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Objective: This study aimed to compare neural response telemetry and impedance between the round window and cochleostomy approaches for cochlear implantation. Methods: In this case–control study, 64 patients aged less than 3.5 years underwent cochlear implantation via the round window or cochleostomy approach. Post-operative neural response telemetry and impedance were measured. Results: The impedance measurements at electrodes 1, 11 and 22 showed no significant differences between the two groups three months after implantation (p = 0.90, p = 0.08 and p = 0.37, respectively). Similar results were observed six months after implantation (p = 0.71, p = 0.65 and p = 0.70, respectively). There was no significant difference in neural response telemetry between the two groups after three months. The neural response telemetry of electrode 1 in the cochleostomy group (171.26 ± 19.81 μV) was significantly higher in comparison with that of electrode 1 in the round window group (161.97 ± 12.71 μV) after six months (p = 0.03). The neural response telemetry values for electrodes 11 and 22 did not show any significant difference after six months (p = 0.14 and p = 0.48, respectively). Conclusion: Both approaches provide equal stimulation of the cochlear nerve and impedance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two closely spaced nanoholes analyzed as two tiny interacting magnetic dipoles depending on the incident beam polarization [1-3]. It is demonstrated that the optical coupling mechanism between two nanoholes inherently has a magnetic property, unlike the electric dipoles which are mainly coupled through electric-fields [4]. It is obvious that, in comparison with a single hole, the transmission experiences two peaks for Fig. 1(b) where the long and short wavelength peaks are proportional to anti-phase and in-phase magnetic dipoles, respectively. The long wavelength peak considerably blue-shifts by increasing the distance, whereas the short wavelength peak partially red-shifts. It is obvious from Fig. 1(a) and Fig. 1(b) that the electric field is confined in the air region of nanoholes and thus unlike electric dipoles, coupling through electric fields for nanoholesis very weak, while coupling through magnetic fields is strong. The peak of Fig. 1(d) is due to the in-phase interaction of dipoles and experiences a little blue shift relative to single hole, which is caused by electric coupling of dipoles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variations of speech parameters due to emotion or stress are noticeable. In the presence of such variations, if a neutral model is used for the system, the speech recognition accuracy deteriorates. The evaluation of how emotion influences speech parameters is the first step towards emotional speech recognition. Pitch frequency is an important parameter in speech processing systems. Therefore in this research the effect of pitch frequency and its slope due to emotion is explored for voiced phonemes. On the other hand, the influence of emotional state on continuous speech recognition performance is evaluated. The results show that the recognition performance of sentences with angry and happy states and also interrogative sentences has the most deterioration. This deterioration is more than 68% when compared to neutral speech recognition accuracy. To improve recognition results, we add the pitch frequency information to the end of speech recognizer feature vector. The amount of improvement depends on the type of emotion and also added pitch information. The results show that, pitch frequency slope has a significant affect on the improvement of speech recognition accuracy even for neutral speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the demographic, clinical, and prognostic characteristics of patients diagnosed with COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM) in Iranian patients., Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in 8 tertiary referral ophthalmology centers in different provinces of Iran during the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. All patients were subjected to complete history taking and comprehensive ophthalmological examination and underwent standard accepted treatment strategy based on the disease stage., Results: Two hundred seventy-four CAM patients (most were males (150, 54.7%)) with a mean age of 56.8 ± 12.44 years were enrolled. Patients with a history of cigarette smoking (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 4.36), Intensive Care Unit admission (ICU) (AOR = 16.26), higher stage of CAM (AOR = 2.72), and receiving endoscopic debridement and transcutaneous retrobulbar amphotericin B (AOR = 3.30) had higher odds of mortality. History of taking systemic corticosteroids during COVID-19 was significantly associated with reduced odds of mortality (AOR = 0.16). Generalized Estimating Equations analysis showed that the visual acuity of deceased patients (LogMAR: 3.71, 95% CI: 3.04-4.38) was worse than that of patients who were discharged from the hospital (LogMAR: 2.42, 95% CI: 2.16-2.68) (P < 0.001)., Conclusions: This study highlights significant risk factors for mortality in patients with CAM, such as cigarette smoking, ICU admission, advanced CAM stages, receiving transcutaneous retrobulbar amphotericin B and worser visual acuity. Conversely, a history of systemic corticosteroid use during COVID-19 was linked to reduced mortality. These findings underscore the critical need for early identification and targeted interventions for high-risk CAM patients to improve clinical outcomes., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Cartilage is an avascular and alymphatic tissue that lacks the intrinsic ability to undergo spontaneous repair and regeneration in the event of significant injury. The efficacy of conventional therapies for invasive cartilage injuries is limited, thereby prompting the emergence of cartilage tissue engineering as a possible alternative. In this study, we fabricated three-dimensional hydrogel films utilizing sodium alginate (SA), gelatin (Gel), and chondroitin sulfate (CS). These films were included with Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells (WJ-MSCs) and intended for cartilage tissue regeneration., Methods: The hydrogel film that were prepared underwent evaluation using various techniques including scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, assessment of the degree of swelling, degradation analysis, determination of water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), measurement of water contact angle (WCA), evaluation of mechanical strength, and assessment of biocompatibility. The rabbit ear cartilage regeneration by hydrogel films with and without of WJ-MSCs was studied by histopathological investigations during 15, 30, and 60 days., Results: The hydrogel films containing CS exhibited superior metrics compared to other nanocomposites such as better mechanical strength (12.87 MPa in SA/Gel compared to 15.56 in SA/Gel/CS), stability, hydrophilicity, WVTR (3103.33 g/m 2 /day in SA/Gel compared to 2646.67 in nanocomposites containing CS), and swelling ratio (6.97 to 12.11% in SA/Gel composite compared to 5.03 to 10.90% in SA/Gel/CS). Histopathological studies showed the presence of chondrocyte cells in the lacunae on the 30th day and the complete restoration of the cartilage tissue on the 60th day following the injury in the group of SA/Gel/CS hydrogel containing WJ-MSCs., Conclusions: We successfully fabricated a scaffold composed of alginate, gelatin, and chondroitin sulfate. This scaffold was further enhanced by the incorporation of Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells. Our findings demonstrate that this composite scaffold has remarkable biocompatibility and mechanical characteristics. The present study successfully demonstrated the therapeutic potential of the SA-Gel-CS hydrogel containing WJ-MSCs for cartilage regeneration in rabbits., (© 2024 International Center for Artificial Organ and Transplantation (ICAOT) and Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Nasal surgeries, addressing anatomical variations for form and function, require careful anesthesia administration, including dexmedetomidine and remifentanil. This meta-analysis evaluates their safety and efficacy variations in nasal surgeries, emphasizing patient comfort and optimal outcomes., Methods: Four electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and CINAHL Complete) were searched for records in English. Studies that measure the effect of dexmedetomidine versus remifentanil on patients underwent nasal surgery were included. The Cochrane Collaboration's tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. A random-effect model was preferred and statistical analysis was performed by Stata software version 17., Results: Out of an initial pool of 63 articles, five studies were selected for this analysis. All of these chosen studies were Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs). The meta-analysis involved a total of 302 participants, with 152 in the remifentanil group and 150 in the dexmedetomidine group. The analysis aimed to compare the effects of Dexmedetomidine and Remifentanil on heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) during surgery. Both groups exhibited similar MAP and HR, with the exception of a slightly lower HR in the remifentanil group at the 15th minute of surgery (Standardized Mean Difference: -0.24 [-0.83, 0.34]). Furthermore, when evaluating the impact of these medications on post-surgery outcomes, including pain levels, the use of pain relief medications, patient-surgeon satisfaction, agitation scores, and recovery time, no significant differences were observed between the two medications in any of these aspects., Conclusion: In summary, the study compared Dexmedetomidine and Remifentanil in nasal surgeries anesthesia. No significant differences were found in heart rate, blood pressure, satisfaction, pain, agitation, or recovery time. The study had limitations, and future research should establish standardized protocols and consider various surgical factors., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: There have been some reports of the association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and mucormycosis. This study aims to compare the hospitalization rates and clinical characteristics of mucormycosis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methodology: In this retrospective study, we compared the hospitalization rate of mucormycosis patients in Namazi hospital in Southern Iran for two periods of 40 months. We defined July 1st, 2018 to February 17th, 2020, as the pre-COVID-19 period and February 18th, 2020, to September 30th, 2021, as the COVID-19 period. In addition, a quadrupled group of hospitalized patients with age and sex-matched SARS-COV-2 infection without any sign of mucormycosis was selected as the control group for COVID-associated mucormycosis., Result: In the total of 72 mucormycosis patients in the COVID period, 54 patients had a clinical history and a positive RT-PCR, which confirms the diagnosis of SARS-COV2 infection. The hospitalization rate of mucormycosis showed an increase of + 306% (95% CI: + 259%, + 353%) from a monthly average value of 0.26 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.14, 0.38) in the pre-COVID period to 1.06 in the COVID period. The use of corticosteroids prior to the initiation of hospitalization (p ≤ 0.01), diabetes (DM) (p = 0.04), brain involvement (p = 0.03), orbit involvement (p = 0.04), and sphenoid sinus invasion (p ≤ 0.01) were more common in patients with mucormycosis during the COVID period., Conclusions: In high-risk patients, especially diabetics, special care to avoid the development of mucormycosis must be taken into account in patients with SARS-COV-2 infection considered for treatment with corticosteroids., Competing Interests: No Conflict of Interest is declared, (Copyright (c) 2023 Mehrdad Estakhr, Zahra Ghotbi, Mahtab Rostamihosseinkhani, Etrat Hooshmandi, Masoud Janipour, Vahid Reza Ostovan, Nima Fadakar, Hanieh Bazrafshan, Zahra Bahrami, Abbas Rahimi-Jaberi, Maryam Poursadeghfard, Masoumeh Nazeri, Pariya Kouhi, Peyman Petramfar, Sadegh Izadi, Zohreh Barzegar, Ehsan Nikzadeh, Sarvin Sasannia, Shahram Arsang-Jang, Reza Tabrizi, Behzad Khademi, Mahsa Kohandel-Shirazi, Mohammad Saied Salehi, Nahid Ashjazadeh, Bijan Khademi, Mohammad Javad Ashraf, Owrang Eilami, Amir Roudgari, Mohsen Moghaddami, Kamiar Zomorodian, Hamid Badali, Afshin Borhani-Haghighi.)

Background: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and other psychological problems are more common in cosmetic surgery applicants., Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of the symptoms of BDD and narcissistic personality disorder in rhinoplasty candidates., Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on rhinoplasty applicants. All subjects were evaluated by BDD and narcissistic personality questionnaires (NPI-16)., Results: A total of 380 patients were studied. Our findings showed that the prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe BDD symptoms was 31.6%, 43.4% and 25%, respectively. The mean BDD scores were not significantly different in variables such as gender, age, marital status, history of cosmetic surgery, education, place of residence, and income. 29.5% of the subjects had symptoms of narcissism. There was no significant relationship between the symptoms of narcissism and variables such as gender, age, marital status, history of cosmetic surgery, place of residence, and income. Higher education was associated with higher rates of narcissistic personality disorder (p-value = 0.021)., Conclusions: According to the results of the study, there was no statistically significant relationship between BDD score and demographic parameters. Also, association between narcissistic personality disorder and demographic characteristics was not significant except for education., Level of Evidence Iv: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 ., (© 2021. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature and International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.)

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the necessity or unnecessity of sending all tonsillectomy specimens for pathological examinations in Shiraz, Iran; moreover, it examined malignancies, cost-saving, causes, and the ways to prevent sending all specimens., Materials and Methods: In the first retrospective phase of the study, a checklist was used to gather demographic, clinical, and cost information of 18,437 tonsillectomy specimens during 2004-2018 in Shiraz, Iran. In order to estimate the cost of each pathology specimen, the cost components, including human resources costs and consumables, were collected in the private and public sectors separately and divided by the number of cases performed. Finally, the financial burden resulting from these services (in the study centers) was calculated by multiplying each item's cost by the total number of these services., Results: Out of the total 18,437 histopathology specimens examined, only 118 (0.64%) samples were identified with unusual diagnoses, of which 66 (56%) cases had malignant tumors, and the remaining 52 (44%) samples included benign tumors (n=41), infections (n=2), and other problems (n=9). The second phase results also indicated that according to the ear, nose, and throat experts, the rules and regulations governing the country's health system and the suspicion of tumors were the main reasons for sending tonsil specimens for pathological examinations. Generally, the annual cost-saving rates in the studied public and private centers were $87,919 and $179,530 purchasing power parity, respectively., Conclusions: According to the results, sending tonsillectomy specimens should only be limited to nonroutine ones for economic-clinical reasons.

Controlling the phase distribution of wavefronts using optical metasurfaces has led to interesting optical properties and applications. Here, we explore the control of phase distribution through polar-dielectric metasurfaces composed of doped SiC nanosphere arrays. We investigate the impact of doping concentration on the optical properties of SiC nano-spheres. Our results indicate that increasing the doping of SiC nanoparticles influenced electric dipolar resonances, whereas it did not change the dipolar resonances. Using this concept, we numerically studied the extension of this idea to form metasurface arrays of single, dimer and linear trimers of the doped SiC nano-spheres. Using different doping schemes, we studied the improvement of the reflectivity at frequencies greater than the longitudinal optical phonon frequency.

Semiconductor heterostructures are suitable for the design and fabrication of terahertz (THz) plasmonic devices, due to their matching carrier densities. The classical dispersion relations in the current literature are derived for metal plasmonic materials, such as gold and silver, for which a homogeneous dielectric function is valid. Penetration of the electric fields into semiconductors induces locally varying charge densities and a spatially varying dielectric function is expected. While such an occurrence renders tunable THz plasmonics a possibility, it is crucial to understand the conditions under which propagating resonant conditions for the carriers occur, upon incidence of an electromagnetic radiation. In this manuscript, we derive a dispersion relation for a p-n heterojunction and apply the methodology to a GaAs p-n junction, a material of interest for optoelectronic devices. Considering symmetrically doped p- and n-type regions with equal width, the effect of certain parameters (such as doping and voltage bias) on the dispersion curve of the p-n heterojunction were investigated. Keeping in sight the different effective masses and mobilities of the carriers, we were able to obtain the conditions that yield identical dielectric functions for the p- and n-regions. Our results indicated that the p-n GaAs system can sustain propagating resonances and can be used as a layered plasmonic waveguide. The conditions under which this is feasible fall in the frequency region between the transverse optical phonon resonance of GaAs and the traditional cut-off frequency of the diode waveguide. In addition, our results indicated when the excitation was slightly above the phonon resonance frequency, the plasmon propagation attained low-loss characteristics. We also showed that the existence or nonexistence of the depletion zone between the p- and n- interfaces allowed certain plasmon modes to propagate, while others decayed rapidly, pointing out the possibility for a design of selective filters.

Spatial charge distribution for biased semiconductors fundamentally differs from metals since they can allow inhomogeneous charge distributions due to penetration of the electric field, as observed in the classical Schottky junctions. Similarly, the electrostatics of the dielectric/semiconductor interface can lead to a carrier depletion or accumulation in the semiconductor side when under applied bias. In this study, we demonstrate that the inhomogeneous carrier accumulation in a moderately p-doped GaAs-dielectric interface can be tailored for tunable plasmonics by an external voltage. Solving Maxwell's equations in the doped GaAs-dielectric stack, we investigate the tunability of the surface plasmon and phonon polaritons' interaction via an external bias. The plasmonic mode analysis of such an interface reveals interesting dispersion curves for surface plasmon and phonon polariton interactions that are not possible in metals. We show that the plasmon dispersion curve can be engineered through an external bias using the inherent properties of the p-doped GaAs- dielectric interface.