Curing units' ability to cure restorative composites and dual-cured composite cements under composite overlay.

This study compared the efficacy of using conventional low-power density QTH (LQTH) units, high-power density QTH (HQTH) units, argon (Ar) laser and Plasma arc curing (PAC) units for curing dual-cured resin cements and restorative resin composites under a pre-cured resin composite overlay. The microhardness of the two types of restorative resins (Z100 and Tetric Ceram) and a dual-cured resin cement (Variolink II) were measured after they were light cured for 60 seconds in a 2 mm Teflon mold. The recorded microhardness was determined to be the optimum microhard-ness (OM).

Role of messenger RNA expression of platelet activating factor and its receptor in porcine in vitro-fertilized and cloned embryo development.

Platelet activating factor (PAF) is known as an autocrine growth/survival factor in mammalian preimplantation embryos. This study investigated the expression of porcine PAF receptor (PAFr) mRNA and its role in porcine in vitro fertilized (IVF) or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryo development. The expression of PAFr mRNA in IVF or SCNT blastocysts was shown by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Southern blot analysis.

The genomic heterogeneity among Mycobacterium terrae complex displayed by sequencing of 16S rRNA and hsp 65 genes.

The species identification within Mycobacterium terrae complex has been known to be very difficult. In this study, the genomic diversity of M. terrae complex with eighteen clinical isolates, which were initially identified as M.

Utility of polymerase chain reaction for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis in specimens from percutaneous transthoracic needle aspiration.

Purpose: To determine the clinical utility of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis in specimens from percutaneous transthoracic needle aspiration (PTNA).

Materials And Methods: PCR for M tuberculosis detection in specimens from PTNA was performed prospectively in addition to cytologic and histologic analyses in 45 patients. On computed tomographic (CT) scans, tuberculosis (TB) versus malignant neoplasm or other infection was diagnosed in 28 patients; possible malignancy was diagnosed in 11, but TB was considered clinically because of young patient age or presence of tuberculous lesions in other areas of the lungs.

Inhibition of apoptosis in serum starved porcine embryonic fibroblasts.

In nuclear transplantation, serum starvation is a general method to synchronize donor cells at the quiescent stage (G(0)) of the cell cycle. However, serum starvation during culture of mammalian cells may induce cell death, especially through apoptosis, thus contributing to the low efficiency of nuclear transplantation. This study was performed to characterize apoptosis during serum starvation and to determine the effects of apoptosis inhibitors such as a protease inhibitor [alpha(2)-macroglobulin (MAC)] and antioxidants [N-acetylcysteine (NAC), glutathione (GSH)] on serum starved porcine embryonic fibroblasts (PEF).