[Measuring and analysis of the shoulder circumferences of 840 adults' permanent teeth crown preparations].

Objective: To measure and analyze the shoulder circumferences of adults' permanent teeth crown preparations based on data collected through the intraoral scanning, so as to provide dental anatomy data for clinical diagnosis and analysis. Methods: Intraoral scanning data of 840 complete crown preparations were collected, and were entrusted to the World Dental Laboratory Co., Ltd. in Fuzhou between March 2021 and June 2022. Except the data of the third molar, the rest data were categorized in terms of 14 tooth positions in the upper and lower jaw (each category involved 30 samples from male group and 30 samples from female group). Image measurement software was used to measure the shoulder circumferences of permanent teeth crown preparations. And analysis was conducted to reveal the difference of shoulder circumference diameters between male and female groups. And then they were grouped according to the mean value at each tooth position, on the premise that the difference between the maximum and minimum values and the mean value of the entire group was≤±1.00 mm. Analysis were further conducted to determine the differences of shoulder circumference diameters between each dental position and the differences between male and female in the same groups. Results: Bivariate analysis of variance showed that gender had no effect on the shoulder circumference of full crown preparations (F=0.55, P=1.457), while tooth position had a significant impact on the shoulder circumference of full crown preparations (F=273.15, P<0.001). The samples were classified into 5 groups according to the mean values of shoulder circumference diameters relating to each tooth position. Statistical analysis showed that Group 1, covering maxillary lateral incisor, mandibular central incisor and mandibular lateral incisor, had shoulder circumference with diameters of (16.62±2.21) mm; Group 2, consisting of maxillary central incisor, maxillary cusp, mandibular cusp, mandibular first premolar and mandibular second premolar, had diameters of (20.78±2.48) mm; Group 3, consisting of maxillary first premolar and maxillary second premolar, had diamerters of (22.09±2.72) mm; Group 4, covering maxillary first molar, maxillary second molar and mandibular first molar, had diamerters of (30.21±2.67) mm; while group 5, with mandibular second molar alone its member, had diamerters of (31.34±3.18) mm. The difference among the 5 groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusions: Significant differences of shoulder circumference diameters could be found between different tooth positions, while at the same tooth position, the differences between male and female are not significant. The 14 tooth positions could be grouped into 5 groups according to their shoulder circumference diameters. Future research could take the grouping as reference.

Adverse health outcomes and health concerns among survivors of various childhood cancers: Perspectives from mothers.

Advanced therapies have improved outcomes and also resulted in a growing risk of long-term adverse health events. This study intends to estimate incidences of adverse health events and examine differences in adverse health events among childhood cancer survivors, and to understand the concerns of mothers after their child has completed cancer treatment. An explanatory sequential mixed-method was used. A total of 201 paediatric cancer survivors' mothers with mean age 43.6 years were recruited. Of the survivors, 12.4% experienced five or more adverse health events. The incidence of adverse health events of altered body image, fatigue and neurocognitive problems were 31.54%, 14.77% and 12.53% respectively. Among survivors, significant differences in adverse health events of pain, endocrine problems and altered body image issues were identified. Survivors receiving radiotherapy, bone marrow transplants or completing treatment after 6-10 years experienced significantly more adverse health events. Maintaining health was the greatest concern for mothers, and the qualitative reports of their concerns could be categorised: living in uncertainty, and keeping forward-looking. Childhood brain tumour survivors were identified as experiencing more adverse health events than other survivors. The need for healthcare teams to consider mothers' health concerns was highlighted.

Prevalence, associated factors, and relationship to quality of life of lower urinary tract symptoms: a cross-sectional, questionnaire survey of cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Few studies conducted outside of Asia have shown that lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) could be a concern for cancer patients. This gap necessitates more research on LUTS among cancer patients in Asia, particularly regarding associated factors and the relationship between quality of life and LUTS. OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the prevalence, associated factors, and relationship to quality of life of LUTS based on a sample of cancer patients. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, questionnaire survey. SETTINGS/PARTICIPANTS: This study was conducted at two oncology outpatient departments in two hospitals in Taiwan, and included 134 Asian cancer patients. METHODS: We collected information about each participant's individual characteristics, personal habits, LUTS, and quality of life by using a questionnaire. We calculated descriptive statistics to demonstrate the distribution of collected information, and used multivariate logistic regression to identify the factors associated with LUTS. We used Student's t-test to compare the mean quality of life scores for participants with and without LUTS. RESULTS: Ninety-nine (73.9%) participants experienced at least one type of LUTS, and the prevalence rates for various types of LUTS ranged from 3.7% to 52.2%. Radiotherapy and the time since the diagnosis of cancer were associated with LUTS. Participants with LUTS reported lower quality of life scores than participants without LUTS. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of LUTS suggests that cancer treatment might be linked to LUTS, which in turn has a negative effect on a patient's quality of life. These results suggest that future research should involve studies in larger, more homogeneous samples. Health care providers should monitor the presence of LUTS and deliver the management and treatments of LUTS to optimise cancer patients' quality of life.

First Report of a Tospovirus in Mulberry.

Mulberry (Morus alba L.) is an economically important crop grown widely throughout Asia. Various virus-like symptoms including mosaics, vein banding, and chlorotic ringspots have been observed and reported on mulberry trees in China and Japan for decades. However, the etiology of mulberry viral diseases is generally understudied, although two mulberry-infecting viruses, Mulberry latent virus (genus Carlavirus) (2) and Mulberry ringspot virus (genus Nepovirus) (3), have been partially characterized. In a recent (2010 to 2011) field survey in Guangxi Province, China, supported by the local government, the incidence of virus-like diseases of mulberry ranged between 40 and 80%. To identify the viruses infecting mulberry, deep sequencing of small RNAs (4) was conducted using an Illumina Genome Analyzer. Small RNAs were isolated from five samples of mulberry leaves showing various virus-like symptoms and sequenced. Among the contigs assembled, a 445-bp contig (GenBank Accession No. JX268597) was found to share 76.6% nucleotide identity and 83.0% amino acid identity to Groundnut bud necrosis virus (genus Tospovirus, family Bunyaviridae; Accession Nos. U42555 and AAC55521). To obtain a longer cDNA fragment of this virus, a reverse transcription (RT)-PCR was done with primers MV-N-F (5'-AAGCCATCAATGTGCCTCCGGA-3') and MV-N-R (5'-AACACCATGTCTACCGTCCGTC-3') that align to the S-RNA sequence encompassing the nucleocapsid (N) gene and a portion of the intergenic region (IGR) of the Tospovirus. PCR products of about 1,000 bp were successfully amplified from the total RNA of the three mulberry samples (sl-1, xcsy-1, and xcsy-4) showing vein banding symptoms, but not from asymptomatic mulberry (jk-1). These PCR products were cloned and sequenced. The lengths of the amplicons were 1,027 bp (isolate sl-1, JX173786), 987 bp (isolate xcsy-1, JX173787), and 979 bp (isolate xcsy-4, JX173788) and the partial IGRs of the sl-1, xcsy-1, and xcsy-4 isolates were 187 bp, 147 bp, and 139 bp, respectively. The coding regions for the N protein were 831 bp and the deduced proteins of 277 amino acid residues were 100% identical for all three isolates. Since the N protein of this virus shared up to only 74.4% identity to other tospoviruses (74.4% to Capsicum chlorosis virus, ABB83818; and 71.5% to Watermelon bud necrosis virus, ABY79095), it may represent a new member of the Tospovirus genus, temporarily named Mulberry vein banding virus (MuVBV), according to the species demarcation criteria for the Bunyaviridae (1). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a Tospovirus infecting M. alba. In an RT-PCR screening of 48 randomly selected mulberry samples suspected to be virus-infected, 32 were MuVBV-positive. Giving the high incidence and the high yield loss associated with Tospovirus and the presence of thrips, suspected vectors for the virus, MuVBV may represent a substantial threat to the silkworm industry in China. References: (1) M. Q. K. Andrew et al. Virus Taxonomy: 9th Report of the ICTV. Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego, 2012. (2) T. Tsuchizaki. Annu. Phytopath. Soc. Japan 42:304, 1976. (3) T. Tsuchizaki et al. Annu. Phytopath. Soc. Japan 37:266, 1971. (4) Q. Wu et al. PNAS. 107:1606, 2010.

Associations of breakfast skipping with obesity and health-related quality of life: evidence from a national survey in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the associations of breakfast skipping with obesity and health-related quality of life (QOL). We also tested the hypothesis that there is a dose-dependent relationship between frequency of breakfast consumption and prevalence of obesity. SUBJECTS AND DESIGN: This cross-section study used a national representative sample (n=15 340) from the 2005 Taiwan National Health Interview Survey. Breakfast skippers were defined as those who ate breakfast about once a week or less often and those who never ate breakfast. Individuals were classified as 'obese' if their body mass index was >or=27. Health-related QOL was assessed using the Medical Outcome Studies 36-Item Short-Form (SF-36) Health Survey. Logistic regression was used to examine the odds ratio of obesity and associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in breakfast skippers compared with breakfast eaters. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to adjust all risk estimates for covariates. RESULTS: The unadjusted odds ratio of obesity in breakfast skippers was 1.23 (95% CI: 1.06, 1.43). The odds of developing obesity for breakfast skippers was 1.34 (95% CI: 1.15, 1.56) controlling for age, sex, marital status, educational level, monthly income, smoking, alcohol, betel nut chewing and exercise habit. The Cochran-Armitage trend test revealed that the prevalence rate of obesity decreased as the frequency of breakfast consumption increased (P=0.005). Breakfast skippers had significantly worse health-related QOL than breakfast eaters (P<0.001). Moreover, breakfast skippers had significantly lower scores in 5 out of 8 domain scores of the SF-36, namely general health perceptions (P<0.001), vitality (P<0.001), social functioning (P=0.036), emotional role (P<0.001) and mental health (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The findings from this study add support to the potential role of breakfast eating in obesity prevention.

A new approach to repairing cleft palate and acquired palatal defects with distraction osteogenesis.

Cleft palate (CP) is one of the most common human congenital deformities, and acquired palate defects after trauma or tumour resection are also common. In this study, distraction osteogenesis (DO) for CP and other palatal bone defects was evaluated. Twenty cats were assigned randomly to 3 groups of (1) 15, (2) 3 and (3) 2 cats. In groups 1 and 2, a rectangular ostectomy, in the posterior of the palatal bone shelf, was performed in the sagittal axis to establish the CP defect model. At the same time, a pure titanium intraoral distractor was fixed to molar teeth with brackets and to the palatal bone shelf across the defect with titanium miniscrews bilaterally. Four weeks later, a secondary transport disc (TD) osteotomy was performed, and gradual DO treatment started at 0.4mm twice a day, after 6 days of latency. DO was performed until the TD reached the opposite margin over the gap in 5-6 days. Three cats each of group 1 were killed at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks after completion of DO. In group 2, the bone and soft-tissue defects were untreated until death 6 weeks later. Group 3 cats (control) were killed after 6 weeks. The TD successfully recombined with the opposite palatal bone stump, and proportional expansion of the overlay mucoperiosteal flap was achieved. Intramembranous bone formation was revealed: parallel collagen bundles gradually deposited on new bone trabeculae while the proliferative osteoblasts produced bone matrix. The bone defect was finally reconstructed by de novo osteogenesis. The control group was observed to have no spontaneous repairing. These results suggest that the CP defect was reconstructed by osteogenesis in situ, and the soft tissues expanded simultaneously to achieve functional correction. The intraoral distractor provided both effective distraction and stability.

First Report of Papaya ringspot virus and Zucchini yellow mosaic virus in Luohanguo (Siraitia grosvenorii) in China.

Luohanguo, Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) C. Jeffrey, is a perennial cucurbitaceous plant that is an economically important medicinal and sweetener crop in Guangxi province, China. Surveys conducted during the summer to fall seasons of 2003-2004 in northern Guangxi showed symptoms typical of a viral disease, including leaf mottling, mosaic, vein clearing, curling, and shoestring-like distortion in the field. Mechanical inoculation of sap from leaves of symptomatic plants collected from the surveyed areas caused similar symptoms on tissue culture-derived healthy Luohanguo plants. Two sequences of 0.7 and 1.6 kb with 88 and 97% identity to Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) and Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) were amplified using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with purified flexuous viral particles or total RNA extracted from the symptomatic Luohanguo leaves as templates with conserved degenerate potyvirus primers (1). To confirm the results, primers specific for PRSV (PP1/PP2, genome coordinates 4064-4083/5087-5069, GenBank Accession No X97251) and ZYMV (ZP1/ZP2, genome coordinates 5540-5557/7937-7920, GenBank Accession No L31350) were used to perform RT-PCR from the same RNA templates. The expected 1.0- and 2.3-kb fragments were amplified and they were 90 and 95% identical to PRSV and ZYMV in sequence, respectively. Watermelon mosaic virus was not detected. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of PRSV and ZYMV in Luohanguo. Reference: (1) A. Gibbs et al. J. Virol. Methods 63:9, 1997.

Low infectious morbidity in patients with heavily pretreated hematological malignancies receiving autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation without antimicrobial prophylaxis.

The use of prophylactic antimicrobials during autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (APBSCT) remains controversial. A prospective study was therefore conducted to examine whether the use of prophylactic antimicrobials is necessary. In this study, all the antimicrobials were given therapeutically rather than prophylactically. Twenty-three consecutive patients with heavily pretreated hematological malignancies were enrolled. All of the 23 patients had at least one episode of fever during APBSCT and most were fever of unknown origin (78.3%). Clinically or microbiologically documented infections occurred in only five patients (21.7%). These included bacteremias (three patients), perianal abscess (one patient), and catheter-related phlebitis (one patient). No death, invasive fungal infection, or serious adverse events occurred. The medium duration of fever, intravenous antimicrobial therapy, and hospital stay after transplantation were 5, 10, and 17 days, respectively. In conclusion, without using prophylactic antimicrobials, the infectious morbidity during APBSCT is low even in patients with heavily pretreated hematological malignancies.