Effect of calcium sulphate on the rate of osteogenesis in distracted bone

The effect of applying resorbable calcium sulphate material to newly distracted bone to hasten osteogenesis and consolidation was investigated using 24 New Zealand rabbits. The animals were divided into four groups each containing six rabbits. Groups 1 and 2 were test groups and Groups 3 and 4 were controls. A custom-made submerged distractor was used to distract the rabbit mandibles. The distractor was first used on the third postoperative day at a rate of 1 mm/day for a total of 10 mm. After the completion of distraction, a medical grade resorbable calcium sulphate mixture was applied on the distracted bones in the test groups, whereas the distracted bones in the control groups were exposed postdistraction and closed without intervention. Groups 1 and 3 were sacrificed 11 days postdistraction and Groups 2 and 4 were sacrificed 21 days postdistraction. Undecalcified sections of the distracted bone were examined. Half of the distracted mandibles in each group were stained with Goldner's trichome stain to identify the amount and maturity of the new bone in the distraction zone. The other half of each group was stained with von Kossa stain to identify the amount of calcification and calcium deposition in the distracted bone. Osteogenesis was seen as early as 11 days postdistraction in test animals. Rich lamellar bone deposition was noted in Group 2 (21 days postdistraction +CaSO4). Calcification of the newly formed bone was predominant in the distraction zone in the test groups, especially Group 2, compared to the control groups, which showed incomplete bone deposition and calcification. In conclusion, the application of calcium sulphate to newly distracted bone increased the rate of osteogenesis and calcification.King Saud Universit

Augmentation of osseous-implant dehiscence with membrane alone or with a combination of bone graft and membrane

This investigation compared bone contour and the potential for new bone growth in osseous-implant defects grafted with deminerallzed xerographic bone particles (DXBP) and covered with guided tissue regeneration membrane (GTRM), with defects covered with GTRM alone, in the study, each of seven goats received four implants. The Implants were fixed In the buccal cortex of the left body of the mandible. Four types of GTRM were used. These were Capset®, Biomend* P-BloBarrier®, and NP-BioBarrier®. The grafting material used was taddec®. Twenty-four osseous-implant defects were used as ihe test group. Twelve of these defects were grafted and covered with one of the GTRMs used, so that each GTRM covered 3 grafted defects. The remaining 12 test defects were covered with one of the GTRMs alone,-again, each membrane was used For 3 defects. It was found that both resorbable and n on-resorbable GTRMs augmented implant-osseous defects. The range of-bone contour in the ungrafted defects was between 550 and 1135 umm. Capset membrane produced the thickest bone in the ungrafted defects (113S umm). Grafting osseous-Implant 'defects Increased the bone thickness. The Increase rangedfrom 512 to 950 u.mm. Of the membranes tested, NP-BloBarrier produced the thickest bone in the grafted defects (1800 jj m m), Controt osseou s-implant defects were not augmented with new bone.King Saud Universit

Surgical recommendations to correct skeletal openbite

In the literature, a number of procedures have been recommended for the surgical correction of skeletal openbite. The recommendations have been based on successful long-term follow- up results. These include Le Fort I osteotomy, combined Le Fort and bilateral sagittal split osteotomies and anterior segmented osteotomies. This paper does not assess the success or failure of these procedures but brings attention to the indications and recommendations of which the above procedures can be used in treating a particular case of openbite. Four cases offer illustrations of the procedures

Development of sorting system for oil palm in vitro shoots using machine vision approach

There is a promising future for palm oil cultivation because of tissue culture technology that leads to increased production rates as well as enhanced quality. In spite of high demand for palm oil, cheap mass-produced plantlets of oil palm have yet to reach an attractive price. The main reason is that the processing of oil palm tissue culture is still operated manually and is considered too labour-intensive. This affects its economies, especially in developed countries where wages are high. In addition, the plantlet is susceptible to contamination throughout this process. Since a large proportion of manual work is at the in vitro shoots stage, and no commercial automated system for this task presently exists, research will develop a sorting task as a step to reach a fully efficient machine vision system. This research targets the sorting task which is one of four tasks which have been suggested to achieve greater automation of oil palm tissue culture while in the in vitro shoots stages. The four are separation, classification, sorting and rooting. In this work, the type of sample involves oil palm tissue culture (OPTC) shoots obtained from the Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB) tissue culture laboratory. They were acquired, recorded, and utilized throughout the system development. A manual adjusting method for image intensity is here suggested to enhance and sharpen the acquired frames, and the region of interest has been determined as well, which led to simplifying the segmentation and reduce the preprocessing time. Region-based features, namely area, centroid, aspect ratio, extent and two cropping points have been represented in the shape of OPTC in vitro shoots. By using k-means algorithm the extracted features have been evaluated. A smart object tracking algorithm (SOTA) has been proposed for detecting and identifying the shoot on the conveyor belt. Based on SOTA and classification task decision, a sorting algorithm that can acquire, recognize, and eject a shoot has been improved and tested in an offline mode. Furthermore, workable values of external variables and a customized sorter have been designed to test the system in real-time mode and to smooth the ejecting process. Ultimately, the sorting algorithm performance came to be evaluated by support vector machine algorithm. The performance of the sorting process shows that acquiring, detecting, tracking and sorting functions operate well. The result of K-means has proven the robustness of the selected features. The resulting error of offline tests of the sorting algorithm did not exceed 4.33 per cent. The machine vision system in real-time can eject abnormal shoots from the conveyor, with a limited overall error that could reach as high as 6.6 per cent in the worst case. Close results between the performance of the developed sorting algorithm and SVM algorithm demonstrate that it is satisfactory and efficient. Automating the sorting task was achieved under the main goal which is increasing the production rate and enhancing the quality. In addition, the automated sorting system reduced the overstaffing which achieves part of the economies required to make it of interest in the industry

Evaluation of the rheumatoid factors of the IgG, IgM and IgA isotypes as prognostic parameters for rheumatoid arthritis among Iraqi patients

<b>Context:</b> Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has a heterogeneous course, spanning from mild forms tending to remission and reacting well to treatment, to aggressive forms resistant to classical therapeutic measures. Reliable predictive parameters of the disease course in RA are needed. Raised levels of Rheumatoid Factors (RFs) are associated with RA and that this RF is found in IgM, IgA and IgG classes (isotypes). <b>Aims:</b> To figure out the value of RF isotypes titers as predictors for RA processes and outcomes. <b>Materials and Methods:</b> Fifty three RA patients were enrolled in this study. The patients were diagnosed based on ACR criteria. Blood sample was taken from each patient at time of attending; sera were separated immediately and kept frozen at -70^oC until used. Disease Activity Score (DAS) was calculated using DAS28-3 formula. Radiographs were read by expert radiologists. Sandwich Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was used for the separate quantitative detection of RF of the IgG, IgM and IgA classes in serum. <b>Statistical Analysis Used:</b> Chi-square, Pearson&#x2032;s correlation coefficient and ROC statistical analyses was performed using SPSS version 15.0. <b>Results:</b> Among the 53 RA patients who were enrolled in this study, there were statistically significant positive correlations between the presence of radiological joint changes with serum levels of IgG-RF, IgM-RF and IgA-RF as measured by calculation of area under curve (0.772, 0.703 and 0.769, respectively). However, no correlation could be found between those RF isotypes with any of other disease processes and outcomes. <b>Conclusions:</b> These results may indicate the importance of the titers of those isotypes as good predictors of erosive RA and may reflect a causal relationship between their titers and joint damage during the course of RA

Rapid Room-Temperature Synthesis of Mesoporous TiO2 Sub-Microspheres and Their Enhanced Light Harvesting in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Submicron sized mesoporous spheres of TiO2 have been a potential alternative to overcome the light scattering limitations of TiO2 nanoparticles in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Currently available methods for the growth of mesoporous TiO2 sub-microspheres involve long and relatively high temperature multi-stage protocols. In this work, TiO2 mesoporous sub-microspheres composed of ~5 nm anatase nanocrystallites were successfully synthesized using a rapid one-pot room-temperature CTAB-based solvothermal synthesis. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) showed that the grown structures have pure anatase phase. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that by reducing the surfactant/precursor concentration ratio, the morphology could be tuned from monodispersed nanoparticles into sub-micron sized mesoporous beads with controllable sizes (50&ndash;200 nm) and with good monodispersity as well. The growth mechanism is explained in terms of the competition between homogeneous nucleation/growth events versus surface energy induced agglomeration in a non-micelle CTAB-based soft templating environment. Further, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using the synthesized samples and characterized for their current-voltage characteristics. Interestingly, the DSSC prepared with 200 nm TiO2 sub-microspheres, with reduced surface area, has shown close efficiency (5.65%) to that of DSSC based on monodispersed 20 nm nanoparticles (5.79%). The results show that light scattering caused by the agglomerated sub-micron spheres could compensate for the larger surface areas provided by monodispersed nanoparticles

An evaluation of the management of hirsutism in public versus private outpatient departments in Saudi Arabia

Background: Hirsutism is the excessive body or facial terminal (coarse) hair growth in females in a male-like pattern, carries a worldwide prevalence of 5%–20%, and requires careful evaluation and long-term management. Purpose: The study aims to critically appraise public and private institutions' practices in managing hirsutism, compared against international standards. The purpose of this study was to assess how frequently patients receive counseling to address the causes of hirsutism and to determine if disease severity, screening, and outpatient management vary between public and private clinics in Saudi Arabia. Methods: Patients were recruited from gynecology, endocrine, dermatology, and women's skin care clinics in public (n = 119) and private outpatient clinics (n = 238). Sociodemographics, body mass index (BMI), menstrual cycle rhythm, hirsutism site and scores, associated acne and/or alopecia, family history, and treatment modality received were queried. This study had two groups: Group 1 (n = 119) patients who were seen at public outpatient clinics and Group 2 (n = 238) patients who were seen at private outpatient clinics. Results: The median age was 27 years (range 18–45) and median BMI was 25 kg/m2 (range 16–44). The total mean hirsutism score was 9.3 ± 3.8. The severity of hirsutism was categorized into three groups: mild cases were recorded in 224 women (62.7%), moderate cases were recorded in 94 women (26.3%), and severe cases were recorded in 39 women (10.9%). There was no significant correlation between total mean hirsutism scores, age and BMI, P = 0.5 and P = 0.2, respectively. Approximately one-third of women were seen and investigated by physicians either at public or private clinics and about 70% of women were seen and treated by nonphysician skin care specialist without prior medical investigations in either public or private outpatient departments (OPDs). Conclusion: Assessment and management of hirsutism are similar in the public and private setting. Most patients presented to private rather than public OPDs and were not appropriately investigated for hirsutism. Weight reduction can be beneficial for the management of hirsutism for those with raised BMI and advice should be given accordingly in the OPD setting