Instrumental to forensic investigations is the ability to identify unknown human remains providing key evidence to criminal cases, resolution to missing persons, and assistance in mass or natural disasters. Identification of remains in an effort to determine age is an area of forensics that has received considerable attention. Traditional methods in age determination such as morphology are often biased, antiquated, and frequently result in a large margin of error. Conversely, the emergence of new forensic techniques provide promise to reduce the margin of error in determining age. One such technique has focused on relating the extent of amino acid racemization in teeth to age. Past research has focused primarily on the analysis of aspartic acid due to its high racemization rate. Our research indicates that glutamic acid also shows promise as related to age determination. Results will be presented illustrating optimization of gas chromatography using a chiral column for separation of amino acids found in dentin and their enantiomeric ratio quantification. Age correlation data will be presented on collected teeth ranging from mid-teens to early seventies.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:32:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarciaCCN.pdf: 387769 bytes, checksum: 0a9e8612244642f4c9e83714144b0e02 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / Glandular atrophy is one of several alterations which can aflict the salivary glands, caused generally by obstructive lesions such as sialo1ithiasis, infections or compression by neoplastic processes arnong others. In this work, a morphological and immunohistochemical study was carried out in rat parotid glands, which were submitted to obstruction of the main excretory duct suffering atrophy at varied time intervals, with the aim of appraising the behavior of myoepithelial cells during the process of glandular atrophy. It was analized the immunohistochemical expression of calponin which detects myoepithelial cells in the parotids of 28 animaIs, which were divided into 7 groups, each one made up of 4 rats, afier the ductal ligature procedure, in the following time intervals: zero hour (control), 24 hours, 7, 15, 21, 30 and 60 days. Analysis of the immunohistochemicaI profile was carried through in which the calponin expression was veritied through its distribution pattem and numericaI index. All specimens exhibited positivity for calponin in myoepithelial cells which were distributed around the acini and the ductaI structures, a small number of positiveIy marked cells being detected in the controI group and in the 24-hour group when compared to subsequent ones, where it was perceived a Iarge increase in the number of positiveIy marked cens, mainly surrounding the ductiform structures which originated during the obstruction time. Upon application of statistical tests it was verified that the rise in the number the myoepithelial positive cells for calponin, when the control groups (zero hour) was compared to the 7, 15,21, 30 and 60-day groups afier obstruction, was statistica1ly significant. It was concluded then that the detected rise probably carne about due to an elevation in the rate of proliferation of the myoepitheliaI cells subsequent to the ductal obstruction, associated with a growing resistance of these cells to glandular atrophy. / A atrofia glandular ? uma das diversas altera??es que podem acometer as gl?ndulas salivares,causada geralmente por les?es obstrutivas como sialolit?ase,infec??es ou compress?o por processos neopl?sicos,dentre outros.No presente trabalho realizou-se estudo morfol?gico e imuno-histoqu?mico em gl?ndulas par?tidas de ratos submetidos ? obstru??o do ducto excretor principal,sofrendo atrofia em intervalos variados de tempo,visando avaliar o comportamento das c?lulas mioepiteliais durante o processo de atrofia glandular.Analisou-se a express?o imuno-histoqu?mica da calponina,a qual detecta c?lulas mioepiteliais,nas par?tidas de 28 animais divididos em 7 grupos com 4 ratos cada,ap?s o procedimento de ligadura ductal nos seguintes intervalos de tempo:zerohora(controle),24 horas,7,15,21,30 e 60 dias.Procedeu-se a an?lise do perfil imuno-histoqu?mico,onde verificou-se a express?o da calponina atrav?s de seu padr?o de distribui??o e ?ndice num?rico.Todos os esp?cimes exibiram positividade para a calponina nas c?lulas mioepiteliais,as quais se distribu?ram em torno dos ?cidos e estruturas ductais,sendo detectadas poucas c?lulas marcadas positivamente no grupo controle e no de 24 horas quando comparados aos grupos subsequentes,onde percebeu-se um grande aumento no n?mero de c?lulas marcadas positivamente,principlamente circundando as estruturas ductifformes que surgiram com o decorrer do tempo de obstru??o.Aplicados testes estat?sticos,foi verificado que o aumento no n?mero de c?lulas mioepiteliais positivas para a calponina,quando comparados o grupo controle(zero hora) com os grupos de 7,15,21,30 e 60 dias ap?s obstru??o,foi estatisticamente significativo.Concluiu-se que este aumento detectado,provavelmente ocorreu devido a uma eleva??o na taxa de prolifera??o das c?lulas mioepiteliais subsequente ? obstru??o ductal,associado a uma maior resist?ncia destas c?lulas ? arofia glandular.

Nurse Practitioners (NPs) comprise a significant portion of the U.S. primary care workforce and play an essential role in patients' health awareness, prevention strategies, disease management, and in providing appropriate provider referrals. Nurse Practitioners receive education on the oral-systemic connection, yet there have been limited studies on the clinical practice of NPs assessing the oral cavity to evaluate the condition of the teeth and the oral tissues. The purpose of this study was to explore the nurse practitioners’ knowledge and practice habits of assessing the oral cavity for diseases or abnormalities in the mouth that can, in turn, affect overall health. A total of 66 NPs were included in the study, primarily female (91%) with master’s degrees (77%). While knowledge and education were not significantly associated, this research found significant associations between confidence and assessments, less than one-third (30.3%) were confident in their knowledge and ability to evaluate oral abnormalities.