In recent decades, event-related potentials have been used for the clinical electrophysiological assessment of patients with disorders of consciousness (DOCs). In this paper, an oddball paradigm with two types of frequency-deviant stimulus (standard stimuli were pure tones of 1000 Hz; small deviant stimuli were pure tones of 1050 Hz; large deviant stimuli were pure tones of 1200 Hz) was applied to elicit mismatch negativity (MMN) in 30 patients with DOCs diagnosed using the JFK Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). The results showed that the peak amplitudes of MMN elicited by both large and small deviant stimuli were significantly different from baseline. In terms of the spatial properties of MMN, a significant interaction effect between conditions (small and large deviant stimuli) and electrode nodes was centered at the frontocentral area. Furthermore, correlation coefficients were calculated between MMN amplitudes and CRS-R scores for each electrode among all participants to generate topographic maps. Meanwhile, a significant negative correlation between the MMN amplitudes elicited by large deviant stimuli and the CRS-R scores was also found at the frontocentral area. In consequence, our results combine the above spatial properties of MMN in patients with DOCs, and provide a more precise location (frontocentral area) at which to evaluate the correlation between clinical electrophysiological assessment and the level of consciousness.
Acoustic Stimulation ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Auditory Perception ; physiology ; Brain Injuries ; complications ; physiopathology ; Consciousness Disorders ; etiology ; physiopathology ; Electroencephalography ; Evoked Potentials ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Severity of Illness Index ; Wavelet Analysis

Malocclusion is a worldwide dental problem that influences the affected individuals to varying degrees. Many factors contribute to the anomaly in dentition, including hereditary and environmental aspects. Dental caries, pulpal and periapical lesions, dental trauma, abnormality of development, and oral habits are most common dental diseases in children that strongly relate to malocclusion. Management of oral health in the early childhood stage is carried out in clinic work of pediatric dentistry to minimize the unwanted effect of these diseases on dentition. This article highlights these diseases and their impacts on malocclusion in sequence. Prevention, treatment, and management of these conditions are also illustrated in order to achieve successful oral health for children and adolescents, even for their adult stage.
Child ; Humans ; Malocclusion ; epidemiology ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Prevalence ; Stomatognathic Diseases ; complications ; epidemiology ; prevention & control

The recent explosive outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection has been reported in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Neonatal microcephaly associated with ZIKV infection has already caused a public health emergency of international concern. No specific vaccines or drugs are currently available to treat ZIKV infection. The ZIKV helicase, which plays a pivotal role in viral RNA replication, is an attractive target for therapy. We determined the crystal structures of ZIKV helicase-ATP-Mn(2+) and ZIKV helicase-RNA. This is the first structure of any flavivirus helicase bound to ATP. Comparisons with related flavivirus helicases have shown that although the critical P-loop in the active site has variable conformations among different species, it adopts an identical mode to recognize ATP/Mn(2+). The structure of ZIKV helicase-RNA has revealed that upon RNA binding, rotations of the motor domains can cause significant conformational changes. Strikingly, although ZIKV and dengue virus (DENV) apo-helicases share conserved residues for RNA binding, their different manners of motor domain rotations result in distinct individual modes for RNA recognition. It suggests that flavivirus helicases could have evolved a conserved engine to convert chemical energy from nucleoside triphosphate to mechanical energy for RNA unwinding, but different motor domain rotations result in variable RNA recognition modes to adapt to individual viral replication.
Crystallography, X-Ray ; Protein Domains ; RNA Helicases ; chemistry ; RNA, Viral ; chemistry ; Viral Proteins ; chemistry ; Zika Virus ; enzymology