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The length of ewe productive life (LPL), defined as the number of days between the first and last lambing, is a key indicator of ewe longevity and is directly related to the sustainability of the sheep industry. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to investigate systematic effects influencing LPL in Katahdin sheep. The LPL of 10,474 Katahdin ewes (69.5% with uncensored and 30.5% with right-censored observations) born between 1992 and 2021 in 58 flocks located across the United States were analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier (K-M) and Cox Proportional Hazard (Cox PH) methods were used to estimate survival probability. Four Cox PH models were evaluated. Model 1 included contemporary group (CG; flock-year-season of ewe birth) as a random effect and the ewe's dam's age (EDA), ewe's own birth-rearing type (BR; 1/1, 2/1, 2/2, 3/2, 3/3, with the digit-3 including lamb counts ≥3), and age at first lambing (AFL) as fixed effects. Models 2 to 4 were an extension of model 1. Model 2 also included average lamb birth weight (ABW) per ewe lifetime, while model 3 included average lamb weaning weight (AWW) per ewe lifetime. Both ABW and AWW were fitted as fixed effects. Model 4 fitted all previous effects together. The factors CG, BR, ABW, and AWW affected LPL (P < 0.05) in all models in which these effects were fitted. The EDA effect only influenced LPL (P < 0.05) in model 1, while AFL had no effect (P > 0.05) in any model. The median LPL ranged from approximately 2 to 3 yr, depending on the risk factors analyzed. In general, Katahdin ewes themselves born in multiple litters, and that produced lambs weighing ~5 kg at lambing and 20 to 25 kg at weaning (over their lifespan) had better survival probability. Although the LPL of Katahdin sheep is relatively low, it appears to be a consequence of voluntary culling due to its association with both ABW and AWW. Future studies should quantify the rate of involuntary culling in Katahdin ewes to identify whether longevity indicator traits should be included in more comprehensive breeding objectives., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science.)

Climate change poses a growing threat to the livestock industry, impacting animal productivity, animal welfare, and farm management practices. Thus, enhancing livestock climatic resilience (CR) is becoming a key priority in various breeding programs. CR can be defined as the ability of an animal to be minimally affected or rapidly return to euthermia under thermally stressful conditions. The primary study objectives were to perform genome-wide association studies for 12 CR indicators derived from variability in longitudinal vaginal temperature in lactating sows under heat stress conditions. A total of 31 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located on nine chromosomes were considered as significantly associated with nine CR indicators based on different thresholds. Among them, only two SNPs were simultaneously identified for different CR indicators, SSC6:16,449,770 bp and SSC7:39,254,889 bp. These results highlighted the polygenic nature of CR indicators with small effects distributed across different chromosomes. Furthermore, we identified 434 positional genes associated with CR. Key candidate genes include SLC3A2 , STX5 , POLR2G , and GANAB , which were previously related to heat stress responses, protein folding, and cholesterol metabolism. Furthermore, the enriched KEGG pathways and Gene Ontology (GO) terms associated with these candidate genes are linked to stress responses, immune and inflammatory responses, neural system, and DNA damage and repair. The most enriched quantitative trait loci are related to "Meat and Carcass", followed by "Production", "Reproduction", "Health", and "Exterior (conformation and appearance)" traits. Multiple genomic regions were identified associated with different CR indicators, which reveals that CR is a highly polygenic trait with small effect sizes distributed across the genome. Many heat tolerance or HS related genes in our study, such as HSP90AB1 , DMGDH , and HOMER1 , have been identified. The complexity of CR encompasses a range of adaptive responses, from behavioral to cellular. These results highlight the possibility of selecting more heat-tolerant individuals based on the identified SNP for CR indicators., Competing Interests: YH was employed by Smithfield Foods. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Wen, Johnson, Mulim, Araujo, De Carvalho, Rocha, Huang, Tiezzi, Maltecca, Schinckel and Brito.)

Introduction: The present study aimed to identify the 100 most-cited articles concerning atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) through a bibliometric analysis., Methods: The search was conducted in the Web of Science database in December 2023. Scopus and Google Scholar were used to compare the number of citations. The following data were extracted from the articles: title, authors, number of citations, access type, institution, country, continent, year of publication, journal, keywords, study design, and theme. Collaborative networks were generated using the VOSviewer software. Google Trends was used to investigate the global popularity of "atraumatic restorative treatment" research., Results: The 100 selected articles, published between 1996 and 2019, were cited 5,092 times, ranging from 21 to 239 citations. CariesResearch (12%) and Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (12%) published the highest number of articles. Clinical study (52%) was the most prevalent study design. The main theme addressed was restoration longevity (43%). Conventional high-viscosity glass ionomer was the most used restorative material (69%). The country with the highest number of articles was The Netherlands (33%) and Europe was the continent with most publications (38%). The Radboud University of Nijmegen had the highest number of articles (25%). Frencken was the most prominent author (38%). The most common keyword was "atraumatic restorative treatment" (n = 60). According to Google Trends, Tanzania was the country that searched the most about ART., Conclusion: The 100 most-cited articles on ART were mainly composed of clinical studies focusing on the longevity of restorations and originated in Europe., (© 2024 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Background: The aim of this study was to understand the trends regarding the use of artificial intelligence in dentistry through a bibliometric review., Types of Studies Reviewed: The authors performed a literature search on Web of Science. They collected the following data: articles-number and density of citations, year, key words, language, document type, study design, and theme (main objective, diagnostic method, and specialties); journals-impact factor; authors-country, continent, and institution. The authors used Visualization of Similarities Viewer software (Leiden University) to analyze the data and Spearman test for correlation analysis., Results: After selection, 1,478 articles were included. The number of citations ranged from 0 through 327. The articles were published from 1984 through 2024. Most articles were characterized as proof of concept (979). Definition and classification of structures and diseases was the most common theme (550 articles). There was an emphasis on radiology (333 articles) and radiographic-based diagnostic methods (715 articles). China was the country with the most articles (251), and Asia was the continent with the most articles (871). The Charité-University of Medicine Berlin was the institution with the most articles (42), and the author with the most articles was Schwendicke (53)., Practical Implications: Artificial intelligence is an important clinical tool to facilitate diagnosis and provide automation in various processes., Competing Interests: Disclosures None of the authors reported any disclosures., (Copyright © 2024 American Dental Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The implementation of automated milk feeders (AMF) on precision dairy farms has enabled efficient management of large numbers of group-housed replacement calves with reduced labor requirements and improved calf welfare. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of deriving calf resilience indicators based on variability in milk consumption using data from 10,076 North American Holstein calves collected between 2015 and 2021. We modeled and evaluated deviations in observed and predicted daily milk consumption trajectories as indicators of resilience to environmental perturbations. We also analyzed average milk intake and the number of treatments for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and their genetic correlations with the derived resilience parameters. Milk consumption was recorded using the Förster-Technik AMF. Deviations in cumulative milk intake were modeled using various methods, including quantile regression and the Gompertz function. Ten resilience indicators were derived to quantify the degree and duration of perturbations, including amplitude, perturbation time, recovery time, and deviation velocities. After data editing, genomic data from 9,273 calves and pedigree information from 10,076 calves with 321,388 phenotypic records were used to estimate genetic parameters for 12 traits, including 10 calf resilience indicators as well as average milk intake and treatments for bovine respiratory disease. Substantial phenotypic variability was observed for all calf resilience indicators derived and genetic parameters related to these novel resilience indicators were estimated. The heritability estimates for the resilience traits are as follows: amplitude of the deviation (in L) 0.047 (0.032, 0.064) (HPD interval), perturbation time of deviation (in d) 0.011 (0.0056, 0.016), recovery time of the deviation (in d) 0.025 (0.016, 0.035), maximum velocity of perturbation (L/d) 0.039 (0.024, 0.053), average velocity of perturbation (L/d) 0.038 (0.022, 0.050), area between the curves (L x d) 0.039 (0.027, 0.054), recovery ratio 0.053 (0.036, 0.072), deviation variance 0.049 (0.32, 0.068), log-deviation variance 0.027 (0.016, 0.044), deviation auto-correlation 0.010 (0.0042, 0.017) and number of deviation occurrences 0.023 (0.0094, 0.036). Some of the highlighted genetic correlations observed with average milk consumption include amplitude: 0.569 (0.474, 0.666), perturbation time: -0.534 (-0.73, -0.342), and average velocity: 0.554 (0.432, 0.672). Similarly, the genetic correlations between the number of times treated for BRD with perturbation time was 0.494 (0.251, 0.723), -0.294 (-0.52, -0.095) with number of deviations, and 0.348 (0.131, 0.578) with deviation autocorrelation. This study highlights the genetic influence on various resilience traits in calves, including amplitude, perturbation time, recovery time, and velocity measures of the perturbation. Our findings suggest the need for prioritizing genetic selection based on traits like recovery time, which exhibits higher heritability and a moderate genetic correlation with the number of times a calf is treated for BRD. The combination of AMF data, mathematical modeling, and genomic evaluation provides a comprehensive framework for assessing and breeding more resilient dairy calves in the face of environmental and health challenges., (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

This study aimed to identify and analyze articles on enamel microabrasion for the treatment of white spot lesions. A search was conducted on the Web of Science. The following parameters were recorded and analyzed: number of citations, year, journal, impact factor, study design, theme, country and continent, institution, authors, and keywords. Data was analyzed using VOSviewer software. The initial search resulted in 1,126 documents, of which 94 articles were included. The highest number of citations an article received was 65. The oldest article was published in 1975, and the most recent in 2023. The most frequent study design was case report ( n = 42). Regarding the themes, it was observed that the main objective of the studies was to evaluate the clinical performance of enamel microabrasion ( n = 75), primarily using Opalustre (Ultradent Products Inc., South Jordan, UT, USA) ( n = 37) for treating white stains caused by dental fluorosis ( n = 41). Most articles originated from Latin America ( n = 31), mainly from Brazil ( n = 26). The most frequent author was Sundfeld RH ( n = 10). This study reveals research trends in the field of enamel microabrasion. The publications were mainly case reports/series using Opalustre for the removal of fluorosis stains., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported., (Copyright © 2024. The Korean Academy of Conservative Dentistry.)

Objective: The Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry (JERD) stands out as one of the most prominent international journals publishing research in esthetic dentistry. This study analyzed articles published by JERD since the year 2000 through bibliometric analysis., Methodology: The search was conducted in January 2024 using Scopus. The following data were extracted from the articles: citation count, year, language, access type, funding agency, study design, theme (general and specific), country, institution, authors, and keywords. The VOSviewer software was used to generate collaborative network maps among the data. Dimensions were consulted to measure altmetric data. Google Trends was used to investigate the global popularity of JERD research., Results: A total of 1394 articles were included in this analysis. Citation count ranged from 0 to 625 (average: 16.9). Articles were published between 2000 and 2023. Laboratory studies were more prevalent (n = 850), with the most investigated general theme being restorative procedures (n = 882), and the highlighted specific theme being the use of composite resin (n = 327). The United States had the highest number of articles (n = 640), with the diverse distribution among other countries. The most common keyword was "cad/cam" (n = 63). VOSviewer demonstrated high collaboration among countries. Intense mentions were identified primarily on Facebook. According to Google Trends, Egypt was the country that searched for JERD the most., Conclusions: JERD exhibited significant growth in the number of published articles and their diversity by topics, types, origin (country), number of citations, and impact factor., Clinical Significance: The JERD is a journal that publishes studies influencing clinical practice. Identifying the key characteristics of this journal is essential for charting future paths., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Longitudinal records of automatically-recorded vaginal temperature (T V ) could be a key source of data for deriving novel indicators of climatic resilience (CR) for breeding more resilient pigs, especially during lactation when sows are at an increased risk of suffering from heat stress (HS). Therefore, we derived 15 CR indicators based on the variability in T V in lactating sows and estimated their genetic parameters. We also investigated their genetic relationship with sows' key reproductive traits., Results: The heritability estimates of the CR traits ranged from 0.000 ± 0.000 for slope for decreased rate of T V (Slope De ) to 0.291 ± 0.047 for sum of T V values below the HS threshold (HSU B ). Moderate to high genetic correlations (from 0.508 ± 0.056 to 0.998 ± 0.137) and Spearman rank correlations (from 0.431 to 1.000) between genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) were observed for five CR indicators, i.e. HS duration (HSD), the normalized median multiplied by normalized variance (Nor&#95;medvar), the highest T V value of each measurement day for each individual (Max Tv ), and the sum of the T V values above (HSU A ) and below (HSU B ) the HS threshold. These five CR indicators were lowly to moderately genetically correlated with shoulder skin surface temperature (from 0.139 ± 0.008 to 0.478 ± 0.048) and respiration rate (from 0.079 ± 0.011 to 0.502 ± 0.098). The genetic correlations between these five selected CR indicators and sow reproductive performance traits ranged from - 0.733 to - 0.175 for total number of piglets born alive, from - 0.733 to - 0.175 for total number of piglets born, and from - 0.434 to - 0.169 for number of pigs weaned. The individuals with the highest GEBV (most climate-sensitive) had higher mean skin surface temperature, respiration rate (RR), panting score (PS), and hair density, but had lower mean body condition scores compared to those with the lowest GEBV (most climate-resilient)., Conclusions: Most of the CR indicators evaluated are heritable with substantial additive genetic variance. Five of them, i.e. HSD, Max Tv , HSU A , HSU B , and Nor&#95;medvar share similar underlying genetic mechanisms. In addition, individuals with higher CR indicators are more likely to exhibit better HS-related physiological responses, higher body condition scores, and improved reproductive performance under hot conditions. These findings highlight the potential benefits of genetically selecting more heat-tolerant individuals based on CR indicators., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the characteristics of the 100 most cited articles about dental sealants (DS) in dentistry. In September 2023, a search was performed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS-CC) database. The following information was extracted from each article: number and density of citations, year of publication, authorship, journal, impact factor, keywords, study design, theme, continent, country, and institution. The citations of the WoS-CC were compared with those of the Scopus and Google Scholar databases. The VOSviewer software was used to generate collaborative networks. The number of citations ranged from 33 to 205. The articles were published between 1961 and 2016. Buonocore MG (7%) was the most prominent author among the most cited. The Journal of the American Dental Association was the most frequent journal (25%) and Journal of Dental Research (7.6) had the highest impact factor. Most studies had interventional (41%) and laboratory (31%) designs, mainly addressing DS effectiveness in the prevention and control of dental caries (86%). There was a predominance of publications from North America (46%) and the USA was the country with the highest number of articles (44%). The most frequent institutions were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA) and the University of Rochester (USA) (6% each). "Retention" was the most frequent keyword. In conclusion, the 100 most cited articles were mostly interventional and laboratory studies, addressing the retention and efficacy of DS. Most of the articles were concentrated in North America and Europe, demonstrating a little collaboration from other continents.

The ultrasound characteristics of thyroid nodules guide the evaluation of thyroid cancer in patients with thyroid nodules. However, the characteristics of thyroid nodules are often documented in clinical narratives such as ultrasound reports. Previous studies have examined natural language processing (NLP) methods in extracting a limited number of characteristics (<9) using rule-based NLP systems. In this study, a multidisciplinary team of NLP experts and thyroid specialists, identified thyroid nodule characteristics that are important for clinical care, composed annotation guidelines, developed a corpus, and compared 5 state-of-the-art transformer-based NLP methods, including BERT, RoBERTa, LongFormer, DeBERTa, and GatorTron, for extraction of thyroid nodule characteristics from ultrasound reports. Our GatorTron model, a transformer-based large language model trained using over 90 billion words of text, achieved the best strict and lenient F1-score of 0.8851 and 0.9495 for the extraction of a total number of 16 thyroid nodule characteristics, and 0.9321 for linking characteristics to nodules, outperforming other clinical transformer models. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically categorize and apply transformer-based NLP models to extract a large number of clinical relevant thyroid nodule characteristics from ultrasound reports. This study lays ground for assessing the documentation quality of thyroid ultrasound reports and examining outcomes of patients with thyroid nodules using electronic health records., (©2023 AMIA - All rights reserved.)

Introduction: This review aimed to analyze the trend and main characteristics of articles related to guided endodontics (GE)., Methods: The search was conducted in May 2023 on Web of Science. GE-related articles were included, and conferences were excluded. Three researchers selected the articles and extracted: the number of citations; year and journal; design and study theme; authorship and institutions; country and continent. Collaborative networks were generated in the Visualization of Similarities Viewer software. The relationship between data was determined by Spearman's correlation. Google Trends was used to investigate the global popularity of GE research., Results: The search resulted in 135 articles, of which 85 were included. The most cited article totaled 116 citations. The studies were published between 2016 and 2023, most frequently in 2022 (n = 22). The most prevalent journal was the Journal of Endodontics (n = 28). Case report (n = 38) was the most frequent study design. The most studied theme was the use of static GE for calcified canals (n = 27). Connert T was the author with the highest number of articles (n = 13). The University of Basel (n = 9) stood out. The most prevalent country was Brazil (n = 13). Europe was the most frequent continent (n = 38). Visualization of Similarities Viewer demonstrated an interaction between authors. There was a moderate positive correlation between citations and the impact factor (rho = .483). According to Google Trends, the United States was the country that most researched GE., Conclusions: Based on this review, a more significant research interest in GE was observed in Europe, addressing the application of GE in locating severely calcified root canals., (Copyright © 2023 American Association of Endodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim: This bibliometric study analyzed the characteristics of the 100 most cited articles on bone grafts in dentistry., Materials and Methods: A database search was performed on the Web of Science Core Collection using a specific search strategy. Scopus and Google Scholar were also consulted for citation comparisons. Data extracted included: title, citation metrics, publication year, journal, study design, graft material, surgical technique, authors, institution, and country. Bibliometric networks were generated using VOSviewer., Results: The identified articles were published between 1991 and 2019. Citation counts ranged from 120 to 1161 (mean: 240, 30). Clinical Oral Implants Research was the most cited journal (5175 citations; 25/100). Xenogeneic bone graft material was the most frequently used (5130 citations; 22/100). Europe had 62 articles (14,604 citations), and the United States was the most prominent country (5209 citations; 22/100). The University of Bern had the highest number of citations (2565 citations; 13/100), with Buser D as the author with the largest number of articles (2648 citations; 12/100)., Conclusion: This study shows the scientific progress on bone grafts in dentistry. The use of xenogeneic grafts for horizontal and/or vertical ridge augmentation was the most prominent trend., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

This study analyzes the characteristics of the top 100 most-cited papers related to tooth bleaching. A literature search was performed on the Web of Science up to March 2022. The number of citations was cross-matched with the citation count on Scopus and Google Scholar. The following data were collected: number and density of citations; authorship; year and journal of publication; study design and thematic; keywords; institution and country of origin. Spearman's correlation and Poisson regression were used to determine associations between the number of citations and study characteristics. The VOSviewer software was used to generate collaborative network maps for the authors and keywords. The number of citations ranged from 66 to 450. Papers were published between 1981 and 2020. The most frequent study design and topic were laboratory-based studies and 'interaction of the bleaching agent with dental tissues', respectively. Cochran M, Loguercio AD, Matis B, Reis A, and Suliman M were the authors with the highest number of papers. The countries with the most papers were the United States of America (USA) (28%) and Brazil (20%). Indiana University and State University of Ponta Grossa were the institutions with the most papers (6% each). There was a very strong correlation among the number of citations of the three databases. The 100 most-cited papers related to tooth bleaching were mainly published by the USA and Brazil, with laboratory-based studies addressing topics related to the effects of bleaching agents on tooth structure being the most prevalent.

A high number of citations can indicate the potential of any specific paper to influence other research and generate changes in clinical practice. Analyzing the most-cited papers in a certain scientific field may assist researchers to identify the influential papers as well their main characteristics. The present study aimed to analyze the 100 most-cited papers concerning dental fluorosis (DF) through a bibliometric review. A search was performed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS-CC) database in November 2021. The papers were displayed in descending order according to the number of citations in WoS-CC. Two independent researchers performed the selection. Scopus and Google Scholar were used to compare the number of citations with WoS-CC. The following data were extracted from the papers: title, authors, number and density of citations, institution, country, continent, year of publication, journal title, keywords, study design, and theme. Collaborative networks were generated using the VOSviewer software. The top 100 most-cited papers were published between 1974 and 2014 and were cited 6,717 times (ranging from 35 to 417). Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (24%), Journal of Dental Research (21%), Journal of Public Health Dentistry (17%), and Caries Research (13%) published the most papers. Observational studies (60%) and literature reviews (19%) were the most common study designs. The main topics were epidemiology (44%) and fluoride intake (32%). The countries with the highest number of papers were the USA (44%), Canada (10%), and Brazil (9%). The University of Iowa (USA) had the most papers (12%). Levy SM was the author with the highest number of papers (12%). The 100 most-cited papers on DF were mainly observational studies focused on epidemiology and originated in North America. There were few interventional studies and systematic reviews among the most-cited papers concerning this topic., (© 2023 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

A highly cited paper is a milestone and might impact research and clinical practice. The present study analyzed the 100 most-cited papers on fluoride varnishes in dentistry. A search was performed on July 20, 2022, on the Web of Science Core Collection. Two independent researchers extracted the following data: number and citation density; year and journal of publication; study design; main topic; authors; institutions; keywords; countries and continents. Scopus and Google Scholar were consulted to compare the number of citations. Bibliometric networks were generated in the VOSviewer. The number of citations ranged from 36 to 351, and thirteen papers were cited more than 100 times. The papers were published between 1977 and 2018, most of which were published after 2008 (48%). The most prevalent journal was Caries Research (17%). Intervention studies were the most common design (41%). The most discussed topics were dental caries prevention (48%) and dental remineralization (31%). Europe was the continent with the highest number of publications (46%), mainly from Sweden (14%), and Umea University had the most substantial number of studies (8%). Petersson L.G. was the author with more papers in the top 100 (6%). The most used keywords were "dental caries" (34%) and "fluoride varnish" (31%). It can be concluded that the top 100 cited papers on fluoride varnish primarily originated from Europe, with the majority consisting of intervention studies focusing on the utilization of fluoride varnish for the prevention of dental caries., (© 2023 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Citation rates can be used as an indicator of the influence and relevance of scientific papers. The present study analyzed the 100 most-cited articles related to erosive tooth wear (ETW). The top 100 most-cited papers focusing on ETW topics were collected from the Web of Science database on November 11, 2020. The following bibliometric data were extracted from papers: title, authorship, institutions, countries, number of citations, year of publication, journal title, study design, topic, and keywords. Scopus and Google Scholar were searched to compare the number of citations. The VOSviewer software was used to generate collaborative network maps for the authors and keywords. The number of citations of the 100 most-cited papers ranged from 71 to 330 (average: 97.44). The papers were published between 1949 and 2015. Caries Research (28%) and The Journal of Dentistry (16%) presented the majority of papers. Laboratorial (44%) and observational studies (33%) were the most common study designs. The most studied topics were epidemiology (31%) and the erosive potential of substances (drinks, foods, or medicines) (22%). The countries with the highest number of most-cited papers were England (32%), Germany (18%), and Switzerland (10%). The University of Bern was the institution with the most papers (10%). Lussi A was the author with the highest number of papers in the top 100 (14%). The most common keyword was "dental erosion" with 64 occurrences. The top 100 most-cited papers related to ETW were composed mainly of laboratorial and observational studies focusing on epidemiology and the erosive potential of substances., (© 2022 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Activities related to body donation programs, such as donor memorial ceremonies, provide the opportunity to complement student training, especially with regard to the ethical and humanistic elements involved in medical training. This study sought to assess the impact of a ceremony in honor of the body donors has on ethical and humanistic attitudes in medical students. Medical students were surveyed about their perceptions of changes in themselves, respect for donors and donor families, and their relationship with patients. The effect of the students' contact with the family of the donor was analyzed in students who had contact with the cadaver in the dissection room and had either participated or not participated in the donor memorial ceremony. A total of 370 questionnaires were answered by first-, second-, and third-year medical students at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in 2017. The students who participated in the ceremony presented more positive responses in relation to commitment to their studies, reflection on death, and positive development of empathy when compared to those who did not attend the ceremony. Most of the students that attended the ceremony suggested the event led to an improvement in the doctor-patient relationship. These results suggest that cadaver dissection with accompanied memorial ceremony involving contact with donor families is an effective means of fostering ethical and humanistic attitudes among medical students from the beginning of the course., (© 2019 American Association of Anatomists.)

The use of human material in anatomy education depends upon the generosity of body donors. However, little is known regarding the demographics of body donors in Brazil, where voluntary body donation is a relatively rare phenomenon. Hence, the aim of the present study was to elucidate the demographic profile of applicants to the Body Donation Program (BDP) at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in Brazil, as well as to assess whether the observed characteristics of body donors are unique to that sample, or if they merely reflect the characteristics of the regional population. Information derived from the specific forms filled out by donors between January 2008 and June 2016 at the time of registration were collected. Data from 416 forms were analyzed. Based on this study, the typical applicant in Brazil is typically a white female (67.4%), over 60 years of age (60.3%), unmarried or single (70.6%), affiliated with a religious group (89.1%), of middle class background (40.4%), who has completed high school and/or holds a university degree (93.8%). The motivation of donors was, in most cases, an altruistic gesture, represented by the desire to help society and science. Elucidating these demographic characteristics of potential donors may help identify the target public to which information regarding body donation campaigns could be directed. Anat Sci Educ 10: 475-486. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists., (© 2017 American Association of Anatomists.)

The diatom Asterionellopsis glacialis sensu lato forms high-density patches in the surf zone of some sandy beaches worldwide and was until recently considered a cosmopolitan species. With the recent description of four cryptic species, the identity of specimens found in these accumulations remains uncertain. In this study, diatom patches were sampled from two sandy beaches of the Brazilian coast: one tropical (Futuro Beach, 3° S; 38° W) and one subtropical (Cassino Beach, 32° S; 52° W). Fine structure of frustules and the sequencing of three phylogenetic markers revealed the subtropical strains to be A. guyunusae and the tropical strains to be a new species, here described as Asterionellopsis tropicalis sp. nov. A. tropicalis was differentiated morphologically by the number of striae in 10 μm at the foot pole and head (39-44; 38-45, respectively), from A. lenisilicea (46-55; 46-64), A. maritima (46-51; 46-60), and A. thurstonii (42-58; 55-70). The number of striae at the head region of the valvocopula (10 μm) helped to distinguish A. tropicalis (56-62) from A. guyunusae (61-64), but A. tropicalis was morphologically undistinguishable from A. glacialis. The sequence divergence from other identified Asterionellopsis species was 13%-16% (Cox1), 11%-12% (5.8S + ITS2) and 2%-6% (RbcL), and A. tropicalis formed a distinct monophyletic clade with high support in all analyzed phylogenetic trees (single or multi-locus). This work will aid in the understanding of the ecological and physiological diversity of diatom patches that are key to the trophic webs of sandy beaches., (© 2016 Phycological Society of America.)

A number of published articles have suggested that each element of Renaissance art contains an inner meaning. Some of these elements include the choice of theme and protagonists, faces selected for the characters, colors used, species of flowers and trees chosen, animals depicted, positions of the elements, posture of the characters and their gestures, juxtapositions in the scenes, and even the very scenario or landscape. All of these elements are thought to have hidden meanings. In this context, this manuscript presents a new hypothesis suggesting that Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) may have concealed symbols associated with female anatomy in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (painted 1508-1512) in Rome. Thus, this paper is useful to better understand the history of anatomy and corroborates recent descriptions that have suggested the possible existence of anatomic figures concealed in many of Michelangelo's works. Clin. Anat. 29:911-916, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was a master anatomist as well as an artistic genius. He dissected numerous cadavers and developed a profound understanding of human anatomy. Among his best-known artworks are the frescoes painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), in Rome. Currently, there is some debate over whether the frescoes merely represent the teachings of the Catholic Church at the time or if there are other meanings hidden in the images. In addition, there is speculation regarding the image of the brain embedded in the fresco known as "The Creation of Adam," which contains anatomic features of the midsagittal and lateral surfaces of the brain. Within this context, we report our use of Image Pro Plus Software 6.0 to demonstrate mathematical evidence that Michelangelo painted "The Creation of Adam" using the Divine Proportion/Golden Ratio (GR) (1.6). The GR is classically associated with greater structural efficiency and is found in biological structures and works of art by renowned artists. Thus, according to the evidence shown in this article, we can suppose that the beauty and harmony recognized in all Michelangelo's works may not be based solely on his knowledge of human anatomical proportions, but that the artist also probably knew anatomical structures that conform to the GR display greater structural efficiency. It is hoped that this report will at least stimulate further scientific and scholarly contributions to this fascinating topic, as the study of these works of art is essential for the knowledge of the history of Anatomy., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The use of dissection to study human anatomy is the foundation for educational excellence among future health professionals, as it offers an ideal opportunity to learn the body's morphology in three dimensions while also providing students with a more humanistic education. The shortage of bodies for dissection, combined with the Brazilian population's lack of knowledge concerning the possibility of voluntarily donating their own bodies, led to the creation of the Body Donation Programs for Education and Research in Anatomy at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (UFCSPA). The program is based on three pillars: Informing the general public about the program, donor registration, and donation itself. Since the creation of the donor program in 2008, there has been an increase in both the number of donations made during donor's lifetime and the number of bodies received by the university. There has also been a shift in relation to the origin of these bodies, as before the creation of the program most bodies were unclaimed cadavers, while today most of the bodies are sourced from voluntary donations. The initial results regarding the public's acceptance of the possibility of making body donations have been encouraging, as shown by the annual growth in donor registrations. Consequently, the quality and quantity of the material available for educational purposes have greatly improved., (Copyright © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.)

Background/aims: Tumor angiogenesis has been proposed as essential to tumor growth, proliferation and metastases however, for gallbladder neoplasia, these data remain obscure. Therefore, it was performed this study with the objective of evaluating the prognostic value of angiogenesis in gallbladder cancer., Methodology: Thirty cases of gallbladder carcinoma were studied by immunohistochemical technique with antibody anti-CD105 for the identification of neoformed intratumoral vessels. The intratumoral micro vessel density was evaluated by Chalkley counting method, and researched the association of this index with the survival rate and the prognostic factors., Results: It was obtained, starting from the analysis of these data, a cut off in the index of the tumor vascular density at 8.5. It was observed an association between high intratumoral micro vessel density (index above or equal to 8.5) and survival rate lower to 6 months in 84.6% of cases., Conclusion: The present study confirms the hypothesis that a high vascular density, appraised through the Chalkley counting method, is associated to a worse prognosis in patients of gallbladder carcinoma.

Background/aims: Few studies, with small samples and diverging results, have been performed to evaluate the p53 protein expression in gallbladder carcinoma and its relationship to different clinicopathological parameters. Based on these facts, we performed a study for the purpose of assessing p53 expression in this disease and its association to prognostic factors., Methodology: Samples of 141 gallbladders, with 60 cases of carcinoma, 62 cholelithiasis and 19 without gallstones were assessed using an immunohistochemical technique for the expression of p53 protein, and analyzed for prognosis, survival and other clinicopathological parameters., Results: p53 expression was positive in 58.3% of carcinomas of the gallbladder, 9.7% of the chronic cholecystitis and 10.5% of the gallbladders not associated to stones. In cases of carcinoma of the gallbladder there was no statistically significant association between the expression of this protein, the prognostic factors, histological type or grade, presence of gallstones and survival., Conclusions: The mutation of gene p53 is involved in the pathogenesis of carcinoma of the gallbladder, and the intense chronic inflammatory process associated or not with cholelithiasis, appears to be one of the factors involved in the genesis of this process. Our data do not show an association between p53 protein expression and patient's survival prognosis.