Anti-bacterial Efficacy of Zirconium Oxide Nanoparticles on Streptococcus mutans and Enterococcus faecalis: An In Vitro Study.

Introduction Complex interactions between cariogenic bacteria and host factors modulate dental caries. , a gram-positive facultative anaerobe plays a prominent role in the initiation of caries. The ability of to adhere to salivary enamel pellicle results in an acidic local habitat for the organism.

Impact of COVID-19 Public Health Measures on Antiretroviral Therapy Use Among Ugandans Living with HIV in Sero-Different Couples.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) use and HIV suppression among people living with HIV (PLHIV) are critical for HIV control and prevention. Extreme restrictions on movement early during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda may have impeded the ability to initiate and sustain access to and use of ART. From our stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trial of an integrated PrEP and ART intervention for HIV-serodifferent couples at 12 ART clinics in Uganda, we identified participants who enrolled and had a 6-month post-ART initiation viral load measured before the beginning of the first COVID-19 lockdown (Period 1), participants whose enrollment and 6-month viral load measurement straddled pre-COVID and COVID lockdown times (Period 2), and participants whose enrollment and 6-month viral load were quantified entirely during COVID-19 (Period 3).

Improving Recall Accuracy in Sparse Associative Memories That Use Neurogenesis.

The creation of future low-power neuromorphic solutions requires specialist spiking neural network (SNN) algorithms that are optimized for neuromorphic settings. One such algorithmic challenge is the ability to recall learned patterns from their noisy variants. Solutions to this problem may be required to memorize vast numbers of patterns based on limited training data and subsequently recall the patterns in the presence of noise.

Biomarkers.

Background: Phase four of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI4) began in 2023. This time-period corresponded to MRI vendors introducing product sequences with compressed sensing (CS), cross-vendor adoption of arterial spin-labelling (ASL) and multi-band slice excitation, and hardware improvements (head-coils, increased gradient amplitudes). These advances enabled the acquisition of new imaging measures and reduced scan times.

Biomarkers.

Background: With an aging population, it is essential to identify subtle features of brain pathology - both neurodegenerative and vascular - at an early stage, which may predict risk of future decline. We used diffusion MRI (dMRI) to assess grey matter cortical microstructure and investigate associations with 1) Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology and 2) mid/late-life vascular risk (as measured by blood pressure (BP)).

Method: 151 asymptomatic individuals from the British 1946 birth cohort underwent combined PET/MR with [18F]florbetapir Aβ-PET at ∼73yrs, and [18F]MK-6240 tau-PET at ∼76yrs.