Regarded as one of the best solutions to replace missing teeth in the oral cavity, dental implants have been the focus of plenty of studies and research in the past few years. Antimicrobial coatings are a promising solution to control and prevent bacterial infections that compromise the success of dental implants. In the last few years, new materials that prevent biofilm adhesion to the surface of titanium implants have been reported, ranging from improved methods to already established coating surfaces. The purpose of this review is to present the developed antimicrobial and antibiofilm coatings that may have the potential to reduce bacterial infections and improve the success rate of titanium dental implants. All referred coating surfaces showed high antimicrobial properties with effectiveness in biofilm control, while maintaining implant biocompatibility. We expect that by combining the use of oligonucleotide probes as a covering material with novel peri-implant adjuvant therapies, we will be able to avoid the downsides of other covering materials (such as antibiotic resistance), prevent bacterial infections, and raise the success rate of dental implants. The existing knowledge on the optimal coating material for dental implants is limited, and further research is needed before more definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Bacterial invasion of the periodontal tissues has been suggested as a relevant step in the etiopathogenesis of periodontal disease. However, its exact importance remains to be defined. The present systematic review assessed the scientific evidence concerning the relationship between the quality or quantity of periodontal microbiota in periodontal tissues and development of periodontal disease. The databases Medline-PubMed, Cochrane-CENTRAL, ISI Web of Knowledge and SCOPUS were searched, up to January 2014. Studies that reported evaluation of periodontal pathogens invasion on human tissues were selected. The screening of 440 title/abstracts elected 26 papers for full-text reading. Twenty three papers were subsequently excluded because of insufficient data or a study protocol not related to the objectives of this systematic review. All included studies were case-control studies that evaluated intracellular or adherent bacteria to epithelial cells from periodontal pockets versus healthy sulci. Study protocols presented heterogeneity regarding case and control definitions and methodological approaches for microbial identification. No consistent significant differences were found related to the presence/absence or proportion of specific periopathogens across the studies, as only one study found statistically significant differences regarding the presence of A. actinomycetemcomitans (p = 0.043), T. forsythia (P < 0.001), P. intermedia (P < 0.001), C. ochracea (P < 0.001) and C. rectus (P = 0.003) in epithelial cells from periodontal pockets vs. healthy sulci. All studies reported a larger unspecific bacterial load in or on the epithelial cells taken from a diseased site compared to a healthy sulcus. The current available data is of low to moderate quality and inconsistent mainly due to study design, poor reporting and methodological diversity. As so, there is insufficient evidence to support or exclude the invasion by periodontal pathogens as a key step in the etiopathogenesis of periodontal disease. Further research is needed.

Ensuring that an interactive application allows users to perform their activities and reach their goals is critical to the overall usability of the interactive application. Indeed, the effectiveness factor of usability directly refers to this capability. Assessing effectiveness is a real challenge for usability testing as usability tests only cover a very limited number of tasks and activities. This paper proposes an approach towards automated testing of effectiveness of interactive applications. To this end we resort to two main elements: an exhaustive description of users' activities and goals using task models, and the generation of scenarios (from the task models) to be tested over the application. However, the number of scenarios can be very high (beyond the computing capabilities of machines) and we might end up testing multiple similar scenarios. In order to overcome these problems, we propose strategies based on task models manipulations (e.g., manipulating task nodes, operator nodes, information...) resulting in a more intelligent test case generation approach. For each strategy, we investigate its relevance (both in terms of test case generation and in terms of validity compared to the original task models) and we illustrate it with a small example. Finally, the proposed strategies are applied on a real-size case study demonstrating their relevance and validity to test interactive applications.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has proven to be particularly useful to describe the microbial composition and spatial organization of mixed microbial infections, as it happens in periodontitis. This scoping review aims to identify and map all the documented interactions between microbes in periodontal pockets by the FISH technique. Three electronic sources of evidence were consulted in search of suitable articles up to 7 November 2020: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Scopus (Elsevier: Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics: Philadelphia, PA, USA) online databases. Studies that showed ex vivo and in situ interactions between, at least, two microorganisms were found eligible. Ten papers were included. Layered or radially ordered multiple-taxon structures are the most common form of consortium. Strict or facultative anaerobic microorganisms are mostly found in the interior and the deepest portions of the structures, while aerobic microorganisms are mostly found on the periphery. We present a model of the microbial spatial organization in sub- and supragingival biofilms, as well as how the documented interactions can shape the biofilm formation. Despite the already acquired knowledge, available evidence regarding the structural composition and interactions of microorganisms within dental biofilms is incomplete and large-scale studies are needed.