Back to the future: re-establishing guinea pig in vivo asthma models.

Research using animal models of asthma is currently dominated by mouse models. This has been driven by the comprehensive knowledge on inflammatory and immune reactions in mice, as well as tools to produce genetically modified mice. Many of the identified therapeutic targets influencing airway hyper-responsiveness and inflammation in mouse models, have however been disappointing when tested clinically in asthma.

Treatment of Streptococcus mutans biofilms with a nonthermal atmospheric plasma.

Aims: A nonthermal atmospheric plasma, designed for biomedical applications, was tested for its antimicrobial activity against biofilm cultures of a key cariogenic bacterium Streptococcus mutans.

Methods And Results: The Strep. mutans biofilms were grown with and without 0.

Image-based extracorporeal tissue engineering of individualized bone constructs.

Purpose: Computer-aided technologies have been recently employed for use in extracorporeal bone tissue engineering strategies. In this pilot animal experimental study, the intention was to test whether autologous osteoblast-like cells cultured in vitro on individualized scaffolds can be used to support bone regeneration in a clinical environment.

Materials And Methods: For this purpose, mandibular bone defects were surgically introduced into the mandibles of minipigs and the scaffold of the defect site was modeled by computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing technique.

Gas plasma treatment: a new approach to surgery?

In this survey we analyse the status quo of gas plasma applications in medical sciences. Plasma is a partly ionized gas, which contains free charge carriers (electrons and ions), active radicals, and excited molecules. So-called nonthermal plasmas are particularly interesting, because they operate at relatively low temperatures and do not inflict thermal damage to nearby objects.

Electric discharge plasmas influence attachment of cultured CHO K1 cells.

Non-thermal plasmas can be generated by electric discharges in gases. These plasmas are reactive media, capable of superficial treatment of various materials. A novel non-thermal atmospheric plasma source (plasma needle) has been developed and tested.

Histological studies of bone formation during pedicle restoration and early antler regeneration in roe deer and fallow deer.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the process of bone formation in the regenerating cranial appendages of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama) during the early postcasting period. After the antlers are cast, osteoclastic and osteoblastic activities lead to a smoothing of the pedicle's separation surface, a strengthening of the pedicle bone, and a partial restoration of the distal pedicle portion that was lost along with the cast antler. Initially, bone formation occurs by intramembranous ossification, but early during the regeneration process cartilage is formed at the tips of the cranial appendages, and is subsequently replaced by bone in a process of endochodral ossification.

Evolution of a dust void in a radio-frequency plasma sheath.

The onset and growth of a dust void are investigated in a radio-frequency (rf) sheath of a capacitively coupled argon plasma. A circularly symmetric void emerges and grows with increasing rf power and pressure in the central region of the dust cloud levitating in the sheath. Experimental measurements of the void diameter are compared with the predictions of a simple phenomenological theory, based on a balance of forces on dust grains.

Effects of crystal shape on the energy levels of zero-dimensional PbS quantum dots.

Nanometer-size PbS quantum dots have been made by electrodeposition on a Au(111) substrate. The deposited nanocrystals have a flattened cubic shape. We probed the single-electron energy-level spectrum of individual quantum dots by scanning tunneling spectroscopy and found that it deviates strongly from that of spherical PbS quantum dots.

Threefold effect of peripheral precues: alertness, orienting, and response tendencies.

Three experiments were run revealing that peripheral cues exert an alerting and orienting effect. Novel is the finding that peripheral cues induce a (hidden) tendency to respond to the cued side, which interacts with the response tendency elicited by the subsequent following target. Compatible S-R mappings revealed either a reversed or no response tendency in cue conditions as compared to uncued conditions.

Uncertainty and processing routes in the selection of a response: an S-R compatibility study.

Stimulus-response (S-R) pairs are usually processed faster when-they are presented in a series that consists entirely of compatible relations rather than incompatible relations. A mixture of the two pairs in a series, which induces uncertainty, increases processing speed for both pairs, but more so for compatible S-R pairs. The results of three choice reaction time (RT) tasks showed that presentation of a precue that only indicated either compatible or incompatible S-R pairs reduced the detrimental effect of mixing pairs more for the former than for the latter pairs.

An additive factors analysis of the effect(s) of location cues associated with auditory stimuli on stages of information processing.

The additive factors method (AFM) was used as a tool for assessing the locus (or loci) of the detrimental effect of auditory location cues in the chain of (visual) information processing. In the first experiment the location variable was factorially combined with response specificity, which is assumed to affect the response adjustment stage. A second experiment was performed in which movement amplitude, assumed to affect the response programming stage, was manipulated in addition to the location variable and a different variety of response specificity.