The relationship between the human gut microbiota and disease is of increasing scientific interest. Previous investigations have focused on the differences in intestinal bacterial abundance between control and affected groups to identify disease biomarkers. However, different types of intestinal bacteria may have interacting effects and thus be considered biomarker complexes for disease. To investigate this, we aimed to identify a new kind of biomarker for atopic dermatitis using structural equation modeling (SEM). The biomarkers identified were latent variables, which are complex and derived from the abundance data for bacterial marker candidates. Groups of females and males classified as healthy participants [normal control (NC) (female: 321 participants, male: 99 participants)], and patients afflicted with atopic dermatitis only [AS (female: 45 participants, male: 13 participants)], with atopic dermatitis and other diseases [AM (female: 75 participants, male: 34 participants)], and with other diseases but without atopic dermatitis [OD (female: 1,669 participants, male: 866 participants)] were used in this investigation. The candidate bacterial markers were identified by comparing the intestinal microbial community compositions between the NC and AS groups. In females, two latent variables (lv) were identified; for lv1, the associated components (bacterial genera) were Alistipes, Butyricimonas, and Coprobacter, while for lv2, the associated components were Agathobacter, Fusicatenibacter, and Streptococcus. There was a significant difference in the lv2 scores between the groups with atopic dermatitis (AS, AM) and those without (NC, OD), and the genera identified for lv2 are associated with the suppression of inflammatory responses in the body. A logistic regression model to estimate the probability of atopic dermatitis morbidity with lv2 as an explanatory variable had an area under the curve (AUC) score of 0.66 when assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, and this was higher than that using other logistic regression models. The results indicate that the latent variables, especially lv2, could represent the effects of atopic dermatitis on the intestinal microbiome in females. The latent variables in the SEM could thus be utilized as a new type of biomarker. The advantages identified for the SEM are as follows: (1) it enables the extraction of more sophisticated information when compared with models focused on individual bacteria and (2) it can improve the accuracy of the latent variables used as biomarkers, as the SEM can be expanded.

Ti-Ni alloy is a promising material in the medical and dental fields due to its special mechanical properties, especially super-elasticity. Since dental prostheses are generally used under repetitive stress condition, fatigue properties of Ti-Ni alloy castings were investigated in this study. Ti-50.85Ni (mol%) alloy ingots were used for casting, which exhibited super-elasticity at 310 K in tensile test. Specimens were prepared with a centrifugal casting machine and a magnesia-based mold material. Fatigue test was performed at 310 K under repetitive loading condition with sine-waved load. The minimum stress was set at 0 MPa to evaluate the fatigue properties and change in residual strain. The maximum stress was set in the appropriate range considering the tensile property. Ultimate tensile strength and elongation to fracture of Ti-Ni alloy castings were 732 MPa and 10.6%, respectively, which were between those of CP-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy castings. The fatigue limit of Ti-Ni alloy casting (206 MPa) was equivalent to or higher than that of CP-Ti or Ti-6Al-4V alloy. There was linear correlation between the fatigue ratios to ultimate tensile strength and the elongation to fracture for Ti-Ni alloy, CP-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy castings, while Ti-Ni alloy showed high fatigue ratio to proof stress, which appears to relate to the twin deformation by stress-induced martensitic transformation. The stress-strain properties of TiNi alloy castings were evaluated to be stable, and it is possible to utilize the super-elasticity in cast dental prostheses.

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