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The aim of this study was to investigate the association between expressions of five periodontal pathogens (Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (Aa), Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg), Tannerella forsythensis (Tf), Treponema denticola (Td) and Prevotella intermedia (Pi) and the periodontal pocket depth (PD) in people suffering from periodontitis. A study of 1164 plaque samples from individuals with periodontitis were conducted by multiplex real-time quantitative fluorescence-polymerase chain reaction to evaluate the PD and loads of five periodontal pathogens. The total bacterial number did not differ significantly between people with different subtypes of periodontitis. However, expression of specific pathogens (Pg, Td, Tf, Pi) showed a significant increase with the development of periodontitis. Expression of Pg, Td and Tf showed close correlation between them as well as with PD. Analyses of receiver operating characteristic curves showed that expression of Pg, Td, Tf and Pi had good potential for grading periodontitis severity. We found a close correlation between the relative expression of Pg, Td and Tf and PD. Measuring expression of target bacteria in the oral cavity could facilitate the understanding of the role of bacteria in periodontitis. Taking the appropriate steps to eliminate these pathogens might aid the prevention of periodontitis development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seamless image mosaicking is a crucial technique in the production of orthophotos in photogrammetry and remote sensing. There are many studies focused on generating high-quality ortho-mosaics and many algorithms have been put forward for this purpose. Some of the existing methods concentrate on guiding the seamline to bypass ground objects, while others focus on generating a seamline network with better global quality, based on a regular and consistent initial network. However, the former may result in an irregular seamline network structure and the latter cannot guarantee the seamline bypasses ground objects in some cases, due to limited optimization. In this study, an improved image mosaicking approach, taking both the local optimization of a single seamline and the global regularity and consistency of the whole seamline network into consideration, is proposed in order to generate a globally consistent seamline network for aerial images. Firstly, the seamline is selected using a coarse-to-fine strategy between adjacent overlapping orthoimages, in which the initial seamline is generated based on our previous work and further refined based on texture difference. Then, an effective mosaic polygon of each orthoimage is obtained through a novel method, before being used to compose a globally consistent seamline network. Furthermore, an evaluation index called the Area Weighted Distance is introduced to quantitatively evaluate the global consistency and regularity of the generated seamline network. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed approach is feasible and promising in terms of its performance. Compared to the comparison methods, the proposed approach is 1.35 and 2.15 times smaller in the average and standard deviation of the area weighted distance, respectively, and 3.6-6.5 times faster in terms of efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report the development of a label-free biosensor, based on surface plasmon resonance, for real-time monitoring of captured human CD4+T-cells, and their dynamic cytokine production upon specific antigen stimulation. Microarrays of CD4+T-cells, and interferon gamma (IFN-γ) specific antibody (Ab) spots were printed side by side onto the poly(OEGMA-co-HEMA) matrix. The placement of CD4+ T-cells near the anti IFN-γ Ab-coated spots ensured a high local concentration of secreted IFN-γ for detection. We have demonstrated that this approach enables the detection of tuberculosis (TB) infection in clinical samples, with an overall sensitivity of 85.5% and an overall specificity of 97.7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complete mitochondrial genome of the hybrid grouper (Epinephelus coioides♀ × Epinephelus lanceolatus♂) was presented in this study. The mitochondrial genome is 16,743 bp long and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22tRNAgenes, and a control region. The gene order and the composition of the hybrid grouper mitochondrial genome were similar to that of most other vertebrates. The nucleotide compositions of the light strand are 26.56% of A, 15.79% of C, 28.74% of T, and 28.91% of G. With the exception of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 (ND6) and eight tRNA genes, all other mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complete mitochondrial genome of theEpinephelus fuscoguttatuswas presented in this study. The mitochondrial genome is 16,648 bp long and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region. The gene order and the composition ofE. fuscoguttatusmitochondrial genome were similar to that of most other vertebrates. The nucleotide compositions of the light strand are 26.91% of A, 15.58% of C, 29.19% of T, and 28.32% of G. With the exception of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 (ND6) and eight tRNA genes, all other mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complete mitochondrial genome of theEpinephelus lanceolatuswas presented in this study. The mitochondrial genome is 16,743 bp long and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and a control region. The gene order and composition ofE. lanceolatusmitochondrial genome was similar to that of most other vertebrates. The nucleotide compositions of the light strand are 26.55% of A, 15.02% of C, 29.67% of T and 28.76% of G. With the exception of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 (ND6) and eight tRNA genes, all other mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]