Evaluation of the Relationship between Passive Smoking and Oral Pigmentation in Children

Introduction: Melanin pigmentation in the oral mucosa occurs as a result of several reasons one of which is smoking. Cigarette smoke induces numerous side effects in the people who do not smoke, but are in the same environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of parental smoking on pigmentation of their children's oral mucosa.Materials and Methods: This study was carried out as a historical cohort. Participants were 400 healthy children, 10 to 11 years old who did not use any drugs. The passive smoker group included 200 children who at least one member in their family was a smoker. The control group included 200 children who did not have a smoker in their family. Furthermore, two groups were matched in the point of view of skin color. The children in the two groups were examined and oral pigmentation was recorded. Finally,the results were analyzed by the chi- square test.Results: Pigmentation was seen in 150 children (75%) in the experimental group and 122 children (61%) in the control group (P<0.005). The relative risk of oral pigmentation for children who were exposed to passive smoking was 1.23.Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, passive smoking can induce gingival pigmentation in children

Field-induced domain wall propagation: beyond the one-dimensional model

We have investigated numerically the field-driven propagation of perpendicularly magnetized ferromagnetic layers. It was then compared to the historical one-dimensional domain wall (DW) propagation model widely used in spintronics studies of magnetic nanostructures. In the particular regime of layer thickness (h) of the order of the exchange length, anomalous velocity peaks appear in the precessional regime, their shape and position shifting with h. This has also been observed experimentally. Analyses of the simulations show a distinct correlation between the curvature of the DW and the twist of the magnetization vector within it, and the velocity peak. Associating a phenomenological description of this twist with a four-coordinate DW propagation model, we reproduce very well these kinks and show that they result from the torque exerted by the stray field created by the domains on the twisted magnetization. The position of the peaks is well predicted from the DW's first flexural mode frequency, and depends strongly on the layer thickness. Comparison of the proposed model to DW propagation data obtained on dilute semiconductor ferromagnets GaMnAs and GaMnAsP sheds light on the origin of the measured peaks

Effect of a visual tracking intervention on attention and behavior of attention deficit hyper activity children

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is characterized by several cognitive and behavioral problems such as inattention and impulsivity, abnormal control of eye movements and relocation, visual fixation and visuospatial perception. There is a link between core motor functions such as oculomotor function and cognition to the extent that the oculomotor system acts as a mediator between the motor and cognitive functions. Therefore, the effects of eye-tracking intervention were investigated on attention in these children. Thirty - nine boys with ADHD, 6 to 10 years of age were recruited and randomized to receive current occupational therapy (control group), or occupational therapy accompanied with eye-tracking exercises (experimental group). They were evaluated using the Conner's Parent Rating Scale, the Continuous Performance Task-2, and the Test of Visual-Motor Skills-Revised before and after the intervention. Significant improvements in the mean scores of cognitive problems (F=9/22), coping behavior (F=6.03) and hyperactivity (F=9.77) were detected in the posttest between the two groups (p<0.05). Furthermore, in the Continuous Performance Test scores, detectability (F=5.68), omission errors (F=17.89), commission errors (F=19.45), reaction time (F=8.95), variability (F=7.07), and preservation (F=6.33) showed significant differences between control and experimental groups (p<0.01). It appears that eye-tracking interventions designed based on the isolation of neck and eye movement might have an important role in improving cognitive function and coping behaviors in these children. It seems that these exercises could increase eye movement control; improve cognitive function and response inhibition

CheXpert: A Large Chest Radiograph Dataset with Uncertainty Labels and Expert Comparison

Large, labeled datasets have driven deep learning methods to achieve expert-level performance on a variety of medical imaging tasks. We present CheXpert, a large dataset that contains 224,316 chest radiographs of 65,240 patients. We design a labeler to automatically detect the presence of 14 observations in radiology reports, capturing uncertainties inherent in radiograph interpretation. We investigate different approaches to using the uncertainty labels for training convolutional neural networks that output the probability of these observations given the available frontal and lateral radiographs. On a validation set of 200 chest radiographic studies which were manually annotated by 3 board-certified radiologists, we find that different uncertainty approaches are useful for different pathologies. We then evaluate our best model on a test set composed of 500 chest radiographic studies annotated by a consensus of 5 board-certified radiologists, and compare the performance of our model to that of 3 additional radiologists in the detection of 5 selected pathologies. On Cardiomegaly, Edema, and Pleural Effusion, the model ROC and PR curves lie above all 3 radiologist operating points. We release the dataset to the public as a standard benchmark to evaluate performance of chest radiograph interpretation models. The dataset is freely available at https://stanfordmlgroup.github.io/competitions/chexpert .Comment: Published in AAAI 201

Crystalline phases involved in the hydration of calcium silicate-based cements: Semi-quantitative Rietveld X-ray diffraction analysis

Chemical comparisons of powder and hydrated forms of calcium silicate cements (CSCs) and calculation of alterations in tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5) calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) are essential for understanding their hydration processes. This study aimed to evaluate and compare these changes in ProRoot MTA, Biodentine and CEM cement. Powder and hydrated forms of tooth coloured ProRoot MTA, Biodentine and CEM cement were subjected to X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis with Rietveld refinement to semi-quantitatively identify and quantify the main phases involved in their hydration process. Data were reported descriptively. Reduction in Ca3SiO5 and formation of Ca(OH)2 were seen after the hydration of ProRoot MTA and Biodentine; however, in the case of CEM cement, no reduction of Ca3SiO5 and no formation of Ca(OH)2 were detected. The highest percentages of amorphous phases were seen in Biodentine samples. Ettringite was detected in the hydrated forms of ProRoot MTA and CEM cement but not in Biodentine

A new approach to an old concept for reducing shoulder pain caused by gynecological laparoscopy

Background: The purpose of this study was to introduce a technique to extract the remaining peritoneal gas in order to improve the post-laparoscopic shoulder pain. Methods: This study included 12 patients undergoing laparoscopic gynecologic procedures between February and March 2016 in Minimally Invasive Techniques Research Center, Pars Hospital, Tehran, Iran. For complete suction of the air from abdominal cavity, the air was first vacuumed from the pelvic cavity in Trendelenburg position and then the patients were put in anti-Trendelenburg position. In this position, as the remaining gas was shifting toward subdiaphragmatic area, the suction tube was shifted to a position next to the camera canal and the remaining air was suctioned. A 10 point visual analogue scale was used to measure the severity of patients� post-operative shoulder pain. Results: The mean VAS for shoulder pain was 0.8±1.7 4 hr post-surgery. At 12 hr post-surgery, the mean VAS was 0.8±1.5. At 24 hr post-surgery, the mean VAS for shoulder pain was 0.3±0.8. Finally, 48 hr post-surgery, the VAS score for all patients was zero. Conclusion: Our approach for emptying the abdominal cavity from residual gas after laparoscopic procedures seems to be useful in preventing post-operative shoulder pain among patients undergoing gynecological laparoscopic surgeries. Further studies are suggested to compare the effect of our proposed method with other methods

Domain-wall flexing instability and propagation in thin ferromagnetic films

International audienceWe investigate field-driven domain-wall dynamics in thin ferromagnetic layers in the precessional regime using an analytical model that goes beyond the rigid wall approximation and takes into account the flexing modes of domain walls. This model allows us to turn on and off the stray field from domains adjacent to the domain wall in order to elucidate its role. We determine the eigenfrequencies of the flexing modes. The domain-wall flexing instabilities are shown to exist even without the stray field. The amplitude of the flexing modes shows a maximum when the magnetization precession frequency is equal to their eigenfrequency. At maximum amplitude of the flexing modes, the domain-wall velocity exhibits bumps even without the stray field. The stray field further enhances the velocity and broadens the bumps. This study is completed by micromagnetic simulations that show excellent agreement with the analytical model. The role of the various spatial modes in the velocity enhancement is clarified. Additional fractional frequencies appear in the time-dependent amplitude of the flexing modes, in analogy with the behavior of parametric oscillators

Exchange constant and domain wall width in (Ga,Mn)(As,P) films with self-organization of magnetic domains

International audienceThe incorporation of Phosphorus into (Ga,Mn)As epilayers allows for the tuning of the magnetic easy axis from in-plane to perpendicular-to-plane without the need for a (Ga,In)As template. For perpendicular easy axis, using magneto-optical imaging a self-organized pattern of up- and down-magnetized domains is observed for the first time in a diluted magnetic semiconductor. Combining Kerr microscopy, magnetometry and ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy, the exchange constant and the domain wall width parameter are obtained as a function of temperature. The former quantifies the effective Mn-Mn ferromagnetic interaction. The latter is a key parameter for domain wall dynamics. The comparison with results obtained for (Ga,Mn)As/(Ga,In)As reveals the improved quality of the (Ga,Mn)As$_{1-y}$P$_y$ layers regarding domain wall pinning, an increase of the domain wall width parameter and of the effective Mn-Mn spin coupling. However, at constant Mn doping, no significant increase of this coupling is found with increasing P concentration in the investigated range