Recent studies have indicated a potential correlation between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and periodontal inflammation. We undertook this study to verify whether RA mediates periodontitis-like phenotypes in experimental mouse models of RA and to explore the role of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) in periodontal inflammation during RA pathogenesis. Periodontal inflammation and alveolar bone loss have been reported in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and in genetically modified tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) transgenic (TG) mouse models. Among the adipokines examined in our study, NAMPT expression was markedly upregulated in the periodontal ligament (PDL) tissues in RA mouse models and in human PDL cells stimulated by the proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL) 1β and TNF-α. When NAMPT was overexpressed with the Nampt-synthesizing adenovirus vector (Ad- Nampt), the PDL cells exhibited an increased expression of cytokines (IL6), chemokines (IL8 and chemokine [C-C motif] ligand 5 [CCL5]), inflammatory mediators (cyclooxygenase 2 [COX-2]), and matrix-degrading enzymes (matrix metalloproteinase [MMP] 1 and MMP3). Inhibition of NAMPT by the intracellular NAMPT (iNAMPT) inhibitor, FK866, or by the sirtuin inhibitor, nicotinamide, in PDL cells led to inhibition of the IL1β or Ad- Nampt-induced upregulation of catabolic factors, whereas treatment with recombinant NAMPT protein or blockade of extracellular NAMPT (eNAMPT) with blocking antibody did not. Moreover, NAMPT inhibition by the intraperitoneal or intragingival injection of FK866 in CIA mice inhibited periodontal tissue damage, under conditions of RA. Thus, our results verified the co-occurrence of RA and periodontal inflammation using experimental mouse models of RA, suggesting that iNAMPT in PDL cells plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of RA-mediated periodontal inflammation by regulating the expression levels of catabolic genes, such as IL6, IL8, CCL5, COX-2, MMP1, and MMP3.

Compact super wideband (SWB) patch antenna using diversities of reactive loaded technique is presented in this paper. The antenna is consists of two U-slots in the radiating patch with two inverted U-slot and a triangular slit on the ground plane. By having those structures, a super wide operating bandwidth is produced from 2.43 GHz to 32.93 GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 172.5%. Moreover, while only having a compact dimension of 25 3 26 mm 2 , the proposed antenna still can produced an acceptable gain from 2.73 dBi to 7.35 dBi over the frequency range. This compact SWB antenna is very potential to be used for SWB applications because it provides sufficient impedance bandwidth, high gain and stable radiation pattern that are near omni-directional pattern. The performance of the proposed antenna is observed and analyzed comprehensively in this letter. V

A power amplifier (PA) for multiband applications implemented with a tunable load modulation technique is presented. The broadband output matching can be done by load modulation implemented by modification of the characteristic impedance (Z C ) of the tunable transmission line. The multiband PA delivered a gain of more than 10.5 dB, an adjacent-channel-leakage ratio of evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access adjacent channel leakage ratio (E-UTRA) lower than 230 dBc, and a power added efficiency of 28-31% at the output power of 26-dBm and the frequency range of 1.5-2.05 GHz with a 10-MHz 16QAM long-term evolution signal.ABSTRACT: Two novel cascaded microstrip open-loop resonators with loading varactors are presented to design tunable filter. In two coupled resonators, the coupled sides can provide both electrical and magnetic coupling. A capacitance loaded at input/output feed line is used to control the external quality. By adjusting the parameters of coupling side and the value of the capacitance, coupling coefficients and external quality can be tuned to meet the requirement of constant absolute bandwidth. A two-pole filter is demonstrated a tuning range from 607 to 942 MHz with the insertion loss 2.5-3.2 dB. Especially, the 3-dB bandwidth is approximately 63 6 7 MHz with the center frequency from 642 to 942 MHz.