Profile of oral health students over a ten year period and their practice intentions after graduation

Published: January 26, 2017Objective: Limited research has been published on oral health therapists, particularly Australian cohorts of Bachelor of Oral Health (BOH) students who will graduate as oral health therapists. Aside from selection criteria and sample characteristics of students from some institutions, little is known about factors influencing career choice and career aspirations and workplace intentions after graduation. This study describes the characteristics, career choice factors and career aspirations of first year students enrolled at the University of Adelaide between 2005 and 2014. Methods: All first year cohorts (2005-2014) completed a self-report questionnaire as part of coursework. Demographic data, socio-economic status, career choice influences and graduate aspirations were collected and analysed. Kruskal –Wallis Tests were conducted on each variable with the cohort years. Results: Completed questionnaires suitable for analyses were received from 269 students (response rate 86%). Most students were under 21 years, in their preferred program and attended non-government schools. Males entering the profession increased. Career choice factors reflected those of other studies. The desire to work in the public sector declined after the first year of graduation with most reporting the private sector the workplace of choice after five and ten years. The stated intention of pursuing an academic career did not change and most reported the possibility of undertaking future postgraduate study. Conclusion: Working conditions and lifestyle factors have become increasing important and a growing number of males are entering the profession. Monitoring profile variations between BOH student cohorts overtime is important for program selection, recruitment and labourforce planning. If the trend continues for BOH students wanting to ultimately work in the private sector, access to care could be affected for particular population groups.Suzanne Gardner, and Kaye Roberts-Thomso

Dental caries experience in the Australian adult population

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association (18th Jan 2007). An external link to the publisher’s copy is included

The effect of a suggestive interview on children’s memory of a repeated event: Does it matter whether suggestions are linked to a particular incident?

This study examined the impact of linking misleading information to a particular occurrence of a repeated event. Children aged 5- to 6-years took part in the same staged event four times and 16 target details varied in each occurrence (e.g., the colour of a cloak varied each time). Three days or three weeks later they were asked questions, some of which included false information, about the final occurrence. The next day, the children were required to recall what happened in the final occurrence. Compared to children whose biasing interview was not focused on any particular occurrence of the repeated event, linking the biasing interview to the final occurrence increased the number of suggested details that were reported. Interestingly, the children whose biasing interview was not focused on any occurrence were also less likely to report the false suggestions than another group of children who had only experienced the event once and whose biasing interview was linked to that single occurrence. These findings have implications for how lawyers and investigative interviewers question children about multiple incidents

Electromagnetic Form Factors of Charged and Neutral Kaons

The charged and neutral kaon form factors are calculated as a phenomenological application of the QCD Dyson-Schwinger equations. The results are compared with the pion form factor calculated in the same framework and yield \mbox{$F_{K^\pm}(Q^2) > F_{\pi^\pm}(Q^2)$} on \mbox{$Q^2\in[0,3]$~GeV$^2$}; and a neutral kaon form factor that is similar in form and magnitude to the neutron charge form factor. These results are sensitive to the difference between the kaon and pion Bethe-Salpeter amplitude and the $u$- and $s$-quark propagation characteristics.Comment: 11 Pages, 2 figures, REVTEX, uses epsfig. No chang

Access to dental care by young South Australian adults

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association (9th Jan 2008). An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Background: Despite reported concern over the dental care of young adults little research has been done on their use of dental services in Australia. The aim of this study was to investigate the patterns of dental utilization of young South Australian adults aged 20-24 years. Methods: A random sample of 2300 young adults was selected from the electoral roll. Partial or complete addresses and possible phone numbers were obtained for 1921 persons. Telephone interviews were conducted for 1261 subjects to obtain information on socio- demographics, health behaviour and dental visiting (response rate 65.6 per cent). Results: One third of young adults (34 per cent) had not made a dental visit in the previous two years and 38 per cent usually visited for a problem rather than a check-up. Making a dental visit in the last two years was significantly associated with a number of socio- demographic variables including age and gender, with holders of private dental insurance and those who have not avoided care because of cost having higher odds of making a visit and males and government concession card holders having lower odds of visiting. Usual reason for visiting a dentist for a problem was significantly associated with no private dental insurance, holding a government concession card, no tertiary education and avoiding care because of cost. Conclusions: This study suggests that demographic and economic factors influenced use of dental services and reason for visiting of young South Australian adults.KF Roberts-Thomson, JF Stewar

PMCA2 silencing potentiates MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell death initiated with the Bcl-2 inhibitor ABT-263

PMCA2 overexpression in some breast cancers suggests that this calcium pump isoform may play a role in breast pathophysiology. To investigate PMCA2 as a potential drug target for breast cancer therapy, we assessed the functional consequence of PMCA2 silencing on cell death pathways and calcium signals in the basal-like MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line. Silencing PMCA2 expression alone has no effect on MDA-MB-231 cell viability, however, PMCA2 silencing promotes calcium-induced cell death initiated with the calcium ionophore ionomycin. Assessment of cytoplasmic calcium responses generated with various agents including ionomycin demonstrates that in MDA-MB-231 cells, PMCA2 does not play a major role in shaping global calcium signals. We also examined the ability of PMCA2 silencing to modulate caspase-dependent cell death triggered by a Bcl-2 inhibitor that is in clinical development for the treatment of various cancers, ABT-263 (Navitoclax). Despite the lack of effect on global calcium responses, PMCA2 silencing augmented Bcl-2 inhibitor (ABT-263)-mediated MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell death. These studies provide evidence that PMCA2 inhibitors could sensitize PMCA2-positive breast cancers to cell death initiators that work through mechanisms involving the Bcl-2 survival pathway

Directed self-assembly of block copolymers for use in bit patterned media fabrication

Reduction of the bit size in conventional magnetic recording media is becoming increasingly difficult due to the superparamagnetic limit. Bit patterned media (BPM) has been proposed as a replacement technology as it will enable hard disk areal densities to increase past 1 Tb in−2. Block copolymer directed self-assembly (BCP DSA) is the leading candidate for forming BPM due to its ability to create uniform patterns over macroscopic areas. Here we review the latest research into two different BCP DSA techniques: graphoepitaxy and chemoepitaxy (or chemical prepatterning). In addition to assessing their potential for forming high density bit patterns, we also review current approaches using these techniques for forming servo patterns, which are required for hard disk drive (HDD) operation. Finally, we review the current state of UV nanoimprint lithography, which is the favoured technique for enabling mass production of BPM HDDs

Differential effects of two-pore channel protein 1 and 2 silencing in MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells

Two-pore channel proteins, TPC1 and TPC2, are calcium permeable ion channels found localized to the membranes of endolysosomal calcium stores. There is increasing interest in the role of TPC-mediated intracellular signaling in various pathologies; however their role in breast cancer has not been extensively evaluated. TPC1 and TPC2 mRNA was present in all non-tumorigenic and tumorigenic breast cell lines assessed. Silencing of TPC2 but not TPC1 attenuated epidermal growth factor-induced vimentin expression in MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells. This effect was not due to a general inhibition of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) as TPC2 silencing had no effect on epidermal growth factor (EGF)-induced changes on E-cadherin expression. TPC1 and TPC2 were also shown to differentially regulate cyclopiazonic acid (CPA)-mediated changes in cytosolic free Ca. These findings indicate potential differential regulation of signaling processes by TPC1 and TPC2 in breast cancer cells

Consequences of activating the calcium-permeable ion channel TRPV1 in breast cancer cells with regulated TRPV1 expression

Increased expression of specific calcium channels in some cancers and the role of calcium signaling in proliferation and invasion have led to studies assessing calcium channel inhibitors as potential therapies for some cancers. The use of channel activators to promote death of cancer cells has been suggested, but the risk of activators promoting cancer cell proliferation and the importance of the degree of channel over-expression is unclear. We developed an MCF-7 breast cancer cell line with inducible TRPV1 overexpression and assessed the role of TRPV1 levels on cell death mediated by the TRPV1 activator capsaicin and the potential for submaximal activation to promote proliferation. The TRPV1 level was a determinant of cell death induced by capsaicin. A concentration response curve with varying TRPV1 expression levels identified the minimum level of TRPV1 required for capsaicin induced cell death. At no level of TRPV1 over-expression or capsaicin concentration did TRPV1 activation enhance proliferation. Cell death induced by capsaicin was necrotic and associated with up-regulation of c-Fos and RIP3. These studies suggest that activators of specific calcium channels may be an effective way to induce necrosis and that this approach may not always be associated with enhancement of cancer cell proliferation