In vitro biocompatibility of nickel-titanium esthetic orthodontic archwires

Objective: To investigate the cytotoxicity of nickel-titanium (NiTi) esthetic orthodontic archwires with different surface coatings. Materials and Methods: Three fully coated, tooth-colored NiTi wires (BioCosmetic, Titanol Cosmetic, EverWhite), two ion-implanted wires (TMA Purple, Sentalloy High Aesthetic), five uncoated NiTi wires (BioStarter, BioTorque, Titanol Superelastic, Memory Wire Superelastic, and Sentalloy), one b-titanium wire (TMA), and one stainless steel wire (Stainless Steel) were considered for this study. The wire samples were placed at 37uC in airtight test tubes containing Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (0.1 mg/mL) for 1, 7, 14, and 30 days. The cell viability of human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) cultured with this medium was assessed by the 3-(4,5- dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Data were analyzed by a twoway analysis of variance (a 5 .05). Results: The highest cytotoxic effect was reached on day 30 for all samples. The archwires exhibited a cytotoxicity on HGFs ranging from “none” to “slight,” with the exception of the BioTorque, which resulted in moderate cytotoxicity on day 30. Significant differences were found between esthetic archwires and their uncoated pairs only for BioCosmetic (P 5 .001) and EverWhite (P , .001). Conclusions: Under the experimental conditions, all of the NiTi esthetic archwires resulted in slight cytotoxicity, as did the respective uncoated wires. For this reason their clinical use may be considered to have similar risks to the uncoated archwires. (Angle Orthod. 0000;00:000–000.

Effect of pH on in vitro biocompatibility of orthodontic miniscrew implants

BACKGROUND: Although the clinical use of miniscrews has been investigated on a large scale, little is known about their biocompatibility. Since low pH can affect corrosion resistance, the aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of orthodontic miniscrews in different pH conditions. METHODS: Four orthodontic miniscrews of stainless steel and grade IV and grade V titanium were immersed in a pH 7 and pH 4 saline solution for 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 84 days. Human osteogenic sarcoma cells (U2OS), permanent human keratinocytes (HaCat), and primary human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) were exposed to eluates, and the mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity was measured after 24 h to assess the cytoxicity. The results were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test (P < 0.05). RESULTS: When exposed to pH 7-conditioned eluates, the cell lines showed an even greater viability than untreated cells. On the contrary, the results revealed a statistically significant decrease in U2OS, HaCat, and HGF viability after exposure to eluates obtained at pH 4. Among the cell lines tested, HGF showed the most significant decrease of mitochondrial activity. Interestingly, grade V titanium miniscrews caused highest toxic effects when immersed at pH 4. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that at pH 7, all the miniscrews are biocompatible while the eluates obtained at pH 4 showed significant cytotoxicity response. Moreover, different cell lines can produce different responses to miniscrew eluates

Reproducibility of the assessment of the Fränkel manoeuvre for the evaluation of sagittal skeletal discrepancies in Class II individuals

The Fränkel manoeuvre is a procedure by which the mandible of Class II individuals is postured forward in dental Class I relationship. The evaluation of the resulting facial profile provides information concerning the components determining the sagittal discrepancy. Data concerning the reproducibility of its assessment are not available. This study aimed to evaluate the intra-observer and inter-observer reproducibility of the assessment of the manoeuvre and to assess whether the amount of clinical experience affects its reproducibility

Stakeholder engagement disclosures in sustainability reports : evidence from Italian food companies

More businesses are embedding stakeholder engagement (SE) practices in their corporate disclosures. This article explores the extent to which SE practices are featured in the sustainability reports (SRs) of 48 Italian food and beverage businesses, following the latest Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. The researchers analyze the content of their SRs dated 2020 and 2021. They utilize a panel regression technique to examine the relationship between stakeholder engagement disclosures (SED) and corporate financial performance (CFP), and to investigate the mediating role of SR assurance. The results show a positive and significant relationship between SED and CFP. They also confirm that there is a moderating effect from SR assurance on this causal path. However, the findings reveal that SED in SRs of Italian food companies is still moderate. This contribution builds on the logic behind the stakeholder theory. It implies that there is scope for food companies to forge relationships with stakeholders. It indicates that it is in their interest to disclose material information about their SE practices in their SR and to organize third party assurance assessments in order to improve their legitimacy with stakeholders.peer-reviewe

The eagle jugular syndrome

The elongation of the styloid process is historically associated with two variants of the Eagle syndrome. The classic one, mainly characterized by pain and dysphagia, and the carotid variant characterized by pain and sometimes by cerebral ischemia. We observed a further variant characterized by a styloid elongation coursing adjacent to the transverse process of C1, causing significant compression of the internal jugular vein

Vascular anomalies in the mesenteric circulation of patients with Crohn's disease: a pilot study

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease and its pathogenesis is still not well understood. Previous studies suggested the possibility of the involvement of vascular system, but, todate, the mesenteric circulation has poor been investigated, especially in complicated CD cases requiring colectomy. We investigated the mesenteric circulation in a case-control pilot study, including 19 controls and 7 patients affected by complicated cases of CD. Cases and controls underwent selective angiography of both superior and inferior mesenteric district. Transit time was found either significantly shortened in 2/7 cases (29%), or prolonged 5/7 (71%) (P=0.0034 in the superior mesenteric district; P=0.0079 in the inferior mesenteric district), respectively due to the presence of A-V malformations and of a miscellaneous of venous abnormalities, which included thrombosis, hypoplasia and extra-truncular venous malformations. Our study demonstrates the presence of congenital or acquired vascular anomalies in a small sample of CD patients not responder to current treatment and with severe complications. The present pilot study warrants further investigations

A high-resolution TDC-based board for a fully digital trigger and data acquisition system in the NA62 experiment at CERN

A Time to Digital Converter (TDC) based system, to be used for most sub-detectors in the high-flux rare-decay experiment NA62 at CERN SPS, was built as part of the NA62 fully digital Trigger and Data AcQuisition system (TDAQ), in which the TDC Board (TDCB) and a general-purpose motherboard (TEL62) will play a fundamental role. While TDCBs, housing four High Performance Time to Digital Converters (HPTDC), measure hit times from sub-detectors, the motherboard processes and stores them in a buffer, produces trigger primitives from different detectors and extracts only data related to the lowest trigger level decision, once this is taken on the basis of the trigger primitives themselves. The features of the TDCB board developed by the Pisa NA62 group are extensively discussed and performance data is presented in order to show its compliance with the experiment requirements.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, presented to IEEE RT 2014 Conference and I want to publish in TN