Background: Recent advances in enamel and dentine adhesive technology have resulted in the emergence of many new adhesive systems. Self-etching bonding systems do not require a separate etching step and the newest systems are the "all-in-one" systems which combine etching, priming and bonding into a single application. This study reports laboratory enamel microshear bond strengths of a self-etching priming and three all-in-one systems and also evaluates two different microshear bond test methods. Methods: One hundred and nineteen enamel specimens were bonded (0.8mm diameter) with either Clearfil Protect Bond (Kuraray), Xeno III (Dentsply), G Bond (GC) or One-Up Bond F (Tokuyama) using Palfique Estelite resin composite and stored in 37ºC water for seven days. The microshear bond test method used either a blade or wire to apply the shear stress. Results were analysed with one-way ANOVA and post hoc (Tukey) multiple comparison analysis. Results: Clearfil Protect Bond demonstrated higher and more consistent bond strengths than Xeno III, G Bond or One-Up Bond F. The wire method showed much greater reliability in results, with a coefficient of variation half that of the blade method. Conclusions: All-in-one adhesives seem to be less reliable than the two-step self-etching priming adhesive when bonding to enamel. Test method can significantly affect results in the microshear bond test method. Key words:Microshear bond test, all-in-one adhesives, self-etching priming adhesive, enamel, enamel bonding.Abbreviations and acronyms: ANOVA = analysis of variance; CEJ = cemento-enamel junction; DEJ = dentinoenamel junction; SEM = scanning electron micrograph.

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This article evaluates network and server infrastructure requirements to support real-time flows associated with networked entertainment applications. These include the state information flow to update the status of the virtual environment and immersive communication flows such as voice, video, gesture, and haptics communication. The article demonstrates that scaling these applications to large geographical spreads of participants requires distribution of computation to meet the latency constraints of the applications. This latency-driven distribution of computation is essential even when there are no limitations on the availability of computational resources in one location. The article provides detailed results on distributed server architectures for two of these real-time flows, state information and immersive voice communication. It also identifies a generic set of requirements for the underlying network and server infrastructure to support these applications and propose a new design, called switched overlay networks, for this purpose.

Background Intermittent claudication, defined as fatigue or pain in the legs while walking, is a common symptom in peripheral arterial disease. Although exercise effectively improves function and manages symptoms, adherence rates are not ideal. The high levels of pain experienced in traditional exercise programmes may explain the suboptimal adherence. Alternative modalities of exercise can elicit similar benefits to traditional walking exercise. The purpose of this systematic review was to compare completion and adherence rates of exercise programmes in traditional exercise interventions versus alternative exercise interventions among patients with intermittent claudication. Design Systematic review. Methods The electronic databases of Medline, SPORTDiscus and CINAHL were searched from the earliest records to March 2018. Search terms were based on ‘peripheral artery disease’ and ‘exercise’. Studies were included if they involved structured exercise and explicitly reported the number of participants that commenced and completed the programme. Results The search identified 6814 records based on inclusion criteria. Eighty-four full-text records were reviewed in further detail. Out of the 84 studies, there was a total of 122 separate exercise groups, with 64 groups of ‘traditional walking exercise’ and 58 groups of ‘alternative exercise’. Completion and adherence rates for traditional exercise were 80.8% and 77.6%, respectively. Completion and adherence rates for alternative exercise were 86.6% and 85.5%, respectively. Conclusions The use of alternative modalities of exercise, which have been proved to be as effective as traditional exercise, may offer a solution to the poor participation and adherence rates to exercise in this population.

BackgroundThe risk of developing cardiovascular disease can be directly correlated to one’s resting blood pressure (BP), age, and biological sex. Resting BP may be successfully reduced using handgrip exercise training, although the impact of age and sex on training effectiveness has yet to be systematically evaluated. The objective of this systematic review is to determine this impact of age and sex on handgrip-induced changes to resting BP.MethodsData sources included MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Reviews, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, AMED, PubMed, and Scopus through May 2018. Eligibility criteria were those with prospective handgrip exercise training of ≥ 4 weeks with reported impact on resting systolic BP (SBP). Screening of articles, data extraction, and quality appraisal were completed in duplicate. When necessary, the corresponding authors were contacted to provide segregated data based on age (younger, 18–54 years; aged, > 55 years) and sex (men, women) categories. SBP was primarily explored with numerous secondary outcomes of interest summarized as a narrative synthesis.ResultsAfter screening 1789 articles, 26 full texts were reviewed. Eight studies reported data in a way that facilitated age and sex comparisons of primary outcomes, while 7 of 18 studies reporting pooled data (men and women) provided segregated results. Research spans 1992–2018 and represents 466 participants; at least 43.1% of whom are women. Although weighted mean differences reveal that handgrip training-induced SBP reductions are similar when merely comparing sexes (women; − 5.6 mmHg, men; − 4.4 mmHg) or ages (younger; − 5.7 mmHg, aged; − 4.4 mmHg), when the impact of sex and age is simultaneously evaluated, aged women experience the largest reduction in SBP (− 6.5 mmHg). Many factors were explored for their impact on resting BP reductions and have been summarized in the corresponding narrative synthesis.ConclusionsHandgrip exercise is an effective modality for resting BP reduction resulting in clinically significant reductions for men and women of all ages.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42015019792

Cardiolipin (Ptd Gro) is a complex, doubly charged phospholipid located in the inner mitochondrial membrane where it plays an essential role in regulating bioenergetics. Abnormalities in Ptd Gro content or composition have been associated with mitochondrial dysfunction in a variety of disease states. Here, we report the development of an adapted high-resolution data-independent acquisition (DIA) MS/MS shotgun lipidomic method to enhance the accuracy and reproducibility of Ptd Gro molecular species quantitation from biological samples. Utilizing the doubly charged molecular ions and the isotopic pattern with negative mode electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) using an adapted MS/MS approach, we profiled more than 150 individual Ptd Gro species, including monolysocardiolipin (MLPtd Gro). The method described in this study demonstrated high reproducibility, sensitivity, and throughput with a wide dynamic range. This high-resolution MS/MS shotgun lipidomics approach could be extended to screening aberrations of Ptd Gro metabolism involved in mitochondrial dysfunction in various pathological conditions and diseases.

This pilot study successfully shows the potential utility of high-intensity intermittent handgrip exercise for improvements in cardiovascular health among postmenopausal women, with additional research required to further explore the underlying physiological mechanisms driving such improvements.

Honeybee venom has recently been considered an anti-neurodegenerative agent, primarily due to its anti-inflammatory effects. The natural accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) in the brain is reported to be the natural cause of aging neural ability downfall, and oxidative stress is the main route by which Aβ ignites its neural toxicity. Anti-neural oxidative stress is considered an effective approach for neurodegenerative therapy. To date, it is unclear how bee venom ameliorates neuronal cells in oxidative stress induced by Aβ. Here, we evaluated the neuroprotective effect of bee venom on Aβ-induced neural oxidative stress in both HT22 cells and an animal model. Our results indicate that bee venom protected HT22 cells against apoptosis induced by Aβ1–42. This protective effect was explained by the increased nuclear translocation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 2 (Nrf2), consequently upregulating the production of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a critical cellular instinct antioxidant enzyme that neutralizes excessive oxidative stress. Furthermore, bee venom treatment activated the tropomyosin-related kinase receptor B (TrkB)/cAMP response element-binding (CREB)/brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is closely related to the promotion of cellular antioxidant defense and neuronal functions. A mouse model with cognitive deficits induced by Aβ1–42 intracerebroventricular (ICV) injections was also used. Bee venom enhanced animal cognitive ability and enhanced neural cell genesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus region in a dose-dependent manner. Further analysis of animal brain tissue and serum confirmed that bee venom reduced oxidative stress, cholinergic system activity, and intercellular neurotrophic factor regulation, which were all adversely affected by Aβ1–42. Our study demonstrates that bee venom exerts antioxidant and neuroprotective actions against neural oxidative stress caused by Aβ1–42, thereby promoting its use as a therapeutic agent for neurodegenerative disorders.