The association between TLR4 polymorphisms and pulmonary tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem which causes many deaths every year in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, 1.5 million people lose their lives due to tuberculosis in every year. Although some of the infected people are showing the symptoms, in some the disease never develops, even about 90% of the affected ones are improved by the immune system's response. As in many infectious diseases, the difference between the number of infected people and the number of sick people is caused by differences in balance between the host defense and the virulence of the organism. In this case, the genetic basis of the response to infectious agents needs to be investigated in order to understand the relationship between infectious diseases and host. For this purpose; we investigated the effects of TLR4 polymorphisms (rs4986790 & rs4986791) that are involved in immune system mechanisms against susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). In order to understand the association we did genotyping in 65 TB patients from Malatya. The results of the genotyping showed no significant association to the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) mentioned, for rs4986790 the p value was 0.80 and for rs4986791 p value was 0,517 for the genotypes. The population size was the limiting factor for the statistical analysis and it should be also taken into account that a number of genes are taking part in the signal transduction pathway that TLR4 is involved. [Med-Science 2019; 8(1.000): 158-61

Avaliação da comunicação de psiquiatras com pacientes psicóticos

Evaluation of the physician-patient relationship is very important in determining priorities in medical practice and medicine. For this purpose, in this study the psychiatrist’s communication with psychotic patients as a sensitive group was evaluated. A questionnaire was administered to 210 patients in a psychiatric clinic of Inonu University Hospital in Turkey to determine how the examination is performed in the facility for outpatients in the psychosis unit. According to the study conducted, it was observed that the evaluation score of the psychiatrist's communication with psychotic patients increased positively with increasing consultation duration. Our work is particularly noteworthy because it deals with a sensitive area, such as a group of psychiatric patients. The scores were obtained based on data from the evaluation of the questionnaires, which showed that the communication between the psychiatrist and the psychotic patient was conducted in a sensitive and careful manner, and without ethical problems.La evaluación de la relación médico-paciente es muy importante para determinar las prioridades en la práctica médica y la medicina. Para este propósito, en este estudio se evaluó la comunicación del médico psiquiatra con los pacientes psicóticos como grupo sensible. Se administró un cuestionario a 210 pacientes de una clínica psiquiátrica del Hospital de la Universidad de Inonu en Turquía, para determinar cómo se realiza el examen en el establecimiento para los pacientes externos de la unidad de psicosis. De acuerdo con el estudio realizado, se observó que el puntaje de evaluación de la comunicación del psiquiatra con los pacientes psicóticos se incrementó positivamente al aumentar la duración de la consulta. Nuestro trabajo se destaca particularmente por tratarse de un área sensible, como es un grupo de pacientes psiquiátricos. Los puntajes se obtuvieron basándose en datos de la evaluación de los cuestionarios, que mostraron que la comunicación entre el psiquiatra y el paciente psicótico se realizó de una forma sensible y cuidadosa, y sin problemas éticos.A avaliação da relação médico-paciente é muito importante para determinar as prioridades na prática médica e na medicina. Para este fim, neste estudo foi avaliada a comunicação do psiquiatra com pacientes psicóticos como um grupo sensível. Um questionário foi aplicado a 210 pacientes em uma clínica psiquiátrica do Hospital Universitário Inonu na Turquia para determinar como o exame é conduzido nas instalações para pacientes ambulatoriais da unidade de psicose. De acordo com o estudo realizado, observou-se que a pontuação da avaliação da comunicação do psiquiatra com pacientes psicóticos aumentou positivamente à medida que a duração da consulta aumentava. Nosso trabalho é particularmente notável porque trata de uma área sensível, tal como um grupo de pacientes psiquiátricos. Os resultados foram obtidos com base nos dados da avaliação dos questionários, que mostraram que a comunicação entre psiquiatra e paciente psicótico foi realizada de forma sensível e cuidadosa, e sem problemas éticos

CAD/CAM single-retainer monolithic zirconia ceramic resin-bonded fixed partial dentures bonded with two different resin cements: Up to 40 months clinical results of a randomized-controlled pilot study

PURPOSE: This pilot study was part of a larger study planned for the future which aimed to compare the clinical success of two different resin cements used in the cementation of CAD/CAM single-retainer monolithic zirconia ceramic resin-bonded fixed dentures (RBFPDs). METHODS: Twenty-four RBFPDs were fabricated with monolithic zirconia (Katana™ Zirconia HT, Kuraray Noritake Dental Inc, Tokyo, Japan). Panavia F2.0 (PF2.0; n = 12) and Panavia V5 (PV5; n = 12) were used for cementation. The survival period was defined as the time when the restoration was placed in the mouth and lasted until an irreparable damage occurred. The repairable failures were identified as relative and irreparable failures were identified as absolute failure. The survival rate of the RBFPDs was determined by the Kaplan-Meier estimator. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: The mean observation times of the PF2.0 group and the PV5 group were 40.45 ± 6.15 months and 40.18 ± 6.41 months, respectively. Four failures occurred in the PF2.0 group. No failure was observed in the PV5 group. The curves of survival rate (PF2.0 = 80%, PV5 = 100%) showed no statistically significant difference (p = 0.031), although success rate (PF2.0 = 66.7%, PV5 = 100%) showed statistically significant difference (p = 0.317). CONCLUSION: Up to 40 months mean follow-up period, performance of RBFPDs bonded with PV5 was better than with PF2.0. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: For clinicians, it is a matter of hesitation to apply single-retainer RBFPDs. This study contains results of 40 months (minimum 32, maximum 50.47 months) clinical follow-ups of single-retainer RBFPDs. These results will enlighten clinicians about the clinical success of the resin cement type for single-retainer monolithic zirconia ceramic RBFPDs

Load-bearing capacity and failure types of premolars restored with sonic activated bulk-fill-, nano-hybrid and silorane-based resin restorative materials

WOS: 000374585600004This study evaluated the load-bearing capacity of premolars restored with three types of resin composite materials in mesio-occluso-distal (MOD) cavities. Extracted human premolars (N=30, n=10 per group) were randomly divided into three groups; MOD cavities were prepared and restored with one of the following resin materials: Group BFC: Bulk-fill composite (SonicFill, Kerr Corporation), Group NC: Nanohybrid resin composite (Filtek Z550, 3M ESPE), Group SC: Silorane-based composite (Filtek Silorane, 3M ESPE). For NC Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray, Japan) and for SC, Silorane adhesive resin (Filtek Silorane System Adhesive, 3M ESPE) were used. The cavities in NC and SC groups were restored incrementally, while those in BFC groups were restored in bulk. After water storage (24h, 37 degrees C), each tooth was subjected to compressive loading with a stainless steel ball (diameter: 4mm) perpendicular to the occlusal surface (1mm/min). Failure types were categorized according to being repairable or irrepairable. Data were statistically analysed using Kruskal-Wallis test (=0.05). Two-parameter Weibull distribution values including the Weibull modulus, scale (m) and shape (0) values were calculated. Fracture resistance of premolars restored with BFC (829.84), NC (701.35) and SC (807.73) did not show significant difference (p=0.72). Weibull distribution presented lower shape (0) for SC (m=2.77) and NC (m=3.09) compared to BFC (m=5.01). The incidence of repairable failures was more common in BFC (80%) compared to NC (60%) and SC (50%). Adhesive failures were more often observed in NC (80%) and SC (70%) groups

Estimation of Obesity Levels through the Proposed Predictive Approach Based on Physical Activity and Nutritional Habits

Obesity is the excessive accumulation of adipose tissue in the body that leads to health risks. The study aimed to classify obesity levels using a tree-based machine-learning approach considering physical activity and nutritional habits. Methods: The current study employed an observational design, collecting data from a public dataset via a web-based survey to assess eating habits and physical activity levels. The data included gender, age, height, weight, family history of being overweight, dietary patterns, physical activity frequency, and more. Data preprocessing involved addressing class imbalance using Synthetic Minority Over-sampling TEchnique-Nominal Continuous (SMOTE-NC) and feature selection using Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE). Three classification algorithms (logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost)) were used for obesity level prediction, and Bayesian optimization was employed for hyperparameter tuning. The performance of different models was evaluated using metrics such as accuracy, recall, precision, F1-score, area under the curve (AUC), and precision–recall curve. The LR model showed the best performance across most metrics, followed by RF and XGBoost. Feature selection improved the performance of LR and RF models, while XGBoost’s performance was mixed. The study contributes to the understanding of obesity classification using machine-learning techniques based on physical activity and nutritional habits. The LR model demonstrated the most robust performance, and feature selection was shown to enhance model efficiency. The findings underscore the importance of considering both physical activity and nutritional habits in addressing the obesity epidemic

Association of eNOS Gene Polymorphisms G894T and T-786C with Risk of Hepatorenal Syndrome

Background. There are no studies investigating the relationship between endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene polymorphisms and hepatorenal syndrome (HRS). Aim. The purpose of this study is to elucidate whether eNOS gene polymorphisms (G894T and T-786C) play a role in the development of type-2 HRS. Methods. This study was carried out in a group of 92 patients with cirrhosis (44 patients with type-2 HRS and 48 without HRS) and 50 healthy controls. Polymorphisms were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and melting curve analysis. Results. We did not find any significant difference in allele and genotype distributions of the eNOS -T-786C polymorphism among the groups ( = 0.440). However, the frequency of GT (40.9%) and TT (13.6%) genotypes and mutant allele T (34.1%) for the eNOS G894T polymorphism were significantly higher ( &lt; 0.001 and &lt; 0.001, resp.) in the HRS group than in both the stable cirrhosis (14.6%, 4.2%, and 11.5%, resp.) and the control (22.0%, 2.0%, and 13.0%, resp.) groups. Conclusion. The occurrence of mutant genotypes (GT/TT) and mutant allele T in eNOS -G894T polymorphisms should be considered as a potential risk factor in cirrhotic patients with HRS

Modeling Based on Ensemble Learning Methods for Detection of Diagnostic Biomarkers from LncRNA Data in Rats Treated with Cis-Platinum-Induced Hepatotoxicity

Background: The first aim of this study is to perform bioinformatic analysis of lncRNAs obtained from liver tissue samples from rats treated with cisplatin hepatotoxicity and without pathology. Another aim is to identify possible biomarkers for the diagnosis/early diagnosis of hepatotoxicity by modeling the data obtained from bioinformatics analysis with ensemble learning methods. Methods: In the study, 20 female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into a control group and a hepatotoxicity group. Liver samples were taken from rats, and transcriptomic and histopathological analyses were performed. The dataset achieved from the transcriptomic analysis was modeled with ensemble learning methods (stacking, bagging, and boosting). Modeling results were evaluated with accuracy (Acc), balanced accuracy (B-Acc), sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), positive predictive value (Ppv), negative predictive value (Npv), and F1 score performance metrics. As a result of the modeling, lncRNAs that could be biomarkers were evaluated with variable importance values. Results: According to histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses, a significant increase was observed in the sinusoidal dilatation and Hsp60 immunoreactivity values in the hepatotoxicity group compared to the control group (p < 0.0001). According to the results of the bioinformatics analysis, 589 lncRNAs showed different expressions in the groups. The stacking model had the best classification performance among the applied ensemble learning models. The Acc, B-Acc, Se, Sp, Ppv, Npv, and F1-score values obtained from this model were 90%, 90%, 80%, 100%, 100%, 83.3%, and 88.9%, respectively. lncRNAs with id rna-XR_005492522.1, rna-XR_005492536.1, and rna-XR_005505831.1 with the highest three values according to the variable importance obtained as a result of stacking modeling can be used as predictive biomarker candidates for hepatotoxicity. Conclusions: Among the ensemble algorithms, the stacking technique yielded higher performance results as compared to the bagging and boosting methods on the transcriptomic data. More comprehensive studies can support the possible biomarkers determined due to the research and the decisive results for the diagnosis of drug-induced hepatotoxicity