Herein, we for the first time report a novel activatable photoacoustic (PA) imaging nano-probe for in vivo detection of cancer-related matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). A black hole quencher 3 (BHQ3) which absorbs red light is conjugated to near-infrared (NIR)-absorbing copper sulfide (CuS) nanoparticles via a MMP-cleavable peptide linker. The obtained CuS-peptide-BHQ3 (CPQ) nano-probe exhibits...

BACKGROUND The severity of physical and mental impairments and oral problems, as well as socioeconomic factors, may have an impact on quality of life of children with cerebral palsy (CP). The aim of this research was to assess the impact of impairments and oral health conditions, adjusted by socioeconomic factors, on the Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of children with CP using the...

The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner), is a serious pest worldwide that causes significant losses in crops. Unfortunately, genetic resources for the beet armyworm is extremely scarce. To improve these resources we sequenced the transcriptome of S. exigua representing all stages including eggs, 1(st) to 5(th) instar larvae, pupae, male and female adults using the Illumina Solexa platform...

Eukaryotic cells store neutral lipids in cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs) enclosed in a monolayer of phospholipids and associated proteins [LD proteins (LDPs)]. Growing evidence has demonstrated that LDPs play important roles in the pathogenesis of liver diseases. However, the composition of liver LDPs and the role of their alterations in hepatosteatosis are not well-understood. In this study, ...

BACKGROUND The Child Perceptions Questionnaires (CPQ8-10 and CPQ11-14) are indicators of child oral health-related quality of life. The aim of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the self-applied CPQ8-10 and CPQ11-14 in Brazilian children, after translations and cultural adaptations in the Brazilian Portuguese language. METHODS Schoolchildren were recruited from general p...

The K-Closest-Pairs Query (K-CPQ), a type of distance join in spatial databases, discovers the K pairs of objects formed from two different datasets with the K smallest distances. Recently, branch-and-bound algorithms based on R-trees have been developed in order to answer K-CPQs efficiently. For query optimization purposes, analytical models are needed to estimate the processing cost of a spec...

The aim of the present study was to compare the personality pattern, the anxiety level and the temporomandibular disorders (TMD) between bruxist and non-bruxist children with mixed dentition. Fifty-two subjects, with a mean age of 9.45 years (range 8-11) were evaluated and classified as bruxist (n = 26), according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the presence of dental wear ...