Bonding of composite resin to dentin using rigid rod polymer modified primers.

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the microtensile bond strength of composite resin to dentin with experimental rigid rod polymer (RRP) modified primers. RRP fillers are based on long stiff molecules specifically designed to create long polymers with restricted chain movement.

Materials And Methods: Experimental primers were fabricated by dissolving RRP into dichloromethane (DCM) and further mixing it with monomers: ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate (EGMP), bis[2-(methacryloyloxy)-ethyl]phosphate (BMEP) and 3(methacryloyloxy)propyltrimethoxysilane (MPS).

A cost-effectiveness analysis of in-vitro fertilization by maternal age and number of treatment attempts.

Background: The increase in use and costs of assisted reproductive therapies including in-vitro fertilization (IVF) has led to debate over public funding. A decision analytic model was designed to estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness of IVF by additional treatment programmes and maternal age.

Methods: Data from the Australian and New Zealand Assisted Reproductive Database were used to estimate incremental effects (live birth and other pregnancy outcomes) and costs for cohorts of women attempting up to three treatment programmes.

Reactive oxygen species mediate mitogenic growth factor signaling pathways in human leiomyoma smooth muscle cells.

Uterine leiomyomas are benign uterine tumors characterized by extracellular matrix remodeling, increased collagen deposition, and increased smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) producing NADPH oxidase complex has been shown to be involved in the signaling pathways of several growth factors, cytokines, and vasoactive agents that stimulate proliferation of a variety of cell types. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that ROS derived from NADPH oxidase is a necessary component of the MAP kinase mitogenic pathway activated by platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) in leiomyoma SMCs (LSMCs).

Psychological distress among men suffering from couple infertility in South Africa: a quantitative assessment.

Background: Recent years have seen a growing interest in the impact of infertility on reproductive health in developing countries. Most of the research which has addressed the psychosocial consequences of infertility in African countries has been qualitative in nature and focused on women. It was the aim of this study to assess psychological distress quantitatively in men suffering from couple infertility living in an urban community in South Africa.

Pediatric ependymoma: biological perspectives.

Pediatric ependymomas are enigmatic tumors that continue to present a clinical management challenge despite advances in neurosurgery, neuroimaging techniques, and radiation therapy. Difficulty in predicting tumor behavior from clinical and histological factors has shifted the focus to the molecular and cellular biology of ependymoma in order to identify new correlates of disease outcome and novel therapeutic targets. This article reviews our current understanding of pediatric ependymoma biology and includes a meta-analysis of all comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) studies done on primary ependymomas to date, examining more than 300 tumors.

High-brightness, low-noise, all-fiber photon pair source.

We demonstrate an all-fiber photon pair source for the critical telecom C-band. We achieve high pair generation rates in excess of 10 MHz while maintaining coincidence-to-accidental ratios (CARs) greater than 100. This is one of the brightest and lowest-noise photon pair sources ever demonstrated.

In vitro biotransformation of surfactants in fish. Part II--Alcohol ethoxylate (C16EO8) and alcohol ethoxylate sulfate (C14EO2S) to estimate bioconcentration potential.

Recent regulatory pressures (e.g., REACh, CEPA) requiring bioaccumulation assessments and the need for reduced animal use have increased the necessity for the development of in vitro-based methods to estimate bioaccumulation.

Use of watershed factors to predict consumer surfactant risk, water quality, and habitat quality in the upper Trinity River, Texas.

Surfactants are high production volume chemicals that are used in a wide assortment of "down-the-drain" consumer products. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) generally remove 85 to more than 99% of all surfactants from influents, but residual concentrations are discharged into receiving waters via wastewater treatment plant effluents. The Trinity River that flows through the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, Texas, is an ideal study site for surfactants due to the high ratio of wastewater treatment plant effluent to river flow (>95%) during late summer months, providing an interesting scenario for surfactant loading into the environment.

Human health risk assessment of long chain alcohols.

Representative chemicals from the long chain alcohols category have been extensively tested to define their toxicological hazard properties. These chemicals show low acute and repeat dose toxicity with high-dose effects (if any) related to minimal liver toxicity. These chemicals do not show evidence of activity in genetic toxicity tests or to the reproductive system or the developing organism.

Antibiotics potentially used in response to bioterrorism and the risk of major congenital malformations.

This study was designed to assess the association between pregnancy-related exposures to antibiotics recommended for use in the event of a bioterrorism attack and major congenital malformations. A retrospective cohort study included 30 049 infants from Tennessee Medicaid born between 1985 and 2000 identified from computerised state databases. Infants with fetal exposures to ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, doxycycline and amoxicillin (antibiotics recommended for potential bioterrorism attacks) (n = 24 521) and erythromycin (included as a positive control) (n = 2128) were compared with infants with no fetal exposure to any antibiotics (n = 3400).

Quantitative lines of evidence for screening-level diagnostic assessment of regional fish community impacts: a comparison of spatial database evaluation methods.

Determination of local ecological impacts and stressor identification in aquatic ecosystems is increasingly needed and required for designing effective watershed management plans in various jurisdictions. Spatial database evaluation methods applied to available environmental data resources can provide screening-level, geographically based stressor identification hypotheses. Cross-comparison of the output of independent methods is a critical step to address common concerns with the interpretation of output, identify strengths and weaknesses, and reduce uncertainty.

Environmental properties of long-chain alcohols. Part 2: Structure-activity relationship for chronic aquatic toxicity of long-chain alcohols.

Daphnia magna reproduction tests were performed with C(10), C(12), C(14) and C(15) alcohols to establish a structure-activity relationship of chronic effects of long-chain alcohols. The data generation involved substantial methodological efforts due to the exceptionally rapid biodegradability of the test substances and the need to test as close as possible to their water solubility limits. Test concentrations were determined by GC-MS before and after test solution renewal.

An overview of hazard and risk assessment of the OECD high production volume chemical category--long chain alcohols [C(6)-C(22)] (LCOH).

This review summarizes the findings of the assessment report for the category, long chain alcohols (LCOH) with a carbon chain length range of C(6)-C(22) covering 30 substances, and >1.5million tonnes/year consumed globally. The category was evaluated under the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) high production volume chemicals program in 2006.

Environmental properties of long chain alcohols. Part 1: Physicochemical, environmental fate and acute aquatic toxicity properties.

This paper summarises the physicochemical, biodegradation and acute aquatic ecotoxicity properties of long chain aliphatic alcohols. Properties of pure compounds are shown to follow somewhat predictable trends, which are amenable to estimation by quantitative structure-activity relationships ((Q)SARs). This allows predictions of data relating to human and environmental safety profiles and patterns.

Assessment of the environmental risk of long-chain aliphatic alcohols.

An environmental assessment of long-chain alcohols (LCOH) has recently been conducted under the OECD SIDS High Production Volume (HPV) Program via the Global International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) Aliphatic Alcohols Consortium. LCOH are used primarily as intermediates, as a precursor to alcohol-based surfactants and as alcohol per se in a wide variety of consumer product applications. Global production volume is approximately 1.

Diagnosing idiopathic learning disability: a cost-effectiveness analysis of microarray technology in the National Health Service of the United Kingdom.

Array based comparative genomic hybridisation (aCGH) is a powerful technique for detecting clinically relevant genome imbalance and can offer 40 to > 1000 times the resolution of karyotyping. Indeed, idiopathic learning disability (ILD) studies suggest that a genome-wide aCGH approach makes 10-15% more diagnoses involving genome imbalance than karyotyping. Despite this, aCGH has yet to be implemented as a routine NHS service.

Infertility and the provision of infertility medical services in developing countries.

Background: Worldwide more than 70 million couples suffer from infertility, the majority being residents of developing countries. Negative consequences of childlessness are experienced to a greater degree in developing countries when compared with Western societies. Bilateral tubal occlusion due to sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy-related infections is the most common cause of infertility in developing countries, a condition that is potentially treatable with assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

An overview of restraint and blood collection techniques in exotic pet practice.

As more data about blood test results become available, blood sampling becomes increasingly important as a diagnostic tool. The increased availability of biochemistry analyzers that sample small volumes of blood has made it possible to get diagnostic profiles and hematology results from pets that have only small volumes of blood to contribute. This article describes techniques for restraint, phlebotomy, and sample preparation of several of the more popular exotic animals in the pet trade.

High-efficiency, ultra low-noise all-fiber photon-pair source.

We demonstrate an all-fiber photon-pair source with the highest coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) reported to date in the fiber-optic telecom C-band. We achieve this through careful optimization of pairproduction efficiency as well as careful characterization and minimization of all sources of background photons, including Raman generation in the nonlinear fiber, Raman generation in the single-mode fiber, and leakage of pump photons. We cool the nonlinear fiber to 4 K to eliminate most of the Raman scattering, and we reduce other noise photon counts through careful system design.

Computerized definitions showed high positive predictive values for identifying hospitalizations for congestive heart failure and selected infections in Medicaid enrollees with rheumatoid arthritis.

Purpose: Computerized definitions are used to identify serious infections and congestive heart failure leading to hospitalizations in studies of medication safety. However, information on their accuracy is limited. We evaluated the ability of computerized definitions to identify these conditions as the reason for admission among patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Comparison of species sensitivity distributions derived from interspecies correlation models to distributions used to derive water quality criteria.

Species sensitivity distributions (SSD) require a large number of measured toxicity values to define a hazard level protective of multiple species. This investigation comprehensively evaluated the accuracy of SSDs generated from toxicity values predicted from interspecies correlation estimation (ICE) models. ICE models are log-log correlations of multiple chemical toxicity values for a pair of species that allow the toxicity of multiple species to be predicted from a single measured acute toxicity value for a surrogate species.

Analyzing quantitative light scattering spectra of phantoms measured with optical coherence tomography.

We demonstrate the ability of multiple forms of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in the frequency domain to quantitatively size scatterers. Combined with a variety of distinct phantoms, we gain insight into the measurement uncertainties associated with using scattering spectra to size scatterers. We size spherical scatterers on a surface using swept-source OCT with an analysis based on a simple slab-mode resonance model.

In vitro biotransformation of surfactants in fish. Part I: linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (C12-LAS) and alcohol ethoxylate (C13EO8).

Developing regulatory activities (e.g., REACh, [DGEE.