Caries Detection Methods Based on Changes in Optical Properties between Healthy and Carious Tissue

A conservative, noninvasive or minimally invasive approach to clinical management of dental caries requires diagnostic techniques capable of detecting and quantifying lesions at an early stage, when progression can be arrested or reversed. Objective evidence of initiation of the disease can be detected in the form of distinct changes in the optical properties of the affected tooth structure. Caries detection methods based on changes in a specific optical property are collectively referred to as optically based methods. This paper presents a simple overview of the feasibility of three such technologies for quantitative or semiquantitative assessment of caries lesions. Two of the techniques are well-established: quantitative light-induced fluorescence, which is used primarily in caries research, and laser-induced fluorescence, a commercially available method used in clinical dental practice. The third technique, based on near-infrared transillumination of dental enamel is in the developmental stages

Requirements Prioritisation and Retrospective Analysis for Release Planning Process Improvement

The quality of a product can be defined by its ability to satisfy the needs and expectations of its customers. Achieving quality is especially difficult in market-driven situations since the product is released on an open market with numerous potential customers and users with various wishes. The quality of the software product is to a large extent determined by the quality of the requirements engineering (RE) and release planning decisions regarding which requirements that are selected for a product. The goal of this thesis is to enhance software product quality and increase the competitive edge of software organisations by improving release planning decision-making. The thesis is based on empirical research, including both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The research contains a qualitative survey of RE challenges in market-driven organisations based on interviews with practitioners. The survey provided increased understanding of RE challenges in the software industry and gave input to the continued research. Among the challenging issues, one was selected for further investigation due to its high relevance to the practitioners: requirements prioritisation and release planning decision-making. Requirements prioritisation techniques were evaluated through experiments, suggesting that ordinal scale techniques based on grouping and ranking may be valuable to practitioners. Finally, a retrospective method called PARSEQ (Post-release Analysis of Requirements SElection Quality) is introduced and tested in three case studies. The method aims at evaluating prior releases and finding improvement proposals for release planning decision-making in future release projects. The method was found valuable by all participants and relevant improvement proposals were discovered in all cases

A follow-up study of logopedic treatment for patients with exercise-induced vocal cord dysfunction

Abstract. Several treatment options are described for patients with vocal cord dysfunction. At Karolinska University hospital, these patients are offered treatment by speech and language pathologists. The current study describes traits and treatment effects for 148 people diagnosed with exercise-induced vocal cord dysfunction at Karolinska University hospital who received treatment by speech and language pathologists in 2005-2012. Data were collected from medical records and through a questionnaire that was sent to the 148 individuals. 52 individuals answered the questionnaire which gave a response rate of 35 %. 84,6 % felt helped by the treatment. 42 individuals still practiced athletics to the same extent, and had not received treatment by other professions. Of these 42, 81 % were described through medical records and 62 % through questionnaire responses, having milder symptoms and/or an ability to control symptoms. The results indicate that logopedic respiratory retraining therapy could be effective for these patients.Sammanfattning. Olika behandlingsalternativ finns beskrivna för patienter med vocal cord dysfunction. Vid Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset erbjuds denna patientgrupp logopedisk behandling. I föreliggande studie beskrivs bakgrund och behandlingseffekt för 148 personer som diagnostiserades med träningsinducerad vocal cord dysfunction vid Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset och sedan erhöll logopedbehandling under 2005-2012. Studien bygger på journaluppgifter och en enkät som skickades till de 148 personerna. Svarsfrekvensen var 35 %, det vill säga 52 personer besvarade enkäten. 84,6 % ansåg sig hjälpta av behandlingen. 42 personer hade fortsatt fysträna i oförändrad utsträckning. Ingen av dessa hade behandlats av annan yrkeskategori än logoped. Av dem beskrevs 81 % enligt journalanteckningar, och 62 % enligt enkätsvar ha fått minskade symptom och/eller en förmåga att hantera eventuella kvarstående symptom. Resultaten indikerar att logopedisk behandling med andningsträning förefaller vara ett verksamt behandlingsalternativ för patientgruppen

Qualitative exploration of dental and health care personnel’s awareness of signs displayed in victims of torture with focus on the oral cavity

Abstract Introduction Numerous torture victims have experienced severe physical or phycological trauma to their face, mouth, and teeth. A dental visit carries a risk for torture survivors to relive the trauma, since the situation may trigger a recollection of previous suffering. Although health care personnel at resource center for torture victims are equipped with various tools to help and assist these individuals in their rehabilitation, very few centers have protocols in place to refer out victims to dental professionals with experience and knowledge in the area. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of dental and health care personnel’s knowledge and awareness to detect various torture signs with focus on the oral cavity.  Material and Methods Dental (n=16) and health care (n=6) personnel conducted individual interviews, group interviews, and qualitative data from a questionnaire. All interviews were transcribed, and a phenomenological-hermeneutical method was used to analyze the participants' answers. Results Six health care and 16 dental personnel answered the questionnaire, and 5 health care and 16 dental personnel participated in the interviews. Dental personnel demonstrated a lack of knowledge and experiences regarding signs of torture with focus on the oral cavity, nor a multidisciplinary collaboration on torture victims. Most of the health care personnel had clear suggestions for external signs of torture and showed good knowledge of how to refer a torture victim to dental personnel. Discussion Through a multidisciplinary approach, potential harmful long-term effects resulting from dental care visits can be prevented and the approach can additionally contribute to better resource utilization in health care. There is a need for increased awareness and knowledge of injuries and signs resulting from torture in the oral cavity among dental and health care personnel

Species richness and functional attributes of fish assemblages across a large-scale salinity gradient in shallow coastal areas

Coastal ecosystems are biologically productive, and their diversity underlies various ecosystem services to humans. However, large-scale species richness (SR) and its regulating factors remain uncertain for many organism groups, owing not least to the fact that observed SR (SRobs) depends on sample size and inventory completeness (IC). We estimated changes in SR across a natural geographical gradient using statistical rarefaction and extrapolation methods, based on a large fish species incidence dataset compiled for shallow coastal areas (<30 m depth) from Swedish fish survey databases. The data covered a ca. 1300 km north-south distance and a 12-fold salinity gradient along sub-basins of the Baltic Sea plus the Skagerrak and, depending on the sub-basin, 4 to 47 years of samplings during 1975-2021. Total fish SRobs was 144, and the observed fish species were of 74 % marine and 26 % freshwater origin. In the 10 sub-basins with sufficient data for further analysis, IC ranged from 77 % to 98 %, implying that ca. 2 %-23 % of likely existing fish species had remained undetected. Sample coverage exceeded 98.5 %, suggesting that undetected species represented <1.5 % of incidences across the sub-basins, i.e. highly rare species. To compare sub-basins, we calculated standardized SR (SRstd) and estimated SR (SRest). Sub-basin-specific SRest varied between 35 +/- 7 (SE) and 109 +/- 6 fish species, being ca. 3 times higher in the most saline (salinity 29-32) compared to the least saline sub-basins (salinity < 3). Analysis of functional attributes showed that differences with decreasing salinity particularly reflected a decreasing SR of benthic and demersal fish, of piscivores and invertivores, and of marine migratory species. We conclude that, if climate change continues causing an upper-layer freshening of the Baltic Sea, this may influence the SR, community composition and functional characteristics of fish, which in turn may affect ecosystem processes such as benthic-pelagic coupling and connectivity between coastal and open-sea areas

Platelets Retain High Levels of Active Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1

The vascular fibrinolytic system is crucial for spontaneous lysis of blood clots. Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), the principal inhibitor of the key fibrinolytic enzyme tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), is present in platelets at high concentrations. However, the majority of PAI-1 stored in platelets has been considered to be inactive. Our recent finding (Brogren H, et al. Blood 2004) that PAI-1 de novo synthesized in platelets remained active for over 24 h, suggested that PAI-1 stored in the α-granules might be active to a larger extent than previously reported. To re-evaluate this issue, we performed experiments where the fraction of active PAI-1 was estimated by analyzing the tPA-PAI-1 complex formation. In these experiments platelets were lysed with Triton X-100 in the presence of serial dilutions of tPA and subsequently the tPA-PAI-1 complex was evaluated by Western blot. Also, using a non-immunologic assay, tPA was labeled with 125I, and 125I-tPA and 125I-tPA-PAI-1 was quantified by scintigraphy. Interestingly, both methods demonstrated that the majority (>50%) of platelet PAI-1 is active. Further analyses suggested that pre-analytical procedures used in previous studies (sonication or freezing/thawing) may have substantially reduced the activity of platelet PAI-1, which has lead to an underestimation of the proportion of active PAI-1. Our in vitro results are more compatible with the role of PAI-1 in clot stabilization as demonstrated in physiological and pathophysiological studies

The Effects of Pregnenolone 16α-Carbonitrile Dosing on Digoxin Pharmacokinetics and Intestinal Absorption in the Rat

The effect of Pgp induction in rats by pregnenolone 16α-carbonitrile (PCN) (3 days, 35 mg/kg/d, p.o.) on digoxin pharmacokinetics and intestinal transport has been assessed. After intravenous or oral digoxin dosing the arterial and hepatic portal vein (oral) AUC(0-24h) were significantly reduced by PCN pre-treatment. Biliary digoxin clearance increased 2-fold following PCN treatment. PCN significantly increased net digoxin secretion (2.05- and 4.5-fold respectively) in ileum and colon but not in duodenum or jejunum. This increased secretion correlated with increased Pgp protein expression in ileum and colon. Both intestinal and biliary excretion therefore contribute to altered digoxin disposition following PCN

Reconstructing Racially Polarized Voting

Racially polarized voting makes minorities more vulnerable to discriminatory changes in election laws and therefore implicates nearly every voting rights doctrine. In Thornburg v. Gingles , the Supreme Court held that racially polarized voting is a necessary—but not a sufficient—condition for a vote dilution claim under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Court, however, has recently questioned the propriety of recognizing the existence of racially polarized voting. This colorblind approach threatens not only the Gingles factors but also Section 2’s constitutionality. The Court treats racially polarized voting as a modern phenomenon. But the relevant starting point is the 1860s, not the 1960s. Prior to the Fifteenth Amendment’s passage, Republicans received overwhelming support from newly enfranchised Black voters in the former Confederate States and expected that support to continue. The Reconstruction Framers were thus attentive to the realities of racially polarized voting and openly recognized that extending the franchise would empower Black voters to mobilize politically and protect their own interests. Racially polarized voting was a feature—not a bug—in the passage and ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. Accordingly, this Article argues that the Court’s treatment of racially polarized voting as a constitutional taboo is historically unfounded and doctrinally incoherent. There are significant implications for acknowledging the role of racially polarized voting during Reconstruction. This historical insight moves vote dilution claims—and their predicate finding of racially polarized voting—far closer to the heart of the Reconstruction Amendments and challenges the Court’s hostility to race-based redistricting. It is powerful evidence that Congress is well within its enforcement authority to remedy and deter dilutive measures that exploit racially polarized voting. Finally, reconstructing racially polarized voting helps reorient voting rights doctrine toward a Fifteenth Amendment framework