Background: Velopharyngeal incompetence (VPI) therapy for cleft palate (speech therapy alone, speech therapy using speech aids, or combined therapy such as speech therapy using a pharyngeal flap), is more effective in younger patients than in adult patients. Speech therapy is known as very difficult for patients who still have VPI as an adult. Because of the possibility of subsequent speech disorders, the timing of surgery for cleft palate is accelerating. Herein, we present a case of an adult with articulation disorder due to VPI who was treated by speech therapy and a speech-aid prosthesis.Case presentation: A woman who underwent cleft palate surgery at 8 years of age still had difficulty with articulation due to VPI as a 24-year-old adult because of a lack of continuous speech therapy. We decided to use a speech-aid application using palatal lift, and a reduction program was conducted four times, along with simultaneous speech therapy, over a period of 1 year and 7 months. During the therapy period, she was able to speak normally within a relatively short period of time, and after implementation of the reduction program, the therapy was completed by completely removing the device. Long-term observations have shown normal speech function without recurrence, even after the device was removed. Conclusion As seen in this case, speech therapy using speech aids can show a good result for adult patients with cleft palate who missed the usual timing for the treatment of articulation disorders, depending on the situation. Therefore, it is hereby reported as a therapy option worthy of consideration.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe the source, length, number of views, and content of the most widely viewed Zika virus (ZIKV)-related YouTube videos. We hypothesized that ZIKV-related videos uploaded by different sources contained different content. METHODS: The 100 most viewed English ZIKV-related videos were manually coded and analyzed statistically. RESULTS: Among the 100 videos, there were 43 consumer-generated videos, 38 Internet-based news videos, 15 TV-based news videos, and 4 professional videos. Internet news sources captured over two-thirds of the total of 8 894 505 views. Compared with consumer-generated videos, Internet-based news videos were more likely to mention the impact of ZIKV on babies (odds ratio [OR], 6.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.64 to 23.76), the number of cases in Latin America (OR, 5.63; 95% CI, 1.47 to 21.52); and ZIKV in Africa (OR, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.04 to 6.31). Compared with consumer-generated videos, TV-based news videos were more likely to express anxiety or fear of catching ZIKV (OR, 6.67; 95% CI, 1.36 to 32.70); to highlight fear of ZIKV among members of the public (OR, 7.45; 95% CI, 1.20 to 46.16); and to discuss avoiding pregnancy (OR, 3.88; 95% CI, 1.13 to 13.25). CONCLUSIONS: Public health agencies should establish a larger presence on YouTube to reach more people with evidence-based information about ZIKV.
Africa ; Anxiety ; Health Communication ; Internet ; Latin America ; Pregnancy ; Public Health ; Social Media ; Zika Virus*

Social media are broadly understood as a set of online activities that facilitate interpersonal communication, information sharing, collaboration or crowdsourcing among online users. They have become a global phenomenon with over two thirds of worldwide adult Internet users being active on social networking sites in 2014.

The 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in the Republic of Korea is the largest outbreak outside the Middle East since MERS was discovered in 2012. Its origin was a single imported case after the patient travelled to endemic countries.

Background：Global Handwashing Day (GHD) is a handwashing promotion campaign organized by the Global Public-Private Partnership of Handwashing with Soap. In China, it has been promoted by the Chinese public health authorities, international organizations and multinational corporations through various channels including social media such as Sina Weibo, the leading Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter. The objective of this study is to qualitatively assess Chinese social media users’ reactions to a health promotion campaign using Global Handwashing Day (GHD) 2012 as an example.Methods：We conducted a qualitative content analysis of 552 Weibo posts generated on GHD 2012 by Weibo users with 1000 or more followers with the Chinese keyword for “handwashing.” We categorized the Weibo posts into groups by keywords that frequently appeared in the data set. These groups were either exact reposts of an original post, or they conveyed similar information.Results：We observed the interconnections between traditional media and social media in handwashing promotion. Social media were found to serve as amplifiers of contents provided by traditional media. We observed the contextualization of global hygiene messages in a unique national social media market in China.Discussion：Our study showed that social media and traditional media are two interconnected arms of the GHD campaign in China. Our analysis demonstrated that public health campaigns in China can be evaluated using social media data. The themes and topics identified in this study will help public health practitioners evaluate future social media handwashing promotion campaigns.

Laser microdissection (LMD) is an important method for obtaining pure cell samples for genetic and proteomic analysis. In general, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in situ hybridization (ISH) are useful techniques for targeting virus-specific cell populations. However, until now, there have been no IHC and ISH methods available for detecting ovine herpesvirus (OvHV-2). Previous reports have strongly suggested that lytic replication might occur in the respiratory epithelial cells of OvHV-2 infected animals. The aim of the present study was to confirm respiratory epithelial cells as the susceptible cells for the OvHV-2 by using LMD as an alternative method for localizing viral distribution. The microdissection of target cells by LMD was performed using paraffin-embedded tissues from 5 sheep with high viral copies, which were suspected as the status of reactive lytic replication, and 3 sheep with low viral copies, which were suspected as the status of latent infection. Then, OvHV-2-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR were conducted with the extracted DNAs from the microdissected cells. Our results first demonstrate that OvHV-2 DNAs can be detected in the respiratory epithelial cells of high shedder reactive animals, from which inflammatory cells infected latently by OvHV-2 was excluded. These findings indicate that respiratory epithelial cells are susceptible to OvHV-2 and may be associated with its replication in a natural host. Also, in this study, LMD showed the possibility of wide application for the sensitive localization of low copy viral sequences within specific phenotype cells in the investigation of the role of viruses in a variety of clinical conditions.
Animals ; DNA ; Epithelial Cells ; Immunohistochemistry ; In Situ Hybridization ; Microdissection* ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sheep

Objective:To investigate the association of renal insufficiency and clinical outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndrome(ACS). Methods: The study was a multi-centre register study including 3 589 ACS patients coming from 39 centers across China who had received percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI) prior to 1st February, 2007. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated for all patients using the 4-variable MDRD equation with the serum creatinine obtained before angiography. The association between renal insufficiency and clinical outcomes and the presence of in-hospital death and bleeding was studied by Fisher’s exact test. Multi-variable analysis on the risk factors of in-hospital bleeding was done by logistic regression test. Results: The mean age of the study population was (61.74?11.37) years (ranging from 23 years to 92 years)and 76.5% (2 746/3 589) of the population was male. Only 90 patients (2.51%) were known to have chronic kidney disease at the time of admission and 144 patients(4.01%) had serum creatintine levels above 133 ?mol/L. However, after the evaluation of renal status by the MDRD equation, 2 250 patients (63.1%)showed a reduction in eGFR of less than 90 mL/min, of whom, 472 (13.1%) even reached the level of moderate renal insufficiency (eGFR

Apoptosis is a host defense mechanism that the cell uses to limit production of infectious virus. Although many viruses can induce apoptosis in infected cells, large DNA viruses, such as poxviruses, herpesviruses and adenoviruses, usually exhibit the ability to suppress the induction of apoptosis in the infected cells. Several publications have attested to the ability of herpesviruses to protect cells against apoptosis. We investigated the ability of the virus to protect cells in continuous cultivation from apoptosis induced by the virus itself. The gamma herpesvirus alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1) has been shown to harbor genes with antiapoptotic potentialities. However, here we have demonstrated that productive infection of adherent, permissive cell lines by AlHV-1 resulted in a cytopathic effect characterized by induction of apoptosis. This phenomenon was confirmed using different techniques to detect apoptosis and using different virus strains and cell lines. Therefore, despite the presence of antiapoptotic genes in its genome, AlHV-1 could complete its cycle of productive infection while inducing apoptosis of infected cells. This finding might have implications for the pathobiology of AlHV-1 and other gamma herpesviruses in vivo.
Adenoviridae ; Apoptosis ; Cell Line* ; DNA Viruses ; Genome ; Herpesviridae ; Poxviridae

The bleaching of discolored nonvital teeth is conservative treatment that satisfy the cosmetic desire. The most common method for this treatment, walking bleaching, is using 30% hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate. Many alternatives are suggested for preventing the external cervical root resorption that is the common complication of the nonvital teeth bleaching with 30% hydrogen peroxide. The same extent of oxidation reactions as that resulted by the bleaching with the application of 30% hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate can also be acquired more safely by materials that contain 10% carbamide peroxide, used primarily for the bleaching of vital teeth. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of 10% and 15% carbamide peroxide bleaching gel in nonvatal teeth bleaching. The internal bleaching of intentionally discolored teeth was performed in vitro with 10% carbamide peroxide (Group 1), 15% carbamide peroxide (Group 2), mixture of distilled water and sodium perborate (Group 3), and mixture of 30% hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate (Group 4). The bleaching materials were refreshed following 3, 6, 9 and 12 days. To evaluate the bleaching effect, the color change of the crowns was measured at 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 15 days of bleaching using the colorimeter. The results were as follows : 1. L* and DeltaE* values were increased with time in all bleaching agents(p<0.01). 2. There was no significant difference in L* and DeltaE* value among bleaching agents. 3. DeltaE* value higher than 3 was shown after 3 days of bleaching with 10% carbamide peroxide gel, 1 day with 15% carbamide peroxide gel, 4 days with mixture sodium perborate and distilled water and 4 days with mixture sodium perborate and 30% hydrogen peroxide, respectively. These results revealed that the use of 10% and 15% carbamide peroxide bleaching gel in non-vital teeth bleaching is as effective as mixture of distilled water and sodium perborate and mixture of 30% hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate. Accordingly, carbamide peroxide could be used clinically to bleach discolored non-vital teeth.
Borates ; Cosmetics ; Crowns ; Hydrogen ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; Intention ; Peroxides ; Root Resorption ; Sodium ; Tooth ; Tooth Bleaching ; Tooth, Nonvital ; Urea ; Walking ; Water

This study was performed to evaluate the temperature rise on various position of the Buchanan plugger, the peak temperature of plugger's type and the temperature change by its touching time of heat control spring. The heat carrier system 'System B'(Model 1005, Analytic Technologies, USA) and the Buchanan's pluggers of F, FM, M and ML sizes are used for this study. The temperature was set to 200degrees C which Dr. Buchanan's "continuous wave of condensation" technique recommended on digital display and the power level on it was set to 10. In order to apply heat on the Buchanan's pluggers, the heat control spring was touched for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 seconds respectively. The temperature rise on the surface of the pluggers were measured at 0.5 mm intervals from tip to 20 mm length of shank using the infrared thermography (Radiation Thermometer-IR Temper, NEC San-ei Instruments, Ltd, Japan) and TH31-702 Data capture software program (NEC San-ei Instruments, Ltd, Japan). Data were analyzed using a one way ANOVA followed by Duncan's multiple range test and linear regression test. The results as follows. 1. The position at which temperature peaked was approximately at 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm far from the tip of Buchanan's pluggers (p<0.001). The temperature was constantly decreased toward the shank from the tip of it (p<0.001). 2. When the pluggers were heated over 5 seconds, the peak temperature by time of measurement revealed from 253.3+/-10.5degrees C to 192.1+/-3.3degrees C in a touch for 1 sec, from 218.6+/-5.0degrees C to 179.5+/-4.2degrees C in a touch for 2 sec, from 197.5+/-3.0degrees C to 167.6+/-3.7degrees C in a touch for 3 sec, from 183.7+/-2.5degrees C to 159.8+/-3.6degrees C in a touch for 4 sec and from 164.9+/-2.0degrees C to 158.4+/-1.8degrees C in a touch for 5 sec. A touch for 1 sec showed the highest peak temperature, followed by, in descending order, 2 sec, 3 sec, 4 sec. A touch for 5 sec showed the lowest peak temperature (p<0.001). 3. A each type of pluggers showed different peak temperatures. The peak temperature was the highest in F type and followed by, in descending order, M type, ML type. FM type revealed the lowest peak temperature (p<0.001). The results of this study indicated that pluggers are designed to concentrate heat at around its tip, its actual temperature does not correlate well with the temperature which Buchanan's "continuous wave of condensation" technique recommend, and finally a quick touch of heat control spring for 1sec reveals the highest temperature rise.
Hot Temperature ; Linear Models ; Thermography