Zirconia crowns manufactured using digital light processing: Effects of printing angle and layer thickness on the accuracy.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the effects of build angle and layer thickness on the trueness and precision of zirconia crowns manufactured using digital light processing (DLP) technology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Single crowns were fabricated from zirconia using DLP technology. The crowns were manufactured with three different representative build angles (0°, 45°, and 90°) and two different layer thicknesses (30 µm and 50 µm). After printing, the specimens were non-contact-scanned, and their accuracy was assessed using a 3D analysis software. Root mean square (RMS) values were used to determine trueness and precision. Color maps were generated to detect deviations within the specimens. Statistical analyses were conducted using two-way ANOVA. RESULTS: Build angle and layer thickness significantly affected trueness and precision (p < 0.05). At a 30-µm layer thickness, the crowns printed at angles of 0° (32.2 ± 3.2 µm) and 45° (33.9 ± 2.4 µm) demonstrated the best marginal trueness compared to those in other groups (p < 0.05). Notably, those printed at an angle of 90° exhibited the best intaglio surface trueness (37.4 ± 4.0 µm). At a 50-µm layer thickness, the crowns printed at an angle of 90° exhibited the lowest accuracy concerning marginal and intaglio surface aspects (27.7 ± 8.2 µm). CONCLUSIONS: Both the build angle and layer thickness significantly affected the dimensional accuracy of DLP-printed zirconia crowns, with the 30-µm layer thickness offering superior trueness. Optimal results were achieved using build angles of 0° and 45° in conjunction with thinner layers, minimizing marginal defects. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: All zirconia crowns produced at different build angles and layer thicknesses satisfied clinical requirements. Specific combinations of these factors realized the fabrication of single crowns that possessed the highest accuracy.

Transcription repression of estrogen receptor alpha by ghrelin/Gq/11/YAP signaling in granulosa cells promotes polycystic ovary syndrome.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a prevalent endocrinological disorder affected by ghrelin. This study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of ghrelin on PCOS manifestations in mice and to assess the therapeutic potential of ghrelin. Female C57BL/6 mice were subcutaneously injected with 6 mg/100 g dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) for 20 days to induce PCOS. Alterations in reproductive cycles, ovarian morphology, serum sex hormone levels, and related signaling markers were examined. Furthermore, ghrelin-induced effects on granulosa cells and the role of ghrelin/Gq/11/ Yes-associated protein (YAP) signaling were studied by silencing Gαq/11 or YAP using si-RNAs. Finally, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of anti-ghrelin antibodies in DHEA-induced PCOS mice. DHEA administration led to significant PCOS-associated changes including weight gain, disrupted estrous cycles, ovarian morphological alterations, and hormonal imbalances in mice, with elevated Gαq/11 and acylated ghrelin expression, which was also noted in PCOS patients. However, treatment with anti-ghrelin antibodies effectively managed DHEA-induced damage in PCOS mice. In vitro, ghrelin exposure resulted in granulosa cell injury and modulated estrogen receptors alpha (ERα) and YAP protein levels, whereas silencing YAP and Gαq/11 reversed ghrelin-induced detrimental effects and up-regulated ERα expression. This study revealed that DHEA-induced PCOS traits in mice could be improved by anti-ghrelin antibodies, with the ghrelin/Gq/11/YAP signaling pathway identified as a crucial mediator in granulosa cells, affecting ERα transcription to regulate PCOS. These findings suggest a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of PCOS.

Boosting Pseudo-Labeling With Curriculum Self-Reflection for Attributed Graph Clustering.

Attributed graph clustering is an unsupervised learning task that aims to partition various nodes of a graph into distinct groups. Existing approaches focus on devising diverse pretext tasks to obtain suitable supervised information for representation learning, among which the predictive methods show great potential. However, these methods 1) generate auxiliary task bias toward the clustering target and 2) introduce label noise due to static thresholds. To address this issue, we propose a new self-supervised learning method, namely, pseudo-labeling with curriculum self-reflection (PLCSR), that learns reliable pseudo-labels by mining its information to achieve progressive processing of nodes in a self-reflection manner. First, a self-auxiliary encoder is constructed using the exponential moving average (EMA) of the original encoder's parameters to replace the auxiliary tasks, which provides an additional perspective of finding highly confident pseudo-labels. Second, a curriculum selection strategy using dynamic thresholds is designed to take full advantage of graph nodes more accurately. Besides simple nodes with high confidence at the initial stage, nodes that yield consistent predictions from both encoders are then assigned pseudo-labels to avoid the under-learning problem. For the rest difficult nodes that are highly uncertain, we abstain from making judgments to minimize their adverse impact on the model. Extensive experiments have shown that PLCSR significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art predictive method CDRS, achieving more than 6% improvements in terms of clustering accuracy. The code is available at: https://github.com/Jillian555/PLCSR.

Transplacental transfer of perfluorinated and poly-fluorinated substances in maternal-cord serum and association with birth weight: A birth cohort study, China.

Although the effects of traditional perfluorinated and polyfluorinated substances (PFASs) exposure have been extensively explored, research on novel PFASs remains limited, and there is a lack of data regarding their placental transfer and fetal impact. Herein, we aimed to examine maternal and fetal PFASs exposure levels, placental transfer efficiency (TTE), and the consequences of prenatal exposure on birth weight. The study included 214 mother-child pairs recruited in Wuxi birth cohort from 2019 to 2021. Twenty-three PFASs were quantified in maternal serum during the second trimester and umbilical serum during delivery. Median concentrations of ∑23PFASs in maternal and cord sera were 9.34 and 6.88 ng/mL, respectively. The novel alternatives exhibited elevated levels of maternal and fetal exposure, such as perfluorovaleric acid (PFPeA, 2.00 ng/mL and 1.66 ng/mL, respectively) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS, 1.77 and 1.14 ng/mL, respectively). With increasing carbon chain length, the TTE of perfluorocarbonic acid (PFCAs) displayed a pattern of initially decreasing before subsequently increasing, with novel alternatives exhibiting a relatively high TTE. Multiple linear regression showed that exposure to perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) and PFPeA in cord serum positively correlated with the birth weight of female infants (ß = 231.04 g, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 21.73-440.36; ß = 121.26 g, 95% CI: 29.51-213.00). No nonlinear relationship was observed between cord serum PFASs and birth weight. The weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression analysis has reaffirmed that PFPeA and PFBS were predominant contributors to the positive correlation observed between the mixture of PFASs and birth weight. Our findings suggest that novel PFASs may exhibit a heightened susceptibility for transplacental transfer and that exposure to PFBS and PFPeA during pregnancy could be linked to increased birth weight.

Unprecedented Silver-Based Hybrid Pyroelectric Enabling Wide Spectral Photo-Pyroelectricity for Birefringence Photomodulation.

Birefringent crystal, which has the capacity to manipulate polarization light, holds an indispensable position in optics and optoelectronics, while it remains challenging to fulfill the modulation of birefringence. Here, we present wide spectral photo-pyroelectric effect in a silver-based hybrid pyroelectric, (N-CHM)Ag2I3 (N-CHM = N-cyclohexylmethylamine), serving as a feasible strategy to regulate birefringence through light stimuli. As the first silver-based hybrid pyroelectric, (N-CHM)Ag2I3 exhibits strong room-temperature photo-pyroelectricity with a large polarization of ~3.23 µC/cm2 and high voltage responsivity of ~0.96 m2/C across the UV-NIR spectral region. Strikingly, the photomodulation of its in-plane birefringence is established through pyroelectric effect, giving a saturation value of ~1.68×10-2 that is among the highest level achieved to date. This study on the birefringence photomodulation of lead-free hybrid pyroelectric is anticipated to boost future development of new smart optical and optoelectronic devices.

Albiflorin inhibits osteoclastogenesis and titanium particles-induced osteolysis via inhibition of ROS accumulation and the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

Periprosthetic osteolysis (PPO), caused by wear particles, is a significant complication of total joint replacement, leading to prosthesis failure. Previous research has highlighted the crucial role of osteoclast-induced bone destruction in PPO progression. Albiflorin (AF), a monoterpene glycoside from Paeonia lactiflora, is a key active ingredient known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Although AF has shown promise in treating various conditions, its impact on osteoclasts and PPO remains unexplored. Our study revealed that AF could effectively inhibit osteoclast differentiation to reduce overactivated bone resorption and effectively inhibit the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by wear particles. In vitro experiments also confirmed that AF could effectively inhibit the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and inhibit inflammation to regulate osteoclast generation. Studies in animal models have also verified the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of AF. In summary, the above studies indicate that AF inhibits osteoclastogenesis via inhibiting ROS accumulation and the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, which may be a potential therapeutic method for PPO.

Group efficiency based on the termination rule in the multiple-targets visual search task.

In practical visual search fields, observers often encounter errors that result from an unknown number of targets, which may induce reduced accuracy and speed. Our current study addresses the potential enhancement of collaborative search efficiency as a dyad to mitigate such incurred search costs. Utilizing the capacity coefficient, we evaluated search efficiency and explored the interplay of task difficulty and termination rule in collaborative visual search. Our prediction that collaborative benefits increased with elevated task difficulty was not supported in Experiment 1, where participants were tasked with judging the presence of any target. In contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated that dyads exhibited greater search efficiency during exhaustive searches for multiple targets with elevated task difficulty. Notably, our findings indicated an advantage in dyad searches compared to baseline predictions from individual searches. Our results underscored the significance of task difficulty and termination rules in leveraging human resources for improved collaborative visual search performance.

High-Visible Light Response AgNbO3/Bi2MoO6/PANI Double Z-Scheme Heterojunction Photocatalytic Degradation of Antibiotics.

In this study, a novel AgNbO3/Bi2MoO6/PANI double Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst was created via a solvothermal method, and the method investigates its photocatalytic degradation performance toward norfloxacin (NOR) and other antibiotics. When the content of AgNbO3 is 5 wt % and the content of PANI is 1 wt %, the rate of degradation of AgNbO3/Bi2MoO6/PANI on NOR under visible light is 95.56%, the rate of removal of total organic carbon is ∼57.45%, and its pseudo-first-order reaction rate constant is 0.01878 min-1, which surpasses those of AgNbO3, Bi2MoO6, and AgNbO3/Bi2MoO6 by factors of 14.22, 2.46, and 1.35, respectively. At the same time, the AgNbO3/Bi2MoO6/PANI photocatalyst still showed good stability after three cycles. The results demonstrated that the augmented photocatalytic performance of AgNbO3/Bi2MoO6/PANI can be attributed to the formation of a double Z-scheme heterojunction and the incorporation of PANI with excellent conductivity, resulting in the higher efficiency of migration of charge carriers while retaining strong redox ability. This work affords a high-efficiency and environmentally friendly reference for the development of a Bi2MoO6-based heterojunction photocatalyst and its application in the purification of antibiotics in water.

A novel Bi12O17Cl2/GO/Co3O4 Z-type heterojunction photocatalyst with ZIF-67 derivative modified for highly efficient degradation of antibiotics under visible light.

Levofloxacin (LVX) is difficult to be naturally degraded by microorganisms in water, and its residues in water will pose significant risks to human health and ecological environment. In this study, Bi12O17Cl2 was used as the main body, Bi12O17Cl2/GO/Co3O4 composite photocatalyst was prepared by pyrolysis of zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) combined with in-situ precipitation method and used to degrade LVX. A sequence of characterizations shows that addition of Co3O4 and graphene oxide (GO) increases the visible light response range, improves the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes (e--h+) of photocatalyst, and thus improves the degradation efficiency of LVX. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the LVX degradation rate of Bi12O17Cl2/1.5GO/7.5Co3O4 can reach 91.2 % at 120 min, and its reaction rate constant is the largest (0.0151 min-1), which is 2.17, 13.14 and 1.53 times that of Bi12O17Cl2, Co3O4 and Bi12O17Cl2/7.5Co3O4, respectively, showing better photocatalytic performance. Simultaneously, the recycling stability of Bi12O17Cl2/1.5GO/7.5Co3O4 was also verified. The capture experiments and electron EPR test results showed that superoxide radicals (•O2-) and photogenerated holes (h+) were the primary active substances in the reaction process. Finally, combined with HPLC-MS results, the photocatalytic degradation pathway of LVX was derived. This work will provide a theoretical basis for the design of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs)-derivative modified Bi12O17Cl2-based photocatalysts.

TRPA1 aggravates osteoclastogenesis and osteoporosis through activating endoplasmic reticulum stress mediated by SRXN1.

Osteoporosis (OP) is a disorder of bone remodeling caused by an imbalance between bone resorption by osteoclasts and bone formation by osteoblasts. Therefore, inhibiting excessive osteoclast activity is one of the promising strategies for treating OP. A major transient receptor potential cation channel, known as transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), was found to alleviate joint pain and cartilage degeneration in osteoarthritis. However, little research has focused on TRPA1 function in OP. As a result, this study aimed to explore the TRPA1 characteristics and its potential therapeutic function during osteoclastogenesis. The TRPA1 expression gradually increased in the osteoclast differentiation process; however, its suppression with small interfering RNA and an inhibitor (HC030031) significantly controlled the osteoclast count and the expression of osteoclast characteristic genes. Its suppression also inhibited endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related pancreatic ER kinase (PERK) pathways. An ER stress inhibitor (thapsigargin) reversed the down-regulated levels of ER stress and osteoclast differentiation by suppressing TRPA1. Transcriptome sequencing results demonstrated that TRPA1 negatively regulated reactive oxygen species (ROS) and significantly increased the expression of an antioxidant gene, SRXN1. The osteoclast differentiation and the levels of ER stress were enhanced with SRXN1 inhibition. Finally, TRPA1 knockdown targeting macrophages by adeno-associated virus-9 could relieve osteoclast differentiation and osteopenia in ovariectomized mice. In summary, silencing TRPA1 restrained osteoclast differentiation through ROS-mediated down-regulation of ER stress via inhibiting PERK pathways. The study also indicated that TRPA1 might become a prospective treatment target for OP.