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A digital microfluidic biochip (DMFB) with cyber-physical adaptation is undeniably susceptible to attack due to high network connection. A number of leading researches are carried out to assess various attacks and their impacts. Several defence mechanisms are developed by arranging on-chip monitoring systems through deployment of checkpoints. However, the synthesis phase in DMFB plays a crucial role to realize a given bio-protocol by modelling it as a bioassay graph, placing mixing modules on the chip, and carrying out on-chip droplet routes. An attack-preventive synthesis that can execute a bioassay in a vulnerable environment is immensely important. Here, an attack-preventive synthesis is proposed that deals with denial-of-service attacks. A predictive model is developed following a machine learning-based approach to enable the synthesis phase for anticipating the impact of various attack scenarios. A probabilistic analysis is presented to measure safeness of a bioassay under an attack-prone scenario. The model is evaluated over a wide-ranged dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) accounts for 85% of all reported tuberculosis cases globally. Extrapulmonary involvement can occur in isolation or along with a pulmonary focus as in the case of patients with disseminated tuberculosis (TB). EPTB can occur through hematogenous, lymphatic, or localized bacillary dissemination from a primary source, such as PTB and affects the brain, eye, mouth, tongue, lymph nodes of neck, spine, bones, muscles, skin, pleura, pericardium, gastrointestinal, peritoneum and the genitourinary system as primary and/or disseminated disease. Although pulmonary TB is the most common presentation, EPTB is also an important problem clinically. Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification (CBNAAT) test has a well-documented role in diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis. Aim: To determine the distribution of EPTB in various samples received for CBNAAT testing in our Institution. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, data of suspected EPTB patients were retrieved and analyzed from January 2020 to December 2022. Statistical Analysis: All the statistical analyses were carried out using the Excel spreadsheet and Open-epi version 3.01 platform. Results: A total number of 1118(n) extrapulmonary samples were processed using GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay. Out of the 1118 received samples, (22%) were positive. Among the 249 positive samples, 55% samples were received from the female patients and 45% samples received from the male patients. We found that most MTB positive samples were from this age group (i.e. 21-30). Most common sample received for processing was Lymph node aspirate accounting to 37% followed by pleural fluid (30%), pus (8%) and gastric lavage amounting for 4% along with other miscellaneous samples making up the others to 21%. Out of 249 MTB detected samples, 47% were from lymph node aspirate, 13% from pleural fluid, 12% from pus, 3% from gastric lavage and 25% from other samples. We noted that the majority of the positive cases were rifampicin sensitive (97.68%). Conclusion: Results of our study suggest that younger age (third decade of life) and female gender may be independent risk factors for EPTB. In developing countries, the prevalence of EPTB is relatively lower than PTB but still it is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Thus, early diagnosis and initiation of appropriate treatment are important for reducing the case load. Women especially should be investigated thoroughly for EPTB and BCG vaccination should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A digital microfluidic biochip (DMFB) with cyber-physical adaptation implements complex bio-protocols with high precision and high throughput dealing with safety-critical applications including point-of-care diagnosis, personalized medicine, and drug development. Having integrated sensors with network connectivity, a cyber-physical DMFB is undeniably susceptible to attacks. A number of leading research works are carried out to assess various attacks and their impacts. Several defense mechanisms are developed by arranging on-chip monitoring systems through deployment of checkpoints. As checkpoints are external resources imposing a cost-overhead to the system, a cost-effective detection mechanism is of utmost importance. Moreover, after detecting an attack, an efficient recovery process is imperative to execute the associated bioassay in a vulnerable environment. Here, an attack-tolerant synthesis is proposed with two-way security through integrating attack-detection and attack-recovery from various Denial of Service attacks. Moreover, a selective re-synthesis approach has been introduced to allow multiple recovery steps to be executed simultaneously on the biochip. The recovery strategy is closely coupled with the detection process which makes the system adaptive towards attack-tolerance. Experimental results on several benchmarks demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed two-way attack-tolerance strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Odontogenic infections in children are commonly addressed through prescriptions that frequently include antibiotics for both preventive and therapeutic purposes. Mothers, being the primary caregivers, play a vital role in ensuring their children receive antibiotics as prescribed. Insufficient awareness among mothers regarding the prudent utilisation of antibiotics can contribute to misuse and the development of antibiotic resistance. Aim: To explore the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) of mothers regarding the use of antibiotics in children for the management of odontogenic infections in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a multi-lingual, close-ended, knowledge-attitudes-practices-based offline questionnaire with 23 questions. The survey included 203 mothers with children between six months and 13 years old, attending the Outpatient Department (OPD) of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Panihati, between October 2022 and January 2023, in the city of Kolkata, India. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis. Results: A majority of mothers, 104 (51.2%) belonged to group ≤35 in the present study. A total of 85.7% of the mothers had knowledge that antibiotics are used against bacterial infections leading to toothache or facial swelling. Approximately 44.9% of the mothers demonstrated a lack of awareness regarding the global issue of antibiotic resistance, while 89.6% of mothers believed that antibiotics should be continued until the full course of prescribed antibiotics is completed. A total of 63.1% of mothers have administered antibiotics prescribed by pharmacists or medical shopkeepers to their children. The study revealed a significant association between the educational level of mothers and their awareness regarding the issue of antibiotic resistance, as well as between the parents' monthly income and their attitude towards the use of expensive antibiotics (p<0.05). Conclusion: The present study highlights that in the city of Kolkata, the education level of mothers significantly affects their knowledge of antibiotic use in paediatric dentistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing effectiveness of flow-based microfluidic biochips in the field of biochemical experiments and point-of-care diagnosis, design automation demands enormous attention to integrate the flow-layer design and control-layer design instead of considering them in isolation. Some severe design issues like valve reliability, control-channel delay, pressure skew, etc. are obvious and they must be tactfully dealt along with minimization of several cost-driving issues like schedule length, pin count, and control-channel length while ensuring planarity of the flow-layer components as well as control-layer channel routes. Hence, this paper aims to propose a unified flow-control co-design methodology considering various flow-control cost-driving issues while reducing the design cycles to obtain a low-cost and efficient platform. The performance is evaluated over several benchmark bioassays that show the efficacy of the proposed co-design method which reduces the number of required valves by 30%, control-channel length by 48.5%, and number of flow-channel crossings by 72.2% than the existing works, on an average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Orthodontic treatment plays an important role in improving facial aesthetics. One of the important components of orthodontic diagnosis are the evaluation of soft tissue profile. There have been many attempts to quantify the soft tissue profile based on the lateral cephalogram. Populations differ in character, size, growth and shape. These differences are due to complicated interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Indian children differ from western population in physical growth, maturation, dentition etc, due to factors like morphogenetic pattern and nutritional status. Therefore, the cephalometric standards for one ethnic and racial group or sub-group do not necessarily apply to other ethnic or racial groups. Aim: To determine and compare Cephalometric norms for Mewari and Marwari children of Rajasthan between the age group of 11-13 years using Holdaway and Arnett analysis and to compare values obtained for Mewari and Marwari children using Holdaway and Arnett analysis with the values/norms given by Holdaway and Arnett for Caucasian population. Materials and Methods: A cephalometric study was conducted in the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal. Lateral Cephalogram radiographs of 200 consenting children, 100 belonging to Mewari community and 100 belonging to Marwari community of Rajasthan with equal male and female ratio, between the age group of 11-13 years who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The radiographs were collected over a perioid of 6 months, in collaboration with Department of Pedodontics, Darshan Dental College and Hospital, Udaipur and Government Dental College, Jaipur. The radiographs were analysed using Arnett"s and Holdaway's Soft tissue analysis method. The obtained data was then statistically analysed. Results: The present study showed a significant difference when Mewari and Marwari children were compared with values given by Arnett and Holdaway. The soft tissue profile of Marwari and Mewari children was found to be convex. Conclusion: The study establishes that soft tissue features and craniofacial structures which may influence the size, shape, form, morphology of face and dental arches are predetermined genetically. The view that a single standard of facial aesthetics should not be applied to all racial and ethnic groups, as the soft tissue pattern is peculiar to its ethnic or racial group is validated from the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The evolution of caries management has shifted towards minimally invasive approaches, with resin infiltration emerging as a promising treatment for non cavitated carious lesions. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of resin infiltration by varying etching times and assessing the material's penetration depth in enamel. Materials and Methods: An in-vitro study was conducted in the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal, India during September 2018 to May 2019, on 40 extracted teeth were divided into four groups. The control group was etched for 2 minutes as this is the optimum etching time as suggested by the manufacturer, while the other groups were etched for 1, 3, and 4 minutes, respectively. Artificial lesions were induced using a caries demineralisation solution. The resin infiltration process was initiated by etching the teeth using Hydrchloric Acid (HCl) gel (ICON Etch), followed by drying of the lesions with ICON Dry (ethanol) and then ICON Infiltrant was applied on the surface with resin infiltration. Samples were sectioned and dipped in Sodium Fluorescein dye and analysed by using a fluorescent microscope. The results were tabulated and subjected to suitable statistical analysis. Results: Etching the teeth for 4 minutes prior to resin infiltration resulted in the deepest penetration of the material thus being more efficacious in arresting the progression of caries in comparison to 3 min, 2 min and 1 min etching times. It also showed 4 min etching time to have greater penetration of the material into the lesion. Conclusion: This finding highlights the importance of optimising the etching time for improved resin infiltration outcomes in the management of non cavitated carious lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Difficulty in conceiving is a widespread problem. World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies infertility as a disease which deserves treatment as like any other medical condition. Invitro Fertilisation-Embryo Transfer (IVF-ET) is the fertilisation of an ovum outside the body and the transfer of the fertilised ovum to the uterus of a woman, is one of the popular treatment modalities of infertility. Aim: To evaluate the relationship between oral health behaviour of IVF children and spontaneously conceived children. Materials and Methods: A random sample of 107 IVF childrenwere and 169 spontaneously conceived children were included in this cross sectional observational study conducted at The Institute of Reproductive Medicine (IRM) Kolkata, West Bengal, India; Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences & Research (GNIDSR), Kolkata, West Bengal, India and various educational institutions which are situated in West Bengal during June 2018 to 2020. Oral health behaviour of both groups was analysed with suitable statistical analysis i.e. Chi-square test. Statistical software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for the analysis. The statistical significance level for all applied tests was set to be 0.05. Results: Statistically significant oral health behaviour pattern was observed between oral health behaviour of the IVF and spontaneously conceived children. The result was found to be significant at p<0.05. Conclusion: This study may invite further scope for more cross sectional and longitudinal study for the researcher. Hopefully this kind of study will bring positive assurance to numerous parents of IVF children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Human primary molars has numerous functions in the growth and development of facial structures of a child. In spite of different newer preventive measures to combat with the dental caries progression, still untreated dental caries can cause considerable pain and discomfort, and, if it spreads to the dental pulp, it can also cause periapical infection and tooth loss. In this regard, Paediatric endodontics may be necessary to preserve the tooth structure, although it may affect the child's quality of life. Aim: To determine the thorough in-vitro anatomical evaluation of root canal diameters and radicular wall thickness of Human Primary Molars by using Multi-detector Computed Tomography (CT). Materials and Methods: An in-vitro study was conducted in Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal, India and EKO X-ray and Imaging Institute, 54, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, India for a period of six months in which 64 human primary maxillary and mandibular molars without any external and internal root resorption were selected. The selected teeth were arranged in wax block, and the scanning was done on the CT scanner (GE light speed 16 slice CT). The scanned raw images were grabbed by the computer and reformatted in a GE Advantage workstation version 4.2 (GE Healthcare) with the help of Denta Scan (GE Healthcare) software. Student's t-test was performed to calculate the means with corresponding standard deviations. Results: The maximum mean diameter of the canal was found in the palatal root canal of both primary maxillary first molars (1.24±0.14 mm at cervical third) and second molars (1.43±0.24 mm at cervical third). The minimum mean diameter was found in distobuccal root canal of primary maxillary first molars (0.83±0.13 mm at cervical third) and mesiobuccal root canal of primary maxillary second molars (1.14±0.23 mm at cervical third). The mean radicular wall thickness was gradually increases from apical third to cervical third of the roots of both primary maxillary and mandibular molars. Conclusion: The knowledge of the anatomy of human primary molars is utmost essential to reduce possible complications in Paediatric patients from instrumentation during pulpectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Common chronic respiratory diseases like asthma and allergic rhinitis are responsible for altered pharyngeal airway dimensions in the growing children which also affects the normal craniofacial development. The standard values of airway dimensions also have been seen to differ in various ethnic groups. Since the study is being conducted in West Bengal, a state located in the eastern part of India, it is considered important to obtain the standard pharyngeal airway dimensions in Bengali children. Aim: To estimate and compare the pharyngeal airway dimensions and mandibular position in Bengali children of age 9-13 years, either sexes, with or without asthma and allergic rhinitis utilising lateral cephalogram. Materials and Methods: A cephalometric analysis was conducted in Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, GNIDSR, Kolkata, Department of Pediatrics (SWAS CLINIC), Ramkrishna Mission Seva Pratisthan, Kolkata during the period of one and half year. This study consisted of a total of 110 subjects were divided equally into control (55 children without any known symptoms or history of chronic bronchial asthma or allergic rhinitis) and study group (55 children with history of asthma/allergic rhinitis). Lateral cephalometric X-rays were advised to all the children, McNamara's airway analysis was done to determine the dimensions of the upper and lower pharyngeal airways. The mandibular position was determined by calculating angle between Sella, Nasion and subspinale point A (SNA), angle between Sella, Nasion and Supramentale point B (SNB) and angle between the maxilla and the mandible (ANB) angles in Steiner's analysis. The Statistical software IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistics 20.0 was used for the analyses of the data. Results: The mean value of Upper Pharyngeal Airway (UPA) among the children of the control group was seen to be 12.464 mm while that in the children of the study group was 7.118 mm. The mean value of Lower Pharyngeal Airway (LPA) among the children of the control group was seen to be 10.282 mm and that among the children of the study group was 7.073 mm. A total of 36.40% children in the control group had class II mandibular position while in the study group 54.50% children had class II mandible. Conclusion: Markedly reduced airway dimensions and retrusive mandible was seen among the children suffering from allergic rhinitis and asthma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The involvement of Digital Microfluidic Biochips (DMFBs) in the field of disease detection, automated drug discovery, on-chip DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) analysis has become well-accepted during last decades. Though trustworthiness of Digital Microfluidic Biochip system plays a vital role in point-of-care diagnosis, defective electrodes are the main reasons for various misleading assay performances. It also affects overall assay completion time; even it leads to discard a chip in the worst scenario. Hence, fault detection is a crucial need. In this paper, an efficient fault detection mechanism is formulated to identify multiple numbers of defective/faulty electrodes on an m × n biochip array, where m and n can be of any positive number. Test droplets are strategically routed throughout an arbitrary sized electrode array and capacitive sensing circuit is deployed to take decision about existence of faults. The basic idea of the proposed technique is to identify actual positions of faulty electrodes through boundary test, row test, and diagonal test. In some complicated cases, instead of finding exact faulty location(s), through an extended testing our proposed technique identifies faulty zone(s) (it is a bounded region where one or more defective electrodes reside) to ensure safe assay performance on a chip. A detailed study evaluates the proposed approach considering different faulty environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production of correct bioassay outcome is the foremost objective in digital microfluidic biochips (or DMFBs). In high‐frequency DMFBs, continuous actuation of electrodes leads to malfunctioning or even breakdown of the system. The improper functioning of a biochip tends to produce erroneous results. On the other hand, while transporting droplets, the residues may get stuck to electrode walls and cause contamination to other droplets. To ensure proper assay outcome, washing becomes mandatory, whose incorporation may delay the bioassay completion time significantly. Furthermore, each wash droplet possesses a capacity constraint within which the residues can be washed off successfully. Evidently, the design objectives possess a large degree of trade‐offs among themselves and must be attacked to prepare an efficient platform. Here, the authors propose a complete fluid‐level synthesis considering all the essential goals together instead of dealing with them in isolation. The presented approach effectively handles the trade‐off scenarios and provides flexibility to the designer to decide the threshold of the individual optimisation objective leading to the construction of a good‐quality solution as a whole. The performance is evaluated over several benchmark bioassays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]