Search results for: missing teeth

Authors: Nurlaili Syafar Wulan, Almurdi, Suprianto Kosno

Abstract:

Introduction: Periodontitis defined as an inflammatory disease of teeth supporting tissue with irritation of specific pathogens as the main aetiology. Periodontitis can be cured by giving medical action accompanied by administration of an antibiotic, but the use of antibiotic has a side effect that can cause bacterial resistance. This side effect can be corrected by probiotic, which has antibiotic-like substance but do not have bacterial resistance effect; it makes probiotic became a promising future periodontitis medication. West Sumatran people has their own typical traditional food product made from fermented buffalo’s milk called dadih, and it contained probiotics. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the ability of probiotic Pediococcus pentosaceus isolated from dadih in inhibiting the growth of bacteria Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. Material and Method: This was a true experimental study with post-test and control group design. This study was conducted on 36 samples of 2 treatment groups, the test group with probiotic Pediococcus pentosacesus isolated from dadih and the negative control group with sterile aquadest. The antibacterial effect was tested using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method and calculated by measuring the zone of inhibition on MHA around paper disk using a sliding caliper with 0.5 mm accuracy. Result: The result of bivariate analysis using Independent t-test was p=0.00 where p < 0.05 means that there is a significant difference between the tested group and negative control group. Conclusion: Probiotic Pediococcus pentosaceus isolated from dadih are able to inhibit the growth of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans.

Keywords: aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, antibacterial activities, periodontitis, probiotic Pediococcus pentosaceus

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Matej Patzelt, Jan Dudak, Frantisek Krejci, Jan Zemlicka, Vladimir Musil, Jitka Riedlova, Viktor Sykora, Jana Mrzilkova, Petr Zach

Abstract:

Introduction: Micro-CT is well used for examination of bone structures and teeth. On the other hand visualization of the soft tissues is still limited. The goal of our study was to create a new fixation method for soft tissue imaging in micro-CT. Methodology: We used organs of 18 mice - heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and brain, which we fixated in ethanol after meticulous preparation. We fixated organs in different concentrations of ethanol and for different period of time. We used three types of ethanol concentration - 97%, 50% and ascending ethanol concentration (25%, 50%, 75%, 97% each for 12 hours). Fixated organs were scanned after 72 hours, 168 hours and 336 hours period of fixation. We scanned all specimens in micro-CT MARS (Medipix All Resolution System). Results: Ethanol method provided contrast enhancement in all studied organs in all used types of fixation. Fixation in 97% ethanol provided very fast fixation and the contrast among the tissues was visible already after 72 hours of fixation. Fixation for the period of 168 and 336 hours gave better details, especially in lung tissue, where alveoli were visualized. On the other hand, this type of fixation caused organs to petrify. Fixation in 50% ethanol provided best results in 336 hours fixation, details were visualized better than in 97% ethanol and samples were not as hard as in fixation in 97% ethanol. Best results were obtained in fixation in ascending ethanol concentration. All organs were visualized in great details, best-visualized organ was heart, where trabeculae and valves were visible. In this type of fixation, organs stayed soft for whole time. Conclusion: New ethanol method is a great option for soft tissue fixation as well as the method for enhancing contrast among tissues in organs. The best results were obtained with fixation of the organs in ascending ethanol concentration, the best visualized organ was the heart.

Keywords: x-ray imaging, small animals, ethanol, ex-vivo

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Samuel Opeyemi Williams, Razali Bin Adul Hamid, M. S. Misnan, Taki Eddine Seghier, D. I. Ajayi

Abstract:

Construction sites are characterized with occupational risks. Review of literature on construction accidents reveals that a lot of theories have been propounded over the years by different theorists, coupled with multifarious models developed by different proponents at different times. Accidents are unplanned events that are prominent in construction sites, involving materials, objects and people with attendant damages, loses and injuries. Models were developed to investigate the causations of accident with the aim of preventing its occurrence. Though, some of these theories were criticized, most especially, the Heinrich Domino theory, being mostly faulted for placing much blame on operatives rather than the management. The purpose of this paper is to unravel the significant construction accident causation theories and models for the benefit of understanding of the theories, and consequently enabling construction stakeholders identify the possible potential hazards on construction sites, as all stakeholders have significant roles to play in preventing accident. Accidents are preventable; hence, understanding the risk factors of accident and the causation theories paves way for its prevention. However, findings reveal that still some gaps missing in the existing models, while it is recommended that further research can be made in order to develop more models in order to maintain zero accident on construction sites.

Keywords: domino theory, construction site, site safety, accident causation model

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: Bilha Paryente, Roni Gez Langerman

Abstract:

Background and Objectives: The current study focused on how kindergarten children have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. The main goals were understanding children’s emotions, coping strategies, and thoughts regarding the presence of the COVID-19 virus in their daily lives, using the salute genic approach to study their sense of coherence, and to promote relevant professional instruction. Design and Method: Semistructured in-depth interviews were held with 130 five- to six-year-old children, with an equal number of boys and girls. All of the children were recruited from kindergartens affiliated with the state's secular education system. Results: Data were structured into three themes: 1) the child’s pandemic perception as manageable through meaningful accompanying and missing figures; 2) the child’s comprehension of the virus as dangerous, age differentiating, and contagious. 3) the child’s emotional processing of the pandemic as arousing fear of death and, through images, as thorny and as a monster. Conclusions: Results demonstrate the young children’s sense of coherence, characterized as extrapersonal perception, interpersonal coping, and intrapersonal emotional processing, and the need for greater acknowledgement of child-parent educators' informed interventions that could give children a partial feeling of the adult’s awareness of their needs.

Keywords: kindergarten children, continuous stress, COVID-19, salutogenic approach

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Jiawen Wang, Qijun Chen

Abstract:

The performance of most machine-learning methods for image inpainting depends on the quantity and quality of the training samples. However, it is very expensive or even impossible to obtain a great number of training samples in many scenarios. In this paper, an image inpainting model based on a generative adversary network (GAN) is constructed for the cases when the number of training samples is small. Firstly, a feature extraction network (F-net) is incorporated into the GAN network to utilize the available information of the inpainting image. The weighted sum of the extracted feature and the random noise acts as the input to the generative network (G-net). The proposed network can be trained well even when the sample size is very small. Secondly, in the phase of the completion for each damaged image, a genetic algorithm is designed to search an optimized noise input for G-net; based on this optimized input, the parameters of the G-net and F-net are further learned (Once the completion for a certain damaged image ends, the parameters restore to its original values obtained in the training phase) to generate an image patch that not only can fill the missing part of the damaged image smoothly but also has visual semantics.

Keywords: image inpainting, generative adversary nets, genetic algorithm, small-sample size

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Tsai-Hsiu Lin

Abstract:

Dan C. Lortie’s Schoolteacher: A sociological study is one of the best works on the sociology of teaching since W. Waller’s classic study. It is a book worthy of review. Following the tradition of symbolic interactionists, Lortie demonstrated the qualities who studied the occupation of teaching. Using several methods to gather effective data, Lortie has portrayed the ethos of the teaching profession. Therefore, the work is an important book on the teaching profession and teacher culture. Though outstanding, Lortie’s work is also flawed in that his perspectives and methodology were adopted largely from symbolic interactionism. First, Lortie in his work analyzed many points regarding teacher culture; for example, he was interested in exploring “sentiment,” “cathexis,” and “ethos.” Thus, he was more a psychologist than a sociologist. Second, symbolic interactionism led him to discern the teacher culture from a micro view, thereby missing the structural aspects. For example, he did not fully discuss the issue of gender and he ignored the issue of race. Finally, following the qualitative sociological tradition, Lortie employed many qualitative methods to gather data but only foucused on obtaining and presenting interview data. Moreover, he used measurement methods that were too simplistic for analyzing quantitative data fully.

Keywords: education reform, teacher culture, teaching profession, Lortie’s Schoolteacher

Procedia PDF Downloads 213

Authors: Olufemi Adedamola Oyedele

Abstract:

Infrastructure provision in Nigeria is now at its lowest ebb in spite of its being critical to the socio-economic and political development of any nation. This is partly because the policy that will ensure its adequate provisioning is missing and partly because politics is affecting its provision. Policy is the basic principles by which a government is guided. Infrastructural development is the basis for measuring the performance of governments and it is the foundation of good governance. Demand for infrastructural development is higher and resources used in its provision are limited. Ethnic-interest agitation and lobbying for infrastructure provision are common things in multi-ethnic state like Nigeria. Most infrastructures are now decayed and need repair or replacement. Government is the system that organizes, control and sensitizes the people in a society in other for all to have an acceptable level of living. Governments have the power to put in place all measures that they deem fit will make an environment conducive for living for everybody. Infrastructure development in any environment requires needs assessment, feasibility and viability studies and carrying out physical development of the project. The challenge in Nigeria is largely carrying out development where they are not needed but where the people are loyal. There are numerous abandoned projects because they were started due to politics and not because they are feasible. Policies and politics greatly affect infrastructure provisioning in Nigeria and this is the premise of this paper.

Keywords: infrastructure challenges, infrastructure development, policy making, politics, project finance

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Jefferson Hernandez, Juan Padilla

Abstract:

Estimation of price elasticity of demand is a valuable tool for the task of price settling. Given its relevance, it is an active field for microeconomic and statistical research. Price elasticity in the industry of oil and gas, in particular for fuels sold in gas stations, has shown to be a challenging topic given the market and state restrictions, and underlying correlations structures between the types of fuels sold by the same gas station. This paper explores the Lotka-Volterra model for the problem for price elasticity estimation in the context of fuels; in addition, it is introduced multivariate random effects with the purpose of dealing with errors, e.g., measurement or missing data errors. In order to model the underlying correlation structures, the Inverse-Wishart, Hierarchical Half-t and LKJ distributions are studied. Here, the Bayesian paradigm through Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms for model estimation is considered. Simulation studies covering a wide range of situations were performed in order to evaluate parameter recovery for the proposed models and algorithms. Results revealed that the proposed algorithms recovered quite well all model parameters. Also, a real data set analysis was performed in order to illustrate the proposed approach.

Keywords: price elasticity, volume, correlation structures, Bayesian models

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Henok Asfaw Hailu, P. D. Rwelamila

Abstract:

Creating a suitable environment for successful projects needs a rethink of the organisational design of the parent organisations. A Project-based organisation (PBO) is a unique organizational form suitable for implementing and managing business activities around projects. A construction firm is inherently a PBO as it executes most of its activities through projects. PBO design and development require an empirical foundation. This study aimed to fill this gap by developing a conceptual model to help transform Ethiopian construction firms (ECFs) into full-fledged PBOs by assimilating the required PBO characteristics. The study used an exploratory QUAL-quant research design approach. A thematic content analysis was performed to analyse the qualitative (Interviews) research data. Means, standard deviations, frequencies, percentages, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation were used to analyse the quantitative data. A transformational conceptual model was proposed and illustrated that transformation needs to begin by assessing the environment, strategic documents, and PBO characteristics. Assimilating missing PBO characteristics into ECFs is vital to realise organisations’ transformation into full-fledged PBOs.

Keywords: project-based organization, organizational design, dimensions, construction firms

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: Chengcao Sun, Shujun Li, Cuili Yang, Yongyong Xi, Liang Wang, Feng Zhang, Dejia Li

Abstract:

Recently, the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) NEAT1 has been identified as an oncogenic gene in multiple cancer types and elevated expression of NEAT1 was tightly linked to tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, the molecular basis for this observation has not been characterized in progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In our studies, we identified NEAT1 was highly expressed in NSCLC patients and was a novel regulator of NSCLC progression. Patients whose tumors had high NEAT1 expression had a shorter overall survival than patients whose tumors had low NEAT1 expression. Further, NEAT1 significantly accelerates NSCLC cell growth and metastasis in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. Additionally, by using bioinformatics study and RNA pull down combined with luciferase reporter assays, we demonstrated that NEAT1 functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for has-miR-377-3p, antagonized its functions and led to the de-repression of its endogenous targets E2F3, which was a core oncogene in promoting NSCLC progression. Taken together, these observations imply that the NEAT1 modulated the expression of E2F3 gene by acting as a competing endogenous RNA, which may build up the missing link between the regulatory miRNA network and NSCLC progression.

Keywords: long non-coding RNA NEAT1, hsa-miRNA-377-3p, E2F3, non-small cell lung cancer, tumorigenesis

Procedia PDF Downloads 357

Authors: Atilla Bayram

Abstract:

This paper presents the trajectory tracking control of a spatial redundant hybrid manipulator. This manipulator consists of two parallel manipulators which are a variable geometry truss (VGT) module. In fact, each VGT module with 3-degress of freedom (DOF) is a planar parallel manipulator and their operational planes of these VGT modules are arranged to be orthogonal to each other. Also, the manipulator contains a twist motion part attached to the top of the second VGT module to supply the missing orientation of the endeffector. These three modules constitute totally 7-DOF hybrid (parallel-parallel) redundant spatial manipulator. The forward kinematics equations of this manipulator are obtained, then, according to these equations, the inverse kinematics is solved based on an optimization with the joint limit avoidance. The dynamic equations are formed by using virtual work method. In order to test the performance of the redundant manipulator and the controllers presented, two different desired trajectories are followed by using the computed force control method and a switching control method. The switching control method is combined with the computed force control method and genetic algorithm. In the switching control method, the genetic algorithm is only used for fine tuning in the compensation of the trajectory tracking errors.

Keywords: computed force method, genetic algorithm, hybrid manipulator, inverse kinematics of redundant manipulators, variable geometry truss

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Fang Gong

Abstract:

Distance measures are an indispensable part of many instance-based learning (IBL) and machine learning (ML) algorithms. The value difference metrics (VDM) and inverted specific-class distance measure (ISCDM) are among the top-performing distance measures that address nominal attributes. VDM performs well in some domains owing to its simplicity and poorly in others that exist missing value and non-class attribute noise. ISCDM, however, typically works better than VDM on such domains. To maximize their advantages and avoid disadvantages, in this paper, a selection approach: a discriminative model for nominal attributes-based distance measures is proposed. More concretely, VDM and ISCDM are built independently on a training dataset at the training stage, and the most credible one is recorded for each training instance. At the test stage, its nearest neighbor for each test instance is primarily found by any of VDM and ISCDM and then chooses the most reliable model of its nearest neighbor to predict its class label. It is simply denoted as a discriminative distance measure (DDM). Experiments are conducted on the 34 University of California at Irvine (UCI) machine learning repository datasets, and it shows DDM retains the interpretability and simplicity of VDM and ISCDM but significantly outperforms the original VDM and ISCDM and other state-of-the-art competitors in terms of accuracy.

Keywords: distance measure, discriminative model, nominal attributes, nearest neighbor

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Martin Hofmann, Diego Stutzer, Thomas Niederhauser, Juergen Burger

Abstract:

Dental biofilm is the main etiologic factor for caries, periodontal and peri-implant infections. In addition to the risk of tooth loss, periodontitis is also associated with an increased risk of systemic diseases such as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and diabetes. For this reason, dental hygienists use ultrasonic scalers for prophylactic and periodontal care of the teeth. However, the current instruments are limited to their dimensions and operating frequencies. The innovative design of a planar ultrasonic transducer introduces a new type of dental scalers. The flat titanium-based design allows the mass to be significantly reduced compared to a conventional screw-mounted Langevin transducer, resulting in a more efficient and controllable scaler. For the development of the novel device, multi-physics finite element analysis was used to simulate and optimise various design concepts. This process was supported by prototyping and electromechanical characterisation. The feasibility and potential of a planar ultrasonic transducer have already been confirmed by our current prototypes, which achieve higher performance compared to commercial devices. Operating at the desired resonance frequency of 28 kHz with a driving voltage of 40 Vrms results in an in-plane tip oscillation with a displacement amplitude of up to 75 μm by having less than 8 % out-of-plane movement and an energy transformation factor of 1.07 μm/mA. In a further step, we will adapt the design to two additional resonance frequencies (20 and 40 kHz) to obtain information about the most suitable mode of operation. In addition to the already integrated characterization methods, we will evaluate the clinical efficiency of the different devices in an in vitro setup with an artificial biofilm pocket model.

Keywords: ultrasonic instrumentation, ultrasonic scaling, piezoelectric transducer, finite element simulation, dental biofilm, dental calculus

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: G. Kermarrec, J. Hartmann

Abstract:

Spline surfaces are a major representation of freeform surfaces in the computer-aided graphic industry and were recently introduced in the field of geodesy for processing point clouds from terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). The surface fitting consists of approximating a trustworthy mathematical surface to a large numbered 3D point cloud. The standard B-spline surfaces lack of local refinement due to the tensor-product construction. The consequences are oscillating geometry, particularly in the transition from low-to-high curvature parts for scattered point clouds with missing data. More economic alternatives in terms of parameters on how to handle point clouds with a huge amount of observations are the recently introduced T-splines. As long as the partition of unity is guaranteed, their computational complexity is low, and they are flexible. T-splines are implemented in a commercial package called Rhino, a 3D modeler which is widely used in computer aided design to create and animate NURBS objects. We have applied T-splines surface fitting to terrestrial laser scanner point clouds from a bridge under load and a sheet pile wall with noisy observations. We will highlight their potential for modelling details with high trustworthiness, paving the way for further applications in terms of deformation analysis.

Keywords: deformation analysis, surface modelling, terrestrial laser scanner, T-splines

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Frederik Schulte, Stefan Voß

Abstract:

The adverse effects of air pollution on public health are an increasingly vital problem in planning for urban regions in many parts of the world. The issue is addressed from various angles and by distinct disciplines in research. Epidemiological studies model the relative increase of numerous diseases in response to an increment of different forms of air pollution. A significant share of air pollution in urban regions is related to transport emissions that are often measured and stored in emission inventories. Though, most approaches in transport planning, engineering, and operational design of transport activities are restricted to general emission limits for specific air pollutants and do not consider more nuanced exposure models. We conduct an extensive literature review on exposure models and emission inventories used to study the health impact of transport emissions. Furthermore, we review methods applied in both domains and use emission inventory data of transportation hubs such as ports, airports, and urban traffic for an in-depth analysis of public health impacts deploying medical exposure models. The results reveal specific urban health risks related to transport emissions that may improve urban planning for environmental health by providing insights in actual health effects instead of only referring to general emission limits.

Keywords: emission inventories, exposure models, transport emissions, urban health

Procedia PDF Downloads 372

Authors: Obinna Emmanuel Nkomadu

Abstract:

A major maritime problem in the African continent is the widespread proliferation of threats to maritime security, and one of which is the traffic in persons (TIP) at sea, which victims are sometimes assaulted, injured, killed, and in many cases go missing. The South African and Nigerian law on TIP at sea is the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act and the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, respectively. These legislation prohibits TIP at sea but does not provides effective and efficient national coordination structures and international cooperation measures against traffickers who engage on human trafficking on the African maritime domain. As a result of the limitations on the maritime security laws of most African States and the maritime security threats on the continent, the African Union in 2016 adopted the African Charter on Maritime Security and Safety and Development in Africa (Lome Charter). The Lomé Charter provides mechanisms for national and international cooperation on maritime security threats, including TIP at sea. However, the Charter is yet to come into force due to the number of States required to accede or ratify the Charter. This paper identifies gaps on existing instruments on TIP at sea by those States and justify on South Africa and Nigeria should adopt the Charter. The justification flow from analysing relevant international law instruments, as well as legislation on human trafficking.

Keywords: cooperation against trafficking in persons at sea, lomé charter, maritime security, Nigerian legislation on trafficking in persons, South African legislation on trafficking in person, and trafficking in persons at sea

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Mohammed H. Karim, Bestoon M. Faraj

Abstract:

Introduction: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a Dynamic Navigation System (DNS) and a three-dimensional microscope in retrieving broken rotary NiTi files when using trepan burs and the extractor system. Materials and Methods: Thirty maxillary first bicuspids with sixty separate roots were split into two comparable groups based on a comprehensive Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) analysis of the root length and curvature. After standardized access opening, glide paths, and patency attainment with the K file (sizes 10 and 15), the teeth were arranged on 3D models (three per quadrant, six per model). Subsequently, controlled-memory heat-treated NiTi rotary files (#25/0.04) were notched 4 mm from the tips and fractured at the apical third of the roots. The C-FR1 Endo file removal system was employed under both guidance to retrieve the fragments, and the success rate, canal aberration, treatment time and volumetric changes were measured. The statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS software at a significance level of 0.05. Results: The microscope-guided group had a higher success rate than the DNS guidance, but the difference was insignificant (p > 0.05). In addition, the microscope-guided drills resulted in a substantially lower proportion of canal aberration, required less time to retrieve the fragments and caused minimal change in the root canal volume (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Although dynamically guided trephining with the extractor can retrieve separated instruments, it is inferior to three-dimensional microscope guidance regarding treatment time, procedural errors, and volume change.

Keywords: separated instruments retrieval, dynamic navigation system, 3D video microscope, trephine burs, extractor

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: Tianyu Zhang

Abstract:

China has become one of the markets with the biggest potential for UK exporters, but it remains difficult for outsiders to explore Chinese media’s inner workings due to a lack of access. Having worked in Chinese media, the author conducted six month’s participant-observation in China Central Television (CCTV) and three independent production companies. This paper mainly explores how TV production ethics were implemented in the casting process of three Chinese reality shows that are well-known within the country. The three production teams had issues in common: unorganised management, subjective casting standards and lack of production ethics. Casting directors, who were multitasking, could only rely on their professional experience and ad-hoc demands from the management. More concerning phenomena such as borderline corruption, passive-aggressiveness, and blame cultures were prevalent during the entire production, especially during casting. The casting process also often involved the celebrity status of the many ‘ordinary’ participants who were not that ‘ordinary’ as they claimed. Many of these participants were professional talents who were not famous enough but worked as many other well-known celebrities who had their own employees. On the other hand, as comprehensive production and ethics guidelines were missing, junior television practitioners struggled between their ideal professional standards and real-life events that fell into grey areas – telling white lies, bribery, shifting blame, and lack of employee training. Although facing challenges, many practitioners came up with self-management solutions and worked with positivity.

Keywords: production studies, ethics, television production, ethnography, reality TV, Chinese TV

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Mimoza Canga, Irene Malagnino, Ruzhdie Qafmolla, Vergjini Mulo, Gresa Baboci, Vito Antonio Malagnino

Abstract:

Background: Dental caries represents the most widespread pathology in childhood. The prevalence of dental caries varies with age, gender, socio economic status, geographical location, nutrition habits, and oral hygiene. Objective: The objective of the present longitudinal study is to show clearly the prevalence of dental caries in the children of age 6 and 7 years old in Vlore, Albania, in a two year time period with controls done every 6 months. Materials and methods: The present study was conducted on 530 children, with a controlled sample for a time period of 24 months from September 2019- September 2021. The children in the study had different economic and social backgrounds. The teeth controls were done by the dentists who work at the hospital of the city. The present study was conducted in accordance with Helsinki declaration. Permissions were obtained in written form, which allowed us to perform the observations. Parents had the right to withdraw their children at any time. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0. The significance level (α) was set at 0.05, whereas P-value and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Results: The data of the present study showed that the age group of 6 years old had 139 or 52.3% of the children with dental caries and 127 or 47.7% of them had no dental caries, while at the age of 7 there were 184 or 69.7% of the children with dental caries problems in the permanent molars and 80 or 30.3% of them had no dental caries. In the present study, it was observed that there is a statistically significant association between age group and presence of caries. Children 7 years old had higher presence of dental caries (χ2 = 16.934 (df 1) p-value < 0.001). According to the present research, there is a statistically significant correlation between period of time and the presence of dental caries. Furthermore, in the actual research, it was established that in the time 18-24 months, the prevalence of dental caries was high (χ2=15,318 (df 1) p-value = 0.004). Conclusion: According to the results of the present study performed in Albania in a two year time period with controls done every 6 months, it is proved that the prevalence of dental caries was 17.4 percent higher among children 7 years old in comparison with the children 6 years old.

Keywords: age, children, dental caries, permanent molars

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Eni Rahmi, Rasmi Rikmasari, Taufik Soemarsongko

Abstract:

Background: One of the bad habits that requires a treatment and viewed as a risk factor of the temporomandibular disorder is bruxism. Bruxism defined as an awake and/or asleep parafunctional activities include grinding, gnashing, bracing or clenching of the teeth. In particular circumstances such as an increased frequency of episode, duration and the intensity of masseter contractions, caused phenomenon with pathological consequences, i.e., mandibular remodeling. The remodeling in mandibular angle was associated with the masseter and pterygoid medial muscles attachment which in its insertion area. The aim of this study was to compare the mandibular remodeling between bruxers and non-bruxers with ramus height, gonial angle and bigonial width as parameters, and to identify correlation among those parameters in bruxers, using panoramic radiographic. Methods: This study was conducted on 35 bruxers (10 phasic bruxism patients, 6 tonic bruxism patients, and 19 mixed bruxism patients) and 20 non-bruxers as control group. The data were obtained by using questionary, clinical examination, and radiographic measurement. Panoramic radiograph measurement was done using soft CBCT EPX Impla (E-Woo Korea). The data was analyzed by using Paired T-Test to see differences between parameters in both group and Pearson Correlation Test to evaluate correlation among parameters. Result: There was significant differences between bruxers and non-bruxers in ramus heights (p=0,04), bigonial widths (p=0,001), and gonial angles(p=0,015). The bruxers showed increased ramus heights and bigonial widths, in other hand, the gonial angles decreased. This study also found that there was highly correlation among ramus height, gonial angles, and bigonial widths. Conclusion: the bone remodeling occurred on inferior and posterior border of mandibular angle in bruxism patient, indicated by the form and size differences between bruxers (phasic bruxism, tonic bruxism, and mixed bruxism) with non-bruxers, which shown by panoramic radiograph.

Keywords: bruxism, ramus height, gonial angle, bigonial width

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Ayesha Hasan

Abstract:

This study offers unique perspectives and analyses of peace and conflict journalism through interpretative repertoire, media frames, and critical discourse analyses. Two major English publications in Pakistan, representing both long and short-form journalism, are investigated to uncover how the Afghan refugee repatriation from Pakistan in 2016-17 has been framed in Pakistani English media. Peace journalism focuses on concepts such as peace initiatives and peace building, finding common ground, and preventing further conflict. This study applies Jake Lynch’s Coding Criteria to guide the critical discourse analysis and Lee and Maslog’s Peace Journalism Quotient to examine the extent of peace journalism in each text. This study finds that peace journalism is missing in Pakistani English press, but represented, to an extent, in long-form print and online coverage. Two new alternative frames are also proposed. This study gives an in-depth understanding of if and how journalists in Pakistan are covering conflicts and framing stories that can be identified as peace journalism. This study represents significant contributions to the remarkably limited scholarship on peace and conflict journalism in Pakistan and extends Shabbir Hussain’s work on critical pragmatic perspectives on peace journalism in Pakistan.

Keywords: Afghan refugee repatriation, Critical discourse analysis, Media framing , Peace and conflict journalism

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Raphael Tuor, Denis Lalanne

Abstract:

The ATM research community is missing suitable tools to design, test, and validate new UI prototypes. Important stakes underline the implementation of both DSS and XAI methods into current systems. ML-based DSS are gaining in relevance as ATFM becomes increasingly complex. However, these systems only prove useful if a human can understand them, and thus new XAI methods are needed. The human-machine dyad should work as a team and should understand each other. We present xSky, a configurable benchmark tool that allows us to compare different versions of an ATC interface in conflict detection tasks. Our main contributions to the ATC research community are (1) a conflict detection task simulator (xSky) that allows to test the applicability of visual prototypes on scenarios of varying difficulty and outputting relevant operational metrics (2) a theoretical approach to the explanations of AI-driven trajectory predictions. xSky addresses several issues that were identified within available research tools. Researchers can configure the dimensions affecting scenario difficulty with a simple CSV file. Both the content and appearance of the XAI elements can be customized in a few steps. As a proof-of-concept, we implemented an XAI prototype inspired by the maritime field.

Keywords: air traffic control, air traffic simulation, conflict detection, explainable artificial intelligence, explainability, human-automation collaboration, human factors, information visualization, interpretability, trajectory prediction

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Eda Arat Maden, Ceyhan Altun, Bilal Ozmen, Feridun Basak

Abstract:

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the antimicrobial effect of toothpastes containing fluoride, xylitol or xylitol-probiotic in vivo, Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus in 13-15 years old children. Method: The study consisted of 60 pediatric patients were randomly divided into 3 groups of 20 each. Group 1 received fluoride toothpaste (Colgate Max Fresh), group 2 used xylitol toothpaste (Xyliwhite) and group 3 used xylitol-probiotic toothpaste (PerioBiotic). Subjects were asked to use the allocated dentifrice two times a day, for 6 weeks. We performed tests on the samples of saliva in the beginning of the study and after 6 weeks’ duration following the use of toothpaste. Result and Conclusion: All of the participants of the study stated that they brushed their teeth well twice a day by using the toothpastes given to them for 6 weeks. Majority of the subjects had high counts of salivary mutans streptococci and Lactobacillus at baseline. When the number of cariogenic bacteria (S. mutans and Lactobacillus) at the start of the PerioBiotic Probiotic toothpaste usage are compared with the results measured after 6 weeks, an important decrease is observed in the S. mutans and Lactobacillus bacteria according to the CRT Tests. After the 6-week use of Probiotic toothpaste, the S. mutans (≥105) decreased to 20% from 75% in the group with S. mutans and Lactobacillus (≥105) decreased to 30% from 60% in the group with Lactobacillus. In addition, an important decrease was recorded in the participants with the S. mutans percentage (80% - 45%) and Lactobacillus (70% - 55%) after using the Colgate Max Fresh toothpaste for six weeks. On the other hand, it was determined with the Chi-square that there were not important changes between the Xyliwhite toothpaste group and the other groups with S. mutans (80% - 75%) and Lactobacillus (75% -65%). It was also determined after the comparison of the groups that the decrease in the S. mutans was higher than the group using PerioBiotic Probiotic toothpaste at a significant level, when compared with the Colgate Max Fresh toothpaste and Xyliwhite toothpaste. S. mutans were more sensitive to the antimicrobial activity of the PerioBiotic Probiotic toothpaste and to the Colgate Max Fresh toothpaste when compared with the Lactobacillus. In the light of the data obtained in this in vivo study, the use of probiotics ensure the balance between the bacterial flora in the oral cavity.

Keywords: lactobacillus, probiotic, Streptococcus mutans, toothpaste

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Barbora Chmelova, Radek Sachl

Abstract:

Gangliosides are amphipathic membrane lipids. Due to the composition of bulky oligosaccharide chains containing one or more sialic acids linked to the hydrophobic ceramide base, gangliosides are classified among glycosphingolipids. This unique structure induces a high self-aggregating tendency of gangliosides and, therefore, the formation of nanoscopic clusters called nanodomains. Gangliosides are preferentially present in an extracellular membrane leaflet of all human tissues and thus have an impact on a huge number of biological processes, such as intercellular communication, cell signalling, membrane trafficking, and regulation of receptor activity. Defects in their metabolism, impairment of proper ganglioside function, or changes in their organization lead to serious health conditions such as Alzheimer´s and Parkinson´s diseases, autoimmune diseases, tumour growth, etc. This work mainly focuses on ganglioside organization into nanodomains and their dynamics within the plasma membrane. Current research investigates static ganglioside nanodomains characterization; nevertheless, the information about their diffusion is missing. In our study, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy is implemented together with stimulated emission depletion (STED-FCS), which combines the diffraction-unlimited spatial resolution with high temporal resolution. By comparison of the experiments performed on model vesicles containing 4 % of either GM1, GM2, or GM3 and Monte Carlo simulations of diffusion on the plasma membrane, the description of ganglioside clustering, diffusion of nanodomains, and even diffusion of ganglioside molecules inside investigated nanodomains are described.

Keywords: gangliosides, nanodomains, STED-FCS, flourescence microscopy, membrane diffusion

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Zhengkun Yi

Abstract:

Surface texture discrimination using artificial tactile sensors has attracted increasing attentions in the past decade as it can endow technical and robot systems with a key missing ability. However, as a major component of texture, roughness has rarely been explored. This paper presents an approach for tactile surface roughness discrimination, which includes two parts: (1) design and fabrication of a bioinspired artificial fingertip, and (2) tactile signal processing for tactile surface roughness discrimination. The bioinspired fingertip is comprised of two polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layers, a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) bar, and two perpendicular polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) film sensors. This artificial fingertip mimics human fingertips in three aspects: (1) Elastic properties of epidermis and dermis in human skin are replicated by the two PDMS layers with different stiffness, (2) The PMMA bar serves the role analogous to that of a bone, and (3) PVDF film sensors emulate Meissner’s corpuscles in terms of both location and response to the vibratory stimuli. Various extracted features and classification algorithms including support vector machines (SVM) and k-nearest neighbors (kNN) are examined for tactile surface roughness discrimination. Eight standard rough surfaces with roughness values (Ra) of 50 μm, 25 μm, 12.5 μm, 6.3 μm 3.2 μm, 1.6 μm, 0.8 μm, and 0.4 μm are explored. The highest classification accuracy of (82.6 ± 10.8) % can be achieved using solely one PVDF film sensor with kNN (k = 9) classifier and the standard deviation feature.

Keywords: bioinspired fingertip, classifier, feature extraction, roughness discrimination

Procedia PDF Downloads 297

Authors: Maomao Cao

Abstract:

Background and aims While the association between higher consumption of fish and lower liver cancer risk has been confirmed, however, the association between specific fish intake and liver cancer risk remains unknown. We aimed to identify the association between specific fish consumption and the risk of liver cancer. Methods: Based on a community-based seropositive hepatitis B cohort involving 18404 individuals, face to face interview was conducted by a standardized questionnaire to acquire baseline information. Three common fish types in this study were analyzed, including freshwater fish, sea fish, and small fish (shrimp, crab, conch, and shell). All participants received liver cancer screening, and possible cases were identified by CT or MRI. Multivariable logistic models were applied to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Multivariate multiple imputations were utilized to impute observations with missing values. Results: 179 liver cancer cases were identified. Consumption of freshwater fish and sea fish at least once a week had a strong inverse association with liver cancer risk compared with the lowest intake level, with an adjusted OR of 0.53 (95% CI, 0.38-0.75) and 0.38 (95% CI, 0.19-0.73), respectively. This inverse association was also observed after the imputation. There was no statistically significant association between intake of small fish and liver cancer risk (OR=0.58, 95%, CI 0.32-1.08). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that consumption of freshwater fish and sea fish at least once a week could reduce liver cancer risk.

Keywords: cross-sectional study, fish intake, liver cancer, risk factor

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Yasser Aminifard, Hamdollah Askari

Abstract:

This study aimed at investigating any difference between Iranian senior high school students' performance on Academic Words (AWs) and Everyday-Life Words (ELWs). To this end, in the first phase, a number of 120 male senior high school students were randomly selected from among twelve high schools in Gachsaran to serve as the participants of the study. In the second phase, using purposive sampling, six high school teachers holding an MA in TEFL and with over twenty years of teaching experience were interviewed. Two multiple-choice tests, each comprising 40 items, were given to the participants in order to determine their performance on AWs and ELWs and follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore teachers' opinions about participants' performance on the two tests. To analyze the data, a paired-samples t-test was carried out to compare the results of both tests and the interviews were also transcribed to pinpoint important themes. The results of the t-test indicated that the participants performed significantly better on AWs than on ELWs. Additionally, results of the interviews boiled down to the fact that the English textbooks designed for Iranian high school students are fundamentally flawed on the grounds that there is a mismatch between students' real language learning needs and what is presented to them as "teaching-to-the-test" materials via these books. Finally, the implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Keywords: everyday-life words, academic words, textbooks, washback

Procedia PDF Downloads 449

Authors: Yong Min You

Abstract:

The study on the torque ripple of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) has been rapidly progressed, which effects on the noise and vibration of the electric vehicle. There are several ways to reduce torque ripple, which are the increase in the number of slots and poles, the notch of the rotor and stator teeth, and the skew of the rotor and stator. However, the conventional methods have the disadvantage in terms of material cost and productivity. The demagnetization characteristic of PMSMs must be attained for electric vehicle application. Due to rare earth supply issue, the demand for Dy-free permanent magnet has been increasing, which can be applied to PMSMs for the electric vehicle. Dy-free permanent magnet has lower the coercivity; the demagnetization characteristic has become more significant. To improve the torque ripple as well as the demagnetization characteristics, which are significant parameters for electric vehicle application, an unequal air-gap model is proposed for a PMSM. A shape optimization is performed to optimize the design variables of an unequal air-gap model. Optimal design variables are the shape of an unequal air-gap and the angle between V-shape magnets. An optimization process is performed by Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS), Kriging Method, and Genetic Algorithm (GA). Finite element analysis (FEA) is also utilized to analyze the torque and demagnetization characteristics. The torque ripple and the demagnetization temperature of the initial model of 45kW PMSM with unequal air-gap are 10 % and 146.8 degrees, respectively, which are reaching a critical level for electric vehicle application. Therefore, the unequal air-gap model is proposed, and then an optimization process is conducted. Compared to the initial model, the torque ripple of the optimized unequal air-gap model was reduced by 7.7 %. In addition, the demagnetization temperature of the optimized model was also increased by 1.8 % while maintaining the efficiency. From these results, a shape optimized unequal air-gap PMSM has shown the usefulness of an improvement in the torque ripple and demagnetization temperature for the electric vehicle.

Keywords: permanent magnet synchronous motor, optimal design, finite element method, torque ripple

Procedia PDF Downloads 263

Authors: Pawamana Ramachandra, Jitesh Gupta, Saranga P. Pogula

Abstract:

In verification of high volume and complex packet processing IPs, finer control of flow management aspects (for example, rate, bits/sec etc.) per flow class (or a virtual channel or a software thread) is needed. When any Software/Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) thread arbitration is left to the simulator (e.g., Verilog Compiler Simulator (VCS) or Incisive Enterprise Simulator core simulation engine (NCSIM)), it is hard to predict its pattern of resulting distribution of bandwidth by the simulator thread arbitration. In many cases, the patterns desired in a test scenario may not be accomplished as the simulator might give a different distribution than what was required. This can lead to missing multiple traffic scenarios, specifically deadlock and starvation related. We invented a component (namely Flow Manager Verification IP) to be intervening between the application (test case) and the protocol VIP (with UVM sequencer) to control the bandwidth per thread/virtual channel/flow. The Flow Manager has knobs visible to the UVM sequence/test to configure the required distribution of rate per thread/virtual channel/flow. This works seamlessly and produces rate stimuli to further harness the Design Under Test (DUT) with asymmetric inputs compared to the programmed bandwidth/Quality of Service (QoS) distributions in the Design Under Test.

Keywords: flow manager, UVM sequencer, rated traffic generation, quality of service

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: L. Siva Rama Krishna, Sriram Venkatesh, M. Sastish Kumar, M. Uma Maheswara Chary

Abstract:

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology that produces models and prototype parts from 3D CAD model data, CT/MRI scan data, and model data created from 3D object digitizing systems. There are several RP process like Stereolithography (SLA), Solid Ground Curing (SGC), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), 3D Printing (3DP) among them SLS and FDM RP processes are used to fabricate pattern of custom cranial implant. RP technology is useful in engineering and biomedical application. This is helpful in engineering for product design, tooling and manufacture etc. RP biomedical applications are design and development of medical devices, instruments, prosthetics and implantation; it is also helpful in planning complex surgical operation. The traditional approach limits the full appreciation of various bony structure movements and therefore the custom implants produced are difficult to measure the anatomy of parts and analyse the changes in facial appearances accurately. Cranioplasty surgery is a surgical correction of a defect in cranial bone by implanting a metal or plastic replacement to restore the missing part. This paper aims to do a comparative study on the dimensional error of CAD and SLS RP Models for reconstruction of cranial defect by comparing the virtual CAD with the physical RP model of a cranial defect.

Keywords: rapid prototyping, selective laser sintering, cranial defect, dimensional error

Procedia PDF Downloads 313