Arresting rampant dental caries with silver diamine fluoride in a young teenager suffering from chronic oral graft versus host disease post-bone marrow transplantation: a case report

BACKGROUND: Rampant caries is an advanced and severe dental disease that affects multiple teeth. This case describes the management of rampant caries in a young teenager suffering from chronic oral graft versus host disease after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. CASE PRESENTATION: A 14-year-old Chinese boy suffering from β–thalassemia major was referred to the dental clinic for the management of rampant dental caries. An oral examination revealed pale conjunctiva, bruising of lips, and depapillation of tongue indicating an underlying condition of anemia. The poor oral condition due to topical and systemic immunosuppressants was seriously aggravated, and rampant caries developed rapidly, affecting all newly erupted, permanent teeth. The teeth were hypersensitive and halitosis was apparent. Strategies for oral health education and diet modification were given to the patient. Xylitol chewing gum was used to stimulate saliva flow to promote remineralization of teeth. Silver diamine fluoride was topically applied to arrest rampant caries and to relieve pain from hypersensitivity. Carious teeth with pulpal involvement were endodontically treated. Stainless steel crowns were provided on molars to restore chewing function, and polycarbonate crowns were placed on premolars, upper canines and incisors. CONCLUSION: This case report demonstrates success in treating a young teenager with severe rampant dental decay by contemporary caries control and preventive strategy

Corporate risk governance and board of directors: evidence from Malaysia listed companies / Lee Grace HweeLing and Angeline Kiew-Heong Yap.

Corporate governance and risk management research continues to gain attention given the increasing cost of risk management and corporate governance failures which often remains underestimated attributed by the complex intertwining of risk management and corporate governance in such failures. In response, regulators had increased the significance of risk management activities and the board’s overall oversight responsibilities on risk governance. Prior studies provided conflicting outcomes on the relationship of corporate governance elements and board’s oversight effectiveness. This study aims to ascertain board attributes (board independence, board committee structure, board experience, corporate reporting and disclosure and dynamic and constructive dialogue adopted on risk governance matters) that contributes positively towards board’s oversight effectiveness on corporate risk governance. The findings based on top 100 Bursa Malaysia listed companies between 2011 to 2015 suggest that board committee structure, disclosure on risk management framework and detailed disclosure of risk management practices and processes are significantly positively related towards board’s oversight effectiveness on corporate risk governance. However, other elements such as board independence, board experience and dynamic and constructive dialogue on corporate risk governance do not contribute significantly. This study offers new insights on practices adopted by Malaysian listed companies on risk governance and help regulators to create greater awareness with respect to the intrinsic value derived from corporate risk governance practices and to formulate director’s training and development program to enhance effectiveness of board’s oversight on corporate risk governance

Acid Mediated Ring Closing Metathesis: A Powerful Synthetic Tool Enabling the Synthesis of Clinical Stage Kinase Inhibitors

The powerful olefin metathesis reaction was employed for the construction of late-phase clinical agents SB1317 and SB1518. In both cases RCM seems to proceed only in the presence of an acid and to predominantly furnish trans isomers. In case of SB1518 it proceeded in the presence of acid HCl, while for SB1317, it mainly proceeds in the presence of TFA (trifluroacetic acid)

Development of a web-based insulin decision aid for the elderly: usability barriers and guidelines

In recent years, researchers have attempted to shift patient decision aids (PDAs) from paper-based to web-based to increase its accessibility. Insulin decision aids help diabetes patients, most of whom are elderly to make an informed decision to start insulin. However, the lack of usability guidelines applicable for such target group causes developers to struggle to answer the challenging question ‘How can such web service be made usable, and, ultimately, acceptable and accessible for elderly patients?’. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the common usability requirements that may facilitate good practices to empower elderly diabetes patients in utilizing a web-based insulin decision aid for their benefit. We set out an approach to use prototyping and retrospective think-aloud techniques to explore web usability barriers that elderly patients may encounter when using an insulin decision aid web site and use the feedback for improving the prototype. Usability requirements were captured iteratively through scoping, brainstorming, prototype, testing and evaluating. The study suggests that the insights from experts and users are equally important to assure the validity of the identified usability guidelines; they reflect the accessibility needs of the aging community while complementing the key requirements of an insulin decision aid. The study contributes to recommend web usability guidelines backed by a series of expert and user evaluations which could be a proactive resource to improve usability, acceptability and accessibility of online insulin decision aids for elderly with diabetes

Born to learn: The inspiration, progress, and future of evolved plastic artificial neural networks

Biological plastic neural networks are systems of extraordinary computational capabilities shaped by evolution, development, and lifetime learning. The interplay of these elements leads to the emergence of adaptive behavior and intelligence. Inspired by such intricate natural phenomena, Evolved Plastic Artificial Neural Networks (EPANNs) use simulated evolution in-silico to breed plastic neural networks with a large variety of dynamics, architectures, and plasticity rules: these artificial systems are composed of inputs, outputs, and plastic components that change in response to experiences in an environment. These systems may autonomously discover novel adaptive algorithms, and lead to hypotheses on the emergence of biological adaptation. EPANNs have seen considerable progress over the last two decades. Current scientific and technological advances in artificial neural networks are now setting the conditions for radically new approaches and results. In particular, the limitations of hand-designed networks could be overcome by more flexible and innovative solutions. This paper brings together a variety of inspiring ideas that define the field of EPANNs. The main methods and results are reviewed. Finally, new opportunities and developments are presented

Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on aviation industry: A text mining approach

LARC publication</p

Design and development of multimedia and multi-marker detection techniques in interactive augmented reality colouring book

The aim of this paper is to the design and develop multimedia and multi-markers detection techniques in interactive Augmented Reality (AR) colouring book application for aquarium museum. This study is conducted to create entertaining AR colouring mobile application on Android Operating System which allows users to express, create and interact with their creativity through colouring activities. It allows users to engage and relish the stimulating colouring book content by switching between a reality and augmented world. Conversely, users may tend to lose interest in the colouring activities, but with AR technology it keeps colouring relaxing and inspiring. The design and development of this project was carried out using Unity3D integrates with Vuforia Engine. The multimedia and multi-markers scripting was written in C# programming language

Piperacillin/tazobactam Induced Myelosuppression

Neutropenia, secondary to immune destruction or maturation arrest, is the most commonly described adverse haematological effect of beta-lactam antibiotics. We describe a case of reversible pancytopenia, with evidence of hypocellular marrow, after a prolonged course of piperacillin/tazobactam for 26 days