The COVID-19 pandemic and its global effects on dental practice. An international survey

Objectives A multicentre survey was designed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on dental practice worldwide, estimate the COVID-19 related symptoms/signs, work attitudes and behaviour and the routine use of protective measures and personal protective equipment (PPE). Methods A global survey using a standardized questionnaire with research groups from 36 countries was designed. The questionnaire was developed and pretested during April 2020 and contained three domains: 1) personal data; 2) COVID-19 positive rate and symptoms/signs presumably related to the coronavirus; 3) working conditions and PPE adopted after the outbreak. Countries’ data were grouped by the country positive rate (CPR) during the survey period and by Gross-National-Income per capita. An ordinal multinomial logistic regression model was carried out with COVID-19 self-reported rate referred by dental professionals as dependent variable to assess the association with questionnaire items. Results A total of 52,491 questionnaires were returned with a male/female ratio of 0.63. Out of the total respondents, 7,859 dental professionals (15%) reported symptoms/signs compatible with COVID-19. More than half of the sample (n=27,818; 53%) stated to use FFP2/N95 masks, while 21,558 (41.07%) used eye protection. In the bivariate analysis, CPR and N95/FFP2 were significantly associated (OR=1.80 95%CI=1.60/2.82 and OR=5.20 95%CI=1.44/18.80, respectively), while Gross-National-Income was not statistically associated with CPR (OR=1.09 95%CI=0.97/1.60). The same significant associations were observed in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions Oral health service provision has not been significantly affected by COVID-19, although access to routine dental care was reduced due to country-specific temporary lockdown periods. While the dental profession has been identified at high-risk, the reported rates of COVID-19 for dental professionals were not significantly different to those reported for the general population in each country. These findings may help to better plan oral health care for future pandemic events

An association between type Iγ PI4P 5-kinase and Exo70 directs E-cadherin clustering and epithelial polarization

Type Iγ phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase and Exo70 cooperate in the directed targeting of E-cadherin on the plasma membrane to newly formed adherens junctions. This promotes the regional accumulation of E-cadherin, expansion and maturation of adherens junctions, and differentiation of the lateral membrane domain

Galls of the temperate forest of southern South America: Argentina and Chile. In: Neotropical Insect Galls

South American temperate forests are of special conservation concern due to their highly endemic flora and fauna, and the occurrence of unique plant-animal interactions. Yet, knowledge regarding gall inducers diversity is limited although increasing rapidly in the last two decades. Here, we performed a review of the literature, supplemented with field collected data by the authors, in order to provide the most up to date knowledge of gall inducers\u2019 diversity associated with native woody species of the temperate forest of Chile and Argentina. We present data for 90 morphospecies of galls associated with 39 host-plant species (21 genera, 15 families), spanning insects and arachnids of at least 6 orders and nematodes. Most of this richness is associated to the best surveyed host-plant genus, Nothofagus, with up to 43 morphospecies of galls in just 8 dominant tree species. Moreover, we provide evidence that gall species richness across all woody host-plant species decreases with elevation, probably driven by decreased temperature and number of available host-plant species. However, this overall trend vary among host plant species and scales of observation. Overall, the study of gall diversity and the biotic and abiotic factors that shape their distribution in these austral forests offer an exciting and fertile field for future research. Besides emphasizing the need for more in depth taxonomic and diversity studies of the gall fauna of these forests, we propose several future lines of research that promise to further elucidate our understanding of the evolution of plant-gall interactions in these forests