Effectiveness of different intrusion modes of maxillary anterior teeth with mini-implants in clear aligner treatment: a three-dimensional finite element analysis.

BACKGROUND: The intrusion of maxillary anterior teeth is often required and there are various intrusion modes with mini-implants in clear aligner treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of maxillary anterior teeth intrusion with different intrusion modes, aiming to provide references for precise and safe intrusion movements in clinical practice. METHODS: Cone-beam computed tomography and intraoral optical scanning data of a patient were collected. Finite element models of the maxilla, maxillary dentition, periodontal ligaments (PDLs), clear aligner (CA), attachments, and mini-implants were established. Different intrusion modes of the maxillary anterior teeth were simulated by changing the mini-implant site (between central incisors, between central and lateral incisor, between lateral incisor and canine), loading site (between central incisors, on central incisor, between central and lateral incisor, between lateral incisor and canine), and loading mode (labial loading and labiolingual loading). Ten conditions were generated and intrusive forces of 100 g were applied totally. Then displacement tendency of the maxillary anterior teeth and CA, and stress of the PDLs were analyzed. RESULTS: For the central incisor under condition L14 and for the canine under conditions L11, L13, L23, and L33, the intrusion amount was negative. Under other conditions, the intrusion amount was positive. The labiolingual angulation of maxillary anterior teeth exhibited positive changes under all conditions, with greater changes under linguoincisal loading. The mesiodistal angulation of canine exhibited positive changes under labial loading, while negative changes under linguoincisal loading except for condition L14. CONCLUSIONS: The intrusion amount, labiolingual and mesiodistal angulations of the maxillary anterior teeth were affected by the mini-implant site, loading site, and loading mode. Labial and linguoincisal loading may have opposite effects on the intrusion amount of maxillary anterior teeth and the mesiodistal angulation of canine. The labiolingual angulation of the maxillary incisors would increase under all intrusion modes, with greater increases under linguoincisal loading.

AI co-pilot bronchoscope robot.

The unequal distribution of medical resources and scarcity of experienced practitioners confine access to bronchoscopy primarily to well-equipped hospitals in developed regions, contributing to the unavailability of bronchoscopic services in underdeveloped areas. Here, we present an artificial intelligence (AI) co-pilot bronchoscope robot that empowers novice doctors to conduct lung examinations as safely and adeptly as experienced colleagues. The system features a user-friendly, plug-and-play catheter, devised for robot-assisted steering, facilitating access to bronchi beyond the fifth generation in average adult patients. Drawing upon historical bronchoscopic videos and expert imitation, our AI-human shared control algorithm enables novice doctors to achieve safe steering in the lung, mitigating misoperations. Both in vitro and in vivo results underscore that our system equips novice doctors with the skills to perform lung examinations as expertly as seasoned practitioners. This study offers innovative strategies to address the pressing issue of medical resource disparities through AI assistance.

Weakly-Interactive-Mixed Learning: Less Labelling Cost for Better Medical Image Segmentation.

Common medical image segmentation tasks require large training datasets with pixel-level annotations which are very expensive and time-consuming to prepare. To overcome such limitation and achieve the desired segmentation accuracy, a novel Weakly-Interactive-Mixed Learning (WIML) framework is proposed by efficiently using weak labels. On one hand, utilize weak labels to reduce annotation time for high-quality strong labels by designing a Weakly-Interactive Annotation (WIA) part of the WIML which prudently introduces interactive learning into the weakly-supervised segmentation strategy. On the other hand, utilize weak labels and very few strong labels to achieve desired segmentation accuracy by designing a Mixed-Supervised Learning (MSL) part of the WIML which can boost the segmentation accuracy by providing strong prior knowledge during training. Besides, a multi-task Full-Parameter-Sharing Network (FPSNet) is proposed to better implement this framework. Specifically, to further reduce annotation time, attention modules (scSE) are integrated into FPSNet to improve the class activation map (CAM) performance for the first time. To further improve segmentation accuracy, a Full-Parameter-Sharing (FPS) strategy is designed in FPSNet to alleviate the overfitting of the segmentation task supervised by very few strong labels. The proposed method is validated on the BraTS 2019 and LiTS 2017 datasets, and experiments demonstrate that the proposed method WIML-FPSNet outperforms several state-of-the-art segmentation methods with minimal annotation efforts.

Evaluation of palate-related factors of the effectiveness of microimplant-assisted rapid palatal expansion in late adolescents and adults.

INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the factors of the effectiveness of microimplant-assisted rapid palatal expansion (MARPE) in late adolescents and adults, such as age, midpalatal suture maturation (MPSM) stage, palate length (PL), palatal index (PI), and midpalatal bone thickness (MBT), and at each microimplant position, the palate bone thickness (PBT), the nasal cortical bone thickness (CoTN), the cancellous bone thickness (CaT), and the palate cortical bone thickness (CoTP) were evaluated. METHODS: Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of 50 patients (mean, 23.30 ± 7.03 years; range, 16-51 years) treated with MARPE were evaluated. Maxillary expansion ratio (MER) was used to assess the MARPE effectiveness and grouped patients into low and high MER groups according to the mean of MER. MER was the ratio of maxillary expansion width to MARPE screw expansion measured in CBCT images. The t-test was used to analyze the differences between the low and high MER groups. The Pearson correlation test was performed to investigate the correlation between MER and age, MPSM stage, PL, PI, MBT, PBT, CoTN, CaT, and CoTP. RESULTS: Age, MPSM stage, and MBT in regions 18 mm and 21 mm behind the incisor foramen correlated negatively with MER ([Formula: see text], - 0.390, - 0.386, and - 0.335, respectively, all [Formula: see text]), whereas PBT and CoTN of anterior microimplant positions correlated positively with MER ([Formula: see text] and 0.418, respectively, all [Formula: see text]). No correlation was observed between other variables and MER. CONCLUSIONS: MARPE effectiveness decreased as age and midpalatal suture maturation stage increased, respectively. Thinner midpalatal suture bone in regions 18 mm and 21 mm behind the incisor foramen, thicker palate bone, and nasal cortical bone of anterior microimplant positions were related to more effective MARPE. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In patients with older chronological age and later MPSM stages, MARPE effectiveness might be unsatisfactory. Clinicians should carefully evaluate the palate bone thickness before MARPE treatment.

A CBCT Investigation of the Sella Turcica Dimension and Sella Turcica Bridging in Different Vertical Growth Patterns.

This study aimed to compare the sella turcica dimensions and sella turcica bridging (STB) via cone-beam computed tomography in different vertical patterns and then analyze the link between the sella turcica and vertical growth patterns. The CBCT images of 120 skeletal Class I subjects (an equal proportion of females and males; mean age of 21.46 years) were divided into three vertical growth skeletal groups. Student's t tests and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to assess the possible diversity in genders. The link between sella turcica dimensions and different vertical patterns was explored by one-way analysis of variance, as well as Pearson and Spearman correlation tests. The prevalence of STB was compared using the chi-square test. Sella turcica shapes were not linked to gender, but statistical differences were observed among different vertical patterns. In the low-angle group, a larger posterior clinoid distance and smaller posterior clinoid height, tuberculum sellae height, and dorsum sellae height were determined, and the incidence of STB was higher (p < 0.01). Sella turcica shapes were linked to vertical growth patterns, mainly involving the posterior clinoid process and STB, which could be used as an index to assess vertical growth trends.

[Studies on sesquiterpenes from Solanum septemlobum].

By means of preparative HPTLC and column chromatography over silica gel and Sephadex LH-20, ten sesquiterpenes were isolated and purified from the whole plants of Solanum septemlobum Bunge. Based on the physico-chemical properties and spectral data, their structures were elucidated and identified as: lyratol D(1), solajiangxin B(2), 1 ,2-dehydrocyperone(3), solanerianone A (4), dehydrocarissone(5), ligucyperonol(6), nardoeudesmol A(7), solajiangxin F(8), and lyratol B(9), solajiangxin D(10). For the first time, compounds 1-10 were isolated from Solanum septemlobum, and compounds 5-7 were obtained from the genus Solanum.

New eudesmane-type sesquiterpenoid from Solanum lyratum with cytotoxic activity.

In our continuing effort to discover more new cytotoxic sesquiterpenoids from Solanum lyratum, one new eudesmane-type sesquiterpenoid (1, 3-keto-eudesm-9ß,11-diol, named lyratol G), together with one known eudesmane-type sesquiterpenoid (2, 1ß-hydroxy-1,2-dihydro-α-santonin), was obtained. The structure of the new sesquiterpenoid was elucidated on the basis of integrated spectroscopic techniques, mainly HR-FAB-MS, 1D and 2D NMR ((1)H-(1)H COSY, HMQC, HMBC and ROESY). In vitro, two sesquiterpenoids were found to exhibit significant cytotoxicity against three cancer cell lines (P-388, HONE-1 and HT-29), and gave IC50 values in the range of 3.1-6.9 µM.