Relationship between organizational climate and empowerment of nurses in Menoufiya hospitals, Egypt

One factor influencing the outcome of care may be the nursing staffs experience of organizational work climate. We compared organizational climate and nurse's empowerment in specialty units at 2 hospitals in Egypt. Data were collected from 164 diploma school staff nurses using 2 tools: the situational outlook questionnaire to assess organizational climate and the psychological empowerment in the workplace questionnaire. There was no statistically significant difference in the level of organizational climate between the 2 hospitals, which the majority of nurses classified as moderate. Most nurses reported a moderate level of empowerment in both hospitals and there was a statistically significant positive correlation between organizational climate and nurse's empowerment.

Comparative study of two filling techniques using glass-ionomer (Ketac-endo) root canal cement on fracture resistance of endodontically treated roots (in vitro)

Forty freshly single rooted teeth were selected for this study. The coronal part of teeth were decapitated and the root canals were prepared by modified step-back technique with K-flex files to size 35# at the apex, five ml of 5.25% NaOCl was used as irrigating solution. According to the dentin thickness at the mesio-distal direction of the prepared roots, roots were divided into two groups: Group (I), dentin and cementum thickness from 1.5-2 mm, and Group (II), dentin and cementum thickness 1 mm. According to the filling technique used the teeth were subdivided into four subgroups each of five teeth; Subgroup (A) single gutta-percha cone and Ketac-endo root canal sealer, Subgroup (B) lateral condensation technique with gutta-percha and Ketac-endo sealer, Subgroup (C) laterally condensed gutta-percha with Roth 801 cement and Subgroup (D) teeth left unfilled as negative controls. The prepared roots were placed into acrylic resin so that 10 mm of the root was exposed. A slowly increasing force was applied vertically using a blunt punch with 1 mm tip thickness attached to Instron testing machine. The results showed that group (I) with 1.5-2mm dentin thickness required greater force to fracture in all experimental groups, than that of group (II) with 1 mm dentin thickness. So the amount of remaining dentin thickness significantly affected the resistance to fracture of the prepared roots.

An investigation on the shear bond strength of three dentine adhesives

The aim of this investigation was to compare the shear bond strengths of three dentine adhesives tested using an Instron Universal Testing machine at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min. Sixty human molar teeth were used and divided into 3 equal groups where the occlusal surfaces were ground and adhesives were applied overlaid by composite material. Samples were fixed to the Universal Testing machine. Results were recorded in kg/cm2 and converted into MPa units then tabulated and statistically analyzed. Duncan's multiple range statistic test at p < 0.05 showed no statistically significant difference between the shear bond strength values of Scotchbond 2 and Amalgambond; whereas the shear bond strength values of Scotchbond 2 and Amalgambond were significantly higher than those of Gluma. Scanning electron microscopic examinations at X10 and X2500 magnifications showed a dominant adhesive pattern of failure in the samples treated with Gluma, and a mixture of cohesive and adhesive-cohesive patterns of failures in the samples treated with Scotchbond 2 and cohesive patterns of failures in the samples treated with Scotchbond 2 and Amalgambond.

Dentine roughness after different surface treatments

Surface roughness is one of the most influential criteria affecting the durability and strength of the adhesive restorative materials to the dentine. This study was carried out to investigate the roughness of the dentine surface after some of the modalities proposed for its treatment prior to application of the DBA. Dentine surface roughness of the sixty teeth divided into 12 groups were tested where the dentine surfaces were denuded and were brought to a similar 600 grit surface roughness then different treatments were carried out using H2O2, CO2 gas laser at 30 and 48 J/cm2 energy densities, EDTA and polyacrylic acid treatments. The dentine surface roughness was determined using a profilometer and the results were digitized and plotted using an AUTO-CAD software and Rolland plotter to compare the effects of the different treatments on the dentine surface roughness of the tested samples. Results revealed that the laser treatment left smooth dentine surface and added further evidences to the simplicity and reliability of the conventional use of EDTA and the polyacrylic acid according to the type of adhesive to be used.