Skin delivery of 5-fluorouracil via ethosomes using microwave as skin permeation enhancement technique / Nauman Rahim Khan

This project focused on formulation and investigation of interplay effects of ethosomes, ethanol and microwave for enhanced skin drug retention with minimal systemic absorption. The microwave was used to modify the skin barrier properties to enhance ethosomes and/or drug penetration/and drug retention which is detrimental to treat local malignant melanoma and to enhance patient compliance. Ethosomes are known to fuse with skin to enable local drug retention. Pre-treatment of skin with microwave and applying liquified medicine is deemed to “cement” the skin thereby raising skin drug deposition. 5-fluorouracil loaded ethosomes were prepared and subjected physicochemical characterization. The molecular characteristics of untreated, microwave and/or ethosomes and/or ethanol-treated skins were examined by ATR-FTIR and raman spectroscopy, DSC and SEM techniques. The skin drug retention was promoted using larger ethosomes with negative zeta potentials that repelled anionic lipids of skin and hindered vesicle and/or anionic drug penetration into deep layers. Due to low ethanol, they were less able to fluidize the lipid and defluidize the protein domains at epidermis to enlarge aqueous pores for drug permeation. Pre-treatment of skin by 2450 MHz microwave for 2.5 min further increased skin drug penetration and retention of E5 ethosomes and provided lower drug permeation than cases treated for 1.15 min and 5 min. Pre-treating skin with microwave fluidized lipid and defluidized protein domains of skin that promoted transdermal drug penetration

Laser Gingivectomy in a Patient Undergoing Orthodontic Treatment: A Case Report

ABSTRACT The benefits of using a laser in soft tissue treatment include less oedema, reduced inflammation, and quicker recovery. Nowadays, soft-tissue interventions, including periodontal recontouring, operculectomy, or frenectomy, are possible thanks to the introduction of diode lasers that are strongly absorbable melanin and haemoglobin. In this case, a 17-year-old patient at the near end of her orthodontic treatment was concerned about her gummy smile. She also had a gingival swelling in the lower anterior segment. Furthermore, she had a high labial frenum attachment. It was decided to go for a gingivectomy and frenectomy with the help of a laser (Diode Lasotronix 980nm).

Energy-aware peering routing protocol for indoor hospital body area network communication

The recent research in Body Area Networks (BAN) is focused on making its communication more reliable, energy efficient, secure, and to better utilize system resources. In this paper we propose a novel BAN network architecture for indoor hospital environments, and a new mechanism of peer discovery with routing table construction that helps to reduce network traffic load, energy consumption, and improves BAN reliability. We have performed extensive simulations in the Castalia simulation environment to show that our proposed protocol has better performance in terms of reduced BAN traffic load, increased number of successful packets received by nodes, reduced number of packets forwarded by intermediate nodes, and overall lower energy consumption compared to other protocols

Association of Sociodemographic Factors with Trends of Self-Medication Practice and Its Hazard Perception for Oral Health Problems among Patient

OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of sociodemographic factors with the trends of self-medication practice and its hazard perception among patients METHODOLOGY: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on the patients visiting Sharif Medical and Dental College from June 2019 to June 2020. Data was collected using a validated questionnaire from 142 patients. Chi-square and fisher exact tests were used to find the association of trends of self-medication practice and hazard perception with sociodemographic factors. RESULTS: The patients in the age range of 18 to 29 years practiced self-medication the most. The triggering factor for use of medication was toothache among all ages. The most commonly used drug was reported to be analgesics. The main reason for self-medication was lack of time to visit the doctor. The females practiced self-medication more than the males. The triggering factor for both the genders was toothache and analgesics were mostly used. The patients with tertiary level education and those who were unemployed practiced self- medication the most. The triggering factor was toothache across all levels of education and employed as well as unemployed patients. Drug resistance was stated the main hazard. CONCLUSION: The triggering factor for use of medication was toothache, most commonly used drugs were analgesics and the main reason for self-medication was lack of time across all ages, both the gender, married and unmarried patients, levels of education and employment. Un-employed patients and those with tertiary level of education-practiced self- medicated themselves the most. The highest percentage of patients considered drug resistance to be the biggest hazard

Knowledge and Practices Regarding Informed Consent among Dental Practitioners

  To assess the knowledge and practices of dental practitioners regarding informed consent. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 dentists at the College of Dentistry, Sharif Medical and Dental College, Lahore from June 2019 to June 2020. A pre-validated questionnaire was used. Mann Whitney U test was performed to find the statistical difference in the knowledge and practice scores across the gender and place of practice of dentists and the Kruskal Wallis test for scores across the years of clinical experience and qualification of dentists. RESULTS: The mean practice score was significantly different across levels of qualification (p=0.032) but not across years of practice (0.366). There was no significant difference in the mean knowledge score across years of practice (p=0.744) and levels of qualification (p=0.366). The highest mean score among knowledge questions was seen for the questions which inquired if informed consent should be taken before treatment. The highest mean score among practice questions was seen for the question which inquired if dentists obtained informed consent from parents before treating children.   CONCLUSION: The mean knowledge score for females was higher in comparison to males and was the highest in dentists with an experience of greater than 10 years. Most dentists were aware of the concepts, types and processes of informed consent and the importance of taking the patient`s consent before treatment. Taking informed consent from patients before treatment, keeping it as part of their record and taking parents’ consent before treating children were practiced

Frenectomy Using Diode Lasers: A Case Report

OBJECTIVES Lasers are used in almost every aspect of dentistry, be it surgeries, restorations, periodontal procedures, and even aesthetic dentistry. One certain area that requires extra emphasis and importance is the laser-assisted frenectomy. Frenectomy, as the name suggests, is the excision of frenum attachment to the underlying bone. Frenectomy is carried out in the mandible as well as the maxilla. This is a case of a patient undergoing orthodontic treatment who also required a frenectomy, and to minimize the postoperative pain and swelling, the procedure was carried out using a diode laser rather than the conventional surgical procedure

Excision of a Chronic Inflammatory Mass Using Diode Lasers: A Case Report

Photobiomodulation (PBM), also known as low level laser therapy (LLLT) or cold laser therapy uses light energy to elicit biological responses from the cell and help regulate cell function. From a clinical point of view PBM offers dental practitioners a non-invasive treatment modality that can be used as an adjunct to the traditional therapies or as a therapeutic tool on its own. This is a case of surgical excision of a fluctuant mass using a scalpel and diode laser 980nm wavelength

Oral Parafunctional Habits in Individuals with The Extravert Personality Type

OBJECTIVES:  To find the association of extraversion personality traits with oral parafunctional habits. METHODOLOGY: A Cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 200 individuals in the College of Dentistry, Sharif Medical and Dental College, Lahore, over 5 months from July to November 2021. Data was collected using a pre-validated medical questionnaire and a ten-item personality inventory scale (TIPI). The sampling technique used was Convenience sampling. A sample size of 200 was calculated with the help of WHO sample size determination software. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in the scores of extraversion personality traits across the oral parafunctional habit group of nail-biting (p= 0.007). In contrast, that for tooth grinding (0.114), tooth clenching (0.076), biting hard objects (0.74) and chewing gum (p= 0.659) was non-significant. The highest mean rank score for the personality trait of extraversion was found in individuals who strongly agreed to have a habit of nail-biting (129.23), tooth grinding (153.63), and tooth clenching (142.61) and biting hard objects (12.07). The highest mean rank score for the parafunctional habit of chewing gum (107.28) was found in individuals who strongly disagreed with having the habit. CONCLUSION: The highest mean rank score for the personality trait of extraversion was found in individuals who strongly agreed to have a habit of nail-biting, tooth grinding, tooth clenching and biting hard objects. The highest mean rank score for the parafunctional habit of chewing gum was found in individuals who strongly disagreed with having the habit

Impact of Training and Development on Employee’s Performance: A Case Study of Private Local Schools, District Nowshehra, KPK

Training and development has been the phenomena related to organizations in different programs and activities and its objective to improve the performance of individual employee. This research study was aimed to identify the impact of training and development on employee’s performance. The research methodology was based on primary data that was collected through self administered questionnaires from teaching staff in private local schools in district Nowshehra, KPK. 250 question- naires were distributed among the teaching staff. 217 questionnaires were returned, whereas 8 improperly filled questionnaires were discarded and 209 properly filled questionnaires were included in the analysis of the study. From the results, it has been concluded that training and development was found to have significant impact on employees’ performance, hence hypothesis H1 was accepted

A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks

In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs