The ultrastructural examination of gingival fibromatosis

Hereditary gingival fibromatosis (GF) is a special type of fibrous overgrowth classified as non-inflammatory gingival enlargement. Microscopically, the connective tissue consists of coarse collagen bundles and fibroblasts. The ultrastructural examination of fibrous gingival hyperplasia reveals that fibroblasts phagocyte the mast cell granules and mast cells stimulate collagen synthesis which results in hyperplasia. In the ultrastructural examination of phenytoin-induced hyperplasia, fibroblasts, phagocytosing mast cell granules were also found. Based on these findings, the purpose of this study is to establish whether there is a relationship between fibroblasts and mast cells in GF. The gingival tissues of 5 patients with GF were examined ultrastructurally. In the connective tissue, well-defined bundles of collagen fibres were found together with fibroblasts and capillaries. There were mast cells around these capillaries which had collapsed lumens. The proximity of the mast cells and fibroblasts may indicate that mast cells play some role on collagen synthesis of fibroblasts.     

Semantic enrichment process: An approach to software component reuse in modernizing enterprise systems

In today’s dynamic business environments, organizations are under pressure to modernize their existing software systems in order to respond to changing business demands. Service oriented architectures provide a composition framework to create new business functionalities from autonomous building blocks called services, enabling organizations to quickly adapt to changing conditions and requirements. Characteristics of services offer the promise of leveraging the value of enterprise systems through source code reuse. In this respect, existing system components can be used as the foundation of newly created services. However, one problem to overcome is the lack of business semantics to support the reuse of existing source code. Without sufficient semantic knowledge about the code in the context of business functionality, it would be impossible to utilize source code components in services development. In this paper, we present an automated approach to enrich source code components with business semantics. Our approach is based on the idea that the gap between the two ends of an enterprise system—(1) services as processes and (2) source code—can be bridged via similarity of data definitions used in both ends. We evaluate our approach in the framework of a commercial enterprise systems application. Initial results indicate that the proposed approach is useful for annotating source code components with business specific knowledge.     

Effects of microwave irradiation and chemical fixation on the localization of perisinusoidal cells in rat liver by gold impregnation

Modified gold impregnation is one of the methods that are used in light microscopical demonstration of hepatic perisinusoidal cells. This method has some disadvantages, such as restriction of fixation time to 16 h, which allows limited time for processing the tissues, especially when dealing with a large amount of material, and a long impregnation time (16–24 h). We investigated the effect of prolonged fixation on the staining of sections, to shorten the time needed for gold impregnation by using microwave irradiation. Liver specimens were fixed in Baker's calcium–formalin for different periods of time. After fixation, frozen sections were impregnated in gold chloride solution either at room temperature or in a microwave oven. The staining quality of the sections which had been impregnated in the microwave oven for a much shorter time were equal to or even superior to the ones impregnated at room temperature. Prolonging the fixation time up to 7 days did not affect the staining results by microwave irradiation, whereas satisfactory results were not obtained from sections stained at room temperature and fixed for more than 3 days. We conclude that microwave irradiation can be used to shorten the impregnation time in gold chloride solution and the duration of fixation can be prolonged up to 3 days in the original method and up to 7 days when microwave irradiation is used during impregnation.     

The effect of cyclosporin-A on the ultrastructure of gingival tissue in Beh?et's disease

Autoimmune processes are said to play an active role in aetiology of Beh?et's disease (BD), which is also known as a multisystem disease. In the treatment of this autoimmune disease, cyclosporin A (CyA) is used. Gingival hyperplasia (GH) is one of the important side effects that have been observed in some of the patients. We aimed to evaluate the CyA-induced gingival hyperplasia in BD patients. There were 3 study groups, each having 5 patients. In the first group displaying GH, mast cells were located between epithelial cells and in the connective tissue. Mast cell granules were in crystalline form and electron-dense cored form. Fibroblasts and plasma cells were present in the connective tissue. The second group did not display GH and the mast cells were similar to those in the first group. The third group, was the control group, in which the mast cells were located between the epithelial cells and connective tissue. Mast cell granules were in electron-dense cored form. We concluded that the development of CyA-induced gingival hyperplasia is determined mainly by individual sensitivity to CyA, because although both test groups which received CyA showed an increased number and activity of fibroblasts, only one group of patients developed GH.     

The relation of microbiologic data to aspartate aminotransferase enzyme activity in gingival crevicular fluid

Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF), reflects the immune and inflammatory reactions and is itself a location for specific host-microbe interactions that lead to periodontal diseases. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) is one of the components of GCF that is released as a result of cell death. In this study, 40 periodontal sites in 10 early onset periodontitis patients before and after nonsurgical periodontal therapy, with and without local metronidazole administration, were first examined for the AST enzyme levels in GCF and then evaluated for microbiological and clinical variables. In each patient, 4 sites (one site/quadrant) with a probing depth of > or = 5 mm were selected and treated with separate treatment protocols. Certain microbial species including Prevotella intermedia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans(A. a.) were found more often and/or in higher levels in AST active sites (36/40 first measurement--9/36 second measurement), while other species (Streptococcus and Actinomyces) were found more often and/or in higher levels in AST inactive sites (4/40 first measurement--8/36 second measurement). Eight post-treatment AST active sites revealed 1.5 mm of attachment loss, whereas 8 post-treatment AST inactive sites showed 1.37 mm of attachment gain. AST activity and microbiological-clinical data presenting such an agreement suggests that, AST level assessment would be beneficial as an adjunctive method alongside other clinical criteria, in guiding the clinician in periodontal treatment.     

A clinical and microbiological evaluation of systemic and local metronidazole delivery in adult periodontitis patients

The present study describes results on selected clinical and microbiological parameters obtained by treatment with local (Elyzol) and systemic (Flagyl) use of metronidazole alone and/or mechanical subgingival debridement in adult periodontitis. Patients were randomly divided into local and systemic treatment groups each comprising 5 individuals in each of whom 4 sites (one site/ quadrant) with a probing depth of > or = 5 mm were selected and treated with separate treatment modalities. The overall treatment design provided 6 different test groups. Groups of quadrants received: (1) scaling and root planing; (2) local metronidazole treatment; (3) systemic metronidazole treatment; (4) local metronidazole combined with scaling and root planing; (5) systemic metronidazole combined with scaling and root planing; (6) no treatment. The microbiological and clinical effects of treatment modalities were monitored over a period of 42 days. All treatments resulted in clinical improvements (gingivitis, probing pocket depth, attachment level) except for the untreated group. Parallel to the clinical changes, all treatments reduced the number of total bacteria and proportions of obligately anaerobic microorganisms. Although both of the combined treatment groups responded to therapy with better resolution of infection that the pure mechanical and pure metronidazole treatments, local metronidazole in combination with scaling and root planing seems to be more effective in terms of producing both clinical and microbial improvements.     

Engineering Applications of Time-of-Flight Neutron Diffraction

Time-of-flight neutron diffraction is widely used in characterizing the microstructure and mechanical response of heterogeneous systems. Microstructural characterization techniques include spatial or temporal mapping of the phases and determination of grain size, dislocation structure, and grain orientations (texture) within these phases. Mechanical response analysis utilizes the crystallographic selectivity of the diffraction process to measure the partitioning of strain within the system. The microstructural and mechanical response information is then used to develop more realistic constitutive models. In this article we review some examples of such measurements, based on our experiences at the Lujan Center of Los Alamos National Laboratory.     

Numerical simulation of the X-ray stress analysis technique in polycrystalline materials under elastic loading

In this article, the correlation between the local stress distributions and the average stresses obtained by X-ray measurement is studied through numerical modeling. The finite element method (FEM) is used to simulate the local stress distributions within a three-dimensional random aggregate of anisotropic and isotropic single crystals under uniaxial elastic tension. The local stresses are calculated for polycrystalline W, Al, or Cu slabs with the same geometry and crystallite distribution. The stress/strain values in the crystallites that satisfy the diffraction condition are then used to simulate the X-ray data that would be obtained if the diffraction peaks from such aggregates were actually measured. In particular, the 200, 222, and 420 reflections are analyzed. The correlations between the far-field stress, the local stresses, and the average stresses determined through X-ray analysis are presented.     

Smartphone addiction and its relationship with social anxiety and loneliness

Individuals with psychosocial problems such as social phobia or feelings of loneliness might be vulnerable to excessive use of cyber-technological devices, such as smartphones. We aimed to determine the relationship of smartphone addiction with social phobia and loneliness in a sample of university students in Istanbul, Turkey. Three hundred and sixty-seven students who owned smartphones were given the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS), UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS), and Brief Social Phobia Scale (BSPS). A significant difference was found in the mean SAS scores (p?<?.001) between users who declared that their main purpose for smartphone use was to access social networking sites. The BSPS scores showed positive correlations with all six subscales and with the total SAS scores. The total UCLA-LS scores were positively correlated with daily life disturbance, positive anticipation, cyber-oriented relationship, and total scores on the SAS. In regression analyses, total BSPS scores were significant predictors for SAS total scores (β?=?0.313, t?=?5.992, p?<?.001). In addition, BSPS scores were significant predictors for all six SAS subscales, whereas UCLA-LS scores were significant predictors for only cyber-oriented relationship subscale scores on the SAS (β?=?0.130, t?=?2.416, p?<?.05). The results of this study indicate that social phobia was associated with the risk for smartphone addiction in young people. Younger individuals who primarily use their smartphones to access social networking sites also have an excessive pattern of smartphone use.