A Chemical-Mechanical Tongue Cleaning Method: An Approach to Control Halitosis and to Remove the Invisible Tongue Biofilm, A Possible Cause of Persistent Taste Disorder

Tongue coating or tongue biofilm is the main and most common cause of halitosis, as shown by numerous studies. There are four types of lingual papillae, three of which contain taste buds (vallate, fungiform, and foliate papillae). The filiform papillae are the most numerous and although they do not have taste cells, they surround the fungiform papillae and are in contact with the vallate and foliate papillae, which have taste buds. The anatomy of a single filiform papilla shows that it is not a simple bud coming out of the surface of the tongue, but a group of individual filaments in within the tongue biofilm can accumulate. In case of shear forces exerted on the papillae (i.e., the use of a tongue scraping), the sturdy papillae bend slightly and protect the then embedded biofilm remaining in the interstitial volume. Tongue coating may thus physically limit tastants’ access to taste pores and thus prevents their binding to taste receptors. A chemical-mechanical tongue cleaning technique (DC technique) can reach this biofilm with a better efficiency than the traditional methods to clean the tongue, such as the use of a tongue scraper or a toothbrush. DC technique removed 67,5% more coating than the tongue scraper and 148% more than the toothbrush. Further research should compare these methods concerning taste disorders.

Room-temperature sensing performance of hydrogen using palladium-based film by optical setup

H2 sensing performance of novel Pd–Pt alloy films has been compared with those obtained by using Pd films and H2-reducted PdO films. Two different detecting systems were used to measure the hydrogenation and de-hydrogenation phases with a H2 concentration of both 5% v/v nitrogen and 1% v/v nitrogen at room temperature. The sensitivity loss observed for the Pd–Pt alloy and H2-reducted PdO samples with respect to pure Pd samples can be explained in terms of the reduction in the lattice constant and interstitial volume due to the Pt addition, which determine a decrement of hydrogen atoms penetrating in the films. On the other hand, results show an improvement in time -response for Pd–Pt alloy and H2-reducted PdO films with respect to pure Pd ones, presumably due to the increase of its permeability to H2. Moreover, the sensing measurements repeated after 60 days show that the Pd–Pt alloy films, unlike the Pd-based ones, fully preserve their performances, demonstrating the advantage of the Pt inclusion for stability purposes when the samples are stored upon humidity.

IMPACT OF RESTRICTIVE REGIMEN OF INFUSION THERAPY ON THE PERIOPERATIVE PERIOD IN PATIENTS WITH URGENT ABDOMINAL PATHOLOGY

One of the leading pathogenetic processes that is specific for emergency abdominal pathology is hypovolemia. The primary method of its treatment is infusion therapy. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the restrictive regimen of infusion therapy in patients with emergency abdominal pathology. Materials and methods. We examined 50 patients who were performed on emergency laparotomy. Perioperative infusion therapy in all patients was carried out in a restrictive regimen with balanced crystalloid solutions. We studied the indicators of water metabolism: daily and cumulative water balances, the percentage of fluid excess. We determined water sectors of the body by the method of non-invasive bioelectric rheography. Results. The study has found out the presence of the initial depletion of the extracellular fluid volume due to a decrease in both interstitial and intravascular volumes in patients with urgent abdominal pathology. Intravascular deficiency was due to a decrease in plasma volume. Replenishment of extracellular deficiency by restrictive regimen of infusion therapy restored the plasma volume to normal values since one day after surgery; interstitial volume started restoring on the 7th days of observation, compared to the normal intracellular volume on the 3 days of the postoperative period. Conclusions: restrictive infusion therapy regimen enables to completely and safely restore extracellular volume depletion on the 7 days of the preoperative period by correcting plasma deficiency since the 1 day of the post-operative period; to replenish interstitial volume on the 7 days and to prevent the development of oedema during “zero” daily water balance, as well as to slightly increase the cumulative water balance and the percentage of excess fluid.

Using 3D micro-geomorphometry to quantify interstitial spaces of an oyster cluster

In ecology, it is assumed that the characteristics (e.g. shape, size) of interstitial spaces found in a variety of habitats affect the colonization of species, species interactions, and species composition. However, those characteristics have traditionally been difficult to measure due to technological limitations. In this study, we used the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry technique to measure the physical characteristics of interstitial spaces in a small oyster cluster. The point cloud (and mesh) of the oyster cluster derived from SfM photogrammetry was found to be accurate enough (mean error of 0.654 mm) to conduct 3D geomorphometric analyses. We present an example of measures of curvature, roughness, interstitial volume, surface area, and openness for three 3D interstitial spaces. The interpretation of those measures enabled establishing which interstitial spaces were the most likely to be used as a shelter for an average crab. Those spaces are characterized by smaller openness and higher roughness and curvature measures. This initial quantitative 3D characterization of an oyster cluster is the first step in establishing empirical relationships between structural complexity of biological structures like oyster clusters and their ecological role for instance in predator-prey interactions. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of combining SfM photogrammetry with geomorphometry for fine-scale ecological studies.

Using 3D micro-geomorphometry to quantify interstitial spaces of an oyster cluster

In ecology, it is assumed that the characteristics (e.g. shape, size) of interstitial spaces found in a variety of habitats affect the colonization of species, species interactions, and species composition. However, those characteristics have traditionally been difficult to measure due to technological limitations. In this study, we used the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry technique to measure the physical characteristics of interstitial spaces in a small oyster cluster. The point cloud (and mesh) of the oyster cluster derived from SfM photogrammetry was found to be accurate enough (mean error of 0.654 mm) to conduct 3D geomorphometric analyses. We present an example of measures of curvature, roughness, interstitial volume, surface area, and openness for three 3D interstitial spaces. The interpretation of those measures enabled establishing which interstitial spaces were the most likely to be used as a shelter for an average crab. Those spaces are characterized by smaller openness and higher roughness and curvature measures. This initial quantitative 3D characterization of an oyster cluster is the first step in establishing empirical relationships between structural complexity of biological structures like oyster clusters and their ecological role for instance in predator-prey interactions. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of combining SfM photogrammetry with geomorphometry for fine-scale ecological studies.

Block Copolymer of Flexible and Semi-Flexible Block Confined in Nanopost Array

Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of a diblock copolymer consisting of a flexible and semi-flexible block in a dense array of parallel nanoposts with a square lattice packing were performed. The mutual interactions between the two blocks of the confined diblock chain were investigated through a comparison of their size, structure, and penetration among nanoposts with the corresponding separate chains. The geometry of a nanopost array was varied at constant post separation or at constant width of the passage between nanoposts. The size of a single interstitial volume was comparable to or smaller than the size of the diblock chain. A comparison of the blocks with their separate analogous chains revealed that the mutual interactions between the blocks were shielded by the nanoposts and, thus, the blocks behaved independently. At constant passage width, competitive effects of the axial chain extension in interstitial volumes and the lateral chain expansion among interstitial volumes led to a nonmonotonic behavior of the axial span. The position of the maximum in the span plotted against the filling fraction for a diblock chain was dictated by the semi-flexible block. The semi-flexible block penetrates among the nanoposts more readily and the expansion of the whole diblock copolymer is governed by the semiflexible block. The main findings were explained using the free energy arguments when an interstitial volume was approximated by a channel geometry and a passage aperture by a slit geometry. Detail knowledge of controlled conformational behavior in a compartmentalized environment can contribute to new processes in the storage and retrieval of information.