Successful Fitting of a Complete Maxillary Denture in a Patient with Severe Alzheimer’s Disease Complicated by Oral Dyskinesia

There is an increasing population of elderly patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. In dentistry, a critical problem associated with these patients is the use of a new denture, as AD patients often refuse dental management and are disturbed by minor changes in their oral environment. Some AD patients have further complications associated with oral dyskinesia, a movement disorder that can make dental management difficult, including the stability of a complete denture. In this case, we successfully fitted a complete maxillary denture using modified bilateral balanced occlusion after multiple tooth extractions under intravenous sedation in a 66-year-old woman with severe AD complicated by oral dyskinesia. Following treatment, her appetite and food intake greatly improved. Providing a well-fitting complete denture applied by modified bilateral balanced occlusion, which removes lateral interference using zero-degree artificial teeth for movement disorder of the jaw in patients with severe AD complicated by oral dyskinesia, helps improve oral function

Usefulness of direct intratumoral administration of doxorubicin hydrochloride with an electro-osmosis–assisted pump

Patients receiving chemotherapy by intravenous (i.v.) or oral administration of anticancer drugs often experience side effects. In this study, an electro-osmotic flow (EO) pump was used for the direct administration of an anticancer drug with minimum side effects. Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DXR) was used as an anticancer drug, and its antitumor effect and toxicity were evaluated in comparison with i.v. administration. Balb/c female mice were subcutaneously transplanted with a breast cancer cell line (4T1/Luc) stably expressing luciferase, and 20 μL of DXR solution (1.0 mg/mL) was administered intratumorally (i.t.) at a slow rate (0.6 µL/min) using an EO pump or rapidly using a syringe. For comparison, 100 μL of DXR solution was injected through the tail vein at the same dose and a 5-times higher dose. A tumor growth inhibitory effect without significant weight loss was observed with direct i.t. administration of DXR using an EO pump. On the other hand, no suppressive tumor growth effect was observed with i.v. administration of DXR at the same dose. Although there was no significant difference in the suppression effect on tumor growth between i.t. administration with EO pump and syringe, the peripheral skin concentration of DXR were decreased after slow administration with EO pump compared with that after rapidly administration with a syringe. These results indicated that direct i.t. administration of DXR with lower dosing using an EO pump at slower administration rate may be useful for exhibiting antitumor effects and suppressing systemic side effects. In addition, the blood concentration and the peripheral skin concentration of DXR after administration at lower rate with EO pump were decreased compared with those after the rapidly administration with a syringe

The Recognition of Professional Competencies : focusing on managers of workplaces and faculties of training institutions

The purpose of this study is to analyze how stakeholders of the profession system in Japan evaluate professional competencies. The training stage of professions and the conflicts of interest within the professions were examined using quantitative data. We distributed a questionnaire to the managers of workplaces within the following six professions: nurses, registered dietitians, social workers, clinical psychologists, pharmacists, and nursery teachers. As a result of the analysis, the following findings were made. The faculties of professional training institutions, such as universities and colleges, recognize most components of professional competencies as significantly more important than the managers of workplaces. The managers of workplaces recognize that the most important stage for practitioners to acquire competencies is during their professional careers, whereas faculties of training institutions recognize that it is during training courses

Successful Fitting of a Complete Maxillary Denture in a Patient with Severe Alzheimer’s Disease Complicated by Oral Dyskinesia

There is an increasing population of elderly patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. In dentistry, a critical problem associated with these patients is the use of a new denture, as AD patients often refuse dental management and are disturbed by minor changes in their oral environment. Some AD patients have further complications associated with oral dyskinesia, a movement disorder that can make dental management difficult, including the stability of a complete denture. In this case, we successfully fitted a complete maxillary denture using modified bilateral balanced occlusion after multiple tooth extractions under intravenous sedation in a 66-year-old woman with severe AD complicated by oral dyskinesia. Following treatment, her appetite and food intake greatly improved. Providing a well-fitting complete denture applied by modified bilateral balanced occlusion, which removes lateral interference using zero-degree artificial teeth for movement disorder of the jaw in patients with severe AD complicated by oral dyskinesia, helps improve oral function

Enhancement of antigen presenting ability in the leukemic plasmacytoid dendritic cell line (PMDC05) by lentiviral vector-mediated transduction of CD80 gene

PMDC05, a leukemic plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) line which was established in our laboratory, showed a capacity of generating antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). In order to enhance an antigen presenting ability of PMDC05, PMDC05 was transduced with CD80 gene by lentiviral vector, which was named as PMDC11. PMDC11 displayed a strong antigen presenting ability even without any stimulation, and by culturing with stimulators such as calcium ionophore PMDC11 gained a more potent antigen presenting ability. Our data suggested PMDC11 could be applied as antigen presenting cells more efficiently in adoptive cellular immunotherapy for tumors and severe infections in comparison with PMDC05

Surface properties of graphite and LaB6 materials used for laser heated emissive probe diagnostic

Laser heated emissive probe (LHEP) has been used as an alternative diagnostics to measure direct plasma potential. In this case, surface properties of LHEP materials have been studied before and after exposing it to high power laser. A high density small diameter (0.5 mm) laser light of variable power density is used to heat the probe tip. Two types of probe tip material are used in this experiment, viz, Graphite (Coarse grain and HOPG) and LaB6. Purity of material is dependent on the constituents of the same. Surface properties of these materials before and after laser exposure and plasma conditions have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. In order to achieve higher sensitivity on carbon surface and other layers the low-energy probing (~1.0 keV), the energy dispersive spectroscopy is used. Data of the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy allows us to obtain the structure of the materials as well as different elements present in these materials. To understand the surface morphology more critically, open source software named Gwyddion (version 2.35) has been used for processing of the SEM images. The 3-D visualization of the probe tip at different experimental conditions has been made using the Interactive 3-D surface plot plug-in of Gwyddion. Optical properties are also analyzed using diffusion reflectance spectroscopy and from which band gap energy of the same has been estimated.by P. Mehta, A. Sarma, A. D. Sivagami, N. Hari Prakash, Supin Gopi, B. Sarma and J. Ghos