A flipped classroom approach to teaching oral pathology using virtual microscopy - the Glasgow experience

This paper describes a student-centred, integrated teaching model in which oral pathology and oral medicine staff members jointly deliver tutorials in a combined online and face-to-face format. Students are provided with clinical and histopathological information, which they must review and use to answer questions via a Virtual Learning Environment before the tutorial takes place. By reviewing the students’ answers online before the teaching session, staff can focus the tutorial itself on resolving knowledge gaps and afterwards post a set of gold standard answers online for students to reflect upon. CPD/Clinical Relevance: This article illustrates a combination of teaching methods and modern technologies which integrate clinical with laboratory sciences and enhance the access of students to histopathological materials without the need for access to a traditional microscopy facility

Antibiotic prescribing by general dental practitioners in the Greater Glasgow Health Board, Scotland

OBJECTIVE: To investigate antibiotic prescribing patterns by general dental practitioners (GDPs) in the Greater Glasgow Health Board Area, Scotland. STUDY DESIGN: A 10% sample of prescriptions were selected at random from 35,545 prescriptions written by GDPs over a 6-month period. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Absolute and relative frequencies were used to describe the different classes of antibiotics used and the variations in prescribing practice. RESULTS: GDPs prescribed a wide range of antibiotics. Seventeen different antibiotics were prescribed with amoxycillin, metronidazole and penicillin V accounting for almost 90% of the prescriptions. In general the antibiotics were prescribed at the British National Formulary (BNF) recommended doses. There were, however, wide variations in the frequencies and durations of the prescriptions for all antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides evidence of sub-optimal prescribing of antibiotics by dentists in Scotland, with considerable variation from the recommended frequencies and doses

Genetic typing of Candida albicans strains isolated from the oral cavity of patients with denture stomatitis before and after itraconazole therapy

This study determined, by molecular typing of C. albicans species isolated from denture stomatitis patients with a mycological relapse six months after successful itraconazole therapy, whether there had been recurrence of infection with the same strain(s), selection of particular strains or infection with new strains of C. albicans. Forty patients with long-standing Candida-associated denture stomatitis were assigned either cyclodextrin itraconazole solution or itraconazole capsules (100mg b.d. for 15 days). Palatal erythema was measured and imprint cultures undertaken at baseline and at 15 days, four weeks and six months after treatment commenced. Yeast isolates were formally identified and chromosomal DNA was extracted from pairs of isolates from those patients with C. albicans present at baseline and six months after treatment commenced. Southern blotting of EcoRI-digested chromosomal DNA was performed using the C. albicans-specific 27A repetitive element as a probe. Eighteen of 36 patients were infected with C. albicans at baseline and six months after treatment commenced. Overall, 13 genetically different strains of C. albicans were found. However, in 17 of 18 patients, the C. albicans strains isolated prior to itraconazole therapy and six months later were the same. Thus recurrence of denture stomatitis in these individuals was due to re-colonisation by the original strain, rather than re-infection with a different strain. Key words: Genotyping, C. albicans, denture stomatitis

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink?

Biofilms are emerging as an increasing problem as medical technology advances. Dental practice is no exception and interest in the role of biofilms within dental units as a possible source of cross-infection is intensifying. It is difficult to quantitate the risks associated with aerosolised bacteria for the majority of patients seen in general practice. However, it seems prudent to eliminate this source of infection during treatment of compromised patients. This article attempts to provide a brief overview of current concepts and problems in this area of infection control

Resultatsclustering und einfache POI Exploration für OSCAR

Die von der Abteilung FMI/ALG entwickelte Suchmaschine „OSCAR“ (OSM Cell ARrangement) erlaubt flexibles Suchen im weltweiten OpenStreetMap (OSM) Datenbestand. Hierbei werden sowohl Teilwort- und Präfixsuche auf Textinhalte, als auch alle üblichen Mengenoperationen und geometrischen Einschränkungen unterstützt. Während die zu Grunde liegende Suchmaschine bereits sehr weit entwickelt ist, gibt es bei der Bedienung beziehungsweise der grafischen Oberfläche von „OSCAR“ weiterhin Verbesserungspotenzial. Bisher wird bei einer Suche, welche mehr als eine bestimmte Anzahl an Treffern liefert, lediglich eine Teilmenge auf der Karte dargestellt und der Benutzer kann bei Bedarf weitere Treffer nachladen. Dies führt vorerst zu einer unvollständigen Präsentation des Suchergebnis als auch zu Unübersichtlichkeit, falls die Suchtreffer geografisch sehr dicht liegen, da für jeden Treffer ein eigenes Kennzeichen auf der Karte gezeichnet wird. Hierbei wäre es wünschenswert, dem Nutzer die geografische Lage aller Suchtreffer präsentieren zu können ohne die gesamten Metainformationen der Treffer komplett auf den Rechner des Nutzers laden zu müssen. Dabei sollte ebenfalls die Präsentation der Resultate auf der Karte verbessert werden, indem geografisch dicht gelegene Resultate zusammengefasst werden (geografisches Clustering). Die Granularität der dargestellten Ergebnisse sollte hierbei abhängig vom Vergrößerungslevel der Karte gewählt werden und somit zu einem dynamischen Nachladen von Informationen führen. Darüber hinaus kann die in den Kartendaten vorhandene Hierarchie von Gebieten genutzt werden, um dem Benutzer eine detaillierte Inspektion des Suchergebnis zu ermöglichen. Dies soll durch eine interaktive Visualisierung erreicht werden, wobei das Laden von Subregionen und Suchtreffern unterstützt wird. Des Weiteren kann der Benutzer bei der Eingabe einer Suche unterstützt werden, um genauere Suchergebnisse zu erzielen. Um nach spezifischen Institutionen in den OSM-Daten suchen zu können, muss der Benutzer die zugehörigen OSM-Tags (Schlüssel-Wert Paare) zur Verfügung haben. Um beispielsweise nach Pizzerien zu suchen ist es nötig das OSM-Tag „@cuisine:pizza“ zu kennen. Hierfür kann dem Benutzer ein Menü angeboten werden, welches diese Tags bereitstellt. Zusätzlich können Suchtreffer, insbesondere bei Suchen nach Restaurants, Parks oder interessanten Plätzen (sogenannte POI: „Point-of-Interest“) durch Bilder verbessert werden. OSM enthält hierfür keine eigenen Bilderdaten, jedoch kann untersucht werden, inwiefern öffentliche Bilderportale dazu geeignet sind Suchtreffer zu verbessern

River Pollution in Harare

Since Independence, Harare has undergone major growth, both in size and population density. This has led to increasing pressure being placed on rivers draining the Greater Harare area, in terms of the legal and illegal discharges to them from various sources within the Manyame catchment. Consequently, several smaller streams which drain into the Manyame, such as the Mukuvisi and Nyatsime rivers, are highly polluted: the pollution load carried in these streams has contributed greatly to the present problems with water hyacinth in Lake Chivero. The water hyacinth problem is of great concern to the City of Harare since its presence in Lake Chivero threatens the efficient operation of the Morton Jaffray Waterworks, and therefore the quality of the drinking water which is supplied to the City. This paper will cover the nature of the pollution in Harare’s rivers, the sources of pollution, what has or is being done to prevent illegal discharges to the rivers, the effect of pollution on the receiving waters, current legislation on illegal discharges, and also the current level of sewage treatment capacity in the Greater Harare area

Between Critical and Normative Theory

Over the last decade, a call for greater “realism” in political theory has challenged the goals and methods that are implicit in much contemporary “normative” theory. However, realists have yet to produce a convincing alternative research program that is “constructive” rather than primarily “critical” in nature. I argue that given their common wariness of a devotion to abstract principles, realists should consider adopting John Dewey’s vision of theoretical expertise as an expansive kind of prediction that engages all of our historical, scientific, and imaginative resources. After demonstrating that realists are in need of such an affirmative vision, I outline Dewey’s original proposal, and elaborate its value in contemporary circumstances as a “predictive” method for political theory that stands between familiar critical and normative approaches

Computational Analysis of Geometric Effects on Strut Induced Mixing in a Scramjet Combustor

In order to increase the fuel-air mixing in a scramjet combustion section, the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Air Force Research lab investigated methods to increase the mixing efficiency. Previous experimental work identified the advantages of using a strut upstream of a cavity flame holder to increase the fuel-air mixture. In this paper a computational investigation of strut injectors in a supersonic flow with a cavity flame holder is reported. This research focused on understanding the effect of a change in height and width of the strut upstream of the combustion cavity on the mixing efficiency and pressure loss in the combustion section. Three baseline struts from the previous experimental research had slightly different trailing edge designs; a flat trailing edge, a 45 degree slanted trailing edge and a 6.45 cm extension. Twelve more struts were made from the baselines struts by varying the height and width by 50% of the baseline value. Computational simulations were conducted on all fifteen struts using the VULCAN computational fluid dynamics solver. Struts with a height or width increased from the baseline value exhibited an increase in the total pressure loss through the combustion section. This total pressure loss correlated to the larger low pressure region created by the flow displacement caused by the strut. The struts evaluated with decreased height and width showed a lower total pressure loss since they produced a smaller low pressure region in the wake. The low pressure region is key to the mixing caused by the struts. The larger struts caused a larger combustible area in the combustion section while the small struts produced a smaller combustible area. The size of the strut becomes a key design tradeoff between increased mixing and total loss performance