Polyoxazoline-conjugated porcine serum albumin as an artificial plasma expander for dogs.

Veterinary medicine has made tremendous progress for domestic dogs, which are irreplaceable family members enriching human life. Nevertheless, no adequate supply system exists for their blood products. This study examined the synthesis, structure, safety, and efficacy of poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)-conjugated porcine serum albumin (POx-PSA) as an artificial plasma expander for dogs. The aqueous POx-PSA solution showed moderately high colloid osmotic pressure and good blood cell compatibility. Actually, lyophilized powder stored for 1 year can regenerate into a homogeneous solution. The circulation half-life of POx-PSA in rats was 2.1-fold longer than that of naked PSA. Rats produced neither anti-PSA IgG antibody nor anti-POx IgG antibody, which suggests excellent immunological stealth properties of POx-PSA. Complete resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock in rats was achieved soon after injection of POx-PSA solution. Serum biochemistry tests and histopathological observations indicated no abnormality in the related organs. When POx-PSA was administered to dogs intravenously, (i) no serum biochemical or hematological alteration was observed, also (ii) no overt deterioration of animal health was observed. These results indicate that POx-PSA has potential as an artificial plasma expander for dogs.

Effect of exposure parameters and gutta-percha cone size on fracture-like artifacts in endodontically treated teeth on cone-beam computed tomography images.

OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the effects of exposure parameters (tube current and tube voltage) and the gutta-percha cone (GPC) size on root fracture-like artifacts obtained with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). METHODS: Fracture-like artifacts appearing on CBCT images of nine extracted human mandibular premolars filled with GPCs of size #50 or #80 were analyzed using six exposure factors: two tube voltages (80 kV and 110 kV); and three tube currents (4 mA, 7 mA, and 10 mA). On axial images, the gray value (GV) was recorded at three points: the mesiobuccal portion (MBP) as the sound dentin, the mesial portion (MP) as the artifact line, and the water area (WA). The rate of decrease in the GV (RDGV) of the artifact line was calculated using the formula: RDGV (%) = (GV of MBP - GV of MP) × 100/(GV of MBP - GV of WA). RESULTS: Comparison of the #80 group and the #50 group with equal tube voltages and tube currents shows that artifact lines in the #80 group were more obvious than those in the #50 group. The artifact lines with 80 kV were markedly more visible than those with 110 kV for each tube current and GPC size. Tube current changes did not affect the artifact line for any tube voltage or GPC size. CONCLUSIONS: For the reduction of artifacts, we recommend selection of higher tube voltages and lower tube currents when taking CBCT images of teeth with each GPC size.

Extracting alpha band modulation during visual spatial attention without flickering stimuli using common spatial pattern.

In this paper, alpha band modulation during visual spatial attention without visual stimuli was focused. Visual spatial attention has been expected to provide a new channel of non-invasive independent brain computer interface (BCI), but little work has been done on the new interfacing method. The flickering stimuli used in previous work cause a decline of independency and have difficulties in a practical use. Therefore we investigated whether visual spatial attention could be detected without such stimuli. Further, the common spatial patterns (CSP) were for the first time applied to the brain states during visual spatial attention. The performance evaluation was based on three brain states of left, right and center direction attention. The 30-channel scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) signals over occipital cortex were recorded for five subjects. Without CSP, the analyses made 66.44 (range 55.42 to 72.27) % of average classification performance in discriminating left and right attention classes. With CSP, the averaged classification accuracy was 75.39 (range 63.75 to 86.13) %. It is suggested that CSP is useful in the context of visual spatial attention, and the alpha band modulation during visual spatial attention without flickering stimuli has the possibility of a new channel for independent BCI as well as motor imagery.