Volume 13, Issue 3

Introduction: The occurrence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has significantly increased in the last few years. One of the common problems in this group are eating disorders and ailments from the gastrointestinal systems. According to some studies, these problems have a significant impact on the occurrence and severity of symptoms in the neurological system, so it is crucial to increase the attention paid on the role of diet in the treatment of this disease. One of the theories connects ASD with disorders of the digestive system and the intestinal bacterial flora. This theory is based on the gut-brain axis, which means the interaction between the gastrointestinal and nervous systems. Objectives: To demonstrate the differences in behavior habits, interest in nutrition, and frequency of consumption of food products between children suffering from ASD and healthy children. Materials and methods: The study was conducted among 44 children suffering from ASD and 33 healthy children as a control group. Data were collected using a questionnaire that was specially designed for this study. The questionnaire contained questions about eating habits and the frequency of consumption of selected food products. Results: Parents of healthy children showed more interest in their children’s way of feeding and nutritional recommendations compared to parents of children with ASD (4% and 11.3%, respectively). In addition, 24.3% more children with ASD consulted with a nutritionist compared to the control group. Complaints of the digestive system were 21.1% more likely by children with ASD. Children suffering from ASD were characterized by a higher intake of red meat and giblets and less frequent consumption of milk and milk products compared to the control group. There were no statistically significant differences between the study group and the control group in terms of frequency of consumption of products, which are the source of gluten, artificial food additives-preservatives, and artificial colors. Conclusions: There are differences in the habits and eating behaviors and the frequency of consumption of selected food products between a group of children with ASD and a group of healthy children.

The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis (UVH, proposed in the 1970s) suggests that looking at or interacting with almost human-like artificial characters would trigger eeriness or discomfort. We studied how well subjects can assess degrees of human likeness for computer-generated characters. We conducted two studies, where subjects were asked to assess human likeness of given computer-generated models (Study 1) and to point the most typical model for a given category (Study 2). The results suggest that evaluation of the way human likeness is assessed should be an internal part of UVH research.

This article is a review of important material requirements for hip biomaterials including their response to the body environment (biocompatibility), mechanical properties, wear resistance, fretting corrosion and availability as well as the price. The application of proper biomaterials for hip implants is one of the major focal points in this article. Background information is also provided on metals used in other prosthetic devices and implant components. Titanium and its alloys, cobalt base alloys and stainless steels (bio-steels) are used for load-bearing hip implants. These three groups of metallic materials will be introduced and discussed in detail. Metals and their alloys are crystalline materials since their properties depend on the crystal lattice, chemical and phase compositions, grain size, lattice defects, crystalline texture and residual micro- and macro-stresses. All these features of biomaterials are formed during technological manufacturing, such as metallurgical process, solidification, plastic deformation (rolling and forging), machining, heat treatment and coating. All these technological processes work in optimal conditions in order to achieve the optimal microstructure and mechanical, chemical and biological properties. Amongst the above-mentioned particular properties of biomaterials, fretting is a major concern as regards hip implants at the femoral head and neck taper interface. Additional important mechanisms of interaction between the implant and the human body must be taken into account, i.e. diffusion stream of foreign particles and atoms from the implant to body fluids, to the tissue and to the bone. These foreign particles and atoms are released from the implant to the body fluid, to the tissue and to the bone as wear product during use. All together they contribute to the wear, i.e. loss of weight, strength or volume of hip components. Wear rates of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene mated against Ti-6Al-4V are significantly greater than the ones for Co-Cr-Mo alloys. Therefore, thermochemical surface treatments like diffusion ion nitriding should be applied to increase the resistance of titanium alloys to wear. Austenitic stainless steels are also used for temporary applications, but they have lower resistance to pitting corrosion than titanium and cobalt alloys. The purpose of the paper is to introduce a group of metallic materials, which is often chosen for surgical hip implants. Conclusions of the paper refer to information which support important medical and patient decisions on hip implants. Also, the development of biomaterials, their treatments, properties, surface layers and coatings are considered. All these features develop over time and need synergy and experience in the progress of the biomedical, mechanical and materials science.

One of the most common stomatognathic system dysfunctions on the skeletal level is the maxilla’s narrowing. Orthodontic treatment of defects occurs by using a Biderman appliance with a Hyrax screw. The appliance is placed in the jaw through the cemented rings on the premolars and molar teeth. The cement-mounting ring includes fluorine, still released to the tooth enamel, having a protective effect. Where the cement begins to crumble, it gradually weakens to maintain the ring and begins to move, or to slide up the tooth. Then, it is re-cemented, tightly filling the space between the ring and the tooth. As a result, the aim of the project was to present new conception rings whose use does not lead to a lack in enamel. The proposed new design was created in such a way that the halfring design makes it impossible to slip from a single tooth in the jaw. The project was designed to propose the shape and material of the biocompatible and durable material for the load. The comparative tension analysis and movements of the turnbuckle of the three used stainless steel (AISI 304, AISI 316L, AISI 430) have been performed by means of the finite element method (FEM).

Hemagglutinin (HA) is a surface glycoprotein found in influenza viruses. This particle plays two crucial functions in the viral life cycle: it allows for the attachment of the virus into the host cell and participates in the fusion of the virus and host membranes. There are 18 different subtypes of HA. Recently, the H17 and H18 strains have been discovered whose hosts were bats. The evolution of these two strains had most likely occurred in isolation for a long period of time. This work presents the phylogenetic analysis and study on mutational variability based on sequences from all 18 currently known HA strains belonging to influenza virus type A. The results have been presented regarding the current knowledge about influenza. The classical software (Clustal, PHYLIP, and ConSurf) as well as original applications (SSSSg and Consensus Constructor) have been used in this research.

Cardiac myosin binding protein C is the object of analysis presented in this paper. The fuzzy oil drop model was applied to analyze the status of the hydrophobic core in two forms of this protein: WT and R502W mutant. The status of the mutant is revealed to be of lower stability than the WT form. The high order of the hydrophobic core is interpreted as the factor of stability of the tertiary structure. The muscle proteins, which undergo significant structural changes as the consequence of external stretching forces, are expected to return to initial structures after the release of an external force. The mutant R502W appears to represent lower stability; thus, the return to the initial structure may be of lower probability. The comparable analysis to other muscle domains (titin) and immunoglobulin domains suggests the very subtle relation to the biological activity of these proteins.

In computational biology the development of algorithms for the identification of tandem repeats in DNA sequences is a challenging problem. Tandem repeats identification is helpful in gene annotation, forensics, and the study of human evolution. In this work a signal processing algorithm based on adaptive S-transform, with Kaiser window, has been proposed for the exact and approximate tandem repeats detection. Usage of Kaiser window helped in identifying short as well as long tandem repeats. Thus, the limitation of earlier S-transform based algorithm that identified only microsatellites has been alleviated by this more versatile algorithm. The superiority of this algorithm has been established by comparative simulation studies with other reported methods.