Motion synthesis and editing for the generation of new sign language content

Machine Translation - Existing work on the animation of signing avatars often relies on pure procedural techniques or on the playback of Motion Capture (MoCap) data. While the first solution...     

Development and application of a simplified clean-up procedure for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in horse fat by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)

A simplified clean-up procedure was developed in combination with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in adipose tissue. Clean-up was performed by the successive application of a Mega Bond Elut® silica column and a Bond Elut® PCB column. Validation of the method was conducted according to European Union Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. In order to evaluate the applicability of the method, 44 horse fat samples were analysed. The total PCB concentration (sum of PCBs 28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153 and 180) ranged from 5.35 to 140 ng g^-1 lipid weight. The total PBDE concentration (sum of BDEs 28, 47, 99, 100, 153, 154 and 183) ranged from below the decision limit to 6.34 ng g^-1 lipid weight.     

Bone healing capacity of titanium plasma-sprayed and hydroxylapatite-coated oral implants

The authors report preliminary results of Brief Supportive Psychotherapy (BSP) in the Beth Israel Brief Psychotherapy Program for a sample with primarily Cluster C Axis II disorders. This study compares 24 patients treated with BSP with 25 patients treated with Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (STDP). STDP was chosen because its confrontational methods contrast dramatically to BSP, which emphasizes building self-esteem, reducing anxiety, and enhancing coping mechanisms. Videotaped therapies were based on manualized 40-session protocols. Similar degrees of improvement were seen in BSP and STDP at termination and at 6-month follow-up. A study of therapeutic alliance in BSP showed stable and high levels of alliance in good-outcome cases and more variability in poor-outcome cases. These preliminary findings are consistent with other studies and suggest supportive psychotherapy may be effective for many patients, leading to significant and lasting change.     

The influence of splinting procedures on the periodontal and peri-implant tissue damping characteristics. A longitudinal study with the Periotest device

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the capability of the Periotest device in detecting and monitoring functional changes in the periodontal as well as in the pari-implant damping characteristics. In the first part of this study, 107 teeth were splinted by means of 40 full acrylic fixed prostheses (AFP) and another 37 teeth were splinted by means of 14 ceramometallic fixed prostheses (C-MFP). The Periotest measurements of individual teeth were done the day the fixed prostheses were cemented temporary (PTV 1), and again after a mean observation period of 27.4 days (PTV 2). In the 2nd part, 78 osseointegrated two-stage implants were splinted by means of 23 full acrylic fixed prosthesis (AFP) and other 18 implants were left without it. Using the same abutment length, Periotest measurements were performed, at abutment connections and before installation of the final prosthesis. In a 3rd part, using both implants and teeth as abutments, 29 osseointegrated implants were connected with 25 abutment teeth by means of 7 AFP. The measurements were performed at the beginning of the prosthetic treatment and 2, 4 and 6 weeks later. After splinting teeth by means of AFP for the observation period, no statistically significant reduction in PTVs was found. When on the other hand, a C-MFP was used, PTV 2 showed a significant reduction. The PTVs at abutment connection went down after a period of time, during which some implants were interconnected by means of an AFP and others were not.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

In vivo assessment of the effect of controlled high- and low-frequency mechanical loading on peri-implant bone healing

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of controlled high- (HF) and low-frequency (LF) mechanical loading on peri-implant bone healing. Custom-made titanium implants were inserted in both tibiae of 69 adult Wistar rats. For every animal, one implant was loaded by compression through the axis of tibia (test), whereas the other one was unloaded (control). The test implants were randomly distributed among four groups receiving different loading regimes, which were determined by ex vivo calibration. Within the HF (40 Hz) or LF (2 Hz) loading category, the magnitudes were chosen as low- (LM) and high-magnitude (HM), respectively, leading to constant strain rate amplitudes for the two frequency groups. This resulted in the four loading regimes: (i) HF-LM (40 Hz–0.5 N); (ii) HF-HM (40 Hz–1 N); (iii) LF-LM (2 Hz–10 N); and (iv) LF-HM (2 Hz–20 N) loading. Loading was performed five times per week and lasted for one or four weeks. Tissue samples were processed for histology and histomorphometry (bone-to-implant contact, BIC; and peri-implant bone fraction, BF) at the cortical and medullar level. Data were analysed statistically with ANOVA and paired t-tests with the significance level set at 0.05. For the one-week experiments, an increased BF adjacent to the implant surface at the cortical level was exclusively induced by the LF-HM loading regime (2 Hz–20 N). Four weeks of loading resulted in a significant effect on BIC (and not on BF) in case of HF-LM loading (40 Hz–0.5 N) and LF-HM loading (2 Hz–20 N): BIC at the cortical level significantly increased under both loading regimes, whereas BIC at the medullar level was positively influenced only in case of HF-LM loading. Mechanical loading at both HF and LF affects osseointegration and peri-implant BF. Higher loading magnitudes (and accompanying elevated tissue strains) are required under LF loading to provoke a positive peri-implant bone response, compared with HF loading. A sustained period of loading at HF is needed to result in an overall enhanced osseointegration.     

Three-dimensional finite element models based on in vivo microfocus computed tomography: Elimination of metal artefacts in a small laboratory animal model by registration with artefact-free reference images

A method is presented to generate metal-artefact-free finite element (FE) models based on in vivo micro-CT images of bone–implant structures in the case of the Guinea Pig’s tibiae. A bone–implant composite FE model was constructed based on both pre- (just before implant insertion) and post-operative (4 days after implant insertion) sets of micro-CT scans. Definition of bone geometry and attribution of material properties to the volumetric elements was based on pre-operative images while post-operative scans were mainly used for registration. Standard Triangulation Language (STL) representations of implant and bone were generated after segmentation of CT images in MIMICS^® (Materialise). Registration was performed in 3-matic^® (Materialise). By taking two sets of scans at a 4 days interval, undisturbed bone geometry before implant insertion and implant position after insertion were recorded. After adequate validation, FE models constructed with this method can be used to study bone adaptive response to controlled mechanical loading.     

The reliability of implant-retained hinging overdentures for the fully edentulous mandible. An up to 9-year longitudinal study

In B-cell malignancies, the uniqueness of the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus (IgH) clonal rearrangement provides a useful marker for the detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) after treatment. During the last decade, several techniques have been proposed and used for detecting MRD. In this review, we report the current PCR based techniques dealing with amplification of the VDJ segment since the CDR3 region is unique to each IgH rearrangement. The sensitivity of these techniques varies considerably with a detection level of one tumoral cell in 10(-2) to 10(-6) normal cells. Accurate and sensitive assessment of MRD may have profound impact in the clinical management of patients with hematologic malignancies. Although, a majority of studies have shown a good correlation between the rapidity or extent of the reduction in the number of tumoral cells and the subsequent relapse, other studies demonstrated substained positivity of PCR in patients in long term remission. Thus, current clinical studies of MRD should establish whether MRD predicts relapse uniformly and, therefore, justifies intensification of therapy in positive cases, or whether it simply detects leukemic cell populations whose proliferative potential has been altered by chemotherapy.     

Failure of oral implants: aetiology, symptoms and influencing factors

The use of oral implants opened a wide range of prosthetic treatment possibilities in edentulous patients. Although the reported success rates of oral implants are high, failures do occur. This paper reviews the current knowledge about the aetiology, the signs and symptoms and the possible influencing factors of implant failure. Possible causes of implant failure are thought to be infection of the periimplant tissues, occlusal overload, or a combination of both. Nevertheless, pinpointing one of these as the aetiological factor in a particular case is difficult and should be handled reluctantly. Although the cause might seem obvious, influencing factors could play a role as well. Gaining insight into these processes might stimulate the adoption of preventive action and therefore increase the predictability of the treatment outcome with oral implants.     

Tropical Vegetable Oils Do Not Alter Growth Performance in African Catfish through a High n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Biosynthesis Capacity

The main objective of this study was to determine the best vegetable oils (VO) for nutrition of African catfish by assessing the effects of a complete replacement of fish oil (FO) by different VO sources on its growth performance, fatty acid composition, and elongase-desaturase gene expression levels. Fish (16.2 g of initial body weight) were fed with five experimental isonitrogenous, isolipidic, and isoenergetic diets in which FO was totally replaced by cottonseed oil (CO), palm oil (PO), desert date oil (DO), or Shea butter (SB). Complete replacement of FO with VO did not affect growth performance except for low values in fish fed SB diet. Muscle n-3 LC-polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were significantly reduced in fish fed VO-based diets when compared with FO fed fish. However, the muscle arachidinic acid (ARA) levels in phospholipid class were 1.4 to 1.6 times higher in fish fed CO and DO diets than FO fed fish despite the lower ARA suppliers from these VO-based diets, suggesting endogenous LC-PUFA biosynthesis from PUFA precursors in fish fed these VO. The fads2 and elovl5 gene expression levels in liver of fish fed DO were also higher compared to FO controls. Therefore, all the results support the hypothesis that African catfish has higher biosynthesis capacity to convert vegetable n-6 PUFA precursors like linoleic acid (LNA, 18:2n-6) into n-6 LC-PUFA of the ARA type, compared to the conversion of vegetable α-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3) into n-3 LC-PUFA of the eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) or docosahexanoic acid (DHA) type. The results also indicate that DO can be recommended as the best alternative to FO replacement in African catfish nutrition.     

TRPA1 Expression and Pathophysiology in Immune Cells

The non-selective cation channel TRPA1 is best known as a broadly-tuned sensor expressed in nociceptive neurons, where it plays key functions in chemo-, thermo-, and mechano-sensing. However, in this review we illustrate how this channel is expressed also in cells of the immune system. TRPA1 has been detected, mainly with biochemical techniques, in eosinophils, mast cells, macrophages, dendritic cells, T cells, and B cells, but not in neutrophils. Functional measurements, in contrast, remain very scarce. No studies have been reported in basophils and NK cells. TRPA1 in immune cells has been linked to arthritis (neutrophils), anaphylaxis and atopic dermatitis (mast cells), atherosclerosis, renal injury, cardiac hypertrophy and inflammatory bowel disease (macrophages), and colitis (T cells). The contribution of TRPA1 to immunity is dual: as detector of cell stress, tissue injury, and exogenous noxious stimuli it leads to defensive responses, but in conditions of aberrant regulation it contributes to the exacerbation of inflammatory conditions. Future studies should aim at characterizing the functional properties of TRPA1 in immune cells, an essential step in understanding its roles in inflammation and its potential as therapeutic target.