Apicotomy: a root apical fracture for surgical treatment of impacted upper canines

Impacted canines, due to systemic or local factors, represent a frequent problem in most populations. Surgical intervention usually involves exposure for spontaneous eruption, exposure for orthodontic traction or extraction. The author presents the apicotomy technique, which has been successfully used during the past twenty years for conservative intervention in cases of impacted upper canines with dilaceration or apical root-ankylosis. This original method involves surgical fracture of the root apex, followed by orthodontic traction of the corono-radicular region

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Cost-Effectiveness of “Golden Mustard” for Treating Vitamin A Deficiency in India

BACKGROUND: Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is an important nutritional problem in India, resulting in an increased risk of severe morbidity and mortality. Periodic, high-dose vitamin A supplementation is the WHO-recommended method to prevent VAD, since a single dose can compensate for reduced dietary intake or increased need over a period of several months. However, in India only 34 percent of targeted children currently receive the two doses per year, and new strategies are urgently needed. METHODOLOGY: Recent advancements in biotechnology permit alternative strategies for increasing the vitamin A content of common foods. Mustard (Brassica juncea), which is consumed widely in the form of oil by VAD populations, can be genetically modified to express high levels of beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A. Using estimates for consumption, we compare predicted costs and benefits of genetically modified (GM) fortification of mustard seed with high-dose vitamin A supplementation and industrial fortification of mustard oil during processing to alleviate VAD by calculating the avertable health burden in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALY). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found that all three interventions potentially avert significant numbers of DALYs and deaths. Expanding vitamin A supplementation to all areas was the least costly intervention, at $23-$50 per DALY averted and $1,000-$6,100 per death averted, though cost-effectiveness varied with prevailing health subcenter coverage. GM fortification could avert 5 million-6 million more DALYs and 8,000-46,000 more deaths, mainly because it would benefit the entire population and not just children. However, the costs associated with GM fortification were nearly five times those of supplementation. Industrial fortification was dominated by both GM fortification and supplementation. The cost-effectiveness ratio of each intervention decreased with the prevalence of VAD and was sensitive to the efficacy rate of averted mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Although supplementation is the least costly intervention, our findings also indicate that GM fortification could reduce the VAD disease burden to a substantially greater degree because of its wider reach. Given the difficulties in expanding supplementation to areas without health subcenters, GM fortification of mustard seed is an attractive alternative, and further exploration of this technology is warranted

The role of nutrition in integrated programs to control neglected tropical diseases

There are strong and direct relationships between undernutrition and the disease caused by infectious organisms, including the diverse pathogens labeled as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Undernutrition increases the risk of infection, the severity of disease and the risk that children will die, while the physical damage, loss of appetite, and host responses during chronic infection can contribute substantially to undernutrition. These relationships are often synergistic. This opinion article examines the role of nutrition in controlling NTDs and makes the point that mass drug treatment - the major strategy currently proposed to control several diseases - is crucial to controlling disease and transmission, but is only the start of the process of physical recovery. Without adequate energy and nutrients to repair damaged tissues or recover lost growth and development, the benefits of treatment may not be evident quickly; the effects of control programs may be not appreciated by beneficiaries; while vulnerability to reinfection and disease may not be reduced. There is substantial potential for nutritional interventions to be added to large-scale programs to deliver drug treatments and thereby contribute, within a broad strategy of public health interventions and behavior change activities, to controlling and preventing NTDs in populations, and to restoring their health

Cost analysis of school-based intermittent screening and treatment of malaria in Kenya

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The control of malaria in schools is receiving increasing attention, but there remains currently no consensus as to the optimal intervention strategy. This paper analyses the costs of intermittent screening and treatment (IST) of malaria in schools, implemented as part of a cluster-randomized controlled trial on the Kenyan coast.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Financial and economic costs were estimated using an ingredients approach whereby all resources required in the delivery of IST are quantified and valued. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate how programme variation affects costs and to identify potential cost savings in the future implementation of IST.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The estimated financial cost of IST per child screened is US$6.61 (economic cost US$ 6.24). Key contributors to cost were salary costs (36%) and malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) (22%). Almost half (47%) of the intervention cost comprises redeployment of existing resources including health worker time and use of hospital vehicles. Sensitivity analysis identified changes to intervention delivery that can reduce programme costs by 40%, including use of alternative RDTs and removal of supervised treatment. Cost-effectiveness is also likely to be highly sensitive to the proportion of children found to be RDT-positive.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the current context, school-based IST is a relatively expensive malaria intervention, but reducing the complexity of delivery can result in considerable savings in the cost of intervention.</p> <p>(Costs are reported in US$ 2010).</p

The Shear Stress-Induced Transcription Factor KLF2 Affects Dynamics and Angiopoietin-2 Content of Weibel-Palade Bodies

BACKGROUND: The shear-stress induced transcription factor KLF2 has been shown to induce an atheroprotective phenotype in endothelial cells (EC) that are exposed to prolonged laminar shear. In this study we characterized the effect of the shear stress-induced transcription factor KLF2 on regulation and composition of Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs) using peripheral blood derived ECs. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Lentiviral expression of KLF2 resulted in a 4.5 fold increase in the number of WPBs per cell when compared to mock-transduced endothelial cells. Unexpectedly, the average length of WPBs was significantly reduced: in mock-transduced endothelial cells WPBs had an average length of 1.7 µm versus 1.3 µm in KLF2 expressing cells. Expression of KLF2 abolished the perinuclear clustering of WPBs observed following stimulation with cAMP-raising agonists such as epinephrine. Immunocytochemistry revealed that WPBs of KLF2 expressing ECs were positive for IL-6 and IL-8 (after their upregulation with IL-1β) but lacked angiopoietin-2 (Ang2), a regular component of WPBs. Stimulus-induced secretion of Ang2 in KLF2 expressing ECs was greatly reduced and IL-8 secretion was significantly lower. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: These data suggest that KLF2 expression leads to a change in size and composition of the regulated secretory compartment of endothelial cells and alters its response to physiological stimuli

Measurement of VH, H → b b ¯ production as a function of the vector-boson transverse momentum in 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

Cross-sections of associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into bottom-quark pairs and an electroweak gauge boson, W or Z, decaying into leptons are measured as a function of the gauge boson transverse momentum. The measurements are performed in kinematic fiducial volumes defined in the `simplified template cross-section' framework. The results are obtained using 79.8 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. All measurements are found to be in agreement with the Standard Model predictions, and limits are set on the parameters of an effective Lagrangian sensitive to modifications of the Higgs boson couplings to the electroweak gauge bosons

Combination of searches for heavy spin-1 resonances using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for new heavy spin-1 resonances decaying into different pairings of W, Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons or quarks, is presented. The data sample used corresponds to 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at = 13 TeV collected during 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting quark pairs (qq, bb, , and tb) or third-generation leptons (τν and ττ) are included in this kind of combination for the first time. A simplified model predicting a spin-1 heavy vector-boson triplet is used. Cross-section limits are set at the 95% confidence level and are compared with predictions for the benchmark model. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The complementarity of the various analyses increases the sensitivity to new physics, and the resulting constraints are stronger than those from any individual analysis considered. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.8 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.4 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 1.5 TeV in the case of production via vector-boson fusion

Search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with b-quarks and decaying into b-quarks at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with one or two b -quarks and decaying to b -quark pairs is presented using 27.8  fb − 1 of √ s = 13  TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2015 and 2016. No evidence of a signal is found. Upper limits on the heavy neutral Higgs boson production cross section times its branching ratio to b ¯ b are set, ranging from 4.0 to 0.6 pb at 95% confidence level over a Higgs boson mass range of 450 to 1400 GeV. Results are interpreted within the two-Higgs-doublet model and the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model