Caries Incidence, by DMFT Index of Libyan School Children Concerning Socio-demographic Variables and Oral Health Behavior

Background and aims: dental caries are the most prevalent chronic disease and are caused due to complex interplay of behavioral, cultural, social, and dietary factors. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of dental caries and its relation to socioeconomic variables among Libyan children in Benghazi. Material and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 207 of children aged 6-12 years in Benghazi, Libya. Patient’s data were recorded in a special form such as parent’s educations, employment, home density, family income, tooth brushing, mouth rinse, dental floss, and dental service. The diagnostic criteria for caries incidence were based on the oral Health Organization (WHO) Criteria. The child’s caries were measured by dmft and DMFT indices. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. A Chi-square test was used, whereas a p-value less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: caries-free teeth in the permanent dentition were 63.8%, while caries teeth were 36.2%. The DMFT in boys and girls were (1.14±0.19, and 1.28±0.19 respectively). The (dmft) in primary dentition was higher in boys and girls (5.45±0.39 and 4.77±0.38 respectively). No significant differences were found for the DMFT index to gender, mother‘s employment, and family income (P >0.05). However, significant differences were observed regarding the mother’s education, father’s education, Father’s employment, and home density (P <0.0001). Conclusion: the socioeconomic levels an important predictor of caries presence in the children. The possibility of being caries free is increased with the increscent in the parent’s education; therefore the public health planners should consider these findings when planning interventions to promote dental health education and services

Life in Khartoum: Probing Forced Migration and Cultural Change Among War-Displaced Southern Sudanese Women

This report is based on ethnographic data that I gathered in 2001-2003 to document the adjustment experiences of Southern Sudanese displaced women in one of the major shantytowns in the capital city, Khartoum. These women represent the majority of the 1.8 million internally displaced persons (henceforth IDPs) who arrived in Greater Khartoum after the reactivation of the civil war in 1983, and of whom 260,000 were resettled in government-designated camps (UN 2000). The objective of this project was to examine the factors influencing the recent adoption of the practice of female circumcision (FC) by a group of these war-displaced women after their arrival in the camps. Before these women were forced to flee, FC was unheard of in their home communities in Southern Sudan. However, the practice is prevalent in Northern Sudan; 91 percent of the population adheres to it (SDH 1995). Using qualitative ethnographic methods, I examined the prevalence of the practice among the displaced, the extent to which Southern women may have experienced coercion, and whether these women began to accept various Northern justifications for the practice such as restoring virginity and sexual integrity. The views of those who did not adopt the practice are also incorporated for further comparisons. An analysis of the findings demonstrated a strong link between war-displacement and the adoption of FC. In addition to expanding the anthropological and demographic literature on the practice of female circumcision, and that on displacement, this study explored the phenomenon of cultural responses in times of human trauma and suffering. In this respect, the study addressed new areas of research by exploring the social world of IDPs in host communities and the incidence of cultural change in the context of social fragmentation and political violence. In writing this report, I hope to provide a new way of explaining cultural responses during times of pervasive violence and to look at the attempts of a displaced population to gain security and a sense of belonging after experiencing violence. This study reveals that most of the practices that were adopted by Southern women were part of a creative process of adjusting to a new environment and of an attempt by a forced migrant population to create familiarity and interpersonal links in a harsh urban environment. These findings are firmly located within the wider political context of human responses to state-sanctioned violence. For this reason, the study located these cultural responses within the broader milieu of economic, social and cultural change and coping mechanisms

Void Avoiding Opportunistic Routing Protocols for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

One of the most challenging issues in the routing protocols for underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) is the occurrence of void areas (communication void). That is, when void areas are present, the data packets could be trapped in a sensor node and cannot be sent further to reach the sink(s) due to the features of the UWSNs environment and/or the configuration of the network itself. Opportunistic routing (OR) is an innovative prototype in routing for UWSNs. In routing protocols employing the OR technique, the most suitable sensor node according to the criteria adopted by the protocol rules will be elected as a next-hop forwarder node to forward the data packets first. This routing method takes advantage of the broadcast nature of wireless sensor networks. OR has made a noticeable improvement in the sensor networks’ performance in terms of efficiency, throughput, and reliability. Several routing protocols that utilize OR in UWSNs have been proposed to extend the lifetime of the network and maintain its connectivity by addressing void areas. In addition, a number of survey papers were presented in routing protocols with different points of approach. Our paper focuses on reviewing void avoiding OR protocols. In this paper, we briefly present the basic concept of OR and its building blocks. We also indicate the concept of the void area and list the reasons that could lead to its occurrence, as well as reviewing the state-of-the-art OR protocols proposed for this challenging area and presenting their strengths and weaknesses

Void Avoidance Opportunistic Routing Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Much attention has been focused lately on the Opportunistic Routing technique (OR) that can overcome the restrictions of the harsh underwater environment and the unique structures of the Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSNs). OR enhances the performance of the UWSNs in both packet delivery ratio and energy saving. In our work; we propose a new routing protocol; called Energy Efficient Depth-based Opportunistic Routing with Void Avoidance for UWSNs (EEDOR-VA), to address the void area problem. EEDOR-VA is a reactive OR protocol that uses a hop count discovery procedure to update the hop count of the intermediate nodes between the source and the destination to form forwarding sets. EEDOR-VA forwarding sets can be selected with less or greater depth than the packet holder (i.e., source or intermediate node). It efficiently prevents all void/trapped nodes from being part of the forwarding sets and data transmission procedure; thereby saving network resources and delivering data packets at the lowest possible cost. The results of our extensive simulation study indicate that the EEDOR-VA protocol outperforms other protocols in terms of packet delivery ratio and energy consumption

Juvenile moyamoya and craniosynostosis in a child with deletion 1p32p31: Expanding the clinical spectrum of 1p32p31 deletion syndrome and a review of the literature

Moyamoya angiopathy (MA) is a rare cerebrovascular disorder characterised by the progressive occlusion of the internal carotid artery. Its aetiology is uncertain, but a genetic background seems likely, given the high MA familial rate. To investigate the aetiology of craniosynostosis and juvenile moyamoya in a 14-year-old male patient, we performed an array-comparative genomic hybridisation revealing a de novo interstitial deletion of 8.5 Mb in chromosome region 1p32p31. The deletion involved 34 protein coding genes, including NF1A, whose haploinsufficiency is indicated as being mainly responsible for the 1p32-p31 chromosome deletion syndrome phenotype (OMIM 613735). Our patient also has a deleted FOXD3 of the FOX gene family of transcription factors, which plays an important role in neural crest cell growth and differentiation. As the murine FOXD3-/- model shows craniofacial anomalies and abnormal common carotid artery morphology, it can be hypothesised that FOXD3 is involved in the pathogenesis of the craniofacial and vascular defects observed in our patient. In support of our assumption, we found in the literature another patient with a syndromic form of MA who had a deletion involving another FOX gene (FOXC1). In addition to describing the clinical history of our patient, we have reviewed all of the available literature concerning other patients with a 1p32p31 deletion, including cases from the Decipher database, and we have also reviewed the genetic disorders associated with MA, which is a useful guide for the diagnosis of syndromic form of MA

Identification of a dna methylation episignature in the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is the most common genomic disorder in humans and is the result of a recurrent 1.5 to 2.5 Mb deletion, encompassing approximately 20–40 genes, respectively. The clinical presentation of the typical deletion includes: Velocardiofacial, Di George, Opitz G/BBB and Conotruncalanomaly face syndromes. Atypical deletions (proximal, distal or nested) are rare and characterized mainly by normal phenotype or mild intellectual disability and variable clinical features. The pathogenetic mechanisms underlying this disorder are not completely understood. Because the 22q11.2 region harbours genes coding for transcriptional factors and chromatin remodelers, in this study, we performed analysis of genome‐wide DNA methylation of peripheral blood from 49 patients with 22q11.2DS using the Illumina Infinium Methylation EPIC bead chip arrays. This cohort comprises 43 typical, 2 proximal and 4 distal deletions. We demonstrated the evidence of a unique and highly specific episignature in all typical and proximal 22q11.2DS. The sensitivity and specificity of this signature was further confirmed by comparing it to over 1500 patients with other neurodevelopmental disorders with known episignatures. Mapping the 22q11.2DS DNA methylation episignature provides both novel insights into the molecular pathogenesis of this disorder and an effective tool in the molecular diagnosis of 22q11.2DS

Autosomal recessive IL12RB1 mutation: A case report of a Sudanese child and his father

IntroductionMendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial disease (MSMD) is a rare inherited condition characterized by selective susceptibility to weakly virulent mycobacteria, such as substrains of the bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine and different environmental mycobacteria.Case presentationA 7-year-old Sudanese boy was referred to the immunology clinic with a suspected diagnosis of MSMD. This followed multiple presentations with disseminated tuberculosis and typhoid fever. Genetic testing surprisingly revealed pathogenic homozygous variants in IL12RB1 Exon 9, c.913A>T (p. Lys305*) in both the patient and his father, with a completely healthy asymptomatic carrier mother who is not blood related to the patient’s father.ConclusionIt is challenging to diagnose MSMD, especially in developing countries where health systems are poor and have limited resources. Family history and genetic tests may help in early MSMD treatment and avoiding disease complications

An energy efficient fuzzy logic cluster formation protocol in wireless sensor networks

Despite significant advancements in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), energy conservation remains one of the most important research challenges. Researchers have investigated architectures and topologies that allow energy efficient operation of WSNs. One of the popular techniques in this regard is clustering. While many researchers have investigated cluster head selection, this paper investigates the cluster formation. In particular, we propose a novel scheme, the Fuzzy Logic Cluster Formation Protocol (FLCFP), which uses Fuzzy Logic Inference System (FIS) in the cluster formation process. We demonstrate that using multiple parameters in cluster formation reduces energy consumption. We compare our technique with the well known LEACH protocol to show that using a multi parameter FIS enhances the network lifetime significantly