Alveolar Bone Microstructure Surrounding Orthodontic Anchor Screws with Plasma Surface Treatment in Rats

A lateral load was applied to anchor screws that had undergone surface treatment, and the structure, cellular dynamics, and quality of the bone surrounding anchor screws were analyzed to investigate the effect of this surface treatment on the peri-implant jawbone. In addition, bone microstructural characteristics were quantitatively evaluated for each site of loading on the bone around the anchor screw. Rats were euthanized after observation on days 3, 5, or 7, and bone quality analyses were performed. Bone–implant contact rate increased more rapidly at an early stage in the treated surface group than in the untreated surface group. Bone lacuna morphometry showed that the measured values adjacent to the screw at the screw neck on the compressed side (A) and at the screw tip on the uncompressed side (D) were significantly lower than those at the screw tip on the compressed side (B) and at the screw neck on the uncompressed side (C). Collagen fiber bundle diameter showed that the measured values adjacent to regions A and D were significantly higher than those at regions B and C. Anchor screw surface activation facilitates initial bone contact of the screw, suggesting that early loading may be possible in clinical practice.Okawa K., Matsunaga S., Kasahara N., et al. Alveolar Bone Microstructure Surrounding Orthodontic Anchor Screws with Plasma Surface Treatment in Rats. Journal of Functional Biomaterials 14, 356 (2023); https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb14070356

Assessing the Availability, Service Quality, and Price of Essential Medicines in Private Pharmacies in Afghanistan

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2015Background: Globally, medicines remain inaccessible and unaffordable in low and middle-income countries, where national medicines regulatory authorities are often weak. In Afghanistan, the Ministry of Public Health strives to develop pharmaceutical systems to ensure people's access to health care. However, the private pharmacy sector is largely uncontrolled, and its role is unknown in terms of guaranteeing accessibility, availability, and affordability of essential medicines. Objectives: The dissertation aimed to estimate the prevalence and types of private pharmacies--licensed and unlicensed--and to assess the relationships among pharmacy licensure status, the availability of essential medicines, pharmacy service quality, and essential medicine prices. Methods: A national-level, interview survey of 879 pharmacies was conducted to examine characteristics of private pharmacies in 10 representative provinces in Afghanistan and to obtain information of staff characteristics, licensure status, service quality, availability of essential medicines, and price. Regression models were estimated to assess relationships between the availability of essential medicines as a proportion of a basket of 30 essential medicines, licensure status, service quality, and price of essential medicines. Results: Of 30 sampled essential medicines, national-level availability at private pharmacies was estimated to be 63.7%. In terms of licensure, 54.5% were licensed, 10.5% were unlicensed, and the rest unverifiable. There was a consistent trend to slightly lower availability in unlicensed pharmacies. In addition, associations between licensure status, service quality, and price were weak, despite considerable price variation. Conclusion: Private pharmacies have an important role to play in improving access to care by making essential medicines available for the population in need in Afghanistan. Licensure status does not explain the variations in the availability of essential medicines. Essential medicine prices showed considerable variability, indicating that that regulation is unsuccessful at controlling the price of essential medicines in the private market. The private licensure system as a regulatory intervention does not effectively guarantee the availability of essential medicines in Afghanistan. Further research is needed to identify the appropriate changes in regulatory policy to improve access to pharmacy services in terms of the availability and affordability of essential medicines

<症例>石灰化胃癌の1例

By upper gastrointestinal series, a 57 years-old woman was pointed out to have scattered calcifications along the greater curvature of the stomach. On computerized tomography, the calcifications distributed in the irregularly thickened gastric wall. With a diagnosis of calcified mucinous adenocarcinoma showing Borrmann type III, total gastrectomy with splenectomy was carried out. The characteristics of this lesion were briefly presented with a review of the literature.57歳女性の上部消化管透視において, 胃の大弯側に散在性の小斑点状の石灰化が指摘された. この石灰化は, 腹部コンビューター断層撮影では不規則に肥厚した胃壁内に存在した. ボールマン III 型の石灰化胃粘液腺癌の診断で胃全摘・脾摘を行った. 画像診断と肉眼標本によって石灰化を証明できた胃癌はまれであり, 本邦報告例では女性に多く, すべて進行癌であった. 腫瘍の粘液産生がこの石灰化に関与すると考えられている. また, 切除率や生存率がかなり低い疾患でもあり, 自験例も術後2年半で癌再発により死亡した. 文献的考察を加えて報告した

Alveolar Bone Microstructure Surrounding Orthodontic Anchor Screws with Plasma Surface Treatment in Rats

Okawa K., Matsunaga S., Kasahara N., et al. Alveolar Bone Microstructure Surrounding Orthodontic Anchor Screws with Plasma Surface Treatment in Rats. Journal of Functional Biomaterials 14, 356 (2023); https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb14070356.A lateral load was applied to anchor screws that had undergone surface treatment, and the structure, cellular dynamics, and quality of the bone surrounding anchor screws were analyzed to investigate the effect of this surface treatment on the peri-implant jawbone. In addition, bone microstructural characteristics were quantitatively evaluated for each site of loading on the bone around the anchor screw. Rats were euthanized after observation on days 3, 5, or 7, and bone quality analyses were performed. Bone–implant contact rate increased more rapidly at an early stage in the treated surface group than in the untreated surface group. Bone lacuna morphometry showed that the measured values adjacent to the screw at the screw neck on the compressed side (A) and at the screw tip on the uncompressed side (D) were significantly lower than those at the screw tip on the compressed side (B) and at the screw neck on the uncompressed side (C). Collagen fiber bundle diameter showed that the measured values adjacent to regions A and D were significantly higher than those at regions B and C. Anchor screw surface activation facilitates initial bone contact of the screw, suggesting that early loading may be possible in clinical practice

A remark on the covariance matrix of fractional Brownian motion

Let X^H(t) be a fractional Brownian motion with index H (0<H&le;1/2), and let D_n(t_0, t_1, ... t_n) (0&le;t_0<t_1<...<t_n) denote the correlation matrix of {X^H(t_<k+1>)-X^H(t_k): k=1, ..., n-1}. In this paper the asymptotic behaviour of (1/n) log det D_n as n tends to ∞ is studied