Endodontic 'solutions' part 1:A literature review on the use of endodontic lubricants, irrigants and medicaments

Endodontic lubricants, irrigants and medicaments help prepare and disinfect root canal systems (RCS) but primary and secondary cases involve different microbes and therefore it is unlikely that one protocol will be effective for both case types. Each individual 'solution' or sequence of 'solutions' could play a significant role in each case type, but there are no detailed published guidelines in existence. To help inform clinical practice it was decided to undertake a literature review followed by a UK and Republic of Ireland wide audit on current endodontic 'solution' usage within dental schools. The literature review was undertaken under the following headings: pre-op oral rinse; file lubricants; root canal irrigants and intracanal medicaments and provides an evidence base for protocol development for both primary and retreatment cases. The audit project and the protocols developed from the findings of both the literature review and audit will be presented in Part 2.

Whole Slide Image Cytometry: a Novel Method for the Detection and Quantification of Abnormal DNA Contents in Barrett’s Oesophagus

Background: Barrett's oesophagus (BO) is a well recognized precursor of the majority of cases of oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC). Endoscopic surveillance of BO patients is frequently undertaken in an attempt to detect early OAC, high grade dysplasia (HGD) or low grade dysplasia (LGD). However histological interpretation and grading of dysplasia is subjective and poorly reproducible. The alternative flow cytometry and cytology-preparation image cytometry techniques require large amounts of tissue and specialist expertise which are not widely available for frontline health care.
Methods: This study has combined whole slide imaging with DNA image cytometry, to provide a novel method for the detection and quantification of abnormal DNA contents. 20 cases were evaluated, including 8 Barrett's specialised intestinal metaplasia (SIM), 6 LGD and 6 HGD. Feulgen stained oesophageal sections (1µm thickness) were digitally scanned in their entirety and evaluated to select regions of interests and abnormalities. Barrett’s mucosa was then interactively chosen for automatic nuclei segmentation where irrelevant cell types are ignored. The combined DNA content histogram for all selected image regions was then obtained. In addition, histogram measurements, including 5c exceeding ratio (xER-5C), 2c deviation index (2cDI) and DNA grade of malignancy (DNA-MG), were computed.
Results: The histogram measurements, xER-5C, 2cDI and DNA-MG, were shown to be effective in differentiating SIM from HGD, SIM from LGD, and LGD from HGD. All three measurements discriminated SIM from HGD cases successfully with statistical significance (pxER-5C=0.0041, p2cDI=0.0151 and pDNA-MG=0.0057). Statistical significance is also achieved differentiating SIM from LGD samples with pxER-5C=0.0019, p2cDI=0.0023 and pDNA-MG=0.0030. Furthermore the differences between LGD and HGD cases are statistical significant (pxER-5C=0.0289, p2cDI=0.0486 and pDNA-MG=0.0384).
Conclusion: Whole slide image cytometry is a novel and effective method for the detection and quantification of abnormal DNA content in BO. Compared to manual histological review, this proposed method is more objective and reproducible. Compared to flow cytometry and cytology-preparation image cytometry, the current method is low cost, simple to use and only requires a single 1µm tissue section. Whole slide image cytometry could assist the routine clinical diagnosis of dysplasia in BO, which is relevant for future progression risk to OAC.

WC/CNT, WC/CNT/Pt Composite Material and Preparation Process Therefor and Use Thereof. (International Patent)

(EN)Disclosed are a WC/CNT， WC/CNT/Pt composite material and a preparation process therefor and use thereof. The WC/CNT/Pt composite material comprises mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide with a diameter of 1-5 microns, carbon nanotubes and platinum nano particles, with the carbon nanotubes growing on the surface of the mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide and expanding outward, and the platinum nano particles growing on the surfaces of the mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide and carbon nanotubes. The WC/CNT composite material comprises mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide with a diameter of 1-5 microns, and carbon nanotubes, with the carbon nanotubes growing on the surface of the mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide and expanding outward. The WC/CNT/Pt composite material of the present invention can be used as an electro-catalyst in a methanol flue battery, significantly improving the catalytic conversion rate and the service life of the catalyst. The WC/CNT composite material can be used as an electro-catalyst in the electro-reduction of a nitro aromatic compound, significantly improving the efficiency of organic electro-synthesis.

WC/CNT, WC/CNT/Pt Composite Material and Preparation Process Therefor and Use Thereof. (US patent)

Disclosed are a WC/CNT， WC/CNT/Pt composite material and a preparation process therefor and use thereof. The WC/CNT/Pt composite material comprises mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide with a diameter of 1-5 microns, carbon nanotubes and platinum nano particles, with the carbon nanotubes growing on the surface of the mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide and expanding outward, and the platinum nano particles growing on the surfaces of the mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide and carbon nanotubes. The WC/CNT composite material comprises mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide with a diameter of 1-5 microns, and carbon nanotubes, with the carbon nanotubes growing on the surface of the mesoporous spherical tungsten carbide and expanding outward. The WC/CNT/Pt composite material of the present invention can be used as an electro-catalyst in a methanol flue battery, significantly improving the catalytic conversion rate and the service life of the catalyst. The WC/CNT composite material can be used as an electro-catalyst in the electro-reduction of a nitro aromatic compound, significantly improving the efficiency of organic electro-synthesis.

Poverty and Ethnicity in Northern Ireland: An Evidence Review

This report provides an overview of the research evidence on the relationship between poverty and ethnicity in Northern Ireland. After a period of increasing ethnic diversity, the review was concerned with understanding how issues of poverty affect people from different minority ethnic communities and their ability to access and secure good outcomes from key services. A comprehensive literature review and focus groups with people from the Roma, Somali, Chinese and Polish communities, and with local stakeholders, provide the basis for the report. The report discusses: • how new migrants have joined long-standing communities of people from minority ethnic groups; • how the policy framework to address racial inequalities in Northern Ireland is relatively new; • how people from minority ethnic groups experience low incomes and access services; and • how the legacy of conflict in the region may affect minority ethnic groups.

The rise and demise of a book-review magazine interpreting the cultural work of Books in Canada (1971-2008)

This interdisciplinary study examines the contribution that a book-review magazine makes to the cultural identity of its readers. It is the result of reflections on the cultural work of Books in Canada , on whether or not this periodical was a cultural worksite and if that is the case how it performed that cultural work. In addition, it interrogates factors that may have contributed to the magazine's demise. The study affirms that Books in Canada, a cultural enterprise from 1971 to 2008, mirrored and helped to shape book and literary culture in Canada through its circulation, through the personalities of its editors, through its front covers and through its reviewers and their reviews. Furthermore, it proposes that the demise of the enterprise was due to a combination of factors. The study begins with an introduction to book reviewing and special-interest magazines. Chapter I examines the interplay between selected visual and textual contents published in Books in Canada in its founding years. These components reflected and helped to fuel the cultural nationalism that was sweeping Canada subsequent to the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal. There were also persistent rumours and comments about the magazine that caused certain"cracks in the foundation" to appear. Chapter II compares the aims and editorial challenges of Val Clery, founder of Books in Canada , with those of Adrien Thério, founder of Lettres québécoises, and of the editors of the magazines' twentieth-anniversary issues, Paul Stuewe in the case of the former and André Vanasse in the case of the latter. Evidence in the content of the magazine, editorial and otherwise, indicated that the"contracts" that the editors made with their readers over the years were similar, to reflect and shape a cultural identity, but the result of their"projects," that is, the nature of those identities, was distinctly different. Evidently then, personal aims, preferences and political leanings of editors can have a major impact on the content of a book-review magazine and thus on the cultural work that it does. Therefore, in Chapter III, I focus on selected contents published during the tenures of two of Books in Canada 's key editors, Paul Stuewe and Olga Stein, in order to understand ways that their choices constituted a form of cultural work. The second part of this chapter moves from an analysis of the cultural work of editors to an examination of the cultural work of reviewers. Here, through a close-reading of a selection of reviews published in Books in Canada, and in other periodicals, I argue that reviewers do cultural work in the way that they negotiate their presence in a review, and in how they signal that presence through lexical choices and through the degree of intellectual interaction that they invite. Intellectual interaction is at the core of Chapter IV.This chapter consists of close readings of some of the"billboards" of the enterprise, that is, the front covers of Books in Canada , in order to show how these important components do cultural work by requiring readers to make an intellectual leap from image to text. Chapter V suggests that book reviews, the company's"bills of goods," do cultural work in much the same way as the paratexts of a book. One of my own reviews is offered as a case-study along with a number of other reviews of how central components of a book-review magazine do cultural work through the illocutionary force of their sentences. The first part of Chapter VI, the final chapter, measures the legacy of the magazine, in particular, the annual Books in Canada First Novel Award. Created in 1976, this prize is awarded to the author of the novel judged by a Books in Canada prize committee to be the best first novel in English of the year. The second part of Chapter VI sheds light on factors that may have contributed to the closure of the enterprise, including the copyright uproar that accompanied the agreement that Adrian Stein, publisher of Books in Canada and Olga Stein's husband, made in 2001 with the online book merchant, Amazon.com. Furthermore, this penultimate section of the study suggests that one of the most important factors in the magazine's demise was the decision by the Steins to exploit their position as owners, publisher, and editor of a book-review periodical, a government-subsidized one at that, to publish their own lengthy pre-trial defense of Conrad Black. The chapter then zooms back from the particular to the general with a broader consideration of the impact of technology and globalization on the book industry and on the ability of Books in Canada to survive in any form, print or digital.

Multisite Research Ethics Review: Problems and Potential Solutions

Article

Optical absorption studies in ion implanted and amorphous semiconductors - Investigations in some tetrahedrally co-ordinated and chalcogenide materials

The thesis provides an overall review and introduction to amorphous semiconductors, followed by a brief discussion on the important structural models proposed for chalcogenide glasses and their electrical, optional and thermal properties. It also gives a brief description of the Physics of thin films, ion implantation and Photothermal Deflection Spectroscopy. A brief description of the experimental setup of a photothermal deflection spectrometer and the details of the preparation and optical characterization of the thin film samples. It deals with the employment of the subgap optional absorption measurement by PDS to characterize the defects, amorphization and annealing behavior in silicon implanted with B+ ions and the profiles of ion range and vacancy distribution obtained by the TRIM simulation. It reports the results of all absorption measurements by PDS in nitrogen implanted thin film samples of Ge-Se and As-Se systems

INFO2009 Reviews Partners, Commentary and Peer Review

guidance notes on review and evaluation processes. Part of the total handin required See also http://www.edshare.soton.ac.uk/9937/ for use in context and http://www.edshare.soton.ac.uk/9911/ for the guidance on the critical friend review process

COMP1205 Legal Perspectives: Information, Data and Living in a Connected World

List of topics and Slides which summarise legal perspectives with suggested methods on how to revise for the exam

COMP1205 Exam Perspectives

A couple of slides shows which scope topics and approaches for COMP1205 Examination

Medical Students Circadian Sleep Rhythms and Academic Performance

Objective: to evaluate, with a preliminary study, the distribution of circadian rhythms, sleep schedule patterns and their relationship with academic performance on medical students. Methodology: in this descriptive study, a 10 item original questionnaire about sleep rhythms and academic performance was applied to medical students from different semesters. Week (class time) and weekend schedules, preferences, daytime somnolence and academic performance were asked. Three chronotypes (morningness, intermediate and eveningness) were defined among waking-sleeping preference, difficulty to sleep early, exam preparation preference hour and real sleep schedule. The sleep hour deficit per week night was also calculated. Results: Of the 318 medical students that answered the questionnaire, 62.6% corresponded to intermediate chronotypes, 8.8% to evening-type and 28.7% to morning-type. Significant difference was found among the two chronotype tails (p=0.000, Chi-square 31.13). No correlation was found between academic performance and age, sex, chronotype, week sleep deficit and sleep hours in week and weekends. A 71.1% of the students slept 6 or fewer hours during class time and 78% had a sleep deficit (more frequent in the evening chronotype). Conclusions: No relation was found between sleep chronotype and academic performance. Students tend to morningness. Few studies have been made on equatorial zones or without seasons

Short Term Health Shocks and School Attendance: The Case of a Dengue Fever Outbreak in Colombia.

This paper makes use of a short, sharp, unexpected health shock in the form of the 2010 Colombian Dengue outbreak to examine the direct and indirect impact of negative health shocks on behaviour of households in affected areas. Our analysis combines data from several sources in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of the influence of the outbreak, and furthermore to understand the underlying mechanisms driving the effects. Our initial analysis indicates that the outbreak had a substantial negative effect on the health status of adults and adversely affected their ability to function as usual in their daily lives. In our aggregated school data, in areas with high levels of haemorrhagic Dengue we observe a reduction innational exam attendance (last year of secondary school) and on enrolment rates in primary education. Further analysis aims to exploit detailed individual level data to gain a more in depth understanding of the precise channels through which this disease influenced the behaviour and outcomes of the poor in Colombia.

Preparation of (–)-epigallocatechin gallate from commercial green tea by caffeine precipitation and solvent partition

A method has been developed which enables the easy and inexpensive preparation of gram quantities of (–)-epigallocatechin gallate from green tea (Camellia sinensis). A decaffeinated aqueous brew of commercial green tea is treated with caffeine (30 m ). The precipitate is redissolved after decaffeination with chloroform and further purified by solvent partition with ethyl hexanoate and propyl acetate. Commercial leaf (25 g) yields 400 mg (–)-epigallocatechin gallate at better than 80% purity, as judged by reversed phase HPLC.