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Clinical and radiographic outcomes comparison between various types of laser pulpotomy and formocresol pulpotomy on primary molars: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textObjective: The purpose of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate clinical and radiographic outcomes comparison between various types of laser pulpotomy and formocresol pulpotomy on primary molars. Methods: According to the research design, we employed MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and ISI as the electronic databases for performing a systematic literature review between 2010 to June 2020. Therefore, a commercially accessible software program (Endnote X9) was utilized for the electronic title administration. Searches were performed with mesh terms. Log-odds ratio between two groups (laser pulpotomy and formocresol pulpotomy) with a 95 confidence interval (CI), random-effect model, and restricted maximum-likelihood (REML) method were calculated. The Meta-analysis and forest plots have been evaluated using software program available in the market (i.e., Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Stata V16). Results: 561 potentially relevant abstracts and topics were obtained in the course of the manual and electronic searches, and finally, nine studies were included. For 6-months follow-up clinical outcome, the Odds ratio was (OR, -0.37 95 CI -1.43, 0.68. P = 0.49) among 8 studies and heterogeneity found (I2 = 0; P = 0.93). This result showed there was no statistically significant difference between Laser Pulpotomy and formocresol pulpotomy. Conclusion: Diode laser is more suitable for dental pulpotomy than other lasers, and its clinical and radiographic success rate is similar and even higher than that of formocresol pulpotomy. © 2020 Asian AOMS(+) ASOMP(+) JSOP(+) JSOMS(+) JSOM(+) and JAM
Assessing the effect of virtual education on information literacy competency for evidence-based practice among the undergraduate nursing students
No full textBackground: Information literacy competency is one of the requirements to implement Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) in nursing. It is necessary to pay attention to curricular development and use new educational methods such as virtual education to strengthen information literacy competency in nursing students. Given the scarcity of the studies on the effectiveness of virtual education in nursing, particularly in Iran, and the positive university atmosphere regarding the use of virtual education, this study investigated the effect of virtual education on the undergraduate nursing students� information literacy competency for EBP. Methods: This interventional study was performed with two groups of intervention and control and a pretest and posttest design. Seventy-nine nursing students were selected and assigned to the intervention or control groups by random sampling. Virtual education of the information literacy was uploaded on a website in the form of six modules delivered in four weeks. Questionnaires of demographic information and information literacy for EBP were used to collect data before and one month after the virtual education. Results: The results showed no significant difference between the control and intervention groups in all dimensions of information literacy competency in the pre-test stage. In the post-test, the virtual education improved dimensions of information seeking skills (t = 3.14, p = 0.002) and knowledge about search operators (t = 39.84, p = 0.001) in the intervention groups compared with the control group. The virtual education did not have any significant effect on the use of different information resources and development of search strategy with assessing the frequency of selecting the most appropriate search statement in the intervention group. Conclusion: Virtual education had a significant effect on information seeking skills and knowledge about search operators in nursing students. Nurse educators can benefit from our experiences in designing this method for the use of virtual education programs in nursing schools. Given the lack of effectiveness of this program in using different information resources and development of search strategy, nurse educators are recommended to train information literacy for EBP by integrating several approaches such as virtual (online and offline) and face-to-face education. © 2021, The Author(s)
The experiences of merging health insurance funds in South Korea, Turkey, Thailand, and Indonesia: a cross-country comparative study
No full textBackground: Fragmentation in health insurance system may lead to inequity in financial access to and utilization of health care services. One possible option to overcome this challenge is merging the existing health insurance funds together. This article aims to review and compare the experience of South Korea, Turkey, Thailand and Indonesia regarding merging their health insurance funds. Methods: This was a cross-country comparative study. The countries of the study were selected purposefully based on the availability of data to review their experience regarding merging health insurance funds. To find the most relevant documents about the subject, different sources of information including books, scientific papers, dissertations, reports, and policy documents were studied. Research databases including PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Science Direct and ProQuest were used to find relevant articles. Documents released by international organizations such as WHO and World Bank were analyzed as well. The content of documents was analyzed using a data-driven conventional content analysis approach and all details regarding the subject were extracted. The extracted information was reviewed by all authors several times and nine themes emerged. Results: The findings show that improving equity in health financing and access to health care services among different groups of population was one of the main triggers to merge health insurance funds. Resistance by groups enjoying better benefit package and concerns of workers and employers about increasing the contribution rates were among challenges ahead of merging health insurance funds. Improving equity in the health care financing; reducing inequity in access to and utilization of health care services; boosting risk pooling; reducing administrative costs; higher chance to control total health care expenditures; and enhancing strategic purchasing were the main advantages of merging health insurance funds. The experience of these countries also emphasizes that political commitment and experiencing a reliable economic growth to enhance benefit package and support the single national insurance scheme financially after merging are required to facilitate implementation of merging health insurance funds. Conclusions: Other contributing health reforms should be implemented simultaneously or sequentially in both supply side and demand side of the health system if merging is going to pave the way reaching universal health coverage. © 2021, The Author(s)
Preparation and evaluation of physicochemical properties of the doxepin mucoadhesive gel
No full textBackground: Oral mucositis is acommondebilitating complication of cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy that can reduce the quality of patient's lives. Hence, treating this condition plays an important role in increasing the patient's tolerance. Objectives: Doxepin mucoadhesive gel is useful for treating oral mucosa inflammation caused by long-term effects of chemotherapy, which has low adverse effects. Methods: Doxepin gel's formulation was prepared with various concentrations of poloxamer 407 and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose in deionized water. The prepared gels were evaluated for pH, appearance, viscosity, spreadability, stability, and drug release. Results: After providing gels containing doxepin, formulations 1, 2, 8, and 9 had low quality and, thus, were removed from the study. Based on qualitative evaluations, formulations 3 and 4 did not meet the criteria for mucoadhesive gel and were removed from the study. The best formulation contained 17 w/w poloxamer 407, 10 w/w hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, and 5 w/w doxepin. Conclusions: Suitable physicochemical properties of prepared doxepin mucoadhesive gel enable it to well cover inflamed and damaged oral mucosa. On the other hand, doxepin's slow release from formulation (8 hours) can increase therapeutic effects and reduce side effects, which can heal and soothe inflammations of the oral mucosa and be useful in cancer patient's treatment. © 2020, Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products
Spouted bed drying of skimmed milk: Multivariable optimization of the conditions to improve physicochemical properties of the dried milk
No full textIn the present research, the influence of the inlet parameters of a laboratory spouted bed (inlet air temperature and milk flow rate) on the physical properties (moisture content, wettability, dispersibility, particle size and density), chemical properties (protein, cholesterol, and triglyceride content) and morphology of the milk powder was evaluated and compared with properties of the commercial spray dried powder. The effect of these two inlet parameters was significant on all of the physical and chemical properties. Particle morphology of the spouted bed dried samples (flat, solid, and irregular) was entirely different from commercial spray dried milk powder (spherical, and hollow). The optimum values of the inlet air temperature and milk flow rate, calculated by RSM, were obtained 80 °C and 2.8 ml/min, respectively. The small error between properties predicted by the models and the experimental data indicated that the performed optimization was satisfactory. © 2021 Elsevier Lt
Electrophysiological and inflammatory changes of CA1 area in male rats exposed to acute kidney injury: Neuroprotective effects of erythropoietin
No full textThe high mortality rate associated with acute kidney injury (AKI) is commonly due to progressive, inflammatory multiple organ dysfunction, which often involves neurological complications. The AKI-stimulated mechanisms leading to brain dysfunction are not well understood, which hinders development of new therapeutic avenues to minimize AKI-mediated neural effects. The hippocampal CA1 area is a particularly vulnerable region during AKI but the electrophysiological and inflammatory mechanisms involved in this vulnerability remain largely unknown. Here, we used immunohistochemistry to quantitatively investigate the number of astrocytes expressing glial �brillary acidic protein (GFAP) as an indicator of inflammation, and whole cell patch clamp to evaluate electrophysiological changes in CA1 at different time points following induction of bilateral renal ischemia (BRI) in male Wistar rats. Further we evaluated the effectiveness of erythropoietin (EPO, 1000 U/kg i.p.) in mitigating BRI-associated changes. Plasma concentrations of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were signi�cantly enhanced at 24 h, 72 h and 1 week, and creatinine (Cr) was increased at 24 h after reperfusion, which were changes reduced by EPO. BRI led to an increase in CA1 GFAP-positive cells 24 h and 72 h, but not 1 week, after reperfusion, and EPO reversed this effect of BRI at 24 h. Additionally, BRI caused an increase in the peak amplitude and coefficient of variation of CA1 pyramidal neuronal action potentials, which were changes not seen in presence of EPO. When taken together, altered neuronal electrophysiological properties and astrogliosis could contribute to the neurological complications induced by AKI, and EPO offers hope as a potential neuroprotective agent. © 2021 Elsevier Inc
Contribution of STAT3 to the pathogenesis of COVID-19
No full textHyper-inflammatory responses, lymphopenia, unbalanced immune responses, cytokine storm, large viral replication and massive cell death play fundamental roles in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Extreme production of many kinds of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines occur in severe COVID-19 that called cytokine storm. Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT-3) present in the cytoplasm in an inactive form and can be stimulated by a vast range of cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. Thus, STAT-3 can participate in the induction of inflammatory responses during coronavirus infections. STAT-3 can also suppress anti-virus interferon response and induce unbalanced anti-virus adaptive immune response, through influencing Th17-, Th1-, Treg-, and B cell-mediated functions. Furthermore, STAT-3 can contribute to the M2 macrophage polarization, lung fibrosis and thrombosis. Moreover, STAT-3 may be directly targeted by some virus-derived protein and operate as a pro-viral or anti-viral element in a virus-specific process. Here, the possible contribution of STAT-3 to the pathogenesis of COVID-19 was explained, while providing potential approaches to target this transcription factor in an attempt for COVID-19 treatment. © 202
Vb-ea-5: A lytic bacteriophage against multi-drug-resistant enterobacter aerogenes
No full textBackground and Objectives: Multi-drug-resistant Enterobacter aerogenes is associated with various infectious diseases that cannot be easily treated by antibiotics. However, bacteriophages have potential therapeutic applications in the control of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. In this study, we aimed to isolate and characterize of a lytic bacteriophage that can lyse specif-ically the multi-drug-resistant (MDR) E. aerogenes. Materials and Methods: Lytic bacteriophage was isolated from Qaem hospital wastewater and characterized morpholog-ically and genetically. Next-generation sequencing was used to complete genome analysis of the isolated bacteriophage. Results: Based on the transmission electron microscopy feature, the isolated bacteriophage (vB-Ea-5) belongs to the family Myoviridae. vB-Ea-5 had a latent period of 25 minutes, a burst size of 13 PFU/ml, and a burst time of 40 min. Genome sequencing revealed that vB-Ea-5 has a 135324 bp genome with 41.41 GC content. The vB-Ea-5 genome codes 212 ORFs 90 of which were categorized into several functional classes such as DNA replication and modification, transcriptional regu-lation, packaging, structural proteins, and a host lysis protein (Holin). No antibiotic resistance and toxin genes were detected in the genome. SDS-PAGE of vB-Ea-5 proteins exhibited three major and four minor bands with a molecular weight ranging from 18 to 50 kD. Conclusion: Our study suggests vB-Ea-5 as a potential candidate for phage therapy against MDR E. aerogenes infections. t © 2021 The Authors. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Performance of metal-organic frameworks in the electrochemical sensing of environmental pollutants
No full textEnvironmental pollution has been a known threat to our world due to the rapid urbanization, changing lifestyle of people, and modern industrialization. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel sensing approaches having promising performance with high reliability and sensitivity for the precise monitoring of various pollutants. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been intensively investigated by many researchers as electrode modifiers for electrochemical sensing due to their excellent properties and efficiency. Diverse MOF-based electrochemical sensing systems are applied for environmental analysis for the sensitive, rapid and cost-effective determination of various analytes because of their unique structures, and properties, including the tunable pore size, high surface area, high catalytic activity, and high density of active sites. The aim of this review article is to evaluate the application of MOFs in the electrochemical sensing of environmental pollutants including heavy metal ions, pesticides, phenolic compounds, nitroaromatic compounds, antibiotics, nitrite, and hydrazine. Current limitations and future directions for the application of MOF-based electrochemical sensors for the detection of environmental pollutants are discussed. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021