The cientificWorldJOURNAL Research Article An Investigation of Current Endodontic Practice in Turkey

Objectives. The aim of this study was to gather information about the quality and quantity of root canal treatments carried out by general dental practitioners in Turkey. Methods. Questionnaires were given to 1400 dentists who attended the 16th National Congress organized by the Turkish Dental Association. The participants were asked to answer 34 multiple-choice questions. The questions were subdivided into 3 main topics; general information; general approach to endodontic treatment; and cleaning, shaping, and obturation of root canals. The statistical analysis was carried out by an χ 2 -test to compare the means at a significance level of P < 0.05. Results. The response rate for this study was 43%. There was a wide variation in the number of root canal treatments completed per month. Nearly 92% of practitioners stated that they never used rubber dam. The most commonly used working length determination technique was radiographic evaluation (P < 0.05). Sodium hypochlorite was the irrigant of choice with varying concentrations and AH Plus was the sealer of choice (P < 0.05). Resin composite was the most frequently used material for final restorations. Conclusions. Endodontic procedures in general practice in Turkey have differences from widely acknowledged quality guidelines. Despite the introduction of new instruments and techniques, most of the general practitioners chose conventional methods

Broadband luminescence in defect-engineered electrochemically produced porous Si/ZnO nanostructures

The fabrication, by an all electrochemical process, of porous Si/ZnO nanostructures with engineered structural defects, leading to strong and broadband deep level emission from ZnO, is presented. Such nanostructures are fabricated by a combination of metal-assisted chemical etching of Si and direct current electrodeposition of ZnO. It makes the whole fabrication process low-cost, compatible with Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor technology, scalable and easily industrialised. The photoluminescence spectra of the porous Si/ZnO nanostructures reveal a correlation between the lineshape, as well as the strength of the emission, with the morphology of the underlying porous Si, that control the induced defects in the ZnO. Appropriate fabrication conditions of the porous Si lead to exceptionally bright Gaussian-type emission that covers almost the entire visible spectrum, indicating that porous Si/ZnO nanostructures could be a cornerstone material towards white-light-emitting devices

Cross-sectional evaluation of the periapical status as related to quality of root canal fillings and coronal restorations in a rural adult male population of Turkey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To determine the prevalence of periapical lesions in root canal-treated teeth in a rural, male adult, Turkish population and to investigate the influence of the quality of root canal fillings on prevalence of periapical lesions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The sample for this cross-sectional study consisted of 552 adult male patients, 18-32 years of age, presenting consecutively as new patients seeking routine dental care at the Dental Sciences of Gulhane Military Medicine, Ankara. The radiographs of the 1014 root canal-treated teeth were evaluated. The teeth were grouped according to the radiographic quality of the root canal filling and the coronal restoration. The criteria used for the examination were slightly modified from those described by De Moor. Periapical status was assessed by the Periapical Index scores (PAI) proposed by Orstavik.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall success rate of root canal treatment was 32.1%. The success rates of adequately root canal treatment were significantly higher than inadequately root canal treatment, regardless of the quality or presence of the coronal restoration (P < .001). In addition, the success rate of inadequate root canal treatment was also significantly affected by the quality of coronal restorations.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results revealed a high prevalence of periapical lesions in root canal treatment, which is comparable to that reported in other methodologically compatible studies from diverse geographical locations. In addition, the results from the present study confirm the findings of other studies that found the quality of the root canal treatment to be a key factor for prognosis with or without adequate coronal restoration.</p

Large Scale Benchmark of Materials Design Methods

Lack of rigorous reproducibility and validation are major hurdles for scientific development across many fields. Materials science in particular encompasses a variety of experimental and theoretical approaches that require careful benchmarking. Leaderboard efforts have been developed previously to mitigate these issues. However, a comprehensive comparison and benchmarking on an integrated platform with multiple data modalities with both perfect and defect materials data is still lacking. This work introduces JARVIS-Leaderboard, an open-source and community-driven platform that facilitates benchmarking and enhances reproducibility. The platform allows users to set up benchmarks with custom tasks and enables contributions in the form of dataset, code, and meta-data submissions. We cover the following materials design categories: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Electronic Structure (ES), Force-fields (FF), Quantum Computation (QC) and Experiments (EXP). For AI, we cover several types of input data, including atomic structures, atomistic images, spectra, and text. For ES, we consider multiple ES approaches, software packages, pseudopotentials, materials, and properties, comparing results to experiment. For FF, we compare multiple approaches for material property predictions. For QC, we benchmark Hamiltonian simulations using various quantum algorithms and circuits. Finally, for experiments, we use the inter-laboratory approach to establish benchmarks. There are 1281 contributions to 274 benchmarks using 152 methods with more than 8 million data-points, and the leaderboard is continuously expanding. The JARVIS-Leaderboard is available at the website: https://pages.nist.gov/jarvis_leaderboar

JARVIS-Leaderboard: a large scale benchmark of materials design methods

Lack of rigorous reproducibility and validation are significant hurdles for scientific development across many fields. Materials science, in particular, encompasses a variety of experimental and theoretical approaches that require careful benchmarking. Leaderboard efforts have been developed previously to mitigate these issues. However, a comprehensive comparison and benchmarking on an integrated platform with multiple data modalities with perfect and defect materials data is still lacking. This work introduces JARVIS-Leaderboard, an open-source and community-driven platform that facilitates benchmarking and enhances reproducibility. The platform allows users to set up benchmarks with custom tasks and enables contributions in the form of dataset, code, and meta-data submissions. We cover the following materials design categories: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Electronic Structure (ES), Force-fields (FF), Quantum Computation (QC), and Experiments (EXP). For AI, we cover several types of input data, including atomic structures, atomistic images, spectra, and text. For ES, we consider multiple ES approaches, software packages, pseudopotentials, materials, and properties, comparing results to experiment. For FF, we compare multiple approaches for material property predictions. For QC, we benchmark Hamiltonian simulations using various quantum algorithms and circuits. Finally, for experiments, we use the inter-laboratory approach to establish benchmarks. There are 1281 contributions to 274 benchmarks using 152 methods with more than 8 million data points, and the leaderboard is continuously expanding. The JARVIS-Leaderboard is available at the website: https://pages.nist.gov/jarvis_leaderboard

Evaluation of technical quality and periapical health of root-filled teeth by using cone-beam CT

Objective This study aimed to assess the quality of root fillings, coronal restorations, complications of all root-filled teeth and their association with apical periodontitis (AP) detected by cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images from an adult Turkish subpopulation. Material and Methods The sample for this study consisted of 242 patients (aging from 15 to 72 years) with 522 endodontically treated teeth that were assessed for technical quality of the root canal filling and periapical status of the teeth. Additionally, the apical status of each root-filled tooth was assessed according to the gender, dental arch, tooth type and age classification, undetected canals, instrument fracture, root fracture, apical resorption, apical lesion, furcation lesion and type and quality of the coronal structure. Statistical analysis was performed using percentages and chi-square test. Results The success rate of the root canal treatment was of 54.4%. The success rates of adequate and inadequate root canal treatment were not significantly different (p>0.05). Apical periodontitis was found in 228 (45.6%) teeth treated for root canals. Higher prevalence of AP was found in patients aging from 20 to 29 years [64 (27%) teeth] and in anterior (canines and incisors) teeth [97 (41%) teeth]. Conclusions The technical quality of root canal filling performed by dental practitioners in a Turkish subpopulation was consistent with a high prevalence of AP. The probable reasons for this failure are multifactorial, and there may be a need for improved undergraduate education and postgraduate courses to improve the clinical skills of dental practitioners in endodontics

The Effect of Complex Interventions on Depression and Anxiety in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Depression and anxiety are very common in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and are associated with excess morbidity and mortality. Patients prefer non-drug treatments and clinical guidelines promote non-pharmacological interventions as first line therapy for depression and anxiety in people with long term conditions. However the comparative effectiveness of psychological and lifestyle interventions among COPD patients is not known. We assessed whether complex psychological and/or lifestyle interventions are effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients with COPD. We then determined what types of psychological and lifestyle interventions are most effective. Methods and Findings Systematic review of randomised controlled trials of psychological and/or lifestyle interventions for adults with COPD that measured symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. CENTRAL, Medline, Embase, PsychINFO, CINAHL, ISI Web of Science and Scopus were searched up to April 2012. Meta-analyses using random effects models were undertaken to estimate the average effect of interventions on depression and anxiety. Thirty independent comparisons from 29 randomised controlled trials (n = 2063) were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, psychological and/or lifestyle interventions were associated with small reductions in symptoms of depression (standardised mean difference −0.28, 95% confidence interval −0.41 to −0.14) and anxiety (standardised mean difference −0.23, 95% confidence interval −0.38 to −0.09). Multi-component exercise training was the only intervention subgroup associated with significant treatment effects for depression (standardised mean difference −0.47, 95% confidence interval −0.66 to −0.28), and for anxiety (standardised mean difference −0.45, 95% confidence interval −0.71 to −0.18). Conclusions Complex psychological and/or lifestyle interventions that include an exercise component significantly improve symptoms of depression and anxiety in people with COPD. Furthermore, multi-component exercise training effectively reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression in all people with COPD regardless of severity of depression or anxiety, highlighting the importance of promoting physical activity in this population

Importance of depressive symptoms in schizophrenia and theirs pharmacotherapies [Şizofrenide depresif belirtilerin önemi ve psikofarmakolojik sagaltimi]

The importance of depression in schizophrenia is much more emphasized in DSM-IV than DSM-III-R. Although in recent studies the three dimensional model (psychotic, disorganized, negative) is promoted in explaining symptoms of schizophrenia, there are some researchers who propose depression to be a distinct dimension in schizophrenia. The depressive symptoms in schizophrenia are frequent and commonly serious, and negatively influence the prognosis and recovery of the patient. The patients with comorbid diagnosis of schizophrenia an depression present a distinct mortality and morbidity profile including high recurrence and suicide risk. There are a few studies in the literature concerning the treatment of depressive symptoms in spite of their high frequency, prognostic significance and influence on psychosocial outcomes in schizophrenia. In this review, the importance of depressive symptoms in schizophrenia, the role and efficacy of antidepressants in the treatment of depressive symptoms and the effect of atypical antipsychotics with serotonin-dopamine antagonistic activity currently used in Turkey (clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine and ziprasidone) on depressive symptoms in schizophrenia are comprehensively discussed

Association between cerebral blood-flow measured by single photon emission computed tomography (Spect) and neurological soft signs in schizophrenia [Şizofrenide silik nörolojik belirtiler ile tek foton emisyon bilgisayarli{dotless} tomografi (Spect) ile ölçülen beyin kan aki{dotless}mi{dotless} anasi{dotless}ndaki i·lişki]

Objective: Neurological soft signs (NSS) are minor neurological abnormalities in sensory and motor performances identified by clinical examination that are not readily localizable to a specific brain region. NSS have been described to be abundant in schizophrenic patients. Studying anatomical correlates of NSS can provide a better understanding of the mechanism of NSS and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The main aim of this study was to explore the relationship between NSS and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measured by Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT). Methods: Forty four patients with schizophrenia according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) criteria, were studied by SPECT and performed "Neurological Evaluation Scale" (NES) test to calculate NSS. Clinical characteristics investigated in this study were: duration of illness (months), duration of hospitalization (months), current antipsychotic dose (chlorpromazine equivalents in mg), negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia, level of functioning, level of intelligence, verbal performance on intelligence test, way of onset of the illness (insidious vs. acute), response to treatment, family history of schizophrenia and family history of psychiatric illness. Negative and positive symptoms were evaluated with The Scale for the Assessment of Negative (SANS) and The Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). Level of functioning was evaluated with The Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF). The level of intelligence was evaluated by two clinical psychologists who were blind to the clinical attributes, using Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R). Findings: Cerebellum and whole brain normalized right frontal and right basal ganglia rCBF's are found to be associated with sensory integration subscale, while left temporal rCBF is found to be associated with motor sequencing subscale of NES, although this association is lost when a strict statistical significance level is applied by Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons. Discussion and Conclusion: The discrepancy between NSS and cognitive impairments and SPECT reveals a partial overlap between two different functional areas: one corresponding to the sensory integrative system and the other to a more generalized cognitive system, including the motor system