109 research outputs found
Characterization of Commercial and Custom-Made Printing Filament Materials for Computed Tomography Imaging of Radiological Phantoms
Full text linkIn recent years, material extrusion-based additive manufacturing, particularly fused filament fabrication (FFF), has gained significant attention due to its versatility and cost-effectiveness in producing complex geometries. This paper presents the characterization of seven novel materials for FFF and twenty-two commercially available filaments in terms of X-ray computed tomography (CT) numbers, as tissue mimicking materials for the realization of 3D printed radiological phantoms. Two technical approaches, by 3D printing of cube samples and by producing cylinders of melted materials, are used for achieving this goal. Results showed that the CT numbers, given in Hounsfield unit (HU), of all the samples depended on the beam kilovoltage (kV). The CT numbers ranged from +411 HU to +3071 HU (at 80 kV), from −422 HU to +3071 HU (at 100 kV), and from −442 HU to +3070 HU (at 120 kV). Several commercial and custom-made filaments demonstrated suitability for substituting soft and hard human tissues, for realization of 3D printed phantoms with FFF in CT imaging. For breast imaging, an anthropomorphic phantom with two filaments could be fabricated using ABS-C (conductive acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) as a substitute for breast adipose tissue, and ASA-A (acrylic styrene acrylonitrile) for glandular breast tissue
Integrated Communications in Dental Laboratory Practice /// Интегрирани комуникации в работата на зъботехническата лаборатория
No full textIntegrated marketing communications constitute a comprehensive integration of communication messages to target audiences by means of various communicative instruments. In this respect, through the concept of integrated marketing communications, the elements of the communication mix are integrated and coordinated in such a way that every element fits the others to ensure synchronized and consistent communication. The achievement of coordination and integration is not an easy task and requires time. This requires organisations to arrange their activities according to their customers and not according to the product or the service they offer. Economic development and the use of modern devices and methods of communication has resulted in audience’s saturation with various messages and has created an opposition to the attempts of business organisations to transmit their new messages to the potential customers. The organizations in the field of healthcare present no exception. Nowadays everyone can find the information of interest at any time which results in new communication approaches used by the organisations. The new approaches increasingly rely on the use of integrated marketing communications in the exchange between organisations and their clients. These approaches impose elements of the marketing mix as advertisements, promotions, direct marketing and public relations according to the specific product, situation and customers. The specific product offered by dental technical laboratories as an element of the health system is used under specific circumstances associated with the dental services provision. The field of activities of these organisations is narrowly specialized but the competition is very weak, especially with the application of new technologies in the production of highly aesthetic and functional prosthetic constructions. This fact makes the dental laboratories develop their own communication policy and start applying integrated marketing communications in order to reach their clients faster and be up-to-date on the market of health services. The purposeful exploration of the communication policy can lead to effective management and can improve the general economic outcomes of the activities. The state of the art and the significance of the problems associated with integrated communications in the work of the dental technical lab and the need for more detailed analysis and examination, the establishment of working models for their solution in practice give us grounds for this dissertation thesis. For the successful implementation of the overall communication policy it is necessary that it is an indispensable part of the marketing carried out by the dental technical lab taking into account the position it occupies, its possibilities and competitiveness as well as the nature of the provided products and services. Researcher’s thesis in this study is directly related to revealing the possibilities for application of integrated communications in the work of dental technical laboratories for the achievement of a better efficiency, higher quality and satisfaction under conditions of dynamic environment. Bearing in mind that the creation of a competitive package of customer’s values does not ensure yet the desired interest and volume of provided services, the need for establishing communication with clients arises. These are, above all, customers whom the dental technical lab has targeted after having carried out market segmentation and developed a communication strategy. Thus, the synchronization between various types of communication acquires an increasing importance and turns into a key factor for the establishment of a sustainable image of the organisations in society.Интегрираните маркетингови комуникации представляват всеобхватна интеграция на комуникационните съобщения към целевите публики чрез разнообразни комуникационни инструменти. Във връзка с това чрез концепцията за интегрирани маркетингови комуникации елементите от комуникационния микс се интегрират и координират по такъв начин, при който всеки елемент подхожда на останалите за да се гарантира синхрон и последователност в комуникацията. Постигането на координация и интеграция не е лесна задача и изисква време. Това налага организациите да организират дейността си съобразно потребителите си, а не съобразно продукта или услугата, които предлагат. Развитието на икономиката и използването на съвременни средства и методи за комуникация, доведе до насищане на аудиторията с различни послания и се създаде съпротива при опитите на бизнес организациите да прокарат новите си послания към потенциалните си потребители. Изключение не правят и организациите в сферата на здравеопазването. Днес всеки може да намери информацията, която го интересува по всяко време, което налага организациите за използват нови подходи за комуникиране. Новите подходи все повече залагат на използването на интегрираните маркетингови комуникации при общуването между организациите и техните клиенти. Тези подходи налагат елементите на маркетинговия микс като реклама, промоции, директeн маркетинг и връзките с обществеността да се използват в различна степен, която да бъде съобразена с конкретният продукт, ситуацията и клиентите. Специфичният продукт, който предлагат зъботехническите лаборатории като елемент от здравната система, се използва при определени обстоятелства, свързани с предоставянето на дентални услуги. Сферата на дейност на тези организации е тясно специализирана, но конкуренцията е много силна, особено при прилагането на съвременни технологии при изработката на високо естетични и функционални протезни конструкции. Това обстоятелство налага зъботехническите лаборатории да развият своята комуникационна политика и да започнат да прилагат интегрираните маркетингови комуникации, за да достигнат по – близо до своите клиенти и да са актуални на пазара на здравни услуги. Целенасоченото изследване на комуникационната политика може да доведе до ефективно управление и да подобри общите икономически резултати от дейността. Актуалността и значимостта на проблемите, свързани с интегрираните комуникации в работата на зъботехническата лаборатория и необходимостта от тяхното по-детайлно анализиране и изследване и създаване на работещи модели за решаването им в практиката са основание за разработване на настоящата дисертация. За успешното осъществяване на цялостната комуникационна политика е необходимо тя да бъде неразделна част от провеждания от зъботехническата лаборатория маркетинг, като се вземат под внимание позицията, която заема на пазара, нейните възможности и конкурентоспособност, а така също и характера на предлаганите продукти и услуги. Изследователската теза на настоящата разработка е пряко свързана с разкриване на възможностите за приложение на интегрирани комуникации в работата на зъботехническите лаборатории за постигане на по-добра ефективност, по-високо качество и удовлетвореност в условията на динамична среда. Отчитайки факта, че създаване на конкурентоспособен пакет от потребителски стойности все още не осигурява желания интерес и обем от предлагани услуги, възниква потребността от установяване на комуникации с потребителите. Преди всичко, това са потребители, към които се е насочила зъботехническата лаборатория след сегментиране на пазара и разработена комуникационна стратегия. По тази причина синхронът между различните видове комуникации придобива все по – голямо значение и се превръща в ключово условие за създаване на устойчив имидж на организациите пред обществото
THE IMPACT OF STRESS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE DENTAL HEALTH OF MU-VARNA EMPLOYEES
Full text linkIntroduction: One of the negative manifestations of stress and anxiety related to dental health is the unconscious clenching or grinding of teeth, which gradually leads to tooth wear.
Aim: The aim of this article is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dental health of MU-Varna employees, to follow up on the therapeutic effect of wearing a bruxism mouthguard, and for the results to be applied in preparing a model for health promotion based on a multidisciplinary approach.
Materials and Methods: From July 2022 to now, 995 patients have been examined, and 40 of them, university lecturers and administrative staff at MU-Varna, Bulgaria, have been prescribed a bruxism mouthguard. The following instruments were used: a unified form for defining the dental status and a survey about the therapeutic effect of the bruxism mouthguard.
Results and Discussion: A voluntary, anonymous survey was conducted among MU-Varna employees in October 2023. The SPSS (version 22) software was used to process the data from the survey. The assessment of the therapeutic effect of the mouth guard was based on the results from the secondary exam at the clinician’s office and those from the conducted individual survey among the people wearing mouth guards for a specified period of time.
Conclusion: The analysis indicates that the employees have a positive attitude toward wearing the mouthguard in the future. Its use helped decrease the frequency of conditions such as affect, anxiety, and quick tiredness
Application of integrated marketing communications in the dental laboratory practice - overview
No full textTransformations of Public Memory in Berdiansk after 2014
Full text linkBerdiansk is a Ukrainian city on the Azov Sea shore in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. With almost 200 years of colonial history, this city currently living under Russian occupation is an excellent fit for analysing the memory transformation process in the communities of southeastern Ukraine. This paper examines the memory politics background in the southeast of Ukraine as exemplified by the changes in symbolism across Berdiansk's city space on the back of post- Maidan politics. It brings to light the context of the artificial political divide of the 2000s-2010s that grew due to Ukrainian presidents' campaigns that polarized Ukrainian society and shows how the political forces of Ukraine, affected by Russian aggressive foreign policies, manipulated the historical differences to juxtapose southeastern Ukraine to the other part of the country. The paper connects this context with the partial success of Russia in the hybrid invasion of 2014 and analyzes the response of the local communities to the decisions made during the period of political uncertainty in the region.
Reconstructing the process Decomunization Laws implementations in Berdiansk, this paper demonstrates that memory coded in the toponyms, memorials and commemoration rituals be- came the epicenter of political struggle in the city. It refers to several cases of renaming of the streets, replacing the Soviet memorials (monuments to Vladimir Lenin, Felix Dzerzhinsky and others) with the themes and images of Ukrainian national history after 2014. Changes that took place year-over-year in the commemorational events on the 8th and 9th of May chosen as an example of difficulties that followed the transformational processes on the level of the public remembrance practices. An important place is drawn for the Working Group headed by Research Institute of Urban History that tried to securitize the city from ideological threats of Russian hybrid invasion, using different methods to influence public opinion on the matter of Russian and Soviet heritage in the public space of the city of Beridansk.
In addition, paper describes the transformation of memory sites under occupation and imagines potential commemoration frameworks for the liberated Berdiansk. The author discusses the replacement of the vertical type of decision-making in the field of Memory Politics with practices attentive to the historical diversity of southeastern Ukraine and Berdiansk in particular. Also, it considers the danger of massive destruction of the city's heritage during possible military operations and develops the approach based not only on the memory of human experiences but on the memorializa tion of the environmental catastrophes caused by Russia.
The considerations for symbolical transformations in Berdiansk draw on the Content Analysis method. Some data comes from the interview with the Research Institute of Urban History Director, Prof. Victoria Konstantinovna, who helped implement decommunisation laws. While analysing the relations between Ukrainian memory politics and Russian colonial policy, the author used de/postcolonial optics.The paper draws on the results of an individual research project prepared within the Invisible University for Ukraine program of the Central European University with the support of the University of Jena and DAAD
Stem cell-based ovarian cancer suicide gene therapy
No full textCancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, resulting in 8.2 million deaths in 2012. Tumor suicide gene therapy is among the novel targeted therapeutics that has demonstrated promising results. There are two important factors that specify the efficiency and safety of the suicide gene therapy systems. One is vector safety and efficiency and the other enzyme/prodrug anticancer efficacy. Among the vectors employed for delivery of therapeutics, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have attracted tremendous amount of attention due to their unique features such as inherent tumor tropism and low immunogenicity. The objective of this research was to take advantage of MSCs as cell-based vectors to develop an efficient and safe suicide gene therapy system for cancer. As a first step towards achieving the objective, I engineered a panel of MSCs that were genetically modified to express five different suicide genes and compared their anti-tumor efficiency in vitro and in vivo. Among the enzyme/prodrug systems tested, genetically modified MSCs that expressed yeast cytosine deaminase enzyme (yCD-UPRT) in combination with prodrug 5-fluorocytosine (5FC) demonstrated the highest anti-tumor efficacy. In the next step we focused on developing a safe and efficient method for stem cell engineering. Since current commercially available transfection agents are inefficient and toxic to MSCs, I made an attempt to develop a safe and efficient gene delivery system suitable for MSC engineering. Using a previously developed vector in Dr. Hatefi’s lab as a template, I recombinantly engineered a new vector for MSC transfection. This vector is comprised of a cell penetrating peptide for penetration into MSCs, four histone H2A repeats to condense plasmid DNA (pDNA) into nanosize particles and a fusogenic peptide named GALA to facilitate endosomal escape. The results of this study illustrated that the newly developed recombinant vector could efficiently and safely transfect MSCs. In conclusion we not only successfully developed a safe and efficient method for stem cell engineering but also identified an enzyme/prodrug system that could be used for effective treatment of ovarian cancer.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Faranak Salman Noor
Subcutaneous delivery of protein therapeutics
No full textSince their discovery monoclonal antibodies have been a worldwide medical phenomenon that has documented numerous novel therapeutic uses. However, delivery of such large therapeutic proteins remains a challenge in maintaining efficacious systemic concentrations as well as minimal costs. Furthermore, pharmacokinetic profiles of monoclonal antibodies begin to vary from the norm when considering obese populations and require additional analysis to avoid over-dosing. The goals of this thesis work were: 1) to develop a generic bioanalytical method for quantifying concentrations of multiple monoclonal antibodies without requiring the use of specific coating antibodies for each separate monoclonal antibody evaluated; 2) to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of rituximab in obese rats and normal-weight control animals; 3) to develop an in-vitro cell culture permeability assay for evaluating permeability properties of monoclonal antibodies.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Andrew Maurice She
Lawsuits in „election mode” on the example of the Białystok Appeal (2011–2017)
No full textArtykuł dotyczy postępowań w „trybie wyborczym” na podstawie artykułu 111 Kodeksu wyborczego. Autorka artykułu przeprowadziła badania ilościowe w sądach okręgowych na terenie całej Polski oraz badania jakościowe w sądach okręgowych apelacji białostockiej. Kwerenda akt sądowych dotyczyła lat 2011–2017. Znakomita większość postępowań prowadzonych w sądach w „trybie wyborczym”, dotyczyła wyborów samorządowych, rzadziej wyborów parlamentarnych, jeszcze rzadziej pozostałych rodzajów wyborów (prezydenckich, do Parlamentu Europejskiego). Badania odpowiadają na pytania: kto jest wnioskodawcą, kto uczestnikiem procesu, jakie żądania wysuwane są we wnioskach, jakie decyzje zapadają w sądach? Postępowania w „trybie wyborczym” odbywają się w specjalnym trybie 24-godzinnym, z przeprowadzonych badań wynika, że dużej części nie udaje się ich zakończyć w terminach narzuconych przez Kodeks wyborczy.The article discusses the matter of lawsuits in “election mode”, based on the article 111 Election Code. Author of the article did complete research in courts in Poland and qualitative research in the courts in the area Białystok Appeal. The court files concerned the years 2011– 2017. The vast majority of cases conducted in courts in the “election mode” concerned local elections, less frequent parliamentary elections, rarely other types of elections (presidential election, elections to the European Parliament). The research answers the questions: who is the applicant, who participates in the lawsuits, what requests are being made in lawsuits in “election mode”, what decisions are taken in the courts? The lawsuits in “election mode” are held in a special 24-hours mode, the research shows that a large part of cases fail to complete within the time limits imposed by the Election Code
Pilot Study on the Development and Integration of Anthropomorphic Models within the Dental Technician Curriculum
No full textThe effectiveness of modern medical education largely depends on the integration and utilization of digital technologies in teaching various disciplines. In this pilot usability study, we introduced 3D printed anthropomorphic dental models, specifically designed for the elective discipline “Digital and Metal-Free Techniques in Dental Technology” from the curriculum of the Dental Technician specialty in the Medical University of Varna. The evaluation focused on dental technician students’ perception of this novel learning environment, its influence on their performance, and the potential for future application of these models and related 3D technologies in their professional practice. A validated satisfaction questionnaire was distributed among 80 students, comprising the total cohort. The results indicated a high acceptance rate, with nearly 95% of participants finding the use of digitally created 3D-printed dental models beneficial. More than 90% believed that exploring digital technologies would enhance their skills. The well-trained instructor’s competence in technology use convinced students of its value, with more than 98% expressing a willingness to incorporate these technologies into their future work for improved precision in dental models. However, due to the current high cost of needed equipment, only 10% of participants may practicably introduce this novel technology into their practical work. The use of anatomically accurate 3D printed models is a valuable addition to the current dental technician curriculum in medical colleges
Precision in the provision of rehabilitation care in patients who have suffered a stroke using rapid laboratory testing
Full text linkУВОД През последните десетилетия все по-често започва да се изтъква необходимостта от ранна, продължителна и индивидуална рехабилитация, която да отговаря на потребностите на всеки един пациент преживял мозъчен инсулт (МИ). От една страна тази необходимост е породена от обстоятелството, че МИ се доказа с високи нива на заболяемост, болестност и смъртност. Поради това той се определя, като бреме за пациентите и техните семейства. От друга страна, застаряването на населението налага търсене на ефективни, ефикасни и приемливи модели за решаване проблемите на тези пациенти. В световен мащаб десетки общности са изправени пред различни бариери при достъпа до здравни услуги. В отговор на това многобройни инициативи са насочени към насърчаване на технологични иновации, нови управленски подходи и здравни политики. Бързото развитие и въвеждането на лабораторни новости предлагат изследванията да се извършват от пациента в домашна среда, повишавайки навременността на медицинските и здравни грижи. Новите лабораторни възможности са ключ за нов интегриран модел, който ще осигури навременност на необходимите лабораторни резултати, спомагащи за добър самоконтрол на заболяването и прецизност в предоставянето на рехабилитационни грижи при пациенти преживели мозъчен инсулт.In recent decades, the need for early, prolonged and individual rehabilitation to meet the needs of each patient suffering from stroke has become increasingly pronounced. On the one hand, this necessity is due to the fact that stroke has been shown to have high levels of morbidity, sickness and mortality. Therefore, it is defined as a burden for patients and their families. On the other hand, population aging requires a search for effective, efficient and acceptable models to address the problems of these patients. Globally, dozens of communities face different barriers to accessing health services. In response, numerous initiatives are aimed at promoting technological innovation, new management approaches and health policies. The rapid development and introduction of laboratory innovations suggest that tests should be carried out by the patient in a home environment, increasing the timeliness of medical and health care. New laboratory capabilities are the key to a new, integrated model that will ensure the timeliness of the required laboratory results to promote good self-control of the disease and the precision in providing rehabilitation care to patients suffering from stroke
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