Salivary composition and dental caries among children controlled asthmatics

AbstractBackground and objectiveAsthma patients can be effectively treated and controlled with currently available medications, inhaled ß2-agonists and corticosteroids have harmful effects on dentition. Therefore we aimed to investigate the influence of exposure to inhaled ß2-agonists and corticosteroids on the composition of saliva as a risk factor to increase the incidence of dental caries among children aged 8–14years old. The study group is compared with a control group of healthy children of the same age group.Patient and methodsIn a triple-blind analytical case–control study, children were selected according to inclusion criteria, divided into asthmatic group1 (n=60), who were controlled by ß2-agonists and corticosteroids for at least six months. Control group (group II) was first-degree relatives (n=60) matched for age. DMFS and DMFT index scores were recorded in both groups. Saliva samples were collected from each child for testing electrolytes, pH, and cariogenic bacteria.ResultsThe results showed higher prevalence of caries among asthmatics (group I) than controls (group II). As well as a positive correlation between, duration of asthma and the caries indices, Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacilli colonies bacteria count in asthmatic were higher than in controls. Salivary electrolytes were significantly elevated in asthmatics with caries.ConclusionPrevalence of dental caries was higher in asthmatics than controls. High caries incidence in asthmatics related to salivary acidic pH, increase S. mutans, Lactobacilli count and medication. There is a need to create awareness among dental practitioners and pulmonologists regarding the increased caries risk in asthmatics

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Nanocomposite Electrode of Titanium Dioxide Nanoribbons and Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Energy Storage

TiO2 is one of the most investigated materials due to its abundance, lack of toxicity, high faradaic capacitance, and high chemical and physical stability; however, its potential use in energy storage devices is constrained by its high internal resistance and weak van der Waals interaction between the particles. Carbon nanotubes are especially well suited for solving these issues due to their strong mechanical strength, superior electrical conductivity, high electron mobilities, excellent chemical and thermal stability, and enormous specific nanoporous surface. The hydrothermal approach was followed by chemical vapor deposition to produce a network composite of titanium dioxide nanoribbons (TNRs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The nanocomposite was characterized using a variety of methods. One phase of TiO2-B nanoribbons has porous pits on its surface, and MWCNTs are grown in these pits to produce a network-like structure in the nanocomposite. With a two-electrode supercapacitor configuration, the TNR/CNT gave a gravimetric capacitance of 33.33 F g−1, which was enhanced to 68.18 F g−1 in a redox-active electrolyte containing hydroquinone (HQ). Additionally, the areal capacitance per footprint was increased from 80 mF cm−2 in H2SO4 to 163.63 mF cm−2 in H2SO4/HQ. The TNR/CNT supercapacitor has superior cyclic stability than the previously reported TiO2-based electrodes, with 97.5% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles. Based on these results, it looks like the TNR/CNT supercapacitor could provide portable electronic power supplies with new ways to work in the future

Testicular toxicity of profenofos in matured male rats

To investigate the effect of the phosphorothoate insecticide profenofos on male specific gene expression on rat testis, 16-week-old Wistar rats were orally administered at dose of 17.8 mg/kg twice weekly for 65 days. Gene expression in the testes was monitored by DNA microarray analysis and real-time RT-PCR, which revealed that genes related to steroidogenesis including cytochrome P450 17A1 (CYP17A1), steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and CYP11A1 were significantly increased. Besides the testes were histopathologicaly examined, which revealed testicular destruction and degeneration represented by a layer of columnar epithelium, oedematous changes surrounding the seminiferous tubules besides vacuolated spermatogonial cells and more elongated Leydig cells. These data suggest that profenofos considered as one of the male reproductive toxicants. Furthermore, we propose that the above three steroidogenic-related genes and the gene of acrosomal reaction as potential biomarkers of testicular toxicity

Radiofrequency ablation of regular narrow complex supraventricular tachycardia in elderly and pediatric

Background: Radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation is a well established approach in treating several types of cardiac arrhythmias whether supraventricular or ventricular and is in many cases the first choice therapy. Radiofrequency ablation has been shown to be effective and safe with a success rates ranging from 80% to 100%. Furthermore, few studies had investigated the efficacy and safety of catheter ablation in elderly patients and pediatrics patients. Objectives: This study is prospective evaluation of the safety and efficacy of radiofrequency ablation of regular narrow complex supraventricular tachycardia in both age extremes, elderly and pediatric patients. Methods: The study included 30 patients, 19 patients >60 years [group I] and 11 pediatric patients <14 years [group II], referred to National Heart Institute and Critical Care Department at Kasre AL-Ainy Cairo University hospital from October 2008 to October 2009 who underwent electrophysiological study and radiofrequency catheter ablation to symptomatic supraventricular tachyarrhythmia, medically refractory. Results: Thirty patients had ablated presented with variable clinical characteristics in both groups. The AVRT is more frequent in higher age group however the AVNRT is almost equally distributed in both age group only two cases atrial flutter and atrial tachycardia. The success rate in group I was 90% and in group II was 100%. No complications were recorded in group I and in group II the only recorded complication was complete heart block in one patient that required permanent pacemaker insertion, also recurrence rate was zero in group two but two patients in group one show recurrence at 6 months follow up. Conclusion: We have concluded that catheter ablation of supraventricular tachycardia is a very good option for management of patients with drug resistant SVT in both young and old patients. The success rate was very high almost with no complications and very low recurrence rate in the elderly and no recurrence in the young during the 6 months follow-up

Impulsive Control and Synchronization of Complex Lorenz Systems

In this paper, we continue our investigations on control and synchronization of the complex Lorenz systems by investigating impulsive control and synchronization. Nonlinear systems involving impulse effects, appear as a natural description of observed evolution phenomena of several real world problems; For example, many biological phenomena involving thresholds, bursting rhythm models in medicine and biology, optimal control models in economics, population dynamics and so forth do exhibit impulsive effects. Some new and more comprehensive criteria for global exponential stability and asymptotical stability of impulsively controlled complex Lorenz systems are established with varying impulsive intervals. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is verified through numerical simulations

High-Performance pH Sensor Electrodes Based on a Hexagonal Pt Nanoparticle Array-Coated Nanoporous Alumina Membrane

Porous anodic alumina membranes coated with Pt nanoparticles (PAAM/Pt) have been employed as pH sensor electrodes for H+ ion detection. The PAAM was designed using a two-step anodization process. Pt nanoparticles were then sputtered onto the membrane at different deposition times. The membrane&rsquo;s morphological, chemical, and optical characteristics were carefully assessed following the fabrication stage using a variety of analytical techniques. The potential of the PAAM/Pt sensor electrode was investigated by measuring the potential using a simple potentiometric method. The effects of depositing Pt nanoparticles for 3&ndash;7 min on sensor electrode sensitivity were examined. The optimal potentiometric Nernstian response slope for the PAAM/Pt sensor electrode with 5 min Pt sputter coating is 56.31 mV/decade in the pH range of 3.0 to 10 at 293 K. Additionally, the PAAM/Pt sensor electrode&rsquo;s stability and selectivity in various ions solutions were examined. The sensor electrode had a lifetime of more than six weeks and was kept in a normal air environment

Anomalies Detection in Smart Manufacturing Using Machine Learning and Deep Learning Algorithms

Nowadays, the rapidly changing of manufacturing environment has pushed companies to achieve more customer satisfaction by enhancing product quality, reducing production cost, and realizing sustainability. Anomaly detection has a strong influence on the quality of products and it is usually conducted through visual quality inspection. The visual quality inspection of a product can be performed either manually or automatically. The manual inspection suffers from being a monotonous task, leading to overlooked errors and subjective assessments. Accordingly, the manufacturing industry has high ambitions to rely upon automated quality inspection systems to cope with the requirements of smart manufacturing and the emergence of industry 4.0. Efficient utilization of big data can enable the development of intelligent quality inspection systems. Machine learning as one of the prevailing data analytics methods is widely used to support and improve the performance of the automated quality inspection systems. This research compares the performance of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) like Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) with the traditional machine learning algorithms (TMLA) for anomalies detection in manufacturing such as Decision Trees, Random Forest (RF), k-Nearest-Neighbor (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naïve Bayes, and Logistic Regression (LR). A data set for faults is adapted from the literature to fairly compare the performance of these algorithms considering different accuracy measures such as accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and F1-score