Assessment of Dental Students' Attitudes and Awareness of Climate Change in a Midwestern Dental School

Title from PDF of title page, viewed March 1, 2023Thesis advisor: Melanie Simmer-BeckVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 46-52)Thesis (M.S.)--Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2022The purpose of this project was to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of dental students toward climate change, and whether certain demographic characteristics were associated with high or low knowledge as well as attitude toward climate change. An IRB-approved 20-item survey was constructed and administered to 432 UMKC dental students spanning all four years to test if demographics including school year, gender, geographic region of upbringing, socioeconomic status during childhood, previous climate change-related education, and use of environmentally-friendly behaviors at home are associated with climate knowledge and attitude. The survey was introduced to students via an IRB-approved verbal script during a class, and the students anonymously completed the surveys. The survey questions were divided into 4 domains; demographic characteristics, knowledge of climate change, attitude toward climate change, and perceived barriers seen by the student which may prevent the use of environmentally-sustainable office practices. Student demographics were then used to evaluate whether there was an effect on students’ climate change-related knowledge and attitude toward climate change. The survey results show a significant association between dental students’ gender and previous climate change-related education and both their knowledge of and attitude toward climate change. However, utilization of environmentally-friendly behaviors at home and year in dental school were significantly associated with attitude toward climate change only. There was no correlation found between overall knowledge of climate change and attitude.Introduction -- Materials and methods -- Results -- Discussion -- Conclusion

A. Studies In The Allylic Substitution Chemistry Of Copper Hydride B. Stereoselective Silylcupration Of Conjugated Alkynes In Micellar Media C. Palladium-Catalyzed Synthesis Of 1,3-Butadienes and [3]-[6]Dendralenes D. Synthesis Of Small Molecule Underwater Adhesives Inspired By Mussels

Copper hydride (CuH) has been shown to enable a number of selective 1,2- and 1,4-reductions when complexed with the appropriate ligand, yet the allylic substitution chemistry of CuH has been much less studied. This dissertation describes the further study of CuH to perform sequential reductions on Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) adducts. Specifically: I) Selectivity in the SN2’ reduction of MBH adducts was shown to be highly dependant on the nature of the ligand used. II) The reaction of MBH alcohols was shown to involve an initial dehydrogenative silylation with PMHS, where both the oligomeric nature and electronics of the initially formed trialkoxysilyl ether intermediate are important in determining both the observed stereoselectivity, and efficiency of the substitution. III) MBH ketones could be employed in tandem SN2’/1,2-reduction sequences to arrive at stereodefined allylic alcohols with central chirality. Vinylsilanes are versatile intermediates in organic synthesis owing to numerous methods for their transformation into other functional groups that proceed with high stereoretention. While there are numerous methods to synthesize stereodefined vinylsilanes from alkynes, many existing methods require the use of highly reactive moisture intolerant reagents and harsh reaction conditions, features that limit the functionality that can be accommodated. Even fewer of these existing methods are conducted under environmentally responsible conditions. The use of Suginome’s reagent as a moisture tolerant source of nucleophilic silicon, small catalytic quantities of a simple copper(I) salt, and an aqueous solution of TPGS-750-M as an environmentally benign nonionic surfactant, is described herein as a highly effective combination of reagents that allows for the stereoselective silylcupration of conjugated alkynes giving access to a variety of (E)-β-silyl-substituted carbonyl derivatives under environmentally responsible conditions. This dissertation also describes the application of substituted allenoates as electrophilic butadienyl coupling partners under palladium catalysis in aqueous micellar media. The substituted allenoates could then be transformed by the methods developed herein into a variety of 2-substituted butadienes, where the methods were then extended to provide entry into a variety of substituted [3]-[6]dendralenes. Specifically: I) Application of an additive based screen allowed for evaluation of functional group tolerance in the Pd-catalyzed coupling of substituted allenoates with boronic acids. II) Curiosity driven investigations to identify boron based sp3 coupling reagents compatible with the conditions of micellar catalysis led to the identification of OBBD alkylborinate reagents as stable and isolable coupling reagents, which was the applied to the synthesis of 2-alkyl 1,3-butadienes. III) An analogous vinylallenyl coupling partner that functions formally as an electrophilic [3]dendralene synthon was proposed, and a number of synthetic routes were examined to access this molecule. Optimization of the synthetic route allowed for access to multigram quantities of this material, where it was applied to the synthesis of variously substituted [3]-[6]dendralenes. Efforts to understand the marine mussels mechanism of strong wet adhesion has been a subject of intense scientific investigation. Analysis of the peptide sequence of mfp-5, a mussel foot protein most correlated with interactions at the interface, revealed a high proportion of charged, hydrophobic, and catechol containing residues. Described in this dissertation is the synthesis of small molecule underwater adhesives by incorporation of these key features of mfp-5. These newly designed molecules formed adhesive bilayers underwater, and were shown to replicate and even exceed mfp-5’s strong wet adhesive energy, while also being orders of magnitude smaller than both the native mussel proteins or existing biomimetic adhesive platforms. By systematically varying key portions of these small molecular adhesives, the adhesive bilayers could be transformed into molecularly uniform monolayers which were applied to the nanofabrication of organic electronic devices

Kinetic modeling of tumor growth and dissemination in the craniospinal axis: implications for craniospinal irradiation

BACKGROUND: Medulloblastoma and other types of tumors that gain access to the cerebrospinal fluid can spread throughout the craniospinal axis. The purpose of this study was to devise a simple multi-compartment kinetic model using established tumor cell growth and treatment sensitivity parameters to model the complications of this spread as well as the impact of treatment with craniospinal radiotherapy. METHODS: A two-compartment mathematical model was constructed. Rate constants were derived from previously published work and the model used to predict outcomes for various clinical scenarios. RESULTS: The model is simple and with the use of known and estimated clinical parameters is consistent with known clinical outcomes. Treatment outcomes are critically dependent upon the duration of the treatment break and the radiosensitivity of the tumor. Cross-plot analyses serve as an estimate of likelihood of cure as a function of these and other factors. CONCLUSION: The model accurately describes known clinical outcomes for patients with medulloblastoma. It can help guide treatment decisions for radiation oncologists treating patients with this disease. Incorporation of other treatment modalities, such as chemotherapy, that enhance radiation sensitivity and/or reduce tumor burden, are predicted to significantly increase the probability of cure

Combined treatment modality for intracranial germinomas: results of a multicentre SFOP experience

Conventional therapy for intracranial germinomas is craniospinal irradiation. In 1990, the Société Française d'Oncologie Pédiatrique initiated a study combining chemotherapy (alternating courses of etoposide–carboplatin and etoposide–ifosfamide for a recommended total of four courses) with 40 Gy local irradiation for patients with localized germinomas. Metastatic patients were allocated to receive low-dose craniospinal radiotherapy. Fifty-seven patients were enrolled between 1990 and 1996. Forty-seven had biopsy-proven germinoma. Biopsy was not performed in ten patients (four had diagnostic tumour markers and in six the neurosurgeon felt biopsy was contraindicated). Fifty-one patients had localized disease, and six leptomeningeal dissemination. Seven patients had bifocal tumour. All but one patient received at least four courses of chemotherapy. Toxicity was mainly haematological. Patients with diabetus insipidus (n = 25) commonly developed electrolyte disturbances during chemotherapy. No patient developed tumour progression during chemotherapy. Fifty patients received local radiotherapy with a median dose of 40 Gy to the initial tumour volume. Six metastatic patients, and one patient with localized disease who stopped chemotherapy due to severe toxicity, received craniospinal radiotherapy. The median follow-up for the group was 42 months. Four patients relapsed 9, 10, 38 and 57 months after diagnosis. Three achieved second complete remission following salvage treatment with chemotherapy alone or chemo-radiotherapy. The estimated 3-year survival probability is 98% (CI: 86.6–99.7%) and the estimated 3-year event-free survival is 96.4% (CI: 86.2–99.1%). This study shows that excellent survival rates can be achieved by combining chemotherapy and local radiotherapy in patients with non-metastatic intracranial germinomas. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Dental Adhesion Enhancement On Zirconia Inspired By Mussel\u27S Priming Strategy Using Catechol

Zirconia has recently become one of the most popular dental materials in prosthodontics being used in crowns, bridges, and implants. However, weak bonding strength of dental adhesives and resins to zirconia surface has been a grand challenge in dentistry, thus finding a better adhesion to zirconia is urgently required. Marine sessile organisms such as mussels use a unique priming strategy to produce a strong bonding to wet mineral surfaces; one of the distinctive chemical features in the mussel\u27s adhesive primer proteins is high catechol contents among others. In this study, we pursued a bioinspired adhesion strategy, using a synthetic catechol primer applied to dental zirconia surfaces to study the effect of catecholic priming to shear bond strength. Catechol priming provided a statistically significant enhancement (p \u3c 0.05) in shear bond strength compared to the bonding strength without priming, and relatively stronger bonding than commercially available zirconia priming techniques. This new bioinspired dental priming approach can be an excellent addition to the practitioner\u27s toolkit to improve dental bonding to zirconia