Efficacy of Aerosol Reduction Measures for Dental Aerosol Generating Procedures.

Aerosol particles generated by dental procedures could facilitate the transmission of infectious diseases and contain carcinogen particles. Such particles can penetrate common surgical masks and reach the lungs, leading to increased risk for dental care professionals. However, the risk of inhaling contaminated aerosol and the effectiveness of aerosol reduction measures in dental offices remain unclear.

Direct radiative effects of airborne microplastics.

Microplastics are now recognized as widespread contaminants in the atmosphere, where, due to their small size and low density, they can be transported with winds around the Earth. Atmospheric aerosols, such as mineral dust and other types of airborne particulate matter, influence Earth's climate by absorbing and scattering radiation (direct radiative effects) and their impacts are commonly quantified with the effective radiative forcing (ERF) metric. However, the radiative effects of airborne microplastics and associated implications for global climate are unknown.

Rethinking Interpreter Functions in Mental Health Services.

Interpreters improve access to care for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), but some studies have reported poorer cultural understanding, relationship quality, and patient satisfaction than with language-concordant care. Use of interpreter roles beyond linguistic conversion (clarifier, cultural broker, or advocate/mediator) may enhance interpreter-mediated care by improving cultural understanding and the therapeutic alliance. As reported in this column, pilot data on interpreter-mediated evaluations of 25 psychiatric outpatients with LEP support this position.

Pattern formation in two-dimensional hard-core/soft-shell systems with variable soft shell profiles.

Hard-core/soft shell (HCSS) particles have been shown to self-assemble into a remarkably rich variety of structures under compression due to the simple interplay between the hard-core and soft-shoulder length scales in their interactions. Most studies in this area model the soft shell interaction as a square shoulder potential. Although appealing from a theoretical point of view, the potential is physically unrealistic because there is no repulsive force in the soft shell regime, unlike in experimental HCSS systems.

Density functional theory for the crystallization of two-dimensional dipolar colloidal alloys.

Two-dimensional mixtures of dipolar colloidal particles with different dipole moments exhibit extremely rich self-assembly behaviour and are relevant to a wide range of experimental systems, including charged and super-paramagnetic colloids at liquid interfaces. However, there is a gap in our understanding of the crystallization of these systems because existing theories such as integral equation theory and lattice sum methods can only be used to study the high temperature fluid phase and the zero-temperature crystal phase, respectively. In this paper we bridge this gap by developing a density functional theory (DFT), valid at intermediate temperatures, in order to study the crystallization of one and two-component dipolar colloidal monolayers.

Gold nanoparticles assembled with dithiocarbamate-anchored molecular wires.

A protocol for the bottom-up self-assembly of nanogaps is developed through molecular linking of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Two π-conjugated oligo(phenylene ethynylene) molecules (OPE) with dithiocarbamate anchoring groups are used as ligands for the AuNPs. OPE-4S with a dithiocarbamate in each end of the molecule and a reference molecule OPE-2S with only a single dithiocarbamate end group.

Filling a nanoporous substrate by dewetting of thin films.

Following a simple thermodynamic model, which predicts that an array of non-wettable pores can be filled by dewetting of sufficiently thin films, we use molecular dynamics to simulate the rupture of nanometre-thick liquid Au films on nanoporous substrates. Our simulations clearly exhibit spinodal dewetting and hole nucleation, and some of the metal is indeed absorbed by non-wettable pores solely as a virtue of the Laplace pressure acting on dewetted droplets and rivulet-like structures. Finally, we show that the fraction of absorbed Au can be increased through patterning of the initial film.

A scheme for detecting every single target molecule with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is now a well-established technique for the detection, under appropriate conditions, of single molecules (SM) adsorbed on metallic nanostructures. However, because of the large variations of the SERS enhancement factor on the surface, only molecules located at the positions of highest enhancement, so-called hot-spots, can be detected at the single-molecule level. As a result, in all SM-SERS studies so far only a small fraction, typically less than 1%, of molecules are actually observed.

Simplified expressions of the T-matrix integrals for electromagnetic scattering.

The extended boundary condition method, also called the null-field method, provides a semianalytic solution to the problem of electromagnetic scattering by a particle by constructing a transition matrix (T-matrix) that links the scattered field to the incident field. This approach requires the computation of specific integrals over the particle surface, which are typically evaluated numerically. We introduce here a new set of simplified expressions for these integrals in the commonly studied case of axisymmetric particles.

Extraction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA: a question of containment.

DNA fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis requires substantial high-quality DNA. We demonstrated that, despite extraction treatments that might be expected to inactivate this organism, M. tuberculosis remained viable during this process.

The N-terminal non-RGS domain of human regulator of G-protein signalling 1 contributes to its ability to inhibit pheromone receptor signalling in yeast.

Regulators of G-protein signalling (RGS) are a family of proteins that interact with G-proteins to regulate negatively G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signalling. In addition to a conserved core domain that is necessary and sufficient for their GTPase activating protein (GAP) like activity, RGSs possess N- and C-terminal motifs that confer distinct functional differences. In order to identify the role of the non-RGS region of human RGS1, we have characterized a series of fusions between RGS1 and GFP in a yeast mutant lacking the RGS containing SST2 gene.

Inhibition of somatostatin receptor 5-signaling by mammalian regulators of G-protein signaling (RGS) in yeast.

Regulators of G-protein signaling (RGSs) are negative regulators of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR)-mediated signaling that function to limit the lifetime of receptor-activated G(alpha)-proteins. Here we show that four mammalian RGSs differentially inhibit the activation of a FUS1--LacZ reporter gene by the STE2 encoded GPCR in yeast. In order to examine the role of the GPCR in modulating RGS function, we functionally expressed the human somatostatin receptor 5 (SST(5)) in yeast.

To die in one's prime: the story of Paul Wood.

Paul Wood, the leader of European cardiology during the mid-20th century, was internationally admired for his bedside teaching, clinical investigations, and an important textbook on cardiology. His studies, based on a unique quantitative approach to the grading and recording of clinical data, introduced cardiac physiology to the bedside, brought accuracy to the preoperative assessment of cardiac disease, and became the foundation for much of our current understanding about congenital and rheumatic heart disease and pulmonary hypertension. At the bedside, in front of a crowd of postgraduate students, registrars, and visitors, he was renowned for his showmanship and dazzling ability.

Specific antibody responses to diphtheria/tetanus revaccination in children evaluated for immunodeficiency.

Background: Assaying specific antibody levels against well-defined antigens such as diphtheria (D), tetanus (T), and more recently Haemophilus is used as one indicator of humoral immune reactivity when evaluating patients for immunodeficiency. The nature of the response to booster vaccine in this group of patients is not well defined.

Objective: To define the response to D/T booster vaccination in patients with nonprotective antibody levels in order to distinguish immunocompetent from immunodeficient children.

Effects of octreotide on circulating islet B cell products in endogenous hyperinsulinism.

The role of somatostatin analogues in the medical management of insulinomas is unclear. We describe an elderly patient with clinical and biochemical features of endogenous hyperinsulinism attributable to a benign islet B cell disorder whose incapacitating neuroglycopaenic symptoms responded dramatically to octreotide 50 micrograms subcutaneously at 2200 h each night. Octreotide suppressed inappropriate plasma concentrations of insulin thereby preventing fasting hypoglycaemia.

The bowel, the genitourinary tract, and infective endocarditis.

Of 582 episodes of infective endocarditis 75 were attributable to organisms normally resident in the bowel and 12 others were associated with alimentary tract operations, investigations, or disease. The mean age of the 87 patients in this particular group was higher (59.7 years) than that of all the patients with infective endocarditis (51.

The microbiology and pathogenesis of infective endocarditis.

Some details of 544 episodes of infective endocarditis occurring in 541 patients during 1981 and 1982 are reported. The mean age of patients was 51.6 years and there was a greater proportion of males (2:1).

The teeth and infective endocarditis.

During 1981 and 1982 544 cases of infective endocarditis were investigated retrospectively by means of a questionnaire. Only 13.7% had undergone any dental procedure within three months of the onset of the illness, and in 42.

Some effects of emotion on the normal and abnormal heart.

Increased heart rate and catecholamine secretion are induced by certain emotions. Automobile driving in busy city traffic, racing driving, speaking before an audience, and parachute jumping are associated with sinus tachycardia 120-180 per minute, and increase in the plasma levels of adrenaline and/or noradrenaline. Electrocardiographic changes, chiefly ST depression, may occur in a small proportion of persons without ischemic symptoms and with normal resting tracings.