Dental Research and Oral Health Research: Summaries, Inflammatory Cells Infiltrates, and Grief Durin

Summary of a topic

Write a very brief summary relating to any topic in dental research or oral-health research, stating the title of topic of your review clearly at the beginning of this very short essay.Find around 5 to 10 publications that are relevant to your topic and cite your references appropriately in the text by using either the Harvard or Vancouver citation style (choose one or the other). If you wish to use a software package (such as EndNote or Mendeley) to do this then this acceptable. But, if you would rather complete this by hand then this is acceptable also.

Although the level of English does not need to be perfect, the quality of presentation of this summary and the list of references is important and marks will be awarded for novelty and quality of presentation. Please do NOT use “et al.” in the list of references; please provide a full list of all authors (and all other relevant information for each reference) in each citation on your “list of references”.

(2a) A recent study explored the inflammatory cell infiltrates of chronic hyperplastic candidosis (CHC). Cells were profiled that expressed interleukin 17a (IL-17A) cytokine and also FOXP3+ cells. Squamous cell papilloma with Candida infection (SqC) and oral Lichen Planus (LP) tissues served as comparative controls and results are shown below. Results for the corium versus epithelium are shown also. Data are expressed also as mean ± standard error. (Note that: * = P < 0.05; and, ** = P < 0.01).

(2b) Data was collected during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the UK from approximately 700 bereaved people after the death of their loved one. These people were asked to rate how much support they felt they needed on a range of issues relating to their bereavement. The data is shown in the figure below, where means (full lines) and medians (dashed lines) are shown also (on a scale of 1 = no support to 5 = high level of support needed). The number of subjects responding in a certain way to each question are shown also.

Figures (where appropriate) can be created using SPSS (or EXCEL or GraphPad, if you prefer) and then copied into your coursework submission document, or these figures can be drawn by hand (using a ruler for axes etc.).  Please show ALL detail in your calculations in your coursework submission document.

 Following on from question 2b, data was also collected during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the UK about the levels of grief experienced by bereaved people after the death of their loved one. Grief was measured using the Index of Vulnerability (IOV), where higher values for IOV indicate higher levels of grief. Based on this IOV score, subjects were separated into three groups (low, high, and severe levels of grief) and the number of subjects was recorded in each group as a function of cause of death (i.e., COVID versus non-COVID): 

Interpretation of graphs

-Note that “frequency” here just means the number of subjects in each group in this table, i.e., with respect to level of grief (low, high, and severe) and also cause of death (COVID versus non-COVID). Note that each “response” class for level of grief has also been assigned a numerical value from 1 to 3 (as shown in the table above) and these numbers will also be used in the questions below.

(3a) Create pie charts of this data for COVID and non-COVID deaths separately, where segments of the pie charts represent level of grief. Write the modal (average) classes for COVID and non-COVID deaths separately.

(3b) The mean for such frequency data is given by: 

Mean = sum of { numerical value for each response class ×  frequency }/ Total number of subjects.

Use this expression to find the means for COVID and non-COVID deaths separately and quote your answers to an appropriate number of decimal places of accuracy. (Show all of the detail in your calculations & use an appropriate number of decimal places in your final answers.)

 The variance is equal to:

Variance = sum of { (numerical value for each response class – mean)²  ×  frequency }/(Total number of subjects – 1)

Use this expression to find the variance for COVID and non-COVID deaths separately and then find the standard deviations. Quote your answers to an appropriate number of decimal places of accuracy. (NOTE: standard deviation = square root of the variance). (Show all of the detail in your calculations & use an appropriate number of decimal places in your final answers.)

(3d) The standard error of the mean is given by Standard error of the mean = standard deviation / square root of (total number of subjects)

Find the standard error of the mean for COVID and non-COVID deaths separately. To good approximation, the 95% confidence interval (lower 95% CI to upper 95% CI) of the mean is given by:

Lower 95% CI: Mean – 1.96 × standard error of the mean /Upper 95% CI: Mean + 1.96 × standard error of the mean. 

Find the 95% confidence intervals of the mean for COVID and non-COVID deaths separately and quote your answers to an appropriate number of decimal places of accuracy. (Show all of the detail in your calculations & use an appropriate number of decimal places in your final answers.)

(3e) Create a bar chart of the means COVID and non-COVID deaths in a single graph (i.e., where cause of death on the x-axis and means are represented by bars with respect to the y-axis) and add in appropriate errors bars showing the 95% confidence intervals of the mean found in question (3d) above. This can be drawn by hand or by using, say, EXCEL, if you wish.

(3f) The cumulative frequency is defined as the sum of all frequencies up to some response class. For example, imagine that classes called, e.g., A, B, C, D, and E have frequencies for a single set of subjects given by 1, 3, 4, 6, and 2 such that the cumulative frequencies for each class are given by: class A = 1, class B = 1 + 3 = 4, class C = 4 + 4 = 8, class D = 8 + 6 = 14, and finally class E = 14 + 2 = 16. So class A contains the first data point, class B contains the 2^nd to 4^th data points, class C contains the 5^th to 8^th data points, class D contains the 9^th to 14^th data points, and finally class E contains the 15^th to 16^th data points. The median class is that which contains the “middle value”, i.e., the n/2 = 16 / 2 = 8^th data point. Thus, the median class = C for this simple example because class C contains the 5^th to 8^th data points.

(3g) Explain in words what the answers from earlier in this question tell us about the experiences of bereaved people in terms of grief during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.