Titanium functionalized with polylysine homopolymers: In vitro enhancement of cells growth

In oral implantology, the success and persistence of dental implants over time are guar-anteed by the bone formation around the implant fixture and by the integrity of the peri-implant mucosa seal, which adheres to the abutment and becomes a barrier that hinders bacterial penetration and colonization close to the outer parts of the implant. Research is constantly engaged in looking for substances to coat the titanium surface that guarantees the formation and persistence of the peri-implant bone, as well as the integrity of the mucous perimeter surrounding the implant crown. The present study aimed to evaluate in vitro the effects of a titanium surface coated with polylysine homopolymers on the cell growth of dental pulp stem cells and keratinocytes to establish the potential clinical application. The results reported an increase in cell growth for both cellular types cultured with polylysine-coated titanium compared to cultures without titanium and those without coating. These preliminary data suggest the usefulness of polylysine coating not only for enhancing osteoinduction but also to speed the post-surgery mucosal healings, guarantee appropriate peri-implant epithelial seals, and protect the fixture against bacterial penetration, which is responsible for compromising the implant survival

Perceptions and utilization of primary health care services in Iraq: findings from a national household survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>After many years of sanctions and conflict, Iraq is rebuilding its health system, with a strong emphasis on the traditional hospital-based services. A network exists of public sector hospitals and clinics, as well as private clinics and a few private hospitals. Little data are available about the approximately 1400 Primary Health Care clinics (PHCCs) staffed with doctors. How do Iraqis utilize primary health care services? What are their preferences and perceptions of public primary health care clinics and private primary care services in general? How does household wealth affect choice of services?</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A 1256 household national survey was conducted in the catchment areas of randomly selected PHCCs in Iraq. A cluster of 10 households, beginning with a randomly selected start household, were interviewed in the service areas of seven public sector PHCC facilities in each of 17 of Iraq's 18 governorates. A questionnaire was developed using key informants. Teams of interviewers, including both males and females, were recruited and provided a week of training which included field practice. Teams then gathered data from households in the service areas of randomly selected clinics.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Iraqi participants are generally satisfied with the quality of primary care services available both in the public and private sector. Private clinics are generally the most popular source of primary care, however the PHCCs are utilized more by poorer households. In spite of free services available at PHCCs many households expressed difficulty in affording health care, especially in the purchase of medications. There is no evidence of informal payments to secure health services in the public sector.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There is widespread satisfaction reported with primary health care services, and levels did not differ appreciably between public and private sectors. The public sector PHCCs are preferentially used by poorer populations where they are important providers. PHCC services are indeed free, with little evidence of informal payments to providers.</p

Text Mining Business Policy Documents: Applied Data Science in Finance

In a time when the employment of natural language processing techniques in domains such as biomedicine, national security, finance, and law is flourishing, this study takes a deep look at its application in policy documents. Besides providing an overview of the current state of the literature that treats these concepts, the authors implement a set of natural language processing techniques on internal bank policies. The implementation of these techniques, together with the results that derive from the experiments and expert evaluation, introduce a meta-algorithmic modelling framework for processing internal business policies. This framework relies on three natural language processing techniques, namely information extraction, automatic summarization, and automatic keyword extraction. For the reference extraction and keyword extraction tasks, the authors calculated precision, recall, and F-scores. For the former, the researchers obtained 0.99, 0.84, and 0.89; for the latter, this research obtained 0.79, 0.87, and 0.83, respectively. Finally, the summary extraction approach was positively evaluated using a qualitative assessment

Towards Effective Automatic Feedback for Simulator Training

The presence of an expert instructor during simulator training is of great importance for the trainees, if not indispensable. The instructor’s role is to give feedback and guide the trainees to help them make the right decisions on time as effectively as possible. The instructor starts or pauses the training scenarios when needed and facilitates reflection during and after the scenarios. However, the fact that simulator-training sessions are very dependent on the participation of a guiding instructor can be a drawback, since there are not always sufficient expert instructors to fulfil the training demands. In this work, an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is proposed as an automatic feedback solution for simulator training. It is based on effective assessment of the system conditions using a clustering based anomaly detection technique as a core component. Furthermore, we provide insights into the design of a proper interface for our ITS. The article presents the methodology for developing such a system which consists of three stages: data collection, data analysis and delivering feedback

Text Mining Business Policy Documents: Applied Data Science in Finance

In a time when the employment of natural language processing techniques in domains such as biomedicine, national security, finance, and law is flourishing, this study takes a deep look at its application in policy documents. Besides providing an overview of the current state of the literature that treats these concepts, the authors implement a set of natural language processing techniques on internal bank policies. The implementation of these techniques, together with the results that derive from the experiments and expert evaluation, introduce a meta-algorithmic modelling framework for processing internal business policies. This framework relies on three natural language processing techniques, namely information extraction, automatic summarization, and automatic keyword extraction. For the reference extraction and keyword extraction tasks, the authors calculated precision, recall, and F-scores. For the former, the researchers obtained 0.99, 0.84, and 0.89; for the latter, this research obtained 0.79, 0.87, and 0.83, respectively. Finally, the summary extraction approach was positively evaluated using a qualitative assessment

Proteomics analysis of human serum of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer reveals proteins as diagnostic biomarker candidates

Non-small-cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer and it has a poor prognosis, because overall survival after 5 years is 20–25% for all stages. Thus, it is extremely important to increase the survival rate in the early stages NSCLC by focusing on novel screening tests of cancer identifying specific biomarkers expression associated with a more accurate tumor staging and patient prognosis. In this study, we focused our attention on quantitative proteomics of three heavily glycosylated serum proteins: AMBP,&nbsp;α2 macroglobulin, and SERPINA1. In particular, we analyzed serum samples from 20 NSCLC lung adenocarcinoma cancer patients in early and advanced stages, and 10 healthy donors to obtain a relative quantification through the MRM analysis of these proteins that have shown to be markers of cancer development and progression. AMBP, α2 macroglobulin, and SERPINA1 were chosen because all of them possess endopeptidase inhibitor activity and play key roles in cancer. We observe a variation in the expression of these proteins linked to the stage of the disease. Therefore, we believe that proteins like α2 macroglobulin, αmicroglobulin/bikunin, and SERPINA1 could be useful biomarkers for early detection of lung cancer and in monitoring its evolution

The Role of Oxidative Stress and Hormones in Controlling Obesity

The accumulation of adipose tissue in the body occurs because the energy introduced with food and drink exceeds that expense, but to understand why this imbalance is established and why it is maintained over time, it is important to consider the main causes and risk factors of excess weight. In this review, we will refer to the main factors linked to obesity, starting from oxidative stress to hormonal factors including the role of obesity in breast cancer. Among the many hypotheses formulated on the etiopathology of obesity, a key role can be attributed to the relationship between stress oxidative and intestinal microbiota. Multiple evidences tend to show that genetic, epigenetic, and lifestyle factors contribute to determine in the obese an imbalance of the redox balance correlated with the alteration of the intestinal microbial flora. Obesity acts negatively on the wound healing, in fact several studies indicate morbid obesity significantly increased the risk of a post-operative wound complication and infection. Currently, in the treatment of obesity, medical interventions are aimed not only at modifying caloric intake, but also to modulate and improve the composition of diet with the aim of rebalancing the microbiota-redox state axis.The accumulation of adipose tissue in the body occurs because the energy introduced with food and drink exceeds that expense, but to understand why this imbalance is established and why it is maintained over time, it is important to consider the main causes and risk factors of excess weight. In this review, we will refer to the main factors linked to obesity, starting from oxidative stress to hormonal factors including the role of obesity in breast cancer. Among the many hypotheses formulated on the etiopathology of obesity, a key role can be attributed to the relationship between stress oxidative and intestinal microbiota. Multiple evidences tend to show that genetic, epigenetic, and lifestyle factors contribute to determine in the obese an imbalance of the redox balance correlated with the alteration of the intestinal microbial flora. Obesity acts negatively on the wound healing, in fact several studies indicate morbid obesity significantly increased the risk of a post-operative wound complication and infection. Currently, in the treatment of obesity, medical interventions are aimed not only at modifying caloric intake, but also to modulate and improve the composition of diet with the aim of rebalancing the microbiota-redox state axis

Toothache and brain: Any connections?

Orofacial pain is a universal predicament, afflicting millions of individuals worldwide. Research on the molecular mechanisms of orofacial pain has predominately focused on the role of neurons underlying nociception. Orofacial pain can arise from different regions and etiologies. Temporomandibular disorders are the most prevalent orofacial pain conditions for which patients seek treatment. Pain on weak tactile stimulation is expected if dentinal terminate synaptically on trigeminal brainstem neurons that deliver a pain message to higher brain centers. Further studies are needed

Salivary markers quantification of oxidative stress in patients with periodontitis, before and after intensive periodontal treatment: a one-blinded, randomized, clinical trial

AIM: The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of electric or sonic toothbrushes on periodontal inflammation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A randomized, controlled, one-blind study was conducted. Patients in the test group used sonic toothbrushes (Sonicare FlexCare with ProResults brush head, HX6011, Philips Oral Healthcare Inc, Bothell, Wash), whereas those in the control group used electric toothbrushes (Oral B Professional Care Triumph 4000, Procter &amp; Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio). Periodontal status was recorded at baseline and 3 months. In total, 60 patients were recruited for the study at baseline. Plaque Index (PI) and Loe and Silness Gingival Index (GI) were used. Student’s t-test repeated was used to compare the mean PI and GI scores obtained between the test and control groups at each time point. RESULTS: In total, 56 subjects completed the study. Significant differences were recorded between the two groups for periodontal parameters at 3 months. In addition, the indices of group Sonic were significantly reduced at 3 months compared to the Roto-oscillatory Group (P &lt;.005). CONCLUSION: Sonic toothbrush reduced parameters of periodontal inflammation more effectively than the electric toothbrush. © by BIOLIFE, s.a.s. Author keywords electric toothbrush; gingival inflammation; manual toothbrus; powered toothbrush; sonic toothbrus