Assessment of awareness of orthodontic emergencies and psychosocial wellbeing of patients during novel coronavirus pandemic through teledentistry

Introduction: At the end of December 2019, the novel coronavirus began to spread in central China and soon became a pandemic. Unfortunately, all elective dental treatments including orthodontic visits were postponed and patients could not be counselled on how to manage orthodontic emergencies that they could encounter at home. Teledentistry can play a major role in providing instructions to patients during quarantine. Objective: : The study aimed to assess the awareness of orthodontic patients regarding the management of orthodontic emergencies and their psychosocial well-being during the novel coronavirus pandemic through Teledentistry. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire-based study was conducted on two groups during the lockdown period in which their anxiety, psychological status, and their ability to manage orthodontic emergencies at home during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown were assessed through teledentistry. Results: A total of 170 patients participated in our study, Independent sample t-test was used to compare the means of the group's control and experimental. Statistically, a significant difference was determined between the two groups regarding their psychosocial well-being (social media embarrassment p=0.049, awareness of how to manage orthodontic emergencies p=0.00). The participants displayed a better understanding of how to deal with orthodontic emergencies at home after having instructions. 48.2% of the patients selected voice call as a preferred mode of instruction for managing orthodontic emergencies at home. Conclusion: Experimental group of patients was more aware of how to manage orthodontic emergencies and they were less anxious. Teledentistry has proven to be an important tool for providing instructions to anxious patients as well as reducing the spread of coronavirus due to lack of contact. Voice call was the preferred mode of instruction. Keywords: Anxiety, COVID-19, Orthodontic emergencies, Tele-dentistry

A CROSS-SECTIONAL RESEARCH STUDY TO EVALUATE VARIOUS CLASSES OF KENNEDY'S TAXONOMY AMONG PATIENTS OF PARTIALLY EDENTULOUS

Objective: The objective of this particular research was to evaluate various Kennedy’s classes incidence in the patients having partially edentulous and presented themselves at our hospital. Methodology: We carried out this cross-sectional research at Services Hospital, Lahore from February to August 2017 on a total of 300 patients. Every patient was included in this research after fulfilling the set research criteria. We carried out a clinical assessment of every patient and documented every required detail on a Proforma. Results: In the total research sample, there were 173/300 males (57.66%) and 127/300 females (42.33%); the ratio of females to males was (1:1.3). The patients were enrolled in the age bracket of 15 years – 75 years with a mean age of (47 ± 7.8) years. Clinical assessment revealed that 180/300 patients were missing their teeth in the mandibular arch (60%), while 120/300 patients were missing teeth in the maxillary arch (40%). Most of the patients had missing teeth from the left side, such patients were 128/300 (42.66%), followed by the patients missing their teeth from right side 144/300 (38%) and 58/300 with teeth missing from the anterior site (19.33%). In terms of Kennedy’s Classification, we revealed that there were 97 patients in Class – I (32.33%), 47 patients in Class – II (15.66%), 99 patients in Class – III (33%) and 57 patients in Class – IV (19%). Conclusion: It is concluded that there is a common existence of a partially edentulous condition in the mandibular site than the maxillary arch site. In terms of Kennedy’s Class, Class I & III were the most repeated classes with the respective proportion of 33% and 32.33%. Keywords: Kennedy’s Classes, Incidence, Mandibular, Maxillary, Arch and Partially Edentulous

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Social Identity in Pakistani Society – A System Dynamic Approach

The primary objective of this review is to understand and reveal the underlying the theoretically distinctive facts about the social identity of the individuals in Pakistan’s context. The human behavior scholars are finding new theoretical concepts that are useful in understanding the group behavior. There are three critical aspects that underpin the concept of social identification cognitive, evaluative and affective. These constructs are further explained in diagrams using groups, in group dynamics, related performance and commitment. The CLD shows that how individual’ social identification is related to commitment. This paper helps to understand the factors that are more associated with the social identification and social grouping of employees within the organizations in Pakistan’s context. The methodology is based on system dynamics. System dynamics causal loop approach stage wise is applied to identify the unique dimensions that are associated with the distinctive underlying structure of human behavior that forms the social identity of employees within the organization. System dynamic methodology consists of three steps, the first step is CLD diagram, followed by Stock and flow maps and finally software-based simulations. This paper reveals that naturally made groups are more cohesive and individuals in natural or achieved groups are more committed emotionally towards each other. The significance of this paper lies in understanding the causal structure that influences the formation of social groups in Pakistan organization. Theoretical construct that underpin the notion of social identification of an individual includes the cognitive, evaluative, and affective components that help us to understand, how an individual adapts to the social identity

Moonlighting Proteins: Diverse Functions Found in Fungi

Moonlighting proteins combine multiple functions in one polypeptide chain. An increasing number of moonlighting proteins are being found in diverse fungal taxa that vary in morphology, life cycle, and ecological niche. In this mini-review we discuss examples of moonlighting proteins in fungi that illustrate their roles in transcription and DNA metabolism, translation and RNA metabolism, protein folding, and regulation of protein function, and their interaction with other cell types and host proteins