Tag: nevin manimala

Medicine (Baltimore). 2022 Nov 4;101(44):e31434. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000031434.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Several efforts have been made to improve the glass ionomer cements (GICs) properties with nanotechnology. Fluoride release in once of most beneficial properties of GICs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the fluoride release, recharge, and cytotoxicity in GICs reinforced with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2N).

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the fluoride release, recharge, and cytotoxicity in GICs reinforced with TiO2N.

METHODS: Four GICs, FUJI IX EXTRA (G1c), KETAC MOLAR (G2c), IONOFILL MOLAR (G3c), and FUJI IX (G4c) were combined with TiO2N (G1e, G2e, G3e, and G4e) and divided into blocks of 5-mm width and 1-mm thickness 10 each. A total of 80 samples were arranged as follows: GICs alone as negative control (n = 40) and GICs + TiO2N as experimental groups (n = 40). The fluoride release was determined for periods of 1, 2, 6, 10, 31, 90, 180, 240, and 300 days. On days 30 and 179, samples were recharged by submerging in 1 mL of 20,000 ppm sodium fluoride gel. Cytotoxic activity was carried out with gingival fibroblasts, using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide cell viability assay.

RESULTS: The experimental groups obtained the highest and more constant fluoride released when compared to control groups. After the first recharge, experimental groups (G1e, G3e, and G4e) showed statistically significant results (P = .001, 0.010, and 0.001 respectively) enhancing their recharge ability regarding control groups. The second recharge showed better results in G1e concerning the rest of the groups. No cytotoxic activity was observed in all experimental groups, although significant differences were observed in G3e and G4e regarding control group.

CONCLUSION: The incorporation of TiO2N enhance the fluoride release in glass ionomers with a noncytotoxic effect on human gingival fibroblasts.

PMID:36343033 | DOI:10.1097/MD.0000000000031434

Autism Res. 2022 Nov 7. doi: 10.1002/aur.2845. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Measurement invariance, or the degree to which an instrument measures constructs consistently across subgroups, is critical for appropriate interpretations of measures. Given sex differences in the phenotypic and clinical presentation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is particularly important to examine measurement invariance in autism instruments to ensure that ASD measures are not biased toward the more common male ASD phenotype. This study represents an important preliminary investigation evaluating the measurement equivalence of the Autism Impact Measure (AIM) across children and adolescents with ASD. The results indicated that the AIM demonstrated measurement invariance at the configural, metric, and scalar levels across sex in all five domains, including Repetitive Behavior, Communication, Atypical Behavior, Social Reciprocity, and Peer Interaction. These results suggest that ASD core symptoms assessed by the AIM were similar among male and female groups. In addition, the latent means for all five factors were not statistically significantly different across sex groups, revealing no systematic differences on any of the AIM subscales for males and females. Overall, this study showed that the AIM detects core ASD symptoms across all five areas equivalently in males and females and is not biased toward males with ASD.

PMID:36341720 | DOI:10.1002/aur.2845

Australas Psychiatry. 2022 Nov 7:10398562221131160. doi: 10.1177/10398562221131160. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To identify and characterise medical consultations to psychiatric inpatients.

METHOD: Retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study of 451 psychiatric inpatients’ electronic medical records between 1 January and 30 June 2021 with descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: Thirty one percent (n = 131) of inpatients required medical consultation, with 382 total consultations including ward call. Half (57.9%) were telephone advice. Main consulting specialties were general medicine (25%), anaesthetics (12%), neurology (9.9%), cardiology (6.5%) and endocrinology (6.2%). Almost all (99.0%) consultations resulted in documented management plans.

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first Australian descriptive study quantifying and characterising psychiatric inpatient consultation requests. Physical and psychiatric healthcare integration requires ongoing efforts, including improved referral pathways.

PMID:36341710 | DOI:10.1177/10398562221131160

CNS Neurosci Ther. 2022 Nov 7. doi: 10.1111/cns.14010. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness and safety of pentoxifylline as an adjuvant to risperidone in mitigating the negative symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

METHODS: In this randomized, placebo-controlled study, eighty outpatients with chronic schizophrenia were given risperidone for 8 weeks along with either pentoxifylline or a placebo. The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) was used to assess patients at the start of the trial, as well as at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks. Pre- and posttreatment serum levels of cAMP, TNF-α-, and IL-6 were measured.

RESULTS: The pentoxifylline group revealed a significant effect for time-treatment interaction on PANSS-negative subscale scores (p < 0.001), PANSS general psychopathology subscale scores (p < 0.001), and PANSS total scores (p < 0.001), but not on PANSS-positive subscale scores (p = 0.169). Additionally, when compared to the placebo group, the pentoxifylline group demonstrated a statistically significant increase in cAMP serum level and a statistically significant decrease in TNF-α and IL-6 serum levels.

CONCLUSION: Pentoxifylline adjunctive therapy with risperidone for 8 weeks was found to be promising in mitigating the negative symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04094207.

PMID:36341700 | DOI:10.1111/cns.14010

Br J Radiol. 2022 Nov 7:20220196. doi: 10.1259/bjr.20220196. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To compare image quality and diagnostic accuracy of arterial stenosis in low-dose lower-extremity CT angiography (CTA) between adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction-V (ASIR-V) and deep learning image reconstruction (DLIR) algorithms.

METHODS: Forty-six patients undergoing low-dose lower-extremity CTA were enrolled. Images were reconstructed using ASIR-V (blending factor of 50% (AV-50) and 100% (AV-100)) and DLIR (medium (DL-M), and high (DL-H)). CT values and standard deviation (SD) of the aorta, psoas, popliteal artery, popliteal and ankle muscles were measured. The edge-rise-distance (ERD) and edge-rise-slope (ERS) were calculated. The degrees of granularity and edge blurring were assessed using a 5-point scale. The stenosis degrees were measured on the four reconstructions, and their mean-square-errors (MSE) against that of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were calculated and compared.

RESULTS: For both ASIR-V and DLIR, higher reconstruction intensity generated lower noise and higher SNR and CNR values. The SD values in AV-100 images were significantly lower than other reconstructions. The two DLIR image groups had higher ERS and lower ERD (DL-M:1.79 ± 0.37 mm and DL-H:1.82 ± 0.38 mm vs AV-50:1.96 ± 0.39 mm and AV-100:2.01 ± 0.36 mm, p = 0.014) than ASIR-V images. The overall image quality of DLIR was rated higher than ASIR-V (DL-M:0.83 ± 0.61, DL-H:0.41 ± 0.62, AV-50:1.85 ± 0.60 and AV-100:2.37 ± 0.77, p < 0.001), with DL-H having the highest overall image quality score. For stenosis measurement, DL-H had the lowest MSE compared to DSA among all reconstruction groups.

CONCLUSION: DLIR images had higher image quality ratings with lower image noise and sharper vessel walls in low-dose lower-extremity CTA, and DL-H provides the best overall image quality and highest accuracy in diagnosing artery stenoses.

PMID:36341682 | DOI:10.1259/bjr.20220196

J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2022;33(4):1925-1948. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2022.0146.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To explore parent perspectives on barriers, facilitators, and priorities related to coordinating care for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN).

METHODS: Thirty-nine parents of Medicaid-eligible CYSHCN participated in focus groups and completed a brief survey about their child’s health insurance coverage, access to specialized services, and need for support with service coordination. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Focus group data were analyzed by multiple independent coders using an approach that combines inductive reasoning with predetermined coding strategies.

RESULTS: Sixty-seven percent of parents reported that they needed care coordination support. Qualitative data were organized into three main themes: the work of caregiving; the impact of caregiving on multiple aspects of parents’ lives; and caregivers’ needs related to emotional acceptance, service referrals and navigation, and developmental transitions.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings support importance of services such as medical homes, care coordinators, peer navigators, respite care, and transition planning.

PMID:36341671 | DOI:10.1353/hpu.2022.0146

J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2022;33(4):1879-1890. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2022.0143.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Clinical medical students are exposed to COVID-19 infection, thus it is imperative to achieve a high COVID-19 vaccination rate among this group of people.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine and possible reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitance among medical students in Enugu, Nigeria.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 420 medical students at the two university teaching hospitals in Enugu. A p-value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: Only 36.1% of the respondents were willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Extra source of income was significantly associated with the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine among the students (p = .012).

CONCLUSION: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate among medical students in Enugu appears to be very low. There is an urgent need for more advocacy and enlightenment to address the misconceptions and fears fueling the high vaccine hesitance rate seen in the study.

PMID:36341668 | DOI:10.1353/hpu.2022.0143

Tissue Eng Part A. 2022 Nov 7. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEA.2022.0149. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to investigate if a high dose of the SDF -1 plasmid improves outcome in a minipig model of chronic anal sphincter injury.

METHODS: Twenty two female minipigs underwent excision of the posterior hemi-circumference of the anal sphincter complex and were allowed to recover for 6 weeks. They were randomly allocated (n=6) to receive either 5% dextrose (sham), or 2, 4 or 8 mg of SDF-1 plasmid at the defect site. Two control pigs received no surgery/treatment. Outcome measures included anal manometry at pre-injury/pre-treatment and 2, 4 and 8 weeks after treatment, recording the mean of 8 pressure channels and the posterior channel alone, histopathology using Masson’s trichrome and immunohistochemistry using PGP9.5 for staining of neural structures and CY3 staining for blood vessels. Data is expressed as mean±standard error. Manometry analysis used two-way ANOVA followed by the Holm-Sidak test. Quantification of muscle/fibrosis was analyzed with a Kruskal-Wallis One Way Analysis of Variance on Ranks.

RESULTS: Posterior anal pressures were significantly decreased in sham treated animals compared to controls (p=0.04). In contrast, mean anal pressures at the 4 time points were not significantly different between groups. (p>0.05) The defect area of the sham treated group showed irregular muscle bundles while all three SDF-1 treatment groups show organized muscle bundles with the most organization in the higher dose groups. Quantification of Masson stained slides showed no statistically significant differences between groups but did show increased muscle volume in the area of defect in the treatment groups compared to sham. PGP9.5 and CY3 staining showed increased fluorescence in the higher dose groups compared to sham treatment.

CONCLUSION: A single higher dose of the plasmid encoding SDF-1 may increase muscle volume in the area of a chronic defect.

PMID:36341592 | DOI:10.1089/ten.TEA.2022.0149

Assessment. 2022 Nov 5:10731911221134599. doi: 10.1177/10731911221134599. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Rating scales are commonly used in psychological research and practice. It is important to consider how different item response options used on rating scales, such as those based on frequency or severity, may affect how they measure psychological constructs. In this study, participants were randomly assigned to conditions where they completed two depression and two generalized anxiety rating scales that used either frequency or severity item response options. Descriptive statistics and reliability estimates across depression and generalized anxiety scales using different item response options were similar. Measurement invariance tests indicated that depression and generalized anxiety scales with different item response options could be considered practically invariant. Finally, depression and generalized anxiety scales with different item response options had similar correlations with measures of impairment and other psychological constructs. There were essentially no differences in psychometric and measurement properties of these depression and generalized anxiety scales when using different item response options, suggesting this may not substantially affect the measurement of these constructs.

PMID:36341537 | DOI:10.1177/10731911221134599

Interspeech. 2022;2022:2018-2022. doi: 10.21437/interspeech.2022-10814.

ABSTRACT

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a severe illness that affects millions of people, and it is critical to diagnose this disorder as early as possible. Detecting depression from voice signals can be of great help to physicians and can be done without any invasive procedure. Since relevant labelled data are scarce, we propose a modified Instance Discriminative Learning (IDL) method, an unsupervised pre-training technique, to extract augment-invariant and instance-spread-out embeddings. In terms of learning augment-invariant embeddings, various data augmentation methods for speech are investigated, and time-masking yields the best performance. To learn instance-spreadout embeddings, we explore methods for sampling instances for a training batch (distinct speaker-based and random sampling). It is found that the distinct speaker-based sampling provides better performance than the random one, and we hypothesize that this result is because relevant speaker information is preserved in the embedding. Additionally, we propose a novel sampling strategy, Pseudo Instance-based Sampling (PIS), based on clustering algorithms, to enhance spread-out characteristics of the embeddings. Experiments are conducted with DepAudioNet on DAIC-WOZ (English) and CONVERGE (Mandarin) datasets, and statistically significant improvements, with p-value 0.0015 and 0.05, respectively, are observed using PIS in the detection of MDD relative to the baseline without pre-training.

PMID:36341466 | PMC:PMC9634944 | DOI:10.21437/interspeech.2022-10814