A promoter trap in transgenic citrus mediates recognition of a broad spectrum of Xanthomonas citri pv. citri TALEs, including in planta-evolved derivatives.

Citrus bacterial canker (CBC), caused by Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc), causes dramatic losses to the citrus industry worldwide. Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs), which bind to effector binding elements (EBEs) in host promoters and activate transcription of downstream host genes, contribute significantly to Xcc virulence.

Long-Term Donor Site Morbidity and Flap Perfusion Following Radial versus Ulnar Forearm Free Flap-A Randomized Controlled Prospective Clinical Trial.

This clinical prospective randomized controlled study aimed to investigate the differences between Radial (RFFF) and Ulnar (UFFF) Forearm Free Flap in terms of success, performance, and donor site morbidity. Thirty patients with reconstruction of the head and neck region were included. For the first time, this study assessed flap-perfusion characteristics, donor-site-wound-healing dynamics and hand perfusion using hyperspectral imaging.

Bleeding disorders in implant dentistry: a narrative review and a treatment guide.

Purpose: Considering a high prevalence of congenital and especially acquired bleeding disorders, their heterogeneity and the multitude of possible treatments strategies, a review of the scientific data on this topic is needed to implement a treatment guide for healthcare professionals.

Methods: A selective literature review was performed via PubMed for articles describing oral surgery / dental implant procedures in patients with congenital and acquired bleeding disorders. Out of the existing literature, potential treatment algorithms were extrapolated.

New Approach to the Old Challenge of Free Flap Monitoring-Hyperspectral Imaging Outperforms Clinical Assessment by Earlier Detection of Perfusion Failure.

In reconstructive surgery, free flap failure, especially in complex osteocutaneous reconstructions, represents a significant clinical burden. Therefore, the aim of the presented study was to assess hyperspectral imaging (HSI) for monitoring of free flaps compared to clinical monitoring. In a prospective, non-randomized clinical study, patients with free flap reconstruction of the oro-maxillofacial-complex were included.

Effects of Prenatal Electronic Cigarette Exposure On Foetal Development: a Review of the Literature.

Since their market launch in 2007, e-cigarettes gained popularity and were considered a relatively safe alternative to traditional cigarettes. Pregnant women and women of childbearing age in particular are increasingly turning to e-cigarettes. Little is known about the effects of prenatal exposure on the affected foetus.

Hyperspectral imaging and artificial intelligence to detect oral malignancy - part 1 - automated tissue classification of oral muscle, fat and mucosa using a light-weight 6-layer deep neural network.

Background: Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a promising non-contact approach to tissue diagnostics, generating large amounts of raw data for whose processing computer vision (i.e. deep learning) is particularly suitable.

Hyperspectral Imaging to Study Dynamic Skin Perfusion after Injection of Articaine-4% with and without Epinephrine-Clinical Implications on Local Vasoconstriction.

This study aimed to investigate the dynamic skin perfusion via hyperspectral imaging (HSI) after application of Articaine-4% ± epinephrine as well as epinephrine only. After the subcutaneous injection of (A100) Articaine-4% with epinephrine 1:100,000, (A200) Articaine-4% with epinephrine 1:200,000, (Aw/o) Articaine-4% without epinephrine, and (EPI200) epinephrine 1:200,000, into the flexor side of the forearm in a split-arm design, dynamic skin perfusion measurement was performed over 120 min by determining tissue oxygen saturation (StO) using HSI. After injection, all groups experienced a reactive hyperaemia.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dental-maxillofacial emergency service of a German university hospital in the year 2020.

Objectives: COVID-19 is considered one of the most serious pandemic in history and has posed major challenges to the world's health care. Dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery (CMFS) are particularly affected due to direct exposure to the respiratory tract, as the reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, the impact of the COVID-19-pandemic on a dental and CMFS emergency services in Germany in 2020 was first time investigated and correlated with governmental restriction measures in public life.

Transient reprogramming of crop plants for agronomic performance.

The development of a new crop variety is a time-consuming and costly process due to the reliance of plant breeding on gene shuffling to introduce desired genes into elite germplasm, followed by backcrossing. Here, we propose alternative technology that transiently targets various regulatory circuits within a plant, leading to operator-specified alterations of agronomic traits, such as time of flowering, vernalization requirement, plant height or drought tolerance. We redesigned techniques of gene delivery, amplification and expression around RNA viral transfection methods that can be implemented on an industrial scale and with many crop plants.

Weekly COVID-19 testing with household quarantine and contact tracing is feasible and would probably end the epidemic.

The COVID-19 epidemic can probably be ended and normal life restored, perhaps quite quickly, by weekly SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing together with household quarantine and systematic contact tracing. Isolated outbreaks could then be contained by contact tracing, supplemented if necessary by temporary local reintroduction of population testing or lockdown. Leading public health experts have recommended that this should be tried in a demonstration project in which a medium-sized city introduces weekly testing and lifts lockdown completely.

Systematic review showed that low and moderate prenatal alcohol and nicotine exposure affected early child development.

Aim: We systematically reviewed the literature on the influence of low and moderate amounts of prenatal alcohol and nicotine exposure on early child development. This paper also suggests possible directions for future research in order to tackle the controversial findings identified.

Methods: The PubMed and Web of Science electronic databases were searched together with the reference lists of the selected papers.

Dissociating frontal and temporal correlates of phonological and semantic fluency in a large sample of left hemisphere stroke patients.

Previous lesion studies suggest that semantic and phonological fluency are differentially subserved by distinct brain regions in the left temporal and the left frontal cortex, respectively. However, as of yet, this often implied double dissociation has not been explicitly investigated due to mainly two reasons: (i) the lack of sufficiently large samples of brain-lesioned patients that underwent assessment of the two fluency variants and (ii) the lack of tools to assess interactions in factorial analyses of non-normally distributed behavioral data. In addition, previous studies did not control for task resource artifacts potentially introduced by the generally higher task difficulty of phonological compared to semantic fluency.

Targeting Voltage-Dependent Calcium Channels with Pregabalin Exerts a Direct Neuroprotective Effect in an Animal Model of Multiple Sclerosis.

Background/aims: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prototypical autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) disease. Particularly progressive forms of MS (PMS) show significant neuroaxonal damage as consequence of demyelination and neuronal hyperexcitation. Immuno-modulatory treatment strategies are beneficial in relapsing MS (RMS), but mostly fail in PMS.

Are semantic and phonological fluency based on the same or distinct sets of cognitive processes? Insights from factor analyses in healthy adults and stroke patients.

Verbal fluency for semantic categories and phonological letters is frequently applied to studies of language and executive functions. Despite its popularity, it is still debated whether measures of semantic and phonological fluency reflect the same or distinct sets of cognitive processes. Word generation in the two task variants is believed to involve different types of search processes.

CD8+ T cells mediate the regenerative PTH effect in hPDL cells via Wnt10b signaling.

It was the aim of the present investigation to examine whether the stimulating effect of parathyroid hormone (PTH) on human periodontal ligament (hPDL) cell proliferation and differentiation would be enhanced by hPDL/T-cell interaction involving Wnt10b signaling as a mediating pathway. hPDL cells were cultured from healthy premolar tissues of three adolescent orthodontic patients and exposed to PTH(1-34) in monocultures or co-cultures with CD8 T cells. At harvest, proliferation, alkaline phosphatase-specific activity (ALP), and osteocalcin production were determined by immunofluorescence cytochemistry, real-time PCR, biochemical assay, and ELISA.

From TGN1412 to TAB08: the return of CD28 superagonist therapy to clinical development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

CD28 superagonists (CD28SA) are CD28-specific monoclonal antibodies which are able to activate T-cells without overt TCR engagement. In rodents, CD28SA efficiently activate regulatory T-cells and are therapeutically effective in multiple models of autoimmunity, inflammation and transplantation. However, a phase I study of the human CD28SA TGN1412 in 2006 resulted in a life-threatening cytokine storm.

An engineered promoter driving expression of a microbial avirulence gene confers recognition of TAL effectors and reduces growth of diverse Xanthomonas strains in citrus.

Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri (X. citri), causal agent of citrus canker, uses transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) as major pathogenicity factors.

Highly functionalized organic nitrates in the southeast United States: Contribution to secondary organic aerosol and reactive nitrogen budgets.

Speciated particle-phase organic nitrates (pONs) were quantified using online chemical ionization MS during June and July of 2013 in rural Alabama as part of the Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study. A large fraction of pONs is highly functionalized, possessing between six and eight oxygen atoms within each carbon number group, and is not the common first generation alkyl nitrates previously reported. Using calibrations for isoprene hydroxynitrates and the measured molecular compositions, we estimate that pONs account for 3% and 8% of total submicrometer organic aerosol mass, on average, during the day and night, respectively.

Organic nitrate chemistry and its implications for nitrogen budgets in an isoprene- and monoterpene-rich atmosphere: constraints from aircraft (SEACRS) and ground-based (SOAS) observations in the Southeast US.

Formation of organic nitrates (RONO) during oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs: isoprene, monoterpenes) is a significant loss pathway for atmospheric nitrogen oxide radicals (NO), but the chemistry of RONO formation and degradation remains uncertain. Here we implement a new BVOC oxidation mechanism (including updated isoprene chemistry, new monoterpene chemistry, and particle uptake of RONO) in the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model with ∼25 × 25 km resolution over North America. We evaluate the model using aircraft (SEACRS) and ground-based (SOAS) observations of NO, BVOCs, and RONO from the Southeast US in summer 2013.

Reference genes for valid gene expression studies on rat dental, periodontal and alveolar bone tissue by means of RT-qPCR with a focus on orthodontic tooth movement and periodontitis.

Objectives: To obtain valid results in relative gene/mRNA-expression analyses by RT-qPCR, a careful selection of stable reference genes is required for normalization. Currently there is little information on reference gene stability in dental, periodontal and alveolar bone tissues of the rat, especially regarding orthodontic tooth movement and periodontitis. We therefore aimed to identify the best selection and number of reference genes under these experimental as well as physiological conditions.

Short-term heat pre-treatment modulates the release of HMGB1 and pro-inflammatory cytokines in hPDL cells following mechanical loading and affects monocyte behavior.

Objective: Heat shock proteins (HSP) act as cell-protective molecules that are upregulated upon thermal insult, hypoxia, and ischemia. Such ischemic conditions can be found during tissue remodeling associated with orthodontic tooth movement or trauma when compression forces lead to cell necrosis and subsequent clearance of cellular debris by immune competent cells. Host immune overreaction can result in undesired side effects such as tooth root resorption.

Orthodontic forces add to nicotine-induced loss of periodontal bone : An in vivo and in vitro study.

Objectives: Nicotine is considered an etiologic factor for chronic inflammatory phenomena within the periodontal ligament that may result in loss of periodontal attachment. Considering that smokers account for 26% of adult and 12% of adolescent patients in orthodontic practice, we performed in vivo and in vitro studies as to whether orthodontic forces may add to the nicotine-induced loss of periodontal bone.

Methods: Fourteen male rats (Fischer 344 inbred) were used.