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Wednesday,December30,2015The Nugget Newspaper,Sisters,Oregon19 Problems at Bend lab no factor in OSP testing By Scott Hammers The Bulletin BEND (AP) —An audit ofOregonStatePolicecrime labspointstoagrowingback- logofevidencewaitingtobe tested. AuditorswiththeOregon Secretary of State’s office foundittakesanaverageof 65 days to complete testing onasubmittedpieceofevi- dence, while the number of casesinwhichittakesatleast 30 days to complete testing hasjumped90percentsince 2005. Thebacklogisinsignifi- cantpartduetothegrowthin theamountofevidencesub- mittedtothelabsfortesting. From2005to2014,requests for testing have jumped 31 percent, while staffing lev- elsatthelabshaveremained largelyflat. Thelabsperformavariety oftestingservices,including analyzing fingerprints lifted from crime scenes, DNA testing and tests to identify suspected drugs and other substances. The OSP’s five crime labs in Bend, Clackamas, Central Point, Pendleton and Springfield employ 127 people and received 29,500 requestsfortestingin2014. Asixthcrimelab,inOntario, wasclosedin2011. Recent allegations con- cerning the mishandling of evidence at the Bend crime lab does not appear to be a factorintheaudit’sfindings, said Molly Woon, spokes- womanwiththeSecretaryof State’soffice. Forensic analyst Nika Larsen, who worked at the Pendletonlabbeforemoving to the Bend lab in 2012, is suspectedofskimmingdrugs from samples submitted for testing.Larsenwasplacedon paidleavethisfall,andboth labs have suspended drug testing. Larsen has not been chargedwithanycrimes. Woon said the audit was substantiallycompletebefore theallegationsagainstLarsen cametolight,andwhilethe suspensionofdrugtestingat theBendandPendletonlabs is not a likely factor in the backlogidentifiedthroughthe audit,it’slikelyexacerbated thebackloginrecentmonths. Theauditidentifiesanum- ber of ways the crime labs couldbecomemoreefficient. The labs could do a better jobtransferringworkamong themselves — currently, the labsprimarilyservetheagen- ciesintheirpartsofthestate —andtrackingthehandling of individual pieces of evi- dencethoughtheuseofelec- tronicnote-taking. Communication between the labs and the agen- cies sending them materi- als for testing could also be improved, the audit stated. Testing of evidence often continues even after a local district attorney’s office has decided to drop charges, or after a suspect has pleaded guilty,accordingtothereport, andlawenforcementofficers willsometimessubmitmore evidencefortestingthannec- essary, or file incomplete or unclearrequestsfortesting. Woon said auditors did not receive any information breaking down the number ofrequestsforevidencetest- ingbyagency.Approximately 90 percent of the evidence handledbystatecrimelabsis submittedbycityandcounty law enforcement agencies, with the remainder coming from OSP. The labs do not chargelocallawenforcement agenciesfortheirservices. The audit anticipates the labs’workloadcouldincrease furtherinthenearfuturedue totworelativelyrecentdevel- opments.Thestate’slegaliza- tionofrecreationalmarijuana usemayleadtoanuptickin testingbloodandurinesam- ples to identify intoxicated drivers,anda2015measure approved by the Legislature willprovidemoreopportuni- ties for convicted people to request DNA testing of evi- dence that might exonerate them. Tooth fillings with bioactive glass show promise CORVALLIS – A few years from now millions of people around the world might be walking around withanunusualkindofglass in their mouth, and using it everytimetheyeat. EngineersatOregonState Universityhavemadesome promisingfindingsaboutthe ability of “bioactive” glass tohelpreducetheabilityof bacteriatoattackcomposite tooth fillings – and perhaps even provide some of the minerals needed to replace thoselosttotoothdecay. Prolonging the life of compositetoothfillingscould beanimportantstepforward for dental treatment, the researchers say, since more than 122 million composite toothrestorationsaremadein theUnitedStateseveryyear. Anaveragepersonusestheir teethformorethan600,000 “chews” a year, and some studies suggest the average lifetimeofaposteriordental compositeisonlysixyears. The new research was justpublishedinthejournal Dental Materials, in work supported by the National InstitutesofHealth. “Bioactiveglass,whichis atypeofcrushedglassthatis abletointeractwiththebody, hasbeenusedinsometypes ofbonehealingfordecades,” saidJamieKruzic,aprofes- sor and expert in advanced structural and biomateri- als in the OSU College of Engineering. “Thistypeofglassisonly beginningtoseeuseinden- tistry,andourresearchshows it may be very promising for tooth fillings,” he said. “The bacteria in the mouth thathelpcausecavitiesdon’t seemtolikethistypeofglass andarelesslikelytocolonize on fillings that incorporate it.Thiscouldhaveasignifi- cantimpactonthefutureof dentistry.” The bacteria in the mouth that help cause cavities don’t seem to like this type of glass and are less likely to colonize on fillings that incorporate it. — Jamie kruzic Bioactive glass is made withcompoundssuchassili- conoxide,calciumoxideand phosphorusoxide,andlooks like powdered glass. It’s called “bioactive” because the body notices it is there andcanreacttoit,asopposed tootherbiomedicalproducts thatareinert.Bioactiveglass isveryhardandstiff,andit canreplacesomeoftheinert glassfillersthatarecurrently mixedwithpolymerstomake modern composite tooth fillings. “Almost all fillings will eventuallyfail,”Kruzicsaid. “New tooth decay often begins at the interface of a filling and the tooth, and is calledsecondarytoothdecay. The tooth is literally being erodedanddemineralizedat thatinterface.” Bioactiveglassmayhelp prolong the life of fillings, researcherssay,becausethe new study showed that the depthofbacterialpenetration intotheinterfacewithbioac- tiveglass-containingfillings was significantly smaller than for composites lacking theglass. Fillings made with bio- active glass should slow secondary tooth decay, and also provide some minerals thatcouldhelpreplacethose being lost, researchers say. Thecombinationofthesetwo forcesshouldresultinatooth fillingthatworksjustaswell, butlastslonger. Recentlyextractedhuman molars were used in this researchtoproducesimulated toothrestorationsamplesfor laboratoryexperiments.OSU has developed a laboratory that’s one of the first in the worldtotestsimulatedtooth fillings in conditions that mimicthemouth. If this laboratory result is confirmed by clinical research, it should be very easytoincorporatebioactive glass into existing formula- tionsforcompositetoothfill- ings,Kruzicsaid. almost all fillings will eventually fail. New tooth decay often begins at the interface of a filling and the tooth... — Jamie kruzic The antimicrobial effect of bioactive glass is attrib- uted,inpart,tothereleaseof ionssuchasthosefromcal- ciumandphosphatethathave atoxiceffectonoralbacte- riaandtendtoneutralizethe localacidicenvironment. “My collaborators and I havealreadyshowninprevi- ous studies that composites containing up to 15 percent bioactive glass, by weight, canhavemechanicalproper- tiescomparable,orsuperior to commercial composites now being used,” Kruzic said. This work was done in collaborationwithresearch- ers from the School of Dentistry at the Oregon Health&ScienceUniversity and the College of Dental Medicine at Midwestern University.