Air‐polishing followed by ultrasonic calculus removal for the treatment of gingivitis: A 12‐month, split‐mouth randomized controlled clinical trial

Objective: To evaluate the advantages of a novel protocol involving full-mouth erythritol-powder air-polishing followed by ultrasonic calculus removal in the maintenance of patients treated for gingivitis, with a focus on time and comfort. Methods: Systemically healthy patients with gingivitis were selected. Following a split-mouth design, quadrants 1-4 and 2-3 were randomly allocated to receive air-polishing followed by ultrasonic calculus removal following a protocol known as Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) or traditional full-mouth ultrasonic debridement followed by polishing with a rubber cup and prophylactic paste (US + P). Bleeding on probing (BoP) and the plaque index (PI) were collected at baseline (T0), 2 weeks (T1), 4 weeks (T2), 3 months (T3), and 6 months (T4) and 12 months (T5). Following the same randomization, prophylactic therapy was provided at 3 months (T3) and 6 months (T4). Clinical parameters, treatment time and patient comfort and satisfaction were evaluated. Results: A total of 41 patients were selected, 39 completed the study. The clinical parameters were clinically satisfactory for both treatments at every time. At 4 months after treatment, GBT maintained significantly lower BoP and PI. GBT protocol required a significantly lower treatment time, especially at T3 and T4, when it saved 24.5% and 25.1% of the time, respectively. Both treatments were rated positively by most patients. However, GBT was perceived as more comfortable, and a higher number of patients preferred it. Conclusion: No significant difference was observed between GBT and conventional ultrasonic debridement and rubber cup polishing in terms of BoP and PI levels. The GBT protocol allowed less time expenditure and higher patients' perceived comfort

Maxillary fungus ball: zinc-oxide endodontic materials as a risk factor

open7openNICOLAI, Piero; MENSI, Magda; Marsili, F.; Piccioni, M.; SALGARELLO, Stefano Alessandro; GILBERTI, Maria Enrica; Apostoli, P.Nicolai, Piero; Mensi, Magda; Marsili, F.; Piccioni, M.; Salgarello, Stefano Alessandro; Gilberti, Maria Enrica; Apostoli, P

The impact of endometrioma size on ovarian responsiveness

Research question: Available evidence shows that the presence of ovarian endometriomas does not interfere with the ovarian response to ovarian stimulation. However, the mean size of the endometriomas in these studies is generally small, and two recent investigations suggested that follicular development could be impaired when focusing on larger endometriomas. However, these studies could not identify a clear threshold above which endometriomas could become detrimental. Design: To identify this threshold, the study retrospectively selected women without a history of surgery for ovarian cysts who underwent IVF in the presence of unilateral endometriomas with a mean diameter between 20 and 49 mm. Selected women were divided into three categories of endometrioma size: 20-29 mm (group 1, n = 23), 30-39 mm (group 2, n = 2323), and 40-49 mm (group 3, n = 2321). Recruitment for each category was censored at about 21 women to ensure equal statistical power for each group. Results: The response to ovarian stimulation was equal or superior in the affected gonads in eight women (35%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 16-57%), seven women (30%, 95% CI 13-53%) and two women (10%, 95% CI 2-30%) in groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The median (interquartile range) number of developed follicles in the affected and intact ovaries was 6 (3-7) and 5 (4-9) in group 1 (P = 0.21), 4 (1-6) and 4 (3-7) in group 2 (P = 0.08), 5 (3-7), and 7 (4-8) in group 3 (P = 0.01), respectively. Conclusions: The threshold to be used to distinguish between endometriomas that might and might not interfere with ovarian response is 4 cm in diameter

Framing the work: A coparenting model for guiding infant mental health engagement with families

: When working with families of infants and toddlers, intentionally looking beyond dyadic child-parent relationship functioning to conceptualize the child's socioemotional adaptation within their broader family collective can enhance the likelihood that clinical gains will be supported and sustained. However, there has been little expert guidance regarding how best to frame infant-family mental health therapeutic encounters for the adults responsible for the child's care and upbringing in a manner that elevates their mindfulness about and their resolve to strengthen the impact of their coparenting collective. This article describes a new collaborative initiative organized by family-oriented infant mental health professionals across several different countries, all of whom bring expansive expertise assessing and working with coparenting and triangular family dynamics. The Collaborative's aims are to identify a means for framing initial infant mental health encounters and intakes with families with the goal of assessing and raising family consciousness about the relevance of coparenting. Initial points of convergence and growing points identified by the Collaborative for subsequent field study are addressed

Phosphine Oxide Derivative as a Passivating Agent to Enhance the Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells

Defects of metal-halide perovskites detrimentally influence the optoelectronic properties of the thin film and, ultimately, the photovoltaic performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Especially, defect-mediated nonradiative recombination that occurs at the perovskite interface significantly limits the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs. In this regard, interfacial engineering or surface treatment of perovskites has become a viable strategy for reducing the density of surface defects, thereby improving the PCE of PSCs. Here, an organic molecule, tris(5-((tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl)oxy)pentyl)phosphine oxide (THPPO), is synthesized and introduced as a defect passivation agent in PSCs. The P=O terminal group of THPPO, a Lewis base, can passivate perovskite surface defects such as undercoordinated Pb2+. Consequently, improvement of PCEs from 19.87 to 20.70% and from 5.84 to 13.31% are achieved in n−i−p PSCs and hole-transporting layer (HTL)-free PSCs, respectively

The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area

This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management