The Oral Status Survey Tool: construction, validity, reliability and feasibility among people with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities.

BACKGROUND: A lack of robust data about the oral health of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) contributes to health disparities. Appropriate research tools are therefore needed. This study reports the construction and evaluation of the Oral Status Survey Tool (OSST), designed to be administered with people with disabilities by non-dental personnel. METHOD: Oral Status Survey Tool construction and evaluation was achieved adopting a non-clinical construction and content validation phase and a clinical phase to test concurrent validity, reliability and feasibility. Final refinements were also made. RESULTS: The OSST conceptual framework covered oral function (tooth count, denture wear and opposing pairs of teeth) and oral disease/treatment need (soft tissue status, oral cleanliness, gum condition, carious teeth and oral pain). A systematic literature review identified no existing suitable indices. Candidate items were identified and validated by experts generating content validation ratios. This framework was modified later to expand the function construct. In the initial clinical phase, 49 out of 60 participants underwent examination with OSST and standard dental assessments. All had mild to moderate IDs. Mean age was 43 years (SD = 16), and mean number of teeth was 22.1 (SD = 8.6). Data collectors included two dentists and three non-dentists. Later, a further 17 adults (nine female and eight male) with mild/moderate IDs were included for refinement. At this stage, data collectors included two dentists and five non-dentists. Concurrent validity was established for tooth count [intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.99 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.99-0.99)], carious teeth [Gwet's AC2 = 0.94 (95% CI: 0.89-0.99)] and gum condition [Gwet's AC1 = 0.84 (95% CI: 0.64-1)]. For all final OSST items, inter-rater reliability ranged from moderate to very good; median test-retest reliability ranged from moderate to good. Acceptability was demonstrated for data collectors and participants. Mean time to complete the OSST was 7 min. CONCLUSIONS: The OSST is a novel tool that can record a range of clinical oral features including tooth count, denture wear, occluding pairs of teeth and functional dentition, oral cleanliness, gum condition, carious cavitation and oral pain that will be useful within health surveys of people with mild-moderate IDs and similarly neglected populations. The tool demonstrates promising attributes and acceptability. From this study, the OSST appears to be a robust tool that can be incorporated into general data collection for people with mild-moderate IDs and similar populations. A key feature is that it can be administered by well-trained non-dentists.

Biogenic platinum from agricultural wastes extract for improved methanol oxidation reaction in direct methanol fuel cell.

Platinum is the most commonly used catalyst in fuel cell application. However, platinum is very expensive, thus limits the commercialisation of fuel cell system due to the cost factor. This study introduces a biosynthesis platinum from plant extracts that can reduce the cost of platinum production compared to the conventional method and the hazardous during the production of the catalyst. The biogenic platinum was tested on a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell. Advanced biogenic of Pt nano-cluster was synthesized through a novel and facile of one-pot synthesis bio-reduction derived from natural source in the form of plant extracts as reducing agent. Several selected plant extracts drawn from agricultural waste such as banana peel, pineapple peels and sugarcane bagasse extracts were comparatively evaluated on the ability of phytochemical sources of polyphenols rich for the development of single-step synthesis for Pt NPs. Notably, the biogenic Pt NPs from sugar cane bagasse has superior electro-catalytic activity, the enhanced utilization efficiency of Pt and appreciable stability towards methanol oxidation reaction, whose ECSA value approximates 94.58 m2g-1, mass activity/specific activity (398.20 mAmg-1/0.8471 mA/cm2 Pt) which greater than commercial Pt black (158.12 mAmg-1/1.41 mA/cm2 Pt).

Susceptibility patterns of anaerobes isolated from clinical specimens in tertiary Hospital, Malaysia.

INTRODUCTION: The susceptibility patterns of anaerobes are becoming less predictable due to the emergence of anaerobic resistance trends to antibiotics; hence increasing the importance of the isolation and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of anaerobes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study investigated the isolation of anaerobes from the clinical specimens of Hospital Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, from January 2015 to December 2015. All isolates were identified using the API 20A system (bioMérieux, France). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using the E-test (bioMérieux, France). RESULTS: The proportion of obligate anaerobes isolated from the clinical specimens was 0.83%. The Gram-positive anaerobes were most susceptible to vancomycin and imipenem, showing 100% sensitivity to these antimicrobials, followed by clindamycin (86.3%), penicillin (76.7%), and metronidazole (48.9%). Meanwhile, Gram-negative anaerobes were most susceptible to metronidazole (96%) followed by imipenem (89%), clindamycin (79%), and ampicillin (32%). The present study also showed that 3 out of 12 Bacteroides fragilis isolates were resistant to imipenem. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the differences in the susceptibility patterns of anaerobes towards commonly used antimicrobials for the treatment of anaerobic infections. In summary, continuous monitoring of antimicrobial resistance trends among anaerobes is needed to ensure the appropriateness of treatment.

Habitat segregation and cryptic adaptation of species of Periophthalmus (Gobioidei: Gobiidae).

A study was conducted on the habitat distribution of four sympatric species of Periophthalmus (the silver-lined mudskipper Periophthalmus argentilineatus, the slender mudskipper Periophthalmus gracilis, the kalolo mudskipper Periophthalmus kalolo and the Malacca mudskipper Periophthalmus malaccensis) from northern Sulawesi. Molecular phylogenetic reconstructions based on one mtDNA marker (16S) were used to validate the morphological taxa, identifying five molecular clades. Periophthalmus argentilineatus includes two molecular species, which are named Periophthalmus argentilineatus clades F and K. Multivariate direct gradient analysis show that these species form three distinct ecological guilds, with the two molecular species occurring in different guilds. Periophthalmus clade F is ecologically eurytypic; Periophthalmus clade K and P. kalolo are prevalent in ecosystems isolated by strong oceanic currents and at shorter distances from the sea; P. gracilis plus P. malaccensis are prevalent in ecosystems connected by shallow coastal waters, in vegetated habitats at larger distances from the sea. This indicates for the first time that mudskipper species exhibit a range of adaptations to semiterrestrialism not only within genera, but even within morphospecies, delineating a much more complex adaptive scenario than previously assumed.