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The chirality introduced at the C1 position of 1-substituted-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines, obtained by four methods of enantioselective reduction of 1-substituted-3,4-dihydroisoquinolines, are vital for various biological activities.

In situating the questions of how languages shape the ideas of history, history writing, and self-identification of community, the importance of colonialism is key. Allison Busch's scholarship framed an important intervention in our collective approach to the early-modern subcontinent. This article introduces a special section consisting of articles by students, colleagues, and mentors of Busch.

Although impacted canines concerning dental arch have been analyzed in prior studies. However, there is a lack of evidence to analyze the impact of impacted canines on dental arch characteristics using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) models; therefore, knowing the impact of impacted canines on the dental arch can enhance awareness, contribute knowledge, and aid clinicians in managing impacted canine cases. Hence, it is critical to emphasize the strategies of proper diagnosis and interception for this clinical condition prior to any orthosurgical treatment procedures. This study aimed to analyze the impact of impacted canines on dental arch characteristics in orthodontic patients using CBCT. The method used was the review of clinical records of 350 patients with impacted canines who had CBCT scans and visited the dental clinics for orthodontic treatment pertaining to their arch by dividing them into a control group and a study group. The results revealed a significant relationship based on the dental arch dimension; inter first premolar width (IPW) (P = 0.012), inter first molar width (IMW) (P = 0.010), arch length (AL) (P = 0.041), palatal height (PH) (P = 0.019), and palatal height index (PHI) (P = 0.020). The article concludes that patients with impacted canines had significant changes in dental arch dimension compared to the control group. Dental arch dimensions were significantly deficient, with a higher palatal vault seen in impacted canine patients. The anatomical position of impacted canines has an effect on the dental arches and adjacent anatomical structures. These three-dimensional (3D) findings may provide clinical reference data for impacted canines and provide a valuable basis for delivering information and education on impacted canines assessment and treatment. CPD/Clinical Relevance: Canine impactions are common during routine examinations. Understanding the influence of impacted canines on the dental arch will help clinicians manage impacted canine patients.

Some advanced and slightly more invasive treatments require the use of certain drugs before, during and after the treatment like local anesthetics, vasoconstrictors, anxiolytics, analgesics and antibiotics. All of these can possibly interact with medications a patient is already taking and can also interfere with the current dental treatment and create complications. This article aims to provide necessary information about commonly encountered systemic diseases and associated treating medications, their mechanism of action, possible complications and their management. CPD/Clinical Relevance: This article discusses drugs that are used for treating various systemic conditions, but can have a harmful effect on minor oral surgery procedures.

As hand is a functional part of the body, dorsal surface of digits, hand and wrist is prone to injury causing complex wound. Thin, mobile and supple skin of the dorsal wrist and hand make significant for hand functions and aesthetic. Aims of the study were feasibility of the flap in terms of survivability of Superficial Inferior Epigastric artery (SIEA) flap, complications of flap and measurement of functional & aesthetic outcomes to achieve the reconstruction goal in hugely burden regional medical college hospital. 11 SIEA flaps were done in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital from August 2019 to July 2021 on both hands among both male and female patients. Only 2 (18.18%) flaps were lost partially. Almost all the wounds were covered successfully with good functional and aesthetic outcome. So, SIEA flap is the one of the best workhorses for extensive dorsal complex wound in overburdened regional medical hospital in Bangladesh.

Fingertip includes the portion of the digit which is distal to the insertion of flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) tendon and the extensor tendon. It is the most vulnerable part of the hand to be injured. So, reconstruction of this part requires a good outcome in sensation and function. To meet the goal of the reconstruction principle, "Like with Like" local flap is the most preferable. Such type of flap is a Volar oblique triangular flap based on volar perforator vessels from the Digital artery proper. The aim of the study is to identify its reconstruction outcome in viability, sensation, range of movement of DIPJ, and patients' satisfaction regarding contour. This was a prospective observational study; ten patients were included who were admitted in the Burn and Plastic surgery Department of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, Rajshahi, from September 2019 to December 2020. Thirteen flaps were harvested to cover for the fingertip defect of ten patients; among them, three were female. The age range of our operated patient was 2- 38 years. None of the flaps was lost except marginal necrosis or epidermal loss. The range of movement of DIPJ and 2SPD were within the normal limit. Patients were satisfied with their contour. So, the modified volar oblique, triangular flap is one of the good options for fingertip defects. TAJ 2021; 34: No-1: 63-69

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are a type of idiopathic orofacial pain. Inflammation, particularly elevated circulating levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-8 (IL-8), has been linked to pain symptoms. The purpose of this study was to compare hs-CRP, IL-6, and IL-8 biomarkers and pain intensity with different treatment strategies (LLLT, standard conservative treatment, and combination) for TMD patients. Methods: A total of 32 participants were randomly included in the study and divided into three groups (Group I, Group II, and Group III) referred from the Dental Clinic, School of Dental Science, HUSM. Patients received LLLT (Groups II and III) in five sessions for the duration of 10 days. Patients in Groups I and III received standard conservative TMD treatment (diet and stress counseling, jaw exercises, physical therapy, which was a hot towel application) by the principal investigator. All blood samples for biomarkers were performed before starting treatments and directly after finishing the treatment protocols, where all results were recorded. Results: The result showed a significant difference in the mean IL-8 (p = 0.001) between the three intervention groups (LLLT, standard treatment, and combined treatment). IL-6 showed an increase in the mean of IL-6 levels from baseline to post-treatment with a better mean in the LLLT treatment group without any significant differences. Additionally, there were no significant mean differences found between the groups and in the group for the hs-CRP biomarker. Conclusions: A statistically non-significant difference was found in hs-CRP and IL-6 before and after LLLT, conservative, and combined treatment strategies of TMD. A statistically significant difference was observed in the mean levels of IL-8 between the LLLT intervention group and the combined treatment group. Although there was no statistically significant correlation between pain intensity and biomarkers, a statistically significant difference was found in pain intensity before and after LLLT, conservative, and combined treatment strategies. TMJ degeneration could be exacerbated by elevated IL-8 levels. Thus, this can be an important biomarker to mark or identify the painful condition of TMJ.

This review covers all aspects from the viewpoint of impacted canines that were missed by some articles. Most review studies focus on the epidemiology and incidence of the disease but rarely on the detailed investigation of this therapeutic disorder; therefore, appropriate awareness of canine impaction diagnosis and management is critical prior to any orthosurgical treatment procedures. Hence, it is crucial to emphasize the means of proper diagnosis and interception of this clinical condition. This study aimed to compare and review the various diagnostic methods used to identify canine impaction, its advantages, shortcomings, research, and clinical implications to guide the evaluation and management of cases in general dental practice. Based on the current literature, the epidemiology of canine impaction, diagnosis, classification systems, and surgical options for exposing impacted canines are discussed. To determine the anatomical position of impacted canines, a thorough clinical examination and appropriate diagnostic imaging should be performed. The surgical method for exposing impacted canines should consider the tooth’s anatomical position in regard to the alveolar ridge and the amount of keratinized mucosa/gingiva. The article concludes that displacement and non-eruption of impacted canines can be managed by administering an accurate and adequate diagnosis of canine impaction, proper investigation of tooth position, length, direction, and related structures, selecting the appropriate management approach, and also reducing the biomechanics involved during canine retraction using fixed orthodontic appliances when they are impacted, and thus can restrict the risk of s urgical t rauma o n t he a djacent h ard a nd s oft t issues in th e p atients . T his a rticle m ay su ggest th at 3 D im aging is re quired to as sist cl inicians in de veloping a su ccessful t reatment p lan f or d etecting i mpaction a nd t he s urrounding structures . CPD/Clinical Relevance: Canine impactions are frequent during routine examinations. Appropriate identification, investigation, and, if necessary, referral are crucial to the outcome o f t reatment s uccess.

Transformer models have emerged as the state-of-the-art in many natural language processing and computer vision applications due to their capability of attending to longer sequences of tokens and supporting parallel processing more efficiently. Nevertheless, the training and inference of transformer models are computationally expensive and memory intensive. Meanwhile, utilizing the sparsity in deep learning models has proven to be an effective approach to alleviate the computation challenge as well as help to fit large models in edge devices. As high-performance CPUs and GPUs are generally not flexible enough to explore low-level sparsity, a number of specialized hardware accelerators have been proposed for transformer models. This paper provides a comprehensive review of hardware transformer accelerators that have been proposed to explore sparsity for computation and memory optimizations. We classify existing works based on the strategies of utilizing sparsity and identify their pros and cons in those strategies. Based on our analysis, we point out promising directions and recommendations for future works on improving the effective sparse execution of transformer hardware accelerators.

Medicinal plants are extensively used in traditional folk medicine. High blood pressure is associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and many other serious health complications resulting from it as a major concern of morbidity and mortality in health sector. Use of diuretics, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, beta adrenergic receptor antagonists (beta blockers), alpha adrenergic receptor antagonists (alpha blockers), calcium channel blockers (CCBs) etc. are not efficient enough to cure hypertension. Side effects regarding these medications lead to intolerance, impaired control of the disease, and also mismanagement of therapy. So, approach regarding quenching new potent therapeutic compounds from medicinal plants draws attention nowadays. For example, as a first-line therapeutic agent, an alkaloid is highly effective in lowering systolic blood pressure which is isolated from root extract of the plant of Rauwolfia serpentina species, namely reserpine. This article comes up with a list of 63 plant species from 37 families, compiling information related to plant parts used for making extracts, types of extract and animals used in these studies, antihypertensive effect of the extracts etc. It also refers to 74 chemically defined molecules, with in vitro and in vivo anti-hypertensive potential, isolated from these extracts along with their dosage and mechanism of action by using electronic searches of published articles from various databases and reference books. Our present work would be beneficial for researchers to investigate and invent novel antihypertensive therapy to treat hypertension.

This review covers all aspects from the viewpoint of impacted canines that were missed by some articles. Most review studies focus on the epidemiology and incidence of the disease but rarely on the detailed investigation of this therapeutic disorder; therefore, appropriate awareness of canine impaction diagnosis and management is critical prior to any orthosurgical treatment procedures. Hence, it is crucial to emphasize the means of proper diagnosis and interception of this clinical condition. This study aimed to compare and review the various diagnostic methods used to identify canine impaction, its advantages, shortcomings, research, and clinical implications to guide the evaluation and management of cases in general dental practice. Based on the current literature, the epidemiology of canine impaction, diagnosis, classification systems, and surgical options for exposing impacted canines are discussed. To determine the anatomical position of impacted canines, a thorough clinical examination and appropriate diagnostic imaging should be performed. The surgical method for exposing impacted canines should consider the tooth’s anatomical position in regard to the alveolar ridge and the amount of keratinized mucosa/gingiva. The article concludes that displacement and non-eruption of impacted canines can be managed by administering an accurate and adequate diagnosis of canine impaction, proper investigation of tooth position, length, direction, and related structures, selecting the appropriate management approach, and also reducing the biomechanics involved during canine retraction using fixed orthodontic appliances when they are impacted, and thus can restrict the risk of surgical trauma on the adjacent hard and soft tissues in the patients. This article may suggest that 3D imaging is required to assist clinicians in developing a successful treatment plan for detecting impaction and the surrounding structures. CPD/Clinical Relevance: Canine impactions are frequent during routine examinations. Appropriate identification, investigation, and, if necessary, referral are crucial to the outcome of treatment success.

Conventional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) present a high computational workload and memory access cost (CMC). Spectral domain CNNs (SpCNNs) offer a computationally efficient approach to compute CNN training and inference. This paper investigates CMC of SpCNNs and its contributing components analytically and then proposes a methodology to optimize CMC, under three strategies, to enhance inference performance. In this methodology, output feature map (OFM) size, OFM depth or both are progressively reduced under an accuracy constraint to compute performance-optimized CNN inference. Before conducting training or testing, it can provide designers guidelines and preliminary insights regarding techniques for optimum performance, least degradation in accuracy and a balanced performance-accuracy trade-off. This methodology was evaluated on MNIST and Fashion MNIST datasets using LeNet-5 and AlexNet architectures. When compared to state-of-the-art SpCNN models, LeNet-5 achieves up to 4.2× (batch inference) and 4.1× (single-image inference) higher throughputs and 10.5× (batch inference) and 4.2× (single-image inference) greater energy efficiency at a maximum loss of 3% in test accuracy. When compared to the baseline model used in this study, AlexNet delivers 11.6× (batch inference) and 5× (single-image inference) increased throughput and 25× (batch inference) and 8.8× (single-image inference) more energy-efficient inference with just 4.4% reduction in accuracy.

Jyoti Gulati Balachandran, Narrative Pasts: The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400–1650. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020, 248 pp.

The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the different types of endodontic access cavity designs based on the current available evidence. Four types of access cavity designs, namely, traditional endodontic access cavity design (TEC), contracted/conservative endodontic access cavity design (CEC), ultra-conservative or ninja endodontic access cavity design (NEC) and truss endodontic access cavity design (TREC) have been suggested, and the latter three are currently in the limelight. Studies in vitro have been performed comparing the TECs, CECs, TRECs and NECs; except for the TECs, the other three types have not undergone clinical trials on patients. The choice of endodontic access cavity design affects fracture strength of the tooth, but remnants of pulpal tissue, due to ineffective instrumentation, can cause root canal treatment failure. CPD/Clinical Relevance: Root canal treatment with new access cavity designs has been proposed. However, there is lack of evidence to support such practices. It is important to consider the potential deleterious effects of such access cavity designs rather than emphasizing the preservation of tooth structure alone.

Objective. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of laser application in temporomandibular joint disorder. Methods. PubMed, SCOPUS, Science Direct, Web of Science, and Google Scholar electronic databases were searched systematically with restricting the languages to only English and year (January 2001 to March 2020), and studies were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Study quality and publication bias were assessed by using the Robvis, a software package of R statistical software. Results. This systematic review included 32 studies (1172 patients) based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Most of the studies reported significant reduction of pain by the use of the laser during TMD treatment. Two-thirds of the study (78.13%) found a better outcome comparing with conventional one. According to Robvis, 84.4% of the studies were high methodological studies with low risk of bias. Conclusion. TMD patients suffer with continuous pain for long time even after conventional treatment. Laser therapy shows a promising outcome of pain reduction for TMD patients. Therefore, laser therapy can be recommended for the TMD patients’ better outcome. This trial is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020177562).

A medical condition is considered an “emergency” when there are limited time and resource to handle the situation. It can occur anytime or anywhere regardless of the patient’s age or gender. Sometimes it is seen that an elderly person moves on their own and they can get sick inadvertently. To mitigate the emergency medical problem without any delay, a system named i-medical is proposed in this chapter. Moreover, with a combination of different methodologies like the Internet of Things, database and mobile application, this system would help the patients immediately. Justifiably, using stochastic geometry theory, this chapter demonstrates the result of how this system would work on real-world cellular networks. Likewise, the simulation results show that better performance can be obtained by minimizing user densities such as patients and neighbors.

Sialolithiasis is considered as one of the most frequently encountered diseases of the salivary glands. The most susceptible site is the submandibular gland and its duct. However, megaliths have been sparsely reported in the literature. This article portrays management of a sialolith and a megalith in a 26-year-old and a 59-year-old male patient, respectively. The sialolith in the first case case was 4 mm long, whereas the second case demonstrated a megalith measuring 46 mm at its greatest size. Follow-up revealed normal functioning and a painless gland in the first case, while the second case showed no eventful complications. It is interesting to know that both patients remained relatively pain-free, despite having such longstanding sialolith/megaliths. After removal of the small sialolith, the gland regained its normal functioning swiftly, whereas in the case of the megalith, the gland removal was mandatory because such a longstanding megalith led to irreversible functional injury to the gland. CPD/Clinical Relevance: A giant sialolith can be easily misdiagnosed as a submandibular infection or neoplasm, especially when the patient presents with a longstanding pain-free swelling. Hence, early and appropriate referral and investigation is necessary for early diagnosis and treatment.

Aim. The aim of the current study is to investigate the antioxidant and apoptotic potential of Ajwa date flesh (ADF) and Ajwa date pit (ADP) extract on human squamous cell carcinoma cell line (HSC-2). Method. ADF and ADP were extracted with a solvent extraction method using hexane, acetone, and ethanol, which were then subjected to antioxidant assay by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). HSC-2 cells were then treated with different concentrations of ADF and ADP extract for 24, 48, and 72 hours. MTT assay was performed to assess the antiproliferative effect, and Annexin V-FITC was used for the detection of cellular apoptosis. Results. Acetone extracts of ADF and ADP had the highest radical scavenging and antioxidant activities followed by the ethanolic extracts, whereas ADP appeared to have significantly higher antioxidant effects than ADF. MTT assay demonstrated that acetone extracts of ADF and ADP were significantly cytotoxic against HSC-2 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The half inhibitory concentration (IC50) of ADF was found to be 8.69 mg/ml at 24 h, and the maximum cell growth inhibition was observed at 50 mg/ml. The IC50 for the ADP was found to be 0.97 mg/ml at 24 h, and the maximum cell growth inhibition was observed at 5 mg/ml. Statistical analysis of the flow cytometry assay showed that the treatment with ADF and ADP extracts had a significant apoptotic effect which occurred in a dose-dependent manner. HSC-2 cells were seen in the late apoptotic stage with higher doses of ADF and ADP extract. ADP extract demonstrated higher apoptotic activity than ADF extract. In addition, combined treatment of ADF and ADP was also performed on HSC-2 cells which demonstrated higher apoptotic activity when compared to the single extract. Conclusion. Ajwa date fruit has a promising cytotoxic effect by inhibiting the growth and proliferation of OSCC cells and inducing cell death by apoptosis.

Cold recycling of asphalt pavement is an effective rehabilitation technique in terms of saving natural resources and cost of construction. The current study focuses on cold-recycled asphalt...

The average time consumed for disimpaction of mandibular third molar using rotatory instruments was approximately 17 mins and 23 mins while using a piezotome. The authors introduce a new technique of disimpaction of mandibular third molar with the least amount of bone removal ever achieved during mandibular third molar removal. This technique can be readily included in routine clinical practice and can be performed by using routine rotary instruments. This technique was successfully accomplished in 10 individuals with the least amount of discomfort and post-operative complications reported from day 1 to day 14. The procedure was evaluated based on time of the procedure, pain score, bleeding, nerve injury, trismus, swelling & dry socket. Third molar removal has been the most frequently performed oral surgical procedure in the modern world of dentistry.1 Although, mandibular third molar is the most commonly performed procedure, it demands skill, technique and experience. Several techniques have been implied for disimpaction of mandibular third molar, but every method involves either considerable amount of bone removal or splitting the bone. Bone manipulation is done by using a rotary instruments or chisel and mallet. The most popular techniques are buccal bone guttering, distal bone removal, lingual bone split technique and lingual bone guttering.2 According to the traditional classifications of impacted mandibular third molar (Pell & Gregory and Winter’s classification), the minimum amount of bucco-distal bone removed during disimpaction of mesioangularly positioned class I A impacted mandibular third molar using rotary instruments and conventional techniques can be calculated as 157.5 mm2 (volume of a rectangle = L X W X H; where L = 15 mm, W = 1.5 mm [width of the bur] and H = 7 mm). The mandibular third molar requiring osteotomy and tooth section have the highest risk of complications3. Surgical time had significantly increased in cases which required osteotomy and tooth section. Post-operative swelling and pain has been recorded as significant complications after using rotary instruments via buccal approach followed by use of chisel & mallet and least in lingual split approach. On the contrary, post-operative nerve injury and trismus were significantly high in lingual split technique. Dry socket was more in patients of bur technique.2

Oral cyst is uncommon in the neonatal period. Depending on the size and site of occurrence, its symptoms may vary. If not diagnosed and managed expeditiously, these oral cysts may cause significant and potentially fatal morbidity and mortality. We report a successfully managed case of oral cyst in neonate that presented with huge tongue at birth and complaints of impending airway obstruction. She was referred for tracheostomy as intubation was impossible. We attempted needle aspiration and the airway successfully relieved without the need for tracheostomy.

Since its inception in 1919, the Journal of Dental Research has continually published high-quality articles that span the breadth of research topics relevant to dentistry, oral surgery, and medicine. As part of the journal’s centennial celebration, we conducted an electronic search on Scopus to identify and analyze the top 100 most cited articles from 1919 to 2018. Since Scopus does not capture older citations, we conducted an additional analysis by Google Scholar to identify key articles published in the first 50 y of the journal. Based on Scopus, the articles were ranked in descending order per their citation counts. The citation counts of the 100 most cited articles varied from 262 to 1,503. The year in which the largest number of top 100 articles were published was 2004 ( n = 6). Within the top 100, the majority of articles originated from the United States ( n = 52). Research Reports–Biomaterials & Bioengineering was the most frequent category of cited articles ( n = 35). There was no significant association between total citation count and time since publication (correlation coefficient = –0.051, P = 0.656). However, there was a significant negative association of citation density (correlation coefficient = –0.610, P < 0.01) with time since publication. Our analyses demonstrate the broad reach of the journal and the dynamics in citation patterns and research agenda over its 100-y history. There is considerable evidence of the high variance in research output, when measured via citations, across the globe. Moreover, it remains unclear how patients’ priorities and dental health care needs are aligned with the perceived influence of single research pieces identified by our search. Our findings may help to inspire future research in tackling these inequalities and highlight the need for conceptualizing research priorities.

Oral health is a cardinal element of nutritional as well as systemic well-being and plays a substantial part in sustaining optimum general health condition. Various factors influence oral health including metabolic diseases such as endocrine (diabetes mellitus [DM]), hematological, gastrointestinal, cutaneous, and neurological diseases. The intent of this review is to accentuate the correlation between DM and oral disorders, like those upsetting oral mucosa and supporting tissues. A review of literature was performed using relevant key words (“Oral Manifestations of Diabetes” OR “Oral Complications of Diabetes” OR “Oral Impacts of Diabetes” OR “Oral Repercussions of Diabetes“) in prominent journals pertaining to Endocrinology and Dentistry (Journal of Periodontology, Periodontology 2000, British Dental Journal, The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, PloS ONE, and Nature Reviews Genetics). The most frequently witnessed diabetic manifestations in oral cavity include gingivitis and periodontitis leading to premature tooth loss, salivary dysfunctions, dental caries, delayed wound healing, bacterial and fungal infections, lichen planus, taste impairment, tongue abnormalities, neurosensory oral disorders, halitosis, and dry socket. In the end, I have comprehensively described the role of antidiabetic drugs in the management of DM and eventually leading to prevention of its oral complications. In this review, etiopathophysiology of each oral complication has been prudently analyzed to contemplate the establishment of a possible preventive and treatment approach.

Oral health is a cardinal element of nutritional as well as systemic well-being and plays a substantial part in sustaining optimum general health condition. Various factors influence oral health including metabolic diseases such as endocrine, hematological, gastrointestinal, cutaneous, and neurological diseases. The intent of this review is to highlight the treatment as well as prevention strategies for one of the most devastating repercussions of chemotherapy (CT) and radiotherapy (RT) on the oral cavity in the form of oral mucositis (OM). A review of literature was performed using relevant key words (“Mucositis” OR “Oral Mucositis” OR “Oral Stomatitis” AND “Treatment of Mucositis” OR “Treatment of Oral Mucositis” OR “Treatment of Oral Stomatitis” AND “Prevention of Mucositis” OR “Prevention of Oral Mucositis” OR “Prevention of Oral Stomatitis“) in prominent journals pertaining to Oncology and Dentistry (CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Cancer, Frontiers in Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Oral Oncology). It is basically sequelae of CT, RT, and radiochemotherapy in patients suffering from malignant diseases as well as those who require hematopoietic stem cell transplants. In addition to its negative effects on the oral cavity and consequently on the overall quality of life, OM may lead to delay in cancer treatment which incriminates in a poor prognosis of the disease.

Interconnection network topology is critical for the overall performance of HPC systems. While many regular and irregular topologies have been proposed in the past, recent work has shown the promise of shortcut-augmented topologies that offer multi-fold reduction in network diameter and hop count over conventional topologies. However, the large number of possible shortcuts creates an enormous design space for this new type of topology, and existing approaches are extremely slow and do not find shortcuts that are globally optimal. In this paper, we propose an efficient heuristic approach, called EdgeCut, which generates high-quality shortcut-augmented topologies. EdgeCut can identify more globally useful shortcuts by making its considerations from the perspective of edges instead of vertices. An additional implementation is proposed that approximates the costly all-pair shortest paths calculation, thereby further speeding up the scheme. Quantitative comparisons over prior work show that the proposed approach achieves a 1982× reduction in search time while generating better or equivalent topologies in 94.9% of the evaluated cases.

Recommender algorithms can guide users in a personalized way to interesting objects in a large space of possible options. The necessity of recommendations is increasing on cultural or entertainment and media industries, where the number of products is continuously increasing. Cultural and media platforms and digital markets are getting heavily benefitted from implementing, maintaining, and improving their recommender system. The process on how they retrieve cultural products like music, books, movies, news and enable easy access to the users can have a structural impact on how markets operate alongside how consuming trends change. The prospect of this project is to engineer a complete recommender system for noozy.tv, a new video-on-demand platform dedicated for the viewers of Grand Est region in France. The aim is to develop a framework maintaining standard and modern software development methodologies and tools to ensure seamless service, research scope on real data and diversity, evaluation, and delivering a platform for further improvement in system., Résumé Les algorithmes de recommandation peuvent guider les utilisateurs de manière personnalisée vers des objets intéressants dans un large espace d'options possibles. La nécessité de recommandations augmente sur les industries culturelles ou du divertissement et des médias, où le nombre de produits ne cesse d'augmenter. Les plateformes culturelles et médiatiques et les marchés numériques bénéficient grandement de la mise en oeuvre, de la maintenance et de l'amélioration de leur système de recommandation. Le processus sur la façon dont ils récupèrent les produits culturels comme la musique, les livres, les films, les actualités et permettent un accès facile aux utilisateurs peut avoir un impact structurel sur le fonctionnement des marchés parallèlement à l'évolution des tendances de consommation. La perspective de ce projet est de concevoir un système de recommandation complet pour noozy.tv, une nouvelle plateforme de vidéo à la demande dédiée aux téléspectateurs de la région Grand Est en France. L'objectif est de développer un cadre maintenant des méthodologies et des outils de développement de logiciels standard et modernes pour assurer un service transparent, une portée de recherche sur les données réelles et la diversité, l'évaluation et la fourniture d'une plate-forme pour une amélioration supplémentaire du système.

BACKGROUND: Sleep apnoea is a diagnosed condition in which appurtenances interrupt breathing whilst sleeping. The consequence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) includes road traffic accidents due to drowsiness, systemic hypertension, heart disease, diabetes mellitus and neurocognitive disorders. This condition extends the duration of recovery phase after traumatic brain injury. OBJECTIVE: This study was intended to assess the knowledge and attitude towards OSA and compare it among dental and medical undergraduate students of University Sains Malaysia (USM). METHODS: In this study, a total of 216 clinical undergraduate students (36 from each year; 108 from medical and 108 from dental school) of University Sains Malaysia (USM) Health campus were recruited for the study by non-probability stratified random sampling method. Total study period was October 2017 to October 2018. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the sociodemographic status and OSAKA questionnaire was used to assess knowledge and attitude regarding sleep apnoea of the respondents. Descriptive analysis was carried out to assess the knowledge and attitude of OSA amongst dental and medical undergraduate students of USM. The Mann–Whitney U test was carried out to compare the knowledge and attitude of OSA amongst dental and medical undergraduate students of USM. RESULTS: Our study findings revealed that 0.9 %and 6.5 %of the dental undergraduate students and medical undergraduate students could answer all the questions correctly regarding knowledge of OSA. Based on the assessment of the difference between medical and dental students in terms of knowledge towards OSA patients, significant difference was observed at the significance level of 95%, where p

Palatal defects are rehabilitated by fabricating maxillofacial prostheses called obturators. The treatment incorporates taking deviously unpredictable impressions to facsimile the palatal defects into plaster casts for obturator fabrication in the dental laboratory. The casts are then digitally stored using expensive hardware to prevent physical damage or data loss and, when required, future obturators are digitally designed, and 3D printed. Our objective was to construct and validate an economic in-house smartphone-integrated stereophotogrammetry (SPINS) 3D scanner and to evaluate its accuracy in designing prosthetics using open source/free (OS/F) digital pipeline. Palatal defect models were scanned using SPINS and its accuracy was compared against the standard laser scanner for virtual area and volumetric parameters. SPINS derived 3D models were then used to design obturators by using (OS/F) software. The resultant obturators were virtually compared against standard medical software designs. There were no significant differences in any of the virtual parameters when evaluating the accuracy of both SPINS, as well as OS/F derived obturators. However, limitations in the design process resulted in minimal dissimilarities. With further improvements, SPINS based prosthetic rehabilitation could create a viable, low cost method for rural and developing health services to embrace maxillofacial record keeping and digitised prosthetic rehabilitation.

Objective: To determine the association of socio-demographic and clinic-pathological risk factors with oral cancer in Kelantan, Malaysia . Material and Methods: A 19-year cross-sectional survey was performed in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Malaysia. Medical record of 301 oral cancer patients was retrieved from the Medical Records office. Results: The majority of the oral cancer cases were male (62.8%), non-smokers (57.5%), non-alcohol consumers (83.4%), non-betel quid chewers (96.7%), and belonged to Malay ethnicity (68.8%). At the time of diagnosis, most of the patients were at stage II (38.9%). Approximately one-third (30.6%) of the total OC patients experienced loco-regional/distant metastasis, whereas no metastasis was detected in around two-thirds of cases (69.4%). A combination of surgery and radiotherapy was the most commonly employed treatment modality (27.2%). At the time of this study, the survival status of most of the patients was alive (69.1%). The most frequently encountered oral cancer in the Kelantanese population was oral squamous cell carcinoma (70.1%), with the tongue being the most frequently involved oral cavity site (35.5%) . Conclusion: More than three-fourths of the cases were alive at follow-up, which included the cases that did not undergo any form of treatment.

In this essay, I reflect on the position of a postcolonized historian traversing space and time, thinking and linking to histories of European arrivals to Mexico and India. The essay is concerned with early seventeenth-century histories by Chimalpahin and Firishta, who documented their worlds before and after the arrival of Europeans. I argue for a transregional decolonial approach to thinking about historical violence and the formation of disciplinary histories.

Objective: To determine the association of socio-demographic and clinic-pathological risk factors with oral cancer in Kelantan, Malaysia. Material and Methods: A 19-year cross-sectional survey was performed in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Malaysia. Medical record of 301 oral cancer patients was retrieved from the Medical Records office. Results: The majority of the oral cancer cases were male (62.8%), non-smokers (57.5%), non-alcohol consumers (83.4%), non-betel quid chewers (96.7%), and belonged to Malay ethnicity (68.8%). At the time of diagnosis, most of the patients were at stage II (38.9%). Approximately one-third (30.6%) of the total OC patients experienced loco-regional/distant metastasis, whereas no metastasis was detected in around two-thirds of cases (69.4%). A combination of surgery and radiotherapy was the most commonly employed treatment modality (27.2%). At the time of this study, the survival status of most of the patients was alive (69.1%). The most frequently encountered oral cancer in the Kelantanese population was oral squamous cell carcinoma (70.1%), with the tongue being the most frequently involved oral cavity site (35.5%). Conclusion: More than three-fourths of the cases were alive at follow-up, which included the cases that did not undergo any form of treatment.

Background: Pre-eclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. Early identification of women at risk is needed to plan management. Objective : To assess the performance of existing pre-eclampsia prediction models and to develop and validate models for pre-eclampsia using individual participant data meta-analysis. We also estimated the prognostic value of individual markers. Design: This was an individual participant data meta-analysis of cohort studies. Setting: Source data from secondary and tertiary care. Predictors: We identified predictors from systematic reviews, and prioritised for importance in an international survey. Primary outcomes Early-onset (delivery at = 34 weeks' gestation) and any-onset pre-eclampsia. Analysis: We externally validated existing prediction models in UK cohorts and reported their performance in terms of discrimination and calibration. We developed and validated 12 new models based on clinical characteristics, clinical characteristics and biochemical markers, and clinical characteristics and ultrasound markers in the first and second trimesters. We summarised the data set-specific performance of each model using a random-effects meta-analysis. Discrimination was considered promising for C-statistics of >= 0.7, and calibration was considered good if the slope was near 1 and calibration-in-the-large was near 0. Heterogeneity was quantified using l(2) and tau(2). A decision curve analysis was undertaken to determine the clinical utility (net benefit) of the models. We reported the unadjusted prognostic value of individual predictors for pre-eclampsia as odds ratios with 95% confidence and prediction intervals. Result The International Prediction of Pregnancy Complications network comprised 78 studies (3,570,993 singleton pregnancies) identified from systematic reviews of tests to predict pre-eclampsia. Twenty-four of the 131 published prediction models could be validated in 11 UK cohorts. Summary C-statistics were between 0.6 and 0.7 for most models, and calibration was generally poor owing to large between-study heterogeneity, suggesting model overfitting. The clinical utility of the models varied between showing net harm to showing minimal or no net benefit. The average discrimination for IPPIC models ranged between 0.68 and 0.83. This was highest for the second-trimester clinical characteristics and biochemical markers model to predict early-onset pre-eclampsia, and lowest for the first-trimester clinical characteristics models to predict any pre-eclampsia. Calibration performance was heterogeneous across studies. Net benefit was observed for International Prediction of Pregnancy Complications first and second-trimester clinical characteristics and clinical characteristics and biochemical markers models predicting any pre-eclampsia, when validated in singleton nulliparous women managed in the UK NHS. History of hypertension, parity, smoking, mode of conception, placental growth factor and uterine artery pulsatility index had the strongest unadjusted associations with pre-eclampsia. Limitations: Variations in study population characteristics, type of predictors reported, too few events in some validation cohorts and the type of measurements contributed to heterogeneity in performance of the International Prediction of Pregnancy Complications models. Some published models were not validated because model predictors were unavailable in the individual participant data. Conclusion: For models that could be validated, predictive performance was generally poor across data sets. Although the International Prediction of Pregnancy Complications models show good predictive performance on average, and in the singleton nulliparous population, heterogeneity in calibration performance is likely across settings. Future work: Recalibration of model parameters within populations may improve calibration performance. Additional strong predictors need to be identified to improve model performance and consistency. Validation, including examination of calibration heterogeneity, is required for the models we could not validate.

BACKGROUND: Pre-eclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. Early identification of women at risk during pregnancy is required to plan management. Although there are many published prediction models for pre-eclampsia, few have been validated in external data. Our objective was to externally validate published prediction models for pre-eclampsia using individual participant data (IPD) from UK studies, to evaluate whether any of the models can accurately predict the condition when used within the UK healthcare setting. METHODS: IPD from 11 UK cohort studies (217,415 pregnant women) within the International Prediction of Pregnancy Complications (IPPIC) pre-eclampsia network contributed to external validation of published prediction models, identified by systematic review. Cohorts that measured all predictor variables in at least one of the identified models and reported pre-eclampsia as an outcome were included for validation. We reported the model predictive performance as discrimination (C-statistic), calibration (calibration plots, calibration slope, calibration-in-the-large), and net benefit. Performance measures were estimated separately in each available study and then, where possible, combined across studies in a random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: Of 131 published models, 67 provided the full model equation and 24 could be validated in 11 UK cohorts. Most of the models showed modest discrimination with summary C-statistics between 0.6 and 0.7. The calibration of the predicted compared to observed risk was generally poor for most models with observed calibration slopes less than 1, indicating that predictions were generally too extreme, although confidence intervals were wide. There was large between-study heterogeneity in each model's calibration-in-the-large, suggesting poor calibration of the predicted overall risk across populations. In a subset of models, the net benefit of using the models to inform clinical decisions appeared small and limited to probability thresholds between 5 and 7%. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluated models had modest predictive performance, with key limitations such as poor calibration (likely due to overfitting in the original development datasets), substantial heterogeneity, and small net benefit across settings. The evidence to support the use of these prediction models for pre-eclampsia in clinical decision-making is limited. Any models that we could not validate should be examined in terms of their predictive performance, net benefit, and heterogeneity across multiple UK settings before consideration for use in practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO ID: CRD42015029349 .

More than 15,000 prescriptions and over the counter drugs are available according to the US Food and Drug Administration website. Moreover, several herbal medicines and dietary supplements are readily available to add to the list of possible drugs, which can potentially cause adverse drug interactions. These are a pressing concern for all as they can interfere with many dental procedures. Additionally, the number of geriatric patients seen in routine dental practice has increased over time. This implies that there are more patients with multiple diseases and health conditions like hypertension, diabetes, problems associated with the cardiovascular, renal and gastrointestinal systems, arthritis, osteoporosis, etc. All these require patients to be on certain medications. Furthermore, advancement in the dental field has led to more complex dental procedures (implants, grafts) being carried out in a general dental practice. These advanced and slightly more invasive treatments require the use of certain drugs before, during and after the treatment like local anesthetics, vasoconstrictors, anxiolytics, analgesics and antibiotics. All of these can possibly interact with medications a patient is already taking and can also interfere with the current dental treatment and create complications. This article aims to provide necessary information about commonly encountered systemic diseases and associated treating medications, their mechanism of action, possible complications and their management. The classes of drugs discussed include anti-platelet agents, vitamin K antagonists, novel oral anticoagulants, bisphosphonates, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and oral contraceptives.