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Background/purpose: Data for comparing effects of advanced platelet-rich fibrin (A-PRF+) and injectable platelet-rich fibrin (i-PRF) against Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) in subjects with differently periodontal conditions are scarce. This study aimed to compare the antimicrobial capacity of A-PRF+ and i-PRF obtained from subjects with or without periodontal diseases against the pathogenic bacteria Aa. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The number of red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells on the blood samples of 60 individuals, including healthy subjects (n = 20), patients with gingivitis (n = 20), and patients with periodontitis (n = 20), were analyzed before preparing A-PRF+ and i-PRF. In addition, the in vitro antibacterial effect of the two platelet concentrates was evaluated by using the agar diffusion test and a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) experiment. RESULTS: I-PRF exhibited a significantly better antibacterial effect than A-PRF+ within the gingivitis and periodontitis groups, with a more expansive zone of inhibition and a lower MIC. Among the studied groups, the A-PRF+ and i-PRF collected from the periodontitis group inhibited Aa significantly more compared with the gingivitis and healthy groups. CONCLUSION: Although both A-PRF+ and i-PRF exhibited an antibacterial effect against Aa through the zone of inhibition and MIC tests, in the gingivitis and periodontitis groups, i-PRF exhibited better antibacterial activity than A-PRF+, and PRF products from the periodontitis group had greater effects against Aa than PRF products from the two other groups.

Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) obtained via low-speed centrifugation has antimicrobial properties. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of advanced platelet-rich fibrin plus (A-PRF+) and injectable platelet-rich fibrin (I-PRF), obtained from patients with different periodontal states, against Porphyromonas gingivalis. A-PRF+ and I-PRF samples were obtained from venous blood of 60 subjects divided equally into three groups: periodontitis, gingivitis, and healthy gingiva groups. The antibacterial experiments evaluated biofilm inhibition, mature biofilm impact, and time-kill kinetics. The percent reduction in biofilm-growing and mature biofilm bacteria ranged from 39% to 49% and 3% to 7%, respectively. In the time-kill kinetics assay, PRF from the periodontitis group was more effective as an antimicrobial than that from the gingivitis and healthy gingiva group ( p < 0.001 ); I-PRF was more effective than A-PRF+ ( p < 0.05 ) and both of them showed peak antibacterial activity after 12 h of exposure. Both A-PRF+ and I-PRF exhibited antibacterial properties against P. gingivalis, but I-PRF appeared to be more effective. The PRF obtained from the different groups appeared to have different degrees of antimicrobial efficacy.

This article presents a novel investigation into the effect of receiver timing jitter on the quality of imaging of ground-penetrating radar systems. We explicitly show the impact of timing jitter throughout an entire example processing pipeline. The process of coupling removal in systems whose receivers have a random Gaussian-distributed jitter with a high standard deviation leaves randomly distributed residue in the radar image. This residue, called jitter-induced coupling noise, extends even into the expected target domain which may cause false alarms. This residue approximately follows a sum of Gaussian and Gamma distributions based on the higher order derivatives of the coupling signal. Once migrated to create an image, the coupling residue is best described by a Weibull distribution. We show that simple filtering does not remove enough residue and propose two preventative design specifications called the linear slope and migrated probability specifications. Antenna and system designers should use these specifications to assess the true severity of coupling signals in a given jitter environment.

The authors present a novel wideband two‐dimensional voltage‐controlled attenuator (VCA). The proposed design employs both stacked‐FET configuration and distributed structure to achieve wideband performance, high power, and high dynamic range simultaneously. A systematic design methodology is also illustrated along with a fabricated prototype to verify the concept. The chip fabricated in a 0.15‐μm Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) process exhibiting a measured power at 1‐dB compression (P1dB) of 25.5 dBm with a corresponding dynamic range of 32 dB. The insertion loss ranges from 2 to 5 dB over the bandwidth from 2 to 40 GHz. Furthermore, the chip is not only very compact (0.84 mm2), but it also requires only a single positive supply voltage, which makes it more appealing to highly integrated wireless applications.

Paragangliomas are uncommon neuroendocrine neoplasms that occur in characteristic locations. While parasympathetic paragangliomas are mainly located at the head and neck, sympathetic paragangliomas are mostly located below the neck. Among parasympathetic paragangliomas, pheochromocytomas are the most common. Ninety percent of cases of pheochromocytomas arise within the adrenal gland. We report a case of a 63-year-old woman with an extra-adrenal pheochromocytoma of the organ of Zuckerkandl detected by CT and MRI and subsequently confirmed by postoperative histology and immunohistochemistry.

This letter presents a linear wideband differential optical driver amplifier in a 90-nm silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar-complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (BiCMOS) process. The amplifier utilizes a modified triple-stacked heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) topology with emitter degeneration to achieve high output voltage swing and high linearity. The amplifier achieves 13.2-dB voltage gain with a bandwidth from dc to 53 GHz. The amplifier can deliver a 4-V peak-to-peak differential ( $V_{\mathrm {ppd}}$ ) with a total harmonic distortion (THD) of 1.6% at 1 GHz. The amplifier consumes 630-mW dc power at the small-signal operation.

Highlights • Anorectal melanoma is a rare disease with poor results and prognosis. • Patients are misdiagnosed as hemorrhoids, benign polyps, and even rectal cancer. • Early-staging diagnosis and surgical treatment are important to improve overall survival., Introduction Anorectal malignant melanoma is an uncommon and highly malignant disease with a greater incidence in females. Many patients were misdiagnosed as hemorrhoids, benign polyps, and rectal cancer. They were often diagnosed in an advanced stage. Wide local excision and abdominoperineal resection are the main treatments of rectal melanoma. Presentation of case A case report is a 77-year-old man who has blood in the stool for 4 months without clinical examination. He admitted to the emergency room with sudden syndromes that related to bowel perforation. Rectal examination detected a large anorectal polyp. Computer tomography showed free air and fluid in the peritoneal cavity. He was received laparoscopic surgery and found the fishbone penetrated the sigmoid colon without polyp resection. The polyp was treated by local excision a few days later. The histology examination was a primary malignant melanoma. Due to the pigmented lesion that remained from the resected polyp’s root, the abdominoperineal resection was performed as a radical treatment. Discussion Diagnosis of anorectal malignant melanoma is difficult because of atypical signs, that are confused with bleeding hemorrhoids especially an amelanotic melanoma. Treatment is controversial, including surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and target therapy. A present case is an option in radical surgery. Conclusion Anorectal melanoma is a rare disease with poor results and prognosis. A lack of large-data leads to a missing evidence-based guideline in this disease. Early-staging diagnosis and surgical treatment help patients improve their overall survival.

In this article, a new bandpass distributed amplifier (DA) using a wideband gain-boosting technique is presented. In particular, a feedback network, including a series inductor and a shunt capacitor, is used to generate two peaks at the lower and upper cutoff frequencies of the amplifier's bandpass response. This technique provides a gain enhancement over a wide bandwidth without sacrificing the upper cutoff frequency. A detailed analysis of the two frequencies peaking effect is carried out to support the theory. To verify the concept, a conventional and a gain-enhanced DA are fabricated in an indium-phosphide (InP) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) process. The gainenhanced DA exhibits a measured gain of 10.5 dB with a 4-dB gain improvement compared with the conventional one, covering a 3-dB bandwidth from 60 to 145 GHz. The maximum saturated (Psat) is 20.9 dBm at 75 GHz with the measured 1-dB compression power (P1dB) of 18.5 dBm. The dc power consumption is 440 mW, and the chip size is 1.6 mm × 0.6 mm. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed DA achieves the highest gain boosting over a broad bandwidth compared with the published works.

Retroperitoneal gastrointestinal tumor is the rarest subtype among 3 subtypes of extragastrointestinal tumors, which are uncommon stromal tumors. We herein report a case of a 55-year-old man with retroperitoneal gastrointestinal tumor detected by magnetic resonance imaging and confirmed by postoperative histology and immunohistochemistry.

Objectives To evaluate the influence of boric acid (BA) on various aspects of the human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs), including proliferation, migration, and adhesion. Methods BA was prepared at increasing concentrations of 0.5%, 0.75%, 1%, 1.5%, 3%, and 6%, and an [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-YL)-2,5-diphenyl] (MTT) assay was used to determine the non-toxic concentrations of BA on hPDLSCs. The appropriate concentrations of BA were applied in subsequent experiments to evaluate its effect on three particular aspects of hPDLSCs: proliferation, migration, and adhesion. The proliferation of hPDLSCs was determined with a hemocytometer. The migration of hPDLSCs was evaluated using a scratch assay, followed by analysis of the recorded digital images using the Image-Analysis J 1.51j8 software. The adhesion of hPDLSCs to sterilized root surfaces that retained or lacked a cementum was assessed using the MTT assay. Results Non-toxic concentrations of BA against hPDLSCs were 0.5% and 0.75%, allowing a relative growth rate of greater than 75%. Treated hPDLSCs proliferated and migrated uneventfully, with no significant differences to the control group. hPDLSCs adhered to both types of the prepared root surfaces; however, those lacking a cementum allowed more effective adhesion than those retaining it. Qualitatively, the adhesion ability of hPDLSCs was better in the 0.5% rather than the 0.75% BA-treated or control groups. Conclusions BA at concentrations of 0.5% and 0.75% did not impede the proliferation, migration, or adhesion ability of hPDLSCs to root surfaces, indicating that this sterilizing agent could be advanced to clinical trials.

A wideband monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) distributed amplifier (DA) using a 3-D interdigital capacitor at the input of the gain cell is demonstrated in an indium phosphide (InP) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) process. The proposed DA using interdigital capacitors improves the input return loss at high frequencies compared with the one implemented with conventional metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors. The fabricated amplifier achieves a measured average gain of 10.5 dB over a 3-dB bandwidth from 1 to 160 GHz. The maximum measured saturated power ( $P_{\mathrm {sat}}$ ) is 17.8 dBm with the corresponding 1-dB compression power ( $P_{\mathrm {1\,dB}}$ ) of 15 dBm at 55 GHz. The amplifier achieves a minimum $P_{\mathrm {sat}}$ of 14.6 dBm up to 110 GHz.

We present the development of the novel elliptical resistively loaded vee dipole (ERLVD). By replacing the constituent subelements with ellipses, the ERLVD has two degrees of design freedom to achieve increased gain, bandwidth, and decreased size compared with the classical resistively loaded vee dipole (RLVD). The prototyped ERLVD with a unity growth rate experimentally achieved a bandwidth ratio of 13:1 (0.49–6.41 GHz) and a smaller arm length of $0.17~\lambda _{\mathrm {low}}$ at 490 MHz. This ERLVD has twice larger the bandwidth ratio, 2–3 dB higher gain, and smaller arm size at 490 MHz compared to similar RLVDs. The second ERLVD with a higher growth rate can achieve much higher relative gain increases of 7–8.5 dB with slightly reduced bandwidth.

This letter demonstrates the application of the second-harmonic injection linearization technique in a field-effect transistor (FET) resistive mixer operating at $Ka$ -band. The single-ended mixer uses a 0.15- $\mu \text{m}$ gallium arsenide (GaAs) pseudomorphic high electron-mobility transistor (pHEMT) at its core. Compared to the same mixer without the second-harmonic injection, the linearized mixer achieves an improvement of up to 8 dB in the third-order intermodulation (IM3) levels while leaving the fundamental output power and noise figure unaffected. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the technique with a mixer operating at millimeter-wave frequencies.

This study presents the first fully integrated, push–pull, high power distributed amplifier (DA) for wideband applications in 0.25 µm Gallium arsenide (GaAs) pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor process. A triple-stacked field-effect transistor cell is employed for each stage of the DA along with the non-uniform distributed power amplifier topology to maximise the output power. The experimental results show that the amplifier exhibits from 7 to 10 dB gain with vi30–32 dBm output power at 1 dB compression (P1 dB) and 32–35.4 dBm saturated output power ( P sat ) covering a frequency bandwidth from 4 to 20 GHz. The measured second harmonic suppression is >33 dBc from 8 to 40 GHz at the P1 dB operating condition.

Objective. To access the effects of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on the behaviour of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs), including proliferation and migration. Methods. PRP was diluted with DMEM/F12, resulting in concentrations of 1%, 2%, and 5%. The proliferation of hBMSCs was examined by 2 methods: cell-number counting with the haemocytometer method and the colony-forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) assay. Cell migration was evaluated using the scratch wound healing (SWH) assay; after that, the recorded digital images were analysed by the Image-Analysis J 1.51j8 software to compare the cell-free areas between groups after 0, 24, and 48 hours. Results. hBMSCs cultured in DMEM/F12 at PRP concentrations of 1%, 2%, and 5% were all able to proliferate and migrate. In the 5% PRP group, hBMSCs proliferated greatly with a significantly higher cell number than reported for all other groups on days 5, 7, and 9. CFU-Fs were observed in all groups, except for the negative control group. The SWH assay demonstrated that hBMSCs cultured in 2% and 5% PRP almost filled the artificial wound scratch and significantly migrated more than those of all other groups at both 24 h and 48 h. Conclusion. This study indicated that, due to the significant enhancement of cell proliferation and migration, 5% PRP might be the optimal concentration that should be used to promote the potential of hBMSCs in wound healing.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and periodontal disease have bilateral associations. The effect of periodontal treatment on T2D patients who smoke is scarce. This study aimed to assess the effect of nonsurgical periodontal treatment (NSPT) in periodontitis smokers with T2D for a duration of 6 months of follow-up.Forty moderate to severe periodontitis smokers with T2D were randomly distributed into two different treatment groups: the test group (NSPT including oral hygiene instructions, scaling and root planing; and 0.05% Chlorhexidine mouthrinse) and the control group (treatment including oral hygiene instructions, supragingival removal of plaque and calculus and 0.05% Chlorhexidine mouthrinse). Periodontal parameters including plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP), periodontal probing depth (PPD) and clinical attachment loss (CAL) were examined. Metabolic parameters, including fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were evaluated at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months of follow-up.The test group significantly improved all periodontal parameters and reduced metabolic parameters and hs-CRP, whereas improvements in PI and GI were observed in the control group at 1, 3 and 6 months of follow-up. However, the PPD, CAL, metabolic parameters and hs-CRP increased in the control group at 3 and 6 months of follow-up, but the differences were not significant.NSPT improves the periodontal status of smokers with T2D, has a favorable effect on glycemic control and reduces pro-inflammatory mediators, which may limit complications due to T2D in these patients.

In this paper, we present the design and development of ultra-small coils for through metal power transfer applications. Our coil has a total size of 15xl5x2 mm. We determined the optimal wire gauge for the coil to be 24AWG and optimal frequency of 2 kHz. Our experimental results demonstrate that we can harvest 100 mW power through 1 mm thick aluminum using our proposed coils. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of ultra-small coils for through metal power transfer.

Introduction In addition to understanding the basic standards of a smile and patient's opinion, dentists should take into account smile aesthetics, an essential factor for optimal outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the factors that affect the perception of an aesthetic smile and determine its morphological characteristics and measure the gingival aesthetic parameters. Methods In all, 200 Vietnamese aged 18-35 years were recruited to have their spontaneous smiles captured. These smile images were assessed by 50 laypersons and 50 dentists using a visual analogue scale measurement. The images were analysed to evaluate perceptions of evaluators, determine smile attractiveness, and measure gingival aesthetics. Results The difference in the judgements of laypersons and dentists, males and females, and laypersons aged 18-25 and 26-35 years were nonsignificant. High or average anterior smile line, parallel smile arc, upward upper lip curvature, second premolars as the posterior-most teeth displayed, smile index of 5.23-5.63, and dynamic smile symmetry of 1 were scored highly on smile attractiveness. The following maxillary gingival aesthetic parameters were preferred: gingival zenith (GZ) of the canine 0.72-0.75 mm apical to the GZ of the central incisor; GZ of the lateral incisor 0.66 mm coronal to the gingival line; gingival line angle of ∼87°; for the central incisor, lateral incisor, and canines, distance from the GZ to the long axis of 1, 0.4, and 0 mm, respectively; interdental papilla height of 4.25, 3.60, and 3.85 mm, respectively; ratio of the distance from the GZ and the interdental papilla tip to the incisal edge of ∼1.74-1.77 mm. Conclusions Factors including profession, gender, and age of evaluators had almost no impact on their perception of aesthetics. Smile attractiveness characteristics and gingival aesthetic parameters have clinical applicability for patient care.

We explore the use of W-band frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) millimeter-wave radar to detect the small micron-order vibrations induced when machining metallic objects. The advantage of using millimeter-wave frequencies is its ability to penetrate appropriate materials, leading to its application in sensing vibration behind objects in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments. We demonstrate the ability to reliably detect vibration on the order of 10 microns of reflective objects through a lossy inhomogeneous material. From these results, FMCW millimeter-wave radar shows promise to be incorporated as an inexpensive sensor in systems that require knowledge of vibration profiles in NLOS environments.

A high output power monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) distributed amplifier (DA) is demonstrated in an Indium Phosphide (InP) hetero-junction bipolar transistor (HBT) process. The DA employs nine double-stacked HBT gain unit cells with the proposed parallel/series metal-insulator-metal (MIM) configuration for the input coupling capacitors. The fabricated amplifier achieves a measured average gain of 11.5 dB over a 3 dB bandwidth from 1 to 150 GHz with a noise Figure (NF) of 10.3 dB. The maximum measured saturated power $(P_{sat})$ is 18.3 dBm with the corresponded 1-dB gain compression power $(P_{1dB})$ of 15.4 dBm at 50 GHz. The power-added-efficiency (PAE) of the amplifier is 10 % at 100 GHz.

To comparatively evaluate the effect of a 5% boric acid (BA) irrigant on periodontal condition, bacterial level and oral neutrophil numbers with a 1% povidone iodine (PVP-I) irrigant as an adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP) in chronic periodontitis (CP) treatment.A single-masked, randomised clinical trial with 36 CP patients was conducted at the Faculty of Odonto-Stomatology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Subjects were randomly divided into two treatment groups: 1) SRP plus PVP-I 0.1% irrigant and 2) SRP plus BA 0.5% irrigant. Clinical measurements, including the plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), bacterial level in subgingival plaque (BANA test) and the quantification of oral neutrophils were evaluated at baseline, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after treatment (T0, T4, T6 and T8).Whole-mouth (PI, GI, BOP, PD, CAL and PD) parameters, bacterial level in subgingival plaque and number of oral neutrophils decreased statistically significantly after treatment compared to baseline in both groups (p0.01). Between the two groups, whole-mouth PI, GI, BOP, PD and CAL reduction in the BA 0.5% group were higher than those in the PVP-I 0.1% group, but statistical significance was found only for GI and BOP after treatment (p0.05). The PD and CAL reductions for moderately deep pockets (PD ≥ 5 mm and7 mm) were significantly greater in group 2 compared to group 1 after treatment compared to baseline (p0.01). This difference was not found for deep pockets (PD ≥ 7 mm).The results of this study suggest that BA 0.5% could be an alternative to PVP-I 0.1%, and might be more favourable because it provided superior results regarding whole-mouth BOP, GI as well as PD and CAL reduction for moderately deep pockets after CP treatment.