SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND HARDNESS STUDIES OF NANO RICE HUSK ASH REINFORCED AL6061 NANOCOMPOSITES

Rice husk ash is produced after combustion of rice husk, which is an industrial waste. Rice husk ash consists of 92% of SiO2. This paper describes the synthesis of completely combusted white coloured Nano Rice Husk Ash to nanoparticle size using planetary ball mill, characterization of Rice Husk Ash and Nano Rice Husk Ash using energy dispersive X-ray Analysis, X-ray Diffraction, Dynamic Light Scattering, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Thermogravimetric Analysis and Differential Thermal Analysis. For synthesizing nanoparticles, the macro size white coloured Rice Husk Ash is taken in a planetary ball mill and milled until getting nano-size particles. The characterization results revealed that after 80 hours of ball milling the Rice Husk Ash particle size is reduced to nano range, which is an amorphous structure and is thermally stable. The nano Rice Husk Ash is successfully reinforced in molten aluminium 6061 using an electrical furnace equipped with stirrer and sonicator. Improvement in hardness of new aluminium 6061 nanocomposites is observed with the reinforcement of nano rice husk ash. It is concluded that the optimum percentage of nano Rice Husk Ash reinforcement in aluminium 6061 matrix is 2 percent in weight to obtain better hardness

Metformin in adults with type 1 diabetes:Design and methods of REducing with MetfOrmin Vascular Adverse Lesions (REMOVAL): An international multicentre trial

Introduction: Cardiovascular (CV) disease is a major cause of reduced life expectancy in type 1 diabetes (T1D). Intensive insulin therapy prevents CV complications but is constrained by hypoglycaemia and weight gain. Adjunct metformin reduces insulin dose requirement and stabilises weight but there are no data on its cardiovascular effects. Aims: We have initiated an international double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial (REMOVAL: REducing with MetfOrmin Vascular Adverse Lesions in type 1 diabetes) to examine whether metformin reduces progression of atherosclerosis in adults with T1D. Individuals ≥40 years of age with T1D for ≥5 years are eligible if they have ≥3 of 10 specified CV risk factors. The enrolment target is 500 participants in 17 international centres. Materials and Methods: After 12 weeks single-blind placebo-controlled run-in, participants with ≥70 % adherence are randomized to metformin or matching placebo for three years with insulin titrated towards HbA1c 7.0% (53 mmol/mol)]. The primary endpoint is progression of averaged mean far wall common carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) measured by ultrasonography at baseline, 12, 24 and 36 months. This design provides 90% power to detect a mean difference of 0.0167 mm in cIMT progression between treatment arms (α = 0.05), assuming up to 20% withdraw or discontinue treatment. Other endpoints include HbA1c, weight, LDL cholesterol, insulin requirement, progression of retinopathy, endothelial function and frequency of hypoglycaemia. Results and Conclusions: REMOVAL is the largest clinical trial of adjunct metformin therapy in T1D to date and will provide clinically meaningful information on its potential to impact CV disease and other complications

Sugar score and dental caries experience among high school children

Aim or Purpose: To know the association between sugar score and dental caries experience among high school children in East Coastal Region of India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study with clinical examination was carried out on 750 high school children. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee, SIBAR Institute of Dental Sciences and was later approved by the Nandamuri Taraka Rama (NTR) University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada (Pr.201/IEC/SIBAR/2019-D190030903). Dental caries was measured using WHO criteria (1997) and sweet score was measured using the Nizel and Papas 24 hour diet approach. Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, spearman correlation test, and binary logistic regression were utilized for factual investigation with level of significance at p<0.05. Results: With mean age as 14.9 ± 0.693, the children mean DMFT was 0.72 ± 1.06 and children with one and two carious lesions were 169 (22.3%) and 91 (12.1%) respectively, for a total prevalence of 39.2%. Only 233 children (31.1%) had no sugar exposure at all per day while 38.1% having one sugar exposure per day. The sweet score was excellent in 488 (65.1%) subjects, with few pupils (4%) in the ''Watch out zone'' with a statistically significant (P = 0.0001) relationship between DMFT, daily sugar exposure frequency, and the sweet score. Conclusions: Low sugar scores and dental caries experience in the study population reflects controlled environment on diet and hygiene practices. However, a strong primary message regarding the harmfulness of sugar in non-communicable diseases should be conveyed to children because there is direct observation between the frequency of sugar consumption and dental caries

Automatic Landmark Identification in Lateral Cephalometric Images Using Optimized Template Matching

Cephalometric analysis has long helped researchers and orthodontic practitioners for evaluation of facial growth, understanding facial morphology and its ethnic variations, orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning for patients presenting with malocclusion and dentofacial deformities. Mostly, inaccuracy in cephalometric measurements is a reflection of errors in identification and accurate localization of anatomical landmarks. The accuracy of landmark identification is greatly influenced by knowledge of the operator and experience. Moreover, the process of manual detection is tedious and time consuming. Therefore, a need for development of robust and accurate algorithms for automatic detection of landmarks on cephalometric images has been comprehended. In this work, we hereby propose an optimized template matching (OTM) algorithm which could automatically localize hard and soft tissue anatomical landmarks on lateral cephalometric images. This algorithm was tested for sixteen hard and eight soft tissue landmarks chosen in 12 regions on 37 lateral cephalograms obtained from subjects of either sex covering wide spectrum of malocclusion cases. The results of proposed automatic algorithm were compared to that of manual marking conducted by three experienced orthodontic specialists. All the 24 landmarks (100%) were detected within 3.0 mm error range of manual marking, 23 (96%) were detected within 2.5 mm error range and 16 (66.6%) landmarks were detected within 2.0 mm error range. The optimized template matching (OTM) algorithm may prove to be a promising approach in automatic detection of anatomical landmarks on cephalometric images

A pilot study for segmentation of pharyngeal and sino-nasal airway subregions by automatic contour initialization

Purpose The objective of the present study is to put forward a novel automatic segmentation algorithm to segment pharyngeal and sino-nasal airway subregions on 3D CBCT imaging datasets. Methods A fully automatic segmentation of sino-nasal and pharyngeal airway subregions was implemented in MATLAB programing environment. The novelty of the algorithm is automatic initialization of contours in upper airway subregions. The algorithm is based on boundary definitions of the human anatomy along with shape constraints with an automatic initialization of contours to develop a complete algorithm which has a potential to enhance utility at clinical level. Post-initialization; five segmentation techniques: Chan-Vese level set (CVL), localized Chan-Vese level set (LCVL), Bhattacharya distance level set (BDL), Grow Cut (GC), and Sparse Field method (SFM) were used to test the robustness of automatic initialization. Results Precision and F-score were found to be greater than 80% for all the regions with all five segmentation methods. High precision and low recall were observed with BDL and GC techniques indicating an under segmentation. Low precision and high recall values were observed with CVL and SFM methods indicating an over segmentation. A Larger F-score value was observed with SFM method for all the subregions. Minimum F-score value was observed for naso-ethmoidal and sphenoidal air sinus region, whereas a maximum F-score was observed in maxillary air sinuses region. The contour initialization was more accurate for maxillary air sinuses region in comparison with sphenoidal and naso-ethmoid regions. Conclusion The overall F-score was found to be greater than 80% for all the airway subregions using five segmentation techniques, indicating accurate contour initialization. Robustness of the algorithm needs to be further tested on severely deformed cases and on cases with different races and ethnicity for it to have global acceptance in Katradental radKatraiology workflow

Automatic Landmark Identification in Lateral Cephalometric Images Using Optimized Template Matching

Cephalometric analysis has long helped researchers and orthodontic practitioners for evaluation of facial growth, understanding facial morphology and its ethnic variations, orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning for patients presenting with malocclusion and dentofacial deformities. Mostly, inaccuracy in cephalometric measurements is a reflection of errors in identification and accurate localization of anatomical landmarks. The accuracy of landmark identification is greatly influenced by knowledge of the operator and experience. Moreover, the process of manual detection is tedious and time consuming. Therefore, a need for development of robust and accurate algorithms for automatic detection of landmarks on cephalometric images has been comprehended. In this work, we hereby propose an optimized template matching (OTM) algorithm which could automatically localize hard and soft tissue anatomical landmarks on lateral cephalometric images. This algorithm was tested for sixteen hard and eight soft tissue landmarks chosen in 12 regions on 37 lateral cephalograms obtained from subjects of either sex covering wide spectrum of malocclusion cases. The results of proposed automatic algorithm were compared to that of manual marking conducted by three experienced orthodontic specialists. All the 24 landmarks (100%) were detected within 3.0 mm error range of manual marking, 23 (96%) were detected within 2.5 mm error range and 16 (66.6%) landmarks were detected within 2.0 mm error range. The optimized template matching (OTM) algorithm may prove to be a promising approach in automatic detection of anatomical landmarks on cephalometric images

VIG-1 is required for maintenance of genome stability in Caenorhabditis elegans

To explore the function of VIG-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans, we analyzed the phenotypes of two vig-1 deletion mutants: vig-1(tm3383) and vig-1(ok2536). Both vig-1 mutants exhibited phenotypes associated with genome instability, such as a high incidence of males (Him) and increased embryonic lethality. These phenotypes became more evident in succeeding generations, implying that the germline of vig-1 accumulates DNA damage over generations. To examine whether vig-1 causes a defect in the DNA damage response, we treated worms with UV or camptothecin, a specific topoisomerase I inhibitor. We observed that the embryonic survival of the vig-1 mutants was reduced compared with that of the wild-type worms. Our results thus suggest that VIG-1 is required for maintaining genome stability in response to endogenous and exogenous genotoxic stresses