Quantitative Light-Induced fluorescence (QLF) has been widely used to detect tooth demineralization indicated by fluorescence loss with respect to surrounding sound enamel. The correlation between fluorescence loss and demineralization depth is not fully understood. The purpose of this project was to study this correlation to estimate demineralization depth. Extracted teeth were collected. Arti...

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) metastasis to the omentum requires implantation and angiogenesis. We propose that prometastatic changes in the omental endothelium (for angiogenesis) and mesothelium (for implantation) are critical. We investigated the expression of angiogenic proteases [cathepsin D (CD), cathepsin L (CL), and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) and MMP9] and vascular endothelial g...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to compare the time-course changes in condylar long-axis and skeletal stability after sagittal split ramus osteotomy (SSRO) with an unsintered hydroxyapatite (u-HA)/poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) plate, PLLA plate, or titanium plate. PATIENTS AND METHODS Of 60 Japanese patients diagnosed with mandibular prognathism, 20 underwent SSRO with a u-HA/PLLA plate syst...

Specially engineered drug particles can solve solubility and formulation problems, which are major challenges for the pharmaceutical industry. Particle size reduction of poorly water soluble drugs results in increased dissolution rate and higher bioavailability or better processability as demonstrated in previous studies [1, 2]. High-pressure homogenization can be used to decrease particle size...

Background: Increased intestinal permeability due to barrier dysfunction is supposed to cause microbial translocation which may induce low-grade inflammation in various diseases. However, this series of events has not been comprehensively evaluated yet. Summary: Intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction and increased permeability have been described in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (...

An e cient technique to solve precision problems consists in using exact computations. For geometric predicates, using systematically expensive exact computations can be avoided by the use of lters. The predicate is rst evaluated using rounding computations, and an error estimation gives a certi cate of the validity of the result. In this note, we studies the statistical e ciency of lters for c...

Cholesterol ester lipase (LIPA; EC 3.1.1.13) and cholesterol 25-hydroxylase (CH25H; EC 1.14.99.48) play essential role in cholesterol metabolism in the body by hydrolysing cholesteryl esters and triglycerides within lysosomes (LIPA) and catalysing the formation of 25-hydroxycholesterol from cholesterol (CH25H) which acts to repress cholesterol biosynthesis. Bioinformatic methods were used to pr...

The arrangement of a nite collection of geometric objects is the decomposition of the space into connected cells induced by them. We survey combinatorial and algorithmic properties of arrangements of arcs in the plane and of surface patches in higher dimensions. We present many applications of arrangements to problems in motion planning, visualization, range searching, molecular modeling, and g...

Chemical analyses of historical and prehistoric bone material provide us with a complex body of knowledge in bioarcheological studies. These can be used for reconstructing diet, migration, climate changes and the weaning process. The analysis of enamel, dentin and bones allows researchers to gather data on life strategies of an individual by retrospectively tracing his ontogenetic phases. This ...