Nevin Manimala

J Contemp Dent Pract. 2023 Aug 1;24(8):545-550. doi: 10.5005/jp-journals-10024-3554.

ABSTRACT

AIM: The color difference between the final shade of restorations milled from different zirconia blocks, and the control teeth in the esthetic zone is yet uncertain.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: For eight patients who required a singular maxillary central incisor restoration, twenty-four crowns made of zirconia were created. These were grouped into three categories based on the shade and nature of zirconia (Zr) utilized (white core, colored core, and monolithic high-translucency (ht) Zr crowns). The difference in color (ΔE) between the three zirconia crowns and the neighboring teeth was calculated by the use of Easyshade spectrophotometer. Two shades of resin luting cement were used. The measured ΔE values were evaluated based on a clinically acceptable color difference of 1.6ΔE, which is not visible to the human eye.

RESULTS: Among the three groups, no differences of statistical significance were observed in terms of ΔE with different Zr types and resin cement color.

CONCLUSION: Within the limits of this study, the usage of different shades of zirconia blanks and resin cements did not display a statistically significant effect on the final color of the crown.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Changing the shade of resin cements does not appear to add value to the final shade of crown. In addition, the generation of zirconia does not influence the shade of the crown. Crowns made of zirconia can be cemented with opaque or transparent cement with no effect on the final color.

PMID:38193175 | DOI:10.5005/jp-journals-10024-3554

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2024 Jan 9:tpmd230561. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.23-0561. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Hepatitis C (HC) presents a substantial burden, and a goal has been established for ending HC epidemics by 2030. This study aimed to monitor HC epidemics by designing a paradigmatic autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA) for projections until 2030, and evaluating its efficacy compared with the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA). Monthly HC incidence data in Henan from January 2004 to June 2023 were obtained. Two periods (January 2004 to June 2022 and January 2004 to December 2015) were treated as training sets to build both models, whereas the remaining periods served as test sets to perform performance evaluation. There were 465,196 HC cases, with an escalation in incidence (average annual percentage change = 8.64, 95% CI: 3.71-13.80) and a peak in March and a trough in February. For both the 12 and 90 holdout data forecasts, ARFIMA generated lower errors than ARIMA across various metrics: mean absolute deviation (252.93 versus 262.28 and 235.37 versus 1,689.65), mean absolute percentage error (0.17 versus 0.18 and 0.14 versus 0.87), root mean square error (350.31 versus 362.31 and 311.96 versus 1,905.71), mean error rate (0.14 versus 0.15 and 0.11 versus 0.82), and root mean square percentage error (0.26 versus 0.26 and 0.24 versus 1.01). Autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average predicted 181,650 (95% CI: 46,518-316,783) HC cases, averaging 22,706 (95% CI: 5,815-39,598) cases annually during 2023-2030. Henan faces challenges in eliminating HC epidemics, emphasizing the need for strengthened strategies. Autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average can offer evidence-based insights for public health measures.

PMID:38190747 | DOI:10.4269/ajtmh.23-0561

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2024 Jan 9:tpmd230365. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.23-0365. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The WHO aims to detect 90% of global cases of hepatitis B virus (HBV) by 2030. Sub-Saharan Africa carries a disproportionate burden of HBV and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we sought to assess the utility of a combined HBV and HCC screening program in Tanzania. We conducted a prospective, serial cross-sectional study of patients who participated in a combined HBV and HCC screening program at a regional referral hospital emergency department (ED) in Arusha, Tanzania, between April 19, 2022 and June 3, 2022. All patients completed a study questionnaire and were tested for HBV surface antigen. Patients who were HBV positive were screened for HCC via point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). The primary outcome was the number of new HBV diagnoses. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. A total of 846 patients were tested for HBV (primary ED: 761, clinic referral: 85). The median age of patients was 44 ± 15 years, and 66% were female. Only 15% of patients reported having a primary care doctor. Thirteen percent of patients had been previously vaccinated for HBV. There were 17 new HBV diagnoses (primary ED: 16, clinic referral: 1), which corresponds to a seroprevalence of 2.0% (95% CI: 1.2%, 3.2%). No patients had liver masses detected on POCUS. An ED-based, combined HBV and HCC screening protocol can be feasibly implemented. This study could serve as a model for HBV/HCC screening in regions with high HBV endemicity and low rates of community screening.

PMID:38190742 | DOI:10.4269/ajtmh.23-0365

J Phys Condens Matter. 2024 Jan 8. doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ad1bf9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

It is essential to understand to what extent the protected edge states of topological insulators (TIs) can survive against the degradation of the ubiquitous disorders in realistic devices. From a different perspective, disorders can also help to enrich the applications by modulation of the phases in TIs. In this work, the phases and phase transitions in stanene, a two-dimensional TI, have been investigated via the statistical approach based on the random matrix theory. Using a tight binding model with Aderson disorder term and the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, we calculated the conductance of realistic stanene ribbons of tens of nanometers long with random disorders. The calculated phase diagram presents TI in the gap, metal in high energy and ordinary insulator (OI) in large disorder region. Increasing the width of the ribbon can significantly enhance the robustness of TI phase against disorders. Due to different underlying symmetries, the metallic phase can be further categorized into unitary and orthogonal classes according to the calculated universal conductance fluctuations. The local density of states (LDOS) is calculated, showing characteristic patterns, which can facilitate the experimental identification of the phases. It is found that different phases have distinguishing statistical distribution of conductance. Whereas at the phase boundary the distribution exhibits intermediate features to show where the phase transition occurs. To reveal the phase evolution process, we further studied the effects of the disorders on respective transmission channels. It is found that when phase transition takes place, the major transmission channels of the old phase are fading and the new channels of the new phase are emerging.&#xD.

PMID:38190736 | DOI:10.1088/1361-648X/ad1bf9

J Phys Condens Matter. 2024 Jan 8. doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ad1bf5. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Ergodicity, a fundamental concept in statistical mechanics, is not yet a fully understood phenomena for closed quantum systems, particularly its connection with the underlying chaos. In this review, we consider a few examples of collective quantum systems to unveil the intricate relationship of ergodicity as well as its deviation due to quantum scarring phenomena with their classical counterpart. A comprehensive overview of classical and quantum chaos is provided, along with the tools essential for their detection. Furthermore, we survey recent theoretical and experimental advancements in the domain of ergodicity and its violations. This review aims to illuminate the classical perspective of quantum scarring phenomena in interacting quantum systems.

PMID:38190726 | DOI:10.1088/1361-648X/ad1bf5

Ann Intern Med. 2024 Jan 9. doi: 10.7326/M23-1754. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of the BNT162b2 vaccine in pediatrics was assessed by randomized trials before the Omicron variant’s emergence. The long-term durability of vaccine protection in this population during the Omicron period remains limited.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of BNT162b2 in preventing infection and severe diseases with various strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in previously uninfected children and adolescents.

DESIGN: Comparative effectiveness research accounting for underreported vaccination in 3 study cohorts: adolescents (12 to 20 years) during the Delta phase and children (5 to 11 years) and adolescents (12 to 20 years) during the Omicron phase.

SETTING: A national collaboration of pediatric health systems (PEDSnet).

PARTICIPANTS: 77 392 adolescents (45 007 vaccinated) during the Delta phase and 111 539 children (50 398 vaccinated) and 56 080 adolescents (21 180 vaccinated) during the Omicron phase.

INTERVENTION: First dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine versus no receipt of COVID-19 vaccine.

MEASUREMENTS: Outcomes of interest include documented infection, COVID-19 illness severity, admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), and cardiac complications. The effectiveness was reported as (1-relative risk)*100, with confounders balanced via propensity score stratification.

RESULTS: During the Delta period, the estimated effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine was 98.4% (95% CI, 98.1% to 98.7%) against documented infection among adolescents, with no statistically significant waning after receipt of the first dose. An analysis of cardiac complications did not suggest a statistically significant difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. During the Omicron period, the effectiveness against documented infection among children was estimated to be 74.3% (CI, 72.2% to 76.2%). Higher levels of effectiveness were seen against moderate or severe COVID-19 (75.5% [CI, 69.0% to 81.0%]) and ICU admission with COVID-19 (84.9% [CI, 64.8% to 93.5%]). Among adolescents, the effectiveness against documented Omicron infection was 85.5% (CI, 83.8% to 87.1%), with 84.8% (CI, 77.3% to 89.9%) against moderate or severe COVID-19, and 91.5% (CI, 69.5% to 97.6%) against ICU admission with COVID-19. The effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine against the Omicron variant declined 4 months after the first dose and then stabilized. The analysis showed a lower risk for cardiac complications in the vaccinated group during the Omicron variant period.

LIMITATION: Observational study design and potentially undocumented infection.

CONCLUSION: This study suggests that BNT162b2 was effective for various COVID-19-related outcomes in children and adolescents during the Delta and Omicron periods, and there is some evidence of waning effectiveness over time.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: National Institutes of Health.

PMID:38190711 | DOI:10.7326/M23-1754

IEEE Trans Image Process. 2024 Jan 5;PP. doi: 10.1109/TIP.2023.3348293. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Recent developments in the field of non-local attention (NLA) have led to a renewed interest in self-similarity-based single image super-resolution (SISR). Researchers usually use the NLA to explore non-local self-similarity (NSS) in SISR and achieve satisfactory reconstruction results. However, a surprising phenomenon that the reconstruction performance of the standard NLA is similar to that of the NLA with randomly selected regions prompted us to revisit NLA. In this paper, we first analyzed the attention map of the standard NLA from different perspectives and discovered that the resulting probability distribution always has full support for every local feature, which implies a statistical waste of assigning values to irrelevant non-local features, especially for SISR which needs to model long-range dependence with a large number of redundant non-local features. Based on these findings, we introduced a concise yet effective soft thresholding operation to obtain high-similarity-pass attention (HSPA), which is beneficial for generating a more compact and interpretable distribution. Furthermore, we derived some key properties of the soft thresholding operation that enable training our HSPA in an end-to-end manner. The HSPA can be integrated into existing deep SISR models as an efficient general building block. In addition, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the HSPA, we constructed a deep high-similarity-pass attention network (HSPAN) by integrating a few HSPAs in a simple backbone. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that HSPAN outperforms state-of-the-art approaches on both quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Our code and a pre-trained model were uploaded to GitHub† for validation.

PMID:38190673 | DOI:10.1109/TIP.2023.3348293

Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2023 Dec 28. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004231. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To determine the epidemiology of rotavirus group A (RVA) infection in symptomatic children, and analyze genotype diversity in association with clinical characteristics, geographical and seasonal changes.

METHODS: The stool samples of symptomatic children 5≥ years old were collected from 5 different hospitals during December 2020 and March 2022. Rotavirus stool antigen test was done and G and P genotypes of the positive samples were determined. Associations of the infection and genotype diversity with demographical and clinical data were assessed by statistical methods.

RESULTS: RVA infection was detected in 32.1% (300/934) of the patients (Ranges between 28.4% and 47.4%). An inverse association with age was detected, where the highest frequency was measured in children ≤12 months of age (175/482, 36.3%). The infection was more frequent during winter (124/284, 43.7%) and spring (64/187, 34.2%). Children who were exclusively fed with breast milk showed a lower rate of infection (72/251, 28.6%). Among the 46 characterized genotypes (17 single- and 29 mixed-genotype infections), G1P[8] and G9P[4] were more frequently detected in children <36 (67/234, 28.63%) and 36-60 (7/24, 29.16%) months of age children, respectively. A seasonal diversity in the circulating genotypes was detected in different cities. Children with G1P[8], G1P[6], and mixed-genotype infection experienced a shorter duration of hospitalization, and a higher frequency of nausea and severe diarrhea, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study high frequency of RVA infection was detected in symptomatic children in Iran. Moreover, genotype diversity according to geographic area, seasons, age groups, and clinical features of disease was detected.

PMID:38190647 | DOI:10.1097/INF.0000000000004231

Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2023 Dec 28. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004238. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation has considerable morbidity and mortality, and foscarnet is a treatment option that requires renal dose adjustment. Serum creatinine (SCr)-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) equations are used to estimate renal function for patients receiving foscarnet, but cystatin C (cysC) has been shown as a possible alternative. Data examining cysC-based eGFR in this population is sparse. Our primary objective was to evaluate outcomes of patients treated with foscarnet dosed utilizing cysC-based eGFR versus SCr-based eGFR.

METHODS: We analyzed patients on the transplantation and cellular therapies service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Kids from January 2011 to September 2021 who received allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation and ≥14 days of foscarnet for CMV infection. Patients with cysC-based eGFR were compared to a historical cohort of patients who only had SCr-based eGFR. Outcomes included time to CMV clearance, death or change in anti-CMV therapy. Cumulative incidence curves and cause-specific hazards model were used for analysis.

RESULTS: In 61 analyzed patients, no differences were found between the cohorts in cumulative incidence of change in anti-CMV therapy (P = 0.17) or death (P = 0.69). After adjustment for multiple confounders, patients in the SCr cohort seemed to have a higher chance of CMV clearance compared with the cysC cohort, but the difference was not statistically significant (hazard ratio = 2.42, P = 0.089). Patients who received corticosteroids appeared to have lower incidence of CMV clearance (P = 0.056).

CONCLUSIONS: We did not find differences in outcomes when dosing foscarnet using cysC versus SCr for treatment of CMV infection.

PMID:38190640 | DOI:10.1097/INF.0000000000004238