Acculturation and a Potential Relationship with Oral Health Outcomes Among Somali Refugees in Massachusetts

This paper explores the relationship between acculturation and oral health in a study of Somali refugees. This cross-sectional survey included structured surveys and dental examinations of a convenience sample of 439 Somali adults living in Massachusetts. Associations between an acculturation scale and: (1) lifetime history of caries and (2) access to oral health services were calculated. In bivariate analyses, many individual questions in the scale were associated with outcomes. In multivariate analysis, speaking English (OR 0.5, CI 0.28–0.84) was associated with better access to, and utilization of, dental health services while reading American books and newspapers in English was associated with increased lifetime history of dental disease (OR 2.6, CI?1.1–6.0). As specific elements of acculturation have different relationships with oral health among Somali refugees, a summary acculturation scale may have limited utility. Ongoing efforts to remove language barriers may improve oral health.     

The causes, prevention, and clinical management of broken endodontic rotary files

Complications can occur during many dental procedures. The prepared clinician responds by either correcting the problem during treatment, or, ideally, preventing the problem from occurring in the first place. In endodontic treatment separated rotary Ni-Ti files are a common procedural problem. Through understanding that the main causes of file breakage are cyclic fatigue and torsional stress, a dentist can best prevent this occurrence by using hand files before rotary files, creating a straight-line (glide path) access into a canal, and preflaring the coronal portion before using rotary files in the apical third of the canal. In addition, using an up and down motion with the electric slow-speed handpiece (not allowing the file to bind within the canal) will significantly reduce the incidence of file breakage. If a file does break, successful removal primarily depends on the location of the file in the canal rather than the specific technique employed for removal. A case does not necessarily fail if the separated file cannot be removed. The prognosis when file separation occurs can still be favorable, especially if care was taken to reduce the critical concentration of canal debris with hand instrumentation and chemical irrigation prior to rotary file insertion. In addition, the introduction of a new CS file design will help the dentist increase the chance of removing the file in the event of breakage.     

An in vitro comparison of the intraradicular dentin bond strength of Resilon and gutta-percha

The purpose of this study was to compare the micropush-out bond strength of Resilon to that of gutta-percha. Extracted human anterior teeth were used for evaluation. The crowns were removed and the root canals were instrumented with Gates Glidden drills and 0.06 Profile rotary files. Instrumentation was performed with 5.25% sodium hypochlorite irrigation and a final rinse of 17% EDTA. The teeth were randomly divided into two groups. Gutta-percha group: obturation with gutta-percha and Kerr Pulp Canal Sealer EWT. Resilon group: obturation with Resilon points, Epiphany Primer, and Root Canal Sealant. The teeth were cut perpendicular to their long axis to obtain a series of 1.0 mm thick disks (n = 15 per group). Micropush-out bond strengths to root canal dentin were measured. The results show that the mean bond strength to root canal dentin was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the Resilon/Epiphany group as compared to the gutta-percha/Kerr Pulp Canal Sealer EWT group.     

Proteomic Analysis of Striatum from MPTP-Treated Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) with l-DOPA-Induced Dyskinesia of Differing Severity

Marmosets rendered parkinsonian with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) and treated with l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-DOPA) develop dyskinesia, but with differing degrees of severity. To provide insight into the molecular mechanisms responsible for the different level of dyskinesia to manifest in individual animals, proteins in striatum from MPTP-treated marmosets with different levels of l-DOPA-induced dyskinesia were separated by 2-dimensional (2-D) protein electrophoresis. Thirty-five differentially expressed proteins were identified by mass spectrometry and peptide mass fingerprinting, and comparative analysis found 10 were significantly increased and 3 had significantly reduced expression in animals with a high level of dyskinesia when compared to animals with a low incidence of dyskinesia. These proteins belonged to a range of functional classes, for example, molecular chaperones, metabolic enzymes and synaptic structural proteins. The findings of this study provide clues about the molecular mechanisms that cause dyskinesia to manifest and point towards potential novel targets for the development of therapeutic agents to prevent or treat established dyskinesia.     

Development of twenty-one polymorphic microsatellite markers for the fungus-growing ant,Mycocepurus goeldii (Formicidae: Attini), using Illumina paired-end genomic sequencing

Obligate social parasites, or inquilines, exploit the colonies of free-living social species and evolved at least 80 times in ants alone. Most species of the highly specialized inquiline social parasites are rare, only known from one or very few, geographically isolated populations, and the sexual offspring of most inquiline species mates inside the maternal colony. Therefore, inquiline populations are believed to be small and genetically homogeneous due to inbreeding. To comparatively study the genetic diversity of the socially parasitic fungus-growing ant, Mycocepurus castrator, and its only known host species, Mycocepurus goeldii, and to infer the parasite’s conservation status, we developed 21 microsatellite markers for the host species, M. goeldii, and evaluated whether these markers cross-amplify in the social parasite, M. castrator. We isolated and characterized a total of 21 microsatellite loci for M. goeldii. The loci were screened for 24 individuals from geographically distant and genetically divergent populations in Brazil. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 18 to 4, the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.25 to 0.636, and the probability of identity values ranged from 0.011 to 0.146. Preliminary analyses show that these markers cross amplify in the closely related social parasite species M. castrator. These newly developed loci provide tools for studying the genetic diversity and the evolution of social parasitism in the Mycocepurus host–parasite system.