Comparison of Skeletal and Dentoalveolar Changes between Two Bone-Borne Maxillary Expanders

Introduction: Bone-borne maxillary expander (BBME) are designed to provide additional anchorage to widen the maxillary arch for patients who exhibit maxillary transverse deficiency. One form of BBME is the hybrid BBME which uses mini-implants (bone-borne) and posterior teeth (tooth-borne) as anchorage for maxillary expansion. The other form of BBME is absolute BBME which only uses mini-implants as anchorage. It is not clear in the literature if there is a difference in skeletal and dental changes with these two types of expanders. The objective of this study was to compare the skeletal, dentoalveolar, and periodontal changes between the hybrid and the absolute BBME using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods: Thirty four adolescent patients with transverse maxillary deficiency were divided into two groups; the first group (16 patients) was treated with the hybrid BBME, and the second group (18 patients) was treated with absolute BBME. CBCT scans were taken pre-treatment (T1); and immediately post-expansion (T2) to measure the changes in midpalatal suture opening, total expansion (TE), alveolar bone bending (ABB), dental tipping (DT), and buccal bone thickness (BBT) at the first molar (M1) and first premolar (PM1) levels. Data were analyzed using paired t-test and sample t-test. Results: Midpalatal suture separation was found in 100% of the patients and the pattern of midpalatal suture opening was parallel in both groups. The total expansion at M1 level was 5.9 mm in the hybrid, and 4.7 mm in the absolute BBME group. The skeletal contributions were 56% and 83% of the TE in hybrid and absolute BBME groups at the M1 level, respectively. Subjects in the absolute BBME group experienced significantly less dental buccal tipping (0.5◦ for M1, and -1◦ for PM1), and BBT loss (0.2 mm for M1, and 0.4 mm for PM1) than the hybrid BBME group, (

Analysis of factorial experiments using mixed-effects models: options for estimation, prediction and inference

In linear mixed-effects modelling of experiments, estimation of variance components, prediction of random effects, and computation of denominator degrees of freedom associated with inference on fixed effects, are important elements of the analysis. This thesis investigates alternatives to the likelihoodbased procedures for analysis of factorial experiments with normally distributed observations. Consistent methods, such as the maximum likelihood method, can be disadvantageous in cases where only small samples are available. Moreover, the algorithms used in linear mixed-effects models can be computationally demanding in large datasets. In this thesis, Henderson’s method 3, a non-iterative variance component estimation method, was considered for estimation of the variance components in a two-way mixed linear model with three variance components. The variance component estimator corresponding to one of the random effects was improved by perturbing the standard unbiased estimator. The improved variance component estimator performed better in terms of mean square error. In an application on a quantitative trait loci (QTL) study, the modified estimator was compared to the restricted maximum likelihood estimator on data from European wild boar × domestic pig intercross. The modified estimator was shown to approximate the results obtained from the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method very closely. For balanced and unbalanced data in two-way with and without interaction models, the generalized prediction intervals for the random effects were derived. The coverage probabilities of the proposed intervals were compared with those based on the REML method and the approximate methods of Satterthwaite (1946) and Kenward and Roger (1997). The coverage of the proposed intervals was closer to the chosen nominal level than coverage of prediction intervals based on the REML method. With focus on Type I error, the implications of the available options in the mixed procedure of SAS and the lmer function of R for the inference on the fixed effects were examined. With the default setting of SAS, the frequency of Type I error was higher than with R. The Type I error rate in SAS was close to the nominal value when negative estimates of the variance components were allowed. Both software packages occasionally produced inaccurate results

Passenger car equivalents at signalized intersections for heavy and medium trucks and animal driven carts in Gaza, Palestine

This study concludes that in Gaza City, PCE values at traffic signals were found to be 2.23, and 1.43 for heavy and medium trucks, respectively. However PCE value for animaldriven carts was found to be 1.51. Using appropriate statistical tests, to examine the significance of the differences among PCE values in Gaza, UK and India; it was found that there is no significant difference in PCE value for heavy and medium trucks between Gaza (2.23, 1.43) and UK (2.3, 1.5). However, it was found that there is a significant difference in PCE value for animaldriven carts between Gaza (1.51) and India (2.6)

Micro computed tomography assessment of tumor size in breast cancer compared to histopathological examination

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of Micro Computed Tomography (Micro CT) to measure primary tumor size in breast lumpectomy specimens, as compared to the histopathological measurement. METHODS: This was a diagnostic study involving women who were scheduled to have breast lumpectomy surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of surgery from June 2011 - September 2011. Those who met the study eligibility criteria were recruited to participate in the study. The study was approved by the MGH Institutional Review Board (IRB). All the participants provided consent prior to their participation in the study. The lumpectomy specimens of 45 subjects were scanned by Micro CT scan for no longer than 15 minutes, they were then delivered to the gross pathology lab for processing via the standard pathological protocol. Later on, the maximum dimension of the invasive breast tumor was obtained from the Micro CT image and was compared to the corresponding pathology report for each subject. RESULTS: We found that Micro CT tends to overestimate the breast malignant tumor size. However, there were few differences in T-stage classification between Micro CT and pathology. Overall, Micro CT demonstrated good agreement with pathological tumor size and staging. For Invasive ductal carcinoma, Micro CT showed a substantial agreement with pathological tumor size and staging. However, Micro CT showed no agreement with pathological tumor size and staging for invasive lobular carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: Micro CT is a promising modality in measuring and staging the invasive ductal carcinoma

A Review on the impacts of Azadirachta indica on Multi-drug Resistant Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase-positive of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia

Neem trees have long been considered the holy grail of holistic and nature-based treatments. The medicinal properties that constituents of the trees possess to range from traits that are immunomodulatory to traits combat different disease and infections such as anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects, to insulating properties that include cardioprotective and hepatoprotective effects. The role of Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase positive (ESBL+) bacteria in the occurrence and recurrence of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) infections, particularly in the Gulf region has been studied extensively. However, suggested treatment methods have had little success due to a variety of factors which include drug resistance, the inability of doctors to calculate the optimal duration for treatment, which has resulted in wrong antibiotic prescriptions, as well as lack of understanding of how UTIs work and thrive in different demographics/ populations which again, results in inappropriate antibiotic treatment of the disease. These discoveries raised the issue of professionals needing better training and education in issues to do with UTIs amongst different demographics of people. In this investigation, the medicinal and pharmacological properties of A. indica from neem leaves were assessed by studying how they affected the activity of ESBL+ bacteria, based on literature from similar studies. The goal and objective of this study were to see if ESBL+ bacteria persisted in the presence of A. Indica from leaf extract, as well as gaining an understanding of the factors that affected the persistence and subsequent treatment of the bacteria using A. indica.Keywords: Azadirachta indica; Neem; UTI; ESBL; E. coli; K. Pneumonia

A Usability Evaluation Framework for

Currently, more than two billions people access the Web for various purposes. The majority are people without programming or modelling background. Part of these people (called end-users) also likes to create their own Web applications to meet their daily needs. Mashup Makers are tools to create such end-user’s Web applications. As such, Mashup Makers could become the dominant environment for end-user development of Web applications. Existing Mashup Makers promise that creating a Web Mashup is very easy and just a matter of a few mouse clicks. However, there is no evidence that this is indeed the case. On the contrary, research has already revealed usability problems with Mashup Makers. Therefore, this thesis concentrates on the usability of Mashup Makers as development environments for Web applications for end-users. Usability is a key issue for the success of software artifacts, and especially if the artifacts are intended for non-technical users. Therefore, we target the achievement of a consolidated approach, model, and framework for the evaluation of the usability of Mashup Makers for end-users. Such a framework will not only allow evaluating the usability of existing Mashup Makers, but it will also provide key issues concerning usability (ie usability impact factors) that developers of Mashup Makers and of other future end-user development tools can take into consideration when developing new tools

Notes on correctness of p-values when analyzing experiments using SAS and R

It is commonly believed that if a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is carried out in R, then reported p-values are correct. This article shows that this is not always the case. Results can vary from non-significant to highly significant, depending on the choice of options. The user must know exactly which options result in correct p-values, and which options do not. Furthermore, it is commonly supposed that analyses in SAS and R of simple balanced experiments using mixed-effects models result in correct p-values. However, the simulation study of the current article indicates that frequency of Type I error deviates from the nominal value. The objective of this article is to compare SAS and R with respect to correctness of results when analyzing small experiments. It is concluded that modern functions and procedures for analysis of mixed-effects models are sometimes not as reliable as traditional ANOVA based on simple computations of sums of squares

Disaster and Mental Health: The Palestinian experience

Background: The Middle East conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis is a deadly battle between two victims. The Israelis, survivors of a long history of persecution and discrimination, are still bearing the scars of victimization. They are trapped in their collective memories of brutal suffering, which culminated in the horrors of the Holocaust. In their attempt to escape their history and to create a better future, they were led by the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish home and a Jewish nation. Their choice was the Biblical land of Palestine and their victims were to become the Palestinians. The modern Palestinian tragedy goes back to the late part of the 19th centaury when the Zionist movement was created in the wake of nationalism which spread in Europe. Zionism’s declared goal was to fulfill the dream of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The British colonial government which was mandated over Palestine responded favorably by issuing the Balfour declaration in 1917

Effect of formaldehyde vapor on the blood constituents of male rabbits

The present experimental study was designed to investigate the effect of formaldehyde on blood constituents of rabbit males, Twenty four adult males were randomly subdivided into 3 groups (I, II, III) and exposed to vapour of 10% FD (12 ppm) in cages for the following periods: 2, 4 and 6 months; beside, 8 rabbits were exposed to vapour of distilled water as a control group. Blood parameters examination showed no morphological changes, but with a significant increase in lymphocytes and esonophils percentage. Significant decrease in neutrophil, red blood cell (RBC) and platelets counts was detected. The present study concluded that formaldehyde of such concentration and exposure time have an effect on blood constituents of rabbit males

cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) activates transcription via two distinct genetic elements of the human glucose-6-phosphatase gene

BACKGROUND: The enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase catalyzes the dephosphorylation of glucose-6-phosphatase to glucose, the final step in the gluconeogenic and glycogenolytic pathways. Expression of the glucose-6-phosphatase gene is induced by glucocorticoids and elevated levels of intracellular cAMP. The effect of cAMP in regulating glucose-6-phosphatase gene transcription was corroborated by the identification of two genetic motifs CRE1 and CRE2 in the human and murine glucose-6-phosphatase gene promoter that resemble cAMP response elements (CRE). RESULTS: The cAMP response element is a point of convergence for many extracellular and intracellular signals, including cAMP, calcium, and neurotrophins. The major CRE binding protein CREB, a member of the basic region leucine zipper (bZIP) family of transcription factors, requires phosphorylation to become a biologically active transcriptional activator. Since unphosphorylated CREB is transcriptionally silent simple overexpression studies cannot be performed to test the biological role of CRE-like sequences of the glucose-6-phosphatase gene. The use of a constitutively active CREB2/CREB fusion protein allowed us to uncouple the investigation of target genes of CREB from the variety of signaling pathways that lead to an activation of CREB. Here, we show that this constitutively active CREB2/CREB fusion protein strikingly enhanced reporter gene transcription mediated by either CRE1 or CRE2 derived from the glucose-6-phosphatase gene. Likewise, reporter gene transcription was enhanced following expression of the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) in the nucleus of transfected cells. In contrast, activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2), known to compete with CREB for binding to the canonical CRE sequence 5'-TGACGTCA-3', did not transactivate reporter genes containing CRE1, CRE2, or both CREs derived from the glucose-6-phosphatase gene. CONCLUSIONS: Using a constitutively active CREB2/CREB fusion protein and a mutant of the PKA catalytic subunit that is targeted to the nucleus, we have shown that the glucose-6-phosphatase gene has two distinct genetic elements that function as bona fide CRE. This study further shows that the expression vectors encoding C2/CREB and catalytic subunit of PKA are valuable tools for the study of CREB-mediated gene transcription and the biological functions of CREB