Correlation of ultrasonographic estimated fetal weight with actual birth weight at a rural setting

Background: Ultrasound estimation of fetal weight in term pregnancies is used to determine fetal growth. The objective of this study was to assess the precision of sonographic estimation of fetal weight in normal vaginal deliveries at a rural setting.Methods: The study was cross-sectional. A group of 74 pregnant women delivered normally in Muglad hospital in West Kordofan, Sudan, were considered in the study. Fetal weight was estimated by Hadlock and shephards formulae within one week prior to delivery and then newborn weight was taken within 24 hours after delivery. Data were collected by a questionnaire and medical examination as well as sonographic examination. Data analysis was done by SPSS version 23 and Kruskal Wallis Test (post-hoc analysis) Pearson’s correlation coefficient within 95% confidence interval. p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: The correlation, by Paired sample, to assess fetal weight was as follows: between Hadlock and shephards was 0.901 (p < 0.001), between Hadlock and AFW was 0.908 (p < 0.001) and between Shephards and AFW was 0.781 (p < 0.001).Conclusions: Estimation of fetal weight by Hadlock has been more correlated with actual fetal weight (AFW) than that done with shephards. The study recommends using Hadlock formula which is more accurate in estimation of fetal weight by sonography

Gallium Phosphide photoanode coated with TiO₂ and CoOₓ for stable photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Gallium Phosphide (GaP) has a band gap of 2.26 eV and a valance band edge that is more negative than the water oxidation level. Hence, it may be a promising material for photoelectrochemical water splitting. However, one thing GaP has in common with other III-V semiconductors is that it corrodes in photoelectrochemical reactions. Cobalt oxide (CoOₓ) is a chemically stable and highly active oxygen evolution reaction co-catalyst. In this study, we protected a GaP photoanode by using a 20 nm TiO₂ as a protection layer and a 2 nm cobalt oxide co-catalyst layer, which were both deposited atomic layer deposition (ALD). A GaP photoanode that was modified by CoOₓ exhibited much higher photocurrent, potential, and photon-to-current efficiency than a bare GaP photoanode under AM1.5G illumination. A photoanode that was coated with both TiO₂ and CoOₓ layers was stable for over 24 h during constant reaction in 1 M NaOH (pH 13.7) solution under one sun illumination

Influence of socioeconomic factors on pregnancy outcome in women with structural heart disease

OBJECTIVE: Cardiac disease is the leading cause of indirect maternal mortality. The aim of this study was to analyse to what extent socioeconomic factors influence the outcome of pregnancy in women with heart disease.  METHODS: The Registry of Pregnancy and Cardiac disease is a global prospective registry. For this analysis, countries that enrolled ≥10 patients were included. A combined cardiac endpoint included maternal cardiac death, arrhythmia requiring treatment, heart failure, thromboembolic event, aortic dissection, endocarditis, acute coronary syndrome, hospitalisation for cardiac reason or intervention. Associations between patient characteristics, country characteristics (income inequality expressed as Gini coefficient, health expenditure, schooling, gross domestic product, birth rate and hospital beds) and cardiac endpoints were checked in a three-level model (patient-centre-country).  RESULTS: A total of 30 countries enrolled 2924 patients from 89 centres. At least one endpoint occurred in 645 women (22.1%). Maternal age, New York Heart Association classification and modified WHO risk classification were associated with the combined endpoint and explained 37% of variance in outcome. Gini coefficient and country-specific birth rate explained an additional 4%. There were large differences between the individual countries, but the need for multilevel modelling to account for these differences disappeared after adjustment for patient characteristics, Gini and country-specific birth rate.  CONCLUSION: While there are definite interregional differences in pregnancy outcome in women with cardiac disease, these differences seem to be mainly driven by individual patient characteristics. Adjustment for country characteristics refined the results to a limited extent, but maternal condition seems to be the main determinant of outcome

Salivary pH changes and biofilm formation during active orthodontic treatment with clear aligners and fixed orthodontic appliances

Amaç: İki farklı ortodontik tedavide biyofilm oluşumunu ve pH değişikliklerini incelemek.Gereç ve Yöntem: Bu randomize klinik çalışma, 40 hastanın pH ölçümleri ve ortalama plak indeks değerleri kullanılarak yapıldı. Çalışma grubu ortodontik apareyin tipine göre iki gruba ayrıldı, Grup A; 15 hizalayıcı hasta, Grup B; Metal ve elastik ligatürlü 25 sabit aparey hastası. Değerler T0'da (periodontal temizleme ve cilalamadan sonra) ve T1'de (2 hafta sonra) alınmıştır. PH dijital Ph-metre kullanılarak, plak ise renklendirici ajan ile tanımlanarak değerlendirilmiştir. Analizde pH değerleri, plak ortalama indeksi ve plak yüzdesi kullanılmıştır. İstatistiksel analizde Paired t-test, Independent t-test ve Pearson Correlation testleri kullanıldı.Bulgular: Metal ligatür ile 2 haftalık sabit ortodontik tedaviden sonra tükürük pH değerlerinde önemli bir düşüş olmuştur. Ortodontik tedavi, plak ortalama indeksini 2 haftada önemli ölçüde artırırken, en fazla sabit elastik ligatür grubunda, ardından sabit metal grubunda ve en az plak grubunda biyofilm oluşumu görülmüştür.Sonuç: Farklı ortodontik tedavi türleri ve ligatürler, ortodontik tedavi sırasında oluşan plak miktarını ve pH'ı önemli ölçüde etkiler ve değiştirir. Hizalayıcılar tükürük pH'ı ve plak oluşumu üzerinde en az etkiye sahiptir. Ağız hijyeni bozulmuş hastalar için hizalayıcılar tavsiye edilirken, elastik ligatürlerden kaçınılmalıdır.Aim: To examine the biofilm formation and pH changes in two different orthodontic treatments.Materials and Methods: The study sample included 40 patients, who were divided into two groups according to the type of orthodontic appliance: Group A, 15 aligner patients and Group B, 25 fixed appliances patients. Group B received both metal and elastic ligatures for 2 weeks consecutively to test the effect of ligature type. Salivary pH values, plaque index, and plaque percentage were measured at T0 (after scaling and polishing) and T1 (2 weeks after). pH was measured digitally, and plaque was identified by a discoloring agent. The Paired t-test, Independent t-test, and Pearson Correlation tests were used in the statistical analysis.Results: There was significant decrease in salivary pH values after two weeks of with metal ligature in Group B. Orthodontic treatment significantly increased the plaque mean index in 2 weeks, but it was the most in fixed elastic ligature group, followed by fixed metal group, and the least plaque and biofilm formed was in aligner treatments.Conclusion: Different types of orthodontic treatment and ligatures significantly effected and changed salivary pH and the amount of plaque formation during orthodontic treatment. Aligners had the least effect on salivary pH and plaque formation while fixed treatment with elastic ligature affected the most. Therefore, aligner treatment may be more beneficial for patients with compromised oral hygiene

Simplified gamma-ray self-attenuation correction in bulk samples

Author 1: Khater, A. E. M., Physics Department, College of Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaGamma-ray spectrometry is a very powerful tool for radioactivity measurements. For accurate gamma-ray spectrometry, certain correction measures should be considered, for instance, systematic uncertainty in the photo-peak efficiency due to the differences between the matrix (density and chemical composition) of the reference and the other bulk samples. Therefore, gamma-ray attenuation correction factors are of major concern for precise gamma-ray spectrometry. Simple practical correction for the photo-peak efficiency, due to discrepancies in both the samples matrices and densities (selfattenuation), is performed in this study. This study suggests a brief measurement of relative photons transmission through both reference and unknown bulk samples where the variations of photon transmissions are assumed to be linearly correlated to the samples’ densities. Specific correction factors would be produced for each analyzed sample to be considered when their activities are calculated. Practically, the suggested method was verified and succeeded in improving the obtained results