Pluripotent Stem Cells in Toxicity Testing: An Omics Approach

Traditional approaches to toxicological testing are expensive and time consuming usually involving exposure of chemicals to large numbers of animals during the crucial period of organ development. In order to provide cost-efficient and high-throughput methods, various in vitro test systems have been proposed to access toxicity for environmental toxicants and many drugs. Although effective, these platforms are based on in vitro cell cultures and ex vivo models using embryo cultures and often do not accurately interpret results for human safety because of interspecies difference and/or the inability to reproduce human physiology. To address this problem, a humanized system, pluripotent stem cells were introduced to study toxicity of drugs

Image Inpainting For Gap Filling and Text Abstraction by Using Optical Character Recognition

Inpainting is a technique referred as a restoration of image or regeneration of image .In this paper we are combining two concepts namely Image inpainting and OCR i.e. Optical character recognition. The main problem is to identify the missing region or the region we want to Inpaint, to remove the text from the same and store that text using OCR. This paper gives the overall explanation about the algorithm which is Exemplar based inpainting and recreation of a new system. The main task is to identify the text written on the image, next to that is to remove that text and store that text. After that to fill the generated gaps using image inpainting. Anyhow, the main aim of any inpainting technique is restore or reconstruct the damaged area of an image

Perspective Chapter: Dental Home – A Neglected Primary Oral Health Care Concept

Tooth decay, if left untreated even in the earliest stages of life, can have serious implications for a child’s long-term health and well-being. Early preventive care is a sound health and economic investment. Dental assessments and evaluations for children during their first year of life have been recommended by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) and the American Association of Pediatrics (ADA). Establishment of dental home and use of anticipatory guidance is one of the concepts in comprehensive oral health care. AAPD and ADA support the concept of a “dental home,” which is the ongoing relationship between the dentist and the patient. Establishing a dental home means that a child’s oral health care is managed in a comprehensive, continuously accessible, coordinated, and family-centered way by a licensed dentist. The dental professional’s ability to provide optimal oral health care, beginning from when the child is 1-year-old, dental visit leading to preventive care and treatment as part of an overall oral health care foundation for life, is enhanced by dental home. The establishment of the dental home also assures appropriate referral to dental specialists when availability of direct care is not possible within the dental home

Human embryonic stem cell-derived test systems for developmental neurotoxicity: a transcriptomics approach

Developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) and many forms of reproductive toxicity (RT) often manifest themselves in functional deficits that are not necessarily based on cell death, but rather on minor changes relating to cell differentiation or communication. The fields of DNT/RT would greatly benefit from in vitro tests that allow the identification of toxicant-induced changes of the cellular proteostasis, or of its underlying transcriptome network. Therefore, the 'human embryonic stem cell (hESC)- derived novel alternative test systems (ESNATS)' European commission research project established RT tests based on defined differentiation protocols of hESC and their progeny. Valproic acid (VPA) and methylmercury (MeHg) were used as positive control compounds to address the following fundamental questions: (1) Does transcriptome analysis allow discrimination of the two compounds? (2) How does analysis of enriched transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) and of individual probe sets (PS) distinguish between test systems? (3) Can batch effects be controlled? (4) How many DNA microarrays are needed? (5) Is the highest non-cytotoxic concentration optimal and relevant for the study of transcriptome changes? VPA triggered vast transcriptional changes, whereas MeHg altered fewer transcripts. To attenuate batch effects, analysis has been focused on the 500 PS with highest variability. The test systems differed significantly in their responses (\20 % overlap). Moreover, within one test system, little overlap between the PS changed by the two compounds has been observed. However, using TFBS enrichment, a relatively large 'common response' to VPA and MeHg could be distinguished from 'compound-specific' responses. In conclusion, the ESNATS assay battery allows classification of human DNT/RT toxicants on the basis of their transcriptome profiles.EU/FP7/ESNATSDFGDoerenkamp-Zbinden Foundatio

Efficient pothole detection using smartphone sensors

Road safety remains a casualty in India, with potholes wrecking asphalt pavements by the dozens. A study in 2017 recorded that potholes caused the budget for road safety to increase by a whopping 100.4 per cent, and even doubled the death toll from that of the year prior. To address this situation, an effective solution is required that ensures the drivers’ safety and can prove beneficial for long term measures. This can be established by employing an apt pothole detection system which is simple yet functional. In this paper, the method for such a system is described which uses accelerometer and gyroscope, both built in the modern day smartphones, to sense potholes. Pothole induced vibrations can be measured on the axis reading, making them distinguishable. Our proposed Neural Network model is trained and evaluated on the data acquired from the sensors and classifies the potholes from the non-potholes. The neural network gives a classification accuracy of 94.78 per cent. It also presents a solid precision-recall trade-off with 0.71 precision and 0.81 recall, considerably high for a problem with class imbalance. The results indicate that the method is suitable for creating an accurate and sensitive supervised model for pothole detection

Human chorionic gonadotropin: An update on its receptor binding regions

448-455Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), an important member of the glycoprotein hormone family, plays a crucial role in the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. Glycoprotein hormones are all heterodimers composed of a common α subunit and a hormone-specific β-subunit noncovalently linked. These hormones exert their action by binding to specific receptors on the target cells. As both the subunits are involved in receptor binding, the binding sites on the hormones have to be topographical extending across both subunits. This article attempts to critically review the work on the receptor binding regions of hCG in the α- and β-subunits. A variety of approaches like chemical modification, site-directed mutagenesis, hormone chimeras and synthetic peptides have been used to map the receptor binding regions of hCG. There is agreement on the involvement of a number of regions in the α- and β- subunits in receptor binding but, there are also some contrasting observations. The regions 30-45 and 81-92 in the α-subunit appear to be involved in receptor binding whereas 8-22, 85-95, 93-100 and 100-110 are the consensus receptor binding regions in the β-subunit. Using disulphide peptides of the β-subunit as probes, recently the regions around Cys(9-57) and Cys(23-72) disulphide bonds have been identified to be important for receptor binding. After sifting through the available data two potential receptor binding sites in the β-subunit have been proposed

Evaluating the Use of Audiovisual Distraction in Reducing Stress during Dental Treatment in Children using Salivary Chromogranin A: A Quasi-experimental Study

Introduction: Audiovisual Distraction (AVD), as a behaviour management technique, has gained significant importance in aiding patient cooperation during routine dental procedures. However, the scale at which it makes a difference needs to be evaluated. Objective approaches like measuring heart rate and pulse rates are unreliable methods. The quantification can be done using salivary Chromogranin A (CgA), a stress marker. Aim: To evaluate the use of AVD for reducing stress in children aged 4-7 years during dental treatment using salivary CgA. Materials and Methods: The present quasi-experimental study was conducted within the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) Dental College and Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India, from January 2022 to March 2022 after obtaining ethical clearance from the Institute and consent from parents. Six uncooperative children who required two Class-I restorative treatments for occlusal caries involving enamel and dentin were included in the study. The sample size was estimated using G*Power software v3.1.9.2 and calculated using t-tests. The treatment plan was divided into two appointments. In the first appointment, the cavity was prepared without the use of AVD. In the second appointment, AVD was incorporated during the dental procedure using the patient’s favourite cartoon. Unstimulated salivary samples were collected during both appointments, before and immediately after the procedure, which were sent to the laboratory for evaluation of CgA levels to gauge the stress levels during each appointment and the effect AVD has on the same. Results: Within the group without AV aids used, the mean salivary CgA levels showed a significant increase from 0.23 pmol/mg pretreatment to 1.26 pmol/mg protein after treatment. Within the group with AV aids, salivary CgA levels showed a significant reduction (p≤0.05) from 1.08 pmol/mg before treatment to 0.43 pmol/mg protein after treatment. There was also a significant difference in the change in salivary CgA levels from pre- to post-treatment between the two study groups. Conclusion: The study shows quantitatively that AVD reduced stress levels during dental treatment and therefore can be used as an adjunct for behaviour management. It can also be seen that Salivary CgA is a reliable short-term stress marker and can be used objectively to evaluate and quantify stress levels in children

Comparative Evaluation of the Antimicrobial Efficacy and Abrasivity of a Herbal Dentifrice Formulated with Myristica fragrans and a Commercially Available Herbal Dentifrice: An In-vitro Study

Introduction: Effective plaque control is important for proper oral health maintenance, and the toothbrush-dentifrice combination is essential for achieving this. Recently, herbal toothpastes have gained more popularity amongst people. Aim: To formulate a novel herbal toothpaste containing Myristica fragrans (nutmeg) and compare its antimicrobial efficacy and abrasivity with a commercially available herbal toothpaste. Materials and Methods: This in-vitro study was conducted on 24 non-carious permanent extracted teeth with intact coronal structure. These were equally divided into experimental and control groups (n=12). The nutmeg toothpaste was formulated using nutmeg powder, tulsi leaf powder, and clove powder as the main herbal ingredients. Dabur red was selected as the commercial herbal toothpaste. The zone of inhibition of both toothpastes was evaluated against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus species using the agar well diffusion method. Enamel specimens measuring 5×5×5 mm were mounted on acrylic blocks and brushed for 28 days. Profilometric analysis was conducted on the 1st, 7th, and 28th day. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS) version 23.0 software, and independent t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests were used. Results: 24 teeth were used. A total of 6 samples of toothpaste were considered for antimicrobial testing. The zone of inhibition for the nutmeg toothpaste and Dabur red was 28 mm and 32.17±0.42 mm, respectively, against both organisms. The increase in surface roughness of enamel was not statistically significant between the two groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: Both toothpastes exhibited antimicrobial activity against the test microorganisms and significantly increased the surface roughness of enamel from baseline to the 28th day. The nutmeg toothpaste caused less enamel abrasion, but the difference was not significant