Cone beam computed tomography evaluation of ponticulus posticus in patients with cleft lip and palate: a retrospective radio-anatomic study

Background: Ponticulus posticus (PP) is an abnormal bony bridge on the atlas. It plays a significant role in patients undergoing C1 lateral mass screw procedure. Patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) have higher risk than patients in general population for the appearance of cervical vertebral anomalies. The purpose of the this study was twofold: to determine the prevalence and characteristics of PP in patients with CLP, and to compare the findings with patients in general population using cone beam computed tomography. Materials and methods: Cone beam computed tomography images from 54 individuals who had undergone surgical repair of cleft lip and/or palate were analysed as the study group. For comparison purposes a control group was randomly selected from 108 patients and matched with the CLP subjects. Results: Although 12 of the 54 (22.3%) patients with surgically repaired cleft lip and/or palate in the study group were identified to have PP, only 10 of the 108 (9.2%) patients in the control group had PP. The distribution of the presence of PP between the groups was statistically significant. Conclusions: Ponticulus posticus is an important anomaly and the presence of PP is important for patients. PP can have clinical significance in cervical spine surgery as this study has indicated that the likelihood of encountering PP is higher in patients with CLP. We suggest that PP should be taken into account prior to cervical vertebral surgery in patients with CLP. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 1: 72–78)

When local poverty is more important than your income: Mental health in minorities in inner cities

Volkswagen Foundation and the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research . Grant Number: BMBF 01 EL080

A novel selection of optimal statistical features in the DWPT domain for discrimination of ictal and seizure-free electroencephalography signals

Properly determining the discriminative features which characterize the inherent behaviors of electroencephalography (EEG) signals remains a great challenge for epileptic seizure detection. In this present study, a novel feature selection scheme based on the discrete wavelet packet decomposition and cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) was proposed. The normal as well as epileptic EEG recordings were frst decomposed into various frequency bands by means of wavelet packet decomposition, and subsequently, statistical features at all developed nodes in the wavelet packet decomposition tree were derived. Instead of using the complete set of the extracted features to construct a wavelet neural networks-based classifer, an optimal feature subset that maximizes the predictive competence of the classifer was selected by using the CSA. Experimental results on the publicly available benchmarks demonstrated that the proposed feature subset selection scheme achieved promising recognition accuracies of 98.43–100%, and the results were statistically signifcant using z-test with p value <0.0001

Age- and region-specific hepatitis B prevalence in Turkey estimated using generalized linear mixed models: a systematic review

Toy M, Önder FO, Wörmann T, et al. Age- and region-specific hepatitis B prevalence in Turkey estimated using generalized linear mixed models: a systematic review. BMC infectious diseases. 2011;11(1): 337.BACKGROUND: To provide a clear picture of the current hepatitis B situation, the authors performed a systematic review to estimate the age- and region-specific prevalence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Turkey. METHODS: A total of 339 studies with original data on the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in Turkey and published between 1999 and 2009 were identified through a search of electronic databases, by reviewing citations, and by writing to authors. After a critical assessment, the authors included 129 studies, divided into categories: 'age-specific'; 'region-specific'; and 'specific population group'. To account for the differences among the studies, a generalized linear mixed model was used to estimate the overall prevalence across all age groups and regions. For specific population groups, the authors calculated the weighted mean prevalence. RESULTS: The estimated overall population prevalence was 4.57, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.58, 5.76, and the estimated total number of CHB cases was about 3.3 million. The outcomes of the age-specific groups varied from 2.84, (95% CI: 2.60, 3.10) for the 0-14-year olds to 6.36 (95% CI: 5.83, 6.90) in the 25-34-year-old group. CONCLUSION: There are large age-group and regional differences in CHB prevalence in Turkey, where CHB remains a serious health problem

Synthesis of macrocyclic receptors with intrinsic fluorescence featuring quinizarin moieties

An unprecedented class of macrocycles with intrinsic fluorescence consisting of phenolic trimers and quinizarin is developed. Though they are lacking strong hydrogen bonds as observed in calixarenes, the two examples introduced here each adopt a vase-like conformation with all four aromatic units pointing in one direction (syn orientation). This “cone” conformation has been confirmed by NMR spectroscopy, molecular modeling, and X-ray crystallography. The laminar, electron-rich fluorophore as part of the macrocycle allows additional contacts to enclosed guest molecules

Insoluble granite-grit allows broiler chicks to have better growth performance and gut health

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of insoluble granite-grit on growth performance and gut health status of broiler chicks. One hundred and sixty 14-day-old broiler chicks were allocated to experimental groups control and grit feeding. Each group included 80 birds divided by four replicates, each consisting of 20 birds, 10 males and 10 females. Feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, carcass weight, dressing percentage, gut length, abdominal fat pad, and liver, heart, and gizzard weights were determined. Starter diet included 230 g crude protein (CP) kg&#8722;1 and 3.15 Mcal metabolizable energy (ME) kg&#8722;1 during the days 14 to 21; grower diet included 212 g CP kg&#8722;1 and 3.20 Mcal ME kg&#8722;1; and finisher diet included 190 g CP kg&#8722;1 and 3.20 Mcal ME kg-1. Control birds were fed broiler diets, while grit-fed birds were allowed to consume broiler diets, including 3% insoluble granite-grit. Grit feeding improved the final body weight (2268 vs. 2336 g) with better feed efficiency (2.03 vs. 1.95) and less feed intake (3780 vs. 3764 g). Grit feeding increased gizzard weight (31.63 vs. 48.00 g) without affecting carcass weight (1643 vs. 1708 g), dressing percentage (73.50 vs. 73.60%), liver weight (42.69 vs. 40.69 g), heart weight (12.00 vs. 11.63 g), abdominal fat pad (34.50 vs. 35.38 g), and gut length (229.3 vs. 220.7 cm) of broilers. Grit feeding affects daily gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio positively by increasing gizzard development and health

Azathia crown ethers carrying pyrene pendant as receptor molecules for metal sensor systems

A series of crown ethers carrying a pyrene group with nitrogensulfur donor atoms, that differ in having three, four and five sulfur atoms in the macrocycle was designed and synthesized by the reaction of the corresponding macrocyclic compound and 1-bromomethylpyrene. The influence of metal cations such as Mn 2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Co2+, Ni 2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Hg 2+, Pb2+ and Al3+ on the spectroscopic properties of the ligands was investigated in acetonitriledichloromethane (1:1) by means of absorption and emission spectrometry. Absorption spectra show isosbestic points in the spectrophotometric titration of Fe2+, Zn2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and Hg2+. The results of spectrophotometric titration experiments disclosed the complexation compositions and complex stability constants of the novel ligands with Fe 2+, Zn2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and Hg 2+ cations. The monoazatetrathia crown ether showed good sensitivity for Cu2+ with linearity in the range 5.0×10-72. 5×10-6 M and detection limit of 1.6×10-8 M. © 2010 Elsevier B.V

Complexation of metal ions with the novel azathia crown ethers carrying anthracene pendant in acetonitrile-dichloromethane

A series of crown ethers carrying an anthracene group with nitrogen-sulfur donor atom, which differ in having three, four and five sulfur atoms in the macrocycle was designed and synthesized by the reaction of the corresponding macrocyclic compound and 9-chloromethyl-anthracene. The influence of metal cations such as Al3+, Zn2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Co2+, Ni2+, Mn2+, Cu2+, Cd2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+ on the spectroscopic properties of the ligands was investigated in acetonitrile-dichloromethane (1:1) by means of absorption and emission spectrometry. Absorption spectra show isosbestic points in the spectrophotometric titration of Al3+, Zn2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Cu2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+ the results of which disclosed the complexation compositions and complex stability constants of the novel ligands with these cations. The monoazapentathia crown ether showed sensitivity for Al3+ with linear range and detection limit of 2.6 × 10-6 M-2.6 × 10-5 M and 8.1 × 10-7 M, respectively. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved