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This article describes a digital technique for acquiring a 3-dimensional (3D) diagnostic cast with authentic tooth shade and translucency using an open source nondental computer-aided design (CAD) software program detailing the operational methods and parameters. The resultant 3D diagnostic cast can be transmitted to a dental laboratory for the fabrication of definitive prostheses., (Copyright © 2024 Editorial Council for The Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Recent studies have indicated that microRNA (miRNA) expression in tumour tissues has prognostic significance in Tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) patients. This study explored the possible prognostic value of miRNAs for TSCC based on published research., Methods: A comprehensive literature search of multiple databases was conducted according to predefined eligibility criteria. Data were extracted from the included studies by two researchers, and HR results were determined based on Kaplan‒Meier curves according to the Tierney method. The Newcastle‒Ottawa Scale (NOS) and GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) pro-GDT were applied to assess the quality of all studies. Publication bias was estimated by funnel plot, Egger's rank correlation test and sensitivity analysis., Results: Eleven studies (891patients) were included, of which 6 reported up-regulated miRNAs and 7 mentioned down-regulated miRNAs. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) from the prognostic indicator overall survival (OS) was 1.34 (1.25-1.44), p < 0.00001, indicating a significant difference in miRNA expression between TSCC patients with better or worse prognosis., Conclusion: MiRNAs may have high prognostic value and could be used as prognostic biomarkers of TSCC., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Biofilms account for a great deal of infectious diseases and contribute significantly to antimicrobial resistance. Efflux pumps confer antimicrobial resistance to microorganisms and involve multiple processes of biofilm formation. Efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) are attracting considerable attention as a biofilm inhibition strategy. The regulatory functions of efflux pumps in biofilm formation such as mediating adherence, quorum sensing (QS) systems, and the expression of biofilm-associated genes have been increasingly identified. The versatile properties confer efflux pumps both positive and negative effects on biofilm formation. Furthermore, the expression and function of efflux pumps in biofilm formation are species-specific. Therefore, this review aims to detail the double-edged sword role of efflux pumps in biofilm formation to provide potential inhibition targets and give an overview of the effects of EPIs on biofilm formation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Ren, Wang, Zhou and Liu.)

Objective: To compare the difference between virtual surgical planning (VSP) position and postoperative real position of maxilla and condyle, and to explore the degree of intraoperative realization of VSP after orthognathic surgery., Methods: In this study, 36 patients with mandibular protrusion deformity from January 2022 to December 2022 were included. All the patients had been done bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy (SSRO) combined with Le Fort Ⅰ osteotomy under guidance of VSP. The VSP data (T 0 ) and 1-week postoperative CT (T 1 ) were collected, the 3D model of postoperative CT was established and segmented into upper and lower jaws in CCMF Plan software. At the same time, accor-ding to the morphology of palatal folds, the virtual design was registered with the postoperative model, and the unclear maxillary dentition in the postoperative model was replaced. Then the postoperative model was matched with VSP model by registration of upper skull anatomy that was not affected by the operation. The three-dimensional reference plane and coordinate system were established. Selecting anatomical landmarks and their connections of condyle and maxilla for the measurement, we compared the coordinate changes of marker points in three directions, and the angle changes between the line connecting the marker points and the reference plane to analyze the positional deviation and the angle deviation of the postoperative condyle and maxilla compared to VSP., Results: The postoperative real position of the maxilla deviates from the VSP by nearly 1 mm in the horizontal and vertical directions, and the anteroposterior deviation was about 1.5 mm. In addition, most patients had a certain degree of counterclockwise rotation of the maxilla after surgery. Most of the bilateral condyle moved forward, outward and downward (the average distance deviation was 0.15 mm, 1.54 mm, 2.19 mm, respectively), and rotated forward, outward and upward (the average degree deviation was 4.32°, 1.02°, 0.86°, respectively) compared with the VSP., Conclusion: VSP can be mostly achieved by assistance of 3D printed occlusal plates, but there are certain deviations in the postoperative real position of maxilla and condyle compared with VSP, which may be related to the rotation axis of the mandible in the VSP. It is necessary to use patient personalized condylar rotation axis for VSP, and apply condylar positioning device to further improve surgical accuracy.

In recent years, the utilization of medical devices has gradually increased and implantation procedures have become common treatments. However, patients are susceptible to the risk of implant infections. This study utilized chemical grafting to immobilize polyethylenimine (QPEI) and hyaluronic acid (HA) on the surface of the mesh to improve biocompatibility while being able to achieve antifouling antimicrobial effects. From the in vitro testing, PP-PDA-Q-HA exhibited a high antibacterial ratio of 93% against S. aureus , 93% against E. coli , and 85% against C. albicans . In addition, after five rounds of antimicrobial testing, the coating continued to exhibit excellent antimicrobial properties; PP-PDA-Q-HA also inhibits the formation of bacterial biofilms. In addition, PP-PDA-Q-HA has good hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility. In vivo studies in animal implantation infection models also demonstrated the excellent antimicrobial properties of PP-PDA-Q-HA. Our study provides a promising strategy for the development of antimicrobial surface medical materials with excellent biocompatibility.

Objective: Keratin 15 (KRT15) is identified as a useful biomarker in several solid tumors, while its clinical role in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) remains unknown. Herein, this study is intended to explore the correlation of tumor KRT15 with clinical features and survival in PTC patients who received tumor resection., Methods: This study retrospectively screened 350 PTC patients who received tumor resection and 50 thyroid benign lesions (TBL) patients. KRT15 in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded lesion specimens of all subjects was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC)., Results: KRT15 was reduced in PTC patients compared to TBL patients (P < 0.001). Furthermore, KRT15 was negatively associated with tumor size (P = 0.017), extrathyroidal invasion (P = 0.007), pathological tumor (pT) stage (P < 0.001), and postoperative radioiodine application (P = 0.008) in PTC patients. Regarding prognostic value, high KRT15 (cut-off by an IHC value of 3) is linked with prolonged accumulating disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.008) and overall survival (OS) (P = 0.008) in PTC patients. Also, the multivariate Cox regression model showed that high KRT15 (vs. low) was an independent factor for longer DFS (hazard ratio = 0.433, P = 0.049), but not for OS (P > 0.050) in PTC patients. Subgroup analyses revealed that KRT15 possessed a better prognostic value in PTC patients with age ≥ 55 years, tumor size > 4 cm, pathological node stage 1, or pathological tumor-node-metastasis stage ≤ 2 (all P < 0.050)., Conclusion: Increased tumor KRT15 associates with a lower invasive degree, prolonged DFS, and OS, revealing its prognostic utility in PTC patients undergoing tumor resection., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.)

Patients with bladder cancer (BLCA) still show high recurrence after surgery and chemotherapy. Hesperetin (HE), as a natural compound, has attracted researchers' attention due to its low toxicity and easy access. However, the inhibitory effect of HE on BLCA remains unknown. The hub genes and enrichment pathways regulated by HE in the treatment of BLCA were predicted by network pharmacology. The molecular docking of HE and hub proteins was visualized. Colony and CCK8 assays were used to test cell proliferation, and BLCA migration was confirmed by transwell and wound healing assays. In addition, the occurrence of apoptosis and ferroptosis was demonstrated by Hoechst staining, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ROS (reactive oxygen species) assay. Western Blotting was performed to validate the hub proteins, target functions and pathways. SRC, PIK3R1 and MAPK1 were identified as hub targets for HE in BLCA, involving the PI3k/AKT pathway. Furthermore, HE inhibited the proliferation and migration of BLCA cells. The MMP2/MMP9 proteins were significantly inhibited by HE. The increased expression of Bax and cleaved caspase-3 indicated that HE could promote BLCA cell apoptosis. In addition, Hoechst staining revealed concentrated and illuminated apoptotic nuclei. The activation of ROS and the decline of GPX4 expression suggested that HE might induce ferroptosis as an anti-BLCA process. Shrunk mitochondria and apoptotic bodies were observed in BLCA cells treated with HE, with reduced or absent mitochondrial cristae. We propose for the first time that HE could inhibit the proliferation and migration of BLCA cells and promote apoptosis and ferroptosis. HE may act by targeting proteins such as SRC, PIK3R1 and MAPK1 and the PI3K/AKT pathway., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) has become an important hub for technological innovation and economic development in China. With the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technology talents, it is essential to develop educational cooperation within the GBA to develop a talent pool that can meet the changing needs in the region. This paper focuses on the development of dynamic demand for AI talents and proposes a strategic planning framework for educational cooperation in the GBA. We use the research idea of common attributes and key chain clustering-factor association selection-analysis of the driving force and subordination among factors-the key characteristics of AI talents. Using collinear analysis of citations and grounded theory methods, an operational definition of the influencing factors of AI talent literacy characteristics is constructed. Using the Interpretative Structural Modeling(ISM) and MICMAC (Matrice d'Impacts Croises-Multipication Applique A Classement), analyze and identify the driving force and subordination of the influencing factors of key traits of talents, and present the combined effect of multi-level factors of key traits of talents. Combined with the educational differences and complementary advantages in the GBA, five strategies and seven implementation suggestions for the GBA's AI talent education cooperation plan are formulated to establish a collaborative ecosystem that promotes the growth and integration of AI in the GBA., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

A representative class of kagome materials, AV 3 Sb 5 (A = K, Rb, Cs), hosts several unconventional phases such as superconductivity, [Formula: see text] non-trivial topological states, and electronic nematic states. These can often coexist with intertwined charge-density wave states. Recently, the discovery of the isostructural titanium-based single-crystals, ATi 3 Bi 5 (A = K, Rb, Cs), which exhibit similar multiple exotic states but without the concomitant charge-density wave, has opened an opportunity to disentangle these complex states in kagome lattices. Here, we combine high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations to investigate the low-lying electronic structure of RbTi 3 Bi 5 . We demonstrate the coexistence of flat bands and several non-trivial states, including type-II Dirac nodal lines and [Formula: see text] non-trivial topological surface states. Our findings also provide evidence for rotational symmetry breaking in RbTi 3 Bi 5 , suggesting a directionality to the electronic structure and the possible emergence of pure electronic nematicity in this family of kagome compounds., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

R V6Sn6( R = Y and lanthanides) with two-dimensional vanadium-kagome surface states is an ideal platform to investigate kagome physics and manipulate the kagome features to realize novel phenomena. Utilizing the micron-scale spatially resolved angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations, we report a systematical study of the electronic structures of R V6Sn6( R = Gd, Tb, and Lu) on the two cleaved surfaces, i.e. the V- and R Sn 1 -terminated (001) surfaces. The calculated bands without any renormalization match well with the main ARPES dispersive features, indicating the weak electronic correlation in this system. We observe ' W '-like kagome surface states around the Brillouin zone corners showing R -element-dependent intensities, which is probably due to various coupling strengths between V and R Sn 1 layers. Our finding suggests an avenue for tuning electronic states by interlayer coupling based on two-dimensional kagome lattices., (© 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Kagome superconductors AV 3 Sb 5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) provide a fertile playground for studying intriguing phenomena, including nontrivial band topology, superconductivity, giant anomalous Hall effect, and charge density wave (CDW). Recently, a C 2 symmetric nematic phase prior to the superconducting state in AV 3 Sb 5 drew enormous attention due to its potential inheritance of the symmetry of the unusual superconductivity. However, direct evidence of the rotation symmetry breaking of the electronic structure in the CDW state from the reciprocal space is still rare, and the underlying mechanism remains ambiguous. The observation shows unconventional unidirectionality, indicative of rotation symmetry breaking from six-fold to two-fold. The interlayer coupling between adjacent planes with π-phase offset in the 2 × 2 × 2 CDW phase leads to the preferred two-fold symmetric electronic structure. These rarely observed unidirectional back-folded bands in KV 3 Sb 5 may provide important insights into its peculiar charge order and superconductivity.

Background: A new two-piece abutment design consisting of an upper prosthetic component and tissue-level base has been introduced; however, the biomechanical behavior of such a design has not been documented. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a two-piece abutment design on the stress in the implant components and surrounding bone, as well as its influence on microgap formation., Methods: To simulate the implant models in the mandibular left first molar area, we established nine experimental groups that included three bone qualities (type II, III, and IV) and three implant-abutment designs (internal bone level, tissue level, and a two-piece design). After the screw was preloaded, the maximum occlusal (600 N) and masticatory (225 N) forces were established. Finite element analysis was performed to analyze the maximum and minimum principal stresses on the peri-implant bone; the von Mises stresses in the implants, abutments, bases, and screws, and the microgaps at the implant-abutment, implant-base, and base-abutment interfaces., Results: For all three loading methods, the two-piece abutment design and bone-level connection exhibited similarities in the maximum and minimum principal stresses in the peri-implant bone. The von Mises stresses in both screws and bases were greater for the two-piece design than for the other connection types. The smallest microgap was detected in the tissue-level connection; the largest was observed at the implant-base interface in the two-piece design., Conclusions: The present study found no evidence that the abutment design exerts a significant effect on peri-implant bone stress. However, the mechanical effects associated with the base and screws should be noted when using a two-piece abutment design. The two-piece abutment design also had no advantage in eliminating the microgap., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease characterized by cartilage degeneration and intra-articular inflammation. Daurisoline (DAS) is an isoquinoline alkaloid isolated from Rhizoma Menispermi, whose antitumor and anti-inflammatory pharmacological effects have been demonstrated, but the effects of DAS on OA have rarely been researched. In this study, we aimed to explore the potential role of DAS in OA and its partial mechanism., Materials and Methods: The cytotoxicity of H 2 O 2 and DAS toward chondrocytes was detected by the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. Safranin O staining was used to detect chondrocyte phenotype changes. Cell apoptosis was measured by both flow cytometry and quantitative analysis of the protein levels of the apoptosis-related factors Bax, Bcl-2 and cleaved caspase-3 by western blot. Western blotting and immunofluorescence were used to assess the expression of the autophagy-related proteins LC3, Beclin-1 and p62. In addition, key signal pathway targets and matrix-degrading indicators were measured by western blot., Results: Our results indicated that H 2 O 2 induced human chondrocyte apoptosis and activated autophagy in a dose-dependent manner. DAS treatment dose-dependently reversed the expression of apoptosis-related proteins (Bax, Bcl-2 and cleaved caspase3) and the apoptosis rate induced by H 2 O 2 . Western blot and immunofluorescence analyses showed that DAS decreased the H 2 O 2 -induced upregulation of the autophagy marker Beclin-1 and the LC3 II/LC3 I ratio and upregulated the p62 protein level. Mechanistically, DAS inhibited autophagy through the activation of the classical PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway and protected chondrocytes from apoptosis. In addition, DAS alleviated the H 2 O 2 -induced degradation of type II collagen and the high expression of matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) and MMP13., Conclusion: Our research demonstrated that DAS alleviated chondrocyte autophagy caused by H 2 O 2 through activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway and protected chondrocytes from apoptosis and matrix degradation. In conclusion, these findings suggest that DAS may serve as a promising therapeutic strategy for OA., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Room-temperature two-dimensional antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are highly desirable for various device applications. In this letter, we report the low-energy electronic structure of KMnBi measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, which confirms an AFM ground state with the valence band maximum located at -100 meV below the Fermi level and small hole effective masses associated with the sharp band dispersion. Using complementary Raman, atomic force microscope and electric transport measurement, we systematically study the evolution of electric transport characteristics of micro-mechanically exfoliated KMnBi with varied flake thicknesses, which all consistently reveal the existence of a probable AFM ground state down to the quintuple-layer regime. The AFM phase transition temperature ranges from 220 K to 275 K, depending on the thickness. Our results suggest that with proper device encapsulation, multilayer KMnBi is indeed a promising 2D AFM platform for testing various theoretical proposals for device applications., (© 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Given its high recurrence and rapid progress, bladder cancer (BLCA) treatment has become a major problem for clinicians. BLCA is difficult to control even with surgical resection and extensive use of chemotherapeutic drugs. The non-toxicity and ease of accessibility of natural compounds have attracted much attention in recent years. Flavonoids serve an essential role given their antioxidant, antibacterial, anticancer and cardiovascular properties. They are mainly divided into several subclasses; flavones, flavanones, flavonols, flavanols, anthocyanins isoflavones and chalcones. Over the years, the role of flavonoids in BLCA has been extensively studied. The present review provided a comprehensive overview of the classification of flavonoids and substantiate the role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cancer stem cells, angiogenesis, epigenetic regulation and programmed cell death in BLCA. The present review emphasized that flavonoids for BLCA treatment are worthy of further study and anti-BLCA drugs have huge prospects for clinical use., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright: © Lv et al.)

This study aims to investigate the influence of adding Lonicera japonica (L. japonica) and Radix Puerariae crude extracts and their mixture to the diet of finishing pigs on their fecal microbes and nutrient apparent digestibility. A total of 72 healthy Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire crossbred barrows without significant differences in body weight (93 ± 2 kg) were selected and randomly divided into four groups (18 in each group). Three replicate pens per group (six pigs per pen) were used, and two pigs were evaluated for each pen. The groups were fed the following diets: control group (CON), basic diet; chlorogenic acid group (CGA group), basic diet + 1 kg/ton L. japonica crude extract; Pueraria flavonoid group (PF group), basic diet + 1 kg/ton Radix Puerariae crude extract; and mix group (Mix group), basic diet + 0.5 kg/ton L. japonica crude extract + 0.5 kg/ton Radix Puerariae crude extract. The following results were obtained: (1) At the phylum level, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Spirochaetes, Proteobacteria, Fibrobaeteres, and Kiritimatiellaeota were the main components of the fecal microbiota (top 5); the relative abundance of bacteria from phyla Firmicutes significantly increased in the Mix group than in the CON group (p < 0.05). At the genus level, Treponema&#95;2, Rikenellaceae&#95;RC9&#95;gut&#95;group, uncultured&#95;bacterium&#95;f&#95;Lachnospiraceae, uncultured&#95;bacterium&#95;f&#95;Prevotellaceae, and Prevotellaceae&#95;NK3B31&#95;group were the main components of the fecal microbiota (top 5); the relative abundance of bacteria from genus Lactobacillus significantly increased in the Mix group than in the CON group (p < 0.05). Chao1 and Ace counts were significantly higher in group CGA than in the CON group and group Mix (p < 0.05). The alpha and beta diversities and the relative abundance of fecal microbes were higher in all test groups than in the CON group. (2) The protein digestibility was significantly higher in the CGA and PF groups than in the CON group, and the TP digestibility was significantly higher in the CGA than in the CON and Mix groups (p < 0.05). In conclusion, Lonicera japonica and Radix Puerariae crude extract supplementation in the diet significantly changed fecal microbiota and improved the protein and TP digestibility of finishing pigs.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex molecules play an essential role in immune interactions by presenting peptides on the cell surface to T cells. With significant deep learning progress, a series of neural network-based models have been proposed and demonstrated with their excellent performances for peptide-HLA class I binding prediction. However, there is still a lack of effective binding prediction models for HLA class II protein binding with peptides due to its inherent challenges. We present a novel sequence-based pan-specific neural network structure, DeepSeaPanII, for peptide-HLA class II binding prediction in this work. Our model is an end-to-end neural network model without the need for pre-or post-processing on input samples compared with existing pan-specific models. Besides state-of-the-art performance in binding affinity prediction, DeepSeqPanII can also extract biological insight on the binding mechanism over the peptide by its attention mechanism-based binding core prediction capability. The leave-one-allele-out cross-validation and benchmark evaluation results show that our proposed network model achieved state-of-the-art performance in HLA-II peptide binding. The source code and trained models are freely available at https://github.com/pcpLiu/DeepSeqPanII.

Fundamental understanding and control of the electronic structure evolution in rare-earth nickelates is a fascinating and meaningful issue, as well as being helpful to understand the mechanism of recently discovered superconductivity. Here the dimensionality effect on the ground electronic state in high-quality (NdNiO 3 ) m /(SrTiO 3 ) 1 superlattices is systematically studied through transport and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The metal-to-insulator transition temperature decreases with the thickness of the NdNiO 3 slab decreasing from bulk to 7 unit cells, then increases gradually as m further reduces to 1 unit cell. Spectral evidence demonstrates that the stabilization of insulating phase can be attributed to the increase of the charge-transfer energy between O 2p and Ni 3d bands. The prominent multiplet feature on the Ni L 3 edge develops with the decrease of NdNiO 3 slab thickness, suggesting the strengthening of the charge disproportionate state under the dimensional confinement. This work provides convincing evidence that dimensionality is an effective knob to modulate the charge-transfer energy and thus the collective ground state in nickelates., (© 2022 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is a chronic disease with potentially severe complications, and β-cell deficiency underlies this disease. Despite active research, no therapy to date has been able to induce β-cell regeneration in humans. Here, we discover the β-cell regenerative effects of glucagon receptor antibody (anti-GcgR). Treatment with anti-GcgR in mouse models of β-cell deficiency leads to reversal of hyperglycemia, increase in plasma insulin levels, and restoration of β-cell mass. We demonstrate that both β-cell proliferation and α- to β-cell transdifferentiation contribute to anti-GcgR-induced β-cell regeneration. Interestingly, anti-GcgR-induced α-cell hyperplasia can be uncoupled from β-cell regeneration after antibody clearance from the body. Importantly, we are able to show that anti-GcgR-induced β-cell regeneration is also observed in non-human primates. Furthermore, anti-GcgR and anti-CD3 combination therapy reverses diabetes and increases β-cell mass in a mouse model of autoimmune diabetes., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests All authors are current or former employees of NGM Biopharmaceuticals and may hold stocks in the company. NGM Biopharmaceuticals has filed patent applications related to anti-GcgR antibodies and their utility for treatment of diabetes., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Efficient and stable electromagnetic-wave (EMW) absorption materials have attracted great attention in the field of reducing microwave pollution. Herein, FeCoNiCuTi x high-entropy alloys (HEAs) as electromagnetic-wave absorbing materials were prepared by a high-energy ball-milling method. The as-milled HEA powders presented a flaky shape with a high aspect ratio. Impedance matching was efficiently optimized by severe lattice distortion, which was caused by Ti incorporation. The introduced plentiful defects in FeCoNiCuTi x HEAs provided abundant polarization sites for dielectric loss. By tuning Ti contents, FeCoNiCuTi 0.2 HEAs delivered excellent EMW absorption performances. The maximal reflection loss (RL max ) values reached -47.8 dB at 10.86 GHz as thin as 2.16 mm, and the widest bandwidth was 4.76 GHz (5.97-10.73 GHz). Furthermore, the introduction of Ti enhanced corrosion resistance via increasing the charge transfer resistance of a passivated film. Those characteristics of FeCoNiCuTi x HEAs made these materials a practical gigahertz-range EMW absorber. Additionally, our findings provided a facile and tunable strategy for designing EMW absorbing materials, which was aimed at lightweight, highly efficient absorption, and resistance to harsh environments.

Water uptake facilitates the initiation of seed germination. It is presumed that aquaporin (AQP)-mediated water inflow contributes to seed germination, but the genetic evidence is still lacking. This study aimed at genome-wide identification of ZmAQPs and further determined the physiological functions. Following a comprehensive search, a total of 41 ZmAQPs were identified according to the latest genome database. Through bioinformatic approaches, the physicochemical characteristics, phylogenetic relationships, and structural features of ZmAQPs were analyzed. The gene expression analysis of 20 high-resolution and multi-tissues samples showed that ZmAQPs had distinct spatiotemporal and tissue-specific expression profiles during seed germination and early seedling development. We then focused on the aquaporin of maize tonoplast intrinsic protein 3 (ZmTIP3), which is specifically expressed in germinating seed. A mutant zmtip3-1 with disruption of the ZmTIP3-1 gene showed shorter shoot and root length, and decreased seedling dry weight compared with the control ( W22 ). The result revealed that ZmTIP3-1 improved the absolute content of seed protein and promoted storage reserves mobilization, suggesting that ZmTIP3 may be a positive regulator of seed vigor. This work provides valuable clues for understanding the function and possible regulatory mechanism of ZmAQPs in seed germination and seedling growth., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Su, Liu, Sun, Wu, Li, Zhang and Zhao.)

Quantum materials with layered kagome structures have drawn considerable attention due to their unique lattice geometry, which gives rise to flat bands together with Dirac-like dispersions. Recently, vanadium-based materials with layered kagome structures were discovered to be topological metals, which exhibit charge density wave (CDW) properties, significant anomalous Hall effect, and unusual superconductivity at low temperatures. Here, we employ angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to investigate the electronic structure evolution upon the CDW transition in a vanadium-based kagome material RbV&#95;{3}Sb&#95;{5}. The CDW phase transition gives rise to a partial energy gap opening at the boundary of the Brillouin zone and, most importantly, the emergence of new van Hove singularities associated with large density of states, which are absent in the normal phase and might be related to the superconductivity observed at lower temperatures. Our work sheds light on the microscopic mechanisms for the formation of the CDW and superconducting states in these topological kagome metals.

Hypophosphatasia is a rare metabolic inherited dento-osseous disorder. Although there is some available literature on various dental characteristics of hypophosphatasia patients, few reports focus on the effects of hypophosphatasia on the permanent dentition and prosthodontic rehabilitation, particularly in relation to the use of dental implants. This paper reports a case with hypophosphatasia and prosthodontic rehabilitation using dental implants with 7-year follow-up., (© 2021 by the American College of Prosthodontists.)

Accurate prediction of peptide binding affinity to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins has the potential to design better therapeutic vaccines. Previous work has shown that pan-specific prediction algorithms can achieve better prediction performance than other approaches. However, most of the top algorithms are neural networks based black box models. Here, we propose DeepAttentionPan, an improved pan-specific model, based on convolutional neural networks and attention mechanisms for more flexible, stable and interpretable MHC-I binding prediction. With the attention mechanism, our ensemble model consisting of 20 trained networks achieves high and more stabilized prediction performance. Extensive tests on IEDB's weekly benchmark dataset show that our method achieves state-of-the-art prediction performance on 21 test allele datasets. Analysis of the peptide positional attention weights learned by our model demonstrates its capability to capture critical binding positions of the peptides, which leads to mechanistic understanding of MHC-peptide binding with high alignment with experimentally verified results. Furthermore, we show that with transfer learning, our pan model can be fine-tuned for alleles with few samples to achieve additional performance improvement. DeepAttentionPan is freely available as an open-source software at https://github.com/jjin49/DeepAttentionPan., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Kagome-lattices of 3d-transition metals hosting Weyl/Dirac fermions and topological flat bands exhibit non-trivial topological characters and novel quantum phases, such as the anomalous Hall effect and fractional quantum Hall effect. With consideration of spin-orbit coupling and electron correlation, several instabilities could be induced. The typical characters of the electronic structure of a kagome lattice, i.e., the saddle point, Dirac-cone, and flat band, around the Fermi energy (E F ) remain elusive in magnetic kagome materials. We present the experimental observation of the complete features in ferromagnetic kagome layers of YMn 6 Sn 6 helically coupled along the c-axis, by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and band structure calculations. We demonstrate a Dirac dispersion near E F , which is predicted by spin-polarized theoretical calculations, carries an intrinsic Berry curvature and contributes to the anomalous Hall effect in transport measurements. In addition, a flat band and a saddle point with a high density of states near E F are observed. These multi-sets of kagome features are of orbital-selective origin and could cause multi-orbital magnetism. The Dirac fermion, flat band and saddle point in the vicinity of E F open an opportunity in manipulating the topological properties in magnetic materials.

Thermosetting organic resins are widely applied as insulating coatings for soft magnetic powder cores (SMPCs) because of their high electrical resistivity. However, their poor thermal stability and thermal decomposition lead to a decrease in electrical resistivity, thus limiting the annealing temperature of SMPCs. The large amount of internal stress generated by soft magnetic composites during pressing must be mitigated at high temperatures; therefore, it is especially important to find organic resins with excellent thermal stabilities. In this study, we prepared SMPCs using poly-silicon-containing arylacetylene resin, an organic resin resistant to high temperatures, as an insulating layer. With 2 wt % PSA as an insulating layer and annealed at 700 °C for 1 h, the FeSiAl SMPCs achieved the best magnetic properties, including the lowest core loss of 184 mW/cm 3 (measured at 0.1 T and 50 kHz) and highest permeability of 96.

Electron-boson interaction is fundamental to a thorough understanding of various exotic properties emerging in many-body physics. In photoemission spectroscopy, photoelectron emission due to photon absorption would trigger diverse collective excitations in solids, including the emergence of phonons, magnons, electron-hole pairs, and plasmons, which naturally provides a reliable pathway to study electron-boson couplings. While fingerprints of electron-phonon/-magnon interactions in this state-of-the-art technique have been well investigated, much less is known about electron-plasmon coupling, and direct observation of the band renormalization solely due to electron-plasmon interactions is extremely challenging. Here by utilizing integrated oxide molecular-beam epitaxy and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we discover the long sought-after pure electron-plasmon coupling-induced low-lying plasmonic-polaron replica bands in epitaxial semimetallic SrIrO 3 films, in which the characteristic low carrier concentration and narrow bandwidth combine to provide a unique platform where the electron-plasmon interaction can be investigated kinematically in photoemission spectroscopy. This finding enriches the forms of electron band normalization on collective modes in solids and demonstrates that, to obtain a complete understanding of the quasiparticle dynamics in 5d electron systems, the electron-plasmon interaction should be considered on equal footing with the acknowledged electron-electron interaction and spin-orbit coupling., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Layered kagome-lattice 3d transition metals are emerging as an exciting platform to explore the frustrated lattice geometry and quantum topology. However, the typical kagome electronic bands, characterized by sets of the Dirac-like band capped by a phase-destructive flat band, have not been clearly observed, and their orbital physics are even less well investigated. Here, we present close-to-textbook kagome bands with orbital differentiation physics in CoSn, which can be well described by a minimal tight-binding model with single-orbital hopping in Co kagome lattice. The capping flat bands with bandwidth less than 0.2 eV run through the whole Brillouin zone, especially the bandwidth of the flat band of out-of-plane orbitals is less than 0.02 eV along Γ-M. The energy gap induced by spin-orbit interaction at the Dirac cone of out-of-plane orbitals is much smaller than that of in-plane orbitals, suggesting orbital-selective character of the Dirac fermions.

Kagome-nets, appearing in electronic, photonic and cold-atom systems, host frustrated fermionic and bosonic excitations. However, it is rare to find a system to study their fermion-boson many-body interplay. Here we use state-of-the-art scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy to discover unusual electronic coupling to flat-band phonons in a layered kagome paramagnet, CoSn. We image the kagome structure with unprecedented atomic resolution and observe the striking bosonic mode interacting with dispersive kagome electrons near the Fermi surface. At this mode energy, the fermionic quasi-particle dispersion exhibits a pronounced renormalization, signaling a giant coupling to bosons. Through the self-energy analysis, first-principles calculation, and a lattice vibration model, we present evidence that this mode arises from the geometrically frustrated phonon flat-band, which is the lattice bosonic analog of the kagome electron flat-band. Our findings provide the first example of kagome bosonic mode (flat-band phonon) in electronic excitations and its strong interaction with fermionic degrees of freedom in kagome-net materials.

Structural information of materials such as the crystal systems and space groups are highly useful for analyzing their physical properties. However, the enormous composition space of materials makes experimental X-ray diffraction (XRD) or first-principle-based structure determination methods infeasible for large-scale material screening in the composition space. Herein, we propose and evaluate machine-learning algorithms for determining the structure type of materials, given only their compositions. We couple random forest (RF) and multiple layer perceptron (MLP) neural network models with three types of features: Magpie, atom vector, and one-hot encoding (atom frequency) for the crystal system and space group prediction of materials. Four types of models for predicting crystal systems and space groups are proposed, trained, and evaluated including one-versus-all binary classifiers, multiclass classifiers, polymorphism predictors, and multilabel classifiers. The synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE) is conducted to mitigate the effects of imbalanced data sets. Our results demonstrate that RF with Magpie features generally outperforms other algorithms for binary and multiclass prediction of crystal systems and space groups, while MLP with atom frequency features is the best one for structural polymorphism prediction. For multilabel prediction, MLP with atom frequency and binary relevance with Magpie models are the best for predicting crystal systems and space groups, respectively. Our analysis of the related descriptors identifies a few key contributing features for structural-type prediction such as electronegativity, covalent radius, and Mendeleev number. Our work thus paves a way for fast composition-based structural screening of inorganic materials via predicted material structural properties., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.)

The risk of avascular necrosis (AVN) and nonunion after treatment of displaced femoral neck fractures is increased in patients aged <60 years. Therefore we established a new protocol for closed reduction and internal fixation (CRIF) using cannulated screws combined with bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) composite materials to treat acute femoral neck fractures.This study enrolled 78 patients with acute femoral neck fractures between April 2014 and September 2016. We treated 46 patients with a mean age of 43.8 years in study group. These patients were treated by CRIF combined with BMP-2 composite materials. In control group, there were 32 patients with a mean age of 42.09 years. The patients were treated by CRIF without BMP-2. The duration between presentation and surgery, operative time, Harris score and complications were recorded.In study group, 43 patients were followed up with an average of 31.3 months. One patient suffered nonunion and three patients presented AVN. In control group, 28 patients were followed up with an average of 32.3 months, the rate of AVN and fracture nonunion were 25% (7/28) and 21.4% (6/28) respectively, significantly higher than those in study group (P < .05).Acute displaced femoral neck fractures can be treated with CRIF and BMP-2 composite materials in a minimally invasive manner. This technique was reproducible and had fewer complications.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) incorporated biomimetic calcium phosphate (BMP-2/BioCaP) in conjunction with barrier membrane on periodontal regeneration in chronic periodontitis experimental model., Material and Methods: Chronic periodontitis experimental model with critical-sized supra-alveolar defects was created in 15 dogs' mandibles. After the initial periodontal therapy, the defects were randomly assigned to the following groups: (a) control; (b) barrier membrane; (c) deproteinized bovine bone mineral + barrier membrane; (d) BioCaP + barrier membrane and (e) BMP-2/BioCaP + barrier membrane (6 quadrants with 18 teeth per group). Eight weeks later, clinical examinations, micro-CT, and histomorphometric analyses were performed., Results: Clinical examinations, including plaque index, bleeding index, and probing depth, were similar for all groups. In contrast, the clinical attachment loss was significantly lower in defects grafted with BMP-2/BioCaP and barrier membrane. The micro-CT results showed that the height of mineralized tissue in defects grafted with BMP-2/BioCaP and barrier membrane was significantly higher. For histometric analysis, the defects grafted with BMP-2/BioCaP and barrier membrane exhibited significantly more connective tissue height, new cementum height, new bone height and area, as well as less down-growth of junctional epithelium., Conclusion: BMP-2/BioCaP could be a promising bone substitute for periodontal regeneration., (© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Periodontology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Concentrate Growth Factors Extract (CGF-e) on the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells under high glucose condition., Materials and Methods: MC3T3-E1 cells were divided into 4 groups including normal glucose (5.5-mM) group (control), high glucose (25.5-mM) group, normal glucose + CGF-e group, and high glucose + CGF-e group. The proliferation, osteogenic differentiation and mineralization of osteoblasts were evaluated, respectively, by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, cytoskeleton analysis, alkaline phosphatase activity assay, alizarin red staining, and real-time polymerase chain reaction. Western blots analysis was used to explore the role of PI3K/Akt pathway., Results: The viability, osteogenic differentiation, and mineralization of MC3T3-E1 cells were significantly decreased by high glucose. All observed osteogenic dysfunction were inhibited by CGF-e. Moreover, the PI3K/Akt pathway was activated by CGF-e., Conclusions: It was concluded that the soluble factors released by CGF could significantly attenuate high glucose-mediated MC3T3-E1 cells osteogenic dysfunction through the PI3K/Akt pathway.

This paper addresses the task of nuclei segmentation in high-resolution histopathology images. We propose an automatic end-to-end deep neural network algorithm for segmentation of individual nuclei. A nucleus-boundary model is introduced to predict nuclei and their boundaries simultaneously using a fully convolutional neural network. Given a color-normalized image, the model directly outputs an estimated nuclei map and a boundary map. A simple, fast, and parameter-free post-processing procedure is performed on the estimated nuclei map to produce the final segmented nuclei. An overlapped patch extraction and assembling method is also designed for seamless prediction of nuclei in large whole-slide images. We also show the effectiveness of data augmentation methods for nuclei segmentation task. Our experiments showed our method outperforms prior state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, it is efficient that one 1000×1000 image can be segmented in less than 5 s. This makes it possible to precisely segment the whole-slide image in acceptable time. The source code is available at https://github.com/easycui/nuclei&#95;segmentation . Graphical Abstract The neural network for nuclei segmentation.

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), the source and upper reaches of many Asian rivers, are crisscrossed by rivers and dotted with lakes. Schizothoracinae fishes, species native to the QTP, are distributed widely through these rivers and lakes. Over the past decades, ecological protection has become increasingly intense. The rapid acquisition of the genetic information and accurate gene sequence database are assumed to play an important role in the conservation of species diversity and biodiversity. In this study, 153 COI sequences (648bp in length) covering 13 species in 8 genera of Schizothoracinae fishes in Qinghai Province were used to determine whether barcode could identify Schizothoracinae species accurately. The average Kimura two parameter (K2P) genetic distances within and among species were 0.35% and 8.83%, respectively. The maximum K2P distance within species was observed in Gymnocypris eckloni (1.36%) while minimum K2P distance among species was observed between Chuanchia labiosa and Schizopygopsis pylzovi (0.23%). Overlaps existed in K2P distance intra- and inter- species based on both the genes. Eleven groups with 9 single-species groups and 2 multi-species groups were identified through Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery System, which were consistent with the overlaps of K2P distance. 96.7% as the accurate ratio for COI barcode was calculated and high solution was observed in the phylogenetic trees based on COI gene and Cyt b gene. Except for the similar results based on two genes above, COI barcode was more economical than Cyt b gene. The SOM model successfully predicted characteristic-diagnostic sites at species level: 36 characteristic-diagnostic sites from eight species, in which 12 from Gmnodiptychus pachycgeilus , 2 from Platypharodon extremus , 7 from Ptychobarbus kaznakovi , 2 from Schizopygopsis anteroventris , 2 from Schizopygopsis malacanthus , 3 from Schizopygopsis malacanthus chengi , 3 from Schizothorax dolichonema and 5 from Schizothorax lantsangensis . Our results show that Schizothoracinae fishes can be identified validly by using COI DNA barcode. Thirty-six characteristic-diagnostic sites were proposed to be applied into works of species identification for the Schizothoracinae fishes in Qinghai Province.

We use inelastic neutron scattering to study energy and wave vector dependence of spin fluctuations in SrCo&#95;{2}As&#95;{2}, derived from SrFe&#95;{2-x}Co&#95;{x}As&#95;{2} iron pnictide superconductors. Our data reveal the coexistence of antiferromagnetic (AF) and ferromagnetic (FM) spin fluctuations at wave vectors Q&#95;{AF}=(1,0) and Q&#95;{FM}=(0,0)/(2,0), respectively. By comparing neutron scattering results with those of dynamic mean field theory calculation and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments, we conclude that both AF and FM spin fluctuations in SrCo&#95;{2}As&#95;{2} are closely associated with a flatband of the e&#95;{g} orbitals near the Fermi level, different from the t&#95;{2g} orbitals in superconducting SrFe&#95;{2-x}Co&#95;{x}As&#95;{2}. Therefore, Co substitution in SrFe&#95;{2-x}Co&#95;{x}As&#95;{2} induces a t&#95;{2g} to e&#95;{g} orbital switching, and is responsible for FM spin fluctuations detrimental to the singlet pairing superconductivity.

Background: Globally, colon cancer (CC) is the third reason of tumor-related deaths. Previous reports indicate that Forkhead box O3 (FOXO3) is involved in the development of various tumors and may have different effects depending upon the types of tumors. Hence, this study was to examine the effects of FOXO3 on CC cells and uncover the possible mechanisms., Methods: MTT and cell count assay were applied to analyze the viability of transfected CC cells. rVista, dual luciferase reporter assay, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay were used to identify the downstream target of FOXO3 in HCT116 cells. The mRNA and protein abundance of FOXO3 and MDR1 were determined by quantitative PCR and Western blot, respectively., Results: Forkhead box O3 stimulated the proliferation of both HCT116 and DLD1 cells. Moreover, FOXO3 overexpression inhibited doxorubicin sensitivity of HCT116 cells, while the knockout of FOXO3 by FOXO3 shRNA restored the doxorubicin sensitivity in doxorubicin-resistant HCT116 DR cells. Next, we found that FOXO3 directly bound to the promoter of MDR1 and enhanced MDR1 expression in HCT116 cells. MDR1 overexpression enhanced the viability and doxorubicin resistance of CC cells. Besides, MDR1 overexpression plasmid significantly abrogated the decrease in cell proliferation and resistance of HCT116 cells to doxorubicin caused by FOXO3 knockout., Conclusion: Forkhead box O3 exhibited promotive effects on the proliferation and doxorubicin resistance in CC cells via targeting MDR1., (© 2019 The Authors. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objectives: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a systemic disease that also compromises the bone healing capacity. In healthy individuals, surface modifications of dental implants are proven to increase bone response and implant success. The aim of this study was to clarify if the surface modifications also improve osseointegration in a setting with diabetes mellitus., Methods: T2DM was induced in 7 rats by a high-fat diet/low-dose streptozotocin injection. All animals received a hydroxyapatite (HA) implant, a sandblasted and acid-etched (SLA) implant, and a standard machined titanium implant for control in the tibia. After 4 weeks, thin-ground sections were produced, and the volume of new bone formation (nBV/TV) and bone-to-implant contact (nB.I/Im.I) were histomorphometrically analyzed., Results: Both surface modifications led to an increase of osseointegration compared with the machined surface implant in rats with T2DM. nBV/TV was highest in the SLA implants, whereas nB.I/Im.I was highest in the HA group. Regardless of the surface modification, a superordinate regional pattern of new bone formation over the length of the implant was observed., Conclusions: Implants with HA coating and SLA surface modifications seem to have the potential to increase osseointegration also in T2DM rats when compared with a conventional machined surface.

Interactions between human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) and peptides play a critical role in the human immune system. Accurate computational prediction of HLA-binding peptides can be used for peptide drug discovery. Currently, the best prediction algorithms are neural network-based pan-specific models, which take advantage of the large amount of data across HLA alleles. However, current pan-specific models are all based on the pseudo sequence encoding for modeling the binding context, which is based on 34 positions identified from the HLA protein-peptide bound structures in early works. In this work, we proposed a novel deep convolutional neural network model (DCNN) for HLA-peptide binding prediction, in which the encoding of the HLA sequence and the binding context are both learned by the network itself without requiring the HLA-peptide bound structure information. Our DCNN model is also characterized by its binding context extraction layer and dual outputs with both binding affinity output and binding probability outputs. Evaluation on public benchmark datasets shows that our DeepSeqPan model without HLA structural information in training achieves state-of-the-art performance on a large number of HLA alleles with good generalization capability. Since our model only needs raw sequences from the HLA-peptide binding pairs, it can be applied to binding predictions of HLAs without structure information and can also be applied to other protein binding problems such as protein-DNA and protein-RNA bindings. The implementation code and trained models are freely available at https://github.com/pcpLiu/DeepSeqPan .

Background and Objective: Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the destruction of the periodontium. The strontium ion (Sr 2+ ) can prevent the bone loss associated with periodontitis and promote the regeneration of the bone. The mechanisms by which the Sr 2+ works remain poorly understood. We aim to investigate the effects of the Sr 2+ ion on cell proliferation, inflammatory regulation and osteogenic differentiation of human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs) in pathological conditions., Material and Methods: hPDLCs were obtained from premolars that came from the orthodontic extraction. The hPDLCs were treated with Sr 2+ and/or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which was applied as the pathological condition of periodontitis. The effect of the dose of Sr 2+ on cell proliferation was analyzed using a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The gene and protein expression of proinflammatory cytokines were detected by the real-time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The osteogenic differentiation and mineralization were assessed by the real-time polymerase chain reaction, alkaline phosphatase activity assay and alizarin red staining., Results: Results demonstrated that Sr 2+ in a range of concentrations from 0.02 to 2.5 mmol/L significantly improved the proliferation of hPDLCs. Sr 2+ reversed LPS-stimulated proinflammatory cytokine expressions such as tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and IL-8. Moreover, Sr 2+ rescued the LPS-inhibited gene expression of osteogenic differentiation. Although it appeared to suppress the late mineralization, Sr 2+ can reverse the LPS-inhibited early osteogenic differentiation of hPDLCs., Conclusion: These results indicated that Sr 2+ could attenuate the LPS-stimulated proinflammatory molecule expression and inhibit early osteogenic differentiation of hPDLCs., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The original version of this Article incorrectly omitted an affiliation of Hongming Weng: "Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China"This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Objectives: Working Group 5 was assigned the task to review the current knowledge in the area of digital technologies. Focused questions on accuracy of linear measurements when using CBCT, digital vs. conventional implant planning, using digital vs. conventional impressions and assessing the accuracy of static computer-aided implant surgery (s-CAIS) and patient-related outcome measurements when using s-CAIS were addressed., Materials and Methods: The literature was systematically searched, and in total, 232 articles were selected and critically reviewed following PRISMA guidelines. Four systematic reviews were produced in the four subject areas and amply discussed in the group. After emendation, they were presented to the plenary where after further modification, they were accepted., Results: Static computer-aided surgery (s-CAIS), in terms of pain & discomfort, economics and intraoperative complications, is beneficial compared with conventional implant surgery. When using s-CAIS in partially edentulous cases, a higher level of accuracy can be achieved when compared to fully edentulous cases. When using an intraoral scanner in edentulous cases, the results are dependent on the protocol that has been followed. The accuracy of measurements on CBCT scans is software dependent., Conclusions: Because the precision intraoral scans and of measurements on CBCT scans and is not high enough to allow for the required accuracy, s-CAIS should be considered as an additional tool for comprehensive diagnosis, treatment planning, and surgical procedures. Flapless s-CAIS can lead to implant placement outside of the zone of keratinized mucosa and thus must be executed with utmost care., (© 2018 The Authors. Clinical Oral Implants Research Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Non-syndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCLP) is the most common congenital craniofacial malformation, and its harmful influence on affected individuals is apparent. Despite many studies, the causative genes and their mechanisms are not completely clear. We recruited a Han Chinese NSCLP family and explored the causative variant in this pedigree. We performed whole-exome sequencing on two patients. Bioinformatics screening and analysis were used to identify the mutation. We also performed species conservation analysis, mutation function predictions, and homology protein modelling to evaluate the influence of the mutation. We identified a rare mutation in interferon regulatory factor 6 (IRF6) (c.26G>A; p.Arg9Gln) as a candidate of causative mutation. This mutation was predicted to be deleterious. The codon is conserved in many species. The residue change caused by this mutation would affect the structure of IRF6 to a degree. Our study suggested that the rare IRF6 variant is probably the pathogenic mutation in this family. Our result adds evidence that IRF6 variants play a role in the aetiology of orofacial clefts.

The origin of anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in magnetic materials is one of the most intriguing aspects in condensed matter physics and has been a controversial topic for a long time. Recent studies indicate that the intrinsic AHE is closely related to the Berry curvature of occupied electronic states. In a magnetic Weyl semimetal with broken time-reversal symmetry, there are significant contributions to Berry curvature around Weyl nodes, possibly leading to a large intrinsic AHE. Here, we report the quite large AHE in the half-metallic ferromagnet Co 3 Sn 2 S 2 single crystal. By systematically mapping out the electronic structure of Co 3 Sn 2 S 2 both theoretically and experimentally, we demonstrate that the intrinsic AHE from the Weyl fermions near the Fermi energy is dominating. The intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity depends linearly on the magnetization and can be reproduced by theoretical simulation, in which the Weyl nodes monotonically move with the constrained magnetic moment on Co atom.

Purpose: To develop a TiOx film with high wettability using plasma oxidation methodology and to evaluate the effect of such surface modification on new bone formation and early osseointegration., Materials and Methods: Twenty sandblasted and acid-etched (SLA) titanium implants layered with a TiOx film layer were modified by plasma oxidation using a Radio Frequency Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (RFPECVD) system. Twenty SLA implants without any treatment were employed as the control group. Scanning electron microscopy was used to evaluate surface morphology of the coating. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was utilized to identify the chemical composition of the implant surface, and the wettability was tested with the help of the contact angle calculation. All implants were randomly inserted into the proximal tibia of 20 rats with a split-plot design. Four weeks after implantation, early osseointegration of the two groups was analyzed by a removal torque test and histologic analysis., Results: The surface characteristics showed that both SLA and plasma oxidization-treated SLA (PO-SLA) surfaces displayed similar typical isotropic irregular indentations. As revealed by the XPS analyses, both TiO 2 and Ti 2 O 3 were coexistent in the PO-SLA surface. The contact angle measurement revealed that the super-hydrophilic surface was created out in the PO-SLA surface. Four weeks after implantation, a higher removal torque value was observed in the group of implants with the PO-SLA surface compared with the control group (12.68 ± 1.07 vs 9.95 ± 1.42 Ncm, P < .05), and a higher rate of bone-to-implant contact was also detected in the same group of implants with the PO-SLA surface (47.79% ± 9.59% vs 39.41% ± 9.00%, P < .05). The bone area ratio was also higher in the PO-SLA surface group than the control group (39.10% ± 10.01% vs 29.01% ± 7.24%, P < .05)., Conclusion: It was indicated that the PO-SLA surface has combined the effect of high wettability and micro/nano-structures to notably increase early bone apposition.

The aim of this study was to compare the histology of wound healing following incisions with the scalpel or the Er:YAG laser in the palatal mucosa of SD rats. Two types of wounds were performed with the stainless steel scalpel or the Er:YAG laser in the palatal mucosa of SD rats, while the adjacent untreated palatal mucosa was chosen as control. Rats were sacrificed on day 1, day 3, day 7, and day 30 post-surgery. Biopsy samples from each wound were examined and the expression of IL-1ß and TGF-ß1 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The early postoperative incision of the scalpel group had obvious bleeding and swelling, while the laser wound mainly covered the surface of white pseudomembrane. The infiltration of neutrophils and lymphocytes in the stroma of the scalpel incision was more than that of the laser group. Compared to the laser group, 1 and 3 days after operation, the TGF-β1 content of the scalpel group were significantly increased (P = 0.032 and 0.019). Seven days after operation, the TGF-β1 content of two groups was decreased. TGF-β1 expression of control group was obviously increased (P > 0.05); 1, 3, and 7 days after operation, the traditional scalpel amount of IL-1β expression was significantly higher than that of control group (P = 0.000, 0.000, and 0.001). Postoperative day 1, IL-1β expression of laser group and control group had no significant difference (P = 0.572). Three days after operation, IL-1β expression of laser incision was increased and was significantly higher than that in control group (P = 0.032), however lower than the scalpel group (P = 0.03). Seven days after operation, the IL-1β expression of two groups had no significant difference (P = 0.333); however, the IL-1β expression of two groups were significantly higher than that of the control group (P = 0.02 and 0.001). Compared to the traditional scalpel, the incision of Er:YAG laser has smaller inflammation reaction, more pseudomembrane coverage, and minimal damage of the mucoperiosteal tissue.

Objectives: To systematically review the current dental literature regarding clinical accuracy of guided implant surgery and to analyze the involved clinical factors., Material and Methods: PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched. Meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis were performed. Clinical studies with the following outcome measurements were included: (1) angle deviation, (2) deviation at the entry point, and (3) deviation at the apex. The involved clinical factors were further evaluated., Results: Fourteen clinical studies from 1951 articles initially identified met the inclusion criteria. Meta-regression analysis revealed a mean deviation at the entry point of 1.25 mm (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.22-1.29), 1.57 mm (95% CI: 1.53-1.62) at the apex, and 4.1° in angle (95% CI: 3.97-4.23). A statistically significant difference (P < .001) was observed in angular deviations between the maxilla and mandible. Partially guided surgery showed a statistically significant greater deviation in angle (P < .001), at the entry point (P < .001), and at the apex (P < .001) compared with totally guided surgery. The outcome of guided surgery with flapless approach indicated significantly more accuracy in angle (P < .001), at the entry point (P < .001), and at apex (P < .001). Significant differences were observed in angular deviation based on the use of fixation screw (P < .001)., Conclusions: The position of guide, guide fixation, type of guide, and flap approach could influence the accuracy of computer-aided implant surgery. A totally guided system using fixation screws with a flapless protocol demonstrated the greatest accuracy. Future clinical research should use a standardized measurement technique for improved accuracy., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Crocetin is an ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine and has therapeutic potential in various diseases due to its pharmacological properties, such as neuroprotection, anti-oxidative stress, and anti-inflammation. These properties might benefit the treatment of spinal cord injury. In the present study, we tested the effect of crocetin on neurite growth and sensorimotor dysfunction in a rat model of spinal cord injury. We evaluated the viability of cultured hippocampal neurons with tetrazolium dye and lactate dehydrogenase assays, visualized neurites and axons with antibody staining, and monitored motor and sensorimotor functions in rats with spinal cord injury using the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan assay and the contact plantar placement test, respectively, and measured cytokine expression using enzyme-linked immuno-absorbent assays. We found that crocetin (1) did not alter the viability of cultured hippocampal neurons; (2) accelerated neurite growth with preference for the longest process in individual hippocampal neurons; (3) reversed the inhibition of neurite growth by chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and NogoA; (4) facilitated the recovery of motor and sensorimotor functions after spinal cord injury; and (5) did not inhibit pro-inflammatory responses, but restored the innervation of the descending 5-HT system in injured spinal cord. Crocetin promotes neurite growth and facilitates the recovery of motor and sensorimotor functions after spinal cord injury, likely through repairing neuronal connections.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to perform a histomorphometric evaluation of the healing characteristics and jawbone remodeling processes in the peri-implant bone tissue of three commonly used implant surfaces, during the early weeks of osseointegration., Material and Methods: Dental implants with three different surfaces (anodically modified, hydroxyapatite (HA)-coated and machined) were inserted into the mandibular side-tooth region of twelve adult mini-pigs. Histomorphometric analyses were performed to evaluate remodeling processes 3, 6 and 12 weeks post-implantation., Results: Only a few very early bone remodeling-resorption sites were found at 3 weeks. After 6 weeks, additional signs of remodeling-related reversal and bone formation were detectable in all three groups, which steadily increased until 12 weeks. At the latter time point, the amount of remodeled bone was significantly higher for the anodized and HA-coated surfaces than for the machined implants., Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that peri-implant bone remodeling can start as early as 3 weeks after implantation and continues at a substantial level up to 12 weeks. The anodic modification or HA coating of implant surfaces appears to accelerate the conversion of primary regenerated bone into more mature secondary lamellar bone. If this observation is of clinical relevance, it has to be clarified in studies that include longer observational time periods., (© 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)