of young healthy Canadian adults. FA, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and cytokines were measured in fasted plasma samples from 965 young adults (22.6 ± 0.1 years). Gas chromatography was used to measure FA. The following cytokines were analyzed with a multiplex assay: regulated upon activation normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES/CCL5), interleukin 1-receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interferon-γ inducible protein 10 (IP-10), and platelet-derived growth factor β (PDGF-ββ). Numerous statistically significant associations (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple testing) were identified between individual FA and markers of inflammation using linear regression. Myristic (14:0), palmitic (16:0), palmitoleic (16:1n-7), and dihomo-γ-linolenic (20:3n-6) acids were positively associated with all markers of inflammation. In contrast, stearic acid (18:0) was inversely associated with hsCRP and RANTES, and linoleic acid (18:2n-6) was inversely associated with hsCRP, RANTES and PDGF-ββ. In conclusion, our results indicate that specific FA are distinctly correlated with various markers of inflammation. Moreover, the findings of this study suggest that FA profiles in young adults may serve as an early indicator for the development of future complications comprising an inflammatory component.     

Biological influence of some crown and bridge restorative materials finished and polished by different techniques

Fixed restorations should satisfy certain biologic requirements and they must not be injurious to the surrounding living tissues as pulp, periodontal ligament, alveolar bone and gingiva. It is best to terminate preparations above the gingival margin but for retention and esthetics considerations the margins of the fixed restorations could be placed subgingivally. In recent years, the biologic effects of dental restorative materials on the gingiva and periodontal tissues have been better appreciated. A rough surface restoration attracts and retains bacterial plaque and irritates the surrounding soft tissues which is injurious to the living supporting structure of the abutments.     

Formalization and validation of the General Inter-ORB Protocol (GIOP) using PROMELA and SPIN

The General Inter-Orb Protocol (GIOP) is a key component of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) specification. We present the formal modeling and validation of the GIOP protocol using the Promela language, Linear Time Temporal Logic (LTL) and the Spin model checker. We validate the Promela model using ten high-level requirements which we elicit from the informal CORBA specification. These requirements are then formalized in LTL and the Spin model checker is used to determine their validity. During the validation process we discovered a few problems in GIOP: a potential transport-layer interface deadlock and problems with the server migration protocol. We also describe how property specification patterns helped us in formalizing the high-level requirements that we have elicited.     

An optimized FP-growth algorithm for discovery of association rules

The Journal of Supercomputing - Association rule mining (ARM) is a data mining technique to discover interesting associations between datasets. The frequent pattern-growth (FP-growth) is an...     

Synthesis and some studies on fluorinated cationic surfactants: surface and biocidal activities

Three fluorinated cationic surfactants were prepared by condensing N-(2-bromoethyl)perfluoroalkylamides with stoichiometric amounts of pyridine, triethanolamine, and triethylamine to produce three quaternary ammonium salts. The surface and biocidal properties of these surfactants were investigated to find the relation between the structure of the hydrophilic portion of the compounds and their efficiency as biocides. The properties studied included critical micelle concentration (CMC), effectiveness (II_CMC), surface excess concentration (T_max), and area occupied by a molecule (A_min). Free energies of micellization (ΔG _mic ^o) and adsorption (ΔG _ads ^o) of the surfactants in aqueous solution were calculated. The minimal inhibitory concentrations of the prepared compounds were tested against five strains as representative group of microorganisms.     

Effect of vanadium and tungsten doping on the structural,optical, and electronic characteristics of TiO2 nanoparticles

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Nanoparticles of TiO2 and Ti0.97M0.03O2 (M≡V, W) samples were produced using sol–gel procedure. Utilizing synchrotron x-ray...     

The development of a high-performance Ni-superalloy additively manufactured heat pipe

Additively manufacturing (AM) has been used to manufacture fine structures with structured/engineered porosity in heat management devices. In this study, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) was used to manufacture a high-performance Ni-superalloy heat pipe, through tailoring LPBF process parameters to fabricate thin wall and micro-channel. By using novel laser scanning strategies, wick structure heat pipes with maximised surface-area-to-volume ratio, fine features size around 100 μm, and controlled porosity were successfully fabricated. Microscopy and X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) were used to investigate the 3D structure of the void space within the pipe. Wick test results showed that most of the heat pipes made by LPBF had better performance than the conventionally manufactured pipes. This study also investigated the influences of the process parameters on the porosity volume fraction and the feature size. The results showed that LPBF process could fabricate thin structure due to the change of melt pool contact angle. The relationship between process parameters and bead size reported in this study could help design and manufacture heat pipe with complex fine structure.The full text can be downloaded at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40436-022-00407-z     

Fast homomorphic SVM inference on encrypted data

Neural Computing and Applications - Kernel methods are popular machine learning methods that provide automated pattern analysis of raw datasets. Of particular interest is Support Vector Machines...