Dental Implant Supported Restorations Improve Quality of Life in Osteoporotic Women

Introduction. The aim of this study is to compare the quality of life (QoL) in partially edentulous osteoporotic women who have missing teeth restored with dental implant retained restorations with those who do not and, secondarily, to report the rate of osteonecrosis in this sample. Methods. 237 participants completed the Utian QoL survey, a 23-question document measuring across psychosocial domains of well-being including occupational, health, emotional, and sexual domains which together contribute to an overall score. The subset of participants having dental implant supported prosthesis (64) was compared to the subset having nonimplant supported fixed restorations (47), the subset having nonimplant supported removable restorations (60), and the subset having no restoration of missing teeth (66). Results. ANOVA showed significant difference in all QoL domains between the four subsets (p<0.05). Although 134 reported oral bisphosphonate and 51 reported IV bisphosphonate use, no signs of ONJ were identified in any participants. Conclusion. These findings show implant retained oral rehabilitation has a statistically significant impact over nonimplant and traditional fixed restorations, removable restorations, and no restoration of missing teeth in far reaching areas including occupational, health, emotional, sexual, and overall QoL. These findings also support future examination of psychosocial outcomes associated with oral rehabilitation and the incorporation of oral health into women’s health promotion

Pamphlets for War: The Role of Lord Burghley’s Pamphlet Discourse in Avoiding Civil War

During the sixteenth century, England sat as a conflicted nation among a continent of tumultuous civil wars and reformations. While neighboring countries fought within and among themselves, England somehow managed to avoid a formal civil war. The confounding lack of war in England during the latter half of the sixteenth century could be related to the constant discourse between prominent protestants and catholics. One such prominent protestant was Lord Cecil Burghley, who served as a royal minister and maintained good relations with Queen Elizabeth I. Lord Burghley’s pamphlet, The Execution of Justice in England, and other documents of discourse at the time may contribute to a war of pamphlets based on the rhetoric and relationship Burghley demonstrated. With our research, we hope to discover what within the pamphlets contributed to keeping the religious turbulence within the realms of a war of discourse rather than a full-fledged civil war. Based on preliminary investigation, we have found that the rhetoric of the pamphlets, the sheer amount of discourse and correspondence, and the relationship between the writers and the audiences could have contributed to England’s abstinence from civil war. Observing the discourse within Burghley’s pamphlet and other responding documents, we can gain an understanding of what set England apart from other surrounding countries facing similar religious and political tumult. Our findings may also contribute to a greater conversation surrounding the power of conversation, dialogue, and discourse to either prevent or incite war

ZENK expression in the auditory pathway of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) as a function of D note number and duty cycle of chick-a-dee calls

Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) use their namesake chick-a-dee call for multiple functions, altering the features of the call depending on context. For example, duty cycle (the proportion of time filled by vocalizations) and fine structure traits (e.g., number of D notes) can encode contextual factors, such as predator size and food quality. Wilson and Mennill (2011) found that chickadees show stronger behavioral responses to playback of chick-a-dee calls with higher duty cycles, but not to the number of D notes. That is, independent of the number of D notes in a call, but dependent on the overall proportion of time filled with vocalization, birds responded more to higher duty cycle playback compared to lower duty cycle playback. Here we presented chickadees with chick-a-dee calls that contained either two D (referred to hereafter as 2 D) notes with a low duty cycle, 2 D notes with a high duty cycle, 10 D notes with a high duty cycle, or 2 D notes with a high duty cycle but played in reverse (a non-signaling control). We then measured ZENK expression in the auditory nuclei where perceptual discrimination is thought to occur. Based on the behavioral results of Wilson and Mennill, 2011, we predicted we would observe the highest ZENK expression in response to forward-playing calls with high duty cycles; we predicted we would observe no significant difference in ZENK expression between forward-playing high duty cycle playbacks (2 D or 10 D). We found no significant difference between forward-playing 2 D and 10 D high duty cycle playbacks. However, contrary to our predictions, we did not find any effects of altering the duty cycle or note number presented

Correction: The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health

This article details a correction to: Landrigan PJ, Raps H, Cropper M, et al. The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health. Annals of Global Health. 2023; 89(1): 23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4056

Lisbon: Between History and Modernity

This book showcases a selection of work from the 2011 Urban Design Summer Program in Lisbon offered by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the Universidade Lusófona. Este livro apresenta uma seleção dos trabalhos do Programa de Verão em Desenho Urbano de 2011 em Lisboa, oferecido pela Cal Poly San Luis Obispo e a Universidade Lusófona

Moving from perceptual to functional categories in songbirds

Category perception, as Herrnstein (1990) defined it, is a powerful and pervasive cognitive ability possessed by every species in which it has been adequately tested. We have studied category perception of vocal communication signals in songbirds for over 20 years. Our first studies provided us with an understanding of songbird vocal category production and perception, clarifying perceptual categorization and the underlying mechanisms. More recent work has moved towards understanding functional vocal categories such as sex, dominance, species, and geography. Some of our most recent work has moved into the realm of conceptual knowledge, with studies aimed at understanding birds’ ability to deal with concepts of sameness and danger (i.e., threat level). Here we provide key examples that effectively show the wide range of abilities possessed and used by songbirds

Chickadee behavioural response to varying threat levels of predator and conspecific calls

Chickadees produce many vocalizations, including chick-a-dee calls which they use as a mobbing call in the presence of predators. Previous research has shown that chickadees produce more D notes in their mobbing calls in response to high-threat predators compared to low-threat predators, and may perceive predator and corresponding mobbing vocalizations as similar. We presented black-capped chickadees with playback of high- and low-threat predator calls and conspecific mobbing calls, and non-threat heterospecific and reversed mobbing calls, to examine vocal and movement behavioural responses. Chickadees produced more chick-a-dee calls in response to playback of calls produced by a high-threat predator compared to calls produced by a low-threat predator, and to reversed high-threat mobbing calls compared to normal (i.e., non-reversed) high-threat mobbing calls. Chickadees also vocalized more in response to all playback conditions consisting of conspecific mobbing calls compared to a silent baseline period. The number of D notes that the subjects produced was similar to previous findings; chickadees produced approximately one to three D notes per call in response to low-threat mobbing calls, and produced more calls containing four to five D notes in response to high-threat mobbing calls, although this difference in the number of D notes per call was not significant. The difference in chickadees’ production of tseet calls across playback conditions approached significance as chickadees called more in response to conspecific mobbing calls, but not in response to heterospecific calls. General movement activity decreased in response to playback of conspecific-produced vocalizations, but increased in response to heterospecific-produced vocalizations, suggesting that chickadees may mobilize more in response to predator playback in preparation for a “fight or flight” situation. These results also suggest that chickadees may produce more mobbing calls in response to high-threat predator vocalizations as an attempt to initiate mobbing with conspecifics, while they produce fewer mobbing calls in response to a low-threat predator that a chickadee could outmaneuver