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Background: Drug-food interaction is a serious issue that should be taken into consideration when administering drugs for chronic diseases and life-saving drugs such as anticoagulants. Alteration of the properties of gastric fluid such as pH and film precipitation on tablet had a significant impact on dissolution and release of the drug which may further affect its therapeutic effect. Methods: In vitro disintegration and dissolution tests were done in HCl buffer and phosphate buffer with and without spinach extract in each media. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was performed to measure the drug release in all media. Disintegration was performed in simulated intestinal fluid and compared to disintegration of drug in 5% spinach without removal of leaves to study the effect of film precipitation on the penetration of fluid onto the tablet. Results: Dissolution was reduced at increased concentrations of spinach extract. It was found that, an increased pH in HCl buffer whenever spinach extract concentration increased, as well as the reduced solubility of clopidogrel in the relatively high pH phosphate buffer, or it can be attributed to the possibility of formation of a new complex between metals in spinach extract and clopidogrel drug. Addition of spinach leaves to media resulted in reduced penetration of fluid onto the tablet and delayed disintegration was observed. In-vitro In-vivo correlation (IVIVC) was observed in HCl buffer with a value of R2 0.74. Conclusion: Concomitant administration of spinach soup with clopidogrel tablets causes decreased plasma concentration of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) which may lead to decreased therapeutic efficacy and increased risk of cardiovascular events.

Aim and objective This manuscript aims to provide an overview of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic from dental perspectives, and presents standards and guidelines of dental care provision based on available research in this field as well as clinical experience and practice. Background The current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is spreading around the globe and interferes with the provision of dental care for many individuals from different communities and backgrounds. A search for the literature on PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library from March 1, 2020 to December 30, 2020 was conducted. Also, the bibliographies included in the indicated articles were used to identify further literature. Recommendations by health authorities in different countries were also consulted. Results COVID-19 is causing many fatalities and is disrupting people's daily life and the economy in many countries around the world. Due to the potential of cross-infection through dental treatments, especially dental aerosol generation procedures, the dental profession has been disrupted during this pandemic. Dental care provision has been ceased completely or partially (limited to emergency or urgent treatment) in most countries around the world. Until this pandemic is controlled by new suitable treatments and/or vaccination, there is an urgent need to adopt immediate guidelines and standards for the safe provision of dental care to meet patients' demands, especially for the dental aerosols. Conclusion Guidelines and standards for dental treatment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic are required. This manuscript provides an overview of the COVID-19 pandemic from dental perspectives and presents standards and guidelines of dental care provision based on available research in this field as well as clinical experience and practice. Clinical significance This manuscript provides guidelines and standards for dental treatment and clinical management within dental settings amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and resembles part of the quest to set the golden standards for dental care during the current circumstances. How to cite this article: AL-Omiri MK, Al-Shayyab MH, Al Nazeh AA, et al. COVID-19 and Dentistry: An Updated Overview of Dental Perspectives and a Recommended Protocol for Dental Care and Emergency Dental Treatment. J Contemp Dent Pract 2021;22(5):572-586.

The nature and trajectory of coastal and maritime adaptations, and the complex ways foraging economies have been structured to include both marine and terrestrial resources, are becoming key topics of interest in African archaeological research. There is, therefore, an increasing need to understand the longer-term context for more recent shifts in coastal economies, and for greater attention to be paid to the role of a broader spectrum of resources. This is particularly the case for terrestrial and marine molluscs, which have been somewhat overlooked in discussions centered on past economies in the region. The relative importance of these comparatively small-bodied faunal resources requires evaluation, particularly given their ubiquity within the archaeological record, and their potentially important contribution to dietary and economic practices. Kuumbi Cave, located in the southeast of Zanzibar (Unguja) Island, provides the ideal opportunity to investigate long-term trends in invertebrate use on the eastern African coast and islands. Here we discuss not only the trajectory of coastal resource exploitation and coastal economic adaptations in the region from the late Pleistocene, but also the significance of Kuumbi Cave as one of the few sites in eastern Africa that represents significant levels of exploitation of large terrestrial gastropods.

Environmental background and chronology

The human colonization of eastern Africa's near- and offshore islands was accompanied by the translocation of several domestic, wild and commensal fauna, many of which had long-term impacts on local environments. To better understand the timing and nature of the introduction of domesticated caprines (sheep and goat) to these islands, this study applied collagen peptide fingerprinting (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry or ZooMS) to archaeological remains from eight Iron Age sites, dating between ca 300 and 1000 CE, in the Zanzibar, Mafia and Comoros archipelagos. Where previous zooarchaeological analyses had identified caprine remains at four of these sites, this study identified goat at seven sites and sheep at three, demonstrating that caprines were more widespread than previously known. The ZooMS results support an introduction of goats to island eastern Africa from at least the seventh century CE, while sheep in our sample arrived one–two centuries later. Goats may have been preferred because, as browsers, they were better adapted to the islands' environments. The results allow for a more accurate understanding of early caprine husbandry in the study region and provide a critical archaeological baseline for examining the potential long-term impacts of translocated fauna on island ecologies. 1. Introduction 2. Background 2.1. Island colonization and species translocations 2.2. Tracing the introduction of caprines to insular Eastern Africa 3. Methods 3.1. Sites 3.2. Sample selection 3.3. ZooMS protocol 3.3.1. Acid-insoluble protocol 3.3.2. Acid-soluble protocol 3.3.3. Lyophilized collagen for stable isotope analysis 3.3.4. C18 clean-up and MALDI-ToF analysis 4. Results 5. Discussion 5.1. Diachronic patterns in the introduction of caprines 5.2. Island herd compositions 5.3. Wild faunal extirpations and translocations 5.4. Long-term ecological impacts of caprines on Eastern Africa’s islands 6. Conclusion

Background: This cross-sectional observational study aimed to evaluate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related precautions to avoid COVID-19 infection, distress and behavioral changes, fears and concerns, and effects on opinions and beliefs among participants from different backgrounds and also to identify the relationships between personality factors and COVID-19-related changes and impacts.Methods: One thousand and three hundred nineteen participants (744 females and 575 males, mean age ± SD = 32.7 ± 11.6 years) completed a three-section survey collecting data regarding demographic information, personality factors [using the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI)], and COVID-19-related issues (using the VAS scale).Findings: COVID-19 was associated with changes related to precautions to avoid COVID-19 infection, distress and behavioral changes, fears and concerns, and effects on opinions and beliefs (P < 0.05). Higher neuroticism scores were associated with more negative COVID-19-related changes and impacts (P < 0.05). Higher extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness scores were associated with more acceptance of COVID-19 containment measures as well as less COVID-19-related changes and impacts (P < 0.05).Conclusions: Personality factors were associated with COVID-19-related impacts. These findings demonstrate the importance of the relationship between personality factors and COVID-19-related changes.

We determined whether men on continuous androgen deprivation therapy who achieve testosterone less than 0.7 nmol/l demonstrate subsequent testosterone elevations during followup and whether such events predict worse oncologic outcomes.We evaluated a random, retrospective sample of 514 patients with prostate cancer treated with continuous androgen deprivation therapy in whom serum testosterone was less than 0.7 nmol/l at University Health Network between 2007 and 2016. Patients were followed from the date of the first testosterone measurement of less than 0.7 nmol/l to progression to castrate resistance, death or study period end. Study outcomes were the development of testosterone elevations greater than 0.7, greater than 1.1 and greater than 1.7 nmol/l, and progression to a castrate resistant state. Survival curves were constructed to determine the rate of testosterone elevations. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was done to assess whether elevations predicted progression to castrate resistance.Median patient age was 74 years and median followup was 20.3 months. Within 5 years of followup 82%, 45% and 18% of patients had subsequent testosterone levels greater than 0.7, greater than 1.1 and greater than 1.7 nmol/l, respectively. In 96% to 100% of these patients levels less than 0.7 nmol/l were subsequently reestablished within 5 years. No patient baseline characteristic was associated with elevations and elevations were not a significant predictor of progression to a castrate resistant state.Men on continuous androgen deprivation therapy in whom initial testosterone is less than 0.7 nmol/l frequently show subsequent elevations in serum testosterone. Such a development should not trigger an immediate response from physicians as these events are prognostically insignificant with regard to oncologic outcomes. Levels are eventually reestablished at less than 0.7 nmol/l.

Various specific laser irradiance distribution outputs are needed in many applications. To fulfill this need, a detailed step-by-step design procedure for split refracting system is proposed for three types of laser beams transformation: 1) Annular-uniform-to-uniform; 2) Annular-Gaussian-to-uniform; and 3) Gaussian-to-uniform to obtain the required laser irradiance distributions. Mathematical expressions of the two Plano-aspheric surfaces are derived for each type. The proposed designs take into account few important parameters such as the system length, the surfaces radii of curvature, the annular beam starting cone angle, and the beams power ratio. Further, the proposed designs are much better than the ones, which were previously reported

We describe an effective suture technique to control the persistent subannular bleeding at the aortoventricular curtain in four patients with aortic stenosis and small annulus who underwent aortic root enlargement and patch reconstruction. This technique approximates the left atrial roof to the aortic root without the need for re-replacement of the aortic prosthesis or revision of the patch. Reintervention for aortic root, valve, or the residual aorta was not required.

Often times, in mitral valve repair techniques, the height of the newly placed Gore-Tex sutures needs correction to achieve better mitral valve leaflet coaptation or to correct systolic anterior motion (SAM). Herein, a less challenging "Hornet" technique to accurately adjust artificial chordal length is described. This technique describes a way to adjust/shorten the Gore-Tex chords, should they need revision. Ideally, this should not be needed, however due to the circumstances for mitral valve repair, this is sometimes necessary. With the annuloplasty band already in place, it is somewhat harder to reinsert new chords and hence, this technique may be beneficial.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The concept of national drinking culture is well-established in research and policy debate but rarely features in contemporary alcohol policy analysis. We aim to demonstrate the value of the alternative concept of social practices for quantitatively operationalising drinking culture. We discuss how a practice perspective addresses limitations in existing analytical approaches to health-related behaviour before demonstrating its empirical application by constructing a statistical typology of British drinking occasions. DESIGN: Cross-sectional latent class analysis of drinking occasions derived from retrospective one-week drinking diaries obtained from quota samples of a market research panel. Occasions are periods of drinking with no more than two hours between drinks. SETTING: Great Britain, 2009-2011. CASES: 187,878 occasions nested within 60,215 nationally-representative adults (18+). MEASUREMENTS: Beverage type and quantity per occasion. Location, company and gender composition of company. Motivation and reason for occasion. Day, start-time and duration of occasion. Age, sex and social grade. FINDINGS: Eight occasion types are derived based primarily on parsimony considerations rather than model fit statistics. These are Mixed location heavy drinking (10.4% of occasions), Heavy drinking at home with a partner (9.4%), Going out with friends (11.1%), Get together at someone's house (14.4%), Going out for a meal (8.6%), Drinking at home alone (13.6%), Light drinking at home with family (12.8%) and Light drinking at home with a partner (19.6%). CONCLUSIONS: An empirical model of drinking culture, comprising a typology of drinking practices, reveals the dominance of moderate drinking practices in Great Britain. The model demonstrates the potential for a practice perspective to be used in evaluation of how and why drinking cultures change in response to public health interventions.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Language: en

The late Pleistocene and Holocene history of eastern Africa is complex and major gaps remain in our understanding of human occupation during this period. Questions concerning the identities, geographical distributions and chronologies of foraging, herding and agricultural populations — often problematically equated with the chronological labels ‘Later Stone Age (LSA)’, ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Iron Age’ — are still unresolved. Previous studies at the site of Kuumbi Cave in the Zanzibar Archipelago of Tanzania reported late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age (MSA) and LSA, mid-Holocene Neolithic and late Holocene Iron Age occupations (Sinclair et al. 2006 Sinclair, P.J.J., Juma, A., and Chami, F.A. 2006. “Excavations at Kuumbi Cave on Zanzibar in 2005.” In The African Archaeology Network: Research in Progress, edited by J. Kinahan and J.H.A. Kinahan, 95–106. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press.[Google Scholar]; Chami 2009 Chami, F.A. 2009. Zanzibar and the Swahili Coast from c.30,000 Years Ago. Dar es Salaam: E&D; Vision Publishing.[Google Scholar]). Kuumbi Cave considerably extends the chronology of human occupation on the eastern African coast and findings from the site have been the basis for the somewhat contentious identification of both a coastal Neolithic culture and early chicken, a domesticate that was introduced to Africa from Asia. The site therefore warrants further investigation. Here we report on a new excavation of the Kuumbi Cave sequence that has produced a suite of 20 radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates. Our results suggest that the cave’s stratigraphy is complex, reflecting taphonomic processes that present interpretive and dating challenges. Our assessment of the stratigraphic sequence demonstrates three phases of habitation, two of which reflect terminal Pleistocene occupation and are characterised by quartz microliths, bone points and the exploitation of terrestrial and marine species, and one of which reflects later reoccupation by AD 600. In this latter phase, Kuumbi Cave was inhabited by a population with a locally distinct material culture that included idiosyncratic Tana or Triangular Incised Ware ceramics and medium-sized limestone stone tools, but with a subsistence economy similar to that of the late Pleistocene, albeit with more emphasis on marine foods and smaller terrestrial mammals. Our results suggest that Kuumbi Cave may have been unoccupied for much of the Holocene, after Zanzibar became an island. Our findings also place into question earlier identifications of domesticates, Asian fauna and a mid-Holocene Neolithic culture at the site.

The conventional method for the axillary artery insertion of Impella 5.0 is a nontunneling route of the side-graft. We present an alternative technique in order to facilitate device insertion and to ensure protection from potential wound contamination. The technique consists of exiting the graft separately and away from the main incision with an intact skin and subcutaneous fat between the two sites. By proper isolation of the main wound, the risk of infection can thus be largely mitigated. Furthermore, this technique allows a better landing entry angle of graft insertion; the resulting smoother curve trajectory leads to facile device insertion, while the risk of kinking after resumption of flow is readily avoided. A further possible advantage would be a less likely to produce thrombosis at the anastomosis. Differences of this technique have already been reported for insertions of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and for aortic dissections and aneurysms. Our experience in 8 cases suggests the applicability of our method to access the axillary artery for Impella 5.0 insertion.

Pot factorial experiment was conducted,using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with silty loam soil in winter season of 2011-2012 in lath – house at the College of Agriculture University of AL-Muthanna to study the effect of mycorhiza fungus Glomus mosseae in phosphorus availability and growth of wheat plant. Three levels used of rock phosphate (0 , 60 , 120 kg P.hr-1 ) and inoculation of soil, and without inoculation by mycorrhiza by three replication. Results showed that the application of rock phosphate with mycorrhiza fungus caused significant increasing in height of the plant, shoot dry matter, root dry matter and available phosphorus in soil to two growth period where increase percent which was 22.16 , 16.94% to height of plant and 28.68 , 58.46% to shoot dry matter and 24.39, 34.26% to available phosphorus in soil to first and second growth period succession compared with control treatment.

Aorto-pulmonary fistula (APF) due to an eroding pseudoaneurysm of the ascending aorta (AOP) is rare and can be life threatening. We report an 83-year-old male with multiple comorbidities who presented with an AOP, which was successfully treated with an endovascular exclusion device. doi: 10.1111/jocs.12758 (J Card Surg 2016;31:453-455).

Various proposed optical computing devices involve nonlinear optical operation and use semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based switches as fundamental elements for logic operations. Due to the nonlinear operation, these devices suffer from high power that causes problems in very large-scale optical integration. In this paper, a method is proposed to implement arithmetic operations using a photonic crystal (PhC) cell and eliminate the SOA-based switches altogether. The proposed method is employed on designing an all-optical full adder/subtractor circuit that requires only beam combiners and photonic crystal NOT gates.

Background and Aims Effective use of alcohol duty to reduce consumption and harm depends partly on retailers passing duty increases on to consumers via price increases, also known as ‘pass-through’. The aim of this analysis is to provide evidence of UK excise duty and sales tax (VAT) pass-through rates for alcohol products at different price points. Setting March 2008 to August 2011, United Kingdom. Design and Measurements Panel data quantile regression estimating the effects of three duty changes, two VAT changes and one combined duty and VAT change on UK alcohol prices, using product-level supermarket price data for 254 alcohol products available weekly. Products were analysed in four categories: beers, ciders/ready to drink (RTDs), spirits and wines. Findings Within all four categories there exists considerable heterogeneity in the level of duty pass-through for cheaper versus expensive products. Price increases for the cheapest 15% of products fall below duty rises (undershifting), while products sold above the median price are overshifted (price increases are higher than duty increases). The level of undershifting is greatest for beer [0.85 (0.79, 0.92)] and spirits [0.86 (0.83, 0.89)]. Undershifting affects approximately 67% of total beer sales and 38% of total spirits sales. Conclusions Alcohol retailers in the United Kingdom appear to respond to increases in alcohol tax by undershifting their cheaper products (raising prices below the level of the tax increase) and overshifting their more expensive products (raising prices beyond the level of the tax increase). This is likely to impact negatively on tax policy effectiveness, because high-risk groups favour cheaper alcohol and undershifting is likely to produce smaller consumption reductions.

Various designed circuits for multiple-valued all-optical arithmetic are demonstrated. The ter- ahertz-optical-asymmetric-demultiplexer (TOAD) switch is used as the basic structure unit in the proposed circuits due to its compact size, thermal stability, and low power operation. The designs of trinary and quaternary signed-digit numbers based adders are presented using different polar- ized states of light. These proposed polarization-encoded based adders use much less switches and their speeds are higher than the intensity-encoded counterparts. Further, it will be shown that one of the proposed trinary signed-digit adders is twice as fast as a recently reported modified signed-digit adder.

In this paper, enhanced designs for ultra-fast all-optical circuits based on the terahertz-optical-asymmetric-demultiplexer (TOAD) adders are proposed. The high speed is achieved due to the use of the nonlinear optical materials and the nonbinary modified signed-digit (MSD) number representation. The proposed all-optical circuits use polarized light to present the trinary digits of the MSD numbers. It will be shown that the polarization-encoded MSD adder uses much less TOADs switches (37.5% less) and it is faster by 33.33% compared to the intensity-encoded ones.

Purpose To assess the rotation and centration stability of the new design features of a 1-piece aspheric hydrophobic acrylic intraocular lens (IOL). Setting National Eye Hospital, Cairo, Egypt. Design Randomized clinical trial. Methods Patients in this study had implantation of a 1-piece Tecnis 1 ZCB00 IOL or a 3-piece Sensar AR40e IOL. Decentration and rotation were recorded immediately postoperatively, and 2 to 3 days and 8 weeks postoperatively. This was done using 2 slitlamp eyepieces and referring to constant corneal landmarks (ie, the limbus and the phaco incision). Results Thirty-two 1-piece IOLs and 30 3-piece IOLs were implanted. Although the 1-piece IOLs moved toward the corneal center more than the 3-piece IOLs between 3 days and 8 weeks postoperatively ( P =.054), the difference was not statistically significant between 0 day and 3 days or during the entire follow-up ( P =.546 and P =.367, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in the horizontal or vertical components of this movement between the 2 groups ( P =.883 and P =.636, respectively). The mean rotation was 2.5 degrees ± 9.1 (SD) in the 1-piece IOL group and 0 ± 6.5 degrees in the 3-piece IOL group, with no statistically significant difference between the groups ( P =.521). Conclusion The new 1-piece design showed relatively good centration and stability in the horizontal, vertical, and rotational aspects. Financial Disclosure Drs. Roshdy, Riad, Morkos, Hassouna, and Wahba receive travel support from Abbott Medical Optics, Inc., Santa Ana, California, USA; Drs. Riad, Morkos, and Hassouna have equipment provided by Abbott Medical Optics, Inc., and Alcon Laboratories, Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, USA. No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.

We describe a case of a 49-year-old man who presented with an uncomplicted aortic root aneurysm, aortic insufficiency, and ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) without obstructive coronary artery disease on angiography. The computed tomo- graphy angiogram (CTA) of the thorax, performed without cardiac gating, was misinterpreted as normal. In retrospect, an overlooked extravasation of contrast material lateral to the aortic root was detected on non-gating magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). Exploration of the aortic root revealed an unsuspected horizontal intimal tear of the left sinus of Valsalva with limited extramural hematoma. The presence of an otherwise silent intimal tear on preoperative imaging studies makes the overall management more problematic. For example, initiating early broad empirical anticoagulants or fibrinolytics therapy to treat the accompanied myocardial infarction may extend the tear into a full life-threatening aortic dissection, tamponade or rupture. We highlight many of the difficulties associated with the diagnosis and treatment of limited sinus tear when aortic root aneurysm is presenting with cryptogenic STEMI. Accurate morphologic characterization of intimal tear would be best defined with either an electrocardiogram-gating CTA or MRA imagings. These non-invasive tests are needed to make appropriate management decisions. Depending on other pathologic components of aortic root, cusps and the commissural geometry, sinus tear is a critical component for the overall treatment plan and it shifts the surgical intervenetion from valve-sparing operation, commissural resuspension and leaflet repair to composite aortic root replacement (modified version of the Bentall procedure).

Objectives: Amiodarone administration is presently considered in the prevention of new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation (PAF) after cardiac operations, but relapse of PAF requiring anticoagulation therapy at hospital discharge is prevalent despite amiodarone prophylaxis. PAF is also associated with increased morbidity and mortality including complications resulting from long-term anticoagulation therapy. Currently, the most effective therapy to prevent PAF after cardiac surgery remains undetermined. Inflammatory mechanisms may be partly responsible for PAF. Minocycline, a tetracycline antibiotic, has specifically an atrial myocytes anti-apoptotic effect, decreases right atrial tissue inflammation and oxidative stress activity. These observations led to this trial’s hypothesis that the addition of minocycline to amiodarone may favorably affect suppression of PAF. Methods: This trial compares the efficacy and safety of minocycline plus amiodarone versus amiodarone alone, in the prevention of PAF among adult patients undergoing cardiac procedures. All patients receive Beta-blocker agent. The primary outcome is PAF occurrence. Secondary outcomes include thromboembolic stroke, need for pharmacologic or electric cardioversion, mediastinal exploration for sepsis or for anticoagulation-related bleeding, serious drug side effects, length of hospital stay and 30-day mortality from cardiovascular causes. Results: This is an ongoing prospective single center randomized controlled clinical trial. Conclusion: The trial provides information on the comparative effectiveness of this low-risk prevention therapy of PAF that could be integrated in clinical practice. (Clinicaltrials.gov number, NCT 01422148).

Background: Frequently occurring in cancer are the aberrant alterations of regulatory onco-metabolites, various oncogenes/epigenetic stochasticity, and suppressor genes, as well as the deficient mismatch repair mechanism, chronic inflammation, or those deviations belonging to the other cancer characteristics. How these aberrations that evolve overtime determine the global phenotype of malignant tumors remains to be completely understood. Dynamic analysis may have potential to reveal the mechanism of carcinogenesis and can offer new therapeutic intervention. Aims: We introduce simplified mathematical tools to model serial quantitative data of cancer biomarkers. We also highlight an introductory overview of mathematical tools and models as they apply from the viewpoint of known cancer features. Methods: Mathematical modeling of potentially actionable genomic products and how they proceed overtime during tumorigenesis are explored. This report is intended to be instinctive without being overly technical. Results: To date, many mathematical models of the common features of cancer have been developed. However, the dynamic of integrated heterogeneous processes and their cross talks related to carcinogenesis remains to be resolved. Conclusions: In cancer research, outlining mathematical modeling of experimentally obtained data snapshots of molecular species may provide insights into a better understanding of the multiple biochemical circuits. Recent discoveries have provided support for the existence of complex cancer progression in dynamics that span from a simple 1-dimensional deterministic system to a stochastic (ie, probabilistic) or to an oscillatory and multistable networks. Further research in mathematical modeling of cancer progression, based on the evolving molecular kinetics (time series), could inform a specific and a predictive behavior about the global systems biology of vulnerable tumor cells in their earlier stages of oncogenesis. On this footing, new preventive measures and anticancer therapy could then be constructed.

In this paper, a new configuration for the input joint images in the joint transform correlator is proposed for fast real-time binary characters and fingerprints verification. In the proposed scheme, the input joint image has a complementary-reference image and a complementary target image in addition to the reference and the target images. We use the cross-correlation peak value between the reference and the complementary target image and the cross-correlation peak value between the complementary reference and the target images as the criteria to perform the recognition of the target in the input scene. It is shown that these two cross-correlation peak values will be zero if and only if the input target matches the reference image. One advantage of using the proposed scheme is the elimination of the usual and necessary time-consuming normalization of the input images in the general correlation-based matching processes. Another advantage of the proposed scheme is the insensitive to light-sources intensity fluctuations that usually limits the matched-based recognition approaches. The scheme is employed to verify binary characters and fingerprints images; further, it is employed to verify occluded fingerprints target images on one hand, and to determine if a specific part or pattern exists in the target fingerprint image on the other hand.

Most of the algorithms proposed for face recognition involve considerable amount of computations and hence they cannot be used on devices constrained with limited memory. In this paper, we propose a novel solution for efficient face recognition problem for the systems that utilize low memory devices. The new technique applies the principal component analysis to the binarized phase spectrum of the Fourier transform of the covariance matrix constructed from the MPEG-7 Fourier Feature Descriptor vectors of the images. The binarization step that is applied to the phases adds many interesting advantages to the system. It will be shown that the proposed technique increases the face recognition rate and at the same time achieves substantial savings in the computational time, when compared to other known systems. Experiments on two independent databases of face images are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

The spatial light modulators (SLMs) at the Fourier planes of a conventional joint-transform correlation (JTC) are eliminated using simple grating filters such as rectangular and triangular ones. To achieve this goal, two non-conventional real-time JTC architectures are proposed: (a) the grating filter is used along with a heterodyning and one-dimensional optical scanning technique to capture the cross-correlation functions of the input images without major processing and (b) the one-dimensional optical scanning is eliminated to achieve a faster (but a little bit more complicated) processing. The proposed techniques significantly reduce the time processing needed for real-time applications by eliminating the drawbacks of the non-ideal characteristics of the SLMs.

The concept of national drinking culture is well established in research and policy debate, but rarely features in contemporary alcohol policy analysis. We aim to demonstrate the value of the alternative concept of social practices for quantitatively operationalizing drinking culture. We discuss how a practice perspective addresses limitations in existing analytical approaches to health-related behaviour before demonstrating its empirical application by constructing a statistical typology of British drinking occasions.Cross-sectional latent class analysis of drinking occasions derived from retrospective 1-week drinking diaries obtained from quota samples of a market research panel. Occasions are periods of drinking with no more than 2 hours between drinks.Great Britain, 2009-11.A total of 187 878 occasions nested within 60 215 nationally representative adults (aged 18 + years).Beverage type and quantity per occasion; location, company and gender composition of company; motivation and reason for occasion; day, start-time and duration of occasion; and age, sex and social grade.Eight occasion types are derived based primarily on parsimony considerations rather than model fit statistics. These are mixed location heavy drinking (10.4% of occasions), heavy drinking at home with a partner (9.4%), going out with friends (11.1%), get-together at someone's house (14.4%), going out for a meal (8.6%), drinking at home alone (13.6%), light drinking at home with family (12.8%) and light drinking at home with a partner (19.6%).An empirical model of drinking culture, comprising a typology of drinking practices, reveals the dominance of moderate drinking practices in Great Britain. The model demonstrates the potential for a practice perspective to be used in evaluation of how and why drinking cultures change in response to public health interventions.

A novel analytical approach is proposed for an accurate estimation of a broad range of Gaussian laser beam diameters. The new approach, based on the Fourier transform and the convolution operations, is used to study the performance of most recently proposed periodic and aperiodic rulings. Further, for applications that require extremely small beam diameter measurements, a new Ronchi-like ruling is proposed; while for applications requiring large beam diameters measurements, various aperiodic non-Ronchi rulings are proposed. Furthermore, for spot-size measurement applications, which range from very small to very large beam diameters, a new single aperiodic exponential ruling is proposed. This new ruling eliminates the necessity of using a large number of rulings for measuring a broad range of beam diameters.

In the small aortic root, extremely weakened tissue and extensive calcification predispose toward the implantation of small prostheses, anastomotic bleeding, and paravalvular leaks. We describe a procedure in which a "homemade" composite mechanical prosthesis-conduit is implanted in a supra-annular position in two patients with a small aortic root. This technique facilitates the placement of a larger prosthesis, thus avoiding patient-prosthesis mismatch. doi: 10.1111/jocs.12741 (J Card Surg 2016;31:309-310).

BACKGROUND The postprocedural state after cardiac revascularization interventions is characterized by intense inflammation and activation of inflammatory cytokines due to myonecrosis and ischemia/reperfusion injury. Involvement of similar processes also participates in cellular malignant transformation. In this study, the association between cardiac interventions and subsequent cancer risk development was therefore evaluated. METHODS The 5-year cumulative incidence of cancer was examined in 2 cardiac care cohorts: all patients undergoing either open heart surgery or percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) at hospitals in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. The observed cases of cancer were compared with the number of expected cases based on the state cancer rates, adjusting for sex and 5-year age groups. The standardized morbidity ratio (SMR) was used for this comparison. RESULTS Of 10,301 patients in the surgical cohort, 804 (7.8%) incident cancers developed over 5 years of follow-up, whereas 245.7 incident cancers were expected. This yielded an SMR of 3.27 (95% CI, 3.05-3.51; P

This paper presents a new real-world application of evolutionary computation: identifying parameterisations of a theory-driven model that can reproduce alcohol consumption dynamics observed in a population over time. Population alcohol consumption is a complex system, with multiple interactions between economic and social factors and drinking behaviours, the nature and importance of which are not well-understood. Prediction of time trends in consumption is therefore difficult, but essential for robust estimation of future changes in health-related consequences of drinking and for appraising the impact of interventions aimed at changing alcohol use in society. The paper describes a microsimulation approach in which an attitude-behaviour model, Theory of Planned Behaviour, is used to describe the frequency of drinking by individuals. Consumption dynamics in the simulation are driven by changes in the social roles of individuals over time (parenthood, partnership, and paid labour). An evolutionary optimizer is used to identify parameterisations of the Theory that can describe the observed changes in drinking frequency. Niching is incorporated to enable multiple possible parameterisations to be identified, each of which can accurately recreate history but potentially encode quite different future trends. The approach is demonstrated using evidence from the 1979-1985 birth cohort in England between 2003 and 2010.

Red blood cell transfusion (Tx) induces a proinflammatory state. Inflammatory mediators are associated with an increased risk of postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF). Therefore, in this study we determined the association between AF and Tx after isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG).Between January 2008 and December 2010, a total of 879 patients underwent CABG. Of these, 815 (92.7%) had complete data extracted from our institution's Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) database. Predictors of AF development among four levels of Tx versus nontransfused patients were examined. Multivariable logistic regression and propensity score matching models were used.The mean age was 65.8 years (±10.3), 77.4% were male, and 54.4% had an STS predicted risk score (mortality/morbidity) of ≥10%. A total of 564 (69.2%) had at least one unit of Tx. Adjusting for age, sex, time on pump, congestive heart failure, stroke, creatinine level (1.5 mg per deciliter vs. ≥1.5), STS morbidity/mortality score, perioperative myocardial infarction (MI), cross-clamp time, medications, and hemoglobin level, the odds ratio (OR) of AF increased with increasing Tx (OR, 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11 to 1.68; p = 0.003). The odds of AF increased 61% with each increasing level of Tx (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.15 to 2.26; p = 0.006, by propensity analysis).Perioperative Tx may be associated with excess AF following CABG. This risk increases with increasing number of Tx.

Incontrast to intensity-encoded negabinary modified signed-digit number representation, a polarization-encoding scheme is proposed to design all-optical adders. The utilization of the proposed polarization-encoding produces more efficient circuits in terms of gates numbers and circuit delays. Three all-optical adder circuits are designed using Terahertz-Optical-Asymmetric-Demultiplexer (TOAD) switches,polarization beam splitters, polarization converters, and beam combiners. Itwill be shown that the proposed circuits utilize 51.7%, 45.5%, and 21% less gates and they are faster by 44.4%, 42.9%, and 40%, respectively, than thecorresponding intensity-encoded circuits.

Effective use of alcohol duty to reduce consumption and harm depends partly on retailers passing duty increases on to consumers via price increases, also known as 'pass-through'. The aim of this analysis is to provide evidence of UK excise duty and sales tax (VAT) pass-through rates for alcohol products at different price points.March 2008 to August 2011, United Kingdom.Panel data quantile regression estimating the effects of three duty changes, two VAT changes and one combined duty and VAT change on UK alcohol prices, using product-level supermarket price data for 254 alcohol products available weekly. Products were analysed in four categories: beers, ciders/ready to drink (RTDs), spirits and wines.Within all four categories there exists considerable heterogeneity in the level of duty pass-through for cheaper versus expensive products. Price increases for the cheapest 15% of products fall below duty rises (undershifting), while products sold above the median price are overshifted (price increases are higher than duty increases). The level of undershifting is greatest for beer [0.85 (0.79, 0.92)] and spirits [0.86 (0.83, 0.89)]. Undershifting affects approximately 67% of total beer sales and 38% of total spirits sales.Alcohol retailers in the United Kingdom appear to respond to increases in alcohol tax by undershifting their cheaper products (raising prices below the level of the tax increase) and overshifting their more expensive products (raising prices beyond the level of the tax increase). This is likely to impact negatively on tax policy effectiveness, because high-risk groups favour cheaper alcohol and undershifting is likely to produce smaller consumption reductions.

A variety of algorithms for computing complex elementary functions based on the quaternary signed-digit (QSD) number system are proposed. An arithmetic unit that performs parallel one-step addition (subtraction), multiplication, and division is proposed to perform the computations of elementary functions such as square root, logarithmic, exponential, and other related functions. An optoelectronic-correlator-based architecture is suggested for implementing the proposed QSD elementary function algorithms. We used the symbolic substitution technique to reduce the number of the computation rules involved.

A quaternary signed-digit number representations-based arithmetic unit is proposed. The arithmetic unit performs parallel one-step addition (subtraction), multiplication and division. We use the symbolic substitution technique to reduce the number of the computation rules involved in the computation rules. Fast parallel nonrecoded quaternary signed-digit multiplication is proposed using our proposed one-step quaternary signed-digit adder. Also, parallel quaternary signed-digit division is performed in constant time by exploiting an iterative conversion algorithm where in every iterative step a negation operation, an addition operation and two multiplication operations are performed. The execution times of the proposed QSD operations are proportional to log2 n, where n are the length of operands.

A symbolic substitution (SS) based optical numeric processor using quaternary signed-digit (QSD) number representations is proposed. Also, we propose new joint spatial encodings for the QSD numbers that reduce the SS computation rules involved in the processor. Optoelectronic implementation of the proposed QSD adder is feasible. The proposed adder is more compact than recently reported QSD counterparts.

The modified signed-digit number representation is a redundant number system with radix=2. This number system allows limited carry and borrow propagation for addition and subtraction operations. In this paper, symmetrical and non-symmetrical special parallel recoding algorithms for the modified signed-digit numbers are proposed for carry-free arithmetic. Multi-bit parallel digital circuits are presented using AND-OR and/or OR-AND realizations. Also, transformation techniques between the proposed recoding algorithms are provided.

This paper deals with the design and implementation of current mode circuits using bipolar and BiCMOS technologies. Practical applications covering a broad range of analogue VLSI standard cell designs have been demonstrated through HSPICE simulation results. These include high-gain ampli® ers, gain-tunable ampli® ers, four-quadrant multipliers, continuous-time ® lter applications along with nonlinear circuit realizations. Prominent features of the novel circuits proposed include low-voltage and low-power operation with signal swings over large linear range. High-frequency characteristics permit high-speed operation with a wide bandwidth maintained at increasing capacitive loads.

A single-step optoelectronics symbolic substitution scheme to handle parallel modified signed-digit (MSD) arithmetic operations is proposed. Conversion algorithms from MSD numbers into a canonical MSD representation are provided. The canonical MSD numbers have the property that no two consecutive digits are non-zero. The addition operation of two CMSD numbers is performed in one step. It will be shown that through the use of CMSD representation, the number of symbolic substitution rules in an optical content-addressable memory (CAM) based system is significantly reduced. The number of symbolic substitution rules can be further reduced to an optimum value through a proposed shared content-addressable memory optical set-up. Further, the proposed optical scheme doubles the storage efficiency of the shared content-addressable memory.

An all-optical parallel ternary multiplier using quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier based switches is presented. Various encoding schemes were investigated, it was seen that the polarization encoding scheme provides the smallest circuit.