Effectiveness of Calcium Hydroxide (CaOH) as agent for Direct Pulp Capping in the Mandibular Molars

Background: Direct Pulp Capping technique has been in use as a treatment therapy to sustain a vital pulp. The substitute procedure to the endodontic therapy or extraction is precise & successful pulp capping. Calcium hydroxide (CaOH) is considered as gold standard agent for pulp capping because of antibacterial characteristics & ability to form dentinal bridge. Calcium hydroxide has also shown great results on peri-apical healing process. Aim: To evaluate success rate of direct pulp capping when CaOH is used as a direct pulp capping agent Setting: Multan Dental College Multan Methodology: Sample size 60 cases. Patients of 15-40 years age group were selected with the exposure of the vital pulp by caries or Trauma in permanent lower molars clinically. Those cases with pinpoint (precise) exposure of pulp were selected. Flow of blood from site of exposure should be ceased inside two to three minutes after the applying the soaking cotton pallet with the saline. Results: 25 were woman (41.67%) and 35 were men (58.33%). Overall percentage of success is 80% which means that 48 patients had showed effectiveness, while twelve patients had shown failure of pulp capping Conclusion: We conclude that Calcium hydroxide is a choice for the direct pulpal capping. When a site of exposure is sealed/ wrapped by means of calcium hydroxide, the odds of the failure may decrease, and prognosis might be good. Keywords: Calcium hydroxide, Direct Pulp Capping, Postoperative X-ray, follow-up

A new pretopological way of identifying spreaders in propagation diffusion phenomena

In a world that's increasingly connected, many crises are related to propagation phenomena where we need to either repress the spreading (e.g. epidemics, computer viruses, fake news...) or try to accelerate it (e.g. the diffusion of a new anti-virus patch). A good understanding of such phenomena involves a knowledge of both the structure of the whole system and the specifics of the transmission process. The standard way to deal with the former has been through a characterization of the structure by the use of networks, where nodes are the components of the system where the propagation occurs, and links exist between them if there's a possibility of transmission from one component to the other. This allows to identify the super-spreaders (i.e. components that diffuse in a disproportionally large amount) as nodes with certain particular network properties. Here we propose the use of pretopology as a framework to characterize the structure of a system, as well as a new pretopological metric for the identification of super-spreaders. Since the metric can easily be transformed into an equivalent network metric, it is easy to compare its performance with some of the classical network indices of node importance. The relevance of the metric is tested by the use of some standard agent-based models of epidemics and opinion dynamics. Finally, a pretopological model of opinion diffusion is also proposed and studied.

Autoregressive Policies for Continuous Control Deep Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning algorithms rely on exploration to discover new behaviors, which is typically achieved by following a stochastic policy. In continuous control tasks, policies with a Gaussian distribution have been widely adopted. Gaussian exploration however does not result in smooth trajectories that generally correspond to safe and rewarding behaviors in practical tasks. In addition, Gaussian policies do not result in an effective exploration of an environment and become increasingly inefficient as the action rate increases. This contributes to a low sample efficiency often observed in learning continuous control tasks. We introduce a family of stationary autoregressive (AR) stochastic processes to facilitate exploration in continuous control domains. We show that proposed processes possess two desirable features: subsequent process observations are temporally coherent with continuously adjustable degree of coherence, and the process stationary distribution is standard normal. We derive an autoregressive policy (ARP) that implements such processes maintaining the standard agent-environment interface. We show how ARPs can be easily used with the existing off-the-shelf learning algorithms. Empirically we demonstrate that using ARPs results in improved exploration and sample efficiency in both simulated and real world domains, and, furthermore, provides smooth exploration trajectories that enable safe operation of robotic hardware.

Local anaesthetic substitutes for cocaine

The early twentieth century saw the production of a large number of local anaesthetic drugs as alternatives to cocaine. The paper under consideration describes a study which compared 11 of those drugs with cocaine, using criteria put forward earlier by Braun. The therapeutic ratio, water solubility, chemical stability in solution, potency, systemic toxicity, local tissue toxicity, and compatibility with adrenalin of each drug were assessed and compared in wide-ranging bench and animal studies. Comparisons of potency would also seem to have been performed in man. The overall conclusion was that procaine, which became the standard agent until lidocaine was introduced, was clearly superior. However, the paper is virtually unknown, in spite of describing what would appear to have been the definitive study of the period.

Comparative Evaluation of 0.2% Chlorhexidine Mouth Rinse with and without an Antidiscoloration System: A Clinical Study

ABSTRACT Introduction Chlorhexidine (CHX) is considered the gold standard agent for its clinical efficacy in chemical plaque control. The addition of other active ingredients may even reduce the antiplaque effectiveness. New mouthwash containing CHX with addition of an antidiscoloration system (ADS), i.e., Plasdone K-29/32, that claims to bind to stains, increases their solubility in water and effects their removal; thus the mouthwash promises not only to prevent plaque formation but also to avoid staining. Aim To clinically evaluate the efficacy of a 0.2% CHX mouth rinse with and without an ADS. Materials and methods The present study was a tripleblinded, prospective, cohort, and crossover study. This study consisted of 15 subjects. Supragingival scaling and polishing were done and then subjects were asked to rinse with a randomly allocated mouthwash for 15 days. Subjects used either mouthwash A (0.2% CHX with ADS) or mouthwash B (0.2% CHX). After 15 days, the discoloration index and plaque index (PI) were recorded. After 15 days washout period, on the 30th day from baseline, supragingival scaling and polishing were carried out, and each subject used the subsequent mouthwash. On 45th day from baseline, the discoloration and PIs were recorded and comparisons were made. Results No significant difference in the PI between groups I and II mouthwash was seen (p≥0.05), whereas significant difference was found in the discoloration index between groups I and II mouthwash (p≤0.05). Conclusion The addition of Plasdone does not reduce the efficacy of CHX mouthwash. The current study also proved that CHX with ADS caused less staining than CHX alone. How to cite this article Pereira R, Phad SG. Comparative Evaluation of 0.2% Chlorhexidine Mouth Rinse with and without an Antidiscoloration System: A Clinical Study. J Contemp Dent 2017;7(1):53-56.

Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activities of Desmodium Motorium Merr.

The n-hexane, carbon tetrachloride, dichloromethane soluble fractions of methanol extract of the whole plant of Desmodium motorium were subjected to antioxidant activity by indicated method, inhibition of microbial growth by disc diffusion method and cytotoxicity by brine shrimp lethality bioassay. The methanol i.e., crude extract showed highest antioxidant activity having IC50 9.5 ?g/ml as compared to 9.0 ?g/ml for standard agent BHT. The n-hexane, carbon tetrachloride and dichloromethane soluble fraction showed moderate inhibitory activity to microbial growth, while all the extractive exhibited strong cytotoxic property with the carbon tetrachloride soluble materials revealed the strongest cytotoxicity with LC50 1.54 ?g/ml.© 2013 JSR Publications. ISSN: 2070-0237 (Print); 2070-0245 (Online). All rights reserved.doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jsr.v5i1.10955 J. Sci. Res. 5 (1), 201-205 (2013)

From Hired Hands to Co-Owners: Compensation, Team Production, and the Role of the CEO

ABSTRACT:In the 1990s, the role of the chief executive officer (CEO) of major United States corporations underwent a profound transformation in which CEOs went from being bureaucrats or technocrats to shareholder partisans who acted more like proprietors or entrepreneurs. This transformation occurred in response to changes in the competitive environment of U.S. corporations and also to the agency theory argument that high levels of compensation by means of stock options helped to overcome the agency problem inherent in the separation of ownership and control. Some critics charge that this new CEO role is objectionable for a variety of reasons, which may also be applicable to the current financial crisis in which CEO misconduct may have played a part. These objections are based largely on a team production model of corporate governance, which is held by these critics to be superior to the standard agent-principal model. This article examines the objections offered by critics of the changed role of the CEO and argues that their negative assessment of this development and their use of the team production model to support their conclusions are not warranted. CEOs have changed from hired hands to co-owners, and this change may have contributed in some measure to the current financial crisis. However, in determining the morally preferable role of the CEO, care must be taken not to discard what is sound in the changed role.

Efficacy of Selective Transarterial Chemotherapy Using a Port System for Angiosarcomas of the Face and Scalp

Angiosarcoma is a rare, highly malignant tumor with a poor clinical outcome. From January 2004 to September 2005, we advocated transarterial chemotherapy using a port system for four patients with angiosarcomas of the face and scalp. A heparin coated ANTHRON P-U catheter was introduced into the feeding artery. The proximal part of the P-U catheter was connected to the port system and buried in subcutaneous tissue. The amount of chemotherapeutic drug applied using the port system was almost the same as the conventional intravenous dose. Paclitaxel was the standard agent, at 50–100mg/diluted in 15–30 ml of physiological saline fluid slowly injected over 0.5–1 hour. For immunotherapy where appropriate, r-IL2 was mainly used at a dose of 70.000U/diluted in 5ml of physiological saline fluid injected into the port system over 30 seconds. This was continued for two to three weeks (five days/week) until recognition of a disappearance of the tumor. Macroscopic size reduction of the tumor was achieved in three out of the four cases. One case could not be evaluated because of eruptions induced by immunotherapy. Unfortunately two patients died after placement of port system, but the other two are still alive and are enjoying useful lives. Transarterial infusion chemotherapy using such a port system may be particularly effective for angiosarcoma in the early stages because small lesions with limited invasion mean a small territory of blood supply to be covered, and useful life was possible because the port system embedded in subcutaneous tissue allows treatment in an out-patient clinic.

Antioxidant and Hepatoprotective Activities of Cirsium setidens NAKAI against CCl4-Induced Liver Damage

The antioxidant activity and hepatoprotective potential of Cirsium setidens Nakai, a widely used medicinal plant, were investigated. The n-butanol (n-BuOH) fraction of leaves and roots of C. setidens had a higher 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity than the other soluble fractions. The n- BuOH fraction of roots of C. setidens had a significant hepatoprotective activity at a dose of 500 mg/kg compared to that of a standard agent. The biochemical results were confirmed by histological observations indicating that C. setidens extract decreased ballooning degeneration in response to CCl4 treatment. The n-BuOH fraction reduced CCl4-induced liver injury in rats, and transcript levels of genes encoding antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPO1), glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPO3) and superoxide dismutase (SOD1) were elevated in the livers of rats treated with this fraction (500 mg/kg). Based on these results, we suggest that the C. setidens extract has hepatoprotective effect related to its antioxidant activity.