Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Clinical Trial of Pulpotomy vs. Root Canal Therapy of Mature Molars

Root canal therapy (RCT) and tooth extraction are the main treatment options for irreversible pulpitis or its sequelae. Pulpotomy is an alternative treatment; however, more evidence is required. If outcomes of pulpotomy with a calcium-enriched mixture (PCEM) are non-inferior for mature molars with irreversible pulpitis compared with those from one-visit RCT (ORCT), this may be a beneficial treatment option. Four hundred seven individuals met the inclusion criteria and were randomly allocated [PCEM (n = 205), ORCT (n = 202)]. We used NRS questionnaires to record pain intensity. Six-month clinical and radiographic successes were assessed. Individuals in the ORCT arm reported significantly more post-operative pain than those in the PCEM arm (P < 0.001). Clinical success rates in the two arms showed no statistically significant difference; however, the radiographic success rates were significantly greater in the PCEM arm (P < 0.001). This trial suggests PCEM as an alternative for treatment of irreversible pulpitis. If long-term results confirm initial ones, PCEM may revolutionize oral health worldwide.
“Gum Bug, Leave My Heart Alone!”—Epidemiologic and Mechanistic Evidence Linking Periodontal Infections and Atherosclerosis

Evidence from epidemiologic studies suggests that periodontal infections are independently associated with subclinical and clinical atherosclerotic vascular disease. Although the strength of the reported associations is modest, the consistency of the data across diverse populations and a variety of exposure and outcome variables suggests that the findings are not spurious or attributable only to the effects of confounders. Analysis of limited data from interventional studies suggests that periodontal treatment generally results in favorable effects on subclinical markers of atherosclerosis, although such analysis also indicates considerable heterogeneity in responses. Experimental mechanistic in vitro and in vivo studies have established the plausibility of a link between periodontal infections and atherogenesis, and have identified biological pathways by which these effects may be mediated. However, the utilized models are mostly mono-infections of host cells by a limited number of ‘model’ periodontal pathogens, and therefore may not adequately portray human periodontitis as a polymicrobial, biofilm-mediated disease. Future research must identify in vivo pathways in humans that may (i) lead to periodontitis-induced atherogenesis, or (ii) result in treatment-induced reduction of atherosclerosis risk. Data from these studies will be essential for determining whether periodontal interventions have a role in the primary or secondary prevention of atherosclerosis.
HEMA Enhances IgG1 Production by Human B-cells in vitro

We have previously shown that the resin monomer 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) affects mouse B-lymphocyte activity, leading to increased IgG1 antibody production in vivo. In the present study, we tested, in vitro, the hypothesis that HEMA also affects human B-lymphocyte activity. The in vitro production of IgG1, IgM, and IgA in supernatants from purified human CD19+ B-lymphocyte cultures, containing different concentrations of HEMA, was assayed with ELISA. Proliferation was measured by [methyl-3H] thymidine incorporation. Of the different HEMA concentrations used, the lower concentrations caused a significant increase in IgG1 production, but not in IgM or IgA production, in vitro. The lower HEMA concentrations did not significantly change B-cell proliferation. At the highest concentration, HEMA significantly suppressed IgG1 and IgM production, as well as B-cell proliferation, in vitro. In conclusion, HEMA can, at certain concentrations, selectively enhance human B-lymphocyte IgG1 production. Abbreviations: 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA), Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium supplemented with heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum, gentamycin, penicillin, and streptomycin (D-MEM++++), Enzyme-linked Immuno-sorbent Assay (ELISA), phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), ovalbumin (OVA), pokeweed mitogen (PWM), counts per minute (CPM).
Comparative evaluation of efficacy and safety of cefotaxime-sulbactam with amoxicillin-clavulanic acid in children with lower respiratory tract infections

Objective: Beta-lactamase producing bacteria present a major problem in treating lower respiratory tract infections. The objective of this study was to evaluate efficacy and safety of cefotaxime-sulbactam combination versus amoxicillin-clavulanic acid injection as an alternative therapeutic option for treatment of lower respiratory tract infections in pediatric patients. Methods: This randomized, multicentric, comparative study enrolled 102 inpatients with lower respiratory tract infections, in the age range of 3 months – 12 years. Patients received cefotaxime-sulbactam or amoxicillin-clavulanic acid injection intravenously for up to 7 days. Results: There was no difference between the two groups in demography or disease characteristics (p > 0.05) at baseline. Efficacy was evaluated in a total of 96 patients. Both the treatment groups were comparable in response rate at the end of the therapy (p > 0.05). Clinical success rate was 93.6% and 89.8%, respectively for cefotaxime-sulbactam and co-amoxiclav. One patient from the cefotaxime-sulbactam group reported convulsions, which were probably not related to the study medication in the opinion of the investigator. Except for this serious adverse event, both the study medications were safe and well tolerated in the study population. Conclusion: In conclusion, cefotaxime-sulbactam administered 3 times a day for up to 7 days was found to be as effective as co-amoxiclav therapy. However, further studies with a large number of patients are required to confirm these findings with more robust microbiological evaluation.
Catheter-associated urinary tract infection following caesarean section in Nnewi, Nigeria: a prospective comparative study.

Background: Urinary tract catheterization is a major risk factor for urinary tract infections (UTIs). Catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) still remain a major reservoir of antibiotic resistant pathogens with attendant increase in morbidity and mortality. Objective: To determine and compare the incidence of catheter associated urinary tract infections following immediate and 24-hour postoperative removal of urethral catheters for caesarean section. Design: The study was a prospective, comparative study. Place and Duration of Study: Labour ward, Theatre and Postnatal wards of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi between August 2012 to April 2013. Methodology: The study involved 156 women admitted for caesarean section where the urethral catheters were removed 24-hour post operatively (group A) or immediately after Original Research Article British Microbiology Research Journal, 4(9): 1025-1034, 2014 1026 caesarean section (group B). Urine samples were collected. Outcome measures included pre-operative and 72 hour postoperative urine microscopy, culture and sensitivity, urinary frequency, dysuria, urgency, fever and duration of hospital stay. The patients’ data were coded, computed and analyzed using SPSS version 16. A P-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Of the 79 patients in group A, 9 (11.4%) had significant bacteriuria in the 72 hour post operative urine culture while 5 (6.5%) had significant bacteriuria in group B, (OR=1.85: 95% CI 0.59-5.80, P=0.28). The overall incidence of catheter associated urinary tract infection in NAUTH was 14(9.0%). Escherichia coli were mostly isolated 4 (44.4%). The lowest level of resistance was seen with Amoxycillinclavulanic acid (Augmentin). Conclusion: The present study showed that significant bacteriuria in Group A almost double the incidence in Group B, however, the difference was not statistically significant. Further studies should be carried out to compare catheterization with noncatheterization for caesarean section.
Expression of Osteoclastogenesis Inducers in a Tissue Model of Periodontal Ligament under Compression

There is increasing interest in the development of new in vitro tissue models. In this study, a tissue model of periodontal ligament (PDL) was established by 3-D-culturing human PDL cells in a thin sheet of porous poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) scaffold. Growth of the model was evidenced by MTT assay and various microscopies. After being subjected to static compression of 5 ~ 35 g/cm2 for 6 hrs, the RANKL mRNA expression was significantly up-regulated by force ≥ 25 g/cm2 in the model. After being subjected to static compression of 25 g/cm2 for 6 ~ 72 hrs, the mRNA expression of PTHrP, IL-11, IL-8, and FGF-2, potential osteoclastogenesis inducers, was significantly up-regulated in the model, which was further verified by the compression of human PDL in vivo. However, when human gingival fibroblasts were substituted for PDL cells in the model, almost no osteoclastogenesis inducers were up-regulated by compression. This tissue model can serve as an effective tool for the study of PDL mechanoresponse. Abbreviations: periodontal ligament, PDL; periodontal ligament cells, PDLCs; poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), PLGA; orthodontic tooth movement, OTM; extracellular matrix, ECM.
Ethanol Wet-bonding Challenges Current Anti-degradation Strategy

The long-term effectiveness of chlorhexidine as a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor may be compromised when water is incompletely removed during dentin bonding. This study challenged this anti-bond degradation strategy by testing the null hypothesis that wet-bonding with water or ethanol has no effect on the effectiveness of chlorhexidine in preventing hybrid layer degradation over an 18-month period. Acid-etched dentin was bonded under pulpal pressure simulation with Scotchbond MP and Single Bond 2, with water wet-bonding or with a hydrophobic adhesive with ethanol wet-bonding, with or without pre-treatment with chlorhexidine diacetate (CHD). Resin-dentin beams were prepared for bond strength and TEM evaluation after 24 hrs and after aging in artificial saliva for 9 and 18 mos. Bonds made to ethanol-saturated dentin did not change over time with preservation of hybrid layer integrity. Bonds made to CHD pre-treated acid-etched dentin with commercial adhesives with water wet-bonding were preserved after 9 mos but not after 18 mos, with severe hybrid layer degradation. The results led to rejection of the null hypothesis and highlight the concept of biomimetic water replacement from the collagen intrafibrillar compartments as the ultimate goal in extending the longevity of resin-dentin bonds.
A Theory of Fault-Based Testing

A theory of fault-based program testing is defined and explained. Testing is fault-based when it seeks to demonstrate that prescribed faults are not in a program. It is assumed that a program can only be incorrect in a limited fashion specified by associating alternate expressions with program expressions. Classes of alternate expressions can be infinite. Substituting an alternate expression for a program expression yields an alternate program that is potentially correct. The goal of fault-based testing is to produce a test set that differentiates the program from each of its alternates. A particular form of fault-based testing based on symbolic execution is presented. In symbolic testing, the output from the system is an expression in terms of the input and the symbolic alternative. Equating this with the output from the original program yields a propagation equation whose solutions determine those alternatives which are not differentiated by this test. Since an alternative set can be infinite, it is possible that no finite test differentiates the program from all its alternates. Circumstances are described as to when this can be decided. >
Diagnosis and Management Strategies in Congenital Atresia of the External Auditory Canal

This consensus report represents a distillation of current opinion regarding diagnosis and management of congenital aural atresia. It also takes into account the philosophical differences which exist in Europe. Congenital aural atresia requires prompt diagnosis, genetic counselling and an early assessment of hearing. In bilateral atresia, early amplification with a bone conduction hearing aid is essential for proper speech development. Further rehabilitation in bilateral cases is managed with surgical reconstruction in selected patients or by implantation of a bone-anchored hearing aid. Atresia repair surgery is worthwhile if proper patient selection is made by use of stringent audiological and radiological criteria and state of the art surgery is performed. The divergent views concerning indications, ideal age for surgery and surgical approach to achieve better hearing are discussed. Review of the literature demonstrated that even in the hands of the best surgeons a mean hearing gain of only 20-25 dB is achieved in atresia Type II, with 30-35 dB in Type I. Therefore, surgical reconstruction should only be done in the more favourable cases where post-operative hearing of <25-30 dB is attainable. Less favoured patients should be helped with bone-anchored hearing aids, as this type of surgery does not interfere with the future use of new techniques.
Visual Knowledge Engineering

The knowledge engineer is only weakly supported at three critical stages in the knowledge engineering life cycle: (1) knowledge acquisition during which problem conceptualization must largely be tackled with paper and pencil; (2) knowledge encoding, during which it is frequently necessary to be able to navigate across a variety of knowledge representation formalisms; and (3) large-scale debugging, in which the graphical rule traces cannot cope with enormous rule sets involving hundreds or thousands of rules. The research described attempts to provide just such support through complementary visual programming (VP) and program visualization (PV) techniques embedded in a fully implemented software environment called KEATS: the knowledge engineer's assistant. Several novel visual programming and program visualization techniques aimed at knowledge engineers have been developed, which include (1) a hypertext transcript analyzer from which conceptual models can be generated, (2) a direct graph manipulation sketchpad which allows the knowledge engineer to sketch out objects and relations (including control flow and rule dependencies) from which code can be generated, and (3) dependency viewers which allow the knowledge engineer to examine and manipulate temporal and logical rule dependencies at different levels of granularity. How these facilities are incorporated into KEATS and the key themes that emerge from this approach to visual knowledge engineering are discussed. >
Development of an Intelligent Diagnostic System for Induction Machine Health Monitoring

In this paper, the development of an intelligent diagnostic system for induction machine health monitoring has been presented. The idea behind the artificial neural network and its application for machine diagnostic is described briefly. The general condition of intelligent system design based on neural network is discussed. The results of using developed intelligent algorithm for efficient and accurate identification of machine health are demonstrated. C and Matlab programs have been used for the development of the intelligent algorithm (multi-layer feed-forward neural network with back propagation algorithm) for machine diagnostic and monitoring.
Prevalence of preoperative anemia and hematinic deficiencies in patients scheduled for elective major orthopedic surgery

SUMMARY Preoperative anemia is an independent risk factor for allogeneic blood transfusion in patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery (MOS) whereas hematinic deficiency can delay the recovery from postoperative anemia. Both conditions can, however, be corrected before elective procedures are undertaken. We therefore evaluated the prevalence of anemia and hematinic deficiencies in MOS patients. Demographic and laboratory data were gathered from all MOS patients from a single institution between January 2001 and December 2002. A total of 715 patients (483 women/232 men) entered the study. According to WHO criteria, the prevalence of anemia was 10.5% and increased with age, without gender-related differences. Preoperative hemoglobin was < 13 g/dL in 19.4% of patients, and the prevalence of hematinic deficiencies was 33% for iron, 12.3% for vitamin B12 and 3% for folate. In anemic patients, there were 30.8% with hematinic deficiency anemia (20% with iron-deficiency anemia), 30.8% with anemia of chronic disease and 38.4% with anemia of mixed or indeterminate cause. The prevalence of anemia, as well as of hematinic deficiencies, is high in MOS patients. Therefore, whenever possible, patients undergoing MOS should be assessed early enough to allow for proper investigation and treatment prior to the scheduled procedure.
Screening Community-Dwelling Elders for Nutritional Risk: Determining the Influence of Race and Residence

This investigation explores nutritional risk among two subgroups of older adults African American and geographically isolated elders (65 years or older). Telephone interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 1,126 respondents and included a 10-item nutritional risk appraisal. Results indicated that over one half of the sample may be considered to be at moderate or high nutritional risk, with African American and rural elders at dispropor tionately higher risk and rural Blacks at highest risk across a variety of indicators. The nutritional vulnerability of these groups may prompt practitioners to design and target services specifically for their needs, while also stimulating research to improve our understanding of the factors that account for these differential risks.
Induced Migration of Dental Pulp Stem Cells for in vivo Pulp Regeneration

Dental pulp has intrinsic capacity for self-repair. However, it is not clear whether dental pulp cells can be recruited endogenously for regenerating pulp tissues, including mineralizing into dentin. This work is based on a hypothesis that dental pulp stem/progenitor cells can be induced to migrate by chemotactic cytokines and act as endogenous cell sources for regeneration and mineralization. Dental stem cells (DSCs) were isolated from adult human tooth pulp and seeded on the surfaces of 3D collagen gel cylinders that were incubated in chemically defined media with stromal-derived factor-1α (SDF1), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), or bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP7). Significantly more cells were recruited into collagen gel by SDF1 or bFGF than without cytokines in 7 days, whereas BMP7 had little effect on cell recruitment. BMP7, however, was highly effective, equally to dexamethasone, in orchestrating mineralization of cultured DSCs. Cell membrane receptors for SDF1, bFGF, and BMP7 were up-regulated in treated DSCs. Upon in vivo delivery, bFGF induced re-cellularization and re-vascularization in endodontically treated human teeth implanted into the dorsum of rats. Thus, endogenous dental pulp cells, including stem/progenitor cells, may be recruited and subsequently differentiated by chemotaxis of selective cytokines in the regeneration of dental pulp.
A Role of Oral Bacteria in Bisphosphonate-induced Osteonecrosis of the Jaw

No consensus has yet been reached to associate oral bacteria conclusively with the etio-pathogenesis of bisphosphonate-induced osteonecrosis of the jaw (BONJ). Therefore, the present study examined the effects of oral bacteria on the development of BONJ-like lesions in a mouse model. In the pamidronate (Pam)-treated mice, but not control non-drug-treated mice, tooth extraction followed by oral infection with Fusobacterium nucleatum caused BONJ-like lesions and delayed epithelial healing, both of which were completely suppressed by a broad-spectrum antibiotic cocktail. Furthermore, in both in vitro and in vivo experiments, the combination of Pam and Fusobacterium nucleatum caused the death of gingival fibroblasts (GFs) and down-regulated their production of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), which induces epithelial cell growth and migration. Therefore, in periodontal tissues pre-exposed to bisphosphonate, bacterial infection at tooth extraction sites caused diminished KGF expression in GFs, leading to a delay in the epithelial wound-healing process that was mitigated by antibiotics.
New biochemical markers of osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is characterized by the progressive destruction of articular cartilage and subchondral bone and synovial reaction. Radiological findings that form the basis of the diagnosis of osteoarthritis are poorly sensitive for detecting early disease and monitoring progression of joint damage. New specific and sensitive biochemical markers of cartilage and synovial tissue turnover, including assays for Type II collagen synthesis and degradation, have been developed. Recent prospective studies indicate that blood and urine levels of these new markers are associated with the progression of joint damage. Biological markers respond rapidly to treatment, and thus will certainly play an important role in the development and monitoring of disease-modifying therapies. As osteoarthritis involves different tissues and complex biological processes, a combination of different biochemical markers appears to be the most promising diagnostic strategy.
Relationship between Periodontal Status and Levels of Glycated Hemoglobin

The objective of this study was to assess whether there is a bi-directional relationship between periodontal status and diabetes. Study 1 included 5,856 people without periodontal pockets of ≥ 4 mm at baseline. Relative risk was estimated for the 5-year incidence of periodontal pockets of ≥ 4 mm (CPI scores 3 and 4, with the CPI probe), in individuals with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels of ≥ 6.5% at baseline. Study 2 included 6,125 people with HbA1c < 6.5% at baseline. The relative risk was assessed for elevation of HbA1c levels in 5 years, with baseline periodontal status, assessed by CPI. Relative risk of developing a periodontal pocket was 1.17 (p = 0.038) times greater in those with HbA1c of ≥ 6.5% at baseline, adjusted for body mass index (BMI), smoking status, sex, and age. Relative risks for having HbA1c ≥ 6.5% at 5-year follow-up in groups with periodontal pockets of 4 to 5 mm and ≥ 6 mm at baseline were 2.47 (p = 0.122) and 3.45 (p = 0.037), respectively, adjusted for BMI, alcohol consumption, smoking status, sex, and age. The risk of developing periodontal disease was associated with levels of HbA1c, and the risk of elevations of HbA1c was associated with developing periodontal pockets of more than 4 mm.
Nematode parasites of domestic animals and of man

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