Anatomical location of inferior alveolar canal in different age groups in local population

Objective: To assess the radiographic location of the inferior alveolar canal and its association with age and gender. Methodology: This observational study was conducted at the dental department of Isra University Hospital Hyderabad, in the time duration of six months (Sep-2015 to Feb-2016). All the adult patients aged ≥18 years with permanent teeth underwent diagnostic quality imaging with suitable contrast and density, presence of first molar, 1st & 2nd premolar and canine in images, superimposition of structures and either of gender were included. Patients underwent panoramic digital imaging. The manufacturer’s guide-based images were produced using panoramic machine (digital) to assess multi-pattern of inferior dental canal using software “OWANDY OPG I-MAX TOUCH OSP and Quick vision to get histogram equalization and gray values. The entire data was entered in self-made proforma and was analyzed by using SPSS 20th version. Results: Overall 70 patients were studied; their mean age was 28.23+12.43 years, females were found in the majority (57.14%). Most of the patients (54.28%) were seen with inferior alveolar variations of Type I, followed by 21.42% Type II, 14.28% type III and 10% with Type IV. According to the site of mandibular canal locations; 21 of 70 had right side, 15 had left side and 34 had bilateral. There was statistically no significant variance in the appearance of inferior alveolar nerve according to age and gender. Conclusion: Localized superior and inferior borders were 54.28% in our population to avoid injury during the maxillofacial surgery or during dental implant procedures. There was an insignificant difference in location according to age and gende

Design, synthesis, characterization and computational docking studies of novel sulfonamide derivatives

This study reports three novel sulfonamide derivatives 4-Chloro-N-[(4-methylphenyl) sulphonyl]-N-propyl ben- zamide (1A), N-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-4-methyl benzene sulfonamide (1B) and 4-methyl-N-(2-nitrophenyl) ben- zene sulfonamide (1C). The compounds were synthesised from starting material 4-methylbenzenesulfonyl chlo- ride and their structure was studied through 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectra. Computational docking was per- formed to estimate their binding energy against bacterial p-amino benzoic acid (PABA) receptor, the dihydrop- teroate synthase (DHPS). The derivatives were tested in vitro for their antimicrobial activity against Gram+ and Gram- bacteria including E. coli, B. subtilis, B. licheniformis and B. linen. 1A was found active only against B. linen; 1B was effective against E. coli, B. subtilis and B. linen whereas 1C showed activity against E. coli, B. li- cheniformis and B. linen. 1C showed maximum activity with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 50, 100 and 150 µg/mL against E. coli, B. licheniformis and B. linen respectively. 1C exhibited maximum affinity to DHPS with binding free energy of -8.1 kcal/mol. It enriched in the top 0.5 % of a library of 7663 compounds, ranked in order of their binding affinity against DHPS. 1C was followed by 1B which showed a moderate to low level MIC of 100, 250 and 150 µg/mL against E. coli, B. subtilis and B. linen respectively, whereas 1A showed a moderate level MIC of 100 µg/mL but only agai st B. linen. These derivatives may thus serve as potential anti-bacterial alternatives against resistant pathogens

Security and privacy for IoT and fog computing paradigm

In the past decade, the revolution in miniaturization (microprocessors, batteries, cameras etc.) and manufacturing of new type of sensors resulted in a new regime of applications based on smart objects called IoT. Majority of such applications or services are to ease human life and/or to setup efficient processes in automated environments. However, this convenience is coming up with new challenges related to data security and human privacy. The objects in IoT are resource constrained devices and cannot implement a fool-proof security framework. These end devices work like eyes and ears to interact with the physical world and collect data for analytics to make expedient decisions. The storage and analysis of the collected data is done remotely using cloud computing. The transfer of data from IoT to the computing clouds can introduce privacy issues and network delays. Some applications need a real-time decision and cannot tolerate the delays and jitters in the network. Here, edge computing or fog computing plays its role to settle down the mentioned issues by providing cloud-like facilities near the end devices. In this paper, we discuss IoT, fog computing, the relationship between IoT and fog computing, their security issues and solutions by different researchers. We summarize attack surface related to each layer of this paradigm which will help to propose new security solutions to escalate it acceptability among end users. We also propose a risk-based trust management model for smart healthcare environment to cope with security and privacy-related issues in this highly un-predictable heterogeneous ecosystem

Trust modelling and management for IoT healthcare

The IoT wave is on rise and it is considered as the biggest world changing computing ecosystem after the invention of Internet where the meaning of lifestyle is expected to be changed. IoT is now diffusing pervasively in most areas of life like smart home, smart cities, smart irrigation, smart healthcare etc. The concerned industry is trying to reap maximum benefits from this regime without putting extra efforts or investing much to make the related infrastructure secure and trustworthy. IoT end device, a.k.a smart object, is one component of this ecosystem, responsible to interact with the physical environment and gather the data, along with communication technologies, processing capabilities like fog or cloud computing and applications to interact with the device (s). It is possibility that such devices can be faulty, compromised or misbehaving because of internal or external factors like hardware malfunctioning or cyber-attacks. In this situation the data gathered and transferred by such devices can be disaster and challenging in decision making specifically in an area where the human life is involved like IoT healthcare. We have proposed a mathematical model to estimate the trust of such devices. Trust on IoT devices and gathered data from such trusted devices will boost the confidence of end users on this new computing regime; especially in healthcare environment. The estimated trust status (trusted, uncertain, and untrustworthy) will be saved in a database or CSV file with a timestamp to be used as reputation by healthcare applications. Patients are assigned their SOI based on their specific diagnoses and procedures performed during their medical encounter. Similarly, for a patient with heart diseases or having hypertension can be considered in extreme category with a value of γ = 1 if there is some deviation of readings

Visceral leishmaniasis among children presenting with pancytopenia

Background: Pancytopenia can result from either a failure of production of hematopoietic progenitors or peripheral destruction of a cellular element either due to infection, immune-mediated damage or hypersplenism. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), one of the chronic parasitic diseases in the world that affects millions of people recently, leishmaniasis has been seen with increasing frequency in patients with Pancytopenia.Objective: To determine the frequency of visceral leishmaniasis among children presenting with pancytopenia at Pediatric Department, Azzd Jammu and Kashmir Medical College MuzaffarabadMethodology This cross sectional study was conducted at the Department of paeds SKBZ/ CMH, Muzaffarabad. The study duration was 6 months from June 2018 to December 2018. All children with pancytopenia either of gender were enrolled. After taking informed demographic information, all the cases underwent bone marrow sampling to assess the Visceral Leishmaniasis. All the data was collected by self-made proforma.Results: Total 75 patients were studied; their mean age of patients was 6.74±3.14 years. Males were in majority 67.69% and 32.31% were females. Leishmaniasis was found 15.38% of the cases. Leishmaniasis was statistically insignificant according to age and gender; p-values were quite insignificant.Conclusion: It is concluded that the visceral leishmaniasis in children with pancytopenia was 15.38%

Success Rate of Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy (ETV) in Non-Communicating Hydrocephalus in Pediatric Age Group

Objective:  To evaluate success rate of the endoscopic third Ventriculostomy (ETV) in non-communicating type of hydrocephalus in pediatric age group. Material and Methods:  This study was carried in the department of neurosurgery at Liaquat university hospital, Jamshoro in which an endoscopic third Ventriculostomy procedure was performed in patients (n = 55) with non-communicating hydrocephalus from October 2016 to April 2017. Post-operative follow-up was done on the 15th day post-operative to assess clinical and radiological improvement. Results:  55 patients were included in this study, 26 (47.27%) males and 29 (52.73%) females. The mean age was 3.96 years. The most common etiology was aqueductal stenosis 28 (50.90%) patients followed by posterior fossa tumors in 18 (32.72%) patients. The operative technique was successful in 41 (74.55%) patients. Out of 41 successful patients, 34 (82.92%) patients had clinical as well as radiological improvement whereas 7 (17.07%) patients had clinical improvement only. Conclusion:  The success rate of ETV was 74.55% in the non-communicating hydrocephalus in the pediatric age group in our study. Endoscopic third Ventriculostomy is an effective treatment for non-Communicating hydrocephalus in pediatric age groups by diversion of CSF intracranially. This procedure provides shunt freedom and can be used alternative to shunts in pediatric age groups with non-communicating hydrocephalus

Synthesis of novel cyanoacetamides derivatives and their urease inhibition studies

The present study reports a convenient approach for the synthesis of cyanoacetamide based derivatives (7-27) via two-step process involving Knoevenagel reaction, followed by three component reaction to avail desired compounds. All the synthesized compounds were obtained in good to excellent yield and extensively characterized employing 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass spectrometry and physical parameters. Further, these compounds were screened for urease inhibition. All of the synthesized compounds exhibited good to excellent urease activity notably compound 15 and 19 showed excellent urease inhibition activity with IC50 value ~17.34 μg/mL and 36.75 μg/mL in comparison to thiourea (used as standard) having IC50 value ~27.5 μg/mL

Managerial tacit knowledge transfer: A potential outcome of cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the GCC banking sector

This conceptual paper explores the potential relationship between a manager’s contribution in sealing cross-border Merger and Acquisition (M&A) deals, on the one hand, and tacit knowledge transfer, on the other. The paper’s basic premise posits that those managers are likely to be exposed to significant tacit knowledge flows as they participate in negotiating, making, and monitoring M&A transactions. The two M&A dimensions taken into account in the conceptual model given in this paper pertain to the number and value of M&A transactions coordinated or accomplished by the manager. Furthermore, there are several moderating factors said to influence the central assumption between the number/value of M&As and the extent of tacit knowledge transfer, i.e. the frequency of face-to-face meetings, the manager’s cultural intelligence, the manager’s international experience and the number of the languages spoken by the manager. The examination of the research propositions underlying the suggested research model is believed to have a particular importance for the banking sector in the Gulf countries wherein the M&A activity is ubiquitous

A Novel Experimental Setup to Analyze Model Thin Films Representing Cores for an Ultrasonic Radiation Study of Petroleum Reservoirs

An apparatus was developed for a visual representation of conventional core flooding tests using a Model Thin Film (MTF) setup. The configuration was intended to provide direct visual representation of a flooding process. For our purposes, we investigated asphaltene deposition on a thin-film core sample, by evaluating the oil recovery before and after subjecting rock samples to a sonication process to remove asphaltene deposits, part of an ongoing project. The process involved saturating a specific volume of core sample with an asphaltic crude oil sample and recording flow pressures throughout the process. In order to have a full grade asphaltene deposition on the core sample, an alkane reagent, heptane, was used as a solvent to subsequently flood the rock system. After the formation of the skin and asphaltic sediments, we conducted an oil flood and monitored flow pressures, higher inlet pressures confirmed plugging and asphaltic deposition in the rock matrix. The model thin film setup proved to be a very good demonstrational and experimental apparatus, as it provided excellent visual information relating to the oil flood, and allowed routine experimental pressure, temperature and flow readings to be taken. The prospect of obtaining accurate experimental results from the model thin film is bright. This apparatus is designed to be used for the ultrasonic radiation study of petroleum reservoirs