The Prosthetic Obturator Appliance In The Treatment Of Cleft Lip And Palate In Newborns: Series Of Cases

Cleft lip and cleft palate are common defects in head and neck area. The treatment is mainly surgical but while waiting for the primary surgery which is not immediate, a pre-surgical management must be undertaken for the success of the diet and the surgery. In the present study, the use of the passive palatal obturator was chosen to demonstrate its efficacy in the pre-surgical management of cleft lip and/or palate in newborns.This is a serial case report of newborns with cleft lip and / or palate aged 2 to 27- day-old. Two suffered from BCLP (bilateral cleft palate), one from UCLP (unilateral cleft palate) and one IBCP (incomplete bilateral cleft palate). The conventional palatal obturator design-manufacturing stages was adopted. The impression was made with Polyvinyl siloxane impression material and flexible thermal-forming (ethylene vinyl acetate sheet) material was used for manufacturing the feeding obturator. A combined method (feeding obturator and lactation education) has been adopted for feeding success.As results, with palatal obturator in the mouth, each newborn exhibited good sucking-swallowing-breathing coordination at the time of suckling. During the 3-month follow-up period, weight gain was observed in the reported infants in which those affected by UCLP and CP gained more (1920g, 2200g) than others (700g, 1100g).The combined use of a palatal obturator and lactation education was associated with weight gain

A model of COVID-19 pandemic evolution in African countries

We studied the COVID-19 pandemic evolution in selected African countries. For each country considered, we modeled simultaneously the data of the active, recovered and death cases. In this study, we used a year of data since the first cases were reported. We estimated the time-dependent basic reproduction numbers, $R_0$, and the fractions of infected but unaffected populations, to offer insights into containment and vaccine strategies in African countries. We found that $R_0\leq 4$ at the start of the pandemic but has since fallen to $R_0 \sim 1$. The unaffected fractions of the populations studied vary between $1-10$\% of the recovered cases.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures and 1 tabl

1-- and 0++ heavy four-quark and molecule states in QCD

We estimate the masses of the 1^{--} heavy four-quark and molecule states by combining exponential Laplace (LSR) and finite energy (FESR) sum rules known perturbatively to lowest order (LO) in alpha_s but including non-perturbative terms up to the complete dimension-six condensate contributions. This approach allows to fix more precisely the value of the QCD continuum threshold (often taken ad hoc) at which the optimal result is extracted. We use double ratio of sum rules (DRSR) for determining the SU(3) breakings terms. We also study the effects of the heavy quark mass definitions on these LO results. The SU(3) mass-splittings of about (50 - 110) MeV and the ones of about (250 - 300) MeV between the lowest ground states and their 1st radial excitations are (almost) heavy-flavour independent. The mass predictions summarized in Table 4 are compared with the ones in the literature (when available) and with the three Y_c(4260,~4360,~4660) and Y_b(10890) 1^{--} experimental candidates. We conclude (to this order approximation) that the lowest observed state cannot be a pure 1^{--} four-quark nor a pure molecule but may result from their mixings. We extend the above analyzes to the 0^{++} four-quark and molecule states which are about (0.5-1) GeV heavier than the corresponding 1^{--} states, while the splittings between the 0^{++} lowest ground state and the 1st radial excitation is about (300-500) MeV. We complete the analysis by estimating the decay constants of the 1^{--} and 0^{++} four-quark states which are tiny and which exhibit a 1/M_Q behaviour. Our predictions can be further tested using some alternative non-perturbative approaches or/and at LHCb and some other hadron factories.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables, version to appear in PLB (more general choice of the interpolating currents, estimate of the four-quark meson decay constants, new references added, slight numerical changes for the 0++ mass predictions

D¯⁎D and B¯⁎B(1++) molecules at N2LO from QSSR

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D¯⁎D0⁎ and B¯⁎B0⁎(1−−) molecules at N2LO from QSSR

4 pages, 12 figures, Talk given at the 17th International Conference on Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD 14) (29 june - 3 july 2014, Montpellier-France), to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.)International audienceWe estimate the $\bar D^*D^*_0$ and $\bar B^*B^*_0(1^--)$ molecules masses and couplings using QCD spectral sum rules (QSSR)known perturbatively to N2LO of PT series and including the contributions of non-perturabtive condensates up to the dimension-eight. Our results improve earlier LO results obtained from QSSR in the current literature. We obtain $M_{D^*D^*_0} = 5244(228)$ MeV which is heavier than the experimental candidates Y(4260); Y(4360); Y(4660) suggesting that they cannot be pure molecule states. We predict $M_{B^*B^*_0}= 11920(159)$ MeV to be tested in B-factory experiments

XYZ -like spectra from Laplace sum rule at N2LO in the chiral limit

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0+^+ and 1+^+ heavy-light exotic mesons at N2LO in the chiral limit

International audienceWe use QCD spectral sum rules (QSSR) and the factorization properties of molecule and four-quark currents to estimate the masses and couplings of the 0+ and 1+ molecules and four-quark at N2LO of PT QCD. We include in the OPE the contributions of non-perturbative condensates up to dimension-six. Within the Laplace sum rules approach (LSR) and in the MS-scheme, we summarize our results in Table 2, which agree within the errors with some of the observed XZ-like molecules or/and four-quark. Couplings of these states to the currents are also extracted. Our results are improvements of the LO ones in the existing literature