Current and future use of virtual and augmented reality in minimal invasive oral surgery

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Closely related fungi employ diverse enzymatic strategies to degrade plant biomass

Background Plant biomass is the major substrate for the production of biofuels and biochemicals, as well as food, textiles and other products. It is also the major carbon source for many fungi and enzymes of these fungi are essential for the depolymerization of plant polysaccharides in industrial processes. This is a highly complex process that involves a large number of extracellular enzymes as well as non-hydrolytic proteins, whose production in fungi is controlled by a set of transcriptional regulators. Aspergillus species form one of the best studied fungal genera in this field, and several species are used for the production of commercial enzyme cocktails. Results It is often assumed that related fungi use similar enzymatic approaches to degrade plant polysaccharides. In this study we have compared the genomic content and the enzymes produced by eight Aspergilli for the degradation of plant biomass. All tested Aspergilli have a similar genomic potential to degrade plant biomass, with the exception of A. clavatus that has a strongly reduced pectinolytic ability. Despite this similar genomic potential their approaches to degrade plant biomass differ markedly in the overall activities as well as the specific enzymes they employ. While many of the genes have orthologs in (nearly) all tested species, only very few of the corresponding enzymes are produced by all species during growth on wheat bran or sugar beet pulp. In addition, significant differences were observed between the enzyme sets produced on these feedstocks, largely correlating with their polysaccharide composition. Conclusions These data demonstrate that Aspergillus species and possibly also other related fungi employ significantly different approaches to degrade plant biomass. This makes sense from an ecological perspective where mixed populations of fungi together degrade plant biomass. The results of this study indicate that combining the approaches from different species could result in improved enzyme mixtures for industrial applications, in particular saccharification of plant biomass for biofuel production. Such an approach may result in a much better improvement of saccharification efficiency than adding specific enzymes to the mixture of a single fungus, which is currently the most common approach used in biotechnology.Peer reviewe

Cosmic-ray positron fraction measurement from 1 to 30 GeV with AMS-01

A measurement of the cosmic ray positron fraction e+/(e+ + e-) in the energy range of 1-30 GeV is presented. The measurement is based on data taken by the AMS-01 experiment during its 10 day Space Shuttle flight in June 1998. A proton background suppression on the order of 10^6 is reached by identifying converted bremsstrahlung photons emitted from positrons

Management of primary odontogenic myxoma

BACKGROUND: This retrospective study describes our experience in the management of odontogenic myxoma. METHODS: Thirty-four patients (23 female and 11 male) with single lesions were treated. Thirty-three patients were adults (mean age 33.5 years) and one child (age 6 years). Male:female ratio was 1:2. Different surgical procedures were used to treat the tumors. 11 lesions were treated by marginal osteotomy, 12 lesions by enucleation and curettage, 11 lesions by radical treatment (segmental or block resection). The follow-up period was 5-years. RESULTS: The success rate was 73.5%. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to examine the outcome of the treatment. Analysis showed a significant difference between 3 types of treatment (P=0.041). The median overall of complete healing was 51.34 months (95% CI: 43.12-59.55; SD 4.19). In details, the median overall of healing was 34.91 months (95% CI: 20.66-49.17; SD 7.27) in patients of group A; 56.36 months (95% CI: 42.47-68.52; SD 3.46) in patients of group B and 47.27 months (95% CI: 49.56-63.15; SD 3.46) in patients of group C. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that enucleation and curettage offer minimal benefit, and their use must be discouraged.BACKGROUND: This retrospective study describes our experience in the management of odontogenic myxoma. METHODS: Thirty-four patients (23 female and 11 male) with single lesions were treated. Thirty-three patients were adults (mean age 33.5 years) and one child (age 6 years). Male:female ratio was 1:2. Different surgical procedures were used to treat the tumors. 11 lesions were treated by marginal osteotomy, 12 lesions by enucleation and curettage, 11 lesions by radical treatment (segmental or block resection). The follow-up period was 5-years. RESULTS: The success rate was 73.5%. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to examine the outcome of the treatment. Analysis showed a significant difference between 3 types of treatment (P=0.041). The median overall of complete healing was 51.34 months (95% CI: 43.12-59.55; SD 4.19). In details, the median overall of healing was 34.91 months (95% CI: 20.66-49.17; SD 7.27) in patients of group A; 56.36 months (95% CI: 42.47-68.52; SD 3.46) in patients of group B and 47.27 months (95% CI: 49.56-63.15; SD 3.46) in patients of group C. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that enucleation and curettage offer minimal benefit, and their use must be discouraged

Management of primary odontogenic myxoma

BACKGROUND: This retrospective study describes our experience in the management of odontogenic myxoma. METHODS: Thirty-four patients (23 female and 11 male) with single lesions were treated. Thirty-three patients were adults (mean age 33.5 years) and one child (age 6 years). Male:female ratio was 1:2. Different surgical procedures were used to treat the tumors. 11 lesions were treated by marginal osteotomy, 12 lesions by enucleation and curettage, 11 lesions by radical treatment (segmental or block resection). The follow-up period was 5-years. RESULTS: The success rate was 73.5%. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to examine the outcome of the treatment. Analysis showed a significant difference between 3 types of treatment (P=0.041). The median overall of complete healing was 51.34 months (95% CI: 43.12-59.55; SD 4.19). In details, the median overall of healing was 34.91 months (95% CI: 20.66-49.17; SD 7.27) in patients of group A; 56.36 months (95% CI: 42.47-68.52; SD 3.46) in patients of group B and 47.27 months (95% CI: 49.56-63.15; SD 3.46) in patients of group C. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that enucleation and curettage offer minimal benefit, and their use must be discouraged.BACKGROUND: This retrospective study describes our experience in the management of odontogenic myxoma. METHODS: Thirty-four patients (23 female and 11 male) with single lesions were treated. Thirty-three patients were adults (mean age 33.5 years) and one child (age 6 years). Male:female ratio was 1:2. Different surgical procedures were used to treat the tumors. 11 lesions were treated by marginal osteotomy, 12 lesions by enucleation and curettage, 11 lesions by radical treatment (segmental or block resection). The follow-up period was 5-years. RESULTS: The success rate was 73.5%. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to examine the outcome of the treatment. Analysis showed a significant difference between 3 types of treatment (P=0.041). The median overall of complete healing was 51.34 months (95% CI: 43.12-59.55; SD 4.19). In details, the median overall of healing was 34.91 months (95% CI: 20.66-49.17; SD 7.27) in patients of group A; 56.36 months (95% CI: 42.47-68.52; SD 3.46) in patients of group B and 47.27 months (95% CI: 49.56-63.15; SD 3.46) in patients of group C. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that enucleation and curettage offer minimal benefit, and their use must be discouraged

Prevalence and distribution of oral mucosal non-malignant lesions in the western Sicilian population

BACKGROUNG: The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of oral mucosal non-malignant lesions in the Sicilian population. In addition, we evaluated the association between each oral lesion and its risk factors. METHODS: This study analyzed a total of 2539 consecutive patients, attending the Department of Surgical, Oncological and Stomatological Disciplines of Palermo University, who were examined for the presence of various oral lesions during the period from January 2012 and February 2015. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 1330 (52%) female and 1209 (48%) male. The age ranged from 13-86 years with a mean age of 47.16 years. Among these subjects 1495 (58%), presented one or more lesions. All subjects were Caucasian. The most common lesion diagnosed was coated/hairy tongue affecting 16.7% of the subjects, followed by: lingual varices (16.3%), secondary herpes lesions (8.1%), aphthous ulcers (7.9%), fordyce granules (7.2%), frictional keratosis (5%), candidosis (4.9%), fibroepithelial hyperplasia (4.6%), squamous papilloma (3.8%), traumatic ulcers (3.7%), leukoplakia (3.2%), fissured tongue (3.2%), hemangiomas (2.7%), morsicatio buccarum (2.5%), melanin pigmentation (2.5%), lichen planus (2.5%), leukoedema (2.1%), petechiae (1.1%), geographic tongue (1%), actinic cheilitis (0.8%), and erythroplakia (0.1%). Overall, the prevalence of oral mucosal non-malignant lesions was linked to age, gender, diseases, and risk habits. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence necessitates adequate awareness of these lesions in the general population. The dental clinicians should also be knowledgeable about the etiopathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of these lesions

Traditional Endodontic Surgery Versus Modern Technique: A 5-Year Controlled Clinical Trial

In this study, we compared outcomes of traditional apicoectomy versus modern apicoectomy, by means of a controlled clinical trial with a 5-year follow-up. The study investigated 938 teeth in 843 patients. On the basis of the procedure performed, the teeth were grouped in 3 groups. Differences between the groups were the method of osteotomy (type of instruments used), type of preparation of retrograde cavity (different apicoectomy angles and instruments used for root-end preparation), and root-end filling material used (gray mineral trioxide aggregate or silver amalgam). Outcome (tooth healing) was estimated after 1 and 5 years, postoperatively. Clinical success rates after 1 year were 67% (306 teeth), 90% (186 teeth), and 94% (256 teeth) according to traditional apicoectomy (group 1), modern microsurgical apicoectomy using burns for osteotomy (group 2) or using piezo-osteotomy (group 3), respectively. After 1 year, group comparison results were statistically significant (P G 0.0001). Linear trend test was also statistically significant (P G 0.0001), pointing out larger healing from group 1 to group 3. After 5 years, teeth were classified into 2 groups on the basis of root-end filling material used. Clinical success was 90.8% (197 teeth) in the silver amalgam group versus 96% (309 teeth) in the mineral trioxide aggregate group (P G 0.00214). Multiple logistic regression analysis found that surgical technique was independently associated to tooth healing. In conclusion, modern apicoectomy resulted in a probability of success more than 5 times higher (odds ratio, 5.20 [95% confidence interval, 3.94Y6.92]; P G 0.001) compared with the traditional technique