Primary Molar Pulpotomies with Different Hemorrhage Control Agents and Base Materials: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Objective: To evaluate the clinical and radiographical success of primary molar pulpotomies which used 15.5% ferric sulfate (FS) or 1.25% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) for hemostasis and zinc oxide-eugenol (ZOE) and calcium hydroxide (CH) pastes as base materials. Methods: In 29 healthy children, 80 primary molars were randomly allocated to one of the study groups: Group 1: FS-ZOE, Group 2: FS-CH, Group 3: NaOCl-ZOE, and Group 4: NaOCl-CH. After hemostasis with the respective solutions, pulp stumps and floor of the pulp chambers were covered with either ZOE or CH pastes. All teeth were restored with stainless steel crowns. Follow-up examinations were carried out at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Results: One tooth in Group 1 and two teeth in Group 4 were extracted because of pain and periapial pathosis at sixth month. After 12 months, clinical success rates of pulpotomies in Groups 1-4 were 95%, 100%, 100%, and 89.5%, respectively. The differences were not significant (P = 0.548). Radiographic success rates for Groups 1-4 were 80%, 88.9%, 78.9%, and 84.2%, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found (P = 0.968). Pain on percussion was the most observed clinical finding. However, internal root resorption was the most common radiological finding and it was observed significantly more in mandibular primary molars (P \u3c 0.05). Conclusion: Both ZOE and CH can be preferred as base materials after hemostasis achieved by the use of 15.5% FS or 1.25% NaOCl in primary tooth pulpotomy

hsa‐miR‐374b‐5p regulates expression of the gene U2AF homology motif (UHM) kinase 1

Objective: We aimed to identify a microRNA (miRNA) that is significantly upregulated in blood and in cells of the oral mucosa upon exposure to the periodontitis main risk factors oral inflammation and tobacco smoke, to subsequently identify its target gene and to describe the molecular mechanism of gene regulation. Background: miRNAs are associated with many disorders. Array-based miRNA expression studies indicated a number of differentially expressed miRNAs in the pathology of oral diseases. However, these miRNAs mostly lacked replication, and their target genes have remained unknown. Methods: 863 miRNAs were analyzed in blood from 18 PD cases and 70 controls (Geniom Biochip). Selected miRNAs were analyzed for upregulation in the inflamed oral mucosa of PD patients using published miRNA expression profiling studies from gingival cells. hsa-miR-374b-5p mimic was overexpressed in primary gingival fibroblasts (pGFs) from 3 donors, and genome-wide mRNA expression was quantified (Clarion Array). Gene-specific regulation was validated by qRT-PCR and Luciferase activity in HeLa cells. Results: hsa-miR-374b-5p showed >twofold change (FC) in 3 independent studies performed in blood, gingival tissues, and cells. After hsa-miR-374b-5p overexpression, genome-wide expression analysis showed UHMK1 as top 1 downregulated gene in pGFs (p = 2.5 × 10-04 , fold change = -1.8). Reporter genes demonstrated that hsa-miR-374b-5p downregulates mRNA levels (p = .02; FC = -1.5), leading to reduction in protein activity (p = .013, FC = -1.3). Conclusions: hsa-miR-374b-5p is upregulated in blood and ginvial cells exposed to oral inflammation and tobacco smoke and regulates UHMK1, which has a role in osteoclast differentiation

Analysing Port Community System Network Evolution

Ports have played an important role in facilitating exchanges among countries since the day when inland transportation was poor. As ports become hubs for global supply chain, they have to maintain their competitiveness not only by reassuring their efficiency, reliability, accessibility to hinterland, and sustainability. In addition, there is a constant challenge from all operational parties of the port to acquire needed information or to trust information received, due to multiple legacy systems and platforms that do not integrate with each other, and to the lack of real time updates. There are differing agendas between parties and, sometimes, distrust within the multi-stakeholder ecosystem leads to working in silos. This jeopardises seamless data exchange and cooperation across the port value chain, resulting in significant inefficiencies. Port community system (PCS) can enhance communication and simplify administrative process resulting economic and environmental benefit for actors in the supply chain. The invisibility of the benefit, actors’ heterogeneity and significant investment to develop the system resulting a reluctance in implementing PCS. This chapter aims to study the evolution mechanism behind the process of PCS network development using lessons learned from industrial symbiosis network development and network trajectories theory. The PCS network development follows a serendipitous and goal-oriented process that can be categorised into three stages: pre-PCS network, PCS network emergence, and PCS network expansion. This chapter contributes to the exploration of network evolution and documents lesson learned to foster PCS implementation.© 2020 Springer. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in European Port Cities in Transition: Moving Towards More Sustainable Sea Transport Hubs. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36464-9_10fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Static length changes of cochlear outer hair cells can tune low-frequency hearing

The cochlea not only transduces sound-induced vibration into neural spikes, it also amplifies weak sound to boost its detection. Actuators of this active process are sensory outer hair cells in the organ of Corti, whereas the inner hair cells transduce the resulting motion into electric signals that propagate via the auditory nerve to the brain. However, how the outer hair cells modulate the stimulus to the inner hair cells remains unclear. Here, we combine theoretical modeling and experimental measurements near the cochlear apex to study the way in which length changes of the outer hair cells deform the organ of Corti. We develop a geometry-based kinematic model of the apical organ of Corti that reproduces salient, yet counter-intuitive features of the organ’s motion. Our analysis further uncovers a mechanism by which a static length change of the outer hair cells can sensitively tune the signal transmitted to the sensory inner hair cells. When the outer hair cells are in an elongated state, stimulation of inner hair cells is largely inhibited, whereas outer hair cell contraction leads to a substantial enhancement of sound-evoked motion near the hair bundles. This novel mechanism for regulating the sensitivity of the hearing organ applies to the low frequencies that are most important for the perception of speech and music. We suggest that the proposed mechanism might underlie frequency discrimination at low auditory frequencies, as well as our ability to selectively attend auditory signals in noisy surroundings

Clinical effects of probiotics containing Bacillus species on gingivitis: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

peer reviewedBACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Lactobacillus spp. and bifidobacteria are the most frequently used probiotics in oral health research. However, although probiotic effects have been suggested for other genera, such as bacilli, no trials are available to describe the effect of bacilli probiotics on gingivitis in humans. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical effects of a bacilli-containing toothpaste, a mouthrinse and a toothbrush cleaner versus a placebo in patients with generalized gingivitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial, nonsmoking, systemically healthy patients with generalized gingivitis were included. They used a placebo or an experimental probiotic Bacillus subtilis-, Bacillus megaterium- and Bacillus pumulus-containing toothpaste, mouthrinse and toothbrush cleaner for 8 wk. Primary outcome measures of interest were plaque and gingivitis index, and the secondary outcome measures were pocket probing depth and bleeding on probing. RESULTS: Twenty male and 20 female patients were randomized over the two groups. All participants could be included in the final analysis. Although plaque and gingivitis indices were significantly reduced after 8 wk, no intergroup differences could be found at any time point. Also, for the secondary outcome measure, intragroup but no intergroup differences could be detected. No harm or unintended effects were reported by the patients after using the study products. CONCLUSIONS: This study did not show any statistically significant differences between a placebo and a bacilli-containing toothpaste, mouthrinse and toothbrush cleaner on gingivitis parameters

Obese mice exposed to psychosocial stress display cardiac and hippocampal dysfunction associated with local brain-derived neurotrophic factor depletion

Introduction: Obesity and psychosocial stress (PS) co-exist in individuals of Western society. Nevertheless, how PS impacts cardiac and hippocampal phenotype in obese subjects is still unknown. Nor is it clear whether changes in local brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) account, at least in part, for myocardial and behavioral abnormalities in obese experiencing PS. Methods: In adult male WT mice, obesity was induced via a high-fat diet (HFD). The resident-intruder paradigm was superimposed to trigger PS. In vivo left ventricular (LV) performance was evaluated by echocardiography and pressure-volume loops. Behaviour was indagated by elevated plus maze (EPM) and Y-maze. LV myocardium was assayed for apoptosis, fibrosis, vessel density and oxidative stress. Hippocampus was analyzed for volume, neurogenesis, GABAergic markers and astrogliosis. Cardiac and hippocampal BDNF and TrkB levels were measured by ELISA and WB. We investigated the pathogenetic role played by BDNF signaling in additional cardiac-selective TrkB (cTrkB) KO mice. Findings: When combined, obesity and PS jeopardized LV performance, causing prominent apoptosis, fibrosis, oxidative stress and remodeling of the larger coronary branches, along with lower BDNF and TrkB levels. HFD/PS weakened LV function similarly in WT and cTrkB KO mice. The latter exhibited elevated LV ROS emission already at baseline. Obesity/PS augmented anxiety-like behaviour and impaired spatial memory. These changes were coupled to reduced hippocampal volume, neurogenesis, local BDNF and TrkB content and augmented astrogliosis. Interpretation: PS and obesity synergistically deteriorate myocardial structure and function by depleting cardiac BDNF/TrkB content, leading to augmented oxidative stress. This comorbidity triggers behavioral deficits and induces hippocampal remodeling, potentially via lower BDNF and TrkB levels. Fund: J.A. was in part supported by Rotary Foundation Global Study Scholarship. G.K. was supported by T32 National Institute of Health (NIH) training grant under award number 1T32AG058527. S.C. was funded by American Heart Association Career Development Award (19CDA34760185). G.A.R.C. was funded by NIH (K01HL133368-01). APB was funded by a Grant from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region entitled: “Heart failure as the Alzheimer disease of the heart; therapeutic and diagnostic opportunities”. M.C. was supported by PRONAT project (CNR). N.P. was funded by NIH (R01 HL136918) and by the Magic-That-Matters fund (JHU). V.L. was in part supported by institutional funds from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Pisa, Italy), by the TIM-Telecom Italia (WHITE Lab, Pisa, Italy), by a research grant from Pastificio Attilio Mastromauro Granoro s.r.l. (Corato, Italy) and in part by ETHERNA project (Prog. n. 161/16, Fondazione Pisa, Italy). Funding source had no such involvement in study design, in the collection, analysis, interpretation of data, in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication

Epigenetic adaptations of the masticatory mucosa to periodontal inflammation

Background: In mucosal barrier interfaces, flexible responses of gene expression to long-term environmental changes allow adaptation and fine-tuning for the balance of host defense and uncontrolled not-resolving inflammation. Epigenetic modifications of the chromatin confer plasticity to the genetic information and give insight into how tissues use the genetic information to adapt to environmental factors. The oral mucosa is particularly exposed to environmental stressors such as a variable microbiota. Likewise, persistent oral inflammation is the most important intrinsic risk factor for the oral inflammatory disease periodontitis and has strong potential to alter DNA-methylation patterns. The aim of the current study was to identify epigenetic changes of the oral masticatory mucosa in response to long-term inflammation that resulted in periodontitis. Methods and results: Genome-wide CpG methylation of both inflamed and clinically uninflamed solid gingival tissue biopsies of 60 periodontitis cases was analyzed using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip. We validated and performed cell-type deconvolution for infiltrated immune cells using the EpiDish algorithm. Effect sizes of DMPs in gingival epithelial and fibroblast cells were estimated and adjusted for confounding factors using our recently developed “intercept-method”. In the current EWAS, we identified various genes that showed significantly different methylation between periodontitis-inflamed and uninflamed oral mucosa in periodontitis patients. The strongest differences were observed for genes with roles in wound healing (ROBO2, PTP4A3), cell adhesion (LPXN) and innate immune response (CCL26, DNAJC1, BPI). Enrichment analyses implied a role of epigenetic changes for vesicle trafficking gene sets. Conclusions: Our results imply specific adaptations of the oral mucosa to a persistent inflammatory environment that involve wound repair, barrier integrity, and innate immune defense

Non-linear laws of echoic memory and auditory change detection in humans

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The detection of any abrupt change in the environment is important to survival. Since memory of preceding sensory conditions is necessary for detecting changes, such a change-detection system relates closely to the memory system. Here we used an auditory change-related N1 subcomponent (change-N1) of event-related brain potentials to investigate cortical mechanisms underlying change detection and echoic memory.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Change-N1 was elicited by a simple paradigm with two tones, a standard followed by a deviant, while subjects watched a silent movie. The amplitude of change-N1 elicited by a fixed sound pressure deviance (70 dB vs. 75 dB) was negatively correlated with the logarithm of the interval between the standard sound and deviant sound (1, 10, 100, or 1000 ms), while positively correlated with the logarithm of the duration of the standard sound (25, 100, 500, or 1000 ms). The amplitude of change-N1 elicited by a deviance in sound pressure, sound frequency, and sound location was correlated with the logarithm of the magnitude of physical differences between the standard and deviant sounds.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The present findings suggest that temporal representation of echoic memory is non-linear and Weber-Fechner law holds for the automatic cortical response to sound changes within a suprathreshold range. Since the present results show that the behavior of echoic memory can be understood through change-N1, change-N1 would be a useful tool to investigate memory systems.</p

Seismic technique to determine the allowable bearing pressure in soils and rocks

Based on a variety of case histories of site investigations, including extensive bore hole data, laboratory testing and geophysical prospecting, an empirical formulation is proposed for the rapid determination of the allowable bearing capacity of shallow foundations. The proposed expression corroborates consistently with the results of the classical theory and is proven to be rapid, reliable and safe. It consists of only two soil parameters, namely the in situ measured shear wave velocity, and the unit weight. The unit weight may also be determined, with sufficient accuracy, by means of another empirical expression, using the P-wave velocity. It is indicated that once the shear and P-wave velocities are measured in situ by an appropriate geophysical survey, the allowable bearing pressure, as well as the coefficient of subgrade reaction and many other elasticity parameters, may be determined rapidly and reliably