Thinking with robert sokolowski about phenomenology and personalism

Robert Sokolowski wishes to provide what he calls “glimpses” that provide essential philosophical clarifications regarding the nature of the human person, whom the author also calls “the agent of truth.” He claims that our rationality constitutes us as human persons and wishes to explain such rationality in action to reveal its existing manifestations. He calls for epistemic modesty, pointing out our inability to fully understand the mystery of human personhood. Our article reflects on the way Sokolowski approaches the study of what constitutes the human person, underlining his preference for basing his ideas on dissecting distinct human activities, which helps us identify how human rationality and personhood manifest themselves. We further reflect on what Sokolowski means by emphasizing that human rationality is “essentially a disclosure of things” as opposed to the ability to note, describe, evaluate and/or infer ideas in your brains. Finally, we argue that to understand what constitutes the human person, we must take into account the human essential relationality and openness to the other/Other. © 2021, Slovenska Vzdelavacia Obstaravacia. All rights reserved

Development prospects of curable osteoplastic materials in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery

The article presents classification of the thermosetting materials for bone augmentation. The physical, mechanical, biological, and clinical properties of such materials are reviewed. There are two main types of curable osteoplastic materials: bone cements and hydrogels. Compared to hydrogels, bone cements have high strength features, but their biological properties are not ideal and must be improved. Hydrogels are biocompatible and closely mimic the extracellular matrix. They can be used as cytocompatible scaffolds for tissue engineering, as can protein- and nucleic acid–activated structures. Hydrogels may be impregnated with osteoinductors such as proteins and genetic vectors without conformational changes. However, the mechanical properties of hydrogels limit their use for load-bearing bone defects. Thus, improving the strength properties of hydrogels is one of the possible strategies to achieve the basis for an ideal osteoplastic material

Osteoinductive moldable and curable bone substitutes based on collagen, bmp-2 and highly porous polylactide granules, or a mix of hap/β-tcp

In dentistry, maxillofacial surgery, traumatology, and orthopedics, there is a need to use osteoplastic materials that have not only osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties but are also convenient for use. In the study, compositions based on collagen hydrogel were developed. Polylactide granules (PLA) or a traditional bone graft, a mixture of hydroxyapatite and β-tricalcium phosphate (HAP/β-TCP), were used for gel filling to improve mechanical osteoconductive properties of compositions. The mechanical tests showed that collagen hydrogels filled with 12 wt% highly porous PLA granules (elastic modulus 373 ± 55 kPa) or 35 wt% HAP/β-TCP granules (elastic modulus 451 ± 32 kPa) had optimal manipulative properties. All composite components were cytocompatible. The cell’s viability was above 90%, and the components’ structure facilitated the cell’s surface adhesion. The bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) provided osteoinductive composition properties. It was impregnated directly into the collagen hydrogel with the addition of fibronectin or inside porous PLA granules. The implantation of a collagen hydrogel with BMP-2 and PLA granules into a critical-size calvarial defect in rats led to the formation of the most significant volume of bone tissue: 61 ± 15%. It was almost 2.5 times more than in the groups where a collagenfibronectin hydrogel with a mixture of HAP/β-TCP (25 ± 7%) or a fibronectin-free composition with porous PLA granules impregnated with BMP-2 (23 ± 8%) were used. Subcutaneous implantation of the compositions also showed their high biocompatibility and osteogenic potential in the absence of a bone environment. Thus, the collagen-fibronectin hydrogel with BMP-2 and PLA granules has optimal biocompatibility, osteogenic, and manipulative properties. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland