Dental Dam Utilization by Dentists in an Intramural Faculty Practice

Objectives: From casual observation of our colleagues, only a few individuals use the dental dam for operative procedures in their faculty practice. The purpose of this study was to obtain faculty perceptions of the dental dam, quantify its utilization in their intramural faculty practice, and determine the factors that influence dental dam usage.Materials and Methods: A survey containing 11 questions was sent to 19 faculty members who teach full time and maintain an intramural dental practice involving operative dentistry. Thirty electronic dental health records of the 19 providers were reviewed to gather the following information from restorative procedures they completed: isolation methods, tooth location and involved surfaces, and dental restorative material.Results: Overall, dental dam was utilized for 30% of all restorative procedures and was used less than 20% of the time for placement of class II and class III composite resins. Dental dam utilization rate by general dentists was 37% and 17.6% for prosthodontists. Those general dentists with prior history of military dental practice had a utilization rate of 78.6% and nonmilitary dentists only 7.6%. Eight faculty members responded to the questionnaire for a 42% return rate. Those who practiced dentistry in the military strongly agreed that the dental dam is the standard of care, improves their quality of restorative work, and should be documented in the dental record.Conclusions: There were significantly different dental dam utilization rates between general dentists and prosthodontists and between dentists with prior military experience and those without

Discharges of past flood events based on historical river profiles

International audienceThis paper presents a case study to estimate peak discharges of extreme flood events of Neckar River in south-western Germany during the 19th century. It was carried out within the BMBF research project RIMAX (Risk Management of Extreme Flood Events). The discharge estimations were made for the flood events of 1824 and 1882 based on historical cross profiles. The 1-D model Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) was applied with different roughness coefficients. The results are compared (i) with contemporary historical calculations and (ii) in the case of a flood event in 1824 with the discharge simulation by the water balance model LARSIM (Large Area Runoff Simulation Model). These calculations are matched by the HEC-RAS simulation based on the standard roughness coefficients

Organization of the multigene families of African Swine Fever Virus

African swine fever virus is a complex DNA virus that infects swine and is spread by ticks. Mortality rates in domestic pigs are very high and the virus is a significant threat to pork farming. The genomes of 16 viruses have been sequenced completely, but these represent only a few of the 23 genotypes. The viral genome is unusual in that it contains 5 multigene families, each of which contain 3-19 duplicated copies (paralogs). There is significant sequence divergence between the paralogs in a single virus and between the orthologs in the different viral genomes. This, together with the fact that in most of the multigene families there are numerous gene indels that create truncations and fusions, makes annotation of these regions very difficult; it has led to inconsistent annotation of the 16 viral genomes. In this project, we have created multiple sequence alignments for each of the multigene families and have produced gene maps to help researchers more easily understand the organization of the multigene families among the different viruses. These gene maps will help researchers ascertain which members of the multigene families are present in each of the viruses. This is critical because some of the multigene families are known to be associated with virus virulence

Analysis of Historical River Floods - A Contribution Towards Modern Flood Risk Management

The occurrence of several extreme flood events in Central Europe in the last two decades, in particular the flood along the Elbe River in 2002, and the resulting damage have shown shortcomings in the field of flood protection and have raised discussions on how to deal with flood risk in the future. As a consequence, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research funded the "Risk Management of Extreme Flood Events" (RIMAX) research programme, which aimed at the development and implementation of improved instruments for flood risk management (www.rimax-hochwasser.de). Document type: Part of book or chapter of boo

Metabolomic serum abnormalities in dogs with hepatopathies

Hepatopathies can cause major metabolic abnormalities in humans and animals. This study examined differences in serum metabolomic parameters and patterns in left-over serum samples from dogs with either congenital portosystemic shunts (cPSS, n = 24) or high serum liver enzyme activities (HLEA, n = 25) compared to control dogs (n = 64). A validated targeted proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy platform was used to assess 123 parameters. Principal component analysis of the serum metabolome demonstrated distinct clustering among individuals in each group, with the cluster of HLEA being broader compared to the other groups, presumably due to the wider spectrum of hepatic diseases represented in these samples. While younger and older adult control dogs had very similar metabolomic patterns and clusters, there were changes in many metabolites in the hepatopathy groups. Higher phenylalanine and tyrosine concentrations, lower branched-chained amino acids (BCAAs) concentrations, and altered fatty acid parameters were seen in cPSS dogs compared to controls. In contrast, dogs with HLEA had increased concentrations of BCAAs, phenylalanine, and various lipoproteins. Machine learning based solely on the metabolomics data showed excellent group classification, potentially identifying a novel tool to differentiate hepatopathies. The observed changes in metabolic parameters could provide invaluable insight into the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and prognosis of hepatopathies.Peer reviewe

Metabolomic Abnormalities in Serum from Untreated and Treated Dogs with Hyper- and Hypoadrenocorticism

The adrenal glands play a major role in metabolic processes, and both excess and insufficient serum cortisol concentrations can lead to serious metabolic consequences. Hyper- and hypoadrenocorticism represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Serum samples from dogs with untreated hyperadrenocorticism (n = 27), hyperadrenocorticism undergoing treatment (n = 28), as well as with untreated (n = 35) and treated hypoadrenocorticism (n = 23) were analyzed and compared to apparently healthy dogs (n = 40). A validated targeted proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-1 NMR) platform was used to quantify 123 parameters. Principal component analysis separated the untreated endocrinopathies. The serum samples of dogs with untreated endocrinopathies showed various metabolic abnormalities with often contrasting results particularly in serum concentrations of fatty acids, and high- and low-density lipoproteins and their constituents, which were predominantly increased in hyperadrenocorticism and decreased in hypoadrenocorticism, while amino acid concentrations changed in various directions. Many observed serum metabolic abnormalities tended to normalize with medical treatment, but normalization was incomplete when compared to levels in apparently healthy dogs. Application of machine learning models based on the metabolomics data showed good classification, with misclassifications primarily observed in treated groups. Characterization of metabolic changes enhances our understanding of these endocrinopathies. Further assessment of the recognized incomplete reversal of metabolic alterations during medical treatment may improve disease management.Peer reviewe

Immunoregulatory Intestinal Microbiota and COVID-19 in Patients with Type Two Diabetes: A Double-Edged Sword

Coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, is a major challenge facing scientists worldwide. Alongside the lungs, the system of organs comprising the GI tract is commonly targeted by COVID-19. The dysbiotic modulations in the intestine influence the disease severity, potentially due to the ability of the intestinal microbiota to modulate T lymphocyte functions, i.e., to suppress or activate T cell subpopulations. The interplay between the lungs and intestinal microbiota is named the gut–lung axis. One of the most usual comorbidities in COVID-19 patients is type 2 diabetes, which induces changes in intestinal microbiota, resulting in a pro-inflammatory immune response, and consequently, a more severe course of COVID-19. However, changes in the microbiota in this comorbid pathology remain unclear. Metformin is used as a medication to treat type 2 diabetes. The use of the type 2 diabetes drug metformin is a promising treatment for this comorbidity because, in addition to its hypoglycemic action, it can increase amount of intestinal bacteria that induce regulatory T cell response. This dual activity of metformin can reduce lung damage and improve the course of the COVID-19 disease.publishedVersio

Technical note: Space-time statistical quality control of extreme precipitation observations

Information about precipitation extremes is of vital importance for many hydrological planning and design purposes. However, due to various sources of error, some of the observed extremes may be inaccurate or false. The purpose of this investigation is to present quality control of observed extremes using space–time statistical methods. To cope with the highly skewed rainfall distribution, a Box–Cox transformation with a suitable parameter was used. The value at the location of a potential outlier is estimated using the surrounding stations and the calculated spatial variogram and compared to the suspicious observation. If the difference exceeds the threshold of the test, the value is flagged as a possible outlier. The same procedure is repeated for different temporal aggregations in order to avoid singularities caused by convection. Detected outliers are subsequently compared to the corresponding radar and discharge observations, and finally, implausible extremes are removed. The procedure is demonstrated using observations of sub-daily and daily temporal resolution in Germany