To evaluate the appropriateness of the screening strategy for healthcare personnel (HCP) during a hospital-associated Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, we performed a serologic investigation in 189 rRT-PCR–negative HCP exposed and assigned to MERS patients. Although 20%–25% of HCP experienced MERS-like symptoms, none of them showed seroconversion by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT).

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:234–238

Several reports have indicated that dietary intake of DHA is associated with lower prevalence of periodontitis. In the present study, we investigated the effect of DHA on the production of proinflammatory mediators in murine macrophage-like RAW264.7 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) isolated from Prevotellaintermedia, a pathogen implicated in inflammatory periodontal disease, and its mechanisms of action. LPS was isolated from lyophilised P. intermedia ATCC 25 611 cells using the standard hot-phenol–water protocol. Culture supernatants were collected and assayed for NO, IL-1β and IL-6. Real-time PCR analysis was carried out to detect the expression of inducible NO synthase (iNOS), IL-1β, IL-6 and haeme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) mRNA. Immunoblot analysis was carried out to quantify the expression of iNOS and HO-1 protein and concentrations of signalling proteins. DNA-binding activities of NF-κB subunits were determined using an ELISA-based assay kit. DHA significantly attenuated the production of NO, IL-1β and IL-6 at both gene transcription and translation levels in P. intermedia LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells. DHA induced the expression of HO-1 in cells treated with P. intermedia LPS. Selective inhibition of HO-1 activity by tin protoporphyrin IX significantly mitigated the inhibitory effects of DHA on LPS-induced NO production. DHA significantly attenuated the phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase induced by LPS. In addition, DHA suppressed the transcriptional activity of NF-κB by regulating the nuclear translocation and DNA-binding activity of NF-κB p50 subunit and inhibited the phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1. Further in vivo studies are needed to better evaluate the potential of DHA in humans as a therapeutic agent to treat periodontal disease.

Background: The influences of demographics, culture, language, and environmental changes on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores are considerable.

Methods: Using a sample of 7452 healthy, community-dwelling elderly Koreans, aged 55 to 94 years, who participated in the four ongoing geriatric cohorts in Korea, we investigated demographic influences on MMSE scores and derived normative data for this population. Geropsychiatrists strictly excluded subjects with cognitive disorders according to the protocol of the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Packet (CERAD-K) Clinical Assessment Battery (CERAD-K-C).

Results: Education (standardized β = 0.463), age (standardized β = −0.303), and gender (standardized β = −0.057) had significant effects on MMSE scores (p < 0.001). The score of MMSE increase 0.379 point per 1-year education, decrease 0.188 per 1-year older, and decrease 0.491 in women compared to men. Education explained 30.4% of the scores’ total variance, which was much larger than the variances explained by age (8.4%) or gender (0.3%). Accordingly, we present normative data for the MMSE stratified by education (0, 1–3, 4–6, 7–9, 10–12, and ≥ 13 years), age (60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years), and gender.

Conclusions: We provide contemporary education-, age-, and gender-stratified norms for the MMSE, derived from a large, community-dwelling elderly Korean population sample, which could be useful in evaluating individual MMSE scores.

We investigated microstructures, compositional distributions, and electrical properties of dielectric CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) thin films deposited on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates from 700 to 800 °C by pulsed laser deposition. With increasing the deposition temperature from 700 to 750 °C, the dielectric constants (εr) of CCTO films were greatly enhanced from ∼300 to ∼2000 at 10 kHz, respectively. However, the εr values of CCTO films were gradually decreased above 750 °C, which was surely attributable to the formation of a TiO2-rich dead layer at the interface between CCTO and Pt electrode. Compositional analyses by Auger electron spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and electron energy loss spectroscopy revealed that the TiO2-rich dead layer became thicker because of severe Cu diffusion from CCTO films to Pt electrode. The leakage current behaviors of CCTO films are in good agreement with Poole–Frenkel conduction mechanism, where both the TiO2-rich dead layer and rutile TiO2 nanocrystalline particles are considered to play a role of charge trapping centers.

The structural response of a ferroelectric BaTiO3/dielectric CaTiO3 superlattice to the bipolar applied electric field was studied using time-resolved x-ray microdiffraction. Structural results were compared to the polarization-electric field hysteresis curve obtained from electrical measurements. The superlattice x-ray reflections were found to have a broad distribution of intensity in reciprocal space under applied electric fields exceeding the nominal coercive electric field. The broad distribution of the lattice constant at high electric fields is compared with a model in which the constituent layers of the superlattice have different coercive fields for the polarization switching.