The use of radiography in the diagnosis of oral conditions in children and adolescents.

Radiography can serve as a useful aid in the diagnosis of numerous oral conditions, with a place in nearly all of the disciplines of dentistry. As such it can have a beneficial role in caring for the oral health of children and adolescents. The following review discusses the use of radiography in the diagnosis of oral conditions in children and adolescents, with particular reference to the diagnosis of dental caries, dental trauma, growth and development and in other dental scenarios, along with the importance of incidental findings.

The effects of splinting on outcomes for epicondylitis.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of splinting on outcomes for injured workers with epicondylitis.

Design: Retrospective cohort study using propensity score methodology to statistically control for all observed pretreatment differences between patients with and without splints.

Setting: Nationwide network of 253 occupational medicine clinics.

Evaluation of the impact of a low back pain educational intervention on physicians' practice patterns and patients' outcomes.

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of an educational intervention on physicians' management of low back pain patients. The study universe composed of 64 providers employed by a large occupational health group, with 4411 LBP cases pretraining and 4665 cases posttraining selected from the organization's database. The control group had 151 providers with 8478 pretraining and 8876 posttraining cases.

Review: cyclodextrins and their interaction with amylolytic enzymes.

This review is concerned with inhibition of amylases by cyclodextrins (cyclic maltooligosaccharides), the interaction that occurs between amylases and cyclodextrins and the application of cyclodextrin affinity chromatography in the purification of amylases. In many cases, amylases that are competitively inhibited by cyclodextrins can be purified by cyclodextrin affinity chromatography with the cyclodextrins interacting with the active site on such enzymes. Interestingly amylases that are not competitively inhibited by cyclodextrins may also be purified by cyclodextrin affinity chromatography.

Effectiveness of early physical therapy in the treatment of acute low back musculoskeletal disorders.

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of early physical therapy intervention on treatment outcomes for workers with acute low back injuries. A total of 3867 cases were randomly selected from the database of a large occupational health care provider. Cases were assigned to either the early therapy intervention group or one of the two comparison groups on the basis of their delay to physical therapy.

The amylopullulanase of Bacillus sp. DSM 405.

The amylopullulanse produced by Bacillus sp. DSM 405 was purified to homogeneity. It exhibited dual activity, cleaving the alpha 1-4 bonds in starch, releasing a range of malto-oligosaccharides, and also cleaving the alpha 1-6 bonds in pullulan, releasing maltotriose as the sole end-product.

Mechanism of action and the substrate-dependent pH maximum shift of the alpha-amylase of Bacillus coagulans.

The alpha-amylase of Bacillus coagulans is a saccharifying alpha-amylase which hydrolyses the disaccharide maltose [L. Keating, C. Kelly, and W.

Effect of growth rate on alpha-amylase production by Streptomyces sp. IMD 2679.

The alpha-amylase of Streptomyces sp. IMD 2679 was subject to catabolite repression. Four different growth rates were achieved when the organism was grown at 40 degrees C and 55 degrees C in the presence and absence of cobalt, with an inverse relationship between alpha-amylase production and growth rate.

Prevalence of psychopathology in acute and chronic low back pain patients.

This study assessed the differential prevalence rates of psychopathology in chronic and acute low back pain patients. Psychopathology was assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-III-R (SCID). The results showed that chronic low back pain patients (n=90), had much higher rates of psychopathology than did patients in the acute back pain group (n=90), and much higher than general population base rates.

The high maltose-producing alpha-amylase of the thermophilic actinomycete, Thermomonospora curvata.

The alpha-amylase of Thermomonospora curvata catalyses the formation of very high levels of maltose from starch (73%, w/w) without the attendant production of glucose. The enzyme was produced extracellularly in high yield during batch fermentation in a 5-1 fermentor. Purification was achieved by ammonium sulphate fractionation, Superose-12 gel filtration and DEAE-Sephacel ion-exchange chromatography.

Investigation of the mechanisms of irreversible thermoinactivation of Bacillus stearothermophilus alpha-amylase.

Bacillus stearothermophilus NCIB 11412 produces a highly thermostable alpha-amylase. The enzyme displayed half-lives of irreversible thermoinactivation at 90 degrees C of 1.9 min and 12.