Effect of venlafaxine on bone loss associated with ligature-induced periodontitis in Wistar rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The present study investigated the effects of venlafaxine, an antidepressant drug with immunoregulatory properties on the inflammatory response and bone loss associated with experimental periodontal disease (EPD).</p> <p>Materials and Methods</p> <p>Wistar rats were subjected to a ligature placement around the second upper left molar. The treated groups received orally venlafaxine (10 or 50 mg/kg) one hour before the experimental periodontal disease induction and daily for 10 days. Vehicle-treated experimental periodontal disease and a sham-operated (SO) controls were included. Bone loss was analyzed morphometrically and histopathological analysis was based on cell influx, alveolar bone, and cementum integrity. Lipid peroxidation quantification and immunohistochemistry to TNF-α and iNOS were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Experimental periodontal disease rats showed an intense bone loss compared to SO ones (SO = 1.61 ± 1.36; EPD = 4.47 ± 1.98 mm, p < 0.001) and evidenced increased cellular infiltration and immunoreactivity for TNF-α and iNOS. Venlafaxine treatment while at low dose (10 mg/kg) afforded no significant protection against bone loss (3.25 ± 1.26 mm), a high dose (50 mg/kg) caused significantly enhanced bone loss (6.81 ± 3.31 mm, p < 0.05). Venlafaxine effectively decreased the lipid peroxidation but showed no significant change in TNF-α or iNOS immunoreactivity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The increased bone loss associated with high dose venlafaxine may possibly be a result of synaptic inhibition of serotonin uptake.</p

A Fine-Grained Random Forests using Class Decomposition

Class decomposition describes the process of segmenting each class into a number of homogeneous subclasses. This can be naturally achieved through clustering. Utilising class decomposition can provide a number of benefits to supervised learning, especially ensembles. It can be a computationally efficient way to provide a linearly separable dataset without the need for feature engineering required by techniques like Support Ve]ctor Machines (SVM) and Deep Learning. For ensembles, the decomposition is a natural way to increase diversity; a key factor for the success of ensemble classifiers. In this paper, we propose to adopt class decomposition to the state-of-the-art ensemble learning Random Forests. Medical data for patient diagnosis may greatly benefit from this technique, as the same disease can have a diverse of symptoms. We have experimentally validated our proposed method on a number of datasets in that are mainly related to the medical domain. Results reported in this paper shows clearly that our method has significantly improved the accuracy of Random Forests

Cardiovascular disease and the role of oral bacteria

In terms of the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) the focus has traditionally been on dyslipidemia. Over the decades our understanding of the pathogenesis of CVD has increased, and infections, including those caused by oral bacteria, are more likely involved in CVD progression than previously thought. While many studies have now shown an association between periodontal disease and CVD, the mechanisms underpinning this relationship remain unclear. This review gives a brief overview of the host-bacterial interactions in periodontal disease and virulence factors of oral bacteria before discussing the proposed mechanisms by which oral bacterial may facilitate the progression of CVD

Intraperitoneal drain placement and outcomes after elective colorectal surgery: international matched, prospective, cohort study

Despite current guidelines, intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery remains widespread. Drains were not associated with earlier detection of intraperitoneal collections, but were associated with prolonged hospital stay and increased risk of surgical-site infections.Background Many surgeons routinely place intraperitoneal drains after elective colorectal surgery. However, enhanced recovery after surgery guidelines recommend against their routine use owing to a lack of clear clinical benefit. This study aimed to describe international variation in intraperitoneal drain placement and the safety of this practice. Methods COMPASS (COMPlicAted intra-abdominal collectionS after colorectal Surgery) was a prospective, international, cohort study which enrolled consecutive adults undergoing elective colorectal surgery (February to March 2020). The primary outcome was the rate of intraperitoneal drain placement. Secondary outcomes included: rate and time to diagnosis of postoperative intraperitoneal collections; rate of surgical site infections (SSIs); time to discharge; and 30-day major postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo grade at least III). After propensity score matching, multivariable logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to estimate the independent association of the secondary outcomes with drain placement. Results Overall, 1805 patients from 22 countries were included (798 women, 44.2 per cent; median age 67.0 years). The drain insertion rate was 51.9 per cent (937 patients). After matching, drains were not associated with reduced rates (odds ratio (OR) 1.33, 95 per cent c.i. 0.79 to 2.23; P = 0.287) or earlier detection (hazard ratio (HR) 0.87, 0.33 to 2.31; P = 0.780) of collections. Although not associated with worse major postoperative complications (OR 1.09, 0.68 to 1.75; P = 0.709), drains were associated with delayed hospital discharge (HR 0.58, 0.52 to 0.66; P &lt; 0.001) and an increased risk of SSIs (OR 2.47, 1.50 to 4.05; P &lt; 0.001). Conclusion Intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery is not associated with earlier detection of postoperative collections, but prolongs hospital stay and increases SSI risk

Global overview of the management of acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic (CHOLECOVID study)

Background: This study provides a global overview of the management of patients with acute cholecystitis during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: CHOLECOVID is an international, multicentre, observational comparative study of patients admitted to hospital with acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on management were collected for a 2-month study interval coincident with the WHO declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared with an equivalent pre-pandemic time interval. Mediation analysis examined the influence of SARS-COV-2 infection on 30-day mortality. Results: This study collected data on 9783 patients with acute cholecystitis admitted to 247 hospitals across the world. The pandemic was associated with reduced availability of surgical workforce and operating facilities globally, a significant shift to worse severity of disease, and increased use of conservative management. There was a reduction (both absolute and proportionate) in the number of patients undergoing cholecystectomy from 3095 patients (56.2 per cent) pre-pandemic to 1998 patients (46.2 per cent) during the pandemic but there was no difference in 30-day all-cause mortality after cholecystectomy comparing the pre-pandemic interval with the pandemic (13 patients (0.4 per cent) pre-pandemic to 13 patients (0.6 per cent) pandemic; P = 0.355). In mediation analysis, an admission with acute cholecystitis during the pandemic was associated with a non-significant increased risk of death (OR 1.29, 95 per cent c.i. 0.93 to 1.79, P = 0.121). Conclusion: CHOLECOVID provides a unique overview of the treatment of patients with cholecystitis across the globe during the first months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The study highlights the need for system resilience in retention of elective surgical activity. Cholecystectomy was associated with a low risk of mortality and deferral of treatment results in an increase in avoidable morbidity that represents the non-COVID cost of this pandemic

Uppsala University Pressurized water reactor spent nuclear fuel data library

The data is extracted from burnup and depletion calculations with the Serpent2 code. The simulations were done with a 2D PWR fuel pin cell geometry, for both initial UO2 and MOX fuel load for a wide range of initial enrichments (IE) or initial plutonium content (IPC), discharge burnup (BU) and cooling time (CT). The fuel library contains the atomic density of 279 nuclides (fission products and actinides), the total spontaneous fission rate, total photon emission rate, activity and decay heat at 789,406 different BU, CT, IE configurations for UO2 fuel and at 531,991 different BU, CT, IPC configurations for MOX fuel. The fuel library is organized in a comma separated value file, thus its further analysis is possible and simple. The file has 288 columns and 1,321,397 rows in addition to the header row. The first column contains an index, the next 8 columns are: - 'BU' (Discharge burnup value in MWd/kgU) - 'CT' (Cooling time in days) - 'IE' (Initial enrichment for UO2 and initial plutonium content (%(Pu + Am) / Heavy metal) for MOX) - 'fuelType' (Description of the fuel type. Takes the value of ‘UOX’ or ‘MOX’ for UO2 and MOX fuel, respectively.) - 'TOT_SF' (Spontaneous fission rate in fissions per second on a per axial length basis) - 'TOT_GSRC' (Photon emission rate in photons per second on a per axial length basis) - 'TOT_A' (Activity in Becquerels on a per axial length basis) - 'TOT_H' (Decay heat in Watts on a per axial length basis) The next 279 columns contain atomic densities in [1E24/cm3] units for 279 different nuclides, each named with their respective chemical element symbol and the mass number concatenated (eg. Cs137 for Cesium-137). When applicable the metastable state is highlighted with “m” at the end of the string

Uppsala University Pressurized water reactor spent nuclear fuel data library

The data is extracted from burnup and depletion calculations with the Serpent2 code. The simulations were done with a 2D PWR fuel pin cell geometry, for both initial UO2 and MOX fuel load for a wide range of initial enrichments (IE) or initial plutonium content (IPC), discharge burnup (BU) and cooling time (CT). The fuel library contains the atomic density of 279 nuclides (fission products and actinides), the total spontaneous fission rate, total photon emission rate, activity and decay heat at 789,406 different BU, CT, IE configurations for UO2 fuel and at 531,991 different BU, CT, IPC configurations for MOX fuel. The fuel library is organized in a comma separated value file, thus its further analysis is possible and simple. The file has 288 columns and 1,321,397 rows in addition to the header row. The first column contains an index, the next 8 columns are: - 'BU' (Discharge burnup value in MWd/kgU) - 'CT' (Cooling time in days) - 'IE' (Initial enrichment for UO2 and initial plutonium content (%(Pu + Am) / Heavy metal) for MOX) - 'fuelType' (Description of the fuel type. Takes the value of ‘UOX’ or ‘MOX’ for UO2 and MOX fuel, respectively.) - 'TOT_SF' (Spontaneous fission rate in fissions per second on a per axial length basis) - 'TOT_GSRC' (Photon emission rate in photons per second on a per axial length basis) - 'TOT_A' (Activity in Becquerels on a per axial length basis) - 'TOT_H' (Decay heat in Watts on a per axial length basis) The next 279 columns contain atomic densities in [1E24/cm3] units for 279 different nuclides, each named with their respective chemical element symbol and the mass number concatenated (eg. Cs137 for Cesium-137). When applicable the metastable state is highlighted with “m” at the end of the string

Dependability of the fission chambers for the neutron flux monitoring system of the french GEN-IV SFR

International audienceThe neutron flux monitoring system of the French sodium-cooled fast reactor will rely on fission chambers that permit both reactivity control and power level monitoring from startup to full power. They are installed inside the reactor vessel, putting severe constraints on the detector design to ensure its dependability. In this paper, we present the Photonis high-temperature fission chambers (HTFC) featuring wide-range flux monitoring capability and justify their specifications with the use of simulation and experimental results. We show that the HTFC dependability is enhanced thanks to a robust physical design. In order to satisfy the requirement of wide-range capability, we propose to estimate the count rate of a HTFC using the third-order cumulant of its signal. The use of this cumulant can be seen as an extension of the so-called Campbelling mode, based on the variance, hence the name high order Campbelling method (HOC)