Contact orofacial granulomatosis caused by delayed hypersensitivity to gold and mercury

Orofacial granulomatosis, an entity with characteristic clinicopathologic features, is thought to be a reactive process. The authors describe orofacial granulomatosis associated with contact allergy to gold in dental crowns in one patient and a possible allergic contact reaction to mercury from dental fillings in another one. Thus allergic contact dermatitis to the metals gold and mercury should be considered as a possible etiologic agent of orofacial granulomatosis.     

Impact of infancy duration on adult size in 22 subsistence-based societies

Aim: Humans evolved to withstand harsh environments by adaptively decreasing their body size. Thus, adaptation to a hostile environment defers the infancy‐childhood transition age (ICT), culminating in short stature. In natural‐fertility human societies, this transition is associated with weaning from breastfeeding and the mother’s new pregnancy. We therefore used the interbirth interval (IBI) as a surrogate for the ICT. Methods: We hypothesized that long IBI will be associated with smaller body size. The sample used is 22 subsistence‐based societies of foragers, horticulturalists and pastorals from Africa, South America, Australia and Southeast Asia. Results: The IBI correlated negatively with the average adult bodyweight but not height. After correction for ‘pubertal spurt takeoff’ and ‘weight at age 5’, the IBI explains 81% of ‘average adult weight’ variability. Conclusions: This inter‐population study confirms that body weight is adaptively smaller in hostile environments and suggests that the selected trait for this adaptation is the ICT age.     

Event-related slow-wave activity in two subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Previous time-frequency studies have indicated that event-related low-frequency activity has important effects on component topography and developmental effects in auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) of children and adolescents. This study investigated the influence of event-related slow-wave (SW) (0.01-2 Hz) activity in the group differences seen between children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) of different subtypes. METHODS: Time-frequency analysis techniques were applied to auditory ERP data derived from children with AD/HD predominantly inattentive type (n = 30), AD/HD combined type (n = 30) and age-matched control subjects (n = 30). RESULTS: Event-related early frontal negative and late posterior positive SW components were reduced in the AD/HD combined type group, but not AD/HD inattentive type group, relative to controls. The RESIDUAL ERPs, which represented event-related 2-12 Hz activity, showed clinical vs. control group differences in components that were similar in both AD/HD subtype groups. CONCLUSIONS: The time-frequency results showed that event-related SW (0.1-2 Hz) activity contributes importantly to group differences between AD/HD and control children, and the pattern of group differences from controls for each of the AD/HD subtype groups, which are evident in raw ERPs. These results emphasise both the clinical and developmental importance of this form of analysis. SIGNIFICANCE: This novel approach revealed additional specific information about stimulus processing and regional inhibition/activation in two AD/HD subtypes, relative to control subjects.     

Divergent effects of age on performance in spatial associative learning and real idiothetic memory in humans

This study focuses on age-related differences concerning two kinds of spatial memory assessed by: (1) Paired Associates Learning (PAL) test from the CANTAB and (2) a test of Real Idiothetic Memory (RIM) using real-life settings. Despite a clear age-related drop in PAL that is reported in existing studies, age-related differences in idiothetic navigation still remain unclear. In our study we tested 80 healthy volunteers classified according to their age into two groups, i.e. young (aged from 20 to 29 years of life; n=40; 20M/20F) and elderly (from 64 to 77 years; n=40; 20M/20F) healthy volunteers. They were asked in the PAL test to remember the spatial location of visual patterns presented on a computer screen, and in the RIM test to walk on the arena in darkness in order to find a cue place and then to return to the start/exit point. A white noise was switched on at entering the cue place and switched off at leaving this place. Elderly subjects indicated poorer performance than their younger counterparts on the PAL test, as evidenced by all tested outcome measures. In contrast, for the RIM test no clear age effect was evidenced. In both tests no gender effect was observed. A dissociation in age-related changes for these two tests indicates that visuo-spatial associative learning and idiothetic navigation may have different cognitive control which is probably rooted in an interplay of different brain structures.     

Effect of Secondary Carbon Nanofillers on the Electrical,Thermal, and Mechanical Properties of Conductive Hybrid Composites Based on Epoxy Resin and Graphite

In this work, we present a comparative study of the impact of secondary carbon nanofillers on the electrical and thermal conductivity, thermal stability, and mechanical properties of hybrid conductive polymer composites (CPC) based on high loadings of synthetic graphite and epoxy resin. Two different carbon nanofillers were chosen for the investigation—low-cost multi-layered graphene nanoplatelets (GN) and carbon black (CB), which were aimed at improving the overall performance of composites. The samples were obtained by a simple, inexpensive, and effective compression molding technique, and were investigated by the means of, i.a., scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, electrical conductivity measurements, laser flash analysis, and thermogravimetry. The tests performed revealed that, due to the exceptional electronic transport properties of GN, its relatively low specific surface area, good aspect ratio, and nanometric sizes of particles, a notable improvement in the overall characteristics of the composites (best results for 4 wt % of GN; σ = 266.7 S cm⁻¹; λ = 40.6 W mK⁻¹; fl. strength = 40.1 MPa). In turn, the addition of CB resulted in a limited improvement in mechanical properties, and a deterioration in electrical and thermal properties, mainly due to the too high specific surface area of this nanofiller. The results obtained were compared with US Department of Energy recommendations regarding properties of materials for bipolar plates in fuel cells. As shown, the materials developed significantly exceed the recommended values of the majority of the most important parameters, indicating high potential application of the composites obtained.     

Betulin Elicits Anti‐Cancer Effects in Tumour Primary Cultures and Cell Lines In Vitro

Abstract: Betulin is a pentacyclic triterpene found in many plant species, among others, in white birch bark. The aim of the study was in vitro characterization of the anticancer activity of betulin in a range of human tumour cell lines (neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma‐medulloblastoma, glioma, thyroid, breast, lung and colon carcinoma, leukaemia and multiple myeloma), and in primary tumour cultures isolated from patients (ovarian carcinoma, cervical carcinoma and glioblastoma multiforme). In this study, we demonstrated a remarkable anti‐proliferative effect of betulin in all tested tumour cell cultures. Neuroblastoma (SK‐N‐AS) and colon carcinoma (HT‐29) were the most sensitive to the anti‐proliferative effect of betulin. Furthermore, betulin altered tumour cells morphology, decreased their motility and induced apoptotic cell death. These findings demonstrate the anti‐cancer potential of betulin and suggest that they may be applied as an adjunctive measure in cancer treatment.