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In recent years, translational plasma medicine (TPM), as a novel application area of plasmas, has attracted much attention of experts from both academic and clinical fields. State-of-the-art of the lab-scale research and clinical trials of the cold atmospheric plasmas (CAPs) in the stomatology are reviewed in detail from the direct and indirect applications of the CAPs. Based on the discussions concerning the relationship between the plasma stomatology and the plasma medicine, it is indicated that it would be an important reference for promoting the TPM starting from the fundamental and application studies in the field of dentistry, which is also one of the most three promising application fields of plasma medicine.

A broadband circularly polarized (CP) antenna with simple structure and wide angular coverage is proposed. The interlaced coplanar dipole is excited by a coaxial cable to achieve the CP wave. To obtain a high gain and low backward radiation, a rectangular cavity-backed reflector is used. An initial design at around 6.0 GHz is presented to show the performance of this configuration. An impedance bandwidth and axial ratio bandwidth of about 35.6 and 33.5% can be achieved at this frequency. Also, a stable gain of about 10 ± 0.5 dBi and a wide axial ratio beamwidth of about 200° over the frequency of interest are obtained. Then, a parametric analysis is conducted to estimate the significance of the design parameters that affect the antenna's performance. Finally, a prototype at 11.0 GHz is fabricated to validate the design. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones, which shows that the design can be easily applied to other frequency and that the design may be a good candidate for the CP antenna family. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:377–381, 2015

Background and Purpose Ulinastatin (UTI), a serine protease inhibitor, was recently found to have an anti-inflammatory action. However, the mechanisms mediating this anti-inflammatory effect are not well understood. This study tested the hypothesis that UTI suppresses allergic inflammation by inducing the expression of haem oxygenase 1 (HO1). Experimental Approach Control mice and mice sensitized (on days 1, 9 and 14) and challenged (on days 21 to 27) with ovalbumin (OVA) were treated with UTI. The effects of UTI on basal expression of HO1 and that induced by OVA challenge were examined. The involvement of UTI-induced HO1 expression in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of UTI was also evaluated. Key Results UTI markedly increased basal HO1 protein expression in lungs of control mice in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and augmented HO1 protein expression induced by OVA. The up-regulation of HO1 mediated by UTI in sensitized and OVA-challenged mice was associated with reduced airway inflammation, alleviated tissue injury, reduced oxidant stress and enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities. Inhibition of HO1 activity using HO1 inhibitor, zinc protoporphyrin, attenuated inhibitory effects of UTI on inflammation and oxidant stress, and its stimulant effects on antioxidant enzyme activities. Mechanistic analysis showed that UTI increased nuclear translocation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), stimulated Nrf2 DNA binding activity and concomitantly up-regulated HO1 mRNA expression. Conclusions and Implications UTI is a potent and naturally occurring inducer of HO1 expression. HO1 up-regulation contributes significantly to the anti-inflammatory and organ-protective effects of UTI, which has important research and therapeutic implications.

A novel ultrawideband bandpass filter with one notch-band, high selectivity, and wide stopband is investigated in this article. The basic filter is composed of two microstrip-slot transitions with novel annular stubs, which are used to obtain the required bandwidth with high selectivity. And, a cross-coupling between the feed lines (input and output) is introduced to broaden the stopband. In addition, a short-circuited stepped-impedance resonator is used to obtain one notch-band. The simulated and experimental performances are presented in this work where good agreement is obtained. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:2624–2628, 2013

Endothelium has long been considered both a source and a target of systemic inflammation. However, to what extent endothelial activation contributes to systemic inflammation remains unclear. This study addresses the relative contribution of endothelial activation to systemic inflammation and multiple organ dysfunction and injury (MOD/I) in an E. coli peritonitis model of sepsis. We prevented endothelial activation using transgenic (TG) mice that conditionally overexpress a mutant I-kappaBalpha, a NF-kappaB inhibitor, selectively on endothelium. TG mice and their transgene negative littermates (WT) were injected with saline or E. coli (10(8) CFU per mouse). At 7 h after E. coli infection, markers of systemic inflammation, endothelial activation, and MOD/I were assessed. WT-E. coli mice showed significantly increased serum levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IFN-gamma, IL-6, KC, and MCP-1; tissue levels of TNF-alpha, IL-6, KC, MCP-1, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1; endothelial leakage index in heart, lungs, liver, and kidney; significantly increased serum levels of AST, ALT, BUN, and creatinine; and increased mortality. Blockade of NF-kappaB-mediated endothelial activation in TG mice had no effects on serum levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IFN-gamma, IL-6, KC, and MCP-1 (markers of systemic inflammation), and tissue levels of TNF-alpha, IL-6, KC, and MCP-1, but significantly reduced tissue levels of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 (markers of endothelial inflammation and activation) in those four organs. TG-E. coli mice displayed reversed endothelial leakage index; reduced serum levels of AST, ALT, BUN, and creatinine; and improved survival. Our data demonstrate that endothelial NF-kappaB-driven inflammatory response contributes minimally to systemic inflammation, but plays a pivotal role in septic MOD/I, suggesting that endothelium is mainly a target rather than a source of systemic inflammation.

Aiming at increasing the radiation bandwidth and reducing the antenna size, this article designs the stacked patch antenna and forms the spherical antenna array by virtue of fractal geometry. To minimize the sidelobe level and improve the convergence speed, a hybrid genetic algorithm integrating the main features of genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) called HGAPSO is adopted. Furthermore, a modified Bernstein polynomial is exploited to reduce the number of optimization variables as well as to obtain a smooth unimodal amplitude distribution. Compared with the uniformly excited conformal antenna array, the maximum relative sidelobe can be reduced by more than 10 dB. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1487–1491, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24348

National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College School of Medicine, London SW3 6LY1 We studied the e•ects of ovalbumin (OA) sensitization and challenge on inducible nitric oxidesynthase (iNOS) gene and protein expression in Brown-Norway rats in vivo.2 By use of Northern analysis, a 4.4-kb iNOS mRNA transcript was weakly observed in control ratlung but there was a 3 fold increase in lungs sensitized to OA alone (P50.05). In sensitized rats, fourhours after exposure to OA aerosol, there was a 6 fold increase in iNOS mRNA transcript (P50.05),which returned to baseline at 24 h.3 Immunostaining with an anti-mouse iNOS antibody revealed some patchy staining of airwayepithelium in nai¨ve rats. There were no changes in sensitized rats exposed to saline, but sensitized andOA-exposed rats showed increased expression in iNOS staining in macrophages.4 Electrophoretic mobility shift assays of lung nuclear extracts showed a marked increase in nuclearfactor-kB (NF-kB)-binding activity at 2 h after allergen exposure with return to baseline at 6, 12 and24 h.5 We concluded that there is increased iNOS gene and protein expression associated with increasedNF-kB DNA-binding in lungs of sensitized and challenged rats. The increase in iNOS expression mayunderlie the increase in exhaled NO found after allergen challenge and may contribute to thedevelopment of allergen-induced airway hyperresponsiveness.Keywords: Nitric oxide; ovalbumin; inducible nitric oxide synthase; nuclear factor-kB; bronchial hyperresponsiveness