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Objective To evaluate public's interest in contraceptive options following heightened focus on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since the 2016 United States presidential election. Study design We monitored the fraction of Google searches emerging from the United States for the three most popular reversible contraceptive methods — oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and condoms — from January 1, 2004, through October 31, 2017 (1 year after the presidential election). Results IUD searches were cumulatively 15% (95% CI: 10 to 20) higher than expected the year following the 2016 election, reflecting 10 to 21 million excess searches. IUD searches were statistically significantly higher in all states, except NV, and were consistent across states won by Trump or Clinton (Welch t test=0.60, p=.548). Conversely, searches for oral contraceptives and condoms remained stable (0%; 95% CI: −2 to 1) or declined (−4%; 95% CI: −5 to −2), respectively, following the election. Conclusions The etiology of increased searches for IUDs is likely multifaceted. However, it may largely be because IUDs will confer continued protection even after an ACA repeal, thereby providing a medical hedge against a possible repeal. Regardless, these data suggest the heightened focus on an ACA repeal is a concern to the record number of Americans seeking out information about IUDs.

Purpose: To assess the impact of COVID-19 on the overall volume of IR outpatient-based evaluation and management encounters (E&M) and to demonstrate the role of telehealth in offsetting the loss of volume caused by COVID-19 Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of IR E&M in a large academic health system between January 6, 2020 and August 23, 2020, was conducted using the same time period in 2019 as a historical control. IR encounters were collected by gathering the weekly volume of submitted E&M current procedural technology (CPT) codes from the IR division. IR encounters were classified as outpatient or telehealth E&M. The E&M volume in 2019 was used as a historical control. Data were divided into three periods: pre-surge (January 6–March 15, 2020), surge (March 16–June 7, 2020), and recovery (June 8–August 23, 2020). The mean encounters per week during the surge and recovery periods were compared to the pre-surge baseline using a Welch t test for 2020 data, and the same comparison was made for 2019 data for a historical control. Results: During the surge period, outpatient E&M volume, inclusive of telemedicine, fell by 55.8% relative to the pre-surge 2020 baseline. The volume grew steadily during the recovery period but remained 19.8% below pre-surge 2020 levels. The surge and recovery mean weekly E&M volume was significantly different from the equivalent periods in 2019 (P < 0.001 and P = 0.02, respectively). During the surge, telemedicine comprised 44.6% of the total outpatient E&M. The contribution of telemedicine gradually fell over the recovery period, comprising just 11.5% in the final week of the study, and 16.7% during the recovery. Outpatient E&M reached a nadir during the week of April 13th, reflecting a 70.6% decline relative to the same period in 2019. The recovery period demonstrated a gradual increase in outpatient E&M with a decline in telehealth encounters balanced by a growth of in-person visits. During the last week of the recovery period (week of 8/17), outpatient in-person E&M had recovered to 2019 levels, and with the inclusion of telehealth exceeded E&M in 2019 for the same period by 93.3%. Conclusions: Telemedicine becomes an important way to maintain outpatient E&M volume in the event of a pandemic when social distancing and stay-at-home orders preclude face-to-face visits. Revenue from outpatient E&M may help bridge the gap until resumption of elective procedures and recovery of procedural case volume.

Methods to detect covert timing channels (CTCs) can be categorized into three broad classes: shape tests which include the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test, entropy tests which include first order entropy test, corrected conditional entropy (CCE) test, and Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence test, and regularity tests. This paper contributes towards understanding and advancing the state-of-the-art of CTC detection methods. First, we present a detailed analysis of the performance of the well-known tests that are used to detect three main types of CTCs, namely, JitterBug, model-based CTC (MB-CTC) and time-replay CTC (TR-CTC). The performance analysis is carried out in an enterprise-like setting, employing large traffic traces. The detection methods are compared with respect to their applicability, computational complexity, and the classification rates for the three types of CTCs. In addition to evaluating the existing methods, we propose a new shape test based on the Welch's t-test and compare its performance with existing detection methods. We show that the classification rate of Welch's t-test is at least at par with other existing detection methods while having a relatively lower computational cost. The results also show that the Welch's t-test outperforms the CCE test in detecting JitterBug, while the CCE test has a better performance in detecting the TR-CTC. Furthermore, both tests perform comparably on the MB-CTC. Finally, we study the feasibility of using a multi-feature SVM classifier to increase the classification rate. We show that by combining the Welch's t-test we are able to increase the classification rate of MB-CTCs from 0.67 (using a single regularity measure) to 0.94.

Objective This study aimed to compare the accuracy of maxillary positioning after bimaxillary orthognathic surgery, using 2 sequences. Study Design A total of 80 cephalograms (40 preoperative and 40 postoperative) from 40 patients were analyzed. Group 1 included radiographs of patients submitted to conventional sequence, whereas group 2 patients were submitted to inverted sequence. The final position of the maxillary central incisor was obtained after vertical and horizontal measurements of the tracings, and it was compared with what had been planned. The null hypothesis, which stated that there would be no difference between the groups, was tested. Results After applying the Welch t test for comparison of mean differences between maxillary desired and achieved position, considering a statistical significance of 5% and a 2-tailed test, the null hypothesis was not rejected (P > .05). Thus, there was no difference in the accuracy of maxillary positioning between groups. Conclusions Conventional and inverted sequencing proved to be reliable in positioning the maxilla after LeFort I osteotomy in bimaxillary orthognathic surgeries.