A comparison of two liner materials for use in the ferric sulfate pulpotomy

Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare the success rate obtained when applying either a calcium hydroxide (Dycal) base or a zinc oxide-eugenol (Kalzinol) base following the traditional ferric sulfate pulpotomy. Methods: Patients were either treated in the chair or under general anaesthesia. All teeth had to have radiographic evidence of caries close to the pulp. After haemostasis was achieved with damp cotton pellets, ferric sulfate was applied to the pulpal stumps. Half of the cases then received a Dycal base followed by a cured layer of Vitrebond and a permanent amalgam restoration. The other half of the cases received a base of zinc oxide-eugenol (Kalzinol) followed by an amalgam restoration. The cases were followed up every 6 months for one year (ie. 2 follow-up visits). Radiographs were taken at each follow-up visit. Results: Overall, teeth treated with Dycal demonstrated a higher failure rate when compared with those that received the Kalzinol base. Abscess formation and internal resorption were the most common causes of failure. Even though the Kalzinol base demonstrated greater success, there were still quite a few failures. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that calcium hydroxide cannot be recommended as a medicament in primary tooth pulpotomies

Accuracy of acetate overlays in bite mark comparison: How accurate is an ideal bite pattern?

Forensically, a bite mark on human skin is reliant on the matching of the alignment and position of the dentition of the perpetrator with the bruise pattern inflicted by the bite. If there is more than one suspect, the bite pattern of each suspect needs to be analysed. At least hypothetically, a bite delivered by a person who has had orthodontic treatment will result in a bruise pattern of an ideal arrangement of the teeth. If there are two suspects, both of whom have had orthodontic treatment, could that “ideal” alignment compromise identification of the perpetrator of the bite mark

Knowledge, attitudes and practices (Kap) regarding early childhood caries among nurses working in a low socio-economic area

In the poorer communities, nursing professionals are usually the first health professionals to come into contact with parents and their children. They are therefore the first port of call when patients need information about health matters and are thus able to have a positive impact on oral health and the prevention of ECC. To investigate the knowledge of nursing professionals regarding oral health in children and specifically ECC and its causes. A convenience sample was used which included all nurses who agreed to participate. Questionnaires were completed for 83 nurses at the various facilities in a low socio-economic area of Cape Town, South Africa. Information was obtained regarding their attitude towards dental care, general oral health knowledge and knowledge of feeding and oral hygiene practices. In the sample of nurses surveyed, it is clear that the knowledge regarding oral health related matters is sorely lacking. More time and resources need to be invested into equipping these nurses to provide basic oral health information to the broader community in order to alleviate the burden of ECC

Characteristics of children under 6 years of age treated for Early Childhood Caries at Tygerberg Oral Health Centre, South Africa

Objective: This retrospective survey highlighted the characteristics of children less than six years of age presenting with early childhood caries(ECC) who had two or more teeth extracted under intravenous sedation at the Tygerberg Oral Health Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. This survey was carried out in order to plan a community-appropriate intervention strategy. Methods: Records of 140 patients kept by the pediatric Dentistry Division met the inclusion criteria and were included in this survey. Most of the patients originate from economically disadvantaged areas. Results: Diet, feeding and oral hygiene habits were shown to be the most significant factors that contributed to the development of ECC in these patients. All the children were either breast- or bottle-fed past one year of age. 93.6% of the children went to sleep with the bottle or while on the breast and 90% of them were fed on demand during the night. On average, breastfeeding was stopped at 9 months of age compared to bottle-feeding that, on average, was stopped at a much later mean age of 23 months. Where oral hygiene practices were concerned, 52.6% of children brushed their own teeth without supervision. Frequency of brushing varied between subjects. Conclusion: The results of this study have demonstrated that there is a need for culturally appropriate education campaigns to inform parents (especially those in disadvantaged communities) about the importance of oral health and the prevention of oral disease.Web of Scienc

Introducing dental students to e-learning at a South African University

This article serves to report on the introduction of an innovative ‘blended learning’ approach in the Paediatric Dentistry Department at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa. This intervention was the first of its kind to be introduced at UWC’s dentistry faculty. Methods Educational resources were placed online to supplement didactic and clinical teaching and in so-doing, compensate for the lack of chair side teaching. An online learning platform was thus provided for students to engage with. Results Forty-seven percent of students accessed the site. The evaluation of the course by these 4th and 5th year students was mostly positive. Students who did not access the site provided a variety of reasons for not doing so, with the main reasons being the ‘lack of time’ (40%) and ‘lack of IT resources’ (41%). Conclusion This intervention highlighted the fact that ‘blended learning’ definitely has its place in the dentistry curriculum, especially if minor issues like access to resources can be addressed. The Paediatric Dentistry department at the University of Western Cape is continually pursuing current trends in teaching to provide an education that is on par with global standards

Le taux d’intérêt á court terme et la politique monétaire en Algérie

Cet article s’applique à vérifier à travers une batterie de tests, l’efficacité des instruments de la politique monétaire en Algérie. Après avoir décrit l’évolution de la politique monétaire en Algérie, on a mis en relation le taux de réescompte considéré comme principal instrument de la politique monétaire jusqu’à 2000, et les objectifs intermédiaires et finals de la politique monétaire algérienne. Le résultat montre quelle taux de réescompte répond aux variations de l’inflation mais ne contribue pas à la réalisation de la stabilité du PIB et du taux de change, ceci peut être expliqué par l’importance du marché parallèle et la dépendance du PIB des recettes des hydrocarbures et non pas de l’investissement. A partir de 2001 et malgré la surliquidité, les instruments utilisés pendant cette période ont permis de maitriser l’inflation mais malheureusement, ces disponibilités en liquidité sont sans conséquence sur l’amélioration du PIB hors hydrocarbures (PIB hors hydrocarbure reste toujours faible), ce qui signifie que, les banques algériennes ne sont pas incitées à accorder des crédits pour encourager l’investissement.Mots clés: Politique monétaire, taux d’intérêt à court terme, régression multiple, l’AlgérieJEL CLASSIFICATION : C1, C13, E4, E52, E5English Title: Short-term interest rates and monetary policy in AlgeriaEnglish AbstractThis paper seeks to implement a set of tests to bear out the effectiveness of monetary policy instruments in Algeria. After having depicted the evolution of monetary policy in Algeria, the rediscount rate considered as the main instrument of monetary policy up to 2000, was linked with the intermediate and final objectives of Algerian monetary policy. Results show that the rediscount rate responds to changes in inflation, but does not contribute to the realization of GDP and exchange rate stability. The fact which can be explained by the importance of the parallel market and GDP dependence from receipts of hydrocarbons and not on investmentEver since 2001, despite the liquidity excess, instruments used during this period allowed to master unfortunately inflation. However, liquidity supplies have no impact on the improvement of non-hydrocarbon GDP (GDP excluding hydrocarbons remains low ), Which means that, Algerian banks do not have incentives to provide credits to promote investment.Keywords: Monetary policy, short-term interest rates, Algeri

How Well Sensing Integrates with Communications in MmWave Wi-Fi?

The development of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems has recently gained interest for its ability to offer a variety of services including resources sharing and new applications, for example, localization, tracking, and health care related. While the sensing capabilities are offered through many technologies, rending to their wide deployments and the high frequency spectrum they provide and high range resolution, its accessibility through the Wi-Fi networks IEEE 802.11ad and 802.11ay has been getting the interest of research and industry. Even though there is a dedicated standardization body, namely the 802.11bf task group, working on enhancing the Wi-Fi sensing performance, investigations are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of various sensing techniques. In this project, we, in addition to surveying related literature, we evaluate the sensing performance of the millimeter wave (mmWave) Wi-Fi systems by simulating a scenario of a human target using Matlab simulation tools. In this analysis, we processed channel estimation data using the short time Fourier transform (STFT). Furthermore, using a channel variation threshold method, we evaluated the performance while reducing feedback. Our findings indicate that using STFT window overlap can provide good tracking results, and that the reduction in feedback measurements using 0.05 and 0.1 threshold levels reduces feedback measurements by 48% and 77%, respectively, without significantly degrading performance.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2207.04859 by other author

To Determine the Efficiency of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and Polyacrylamide (PAM) as Drag Reducing Agent for Water Injection

Water injection can be applied as secondary recovery method to repressurize the reservoir to maintain oil production and thus, can maintain the production rate. One of the main aims during water injection process is to increase the volume of water injected into the reservoir. However, the injection of water is often limited by pumping capacity on the platform or well site and the capacity of injection tubing or pipelines due to friction pressure loss. Moreover, it is commonly found in the pipeline system, water transported may exerted over long distance which allow to more pressures loss. Thus, this limitation affects the flow assurance of the well production. The main aim in this project is to study the effectiveness of using Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and Polyacrylamide (PAM) as Drag Reducing Agent for Water Injection by manipulating the polymer concentration from 100ppm to 800ppm and see the effect of Reynolds number and flow rate obtained. Drag reducing Agent (DRA) have been used in the oil industry for several years, both in oil and water based systems to enhance the flow assurance in the production line which caused by drag. Drag may contribute to pumping loses, decreasing in production capacity and potential of corrosion effect. Due to that, a lot of researches have been done to investigate the most effectiveness drag reducing agent that can be used to overcome this matter. In this project, an open flow experiment setup is fabricated which is mainly consist of 12.25m long of 1” diameter galvanized pipe and 0.5m long of 2” diameter of injection point. Two pressure gauge is used to monitor the pressure drop obtained along the 4m test section for each concentrations tested. Besides, a commercial DRA is used to compare the performance of tested polymer (PVP and PAM). The results show that PAM gives most significant drag reduction percentage with 21.9% compare to PVP, 18.8%. However, this commercial DRA shows greater drag reduction up to 30% with comparison with the optimum concentration of both polymers. Besides, it also observed that an increase of Reynolds number will increase the drag reduction percentage before the polymer start to degrade at too high flow rate. Thus, it is concluded that the ability of PVP and approve the PAM as a potential drag reducing agent which can be used effectively in water injection system. Besides, both tested polymers performance is not far behind with the DR% obtain by the commercial DRA

Effect of Self-Care Guideline on Quality of Life among Pregnant Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Context: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a complex chronic autoimmune condition representing a source of disability. It can create a burden of the low Quality of life in pregnant women and cause deleterious effects on maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes. Aim: The study aimed at evaluating the effect of self-care guidelines on the Quality of life among pregnant women with SLE.Methods: A quasi-experimental study design (time series, one group only, and pre-post intervention assessments) was used. Purposive sampling was used to recruit fifty pregnant women diagnosed with SLE. The study was conducted at three sites: Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic at Ain Shams University Hospital, Rheumatology Antenatal Outpatient Clinic, and Labor Unit at Ain Shams Maternity Hospital. Seven data collection tools were utilized in this study, and Arabic self-care guidelines were distributed as supporting educational material for pregnant women with SLE. Results: Findings of the present study showed a highly significant improvement in SLE activity index, follow-up lab investigations, Quality of life, and health assessment by evaluating daily living activities after using self-care guidelines.Conclusion: The current study results supported the research hypothesis that pregnant women with SLE exposed to self-care guidelines will have a better quality of life than their pre-intervention level, which reflected upon improving pregnancy outcomes. Based on the study results, the following recommendations are forwarded; application of the study intervention with the distribution of the clear Arabic self-care guidelines on a large scale in other sittings caring for pregnant women with SLE