Dentofacial and Cranial Changes in Down Syndrome

AbstractObjectivesThis study aimed to determine the prevalence of certain oral characteristics usually associated with Down syndrome and to determine the oral health status of these patients.MethodsThe cross-sectional study was conducted among patients attending a special education program at Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India. The study design consisted of closed-ended questions on demographic characteristics (age, sex, and education and income of parents), dietary habits, and oral hygiene habits. Clinical examination included assessment of oral hygiene according to Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), dental caries according to decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index, periodontal status according to the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN), and malocclusion according to Angles classification of malocclusion. Examinations were carried out using a using a CPI probe and a mouth mirror in accordance with World Health Organization criteria and methods. Craniometric measurements, including maximum head length and head breadth were measured for each participant using Martin spreading calipers centered on standard anthropological methods.ResultsThe majority of the patients were males (n = 63; 82%) with age ranging from 6–40 years. The Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score of the patients indicated that 31% had moderate mental disability and 52% had mild mental disability. 22% exhibited hearing and speech problems.12% had missing teeth and 15% had retained deciduous teeth in adult population. The overall prevalence of dental caries in the study population was 78%. DMFT, CPITN and OHI scores of the study group were 3.8 ± 2.52, 2.10 ± 1.14 and 1.92 ± 0.63 respectively. The vast majority of patients required treatment (90%), primarily of scaling, root planing, and oral hygiene education. 16% of patients reported CPITN scores of 4 (deep pockets) requiring complex periodontal care. The prevalence of malocclusion was 97% predominantly of Class III malocclusions. Further 14% presented with fractured anterior teeth primarily central incisor. The percentage means of cephalic index was 84.6% in the study population. The brachycephalic and hyperbrachycephalic type of head shape was dominant in the Down syndrome individuals (90%).ConclusionThe most common dentofacial anomaly seen in these individuals was fissured tongue followed by macroglossia

The Plethora of Science Afforded by a Lunar Swirl : A White Paper to the Planetary Science Decadal Survey Committee

Whitepaper #166 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: surface/geological evolution; Mercury and/or the Moon; other science themes: Physics, Heliophysics, Magnetohydrodynamics, Volcanology, ISRU, PhotometryLunar swirls should be the top priority target of the next lunar mission. The swirls are a fascinating lunar feature, as well as a laboratory to study the solar wind, space weathering, plasma weathering, and plasma kinetics. In this white paper we present examples of broad scientific interest in lunar swirls as well as some example mission types

Impact of Curriculum Implementation Support Programme in changing the Knowledge, Attitude and Perceptions of Medical faculties towards Competency Based Medical Education in a Private Medical College

Background: CBME is a skill-based curriculum focusing on the desired competencies stated to be achieved by merits. To sensitize and train the faculty about CBME, the Curriculum Implementation Support Program (CISP) workshops have been held at various colleges across India. Aim& Objective: To find out the changes in the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes among medical teachers regarding CBME following CISP training. Methods and Material: The study carried out was cross-sectional and the data was collected before and after conduction of the CISP training programme. All the medical teachers who were enrolled in the CISP training were included in the study. The outcome result for knowledge-based questions was recorded as multiple choice options and that for attitudes and perceptions was recorded with a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Statistical analysis used: Descriptive statistics were calculated using numbers and simple proportions. Results: There was a significant improvement in the knowledge and perceptions of medical teachers following CISP training showing its impact. The perceived challenges as felt by the faculties also reduced substantially. Conclusions: Capacity building programmes must be conducted at regular intervals for faculties for successful implementation of all the components of CBME

Science Opportunities offered by Mercury's Ice-Bearing Polar Deposits

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Lunar Volatiles and Solar System Science

Understanding the origin and evolution of the lunar volatile system is not only compelling lunar science, but also fundamental Solar System science. This white paper (submitted to the US National Academies' Decadal Survey in Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032) summarizes recent advances in our understanding of lunar volatiles, identifies outstanding questions for the next decade, and discusses key steps required to address these questions

Non-equilibrium processing of magnetic nanocomposites

Exchange coupled magnetic nanocomposites provide a novel methodology for producing high performance permanent magnets. These materials are comprised of two phases; one phase is a magnetically hard material, such as Nd2Fe14B with high coercivity; the second phase is magnetically soft, e.g., α-Fe with large magnetization. However, the magnetic properties of these materials are far less than theoretical predictions because of challenges in understanding the processing mechanisms to achieve enhanced exchange coupling between the hard and the soft grains and thereby enhance the magnetic properties. Hence, in this work, the time evolution of the microstructure of Nd-Fe-B based nanocomposites synthesized by annealing of mechanically milled powders was investigated by Rietveld refinement XRD analysis, TEM, EXAFS and in-situ neutron diffraction. This study revealed how processing variables influence magnetic properties. Melt-spun amorphous Nd-Fe-B ribbons and arc melted Nd-Fe-B cast buttons were employed as starting materials. Milling led to precipitation of α-Fe nanocrystals in initially amorphous ribbons. EXAFS studies revealed that deformation induced the formation of vacancy–interstitial pair type free volume – anti free volume (FV–AFV) defects, which migrated during milling, facilitating the atomic redistribution required to precipitate α-Fe nanocrystals in the amorphous phase. Milling of the cast button resulted in crystal → amorphous → crystal transformations. Milling induced ballistic atomic mixing led to chemical and structural disorder; increase in the enthalpy of disorder induced amorphization. As in the case of milled ribbons, further milling of the button resulted in FV–AFV pair defect formation and nanocrystal precipitation occurred due to enhanced diffusion. Milling induced changes in local structure strongly influenced the magnetic properties. A kinetic model was developed to explain the steady state crystal size. This model predicted that steady state crystal size was a result of dynamic equilibrium between defect enhanced diffusional crystal growth and crystal attrition, resulting from impact induced ballistic jumps. An increase in number density and a decrease in steady state precipitate size of -Fe nanocrystals with increasing milling intensity were also predicted; which was substantiated by the experimental data. In-situ neutron diffraction study of crystallization kinetics revealed that Nd2Fe14B phase formed by diffusion of Fe atoms in -Fe nanocrystals to the Fe-lean amorphous matrix. Good magnetic properties were achieved when the annealing temperature was in a temperature window that was adequate to induce complete crystallization and microstructural uniformity, but not too high to facilitate crystal growth. -Fe nanocrystals acted as nucleation centers. Milling at higher intensities produced a higher number density of smaller -Fe nanocrystals, which induced considerable impingement of diffusion fields around randomly distributed precipitates. This led to smaller average crystal sizes in the post-anneal microstructure, resulting in enhanced exchange interactions and good magnetic properties. Thus, this work has revealed the atomistic mechanisms that control the processing of magnetic nanocomposites. These results help to understand which microstructure will yield good magnetic properties and what processing conditions should be employed to obtain such a microstructure.Doctor of Philosophy (MSE

Investigating the retention of solar wind implanted Helium-3 on the moon from the analysis of multi-wavelength remote sensing data

The Moon has a large potential for space exploration and mining valuable resources. In particular, 3He provides rich sources of non-radioactive fusion fuel to fulfill cislunar and Earth’s energy demands, if found economically feasible. The present study focuses on developing advanced techniques to prospect 3He resources on the Moon from multi-sensor remote sensing perspectives. It characterizes optical changes in regolith materials due to space weathering as a new retention parameter and introduces a novel machine learning inversion model for retrieving the physical properties of the regolith. Our analysis suggests that the reddening of the soil predominantly governs the retention, along with attenuated mafic band depths. Moreover, semi-variograms show that the spatial variability of 3He is aligned with the episodic weathering events at different timescales. We also observed that pyroclastic regoliths with high dielectric constant and increased surface scattering mechanisms exhibited a 3He abundant region. For ejecta cover, the retention was weakly associated with the dielectric contrast and a circular polarization ratio (CPR), mainly because of the 3He-deficient nature of the regolith. Furthermore, cross-variograms revealed inherent cyclicity attributed to the sequential process of weathering effects. Our study provides new insights into the physical nature and near-surface alterations of lunar regoliths that influence the spatial distribution and retention of solar wind implanted 3He