Topical Tocopherol for treatment of reticular oral lichen planus: randomized, double-blind, crossover study

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study assessed the efficacy of topical tocopherol acetate compared with placebo in easing oral discomfort in patients with reticular oral lichen planus (ROLP)

Endocarditi infettive e patologia del cavo orale

Introduction. The Infective Endocarditis is a rare disease of the endocardium and subendocardium. If untreated it is always fatal. Prophylaxis guidelines that have been published since the 1950s, always focused on dental procedures as a source of bacteremia causing Infective Endocarditis, rather than on daily activities like tooth brushing or chewing food. Aim of the study. To assess if the state of oral health in patients with Infective Endocarditis may be considered a predisposing factor for developing Infective Endocarditis; to analyse underlying cardiac conditions associated with the risk to develop Infective Endocarditis and if presence of comorbid factors such as diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression and dialysis may increase the risk of adverse outcome from Infective Endocarditis in these patients. To define when Infective Endocarditis prophylaxis is or is not recommended for dental procedures. Material and Methods. We enrolled two patients groups: Group Cases 1 from the Unit of Cardiovascular Pathology database, Hospital of Padova (177 patients), Group Cases 2 from the Unit of Infective and Tropical Diseases database, Hospital of Padova (70 patients). For each patient medical records were taken in order to analyse the presence of underlying cardiac conditions, stratified according to the American Heart Association classification 1997, and to review radiographic material useful for the state of health of the oral cavity. Three Control Groups were identified: the Control Group 1, constituted by healthy patients (70 patients), the Control Group 2 constituted by patients with not infective cardiovascular diseases (50 patients), the Control Group 3 constituted by patients with comorbid conditions. Group Cases 2 and Control Groups were separately analyzed with Chi Square test with 95% Confidence; Odd Ratio, Sensibility and Specificity tests, Positive and Negative Likelihood Ratio. Results. In Group Cases 1 and 2, Aortic Valve is the most affected site (57.9%), followed by Mitral Valve (31.2%) and both Aortic and Mitral Valve (4.4%). The most frequent underlying cardiac conditions were: bicuspid aortic valve (11.9%), aortic bioprosthesis (11.9%) and “floppy” mitral valve (10.7%) in Group Cases 1; aortic valve bioprosthesis (11.4%), non-rheumatic aortic valve stenosis (8.6%) and bicuspid aortic valve (5.7%) in Group Cases 2. In Group Cases 1 death occurred in patients with underlying cardiac conditions associated with high, moderate and negligible risk of adverse outcome according to American Heart Association 2007 and with systemic comorbid conditions. In Group 2 death occurred only in 4 patients with underlying cardiac conditions associated with high-risk of adverse outcome. Microorganisms were identified in only 60 cases in patients of Group Cases 1; 30% of them belonged to the oropharyngeal flora. in the two patients who underwent dental procedures in 3 previous months it was not possible to isolate the microorganism. In two patients affected by endo-periodontal disease endocarditis ascribable to microbic flora, arose without any dental procedures. In the Group Cases 2, in 15 patients endocarditis was due a microorganism belonging to oral flora. Dental procedure were performed in four cases and in only one antibiotic prophylaxis was done. Endodontic and/or parodontic diseases were present in 81.4% of patients from Group Cases 2, in 55.9% of patients from Control Group 1 , in 75% of patients from Control Group 2 and in 88% of patients of Control Group 3. Thus, patients with endodontic and/or parodontic diseases present an high risk for developing Infective Endocarditis in Control Group 1 (OR 3.692) and in Control Group 3 (OR 1.406) compared with Control Group 2 (OR 0.598). Conclusions. Infective Endocarditis arose mainly in bicuspid aortic valve and bioprosthesis valve followed by floppy mitral valve. An important relationship exists between systemic co-morbid factors and underlying cardiac conditions at high risk for poor prognosis for Infective Endocarditis. We didn’t find association between dental care and occurrence of Infective Endocarditis due to microorganisms of the oral cavity. Nevertheless patients with endo-periodontal diseases are prone to development of endocarditis. Maintenance of optimal oral health and hygiene may reduce the incidence of bacteremia from daily activities (brushing teeth and chewing). Thus people at risk of developing Infective Endocarditis should have an high standard of oral health including endodontic and periodontal therapy

A Social Parasite Evolved Reproductive Isolation from Its Fungus-Growing Ant Host in Sympatry

SummaryInquiline social parasitic ant species exploit colonies of other ant species mainly by producing sexual offspring that are raised by the host. Ant social parasites and their hosts are often close relatives (Emery’s rule), and two main hypotheses compete to explain the parasites’ evolutionary origins: (1) the interspecific hypothesis proposes an allopatric speciation scenario for the parasite, whereas (2) the intraspecific hypothesis postulates that the parasite evolves directly from its host in sympatry [1–10]. Evidence in support of the intraspecific hypothesis has been accumulating for ants [3, 5, 7, 9–12], but sympatric speciation remains controversial as a general speciation mechanism for inquiline parasites. Here we use molecular phylogenetics to assess whether the socially parasitic fungus-growing ant Mycocepurus castrator speciated from its host Mycocepurus goeldii in sympatry. Based on differing patterns of relationship in mitochondrial and individual nuclear genes, we conclude that host and parasite occupy a temporal window in which lineage sorting has taken place in the mitochondrial genes but not yet in the nuclear alleles. We infer that the host originated first and that the parasite originated subsequently from a subset of the host species’ populations, providing empirical support for the hypothesis that inquiline parasites can evolve reproductive isolation while living sympatrically with their hosts

Periodontitis in the Developmental Age: Pathogenesis, Epidemiology, Differential Diagnosis and Treatment. A Narrative Review

Periodontal disease is one of the most widespread diseases in the world and is, as a prevalence, immediately after diseases..

ACIDENTES GRAVES NO TRABALHO RURAL ENTRE 1994 E 1997 NA REGIÃO CENTRO-SUL DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO, BRASIL

Considerando-se que o estado da arte da ergonomia e segurança do trabalho rural de uma determinada região se reflete na ocorrência de acidentes, é apresentado um diagnóstico dos acidentes graves ocorridos no trabalho rural abrangendo dez municípios da região centro-sul do Estado de São Paulo, ocorridos em um período de 40 meses, baseado em registros fornecidos pelo Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social - INSS. Foi assinalado um total de 106 ocorrências, entre 1994 e 1997, nos municípios de Itapetininga, Capão Bonito, São Miguel Arcanjo, Guapiara, Itapeva, Boituva, Angatuba, Ribeirao Grande, Sarapuí e Alambari. Verificou-se ter ocorrido correspondência funcional entre população e número de acidentes graves no trabalho rural, explicada por modelo matemático de regressão de primeiro grau, do tipo: y = 0,000376 X - 2,464594 em que x representa a população do município e y o número de acidentes graves no trabalho rural. Grupos etários de trabalhadores entre 20 e 35 anos mostraram-se mais suscetíveis a acidentes graves na região, sucedidos por faixas etárias entre 35 e .50 anos, indicando os grupos populacionais mais carentes de treinamento sobre segurança no trabalho rural. A prática comum no meio rural de estender a tarefa além do horário preestabelecido, a fadiga e o estresse do trabalhador são fatores que têm sido associados aos horários de maior incidência de acidentes graves no trabalho rural. Quinta-feira foi isoladamente o dia de maior freqüência de acidentes rurais graves na região pesquisada. Os tipos de veículos envolvidos em acidentes rurais graves, por ordem decrescente de ocorrências, foram: mdefinidos, caminhão de carsa e/ou transporte de pessoal, motocicleta, automovel, camioneta, bicicleta e ônibus. Dentre as máquinas e equipamentos agrícolas e industriais, são assinalados: trator, motosserra, não definidos, roçadora, pá carregadora e empilhadora. As principais causas de acidentes graves no meio rural encontram-se associadas a ve1culos, estradas, quedas (de pessoas, árvores, madeira e objetos) e deslocamento de cargás. E mencionada a precanedade do transporte coletivo de trabalhadores na região, efetuado em veículos inadequados e em desacordo à legislação. As condições de projeto construtivo e manutenção das estradas rurais contribuem para essa realidade, resultando em colisões, capotamentos e atropelamentos. Dentre as partes do corpo humano atingidas são apontadas, em ordem decrescente: membros inferiores, membros superiores, tronco, cabeça e ferimentos generalizados. Isoladamente, pernas, braços, cabeça, mãos, pés, joelho e ombros de trabalhadores têm sido os órgãos mais afetados em acidentes graves no trabalho rural

Monitoring COVID‐19 vaccine effectiveness against COVID‐19 hospitalisation and death using electronic health registries in ≥65 years old population in six European countries, October 2021 to November 2022

Background: Within the ECDC-VEBIS project, we prospectively monitored vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 hospitalisation and COVID-19-related death using electronic health registries (EHR), between October 2021 and November 2022, in community-dwelling residents aged 65-79 and ≥80 years in six European countries. Methods: EHR linkage was used to construct population cohorts in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Navarre (Spain), Norway and Portugal. Using a common protocol, for each outcome, VE was estimated monthly over 8-week follow-up periods, allowing 1 month-lag for data consolidation. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and VE = (1 - aHR) × 100%. Site-specific estimates were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Results: For ≥80 years, considering unvaccinated as the reference, VE against COVID-19 hospitalisation decreased from 66.9% (95% CI: 60.1; 72.6) to 36.1% (95% CI: -27.3; 67.9) for the primary vaccination and from 95.6% (95% CI: 88.0; 98.4) to 67.7% (95% CI: 45.9; 80.8) for the first booster. Similar trends were observed for 65-79 years. The second booster VE against hospitalisation ranged between 82.0% (95% CI: 75.9; 87.0) and 83.9% (95% CI: 77.7; 88.4) for the ≥80 years and between 39.3% (95% CI: -3.9; 64.5) and 80.6% (95% CI: 67.2; 88.5) for 65-79 years. The first booster VE against COVID-19-related death declined over time for both age groups, while the second booster VE against death remained above 80% for the ≥80 years. Conclusions: Successive vaccine boosters played a relevant role in maintaining protection against COVID-19 hospitalisation and death, in the context of decreasing VE over time. Multicountry data from EHR facilitate robust near-real-time VE monitoring in the EU/EEA and support public health decision-making.European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Grant/Award Numbers ECDC/2021/018, RS/2022/DTS/24104.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Feedforward Inhibition and Synaptic Scaling – Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Feedforward inhibition and synaptic scaling are important adaptive processes that control the total input a neuron can receive from its afferents. While often studied in isolation, the two have been reported to co-occur in various brain regions. The functional implications of their interactions remain unclear, however. Based on a probabilistic modeling approach, we show here that fast feedforward inhibition and synaptic scaling interact synergistically during unsupervised learning. In technical terms, we model the input to a neural circuit using a normalized mixture model with Poisson noise. We demonstrate analytically and numerically that, in the presence of lateral inhibition introducing competition between different neurons, Hebbian plasticity and synaptic scaling approximate the optimal maximum likelihood solutions for this model. Our results suggest that, beyond its conventional use as a mechanism to remove undesired pattern variations, input normalization can make typical neural interaction and learning rules optimal on the stimulus subspace defined through feedforward inhibition. Furthermore, learning within this subspace is more efficient in practice, as it helps avoid locally optimal solutions. Our results suggest a close connection between feedforward inhibition and synaptic scaling which may have important functional implications for general cortical processing

Thelytokous Parthenogenesis in the Fungus-Gardening Ant Mycocepurus smithii (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

The general prevalence of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction among organisms testifies to the evolutionary benefits of recombination, such as accelerated adaptation to changing environments and elimination of deleterious mutations. Documented instances of asexual reproduction in groups otherwise dominated by sexual reproduction challenge evolutionary biologists to understand the special circumstances that might confer an advantage to asexual reproductive strategies. Here we report one such instance of asexual reproduction in the ants. We present evidence for obligate thelytoky in the asexual fungus-gardening ant, Mycocepurus smithii, in which queens produce female offspring from unfertilized eggs, workers are sterile, and males appear to be completely absent. Obligate thelytoky is implicated by reproductive physiology of queens, lack of males, absence of mating behavior, and natural history observations. An obligate thelytoky hypothesis is further supported by the absence of evidence indicating sexual reproduction or genetic recombination across the species' extensive distribution range (Mexico-Argentina). Potential conflicting evidence for sexual reproduction in this species derives from three Mycocepurus males reported in the literature, previously regarded as possible males of M. smithii. However, we show here that these specimens represent males of the congeneric species M. obsoletus, and not males of M. smithii. Mycocepurus smithii is unique among ants and among eusocial Hymenoptera, in that males seem to be completely absent and only queens (and not workers) produce diploid offspring via thelytoky. Because colonies consisting only of females can be propagated consecutively in the laboratory, M. smithii could be an adequate study organism a) to test hypotheses of the population-genetic advantages and disadvantages of asexual reproduction in a social organism and b) inform kin conflict theory