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Atlas of Dental Near-Infrared Transillumination Images.
No full textTechnological improvements have introduced significant innovations in dentistry and broadened the array of tools and techniques in dental care. One technological development that has been widely researched over the past 20 years is the use of Near-Infrared Transillumination (NIRT) imaging for the diagnosis of dental caries. This paper aims to introduce a comprehensive collection of NIRT images, intended as a reference tool for routine dental examinations, dental research, pedagogical activities, and forensic odontology. The collection presents pairwise clinical and NIRT images categorized as follows: (a) healthy teeth, (b) carious teeth, (c) restored teeth, (d) enamel defects, and (e) diverse findings. This atlas could be a valuable tool for the dental community as it is designed as an identification guide of NIRT illustrated dental features
Exploring the Ocular Surface Microbiome and Tear Proteome in Glaucoma.
Get PDFAlthough glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, its pathogenesis is incompletely understood, and intraocular pressure (IOP) is the only modifiable risk factor to target the disease. Several associations between the gut microbiome and glaucoma, including the IOP, have been suggested. There is growing evidence that interactions between microbes on the ocular surface, termed the ocular surface microbiome (OSM), and tear proteins, collectively called the tear proteome, may also play a role in ocular diseases such as glaucoma. This study aimed to find characteristic features of the OSM and tear proteins in patients with glaucoma. The whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing of 32 conjunctival swabs identified Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria as the dominant phyla in the cohort. The species Corynebacterium mastitidis was only found in healthy controls, and their conjunctival microbiomes may be enriched in genes of the phospholipase pathway compared to glaucoma patients. Despite these minor differences in the OSM, patients showed an enrichment of many tear proteins associated with the immune system compared to controls. In contrast to the OSM, this emphasizes the role of the proteome, with a potential involvement of immunological processes in glaucoma. These findings may contribute to the design of new therapeutic approaches targeting glaucoma and other associated diseases
Effect of barium silicate on mechanical properties, transmittance, and protein adsorption of resin for additive manufacturing containing zwitterionic polymer.
No full textSTATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Studies on the effect of barium silicate on the material properties of additively manufactured (AM) resins containing 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) for dental applications are lacking.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the mechanical properties, transmittance, and protein adsorption of MPC-containing AM resin incorporated with different barium silicate contents and to compare these findings with those of a commercially available unfilled AM resin marketed for definitive restorations.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Resins incorporating 6 wt% MPC and 4 different concentrations of barium silicate (10 wt%, MB10; 20 wt%, MB20; 30 wt%, MB30; and 40 wt%, MB40) were prepared. An MPC-containing resin with no filler was also prepared (0 wt%, MBN). Surface roughness (n=15), Vickers hardness (n=15), flexural strength and modulus (n=15), fracture toughness (n=15), transmittance (n=15), and protein adsorption (n=3) of the filled resin specimens were measured and compared with those of commercially available unfilled resin specimens. All data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn tests (α=.05).
RESULTS
All experimental resins had higher surface roughness than the unfilled resin (P≤.048). MB40 had higher hardness, flexural strength, flexural modulus, and fracture toughness than most other groups (P≤.047). MB10 had higher transmittance than most other groups (P≤.012). All experimental resins had lower protein adsorption than the unfilled resin, regardless of the barium silicate content (P≤.023).
CONCLUSIONS
The experimental resin containing 6 wt% MPC and 40 wt% barium silicate showed better mechanical properties and lower protein adsorption than the resin with no MPC or ceramic fillers. Transmittance decreased with the increase of barium silicate in the resins
The Blurred Boundaries of Slavery and Freedom in the Early Modern Crimean Khanate
Get PDFIn Summer 2023, the TraSIS project organised a joint conference with the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) in the picturesque Swiss lakeside town of Murtensee. Some of our guests generously agreed to contribute a blog post in which they discuss one of the sources they presented on at the conference. In the second post of this series, Turkana Allahverdiyeva, a doctoral student at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, discusses a case of non-elite household slavery in the early modern Crimean Khanate
Similar Efficacy of Mesalazine in Adult and Older Adult Ulcerative Colitis Patients: Post Hoc Analysis of a Randomized Noninferiority Trial of 1600 mg vs 400 mg Tablets.
Get PDFBACKGROUND
The efficacy data on treatment in older adults are scarce, while the greatest increase in ulcerative colitis (UC) prevalence is observed in age groups of individuals 40 to 65 years of age and ≥65 years of age.
AIM
We assessed the difference in rates of clinical and endoscopic response and remission in UC adults (≤60 years) and older adults (>60 years) treated with mesalazine.
METHODS
We performed a post hoc analysis of data from a phase 3 noninferiority trial of 817 UC patients treated with mesalazine for 8 and additional 26 weeks in a double-blind and open-label study, respectively. We used Wilcoxon rank sum or chi-square test to analyze differences between groups and multivariable logistic regression to determine the associations between endoscopic remission as outcome (Mayo endoscopic subscore [MES] = 0 or ≤1) and independent variables including disease duration, baseline MES, age, sex, comedications, and comorbidities.
RESULTS
Older adults had a longer disease duration, a higher number of comorbidities, concomitant medications, and higher baseline MES (2.38 ± 0.486 in older adults vs 2.26 ± 0.439 in adults; P = .008) compared with adults. We observed no difference in rates of combined clinical and endoscopic remission, clinical remission and response, and endoscopic remission and response at week 8 and 38 post-treatment. In addition to other well-known predictors of worse outcome, patients with ≥3 comedications were less likely to achieve an MES = 0 at week 8 and 38 and an MES ≤1 at week 38.
CONCLUSIONS
We observed similar efficacy of mesalazine in adult and older adult UC patients. The increased comedication number rather than age may decrease effectiveness of UC medications, highlighting the importance of healthy aging
Towards reliable detection of introgression in the presence of among-species rate variation.
Get PDFThe role of interspecific hybridization has recently seen increasing attention, especially in the context of diversification dynamics. Genomic research has now made it abundantly clear that both hybridization and introgression - the exchange of genetic material through hybridization and backcrossing - are far more common than previously thought. Besides cases of ongoing or recent genetic exchange between taxa, an increasing number of studies report "ancient introgression" - referring to results of hybridization that took place in the distant past. However, it is not clear whether commonly used methods for the detection of introgression are applicable to such old systems, given that most of these methods were originally developed for analyses at the level of populations and recently diverged species, affected by recent or ongoing genetic exchange. In particular, the assumption of constant evolutionary rates, which is implicit in many commonly used approaches, is more likely to be violated as evolutionary divergence increases. To test the limitations of introgression detection methods when being applied to old systems, we simulated thousands of genomic datasets under a wide range of settings, with varying degrees of among-species rate variation and introgression. Using these simulated datasets, we showed that some commonly applied statistical methods, including the D-statistic and certain tests based on sets of local phylogenetic trees, can produce false-positive signals of introgression between divergent taxa that have different rates of evolution. These misleading signals are caused by the presence of homoplasies occurring at different rates in different lineages. To distinguish between the patterns caused by rate variation and genuine introgression, we developed a new test that is based on the expected clustering of introgressed sites along the genome, and implemented this test in the program Dsuite
Environmental versus phylogenetic controls on leaf nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations in vascular plants.
Get PDFGlobal patterns of leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stoichiometry have been interpreted as reflecting phenotypic plasticity in response to the environment, or as an overriding effect of the distribution of species growing in their biogeochemical niches. Here, we balance these contrasting views. We compile a global dataset of 36,413 paired observations of leaf N and P concentrations, taxonomy and 45 environmental covariates, covering 7,549 sites and 3,700 species, to investigate how species identity and environmental variables control variations in mass-based leaf N and P concentrations, and the N:P ratio. We find within-species variation contributes around half of the total variation, with 29%, 31%, and 22% of leaf N, P, and N:P variation, respectively, explained by environmental variables. Within-species plasticity along environmental gradients varies across species and is highest for leaf N:P and lowest for leaf N. We identified effects of environmental variables on within-species variation using random forest models, whereas effects were largely missed by widely used linear mixed-effect models. Our analysis demonstrates a substantial influence of the environment in driving plastic responses of leaf N, P, and N:P within species, which challenges reports of a fixed biogeochemical niche and the overriding importance of species distributions in shaping global patterns of leaf N and P
A systematic review on the role of biosecurity to prevent or control colibacillosis in broiler production.
Get PDFThis systematic review aimed at investigating the role that biosecurity can have in preventing or controlling colibacillosis in broiler production. Primary studies with natural or experimental exposure to avian pathogenic Escherichia coli, evaluating any biosecurity measure to prevent or control colibacillosis in broiler chickens with at least one of the following outcomes: feed conversion ratio (FCR), condemnations at slaughter, and mortality due to colibacillosis, were included. A systematic search was carried out in 4 databases according to the Cochrane handbook and reported following the PRISMA 2020 directions. Studies (n = 3,886) were screened in a 2-phase process and data matching the inclusion criteria were extracted. Risk of bias assessment was performed. Four studies reporting biosecurity measures to prevent or control colibacillosis in broiler production were included. In all studies, only disinfection during either the pre-hatching period (n = 3) or the post-hatching period (n = 1) was evaluated as biosecurity measure in broiler production, as well as its effect on FCR (n = 2) and mortality (n = 4) due to colibacillosis. No studies with effects on condemnations at slaughter were found. Due to the heterogeneity of studies in regard to interventions and outcomes, meta-analysis was not carried out. The limited findings of this systematic review do not provide a comprehensive evidence to statistically evaluate the efficacy of biosecurity to prevent or control colibacillosis in broiler production. The scarcity of evidence found suggests that further and deeper investigations on the topic are needed, considering the variety of interventions related to biosecurity
Onychomycosis in Foot and Toe Malformations.
Get PDFIntroduction: It has long been accepted that trauma is one of the most important and frequent predisposing factors for onychomycoses. However, the role of direct trauma in the pathogenesis of fungal nail infections has only recently been elucidated in a series of 32 cases of post-traumatic single-digit onychomycosis. The importance of repeated trauma due to foot and toe abnormalities was rarely investigated. Aimof the study: This is a multicenter single-author observational study over a period of 6 years performed at specialized nail clinics in three countries. All patient photographs taken by the author during this period were screened for toenail alterations, and all toe onychomycosis cases were checked for whether they contained enough information to evaluate potential foot and toe abnormalities. Particular attention was paid to the presence of hallux valgus, hallux valgus interphalangeus, hallux erectus, inward rotation of the big toe, and outward rotation of the little toe, as well as splay foot. Only cases with unequivocal proof of fungal nail infection by either histopathology, mycologic culture, or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were accepted. Results: Of 1653 cases, 185 were onychomycoses, proven by mycologic culture, PCR, or histopathology. Of these, 179 involved at least one big toenail, and 6 affected one or more lesser toenails. Three patients consulted us for another toenail disease, and onychomycosis was diagnosed as a second disease. Eight patients had a pronounced tinea pedum. Relatively few patients had a normal big toe position (n = 9). Most of the cases had a mild to marked hallux valgus (HV) (105) and a hallux valgus interphalangeus (HVI) (143), while hallux erectus was observed in 43 patients, and the combination of HV and HVI was observed 83 times. Discussion: The very high percentage of foot and toe deformations was surprising. It may be hypothesized that this is not only a pathogenetically important factor but may also play an important role in the localization of the fungal infection, as no marked hallux deviation was noted in onychomycoses that affected the lesser toes only. As the management of onychomycoses is a complex procedure involving the exact diagnosis with a determination of the pathogenic fungus, the nail growth rate, the type of onychomycosis, its duration, and predisposing factors, anomalies of the toe position may be important. Among the most commonly mentioned predisposing factors are peripheral circulatory insufficiency, venous stasis, peripheral neuropathy, immune deficiency, and iatrogenic immunosuppression, whereas foot problems are not given enough attention. Unfortunately, many of these predisposing and aggravating factors are difficult to treat or correct. Generally, when explaining the treatment of onychomycoses to patients, the importance of these orthopedic alterations is not or only insufficiently discussed. In view of the problems encountered with the treatment of toenail mycoses, this attitude should be changed in order to make the patient understand why there is such a low cure rate despite excellent minimal inhibitory drug concentrations in the laboratory
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