Tag: pubmed

BMC Oral Health. 2024 Jun 1;24(1):650. doi: 10.1186/s12903-024-04402-7.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The formation of white spots, which represent early carious lesions, is a major issue with fixed orthodontics. The addition of remineralizing agents to orthodontic adhesives may prevent the formation of white spots. The aim of this study was to produce a composite orthodontic adhesive combined with nano-bioactive glass-silver (nBG@Ag) for bracket bonding to enamel and to investigate its cytotoxicity, antimicrobial activity, remineralization capability, and bond strength.

METHODS: nBG@Ag was synthesized using the sol-gel method, and characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy with an attenuated total reflectance attachment (ATR-FTIR). The cytotoxicity test (MTT) and antimicrobial activity of adhesives containing 1%, 3%, and 5% (wt/wt) nBG@Ag were evaluated, and the shear bond strength of the adhesives was measured using a universal testing machine. Remineralization was assessed through microhardness testing with a Vickers microhardness tester and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Statistical analyses were conducted using the Shapiro-Wilk test, Levene test, one-way ANOVA, Robust-Welch test, Tukey HSD method, and two-way ANOVA.

RESULTS: The biocompatibility of the adhesives was found to be high, as confirmed by the lack of significant differences in the cytotoxicity between the sample and control groups. Discs made from composites containing nBG@Ag exhibited a significant reduction in the growth of Streptococcus mutans (p < 0.05), and the antibacterial activity increased with higher percentages of nBG@Ag. The shear bond strength of the adhesives decreased significantly (p < 0.001) after the addition of nanoparticles, but it remained above the recommended value. The addition of nBG@Ag showed improvement in the microhardness of the teeth, although the differences in microhardness between the study groups were not statistically significant. The formation of hydroxyapatite deposits on the tooth surface was confirmed through SEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).

CONCLUSION: Adding nBG@Ag to orthodontic adhesives can be an effective approach to enhance antimicrobial activity and reduce enamel demineralization around the orthodontic brackets, without compromising biocompatibility and bond strength.

PMID:38824555 | DOI:10.1186/s12903-024-04402-7

Biomed Eng Online. 2024 Jun 1;23(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s12938-024-01244-w.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Over 60% of epilepsy patients globally are children, whose early diagnosis and treatment are critical for their development and can substantially reduce the disease’s burden on both families and society. Numerous algorithms for automated epilepsy detection from EEGs have been proposed. Yet, the occurrence of epileptic seizures during an EEG exam cannot always be guaranteed in clinical practice. Models that exclusively use seizure EEGs for detection risk artificially enhanced performance metrics. Therefore, there is a pressing need for a universally applicable model that can perform automatic epilepsy detection in a variety of complex real-world scenarios.

METHOD: To address this problem, we have devised a novel technique employing a temporal convolutional neural network with self-attention (TCN-SA). Our model comprises two primary components: a TCN for extracting time-variant features from EEG signals, followed by a self-attention (SA) layer that assigns importance to these features. By focusing on key features, our model achieves heightened classification accuracy for epilepsy detection.

RESULTS: The efficacy of our model was validated on a pediatric epilepsy dataset we collected and on the Bonn dataset, attaining accuracies of 95.50% on our dataset, and 97.37% (A v. E), and 93.50% (B vs E), respectively. When compared with other deep learning architectures (temporal convolutional neural network, self-attention network, and standardized convolutional neural network) using the same datasets, our TCN-SA model demonstrated superior performance in the automated detection of epilepsy.

CONCLUSION: The proven effectiveness of the TCN-SA approach substantiates its potential as a valuable tool for the automated detection of epilepsy, offering significant benefits in diverse and complex real-world clinical settings.

PMID:38824547 | DOI:10.1186/s12938-024-01244-w

BMC Public Health. 2024 Jun 1;24(1):1476. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-19012-9.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Intimate partner violence is a human rights violation that often involves violence against women, which appears to be the most prevalent type of abuse. Intimate partner violence is a major global public health issue that includes physical, emotional, and sexual violence. The prevalence of intimate partner violence in Africa is high. The burden of intimate partner violence among reproductive-age women is high in Kenya. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to determine the associated factors of intimate partner violence among reproductive-age women at the individual and community level from the recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2022 data of Kenya.

METHODS: The Kenya National Demographic and Health Survey data of 2022 was used for this study. The overall sample size for this study was 14,612, which focused on women aged 15 to 49 years who had ever been partnered and responded to the domestic violence module. Multilevel logistic regression models to determine the prevalence and associated factors at the individual and community level with intimate partner violence with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) and Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR).

RESULT: The overall prevalence of intimate partner violence was 41.1% with a 95% CI (40.07%, 42.60. Male-headed households, poorest and middle wealth status, partner alcohol use, separated/widowed current marital status, and low education of women were statistically significantly associated with intimate partner violence at the individual level variables in this study.

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of intimate partner violence was high. Educating women, reducing partner alcohol use, and improving the economic status of women, were crucial in mitigating the burden of intimate partner violence. The intimate partners are supposed to respect the rights of women.

PMID:38824543 | DOI:10.1186/s12889-024-19012-9

BMC Womens Health. 2024 Jun 1;24(1):317. doi: 10.1186/s12905-024-03167-z.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Inequalities in modern contraceptive use among women in low-income countries remain a major public health challenge. Eliminating or reducing the inequalities in modern contraceptive use among women could accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, Targets 3.7 & 5.6. Thus, this study examined the inequality gaps in modern contraceptive use and associated factors among women of reproductive age in Nigeria between 2003 and 2018.

METHODS: This study employed the World Health Organisation’s Health Equity Assessment Toolkit to analyse the 2003 and 2018 Nigeria Demographic Health Surveys. Modern contraceptive use was aggregated using five equity stratifiers: age, economic status, educational level, place, and region of residence among women of reproductive aged 15 to 49, with a sample size of 5,336 and 29,090 for 2003 and 2018, respectively. Inequality was measured in this study using difference (D), ratio (R), population-attributable risk (PAR), and a population-attributable fraction (PAF).

RESULTS: The study shows an increase in modern contraceptive use among women of reproductive age in Nigeria from 8.25% in 2003 to 12.01% in 2018, with the use being more prominent among women of reproductive age 20-49 and those in the richest economic quintile. In both surveys, women with primary education showed the most upward increase in modern contraceptive use. Women residing in the urban areas also show an upward use of modern contraceptives use. The study further highlights inequality gaps, with age being a substantial factor, while economic status and sub-national regions showed mild to marginal inequality gaps. Finally, the educational level of women of reproductive age in Nigeria significantly shows inequality in modern contraceptive use, with a PAF of 129.11 in 2003 and 65.39 in 2018.

CONCLUSION: The inequality gap in modern contraceptive use among women of reproductive age in Nigeria between 2003 and 2018 reported in this study includes age, education, wealth quintile, residence, and region-related inequalities. The study highlights the need for policies and programmes that target the groups with low use of modern contraceptives to promote equity in family planning services.

PMID:38824536 | DOI:10.1186/s12905-024-03167-z

BMC Womens Health. 2024 Jun 1;24(1):316. doi: 10.1186/s12905-024-03065-4.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Bacterial vaginitis (BV) is a common vaginal disease. Vitamin E has been shown to reduce BV by enhancing immune function, but no studies have analyzed the relationship between vitamin E and BV at different BMIs and ages.

METHOD: This study used 2242 participants from four cycles of NHANES 1999-2006 in American. Participants’ vitamin E levels were divided into four groups, and analyses such as study population description, stratified analysis, multiple logistic regression analysis, and curve fitting were performed. To perform data processing, the researchers used the statistical package R (The R Foundation; http://www.r-project.org ; version 3.6.3) and Empower Stats software ( www.empowerstats.net , X&Y solutions, Inc. Boston, Massachusetts).

RESULT: The concentrations of serum vitamin E were negatively correlated with the risk of BV, especially when vitamin E were at 1198-5459ug/dL with (OR = -0.443, 95%CI = 0.447-0.923, P = 0.032) or without (OR = -0.521, 95%CI = 0.421-0.837, P = 0.006) adjustment for variables. At the same time, at lower levels, there was no significant association. Vitamin E supplementation may significantly reduce the risk of BV (p < 0.001). In addition, the risk of having BV decreased and then increased with increasing vitamin E concentrations at high BMI levels (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: Vitamin E at moderate to high concentrations may significantly reduce BV risk, says the study, providing clinical evidence for the prevention and the treatment of BV.

PMID:38824532 | DOI:10.1186/s12905-024-03065-4

West J Nurs Res. 2024 Jun 2:1939459241256580. doi: 10.1177/01939459241256580. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among adults in Vihiga County, Western Kenya.

METHODS: A cross-sectional population-based study was completed. Participants (n = 575) were selected at the household level using a systematic random sample, and sociodemographic, anthropometrical, clinical, and biochemical data were collected.

RESULTS: The sample consisted of 71.8% women and 28.2% men. The prevalence of high blood pressure (BP) was 56.4%. A greater proportion of women (62.8%) had low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) compared with men (44.7%) (odds ratio [OR], 2.99; 95% CI, 1.59-5.64). High triglyceride levels were more prevalent in men (16.4%) compared with women (15.4%) (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.19-0.71). Based on average waist to hip ratio, abdominal obesity was significantly higher in women (55.4%) compared with men (27.6%) (OR, 2.62; 95% CI, 1.52-4.49). Low levels of physical inactivity were prevalent in women (36.3%) at significantly higher proportions compared with men (22.7%) (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.02-2.92). Women used tobacco at significantly lower proportions (0.5%) compared with men (27.2%) (OR, 0.01; 95% CI, 0.00-0.06). A higher proportion of women (47.9%) rated their general health as poor compared with men (37.1%), a statistically significant difference (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.23-3.28).

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of CVD risk factors, such as hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, low physical activity, and tobacco use indicates the urgent need for comprehensive health promotion programs to improve public health in rural areas of Kenya.

PMID:38824396 | DOI:10.1177/01939459241256580

Res Nurs Health. 2024 Jun 1. doi: 10.1002/nur.22403. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected research activities across various fields. This study aimed to determine nursing researchers’ concerns about research activities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and subsequent changes brought on by it. For this study, we conducted descriptive statistics and text mining analyses using data from two surveys conducted by the Japan Academy of Nursing Science (JANS) in the early days of the pandemic (first survey: mid-2020) and after 2 years (second survey: early 2022). Concerns about research activities were observed in 89% and 80% of the nursing researchers in the first and second surveys, respectively. Furthermore, concerns about “Difficulty in collecting research data” and “Content and quality of your research” were stronger in the second survey. Text mining analyses revealed that in the first survey, they were concerned about environmental changes and restrictions when proceeding with research during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was unfamiliar at the time. In the second survey, after overcoming environmental changes in the early stages of the pandemic, nursing researchers’ concerns shifted to anxiety about the future, such as concerns about degree acquisition, employment and career advancement, and research results. The current study highlights various concerns among nursing researchers regarding research activities that have evolved over time during the pandemic. Academic societies must flexibly construct support measures for nursing researchers when a new infectious disease occurs. Such measures should be sensitive to the prevailing social circumstances and the evolving needs of researchers.

PMID:38824392 | DOI:10.1002/nur.22403

Opt Lett. 2024 Jun 1;49(11):3158-3161. doi: 10.1364/OL.522321.

ABSTRACT

A technique for accelerated multiple-plane phase retrieval is demonstrated by creating adaptive support through the statistical analysis of phase estimates. Its technical advantage arises from, what we believe to be, the first time use of both phase estimates and a statistical metric, enabling the fast generation of noise-robust support masks. This results in a fourfold improvement in convergence speed when compared to the conventional multiple-plane method. Evaluating data fitting performance with fewer intensity recordings showed that using four or more recordings resulted in accurate fitting, three recordings caused overfitting, and two recordings led to underfitting for the test object waves used. In principle, the adaptive support strategy based on the statistical analysis of phase estimates may be applied to other iterative phase retrieval methods.

PMID:38824352 | DOI:10.1364/OL.522321

Opt Lett. 2024 Jun 1;49(11):3042-3045. doi: 10.1364/OL.525697.

ABSTRACT

It is well known that the beam splitter is an integral part of many classical and quantum devices. The use of beam splitters in quantum technologies is currently particularly relevant. The emergence of new types of beam splitters provides new statistical characteristics of the separated photon beam and their control and new possibilities for use in various devices. This Letter presents a new, to the best of our knowledge, type of beam splitter based on free charged particles. This type of beam splitter has all the properties of a linear beam splitter with its reflection coefficient R, transmission coefficient T, and phase shift ϕ, which are presented in a simple analytical form. This type of beam splitter has interesting application prospects.

PMID:38824323 | DOI:10.1364/OL.525697

Opt Lett. 2024 Jun 1;49(11):3026-3029. doi: 10.1364/OL.523210.

ABSTRACT

We investigate the dynamical blockade in a nonlinear cavity and demonstrate the connection between the correlation function g⁽²⁾(t) and system parameters in the entire nonlinear region. Utilizing the Liouville exceptional points (LEP_s) and quantum dynamics, a near-perfect single-photon blockade (1PB) can be achieved. By fine-tuning system parameters to approach the second-order LEP (LEP₂), we improved single-photon statistics in both weak and strong nonlinearity regimes, including a significant reduction of g⁽²⁾(t) and a pronounced increase in the single-photon occupation number. In the strong nonlinearity region, the maximum photon population may correspond to stronger antibunching effect. Simultaneously, the time window and period of blockade can be controlled by selecting detuning based on the LEP₂. Furthermore, the 1PB exhibits robustness against parameter fluctuations, and this feature can be generalized to systems for implementing single-photon sources with nonharmonic energy levels.

PMID:38824319 | DOI:10.1364/OL.523210