Some comments of the author are presented on his experience concerning the use of computer quizes in teaching fundamental microbiology to medical students. The simple true-false type question was one of the best suited forms for computer display because of its simplicity. Multiple choice questions consisting of pleural (usually five) simple true-false sentences were too cumbersome. Repeatability is one of the advantages of computer quizes. Furthermore the shuffling of questions is simple to perform on the computer. The computer quiz is one form of preparation and review, and differs from examinations in that students have mutiple chances and time to take the quiz. With the computer-quiz teachers also have the chance to make better contact with students, and through their care of students, teachers remember more faces and names of students.

Recently, course lectures have been divided up into many pieces given by different lecturers with narrower but deeper knowledge. This is in contrast to the older style of all lectures in a course being delivered by a single lecturer. The lectures today are thus overflowing with too much content for students to handle. As a result, oral lectures have lost popularity as educational tools, since their utility is diminished by information overload. The original function of the oral lecture as a method of transmitting knowledge should be reinstated, with the strong support of various educational materials and computers.

A series of basic questions on medical bacteriology for the 1st grade of medical students was prepared on computer display (computer quiz). This computer quiz consists of 163 short sentences with either right or wrong content. Students can challenge the computer quiz as many times as they wish whenever students are free from their formal curriculum. A printed list of questions and their answers was handed to students in advance because the computer quiz was opened to students in advance of concomitant lectures and students had no previous knowledge on which they might relied. This computer quiz might serve not only as an alternative of conventional methods for evaluation of progress in students' studies but also as a convenient tool to let medical students efficiently memorize the outlined index for basic bacteriology.

PURPOSE: Finite element study on the effect of abutment length and material on implant bone interface against dynamic loading. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two dimensional finite element models of cylinderical implant, abutments and bone made by titanium or polyoxymethylene were simulated with the aid of Marc/Mentat software. Each model represented bone, implant and titanium or polyoxymethylene abutment. Model 1: Implant with 3 mm titanium abutment, Model 2: Implant with 2 mm polyoxymethylene resilient material abutment, Model 3: Implant with 3 mm polyoxymethylene resilient material abutment and Model 4: Implant with 4 mm polyoxymethylene resilient material abutment. A vertical load of 11 N was applied with a frequency of 2 cycles/sec. The stress distribution pattern and displacement at the junction of cortical bone and implant was recorded. RESULTS: When Model 2, 3 and 4 are compared with Model 1, they showed narrowing of stress distribution pattern in the cortical bone as the height of the polyoxymethylene resilient material abutment increases. Model 2, 3 and 4 showed slightly less but similar displacement when compared to Model 1. CONCLUSION: Within the limitation of this study, we conclude that introduction of different height resilient material abutment with different heights i.e. 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm polyoxymethylene, does not bring about significant change in stress distribution pattern and displacement as compared to 3 mm Ti abutment. Clinically, with the application of resilient material abutment there is no significant change in stress distribution around implant-bone interface.
Dental Implants ; Displacement (Psychology) ; Finite Element Analysis ; Titanium

Afferent loop syndrome (ALS) is a mechanical obstruction of the afferent limbs after gastrectomy with gastrojejunostomy reconstruction. Patients with cancer recurrence require immediate and less invasive treatment because of their poor condition. Percutaneous transhepatic/transluminal drainage (PTD) and endoscopic enteral stenting offer reasonable palliative treatment for malignant ALS but are not fully satisfactory in terms of patient quality of life (QoL) and stent patency. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided gastroenterostomy (EUS-GE) using a lumen-apposing metal stent may address these shortcomings. Clinical data from 11 reports showed that all patients who had undergone EUS-GE had positive technical and clinical outcomes. The adverse event rate was 11.4%, including only mild or moderate abdominal pain, with no severe adverse events. Indirect comparative studies indicated that patients who had undergone EUS-GE had a significantly superior QoL, a higher clinical success rate, and a lower reintervention rate than those who had undergone PTD or endoscopic enteral stenting. Although the evidence is limited, EUS-GE may be considered as a first-line treatment for malignant ALS because it has better clinical outcomes than other less invasive treatments, such as PTD or endoscopic enteral stenting. Further prospective randomized control trials are necessary to establish EUS-GE as a standard treatment for ALS.