Turing patterns on rotating spiral growing domains.

We investigate the emergence of Turing patterns in a system growing as a rotating spiral in two dimensions, utilizing the photosensitivity of the chlorine dioxide-iodine-malonic acid (CDIMA) reaction to control the growth process. We observe the formation of single and multiple (double and triple) stationary spiral patterns as well as transitional patterns. From numerical simulations of the Lengyel-Epstein model with an additional term to account for the effects of illumination on the reaction, we analyze the relationship between the final morphologies and the radial and angular growth velocities, identify conditions conducive to the formation of transitional structures, examine the importance of the size of the initial nucleation site in determining the spiral's multiplicity, and evaluate the stability and robustness of these Turing patterns. Our results indicate how inclusion of rotational degrees of freedom in the growth process may lead to the formation of a diverse new class of patterns in chemical and biological systems.

Tailoring bisphosphonate-doped titanium films to optimally couple cellular responses and antibacterial activity for biomedical applications.

Titanium (Ti) is widely utilized as an implant material; nonetheless, its integration with bone tissue faces limitations due to a patient's comorbidities. To address this challenge, we employed a strategic approach involving the growth of thin films by spin-coating and surface functionalization with etidronate (ETI), alendronate (ALE), and risedronate (RIS). Our methodology involved coating of Ti cp IV disks with thin films of TiO2, hydroxyapatite (HA), and their combinations (1:1 and 1:2 v/v), followed by surface functionalization with ETI, ALE, and RIS. Bisphosphonate-doped films were evaluated in terms of surface morphology and physical-chemical properties by techniques such as electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The antibacterial potential of bisphosphonates alone or functionalized onto the Ti surface was tested against Staphylococcus aureus biofilms. Primary human bone mesenchymal stem cells were used to determine in vitro cell metabolism and mineralization. Although RIS alone did not demonstrate any antibacterial effect as verified by minimum inhibitory concentration assay, when Ti surfaces were functionalized with RIS, partial inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus growth was noted, probably because of the physical-chemical surface properties. Furthermore, samples comprising TiO2/HA (1:1 and 1:2 v/v) showcased an enhancement in the metabolism of nondifferentiated cells and can potentially enhance the differentiation of osteoblastic precursors. All samples demonstrated cell viability higher than 80%. Addition of hydroxyapatite and presence of bisphosphonates increase the metabolic activity and the mineralization of human bone mesenchymal cells. While these findings hold promise, it is necessary to conduct further studies to evaluate the system's performance in vivo and ensure its long-term safety. This research marks a significant stride toward optimizing the efficacy of titanium implants through tailored surface modifications.

Insight into the role of copper-based materials against the coronaviruses MHV-3, a model for SARS-CoV-2, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coating high-touch surfaces with inorganic agents, such as metals, appears to be a promising long-term disinfection strategy. However, there is a lack of studies exploring the effectiveness of copper-based products against viruses. In this study, we evaluated the cytotoxicity and virucidal effectiveness of products and materials containing copper against mouse hepatitis virus (MHV-3), a surrogate model for SARS-CoV-2. The results demonstrate that pure CuO and Cu possess activity against the enveloped virus at very low concentrations, ranging from 0.001 to 0.1% (w/v). A greater virucidal efficacy of CuO was found for nanoparticles, which showed activity even against viruses that are more resistant to disinfection such as feline calicivirus (FCV). Most of the evaluated products, with concentrations of Cu or CuO between 0.003 and 15% (w/v), were effective against MHV-3. Cryomicroscopy images of an MHV-3 sample exposed to a CuO-containing surface showed extensive damage to the viral capsid, presumably due to the direct or indirect action of copper ions.

Neuromorphic Engineering in Wetware: Discriminating Acoustic Frequencies through Their Effects on Chemical Waves.

Some features of the human nervous system can be mimicked not only through software or hardware but also through liquid solutions of chemical systems maintained under out-of-equilibrium conditions. We describe the possibility of exploiting a thin layer of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction as a surrogate for the cochlea for sensing acoustic frequencies. Experiments and simulations demonstrate that, as in the human ear where the cochlea transduces the mechanical energy of the acoustic frequencies into the electrochemical energy of neural action potentials and the basilar membrane originates topographic representations of sounds, our bioinspired chemoacoustic system, based on the BZ reaction, gives rise to spatiotemporal patterns as the representation of distinct acoustic bands through transduction of mechanical energy into chemical energy. Acoustic frequencies in the range 10-2000 Hz are partitioned into seven distinct bands based on three attributes of the emerging spatiotemporal patterns: (1) the types and frequencies of the chemical waves, (2) their velocities, and (3) the Faraday waves' wavelengths.

A New Level II Oncoplastic Technique for Inferior Pole Defects: The Three-Petal Glandular Reconstruction (3-PR).

INTRODUCTION: Oncoplastic surgery (OPS) allows wide excisions and accurate tumor resection and reduces breast deformities by immediate reconstruction of large defects. Superior pedicled mammaplasties allow excellent results in large breasts. Conversely, loco-regional flaps are the standard of care in small-to-medium breasts. However, both techniques show limitations in case of large resections of the lower pole, resulting in skin retraction and downward deviation of nipple and areola. We present a new technique for inferior pole reconstruction to overcome these limitations. It is called "the three-petal reconstruction" (3-PR). METHODS: Between September 2016 and May 2019, ten patients with invasive breast cancer of the lower pole underwent breast conservation and 3-PR. RESULTS: The 3-PR was uneventful in all patients. No major or minor complications were recorded. Patient and surgeon evaluations scored as good to excellent in all cases. Surveillance examinations in the follow-up did not reveal calcifications nor any findings of suspicion within the reconstructed area. CONCLUSIONS: In case of very large defect of lower pole, the 3-PR reveals to be an easy, fast, reproducible method for inferior pole reconstruction. It can represent a niche between therapeutic mammaplasty and perforator flaps, and it could be added to existing available options for tailored reconstruction. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Proposal of Smith-Waterman algorithm on FPGA to accelerate the forward and backtracking steps.

In bioinformatics, alignment is an essential technique for finding similarities between biological sequences. Usually, the alignment is performed with the Smith-Waterman (SW) algorithm, a well-known sequence alignment technique of high-level precision based on dynamic programming. However, given the massive data volume in biological databases and their continuous exponential increase, high-speed data processing is necessary. Therefore, this work proposes a parallel hardware design for the SW algorithm with a systolic array structure to accelerate the forward and backtracking steps. For this purpose, the architecture calculates and stores the paths in the forward stage for pre-organizing the alignment, which reduces the complexity of the backtracking stage. The backtracking starts from the maximum score position in the matrix and generates the optimal SW sequence alignment path. The architecture was validated on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and synthesis analyses have shown that the proposed design reaches up to 79.5 Giga Cell Updates per Second (GCPUS).

Prediction Techniques on FPGA for Latency Reduction on Tactile Internet.

Tactile Internet (TI) is a new internet paradigm that enables sending touch interaction information and other stimuli, which will lead to new human-to-machine applications. However, TI applications require very low latency between devices, as the system's latency can result from the communication channel, processing power of local devices, and the complexity of the data processing techniques, among others. Therefore, this work proposes using dedicated hardware-based reconfigurable computing to reduce the latency of prediction techniques applied to TI. Finally, we demonstrate that prediction techniques developed on field-programmable gate array (FPGA) can minimize the impacts caused by delays and loss of information. To validate our proposal, we present a comparison between software and hardware implementations and analyze synthesis results regarding hardware area occupation, throughput, and power consumption. Furthermore, comparisons with state-of-the-art works are presented, showing a significant reduction in power consumption of ≈1300× and reaching speedup rates of up to ≈52×.

Revisiting the hydroxylation phenomenon of SiO2: a study through "hard-hard" and "soft-soft" interactions.

Surface hydroxylation has been extensively studied over the years for a variety of applications, and studies involving hydroxylation of different silica surfaces are still carried out due to the interesting properties obtained from those modified surfaces. Although a number of theoretical studies have been employed to evaluate details on the hydroxylation phenomenon on silica (SiO2) surfaces, most of these studies are based on computationally expensive models commonly based on extended systems. In order to circumvent such an aspect, here we present a low-cost theoretical study on the SiO2 hydroxylation process aiming to evaluate aspects associated with water-SiO2 interaction. Details about local reactivity, chemical softness, and electrostatic potential were evaluated for SiO2 model substrates in the framework of the density functional theory (DFT) using a molecular approach. The obtained results from this new and promising approach were validated and complemented by fully atomistic reactive molecular dynamics (FARMD) simulations. Furthermore, the implemented approach proves to be a powerful tool that is not restricted to the study of hydroxylation, opening a promising route for low computational cost to analyze passivation and anchoring processes on a variety of oxide surfaces.

Morphogenesis in Synthetic Chemical Cells.

We present an efficient model for describing morphogenesis and the emergence of spatiotemporal structures in synthetic chemical cells. This work is motivated by an experimental setup used for testing Turing's theory of morphogenesis. The model developed is based on the general theory of chemically active droplets, which combines the classical theory of phase separation with reaction-diffusion systems. Through the 2D calculations, we find the six spatiotemporal structures predicted by Turing in 1952 and experimentally observed, in a 1D array of droplets. Moreover, under Turing instability, with a determined chemical wavelength, the system undergoes morphogenesis. This theoretical approach provides a useful tool for understanding the physical differentiation through the direct calculation of the osmotic pressure in each cell as the chemical reaction occurs.

M1 Polarized Macrophages Persist in Skin of Post-Bariatric Patients after 2 Years.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is considered a condition of systemic chronic inflammation. Under this condition, adipose tissue macrophages switch from an M2 (anti-inflammatory) activation pattern to an M1 (proinflammatory) activation pattern. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to verify the profile of skin macrophage activation after bariatric surgery as well as the role of MMP-1 in extracellular tissue remodeling. METHODS: This is a prospective, controlled and comparative study with 20 individuals split into two groups according to their skin condition: post-bariatric and eutrophic patients. Histological and morphometric analyses based on hematoxylin-eosin, picrosirius red (collagen), orcein (elastic fiber systems), and alcian blue (mast cells)-stained sections and immunohistochemical analysis (CD68, iNOS, and mannose receptor) for macrophages and metalloproteinase-1 were performed. RESULTS: Post-bariatric skin showed an increase in inflammation, angiogenesis, CD68, M1 macrophages (P< 0.001), and mast cells (P< 0.01); a decrease in M2 macrophages (P< 0.01); and a significant decrease in the collagen fiber network (P< 0.001). MMP-1 was increased in the papillary dermis of post-bariatric skin and decreased in the epidermis compared to eutrophic skin (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study shows that post-bariatric skin maintains inflammatory characteristics for two years. Mast cells and M1 macrophages maintain and enhance the remodeling of the dermal extracellular matrix initiated during obesity in part due to the presence of MMP-1 in the papillary dermis. EBM LEVEL IV: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Of Our Territory, We Know: social mapping experience for emergencies and disasters. / De Nosso Território Sabemos Nós: experiência de cartografia social para emergências e desastres.

The article presents the project "Of Our Territory, We Know" (De Nosso Território Sabemos Nós), carried out in two communities in the mountain cities of the state of Rio de Janeiro that suffered the 2011 disaster, aiming at creating a device for online communication, associated with social cartography, seeking to establish a dialogue between the city management and citizens in a permanent and dynamic way. The device allows local needs to be visible for the creation of public policies. The implementation of the Extended Research Communities (Comunidades Ampliadas de Pesquisa), consisting of residents and their associations, participants of the municipal management, and researchers in a regime of ecology of knowledges, took place through cartographic workshops. The identification of the vulnerabilities and potentials of the communities, the emergence of memories and local knowledges allow the strengthening of community resilience. Therefore, the appraisal of the experience in the creation of social cartographies brings out the group's self-awareness. The mapping process demonstrated how unknown the territories are to the municipal management and even to their inhabitants.

O artigo apresenta o projeto De Nosso Território Sabemos Nós, em duas comunidades das cidades serranas fluminenses que sofreram o desastre de 2011, com o objetivo da criação de dispositivo para comunicação on-line, associado à cartografia social, buscando pôr em diálogo gestão e cidadãos de maneira permanente e dinâmica. O dispositivo permite que as necessidades locais sejam visíveis para deliberação de políticas públicas. A constituição das Comunidades Ampliadas de Pesquisa, composta por moradores e suas associações, participantes da gestão municipal e pesquisadores em regime de ecologia dos saberes, se realizaram através de oficinas cartográficas. A identificação das vulnerabilidades e potencialidades das comunidades, o aflorar das memórias e conhecimentos locais permitem o fortalecimento da resiliência comunitária. Dessa forma, a valorização da experiência na elaboração das cartografias sociais faz emergir a autoconsciência do grupo. O processo de mapeamento demonstrou o quanto os territórios são desconhecidos para a gestão municipal e até mesmo para seus moradores.

De Nosso Território Sabemos Nós: experiência de cartografia social para emergências e desastres / Of Our Territory, We Know: social mapping experience for emergencies and disasters

Resumo O artigo apresenta o projeto De Nosso Território Sabemos Nós, em duas comunidades das cidades serranas fluminenses que sofreram o desastre de 2011, com o objetivo da criação de dispositivo para comunicação on-line, associado à cartografia social, buscando pôr em diálogo gestão e cidadãos de maneira permanente e dinâmica. O dispositivo permite que as necessidades locais sejam visíveis para deliberação de políticas públicas. A constituição das Comunidades Ampliadas de Pesquisa, composta por moradores e suas associações, participantes da gestão municipal e pesquisadores em regime de ecologia dos saberes, se realizaram através de oficinas cartográficas. A identificação das vulnerabilidades e potencialidades das comunidades, o aflorar das memórias e conhecimentos locais permitem o fortalecimento da resiliência comunitária. Dessa forma, a valorização da experiência na elaboração das cartografias sociais faz emergir a autoconsciência do grupo. O processo de mapeamento demonstrou o quanto os territórios são desconhecidos para a gestão municipal e até mesmo para seus moradores.

Abstract The article presents the project "Of Our Territory, We Know" (De Nosso Território Sabemos Nós), carried out in two communities in the mountain cities of the state of Rio de Janeiro that suffered the 2011 disaster, aiming at creating a device for online communication, associated with social cartography, seeking to establish a dialogue between the city management and citizens in a permanent and dynamic way. The device allows local needs to be visible for the creation of public policies. The implementation of the Extended Research Communities (Comunidades Ampliadas de Pesquisa), consisting of residents and their associations, participants of the municipal management, and researchers in a regime of ecology of knowledges, took place through cartographic workshops. The identification of the vulnerabilities and potentials of the communities, the emergence of memories and local knowledges allow the strengthening of community resilience. Therefore, the appraisal of the experience in the creation of social cartographies brings out the group's self-awareness. The mapping process demonstrated how unknown the territories are to the municipal management and even to their inhabitants.

Fully Parallel Implementation of Otsu Automatic Image Thresholding Algorithm on FPGA.

This work proposes a high-throughput implementation of the Otsu automatic image thresholding algorithm on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), aiming to process high-resolution images in real-time. The Otsu method is a widely used global thresholding algorithm to define an optimal threshold between two classes. However, this technique has a high computational cost, making it difficult to use in real-time applications. Thus, this paper proposes a hardware design exploiting parallelization to optimize the system's processing time. The implementation details and an analysis of the synthesis results concerning the hardware area occupation, throughput, and dynamic power consumption, are presented. Results have shown that the proposed hardware achieved a high speedup compared to similar works in the literature.

A full-parallel implementation of Self-Organizing Maps on hardware.

Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) are extensively used for data clustering and dimensionality reduction. However, if applications are to fully benefit from SOM based techniques, high-speed processing is demanding, given that data tends to be both highly dimensional and yet "big". Hence, a fully parallel architecture for the SOM is introduced to optimize the system's data processing time. Unlike most literature approaches, the architecture proposed here does not contain sequential steps - a common limiting factor for processing speed. The architecture was validated on FPGA and evaluated concerning hardware throughput and the use of resources. Comparisons to the state of the art show a speedup of 8.91× over a partially serial implementation, using less than 15% of hardware resources available. Thus, the method proposed here points to a hardware architecture that will not be obsolete quickly.

Turing patterns modulation by chemical gradient in isothermal and non-isothermal conditions.

The modulation of Turing patterns through Dirichlet boundary conditions has been studied through the isothermal and non-isothermal versions of a Brusselator-like model in a small-size domain reactor. We considered the Minkowski functional and the rate of entropy production to characterize the morphological aspects of the patterns and to indicate transitions of spatial states. We find that boundary conditions can induce the spatial symmetry breaking of Turing patterns when they are defined around the equilibrium points of a homogeneous dynamical system. As a result, two different Turing patterns can emerge in a reactor under an imposed gradient of chemicals that contains the equivalent concentration of the equilibrium points at some point in the boundary.

New details of assembling bioactive films from dispersions of amphiphilic molecules on titania surfaces.

Tailoring the surface properties of materials for biomedical applications is important to avoid clinical complications. Forming thin layers of amphiphilic molecules with apolar regions that facilitate attractive intermolecular interactions, can be a suitable and versatile approach to achieve hydrophobic surface modification and provide functional antibacterial properties. Aiming to correlate layer structure and properties starting from film formation, octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA) and dimethyloctadecyl (3-trimethoxysilylpropyl) ammonium chloride (DMOAP) layers were adsorbed onto smooth titania surfaces. Then the films were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and their interactions with aqueous environments were characterized by contact angle and zeta potential measurements. In addition, antibacterial assays were performed using E. coli and S. mutants to reveal the antibacterial properties effected by the surface modification. Immediately after sputter deposition, titania was hydrophilic; however, after air storage and adsorption of DMOAP or ODPA, an increase in the water contact angle was observed. XPS investigations after layer formation and after antibacterial tests revealed that the attachment of layers assembled from ODPA on titania substrates is considerably stronger and more stable than that observed for DMOAP films. Heat treatment strongly affects DMOAP layers. Furthermore, DMOAP layers are not stable under biological conditions.

Fratura de complexo zigomático ­ relato de caso / Zygomatic process fractures ­ case report

Dentre as fraturas maxilofaciais, o complexo zigomático é o mais acometido, seguido das fraturas nasais e das fraturas Mandibulares O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um relato de caso de fratura de complexo zigomático tratada pelo serviço de Cirurgia e Traumatologia Bucomaxilofacial, como também descrever as formas de diagnóstico e tratamento clínico e cirúrgico.

Among the maxillofacial fractures, the zygomatic complex is most affected followed by nasal fractures and mandibular fractures. The objective of this work is to present a case report of a zygomatic complex fracture treated by the bucomaxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology service, as well as to describe the forms of diagnosis, clinical and surgical treatment.

Celulite em região cervicofacial: relato de caso / Cellulite in facialcervical region: case report

A maioria das infecções de origem odontogênica, se origina a partir de necrose pulpar com invasão bacteriana no tecido periapical e periodontal, podendo levar à formação de abscesso, quando a infecção prevalece sobre as resistências do hospedeiro. Em situações nas quais a coleção purulenta não é capaz de drenar através de superfície cutânea ou mucosa bucal, o abscesso pode se estender através dos planos fasciais dos tecidos moles, patologia que se denomina celulite. O seu tratamento varia desde administração de antibioticoterapia parenteral de amplo espectro à drenagem sob anestesia geral.

The majority of infections of odontogenic provenance are originated from pulpal necrosis with bacterial invasion in the periapical and periodontal tissue, and may lead to abscess formation, when the infection prevails over host resistance. In situations in which the purulent collection is not able to drain through the cutaneous surface or buccal mucosa, the abscess may extend through the soft tissue fascial planes, a condition called cellulitis. Its treatment ranges from administration of broad spectrum parenteral antibiotic therapy to drainage under general anesthesia.

Oncological Safety of Lipofilling in Healthy BRCA Carriers After Bilateral Prophylactic Mastectomy: A Case Series.

OBJECTIVE: The germline breast cancer gene (BRCA) mutation confers a lifetime high risk for breast cancer (BC) and bilateral prophylactic mastectomy is the procedure which allows the highest risk reduction rate. Among other techniques, lipofilling (LF) can be used for breast reconstruction of these patients. However, there are some oncological safety concerns on the subject. The purpose of this study was to assess the oncological risk of LF in BRCA healthy patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single institution case series was built including BRCA I/II mutated patients with no previous history of BC, who underwent bilateral prophylactic mastectomy followed by breast reconstruction with exclusive LF or combined with implants or latissimus dorsi flap. Data were collected regarding patient demographics, clinical information, reconstruction techniques used, and fat grafting details. RESULTS: From September 1999 till November 2017, we identified 18 BRCA carriers with no history of BC who had undergone bilateral prophylactic mastectomy, followed by breast reconstruction with LF. A total of 36 LF procedures were performed following an implant or latissimus dorsi flap, or as an exclusive fat grafting breast reconstruction. The average number of LF sessions was 1.4 with a mean volume of 108.8cc per breast. Median follow-up was 33.0 months after mastectomy and 24.5 months after the last LF intervention; no patients were diagnosed with BC during follow-up. CONCLUSION: Germline BRCA mutation is a high-risk plight for BC. However, despite the limited follow-up, no BC was detected.

Fratura de mandíbula: relato de caso / Jaw fracture: case report / Jaw Fracture ­ Case Report

Devido à sua topografia, anatomia e projeção no terço inferior da face, a mandíbula é frequentemente atingida por traumas, podendo resultar em fraturas, principalmente em acidentes de trânsito, agressões, quedas ou acidentes esportivos. As fraturas mandibulares podem levar a grandes prejuízos estéticos e funcionais. O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um relato de caso de fratura de mandíbula bilateral acometida em região de ângulo esquerdo e parassínfise direita, abordado pelo serviço de Cirurgia e Traumatologia Bucomaxilofacial (CTBMF) do Complexo Hospitalar Padre Bento de Guarulhos.

Due to its topography, anatomy and projection in the lower third of the face, the jaw is often struck by trauma, resulting in fractures, especially in traffic accidents, aggressions, falls or sports accidents. Mandibular fractures can lead to great aesthetic and functional damages. The objective of this work is to present a case report of a bilateral mandible fracture in a left-angle region and right-sided paranasalphysis, treated by the Buccomaxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology (CTBMF) of the Padre Bento Hospital Complex of Guarulhos