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

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Cervico-Facial Actinomycosis: Epidemiological and clinical comments

In a retrospective investigation performed in the department of Surgical Odontostomatology of Palermo University Polyclinic from 1997-2006, the authors examined 12 cases of cervico-facial actinomycosis, taking into consideration age range, gender distribution, predisposing factors and symptoms. In concordance with reports in literature, they found that the disease was perimandibular in 65%, they also report the diagnostic methods and therapeutic approaches used in the stud

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

Non-Syndrome Patient with Multiple Supernumerary Teeth: Case Report

Polydentia is a variation in excess in the number of the teeth. Supernumerary teeth appear, especially in the maxilla, mostly between the central incisors (mesiodens) and in molars region. These positions are followed by the maxillary fourth molars, maxillary paramolars, mandibular premolars, maxillary lateral incisors, mandibular fourth molars and maxillary premolars. Supernumerary teeth may occur in single or multiple numbers bilateral occurrence is uncommon. It is rare to find multiple supernumeraries in individuals with no other associated disease or syndrome. The purpose of this study is to present, a case with mutiple supernumerary teeth in non-syndrome patient

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

Oral Blue Nevus: Case Report

Abstract: Aim of this research is the description of a case of palatal blue nevus and the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to adopt when this oral lesion occurs. Nevi are benign proliferations of nevus cells either in the epithelium or in the subepithelial stroma. Blue nevus of the oral mucosa is a rare lesion. The oral blue nevi are asymptomatic and have no malignant potential. More importantly blue nevus had to be differentiated from malignant melanoma. Because is difficult to distinguish oral melanocytic nevi from melanoma we believe that any oral lesion in question should be excised and sent for histopathologic evaluation