Impact of the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic and Related Vaccination in an Orthopedic Clinic in the United Arab Emirates: An Observational Study.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced hospital visiting patterns. Although vaccination has decreased infection rates and disease severity, hospital visiting patterns and associated treatment changes related to orthopedics remain unexplored in the Middle East. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination on individual departments dealing with musculoskeletal disorders in the United Arab Emirates.

CD99 regulates CXCL12-induced chemotaxis of human plasma cells.

Migration of plasma cells (PCs) is crucial for the control of PC survival and antibody production and is controlled by chemokines, most importantly by CXCL12. This study investigated the role of CD99 in CXCL12-induced PC migration. Among B cell subsets in the tonsils, CD99 expression was highest in PCs.

Influence of standardization on the precision (reproducibility) of dental cast analysis with virtual 3-dimensional models.

Introduction: Virtual 3-dimensional (3D) models obtained by scanning of physical casts have become an alternative to conventional dental cast analysis in orthodontic treatment. If the precision (reproducibility) of virtual 3D model analysis can be further improved, digital orthodontics could be even more widely accepted. The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of "standardization" of the target points for dental cast analysis using virtual 3D models.

Molecular dissection of the response of a rice leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase (LRR-RLK) gene to abiotic stresses.

Leucine-rich repeat (LRR) receptor-like kinase (RLK) proteins play key roles in a variety of biological pathways. In a previous study, we analyzed the members of the rice LRR-RLK gene family using in silico analysis. A total of 23 LRR-RLK genes were selected based on the expression patterns of a genome-wide dataset of microarrays.