Structural Determinants and Children's Oral Health: A Cross-National Study

Much research on children's oral health has focused on proximal determinants at the expense of distal (upstream) factors. Yet, such upstream factors-the so-called structural determinants of health-play a crucial role. Children's lives, and in turn their health, are shaped by politics, economic forces, and social and public policies. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between children's clinical (number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth) and self-reported oral health (oral health-related quality of life) and 4 key structural determinants (governance, macroeconomic policy, public policy, and social policy) as outlined in the World Health Organization's Commission for Social Determinants of Health framework. Secondary data analyses were carried out using subnational epidemiological samples of 8- to 15-y-olds in 11 countries ( N = 6,648): Australia (372), New Zealand (three samples; 352, 202, 429), Brunei (423), Cambodia (423), Hong Kong (542), Malaysia (439), Thailand (261, 506), United Kingdom (88, 374), Germany (1498), Mexico (335), and Brazil (404). The results indicated that the type of political regime, amount of governance (e.g., rule of law, accountability), gross domestic product per capita, employment ratio, income inequality, type of welfare regime, human development index, government expenditure on health, and out-of-pocket (private) health expenditure by citizens were all associated with children's oral health. The structural determinants accounted for between 5% and 21% of the variance in children's oral health quality-of-life scores. These findings bring attention to the upstream or structural determinants as an understudied area but one that could reap huge rewards for public health dentistry research and the oral health inequalities policy agenda

Analysis awkward posture at food production activity using RULA assessment

If the workers continuously perform the activities throughout the working hours, they may experience prolonged standing which creates fatigue and causes an occupational hazard which includes slips and falls. The goal of this study was to identify awkward postures during food production activities. 40 workers with minimum of 1 year experience working in food production were involved. The comfort level was measured using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment and Computer-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application software analysis, expressed in scoring level. Critical activities grilling meat, frying, dish cloth and wash utensil at food production contributed to high RULA score of 7. The specific working postures have to be identified among food production workers. This study can provide a preliminary data to determine the correct working postures for food production workers.Keywords: working position; food production; awkward posture; RULA score, fatigue and standin

Psychometric assessment of the short-form Child Perceptions Questionnaire: an international collaborative study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the factor structure and other psychometric characteristics of the most commonly used child oral-health-related quality-of-life (OHRQoL) measure (the 16-item short-form CPQ11-14 ) in a large number of children (N = 5804) from different settings and who had a range of caries experience and associated impacts. METHODS: Secondary data analyses used subnational epidemiological samples of 11- to 14-year-olds in Australia (N = 372), New Zealand (three samples: 352, 202, 429), Brunei (423), Cambodia (244), Hong Kong (542), Malaysia (439), Thailand (220, 325), England (88, 374), Germany (1055), Mexico (335) and Brazil (404). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the CPQ11-14 across the combined sample and within four regions (Australia/NZ, Asia, UK/Europe and Latin America). Item impact and internal reliability analysis were also conducted. RESULTS: Caries experience varied, with mean DMFT scores ranging from 0.5 in the Malaysian sample to 3.4 in one New Zealand sample. Even more variation was noted in the proportion reporting only fair or poor oral health; this was highest in the Cambodian and Mexican samples and lowest in the German sample and one New Zealand sample. One in 10 reported that their oral health had a marked impact on their life overall. The CFA across all samples revealed two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. The first involved all items in the oral symptoms and functional limitations subscales; the second involved all emotional well-being and social well-being items. The first was designated the 'symptoms/function' subscale, and the second was designated the 'well-being' subscale. Cronbach's alpha scores were 0.72 and 0.84, respectively. The symptoms/function subscale contained more of the items with greater impact, with the item 'Food stuck in between your teeth' having greatest impact; in the well-being subscale, the 'Felt shy or embarrassed' item had the greatest impact. Repeating the analyses by world region gave similar findings. CONCLUSION: The CPQ11-14 performed well cross-sectionally in the largest analysis of the scale in the literature to date, with robust and mostly consistent psychometric characteristics, albeit with two underlying factors (rather than the originally hypothesized four-factor structure). It appears to be a sound, robust measure which should be useful for research, practice and policy

Стент на стенте: установка двойных мягких J-образных стентов в мочеточниковый стент Memokath-051TM при двусторонней стриктуре мочеточника после лучевой терапии распространенного рака предстательной железы

Narrowing of ureter can be due to malignant or benign causes. Temporary double-J (DJ) stents, various metallic stent designs, or definitive corrective surgery can be the options management for ureteric stricture. As an alternative from DJ stents, Memokath-051TM (MMK-051TM) can be inserted in strictured ureters post radiotherapy for advanced prostate cancer patients. We present a case of an advanced prostate cancer which bilateral DJ Stents placed within MMK-051TM. A 76-year-old man with underlying hormone sensitive advanced prostate cancer completed radiotherapy. Post radiotherapy he developed bilateral ureteric strictures  and bilateral DJ stents  inserted.  He had to underwent multiple change of stents due to blockage. Patient had MMK-051TM inserted, however complicated with blockage due to encrustation. Improvisation method done by putting the bilateral DJ stents within the MMK-051TM. Patient had no more blockage of MMK-051TM after the placement of DJ stents within it. However, patient succumbed to death a year after the last procedure. Our case report highlighted encrustation of metallic ureteric stents and a novel approach to overcome this problem. Introduction  of additional DJ stents  not only reduced the incidence of MMK-051TM blockage but also improved the quality of life of the patient.Причинами сужения мочеточника  могут быть как злокачественные новообразования, так и доброкачественные процессы. Для лечения стриктуры мочеточника применяют временные двойные J-образные стенты, металлические стенты различных дизайнов, реконструктивные операции. В качестве альтернативы двойным J-образным стентам после лучевой терапии у пациентов с распространенным раком предстательной железы при сужении мочеточника устанавливают стент Memokath-051TM (MMK-051TM). Мы представляем клинический случай распространенного рака предстательной железы, при котором двусторонние двойные J-образные стенты были установлены внутри стента MMK-051TM.Мужчине 76 лет с распространенным гормоночувствительным раком предстательной железы проведен курс лучевой терапии, после которого развились двусторонние стриктуры мочеточника. Пациенту были установлены двусторонние двойные J-образные стенты. Он перенес многочисленные замены стентов по причине блокады. Пациенту был установлен стент MMK-051TM, однако у него развилось осложнение в форме блокады в результате инкрустации. В стент  MMK-051TM были установлены двойные J-образные стенты, после чего пациент перестал испытывать блокаду. Однако пациент скончался от рака предстательной железы через год после операции. В данном описании  клинического случая мы подчеркиваем важность инкрустации металлических мочеточниковых стентов и предлагаем подход к решению этой проблемы. Установка дополнительных двойных J-образных стентов не только снизила частоту блокады стента MMK-051TM, но и улучшила качество жизни пациента

Search for heavy resonances decaying into a vector boson and a Higgs boson in final states with charged leptons, neutrinos, and b quarks

Peer reviewe

Cluster-Based Toxicity Estimation of Osteoradionecrosis Via Unsupervised Machine Learning:Moving Beyond Single Dose-Parameter Normal Tissue Complication Probability by Using Whole Dose-Volume Histograms for Cohort Risk Stratification

Purpose: Given the limitations of extant models for normal tissue complication probability estimation for osteoradionecrosis (ORN) of the mandible, the purpose of this study was to enrich statistical inference by exploiting structural properties of data and provide a clinically reliable model for ORN risk evaluation through an unsupervised-learning analysis that incorporates the whole radiation dose distribution on the mandible. Methods and Materials: The analysis was conducted on retrospective data of 1259 patients with head and neck cancer treated at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center between 2005 and 2015. During a minimum 12-month posttherapy follow-up period, 173 patients in this cohort (13.7%) developed ORN (grades I to IV). The (structural) clusters of mandibular dose-volume histograms (DVHs) for these patients were identified using the K-means clustering method. A soft-margin support vector machine was used to determine the cluster borders and partition the dose-volume space. The risk of ORN for each dose-volume region was calculated based on incidence rates and other clinical risk factors. Results: The K-means clustering method identified 6 clusters among the DVHs. Based on the first 5 clusters, the dose-volume space was partitioned by the soft-margin support vector machine into distinct regions with different risk indices. The sixth cluster entirely overlapped with the others; the region of this cluster was determined by its envelopes. For each region, the ORN incidence rate per preradiation dental extraction status (a statistically significant, nondose related risk factor for ORN) was reported as the corresponding risk index. Conclusions: This study presents an unsupervised-learning analysis of a large-scale data set to evaluate the risk of mandibular ORN among patients with head and neck cancer. The results provide a visual risk-assessment tool for ORN (based on the whole DVH and preradiation dental extraction status) as well as a range of constraints for dose optimization under different risk levels.</p

Histological and ultrastructural studies on the effect of Cassia alata methanolic leaf extracts against chemically induced lung adenocarcinoma in rats

ABSTRACT The present work aims to evaluate anticancer performance of Cassia alata methanolic leaf extracts (CMLE) in ethyl carbamate-stimulated lung adenocarcinoma (LAD) in differentiation to the function of Cisplatin (CIPL). Rats were divided into four groups: (1) control (CONT), (2) lung-adenocarcinoma (LAD) injected intra-peritoneally with 1g/kg ethyl carbamate once weekly for a month, (3) LAD+CMLE administered 500 mg/kg CMLE orally for the last two months of the experiment, and (4) LAD+CIPL treated group, injected 2.5 mg/kg Cisplatin intraperitoneally once weekly for the last two months of the experiment. Light and electron microscopic examinations revealed adenocarcinoma development in terminal bronchiole besides some histopathological changes in the LAD group such as atypical, exaggerated collagen fibers, increment of mucinous content, and increasing of PCNA positive immunoreactivity whereas electron microscopy investigation exposed that papillary adenocarcinoma originated from Clara cells in the LAD group. The LAD+CMLE treated group showed no tumor masses and nearly all with normal lung histology. It also recovered the normal ultrastructure of bronchiolar Clara cells. CMLE treatment offers a new alternative cure with less toxicity than Cisplatin for lung cancer therapy. Hence, CMLE would be employed as a novel supply of anti-cancer compounds combating lung cancer

Differences and Similarities between Coronavirus and other Viruses

YesCoronavirus is the most dangerous virus in the world wide and it can easy spread between people, animals and plants because it is existing on one strand of RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) and it can duplicate faster than any virus. The source of coronavirus is still unknown, but some sources said that it came from seafood market and other sources said that it came from bat and snakes. It starts in Wuhan; China and every day the fatality increases. The symptoms are like a SARS-CoV (acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus)) and MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus). By using nucleotide sequence of coronavirus from NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) and some programs that ran on Matlab, the results show that there are some differences and similarities between coronavirus and other viruses such as Ebola, Flu-b, Hepatitis B, HIV and Zika especially for DEBs (distinct excluded blocks) program that shows at 5bp (base pair) there is a common with slightly difference between coronavirus “cgggg” and Ebola virus “cgtgg”. The aim from this study is to find a way to help doctors and scientists to stop spreading the coronavirus or to destroy it

Measurement of the mass difference between top quark and antiquark in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe