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Averting incidents of patient self-harm is an ongoing challenge in acute inpatient mental health settings. Novel technologies that do not require continuous human visual monitoring and that maintain patient privacy may support staff in managing patient safety and intervening proactively to prevent self-harm incidents. To assess the effect of implementing a contact-free vision-based patient monitoring and management (VBPMM) system on the rate of bedroom self-harm incidents. A mixed methods non-randomized controlled before-and-after evaluation was conducted over 24 months on one female and one male acute inpatient mental health ward with the VBPMM system. The rates of bedroom self-harm, and of bedroom ligatures specifically, before and after implementation were investigated using quantitative methods. Qualitative methods were also used to explore the perceived effectiveness of the system and its acceptability. A −44% relative percentage change in bedroom self-harm incidents and a −48% relative percentage change in bedroom ligatures incidents were observed in the observational wards with the VBPMM system. Staff and patient responses gave insights into system acceptability and the ways in which these reductions may have been achieved. The results indicate that using the VBPMM system helped staff to reduce self-harm incidents, including ligatures, in bedrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of fixed orthodontic appliance favours the plaque accumulation and a compromise in oral hygiene. There are various methods in practice to minimize the white spot lesions (WSL) incidence, but which depend on the patients' compliance. It is prudent to introduce materials and methods which rely less on patient. The purpose of our study is to introduce a new silver nanoparticle (AgNPs) coating onto elastomeric ligatures and to assess its antimicrobial property and durability of the silver nanoparticles coating on the elastomeric ring. Out of a total sample of 69 clear elastomeric ligatures, 44 of them are equally allocated (n=22) to each of the two groups, Group A-test group (AgNPs coated) and Group-B-control (Non coated) for antimicrobial testing and rest for durability testing. The test group elastomeric modules coated with AgNPs were prepared from Agaricus bisporus extract and silver nitrate solution and tested for antimicrobial testing against Streptococcus mutans. Remaining test sample was utilised for determination of silver ion release(mg/L) when coated elastomeric rings are placed in artificial saliva and analyzed after T1 - 24 hours, T2 - 48 hours, T3 - 2 weeks, T4 - 4 weeks using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The results showed a mean inhibition zone of 2.57 + 0.17 mm for antimicrobial activity for test group which is clinically significant compared to the control group which showed no inhibition zone. Friedman test was used to compare the silver release at 4 different time periods T1, T2, T3, and T4 and Wilcoxon rank test for pairwise comparison. The amount of silver ion accumulation into artificial saliva increased continuously as time elapsed and silver ion release is statistically significant between the measured time points (p = 0.001). The AgNPs coated elastomeric modules has definite antimicrobial activity compared non coated elastomeric modules. The durability of the coating was shorter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous studies on ion release from orthodontic appliances, no clear conclusions can be drawn due to complex interrelations of multiple factors. Therefore, as the first part of a comprehensive investigation of cytotoxicity of eluted ions, the objective of this study was to analyze four parts of a fixed orthodontic appliance. Specifically, NiTi archwires and stainless steel (SS) brackets, bands, and ligatures were immersed in artificial saliva and studied for morphological and chemical changes after 3-, 7-, and 14-day immersion, using the SEM/EDX technique. Ion release profiles were analyzed for all eluted ions using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results demonstrated dissimilar surface morphologies among parts of the fixed appliance, due to variations in manufacturing processes. The onset of pitting corrosion was observed for the SS brackets and bands in the as-received state. Protective oxide layers were not observed on any of the parts, but adherent layers developed on SS brackets and ligatures during immersion. Salt precipitation, mainly KCl, was also observed. ICP-MS proved to be more sensitive than SEM/EDX and exhibited results undetected by SEM/EDX. Ion release was an order-of-magnitude higher for SS bands compared to other parts, which was attributed to manufacturing procedure (welding). Ion release did not correlate with surface roughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mensural notation, certain combinations of notes could be notated either individually or bound together as ligatures. The choice of whether or not to use a ligature provided an opportunity for composers and scribes to encode different types of musical meaning. It has long been accepted that ligatures could help to show text underlay, and scholars have also proposed that ligatures could clarify aspects of musical structure, such as melodic and rhythmic patterns, phrasing, and articulation. It is difficult to prove wide applicability of these proposals, not least because they tend to rely primarily on the evidence of practical sources. Fortunately, there is more theoretical evidence about the purpose and function of ligatures than has been heretofore recognized. While much of the evidence unsurprisingly points toward the textual significance of ligatures, a substantial amount of theory from the early fifteenth century to the midsixteenth century shows that ligatures were also important for clarifying aspects of mensural context, sometimes forcing perfection and alteration. The evidence leads us to reconsider widely held assumptions about the significance of ligatures and to look beyond text underlay as the primary meaning that may (or may not) be signified. Drawing on these insights, contextual analysis of notation can provide a clearer window into the concerns and priorities of composers and scribes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present a review of the causes, diagnostics, and effects of periimplantitis. To find relevant publications we used Google Scholar and PubMed as our databases and searched for articles from the years 20112021. Initial search results returned over 16000 articles in Google Scholar and 619 articles in PubMed, so a series of filters and criteria were used to select 28 papers used in this review. We found that periimplantitis represents an inflammation that affects both the hard and soft tissue around an implant. The most common cause of the disease is the accumulation of dental plaque around the dental implant. Periimplantitis is diagnosed by the following clinic signs and symptoms: swelling of the tissue around the implant, bleeding of the gingiva upon probing, the presence of harmful types of pathogen bacteria and bone crestal resorption (determined by radiologic evaluation). Many studies covered in this review were conducted on animals, using ligatures around the neck of the inserted implants to induce periimplantitis. Observations made while studying periimplantitis in animal trials can serve as a model for preventing, diagnosing, and treating periimplantitis in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Peri‐implant bone level values have been used as the clinical standard of reference to describe the status of a dental implant. Reduction of marginal bone levels in association with bleeding on probing have been claimed to be a sign of pathology and an indication of treatment needs. Purpose To assess the available evidence that peri‐implant bone loss is caused by infection. Materials and methods: This article is a narrative review on the interpretation of marginal bone level changes around dental implants as a consequence of infection. Results and conclusions: There is evidence that plaque accumulation induces an inflammatory reaction in the peri‐implant soft tissues and that resumption of plaque control measures results in the reduction of the inflammation. Since plaque is always present in the oral cavity, a cause‐effect relationship between plaque accumulation and peri‐implantitis, defined as inflammation of the peri‐implant soft tissues associated with marginal bone loss has been difficult to validate and has not been proven so far. There is no evidence of the mechanisms involved in the tissue reactions resulting in the conversion from a state of an inevitable inflammation contained in the soft tissues to a state of inflammation involving the loss of peri‐implant marginal bone. There is today no consensus whether implants should be expected to be surrounded by tissues which are completely free from inflammation, or that an "immune‐driven", chronic, subclinical inflammation should be expected at the foreign body implant. The infectious origin theory appears to be mainly supported by ligature‐induced experimental peri‐implantitis investigations in animal models that suffer of several methodological problems, and therefore, provide misleading information with regards to human clinical applications in large, routine populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much work on Arabic language optical character recognition (OCR) has been on Naskh writing style. Nastalique style, used for most of languages using Arabic script across Southern Asia, is much more challenging to process due to its compactness, cursiveness, higher context sensitivity and diagonality. This makes the Nastalique writing more complex with multiple letters horizontally overlapping each other. Due to these reasons, existing methods used for Naskh would not work for Nastalique and therefore most work on Nastalique has used non-segmentation methods. The current paper presents new approach for segmentation-based analysis for Nastalique style. The paper explains the complexity of Nastalique, why Naskh based techniques cannot work for Nastalique, and proposes a segmentation-based method for developing Nastalique OCR, deriving principles and techniques for the pre-processing and recognition. The OCR is developed for Urdu language. The system is optimized using 79,093 instances of 5249 main bodies derived from a corpus of 18 million words, giving recognition accuracy of 97.11 %. The system is then tested on document images of books with 87.44 % main body recognition accuracy. The work is extensible to other languages using Nastalique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: New techniques using vascular clips or ultrasonically activated shears have been suggested to shorten operation time without compromising safety. The objective of the CLIVIT Trial was to compare ligatures with vascular clips for hemostasis in elective benign thyroid surgery. Methods: This multicenter, randomized, controlled, parallel group superiority trial was conducted in 13 German surgical centers. Patients scheduled for at least subtotal resection bilaterally were intraoperatively randomized. The primary endpoint was resection time. Secondary endpoints were the amount of postoperative bleeding, reoperation due to bleeding, wound infection, temporary (reversal within 12 months) and permanent (over 1 year) recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) paralysis, length of hospital stay, and safety. Registration: ISRCTN 96901396. Results: Two hundred fifty patients were treated with ligatures and 241 with vascular clips. No differences in patients' baseline and surgical characteristics were observed. No difference was detected for mean resection time (clip 63.5 min ± 29.6, ligature 66.1 min ± 29.3, P = 0.258). Postoperative bleeding (mean 86 ml ± 93), reoperation due to bleeding (clips 4, ligature 2), wound infections (clips 4, ligature 4), postoperative hospital stay (mean 3.0 ± 1.9), and safety data also did not vary significantly. The rates of temporary and permanent RLN paralysis were 6.9 % (34/491) and 2.9 % (14/491), respectively. Not using a surgical drain (123 patients) was not associated with a higher rate of complications. Conclusion: Vascular clips did not reduce the resection time. However, a 2.9 % rate of permanent RLN paralysis is of concern. Drains in elective surgery may be of no benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present study aims to compare strength, healing, and inflammation of appendiceal stumps closed by LigaSure Precise (Valleylab, Boulder, CO, USA) device, ligatures using polyglactin 910 (Vicryl, Ethicon, Edinburgh, UK) and endoclips (Ligaclip ERCA, Ethicon, OH, USA), and operation time (OT) in experimental appendectomy.Methods: Forty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into two (Group A and B). Each group was further subdivided into three subgroups (AS, AC, AL, BS, BC, BL) containing eight rats. Appendectomy was performed and stump was closed by ligatures in S, by endoclips in C and by LigaSure in L subgroups. OT was recorded. In Group A, cecum bursting pressures (BP) were determined instantly after the operation. In Group B, BP, histological evaluations, and measurements of collagen contents estimated by the tissue hydroxyproline (HPL) level were made on the seventh postoperative day. Statistical analyses were performed with Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test. P value was considered significant at less than 0.05.Results: BPs of subgroups were comparable on postoperative immediate period and day 7. HPLs and OTs were significantly better in L subgroups. BL had the least inflammation.Conclusion: Better healing, less inflammation, shorter OT, and equal strength achieved with LigaSure device comparing with polyglactin 910 ties and endoclips in experimental appendectomy is encouraging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate, clinically and histologically, the effect of Cyclosporin-A (CyA) on the progression of the periodontal breakdown in the domestic ferret, using the ligature induced periodontitis model. At the start of the experiment (day 0), silk ligatures were placed at the gingival margin level of experimental teeth. The contralateral teeth served as non-ligated control teeth. Clinical measurements included gingival index, probing pocket depth (PPD), probing attachment level (PAL) and gingival overgrowth (GO) and they were performed on days 0, 14 and 28. Cyclosporin-A, 10 mg/kg/d, was given subcutaneously from day 0 to 21, while in the last week there was a reduction of this dose to 5 mg/kg/d. Blood samples were taken on days 0, 14 and 28. On day 28 the animals were sacrificed. Histological sections were prepared for ligth microscopy. The histometric measurements performed were: (1) the distance between cemento-enamel junction and the alveolar bone crest and (2) loss of connective tissue attachment. The number of sections with root resorption areas was observed. Cell counts were taken in 4 different areas. The results showed, on days 14 and 28, a significant increase of the mean values of PPD and PAL at experimental teeth as compared to the control teeth. GO was present on experimental teeth on days 14 and 28. On day 28, the control teeth presented a very small increase in GO, mainly at the buccal sites of P4 and M1. The histometric results showed a significant loss of attachment and bone resorption in the experimental teeth. Root resorption was found in experimental teeth only. The predominant inflammatory cell in the 4 experimental areas was polymorphonuclears. The number of plasma cells and lymphocytes was also significantly higher in experimental teeth than in control teeth. The results indicate that the T-cell immunosystem may participate in defensive mechanisms against periodontal pathology in the domestic ferret. GO may be induced in ferrets under treatment with CyA and this result may be obtained quickly in sites where ligatures have been placed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and histological characteristics of ligature induced periodontitis in 12 domestic ferrets. On day 0, silk ligatures were placed at the gingival margin level of selected experimental teeth. The contralateral teeth served as control teeth. On day 14, 4 animals and on day 28, 8 animals were sacrificed. Clinical measurements including gingival index (GI), probing pocket depth (PPD) and probing attachment level (PAL) were taken in 5 animals on days 0, 14 and 28. Histological sections were prepared for light microscopy. The histometric measurements performed were (1) the distance between the cemento-enamel junction (CEJ) and the alveolar bone crest and (2) the distance between CU and connective tissue attachment level. The number of sections with root resorption areas was also observed. Cell counts were taken in 4 different areas. Clinical results showed, on days 14 and 28, a significant increase of the mean values of PPD and PAL at the experimental teeth when compared to the control teeth. The histometric results showed a significant loss of connective tissue attachment and bone loss in the experimental teeth on day 14. On day 28, the results were similar, although more sections with root resorption areas were observed in the experimental teeth. The predominant inflammatory cell in all the 4 experimental areas analyzed was polymorphonuclears (PMN), and they were mainly increased in areas closely related to the junctional epithelium. The results indicate that the domestic ferret may be used as an experimental animal in the ligature-induced periodontitis model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homicides and suicides involving ligatures, and accidents resulting from failed safety systems, sometimes necessitate the careful analysis of knots. Aside from performing accurate knot identifications, establishing knot chirality, and determining whether those knots are commonplace or require specialised training, the experienced analyst evaluates various knot characteristics and is guided by underlying principles and evolving standards, which draw on multiple disciplines. These include the Gordian Maxim as well as the efficiency, ownership and parsimony principles. Subsequent to distinguishing between accidental and deliberate knots, an assessment of knot structure, function and effectiveness sometimes necessitates an understanding of Ashley's principle and Asher's law. Crossing number, writhe, strength, security and concatenation can be valuable analysis characteristics. Knot stability may be evaluated using established counting number algorithms. Methods of determining sinuosity and knottability are useful as well. Knots occur with structural variation and they can change accidentally or through deliberate action. Capsizement, flipping, flyping, migration, release, reptation, trambling, transference and enhancement are knot change processes. Along with tier behaviour and material characteristics, these details may require assessment during evidence analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to investigate the effects of chronic stress (CS) on experimental periodontitis (EP) in rats. For this, 28 Wistar rats were divided into four groups: control, ligature-induced experimental periodontitis (EP), chronic stress (CS; by physical restraint model) and CS+EP (association of chronic stress and ligature-induced periodontitis). The experimental period lasted 30 days, including exposure to CS every day and ligature was performed on the 15th experimental day. After 30 days, the animals were submitted to the behavioral test of the elevated plus maze (EPM). Next, rats were euthanized for blood and mandible collection in order to evaluate the oxidative biochemistry (by nitric oxide (NO), reduced-glutathione activity (GSH), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance levels (TBARS)) and alveolar bone characterization (by morphometric, micro-CT, and immunohistochemistry), respectively. The behavioral parameters evaluated in EPM indicated higher anxiogenic activity in the CS and CS+EP, groups, which is a behavioral reflex of CS. The results showed that CS was able to change the blood oxidative biochemistry in CS and CS+EP groups, decrease GSH activity in the blood, and increase the NO and TBARS concentrations. Thus, CS induces oxidative blood imbalance, which can potentialize or generate morphological, structural, and metabolic damages to the alveolar bone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a holistic technique for recognition of text in cursive scripts using printed Urdu ligatures as a case study. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are trained on high-frequency ligature clusters for feature extraction and classification. A query ligature presented to the system is first divided into primary and secondary ligatures that are separately recognized and later associated in a postprocessing step to recognize the complete ligature. Experiments are carried out using transfer learning on pretrained networks as well as by training a network from scratch. The technique is evaluated on ligatures extracted from two standard databases of printed Urdu text, Urdu printed text image (UPTI) and Center of Language Engineering (CLE), as well as by combining the ligatures of the two datasets. The system realizes high recognition rates of 97.81% and 89.20% on the UPTI and CLE databases, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]