PURPOSE Although power toothbrushes provide valuable tools toward improving oral health, contrasting results are discerned in their efficiency. This 10-week study was conducted to compare the safety and efficacy of rotation/oscillation and sonic power toothbrushes in the reduction of plaque and gingivitis. METHODS This two-treatment, parallel group, examiner-blind, randomized study had the su...

Reciprocal inductive signals between the endoderm and mesoderm are critical to vertebrate gut development. Sonic hedgehog encodes a secreted protein known to act as an inductive signal in several regions of the developing embryo. In this report, we provide evidence to support the role of Sonic hedgehog and its target genes Bmp-4 and the Abd-B-related Hox genes in the induction and patterning th...

The shock reflection problem is one of the most important problems in mathematical fluid dynamics, since this problem not only arises in many important physical situations but also is fundamental for the mathematical theory of multidimensional conservation laws that is still largely incomplete. However, most of the fundamental issues for shock reflection have not been understood, including the ...

Erroneous activation of the Hedgehog pathway has been linked to a great amount of cancerous diseases and therefore a large number of studies aiming at its inhibition have been carried out. One leverage point for novel therapeutic strategies targeting the proteins involved, is the prevention of complex formation between the extracellular signaling protein Sonic Hedgehog and the transmembrane pro...

The Concorde produces audible sonic booms as it passes 15 km north of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, where gray and harbor seals occur year round. The purpose of this research was to assess how sonic booms affect these seals. The intensity of the booms was measured and three types of data (beach counts, frequency of behavior, and heart rate) were collected before and after booms during the breeding...

Lusitanian toadfish males that provide parental care rely on acoustic signals (the boatwhistle) to attract females to their nest. We test the hypothesis that male quality, namely male size and condition that are relevant for parental success, is reflected in vocal activity and boatwhistle characteristics and thus advertised to females. We recorded 22 males over a week during the peak of the bre...

Supersonic air transport generates sonic booms that can affect people, animals and structures. There is a renewed interest in high-speed transport for civilian application. The widely used standard atmosphere for sonic boom prediction is neither capable of describing topographical variation, nor temporal variations, nor the impact of wind on the propagation of a sonic boom. However, within the ...

This paper describes the concepts, design, implementation, and evaluation of two new interfaces for music performance and composition. Both of the interfaces were motivated by the idea of creating music through drawing, but they approach the activity in very different ways. While the Graphonic Interface allows you to make music as you are drawing, the Sonic Scanner requires pre-composed graphic...

Background Blood–nerve barrier disruption is pivotal in the development of neuroinflammation, peripheral sensitization, and neuropathic pain after peripheral nerve injury. Activation of toll-like receptor 4 and inactivation of Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathways within the endoneurial endothelial cells are key events, resulting in the infiltration of harmful molecules and immunocytes within the n...