Female genital mutilation: trends, economic burden of delay and basis for public health interventions.

Background: The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is a health and social problem. Millions of girls and women have undergone FGM or will soon, and more information is needed to effectively reduce the practice. The aim of this research is to provide an overview of the FGM trendlines, the inequality of its prevalence, and the economic burden.

Lymphatic growth factors are expressed in human gingiva and upregulated in gingival fibroblasts after stimulation.

Background: The lymphatic growth factors vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C and -D are important for maintenance and growth of lymphatic vessels (lymphangiogenesis), but their localization in human gingiva is unknown. This study investigated the expression of VEGF-C and -D in human gingiva and isolated human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs). In addition, the localization of their main receptor VEGFR-3 was explored.

Lognormal switching times for titanium dioxide bipolar memristors: origin and resolution.

We measured the switching time statistics for a TiO(2) memristor and found that they followed a lognormal distribution, which is a potentially serious problem for computer memory and data storage applications. We examined the underlying physical phenomena that determine the switching statistics and proposed a simple analytical model for the distribution based on the drift/diffusion equation and previously measured nonlinear drift behavior. We designed a closed-loop switching protocol that dramatically narrows the time distribution, which can significantly improve memory circuit performance and reliability.