The Surgeon General's report in the year 2000 highlighted the association between chronic diseases and oral health infections. Current healthcare education programs, regrettably, report only 1 to 3 h of oral health instruction within curricula. In the years 2020-2022, as part of their respective oral health curricula, 278 first-year physician assistant and 12 pre-clinical second-year pharmacy students were invited to participate in a voluntary survey examining the effectiveness of animated succinct, online video-based oral health units.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Antibiotic stewardship has been recognized as an essential component of dental education. A notable threat to stewardship is the growing trend toward self-medication with nonprescribed antibiotics (SMNPA), particularly among older adults who may be at increased risk for adverse outcomes. This study aimed to assess the need to incorporate SMNPA into dental education by researching (1) professional awareness and (2) self-medication behaviors among older adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExternally applied dsRNA-based biocontrol products may lead to off-target degradation of messenger RNA in target and non-target organisms. For the purposes of regulatory risk assessment of such products, producing a comprehensive catalog of any off-target effects using profiling methods is unnecessary and would be ineffective in supporting decision-making. Instead, problem formulation should derive criteria that indicate acceptable risk and devise a plan to test the hypothesis that the product meets those criteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The human use of over-the-counter antibiotics intended for the treatment of pet animals has been recognized as a potential barrier to antibiotic stewardship efforts. The objective of this report is to describe a case of self-medication with a fish antibiotic resulting in delayed medical treatment and provide recommendations for pharmacists practicing in outpatient settings on how to best identify and manage nonprescription antibiotic use.
Case Summary: A 24-year-old man experienced dental pain and "flu-like" symptoms for which he attempted self-treatment with oral amoxicillin 250 mg daily purchased by a family member from a pet store.
To inform the ecological risk assessment (ERA) of a transgenic crop with multiple insecticidal traits combined by conventional breeding (breeding stack), a comparative field study is customarily conducted to compare transgenic protein concentrations in a breeding stack to those in corresponding component single events used in the breeding process. This study tests the hypothesis that transgenic protein expression will not significantly increase due to stacking, such that existing margins of exposure erode to unacceptable levels. Corroboration of this hypothesis allows for the use of existing non-target organism (NTO) effects tests results, where doses were based on the estimated environmental concentrations determined for a component single event.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany studies have been conducted to investigate synergism among insecticidal proteins; however, a consensus on minimal data requirements and interpretation is lacking. While some have concluded that all additive predictive-type models should be abandoned, we advocate that additivity models can remain useful as assessment tools and that an appropriately designed interaction study will never systematically underestimate the existence of synergism, irrespective of which additivity model (or none at all) may be used. To generate the most meaningful synergy assessment datasets in support of safety assessments, we highlight two beneficial steps to follow: (i) select a testing model which is the most consistent with current knowledge regarding the action of the insecticidal proteins and (ii) avoid using bioassay methods which may result in excess response heterogeneity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA shift toward transgenic crops which produce combinations of insecticidal proteins has increased the interest (Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Minnetonka, MN) in studying the potential for interactions amongst those proteins. We present a general testing method which accommodates proteins with nonoverlapping spectrums of activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvances in biotechnology continue to drive the development of a wide range of insect-protected, herbicide-tolerant, stress-tolerant, and nutritionally enhanced genetically modified (GM) crops, yet societal and public policy considerations may slow their commercialization. Such restrictions may disproportionately affect developing countries, as well as smaller entrepreneurial and public sector initiatives. The 2014 IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry (San Francisco, CA, USA; August 2014) included a symposium on "Challenges Associated with Global Adoption of Agricultural Biotechnology" to review current obstacles in promoting GM crops.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaboratory testing for possible adverse effects of insecticidal proteins on non-target organisms (NTOs) is an important part of many ecological risk assessments for regulatory decision-making about the cultivation of insect-resistant genetically modified (IRGM) crops. To increase confidence in the risk assessments, regulatory guidelines for effects testing specify that representative surrogate species for NTOs are exposed to concentrations of insecticidal proteins that are in excess of worst-case predicted exposures in the field. High concentrations in effects tests are achieved by using protein test substances produced in microbes, such as Escherichia coli.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvent 5307 transgenic maize produces the novel insecticidal protein eCry3.1Ab, which is active against certain coleopteran pests such as Western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera). Laboratory tests with representative nontarget organisms (NTOs) were conducted to test the hypothesis of no adverse ecological effects of cultivating Event 5307 maize.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) predicts that positive emotions broaden the scopes of attention and cognition, thereby facilitating the building of personal resources and initiating upward spirals toward increasing emotional well-being. This study attempts to replicate and extend previous empirical support for this model. Using a sample of 185 undergraduates, we assessed whether positive affect and broad-minded coping, interpersonal trust, and social support reciprocally and prospectively predict one another over a two-month period, and whether this upward spiral might be partially based in changes in dopaminergic functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Although the long-term health risks associated with obesity in older adults have been well documented, less is known about the psychological consequences. The current study examined the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and subsequent depressive symptoms. The authors anticipated that BMI would predict depressive symptoms, and that this relationship would be greater among women, individuals of higher socioeconomic status (SES), and white subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, numerous studies have demonstrated a link between positive and negative feedback seeking by depressed individuals, interpersonal rejection, and depression chronicity. Nonetheless, many of the specific interpersonal patterns underlying these links have yet to be clearly specified. One important lingering question concerns how depressed individuals respond to negative evaluation or feedback from others, because continued negative feedback seeking could place depressed people at risk for further rejection and continuation/exacerbation of depressive symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterview survey data were collected on a large (n = 4730) general population sample of adults subsequently classified as "never homeless" (NH) or "formerly homeless" (FH), with the latter group consisting of persons who had past experience of at least a one-month period with no regular place to live. The objective was to analyze differences, as a function of this classification, in the prevalence, age of onset, comorbidity, temporal sequencing, and service utilization pertinent to alcohol-use and other psychiatric disorders. Almost half of the FH group were found to have a one-year DSM diagnosis, nearly twice the rate seen in the NH group.
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