Reconstruction of Temporomandibular Joint using Distraction Osteogenesis

CONCLUSION: Reconstruction of the TMJ has proved to be a challenging & complicated endeaver. Distraction osteogenesis has revolutionized surgical reconstruction with regards to head & neck region. Distraction osteogenesis allows for attainment of many of the goals needed for sucessful TMJ reconstruction. Distraction osteogenesis has proved to be safe & effective due to its unique advantages like low risk, decreased morbidity, simple manipulation, high curative rate , less relapse with stable results. Skeletal distractrion proceeds parallel to expansion of soft tissues, thereby accheiving better aesthetic results. This proves it to be superior to other reconstructive procedures. Distraction osteogenesis is being a sensitive procedure, requires careful planning & execution following the vector principle. Patient compliance during the entire treatment period is essential & thus careful patient selection & adequate motivation is of utmost importance. Although number of cases & period of followup is minimal in our study, this technique of using Indigeniously designed Internal distraction device for reconstruction of TMJ has shown good results among the study group. We conclude by saying that Distraction osteogenesis can be considered as an effective treatment of choice for reconstruction of TMJ. However to know the long term effects of distraction, periodic followup is essential

Histopathological Spectrum of various gastroduodenal lesions in North India and prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in these lesions: a prospective study

Background: Gastroduodenal diseases are perhaps the commonest diseases in adult population worldwide. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) represent one of the most common gastroduodenal infections and have been established as the etiologic factor in the development of various gastroduodenal diseases. Spectrum of H. pylori associated gastroduodenal diseases have not been systematically investigated in North India. So this study was carried out to determine the spectrum of gastroduodenal lesions on upper Gastro-Intestinal (GI) endoscopic biopsies and to determine the prevalence of H. pylori in gastric mucosa in these lesions.Methods: Gastroduodenal mucosal biopsies of 100 patients from November 2012 to October 2013 in a tertiary care centre in north India were evaluated by routine histopathological methods and the presence of H. pylori in gastric mucosa in these lesions was determined.  Results: An age range of 17 years to 80 years was observed with maximum cases in the 4th decade and a male to female ratio of 1.86:1. The most frequently observed lesions were chronic gastritis followed by duodenitis, duodenal ulcer and gastric carcinoma. 5% cases showed unremarkable mucosa. H. pylori positivity was seen in 47% cases. 80% cases of duodenal ulcer, 68.75% cases of duodenitis, 50.56% cases of chronic gastritis, 50% cases of gastric ulcer & 40% cases of gastric carcinoma were positive for H. pylori infection.Conclusion: Endoscopic gastroduodenal biopsies help to detect benign and malignant gastroduodenal diseases and to rule out H. pylori infection. Chronic gastritis was the most common gastroduodenal lesion followed by duodenitis, duodenal ulcer and gastric carcinoma. Duodenal ulcer, duodenitis, chronic gastritis and gastric ulcer showed strong positivity for H. pylori highlighting the role of this microorganism in the pathogenesis of these diseases.

Trie-NLG: Trie Context Augmentation to Improve Personalized Query Auto-Completion for Short and Unseen Prefixes

Query auto-completion (QAC) aims at suggesting plausible completions for a given query prefix. Traditionally, QAC systems have leveraged tries curated from historical query logs to suggest most popular completions. In this context, there are two specific scenarios that are difficult to handle for any QAC system: short prefixes (which are inherently ambiguous) and unseen prefixes. Recently, personalized Natural Language Generation (NLG) models have been proposed to leverage previous session queries as context for addressing these two challenges. However, such NLG models suffer from two drawbacks: (1) some of the previous session queries could be noisy and irrelevant to the user intent for the current prefix, and (2) NLG models cannot directly incorporate historical query popularity. This motivates us to propose a novel NLG model for QAC, Trie-NLG, which jointly leverages popularity signals from trie and personalization signals from previous session queries. We train the Trie-NLG model by augmenting the prefix with rich context comprising of recent session queries and top trie completions. This simple modeling approach overcomes the limitations of trie-based and NLG-based approaches and leads to state-of-the-art performance. We evaluate the Trie-NLG model using two large QAC datasets. On average, our model achieves huge ~57% and ~14% boost in MRR over the popular trie-based lookup and the strong BART-based baseline methods, respectively. We make our code publicly available.Comment: Accepted at Journal Track of ECML-PKDD 202

Strategies for Enhancing Product Yield: Design of Experiments (DOE) for <em>Escherichia coli</em> Cultivation

E. coli is considered one of the best model organism for biopharmaceutical production by fermentation. Its utility in process development is employed to develop various vaccines, metabolites, biofuels, antibiotics and synthetic molecules in large amounts based on the amount of yield in shake flasks, bioreactors utilised by batch, fed-batch and continuous mode. Production of the desired molecule is facilitated in the bioreactor by employing strategies to increase biomass and optimised yield. The fermentation is a controlled process utilising media buffers, micronutrients and macronutrients, which is not available in a shake flask. To maximise the production temperature, dissolved oxygen (aerobic), dissolved nitrogen (anaerobic), inducer concentration, feed or supplementation of nutrients is the key to achieving exponential growth rate and biomass. Design of experiments (DOE) is critical for attaining maximum gain, in cost-effective manner. DOE comprises of several strategies likewise Plakett-Burman., Box–Behnken, Artificial Neural Network, combination of these strategies leads to reduction of cost of production by 2–8 times depending on molecules to be produced. Further minimising downstream process for quickly isolation, purification and enrichment of the final product

Factors Influencing Suicidal Behaviour among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study from North India

In the majority of the affected nations, suicidal behavior against COVID-19 leads to various concerns. This study aimed to analyze determinants affecting suicidal behaviour among university students in Uttarakhand. An online cross-sectional survey of 18-year-old university students in Uttarakhand was conducted between April 2 and May 13, 2022. The questionnaire comprised socio-demographic information, the Suicidal Behaviors’ Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R) scale, and elements related to the physical and psychological health of COVID-19 (CRPPF). The statistical study included demographic information, basic statistics in terms of frequency and percentage, and logistic regression. In comparison to students with fewer than seven family members, students with more than seven family members were less likely to participate in suicide behaviour (AOR = 2.21; 95% CI: 1.79 to 2.67) and vice versa (AOR = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.56 to 0.97). According to the study, a substantial majority of students (76.35%) claimed that the lockdown implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19 was extremely upsetting for them and that the pandemic had caused them to miss their graduation (73.90%). Adjusted multivariate logistic regression shows that feelings of a burden on family, (AOR= 1.98, 95% CI: 1.09 to 2.82), distancing from family or friends, (AOR =1.66; 95% CI: 1.26 to 2.01), having relationship dilemmas, (AOR= 2.31; 95% CI: 1.84 to 2.97), and being anxious during the lockdown, (AOR= 1.84; 95% CI: 1.08 to 2.27), are significant factors among participants that are linked to higher risk of engaging in suicidal behaviour. The possibility of university students engaging in suicide behaviour was significantly affected by numerous factors. In addition to defending the students' mental health, the concerned authorities should devise and implement strategies to safeguard the students' physical health

The anti-inflammatory effects of Curcuma longa and Berberis aristata in endotoxin-induced uveitis in rabbits

Purpose. To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of topical application of Curcuma longa (C. longa) and Berberis aristata (B. aristata) aqueous extracts on experimental uveitis in the rabbit. Methods. Anterior uveitis was induced in rabbits by intravitreal injection of lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli after pretreatment with C. longa and B. aristata aqueous extracts. Subsequently, the anti-inflammatory activity of C. longa and B. aristata was evaluated by grading the clinical signs and histopathologic changes and estimating the inflammatory cell count, protein, and TNF-α levels in the aqueous humor. Results. The anterior segment inflammation in the control group was significantly higher than in both the extract-treated groups, as observed by clinical and histopathologic grading. The inflammatory cell count in the control group was 30.75 ± 7.33 &#215; 105 cells/mL, whereas it was 2.39 ± 0.59 &#215; 105 (P &lt; 0.001 vs. control) and 11.56 ± 2.44 &#215; 105 (P = 0.001 vs. control) cells/mL in the C. longa– and B. aristata–treated groups, respectively. The protein content of the aqueous humor was 18.14 ± 4.98, 3.16 ± 0.55 (P &lt; 0.001 vs. control), and 8.24 ± 1.42 (P &lt; 0.01 vs. control) mg/mL in the control, C. longa–, and B. aristata–treated groups, respectively. The aqueous TNF-α level in the control group was 976.29 ± 66.38 pg/mL and was 311.96 ± 28.50 (P &lt; 0.0001 vs. control) and 654.09 ± 47.66 (P &lt; 0.001vs. control) pg/mL in the C. longa– and B. aristata–treated groups, respectively. Conclusions. Topical instillation of aqueous extracts of C. longa and B. aristata showed potent anti-inflammatory activity against endotoxin-induced uveitis in rabbits

HIV Testing among Patients with Presumptive Tuberculosis: How Do We Implement in a Routine Programmatic Setting? Results of a Large Operational Research from India.

BACKGROUND: In March 2012, World Health Organization recommended that HIV testing should be offered to all patients with presumptive TB (previously called TB suspects). How this is best implemented and monitored in routine health care settings in India was not known. An operational research was conducted in Karnataka State (South India, population 64 million, accounts for 10% of India's HIV burden), to test processes and learn results and challenges of screening presumptive TB patients for HIV within routine health care settings. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study conducted between January-March 2012, all presumptive TB patients attending public sector sputum microscopy centres state-wide were offered HIV testing by the laboratory technician, and referred to the nearest public sector HIV counselling and testing services, usually within the same facility. The HIV status of the patients was recorded in the routine TB laboratory form and TB laboratory register. The laboratory register was compiled to obtain the number of presumptive TB patients whose HIV status was ascertained, and the number found HIV positive. Aggregate data on reasons for non-testing were compiled at district level. RESULTS: Overall, 115,308 patients with presumptive TB were examined for sputum smear microscopy at 645 microscopy centres state-wide. Of these, HIV status was ascertained for 62,847(55%) among whom 7,559(12%) were HIV-positive, and of these, 3,034(40%) were newly diagnosed. Reasons for non-testing were reported for 37,700(72%) of the 52,461 patients without HIV testing; non-availability of testing services at site of sputum collection was cited by health staff in 54% of respondents. Only 4% of patients opted out of HIV testing. CONCLUSION: Offering HIV testing routinely to presumptive TB patients detected large numbers of previously-undetected instances of HIV infection. Several operational challenges were noted which provide useful lessons for improving uptake of HIV testing in this important group

Endoscopic management of splenic pseudocysts associated with acute and chronic pancreatitis

Background Splenic pseudocysts (SP) are a rare consequence of both acute and chronic pancreatitis. Surgery has been conventional treatment for SP and literature on role of endoscopic treatment is scant. In this study, we retrospectively evaluated SP clinical and radiological characteristics as well as the outcome following endoscopic drainage. Methods Retrospective analysis of SP patients seen at our unit from January 2002 to June 2015. All patients were treated with attempted endoscopic transpapillary drainage with a nasopancreatic drain or stent. Patients not responding underwent endoscopic ultrasound-guided transmural or percutaneous radiological drainage. Results Eleven patients with SP (all male; mean age: 40.5±8.8 years) were studied. Seven patients had chronic pancreatitis and 4 patients had SP following acute pancreatitis. Th e majority (10/11; 91%) had alcohol-related acute or chronic pancreatitis with one patient having coexistent pancreas divisum. Seven (64%) patients were treated successfully with transpapillary drainage only; one (9%) patient needed combined transpapillary and transmural drainage; and 3 (27%) patients needed surgery. Conclusion Endoscopic transpapillary drainage is an eff ective treatment for SP especially when it is not infected and with clear contents, and is associated with partial ductal disruption that can be bridged by an endoprosthesis

Perceptions of Medical Students on Research Curriculum: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Medical colleges promote research by incorporating it into the curriculum, which enables students to acknowledge it as a career prospect. The aim of the study was to assess the perceptions of medical students on research curriculum. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 544 medical students (interns and post-graduates) at AIIMS Rishikesh in 2020. Data was collected thorough online self-administered questionnaire. A comparison between groups was made using the Mann-Whitney test or chi-square test p &lt; 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Out of 544 participants, 218 (40.1%) responded with complete data. The total median score for the self-perceived ability of study participants regarding performing the research tasks differed significantly between interns and post-graduates [29.5 (24.0–34.2) vs 33 (25.2–39.7), p = 0.03]. They suggested that mandatory research projects, workshops, and training should be included in the curriculum. Conclusion: Feedback from medical students regarding the need for guided research projects, hands-on training, and inclusion of research methodology as a course in UG curriculum and provision of support in the form of incentives, academic credits, and motivation are well noted and guide the resource faculties to modify their teaching and student support programs

Ageratum enation virus Infection Induces Programmed Cell Death and Alters Metabolite Biosynthesis in Papaver somniferum

A previously unknown disease which causes severe vein thickening and inward leaf curl was observed in a number of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) plants. The sequence analysis of full-length viral genome and associated betasatellite reveals the occurrence of Ageratum enation virus (AEV) and Ageratum leaf curl betasatellite (ALCB), respectively. Co-infiltration of cloned agroinfectious DNAs of AEV and ALCB induces the leaf curl and vein thickening symptoms as were observed naturally. Infectivity assay confirmed this complex as the cause of disease and also satisfied the Koch’s postulates. Comprehensive microscopic analysis of infiltrated plants reveals severe structural anomalies in leaf and stem tissues represented by unorganized cell architecture and vascular bundles. Moreover, the characteristic blebs and membranous vesicles formed due to the virus-induced disintegration of the plasma membrane and intracellular organelles were also present. An accelerated nuclear DNA fragmentation was observed by Comet assay and confirmed by TUNEL and Hoechst dye staining assays suggesting virus-induced programmed cell death. Virus-infection altered the biosynthesis of several important metabolites. The biosynthesis potential of morphine, thebaine, codeine, and papaverine alkaloids reduced significantly in infected plants except for noscapine whose biosynthesis was comparatively enhanced. The expression analysis of corresponding alkaloid pathway genes by real time-PCR corroborated well with the results of HPLC analysis for alkaloid perturbations. The changes in the metabolite and alkaloid contents affect the commercial value of the poppy plants