Antibiotic prophylaxis for bacterial endocarditis: A study of knowledge of guidelines among dentists participated in the 47th international congress of dentistry

"nBackground and Aim: Infective endocarditis is a rare disease resulted in mortality and morbidity in 10-80% of patients. The purpose of present study was to investigate the knowledge of guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxis for bacterial endocarditis in a group of Iranian dentists. "nMaterials and Methods: This was a descriptive study in which the population under study was 205 who were participated in the 47th international congress of dentistry (Tehran-Spring 2007) and they were chosen by census sampling methods. Nameless questionnaires were designed and were given to the dentists to complete. The t-test, χ² and spearman with the SPSS 13.5 program were used in the data analysis. P<0.05 was considered as the level of significance. "nResults: Regarding to the prescribing of prophylactic antibiotic for patients with prosthetic cardiac valves, 94.6% of all answers were correct. Also, the most common procedures in which the prophylaxis antibiotic was distinguished to be necessary were periodontal surgery, scaling, dental extraction and using subgingival cord, respectively. More than half of the dentists (65.8%) had chosen amoxicillin as a prophylactic antibiotic. Mean knowledge score was 38.77±12.4. "nConclusion: Results of the present study showed that the knowledge of dentists about prescribing antibiotics for prevention of bacterial endocarditis is relatively low. It was also found that the level of knowledge decreases by passing time from graduation

Performance Evaluation of a narrowband Power Line Communication for Smart Grid with noise Reduction Technique

Performance of the narrowband power line communication (PLC) is significantly degraded by the impulsive noise with very large amplitudes and short durations. In practical applications, the simple memoryless nonlinearity techniques (Clipping, Blanking, and Clipping/Blanking) are often used in order to mitigate the effect of the impulsive noise. In this paper, we propose an optimal Clipping/Blanking technique for impulsive noise reduction in narrowband (9-490 kHz) PLC system. This optimal technique is based on the minimum bit error rate (BER) search. To this end, we have derived the transfer function of a typical low voltage (LV) PLC network using the common bottom-up approach and scattering matrix method. Our simulation results, in terms of BER versus signal to noise ratio (SNR), show that the proposed technique slightly improves the BER performance of the narrowband PLC system for smart grid applications and two-way communication between smart meters and utilities

Performance evaluation of PRIME in smart grid

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of a popular narrow band power line communication (PLC) solution (referred to as PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution or PRIME) for smart grid applications in an impulsive noise environment. To this end, we analyze the effects of the impulsive noise in narrow band PLC systems and derive an explicit formula of bit error rate (BER) and its upper bound for an uncoded and coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) schemes in PRIME, respectively. Our analyses and the upper bound are then validated using simulation. Furthermore, we propose an efficient time domain interleaver (TDI) technique to improve the performance of the PRIME by spreading the effect of impulsive bursts over a large number of OFDM symbols. Our simulation results show that the TDI method significantly reduces the impact of impulsive noises on the BER of the PRIME solution

An iterative Bayesian algorithm for block-sparse signal reconstruction

This paper presents a novel iterative Bayesian algorithm, Block Iterative Bayesian Algorithm (Block-IBA), for reconstructing block-sparse signals with unknown block structures. Unlike the other existing algorithms for block sparse signal recovery which assume the cluster structure of the non-zero elements of the unknown signal to be independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.), we use a more realistic Bernoulli-Gaussian hidden Markov model (BGHMM) to capture the burstiness (block structure) of the impulsive noise in practical applications such as Power Line Communication (PLC). The Block-IBA iteratively estimates the amplitudes and positions of the block-sparse signal based on Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm which is also optimized with the steepest-ascent method. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our algorithm for block-sparse signal recovery

Effectiveness of a parent‐targeted video on neonatal pain management: Nonrandomized pragmatic trial

The “Be sweet to babies” video is a knowledge translation tool targeted at parents on the use of analgesic strategies during painful procedures performed in neonates. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Portuguese version of this video on maternal involvement in neonatal pain management during the newborn screening blood test. Nonrandomized, pragmatic clinical trial. The study was conducted in a rooming-in unit. All mothers received a pamphlet regarding neonatal pain management and were invited to participate in daily education sessions conducted by nurses, which included the video. The intervention group included mothers who voluntarily watched the video, while the control group was comprised of mothers who did not attend the education sessions or left the session before watching the video. Data were collected by interviews conducted by the research team. Descriptive and inferential analysis considered a confidence interval of 95%. A total of 73 mothers were included in the study. Analgesic strategies were used in 14 (40%) of the procedures in the intervention group and 9 (24%) in the control group, a clinically important difference of 16% points between groups, although no statistically significant difference was found (P = .13). Breastfeeding was the most commonly used strategy. Watching the video increased the chance of implementing analgesic strategies by 2.1 times (P = .19), while nurses suggesting the use of analgesia increased this chance by 5.5 times (P = .006). Although no statistical significance was found, the results suggest the clinical significance and feasibility of the “Be sweet to babies” video as a KT tool targeted at parents on neonatal pain management during nonurgent painful procedures. In addition, maternal involvement in pain care significantly increased when pain relief strategies were recommended by nurses, which suggests that nurses have a key role in facilitating parental participation

Impulsive noise reduction of a narrowband power line communication using optimal nonlinearity technique

In this paper, we propose an optimal Clipping/Blanking nonlinearity technique for impulsive noise reduction in narrowband (9 kHz-490 kHz) PLC system. This optimal technique is based on the minimum bit error rate (BER) search. For our simulation, we have derived the transfer function of a typical low voltage (LV) PLC network using the common bottom-up approach and scattering matrix method. Our simulation results, in terms of BER versus signal to noise ratio (SNR), show that the proposed technique improves the BER performance of the narrowband PLC system. © 2011 IEEE

A channel model for power line communication in the smart grid

Although Power Line Communication (PLC) is not a new technology, its use to support communication with low rate on low voltage (LV) distribution networks is still the focus of ongoing research. In this paper, we propose a PLC channel modeling method based on the bottom-up approach for LV PLC in a narrow, low frequency band between 9 kHz and 490 kHz. We employ the model to derive the transfer function of a typical LV PLC network, which is comprised of two common cable types (copper cables and aluminum conductor steel reinforced). We then investigate the multipath effect of the LV PLC in the studied low frequency bandwidth using numerical computations. Our simulation results based on the proposed channel model show an acceptable performance between neighboring nodes, in terms of bit error rate versus signal to noise ratio, which enables communication required for smart grid applications. Furthermore, we show that data transmission beyond one-hop communication in LV PLC networks will have to rely on upper layer protocols. © 2011 IEEE