No abstract

This 2016 cross-sectional inquiry used quantitative and thematic content analysis to determine the organizational climate (OC) with empirical and theoretical relation to the teachers’ performance (TP) and management competencies (MC) of a rural, K-12, private school in the Philippines. Analyses from a focus group discussion (FGD) was done using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis and a balanced score card. The study revealed that the Philippine rural school’s level of OC, TP, and their subdomains were high, but MC yielded basic proficiency. Under OC, it was found out that the higher the designated position the greater is the sense of teamwork. High-positioned females that have attained tenure were also found to be more committed. In terms of TP, this study also established between the ability of younger teachers with experience to better handle diverse students, master their pedagogy, do better in planning, assessing, and reporting the learners’ outcomes, create better learning environments, and has social regard for learning. Male teachers tend to acknowledge better the management competence in terms of personal integrity and interpersonal effectiveness. The findings of this study are intended to supplement to the dearth of researches in the database of rural education in the Philippines.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is an infl ammatory cytokine known to cause bone resorption, swelling and edema during tissue organization. Conversely, TNF-α has also been shown to participate in tissue regeneration during the wound healing process. We have previously investigated the eff ects of TNF-α on human dental pulp cell diff erentiation. Dental pulp cells are composed of diff erent cell types including primary odontoblasts and fi broblasts. We determined that the ratio of stem cells within the pulp cell population was increased following short-term stimulation with TNF-α. The aim of this study therefore was to investigate the eff ect of short-term stimulation with TNF-α on osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cell growth and diff erentiation. MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured in standard growth medium and on reaching sub-confl uence were exposed to recombinant TNF-α (10 and 100 ng/ml) for 2 days prior to assessing their cell proliferation and diff erentiation properties in comparison to non-stimulated MC3T3-E1 cells (control). Although no signifi cant diff erences in cell proliferation were observed between the TNF-α-stimulated and control groups, cell diff erentiation was delayed in the TNF-α-stimulated groups. In summary, short-term stimulation of cultured MC3T3-E1 cells with TNF-α had only minimal eff ect on their growth and diff erentiation.

Objective: This study aims to verify the associations among sleep bruxism (SB), sleep arousal (SA) and concurrent body movements. Material and Methods:Subjects underwent a standard overnight polysomnography test and audio-video recordings. Sleep quality was evaluated according to the Rechtschaffen and Kales criteria, while SA was determined as per the American Sleep Disorders Association criteria. Analyses were performed by an external institution after masking of the subjects' information. SB was assessed based on the presence/ absence of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity (RMMA) episodes, which were identified by using electromyography of the masseter muscle. The observed simultaneous movements included lower leg movement (LLM), swallowing, face scratching, head movement, body movement, eye blinking, coughing, licking, sighing, body scratching, lip sucking, somniloquy and yawning. The LLM was determined visually, as well as through an increase in the tibialis electromyogram signal. Other movements were visually assessed using audio-video recordings. The incidences of all the simultaneous movements were compared between RMMA with intercurrent SA (SAwRMMA; RMMA episode derived from a masseter electromyogram showing more than 10% of maximum voluntary contraction) and SA without RMMA (SAw/oRMMA).Results: Fourteen subjects were included in this study (females/males: 4/10, mean age: 31.5 ± 5.7 years). Among these, LLM, swallowing, body movement, licking, body scratching and lip sucking were frequently observed in SAwRMMA episodes than in SAw/oRMMA episodes, significantly. However, the non-specific simultaneous movements were higher observed in SAw/oRMMA episodes than that in SAwRMMA. Conclusion:Our results suggest that SB is concurrently activated with LLM in relation to arousal. K E Y W O R D Sconcomitant movement, non-specific simultaneous movements, polysomnography assessment, rhythmic masticatory muscle activity, sleep arousal, sleep bruxism

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have considerable potential for self-renewal and multi-differentiation. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is an inflammatory cytokine and is involved in tissue regeneration during wound healing. It was already reported that cultured human dental pulp cells acquire stem cell properties following short-term stimulation by TNF-α. However, it has not been clarified if BMSCs acquire stem cell properties after TNF-α treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of short-term stimulation with TNF-α on BMSCs. Rat BM-SCs were cultured up to 60% confluence and then incubated with 1-100 ng/ml of recombinant rat TNF-α (rTNF-α) for a further 2 days. After reaching subconfluence, cells were passaged once to remove rTNF-α completely before subsequent assays. Cells in the control group were passaged without stimulation. Expression levels of Nanog and Oct4 stem cell markers were significantly increased in the rTNF-α 10 ng/ml stimulation group. rTNF-α stimulation did not affect cell proliferation compared with the control group. However, rTNF-α stimulation led to a delay in cell differentiation. This study suggests that short-term TNF-α stimulation of BMSCs significantly increased their stem cell phenotype, but delayed their osteogenic cell differentiation.