Saliva improves Streptococcus mitis protective effect on human gingival fibroblasts in presence of 2-hydroxyethyl-methacrylate

This study aimed to investigate the effect of saliva on Streptococcus mitis free cells and on S. mitis/human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) co-culture model, in presence of 2-hydroxyethyl-methacrylate (HEMA). The bacterial aggregation both in the planktonic phase and on HGFs, as well as the apoptotic and necrotic eukaryotic cells amount were analyzed, in presence of saliva and/or HEMA. The aggregation test revealed a significant saliva aggregation effect on S. mitis strains compared to the untreated sample. No significant differences were recorded in the amount of culturable bacteria in all studied conditions; however, from microscopy images, the saliva/HEMA combining effect induced a significant bacterial aggregation and adhesion on HGFs. HEMA treatment decreased viable eukaryotic cell number with a parallel increment of necrotic cells, but when saliva was added to the co-culture, the viable cells percentage increased to a value comparable to the control sample.     

Effects of silymarin on biochemical and oxidative stress markers in end‐stage renal disease patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis

Introduction End‐stage renal disease (ESRD) patients especially those undergoing dialysis are vulnerable to several complications, in particular those related to oxidative stress. Silymarin is an herbal medicine commonly used as an antioxidant in different pathologies. Methods To evaluate the effect of silymarin on biochemical and oxidative stress markers, 50 ESRD patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis were randomly divided into two groups of silymarin (n = 28) and control (n = 22) and received silymarin (140 mg every 8 hours) or placebo for 2 months, respectively. Ferric reducing antioxidant power and total 8‐iso‐prostaglandin F_2α were measured in plasma, while catalase enzyme activity was measured in erythrocytes of both groups before and after treatment. Findings Ferric reducing antioxidant power values after treatment were significantly decreased in silymarin group compared to before treatment values (17.2 ± 2.9 and 15.9 ± 3.1 µM equivalent of quercetin/dL, respectively, P < 0.05). Conversely, catalase levels were increased 17.3% after silymarin consumption, while it was decreased 9.1% in control group. Further, hemoglobin (from 10.94 ± 2.17 to 11.54 ± 2.03 g/dL, P < 0.05) and albumin levels (from 3.48 ± 0.67 to 3.61 ± 0.53 g/dL, P < 0.05) were significantly increased after silymarin administration. Discussion It is concluded that silymarin could be regarded as a supplementary therapy for ESRD patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis in order to reduce complications.     

Distraction and driving: Results from a case–control responsibility study of traffic crash injured drivers interviewed at the emergency room

Background

Use of cellular phones has been shown to be associated with crashes but many external distractions remain to be studied.

Objective

To assess the risk associated with diversion of attention due to unexpected events or secondary tasks at the wheel.

Design

Responsibility case–control study.

Setting

Adult emergency department of the Bordeaux University Hospital (France) from April 2010 to August 2011.

Participants

955 injured drivers presenting as a result of motor vehicle crash.

Main outcome measures

The main outcome variable was responsibility for the crash. Exposures were external distraction, alcohol use, psychotropic medicine use, and sleep deprivation. Potential confounders were sociodemographic and crash characteristics.

Results

Beyond classical risk factor found to be associated with responsibility, results showed that distracting events inside the vehicle (picking up an object), distraction due to driver activity (smoking) and distracting events occurring outside were associated with an increased probability of being at fault. These distraction-related factors accounted for 8% of injurious road crashes.

Limitations

Retrospective responsibility self-assessment.

Conclusions

Diverted attention may carry more risk than expected. Our results are supporting recent research efforts to detect periods of driving vulnerability related to inattention.     

Synthesis and optical properties of dyes encapsulated in gold hollow nanoshells

Gold nanomaterials are promising objects for applications in optics and medicine because of their unique properties related to the Surface Plasmon Resonances (SPR) phenomena. It is possible to tune these properties with the control of the size and shape of the nanomaterials. Gold hollow spheres nanomaterials are an interesting concept for encapsulation of either dyes or drugs. The study of their properties and their behavior in a bio-environment still remains scarce and some phenomena are still to be explained in particular regarding local field enhancement effect or quenching of their photophysical properties. In this work we describe a process allowing inclusion of optical dyes in gold nanoshells and evaluate the optical properties.     

Enzymatic properties of the unnatural beta-L-enantiomers of 2',3'-dideoxyadenosine and 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxyadenosine

The beta-L-enantiomers of 2',3'-dideoxyadenosine and 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxyadenosine have been stereospecifically synthesized. In an attempt to explain the previously reported antiviral activities of these compounds, their enzymatic properties were studied with respect to adenosine kinase, deoxycytidine kinase, adenosine deaminase, and purine nucleoside phosphorylase. Adenosine deaminase was strictly enantioselective and favored beta-D-ddA and beta-D-d4A, whereas adenosine kinase and purine nucleoside phosphorylase had no apparent substrate properties for the D- or L-enantiomers of beta-ddA or beta-d4A. Human deoxycytidine kinase showed a remarkable inversion of the expected enantioselectivity, with beta-L-ddA and beta-L-d4A having better substrate efficiencies than their corresponding beta-D-enantiomers. Our results demonstrate the potential of beta-L-adenosine analogues as antiviral agents and suggest that deoxycytidine kinase has a strategic importance in their cellular activation.     

A Fat Boundary Method for the Poisson Problem in a Domain with Holes

We consider the Poisson equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions, in a domain , where ⁿ , and B is a collection of smooth open subsets (typically balls). The objective is to split the initial problem into two parts: a problem set in the whole domain , for which fast solvers can be used, and local subproblems set in narrow domains around the connected components of B, which can be solved in a fully parallel way. We shall present here a method based on a multi-domain formulation of the initial problem, which leads to a fixed point algorithm. The convergence of the algorithm is established, under some conditions on a relaxation parameter . The dependence of the convergence interval for upon the geometry is investigated. Some 2D computations based on a finite element discretization of both global and local problems are presented.     

Nonlinear dynamic modeling and social contagion: Reply to Stoolmiller (1998).

M. Stoolmiller's (1998) comments about the authors' epidemic models of the onset of social activities (EMOSA models) and about nonlinear modeling in general further stimulate the developmental community to give more attention to this class of methods. The authors review and comment on Stoolmiller's criticisms. Following, they discuss the idea of social contagion as a general theoretical tool. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estimating the costs of occupational injury in the United States

This article estimates workplace injury costs in the U.S. These costs have been studied in less detail than most injury costs. Our methods, which mostly use regularly published data, produce order-of-magnitude estimates. Overall, workplace injuries cost the U.S. an estimated $140 billion annually. This estimate includes $17 billion in medical and emergency services, $60 billion in lost productivity, $5 billion in insurance costs, and $62 billion in lost quality of life. One sixth of the societal costs result from the 3% of workplace injuries in motor vehicle crashes. Motor vehicle costs per injury are almost 6 times the workplace injury average.