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Abstract In light of the ongoing battle against COVID-19, while the pandemic may eventually subside, sporadic cases may still emerge, underscoring the need for accurate detection from radiological images. However, the limited explainability of current deep learning models restricts clinician acceptance. To address this issue, our research integrates multiple CNN models with explainable AI techniques, ensuring model interpretability before ensemble construction. Our approach enhances both accuracy and interpretability by evaluating advanced CNN models on the largest publicly available X-ray dataset, COVIDx CXR-3, which includes 29,986 images, and the CT scan dataset for SARS-CoV-2 from Kaggle, which includes a total of 2,482 images. We also employed additional public datasets for cross-dataset evaluation, ensuring a thorough assessment of model performance across various imaging conditions. By leveraging methods including LIME, SHAP, Grad-CAM, and Grad-CAM++, we provide transparent insights into model decisions. Our ensemble model, which includes DenseNet169, ResNet50, and VGG16, demonstrates strong performance. For the X-ray image dataset, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, F1-score, and AUC are recorded at 99.00%, 99.00%, 99.00%, 0.99, and 0.99, respectively. For the CT image dataset, these metrics are 96.18%, 96.18%, 96.18%, 0.9618, and 0.96, respectively. Our methodology bridges the gap between precision and interpretability in clinical settings by combining model diversity with explainability, promising enhanced disease diagnosis and greater clinician acceptance.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. Dengue is one of the most common tropical diseases in India caused by dengue virus (DENV). COVID-19 and tropical diseases such as dengue and leptospirosis have a similar spectrum of clinical manifestations; therefore, it becomes very difficult to diagnosis. The present study describes five cases of coinfection of COVID-19 and dengue. A case series of patients reported to the flu clinic with fever and myalgia were tested, and diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 and DENV as well as epidemiological and entomological investigations were also done for the identification of the source of infection. Laboratory reports were obtained from hospital laboratory data. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. All patients were younger adult age group and were found to be residents of the same locality. The most common symptom found was fever associated with myalgia. Every patient had a history of contact with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and was fully vaccinated. Thrombocytopenia was seen in two patients. However, only one patient found immunoglobulin M or immunoglobulin G positive for DENV after discharge. No systemic complications were observed throughout the course of illness in patients. We described a case series of five patients with COVID-19 breakthrough and cases of dengue. Clinicians should have a suspicion of multiple infections while managing the cases.

This work presents an on-device machine learning model with the ability to identify different mobility gestures called human activity recognition (HAR), which includes running, walking, squatting, jumping, and others. The data is collected through an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense board with a sampling rate of 119 Hz, which is embedded with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor. The same board is used as a microcontroller to identify human gestures by developing an end-to-end edge computing application. A deep neural network model is trained and then compressed for deployment on the board to create a self-contained, embedded device capable of identifying the type of gesture performed. Three deep learning models, namely Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Convolutional Neural Network – Long Short Term Memory (CNN-LSTM) & CNN-Gated Recurrent Unit (CNN-GRU), are evaluated in the identification of the mobility gestures. The observed accuracy of the models is 96%, 97.1% and 97.8%, respectively, MLP, CNN-LSTM & CNN-GRU across the different gesture categories. The study shows the utility of embedded devices with deep neural network-based models, which can provide low cost, minimal power usage, and meet data privacy requirements in HAR.

We developed a well-characterized human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line obtained from healthy individuals' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The PBMCs were primed and reprogrammed using a non-integrating sendai viral vector, and the iPSC lines demonstrated complete differentiation capacity. This line, YBLi004-A, is available and registered in the human pluripotent stem cell registry. The line's legitimacy was validated using pluripotent marker expression, in vitro differentiation into three germ layers (ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm), karyotyping, and STR analysis. This iPSC line could be used as a healthy control for studies involving disease-specific-iPSCs, e.g. drug toxicity and efficacy testing.

Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine condition but rare in the pediatric and adolescent populations. The presentations can be unique, accounting for significant morbidity in the case of untimely detection. Aim: To study surgically treated pediatric PHPT retrospectively. Methods: Surgically treated children of PHPT up to 20 years of age between 2010 to 2022 were analyzed. All of them were operated on by an endocrine surgeon and team. Results: There was a total of 712 parathyroidectomies over 12 years, out of which there were 52 children (7.3%) had PHPT at less than 20 years of age. This group included 32 male children. The mean age was 16.1 years, including 7 cases of neonatal severe HPT. Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 was confirmed in 12 children. Presentations were more severe like bone pain (35.13%), renal stones (27.02%), incidental asymptomatic detection (18.9%), failure to thrive (10.8%), and pancreatitis (8.1%) as compared to adults. Mean serum calcium was 12.9 mg/dl (highest-14.1, N-8.8-10.8 mg/dl), mean parathormone levels were 386.91 pg/ml (N-10-65) and vitamin D levels ranged from 2.9-22.8 ng/ml. Localization was done with ultrasound and 99mTc- SESTAMIBI scans. Mean serum calcium levels in NSPHPT were 28.6 mg/dl (N-8.8-10.8 mg/dl). There were a total of 45 cases (6.32%) of PHPT less than 20 years of age, excluding the cases of NSPHPT. All children underwent parathyroidectomy, with 14 cases having an additional thymectomy, 2 cases with thyroidectomy, and a single case of hemithyroidectomy. The cure rate was 97.3%, while one baby with NSPHPT had persistent disease (postop PTH-110 pg/ml). The uniglandular disease was seen in 54.05% and the rest had a multiglandular disease. Adults accounted for 559/660 cases with 80% uniglandular disease. All cases had a postoperative histopathological confirmation with an average follow-up of 1 year. Conclusion: Childhood PHPT has a few features same as the adult population. Symptomatic presentations like adults, though pancreatitis and fatigue were more commonly seen as compared to bone pain. Calcium, phosphorus, and parathormone levels were comparable. Uniglandular involvement was seen just like the adult population. There are a few others that make them a distinct subtype like their symptoms of bone pain and being more common among boys. One-fourth of them had MEN1. Fewer cases in this age group make them unique.

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sections of society; this study was conducted with the aim to assess the behavioral and economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown among people living in an urban slum in Pune city, Maharashtra. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among people living in an urban slum of the southeastern Pune region using a semistructured questionnaire by house-to-house interviews of residents. Participants were asked about knowledge and practice of COVID-appropriate behavior and change in income and expenditure patterns to assess economic impact. Results: A total of 130 households with one adult member from each household were included in the study with a mean age of 46 years with a standard deviation of 15. On inquiring about the COVID appropriate behavior, 94.6% agree that face mask is essential and 93% of the respondents agree that hand washing is essential for the prevention of COVID-19 infection. Out of 130 respondents, 49% were unemployed at the time of the study and 39% had monthly household income < Rs. 10,000 per month. A notable decrease in the monthly household income after the lockdown period was reported by 76.2% of the study participants while 46% of the study participants reported a decrease in monthly expenditure on food. About 24% of the study participants gave a history of selling personal belongings to meet monthly expenses during the lockdown period. Conclusion: COVID-appropriate behavior was adequately practiced by the study participants during COVID restrictions. A significant decrease in household income coupled with a change in trends of monthly expenditure affected the slum population. These transitions need to be further deliberated to understand the shift in administrative and economic policies needed to combat the effects of the pandemic.

Chronic pain has a huge global prevalence of 20% and in a country like India which has been labeled by the UN as the most populous country in April 2023, the problem is likely to explode and pose a huge challenge to Indian Practitioners. An addition to this can also be due to an expected doubling of individuals over 65 years of age by rises in the aging population. Pharmacotherapy which is the mainstay for conservative medical management (CMM) often seems to be inadequate and/or has a potential for a range of side effects. The patients who are refractory to all forms of CMM move up on the treatment algorithm for pain interventions. Implantable neuromodulation therapies can be of considerable help in patients who have significantly impaired quality of life due to unremitting severe pain, despite CMM and simpler pain interventions. These implanted devices provide ongoing satisfactory pain relief in select patients. This is for the 1st time that practice recommendations are published to guide practitioners offering this treatment in India. This can also be a reference for selecting the most appropriate patients to optimize outcomes. This can also provide motivation to start collecting information in their local database and also to convince our reimbursement agencies about incorporating this useful modality in the gamut of approved therapies.

This is a part II of the best practice recommendations for implantable neuromodulation therapies for pain. Part I has already covered Spinal cord stimulation (SCS). We shall be be covering Intrathecal drug delivery systems (IDDS), Peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) and Sacral nerve neuromodulation (SNM) in this article. Chronic pain has a huge global prevalence of 20% and in a country like India which has been labeled by the UN as the most populous country in April 2023, the problem is likely to explode and pose a huge challenge to Indian Practitioners. In addition to this can also be due to an expected doubling of individuals over 65 years of age by rising aging population. Patients failing conservative medical management (CMM) can be benefited from advanced pain therapies, including neuromodulation. This is for the first time that practice recommendations are published to guide practitioners offering this treatment in India.This can also be a reference for selecting the most appropriate patients to optimize outcomes. This can also provide motivation to start collecting information in the local database and also to convince our reimbursement agencies about incorporating this useful modality in the gamut of approved pain interventions.

As urban populations continue to grow, ensuring an adequate supply of water and electricity will be imperative. However, these resources are generally extracted in rural areas, creating tension during periods of limited availability. It has been argued, however, that urban areas are more efficient users of various resources in spite of their large populations. Here, we test this argument for water and electricity consumption across 46 US cities. Leveraging urban scaling theory, we show that water and electricity consumption scale sublinearly with population. This suggests that cities are using water and electricity more efficiently as their population increases. Further, the results show that this sublinear scaling exists regardless of season or year. Nonetheless, there were cities that deviated from the expected consumption value that would have been predicted by this model. We explored the role that precipitation and temperature might have on these deviates and found that temperature, in particular, can help explain why certain cities consume more electricity than expected based on their population. Understanding the relationship between consumption patterns and population is critical for planning investments for future infrastructure systems that will need to service higher populations with more limited resources.

Introduction: The world is enveloped with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic with modern medicine and public health facing their most significant challenges ever posed. As the number of COVID-19 cases increased worldwide, an important issue of concern was the continuation of routine immunization services for children. This study has been conceptualized to assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on infant Immunization. Materials and Methods: This study was a descriptive study conducted in an urban community amongst healthy children

Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess impact of quarantine on lifestyle behavior and the psychological state of persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study Design: This study was a cross-sectional study. Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 216 persons quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic at home or in selected facilities set up by various tertiary care hospitals and administrative authorities in various parts of India. The questionnaire was distributed among participants using electronic media. Psychological state during quarantine was assessed using the DASS 21 questionnaire. Results: Out of 57.4% of responders who gave a history of physical exercise before quarantine, 52.7% reported a reduction in physical activity. 18.5% of study participants brought about dietary changes towards healthy diet during quarantine, while 24.5% took up some new activities or hobbies. 62.9% of respondents reported any degree of psychological stress (depression, stress, or anxiety) during the quarantine. Conclusions: Quarantine impacted psychological state of individuals and brought about changes in lifestyle with both positive attributes such as dietary modification toward healthy diet or negative attributes such as reduction in physical activity. IEC activities have a positive impact in terms of reducing negative attributes and increasing the compliance toward quarantine.

Summary: We present an optimized protocol for guided differentiation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). De novo-generated RPE cells are mature, polarized, and mimic the cellular and molecular profile of primary RPE; they are also suitable for in vivo cell transplantation studies. The protocol includes an enrichment step, making it useful for large-scale GMP manufacturing. RPE cells produced following this protocol are appropriate for cell replacement therapy for macular degeneration and disease modeling.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Surendran et al. (2021). : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

System analysis is examination of various elements of a system with a view to ascertain whether the proposed solution to a problem will fit the system and in turn effect an overall improvement in the system. The National Medical Commission (NMC) which was constituted by the act of the Parliament, has brought out minimum requirements for annual MBBS admissions regulations, 2020, which replace minimum requirements published by erstwhile Medical Council of India. The NMC also published new competency-based medical education syllabus for MBBS students with an aim to focus on practical skills. This study brings out the scope of the community medicine (CM) in the present context and as envisaged by the NMC. It also analyzes the infrastructure and workforce required in the department of CM and gives recommendations to improve the system.

Abstract Background Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a result of degeneration/damage of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) while retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited early-onset disease, results from premature loss of photoreceptors. A promising therapeutic approach for both is the replacement of lost/damaged cells with human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived retinal cells. Methods The aim of this study was to investigate the in vivo functionality of RPE and photoreceptor progenitor (PRP) cells derived from a clinical-grade hiPSC line through a unified protocol. De novo-generated RPE and PRP were characterized extensively to validate their identity, purity, and potency. Results RPE expressed tight junction proteins, showed pigmentation and ciliation, and secreted polarization-related factors vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF). PRP expressed neural retina proteins and cone and rod markers, and responded to KCl-induced polarization. Transcriptomic analysis demonstrated an increase in the expression of mature retinal tissue-specific genes coupled with concomitant downregulation of genes from undesired lineages. RPE transplantation rescued visual function in RCS rats shown via optokinetic tracking and photoreceptor rescue. PRP transplantation improved light perception in NOD.SCID-rd1 mice, and positive electroretinography signals indicated functional photoreceptor activity in the host’s outer nuclear layer. Graft survival and integration were confirmed using immunohistochemistry, and no animals showed teratoma formation or any kind of ectopic growth in the eye. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a unified, scalable, and GMP-adaptable protocol indicating strong animal efficacy and safety data with hiPSC-derived RPE and PRP cells. These findings provide robust proof-of-principle results for IND-enabling studies to test these potential regenerative cell therapies in patients.

Background: The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on Indian healthcare systems, with rapidly increasing demand for life-saving equipment and intensive care unit beds. The present study presents an analysis of average length of stay (LOS) as per different demographic and clinical factors in a dedicated COVID hospital. As the pandemic escalates, average LOS in COVID hospital will form the basis of determining the optimum requirement for healthcare resources (beds, staff, and equipment), which is a key priority for bolstering a strong public health response against COVID-19. Materials and Methods: Using the medical records at a dedicated COVID-19 hospital, the demographic details and select clinical characteristics of 342 admitted patients (from July 13, 2020, to August 30, 2020) were abstracted. Hospital LOS, calculated from the actual admission and discharge dates, was compared within the categories of demographic and clinical characteristics using Student's test and analysis of variance. SPSS version 20 was used for descriptive as well as inferential statistics. Results: The mean LOS was 9.93 ± 4.45 days with a range of 3–37 days. LOS increased with increasing age, with maximum being for >61 years (12.69 ± 7.14) and minimum for the younger age category of

Introduction: Risk communication is a vital component of the management of health-care crisis including the present pandemic. The health-care professionals play an important role in risk communication; however, health-care professionals have been found wanting when it comes to risk communication during any health-care crisis. The doctors/health-care professionals, being the technical personnel, are required to provide the technical information in a nontechnical or laymen language to the relevant authorities, which in turn are expected to share this knowledge to the people at risk. This study attempts to unravel the perceptions of health-care professionals on this important topic concerning public health. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed for the study question. An online survey was conducted based on Google Forms using snowball sampling technique. The data, collected using a pilot-tested questionnaire, were compiled in MS Excel and analyzed using SPSS software version 23. Requisite permission was taken from the institutional ethic committee. All participants were informed of the voluntary nature of the study, and the data collection was done in an anonymous manner. Results: A majority of participants (61.5%) answered in affirmative when asked if they know what risk communication is and 13 (7.7%) were not aware of it. A majority of the participants (60.9%) perceived risk communication as an exchange of information between health experts and general public, whereas 23 (13.6%) participants felt that risk communication is exchange of information between health experts and other health-care workers. Rumor management was not considered an essential part of risk communication by about half (48.5%) of the participants. Conclusion: We found significant gaps in the knowledge and perception of risk communication in the health-care professionals, which can be attributed to lack of training. Risk communication needs to be incorporated as a part of formal medical education to plug this gap.

Background: Control measures such as maintenance of social distancing, hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, regular disinfection, and keeping a high index of suspicion for probable cases form the basis of containing a pH 1N1 outbreak onboard a Naval ship. As per the present guidelines, though a quadrivalent vaccine is recommended for health-care workers in close contact, anti-flu postexposure prophylaxis strategies have been predicted to be effective in some mathematical models. Chemoprophylaxis with oseltamivir was assumed to be an effective measure to control the outbreak onboard ship while at sea. Materials and Methods: A total of 275 asymptomatic individuals were started on oral oseltamivir prophylaxis on board from day 17 onward for a duration of 10 days and side effects of the medication were noted. Results: With chemoprophylaxis of the entire crew with oseltamivir, the number of positive cases per day reduced. The outbreak cleared within 3 days of initiation of chemoprophylaxis. Active surveillance was continued for 14 days since the last positive case. Conclusion: In an afloat setting, with a rapidly spreading outbreak of airborne disease, mass chemoprophylaxis with oral oseltamivir along with aggressive public health control measures were found to have contained the spread with only mild side effects which were reported.

Inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) are clinically and genetically heterogenous diseases affecting the neural retina and retinal pigment epithelium resulting in irreversible blindness. Owing to advantages like ease of access for treatment, one eye being a perfect natural control for the other, and immune privileged environment, research exploring treatment for these retinal diseases has advanced remarkably. We describe the generation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of three patients with IRDs. These well-characterized iPSC lines provide an ideal platform to investigate normal and pathological retinogenesis for drug screening and personalized cell therapy.

Developing a correct model for a biped robot locomotion is extremely challenging due to its inherently unstable structure because of the passive joint located at the unilateral foot-ground contact and varying configurations throughout the gait cycle, resulting variation of dynamic descriptions and control laws from phase to phase. The present research describes the development of a hybrid biped model using an Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) based analytical three link leg model as a base model and, on top of it, an Artificial Neural Network based learning model which ensures better adaptability, better limits cycle behaviors and better generalization while negotiating along a down slope. The base model has been configured according to the individual subjects and data have been collected using a novel technique through an android app from those subjects while walking down a slope. The pattern between the deviation of the actual trajectories and the base model generated trajectories has been found using a back propagation based artificial neural network architecture. It has been observed that this base model with learning based compensation enables the biped to better adapt in a real walking environment, showing better limit cycle behaviors. We also observed the bounded nature of deviation which led us to conclude that the strategy for biped locomotion control is generic in nature and largely dominated by learning.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Background: An outbreak of food poisoning occurred among recruits in a training establishment. Investigation of outbreak was undertaken with active preventive interventions concurrently to arrest the current outbreak as well as to avoid such incidents in future. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was undertaken among all recruits, regardless of presence or absence of symptoms. The risk ratios (relative risks) and attributable risks were calculated for each food item of the suspected meal to assess the association between consumption of individual food items and subsequent illness. An environmental survey was undertaken to investigate into the course of food processing and storage facilities at trainees' galley (cookhouse) and other relevant eating establishments. Results: A total of 494 recruits reported with symptoms of gastroenteritis in a span of 3 days. Of those affected, only 9 were admitted and rest recovered with treatment on OPD basis. The overall attack rate was 22.9%. No deaths were reported. It was a classical point source, single exposure gastroenteritis outbreak. When food histories and sickness histories were analyzed, the attributable risk (24.17) and relative risk (5.11) were highest for the “Flavoured milk,” which was an outsourced item. The statistical findings were substantiated with environmental and epidemiological evidence. Conclusion: Epidemiological investigation incriminated dinner of the previous day as the meal responsible for the outbreak with flavored milk as the most attributable food item.

Context: Childhood vitiligo although similar to adult vitiligo has several distinct epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic and prognostic profile when compared with adult onset vitiligo. Aims: This study was conducted in an attempt to ascertain the clinico-epidemiological profile of patients in pediatric vitiligo patients (

This paper analyzes diurnal, monthly, seasonal variations of CO2 along with the meteorological parameters at Madurai (9° 92'' N and 78° 12'' E), an urban site from January-2015 to December-2015 by using a Non-dispersive infrared sensor (NDIR) based instrument. The highest hourly two peaks are observed in noon (476.8 ± 12.9 ppm between 12-1 PM) and in night (478.5 ± 13.7 ppm between 7-8 PM) respectively. The CO2 concentration is lower (437.93 ± 2.77 ppm) in early morning 5-6 AM. As far as, the monthly variation of CO2 is also concerned high in the month of May (487.19 ± 28.3 ppm) and low in July (444.70 ± 18.2 ppm). The seasonal variation is observed to be maximum in summer (478.33 ± 13.03 ppm) and minimum in the post-monsoon season (448.27 ± 16.8 ppm). An emission inventory is prepared based on the transportation and the electrical consumption in household activities by using a bottom-up approach method. The CO2 emission estimated from transportation is around 85.1 tonnes /day and 10289.5 kilo tonnes /year. By the consumption of electricity, the total emission of CO2 is approximately 3.3 tonnes /day and 1.2 kilo tonnes /year is estimated. Statistical analysis is carried out to find the relationship between carbon dioxide concentration and meteorological parameters observed in this study. Based on the results of statistical analysis, not only the meteorological parameters change varied the carbon dioxide concentration but also by traffic flow, types of vehicles and road types the concentration differs in this city.

Human activity recognition based on the computer vision is the process of labelling image sequences with action labels. Accurate systems for this problem are applied in areas such as visual surveillance, human computer interaction and video retrieval. The challenges are due to variations in motion, recording settings and gait differences. Here we propose an approach to recognize the human activities through gait. Activity recognition through Gait is the process of identifying an activity by the manner in which they walk. The identification of human activities in a video, such as a person is walking, running, jumping, jogging etc are important activities in video surveillance. We contribute the use of Model based approach for activity recognition with the help of movement of legs only. Experimental results suggest that our method are able to recognize the human activities with a good accuracy rate and robust to shadows present in the videos.

The most frequent challenge faced by mobile user is stay connected with online data, while disconnected or poorly connected store the replica of critical data. Nomadic users require replication to store copies of critical data on their mobile machines. Existing replication services do not provide all classes of mobile users with the capabilities they require, which include: the ability for direct synchronization between any two replicas, support for large numbers of replicas, and detailed control over what files reside on their local (mobile) replica. Existing peer-to-peer solutions would enable direct communication, but suffers from dramatic scaling problems in the number of replicas, limiting the number of overall users and impacting performance. Roam is a replication system designed to satisfy the requirements of the mobile user. Roam is based on the Ward Model, replication architecture for mobile environments. Using the Ward Model and new distributed algorithms, Roam provides a scalable replication solution for the mobile user. We describe the motivation, design, and implementation of Roam and report its performance. Replication is extremely important in mobile environments because nomadic users require local copies of important data.

Background: Predicting the size of unerupted teeth during the mixed dentition period is a critical factor in managing the developing occlusion. Different studies found that the combined width of only the four mandibular permanent incisors is not a good predictor of the sum of unerupted mandibular permanent canines and premolars (SPCP). In 2007, Melgaço et al. developed a new method for SPCP by measuring the sum of the mandibular first permanent molars and four mandibular permanent incisors (SMI). Aim: It was aimed to evaluate the accuracy of this new method in comparison with Moyers′ mixed dentition analysis table in contemporary Indian population. Settings and Design: Sixty boys and 60 girls from Gandhinagar district (age ranged from 12 to 14 years) were included. Materials and Methods: The mesiodistal crown widths of all fully erupted teeth were measured with digital vernier callipers and the odontometric values obtained were then subjected to statistical and linear regression analysis. Results: Student′s unpaired t-test gave statistically significant difference between the original values of teeth and the values obtained by Melgaço′s prediction equation as well as Moyers′ mixed dentition analysis table (P < 0.001). High values of correlation (r = 0.77) and determination coefficients (r2 = 0.59) were found while considering Melgaço′s method. Also, no statistically significant difference was found between the tooth sizes of males and females. Conclusion: From this study, it can be evaluated that Melgaço′s method gives better prediction and a simplified equation Y = 0.925X can be suggested for the present population.

Background: Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is already proven as an antibacterial agent in vitro. Present study was formulated to compare the efficacy of SDF as an antibacterial as well as antiplaque agent in vivo with fluoride varnish and acidulated phosphate fluoride (APF) gel. Study Design: Total 123 children (male = 82, female = 41) were included in the study for a period of 18 months. Children were divided into three different groups-Group 1: SDF; Group 2: fluoride varnish; and Group 3: APF gel. All subjects were evaluated via plaque score at 6 th , 12 th , and 18 th months as well as Streptococcus mutans counts in saliva at 72 h, 6 th , 12 th , and 18 th months of follow-up. Results: Significant reduction was found in plaque score as well as S. mutans counts irrespective of group division. On intergroup comparison, no statistically significant difference was found in plaque score, but significant reduction in S. mutans counts was found in Group 1 as compared with Groups 2 and 3, while no significant difference was found between Groups 2 and 3. Conclusion: In vivo application of SDF on enamel significantly decreases S. mutans counts as compared to fluoride varnish and APF gel.

One of the central issues in wirless sensor networks is track the location, of moving object which have overhead of saving data, an accurate estimation of the target location of object with energy constraint .We do not have any mechanism which control and maintain data .The wireless communication bandwidth is also very limited. Some field which is using this technique are flood and typhoon detection, forest fire detection, temperature and humidity and ones we have these information use these information back to a central air conditioning and ventilation.In this research paper, we propose protocol based on the prediction and adaptive based algorithm which is using less sensor node reduced by an accurate estimation of the target location. We had shown that our tracking method performs well in terms of energy saving regardless of mobility pattern of the mobile target. We extends the life time of network with less sensor node. Once a new object is detected, a mobile agent will be initiated to track the roaming path of the object.

Introduction: Orthodontists are commonly faced with the decision of what to do with loose brackets, and with inaccurately located brackets that need repositioning during treatment. One solution is to recycle the brackets. The potential effects of reconditioning a bracket are dependent upon many factors which may result in physical changes like alteration in slot tolerance, which may influence sliding mechanics by affecting frictional resistance. Aim: To study and compare the dimensional changes in the bracket slot width and depth in reconditioned brackets from unused brackets under scanning electronic microscope and to study and compare any consequent effects on the static frictional resistance of stainless steel brackets after reconditioning and in unused brackets. Materials and Methods: Dentarum manufactured 90 stainless steel central incisors edgewise brackets of size 0.22 X 0.030" inch and 0° tip and 0°angulation were taken. 60 samples for measuring frictional resistance and 30 samples for measuring slot dimensions. Ortho organizers manufactured stainless steel arch wires 0.019 X 0.025" straight lengths 60 in number were considered for measuring static frictional resistance. Results: The mean slot width and depth of new brackets were 0.0251" and 0.0471", which exceeded the manufacturers reported nominal size of 0.022" X 0.030", by 0.003" and 0.017". The reconditioned brackets demonstrated a further increase in mean slot width and depth to 0.028" and 0.0518" that is by 0.0035" and 0.0047" which is statistically significant (p=0.001, 0.002). The mean static frictional forces of the reconditioned brackets was nearly similar to that of new brackets that is 0.3167N for reconditioned brackets and 0.2613 N for new brackets. Conclusion: Although the reconditioning process results in physical changes to bracket structure this does not appear to result in significant effect on ex-vivo static frictional resistance.

Mutagenesis based TILLING (MutTILL) is a reverse genetic approach that can be applied in plant research and breeding programs to broaden the genetic variability and for the identification of novel mutant alleles in specific genes of interest with improved varieties. MutTILL method is non-transgenic approach, further removing the barriers in marketing new varieties. It has been widely adapted to different species across genera to study the gene function. Traditionally, TILLING work flow comprises of mutagenesis, followed by scanning of amplicon region of interest and cleavage by mismatch specific endonucleases at the site of mismatch, and detection either by using gel electrophoresis or by high resolution melt analysis. However, with the advent of improving sequencing technologies and the decrease in cost, TILLING can be made less laborious and faster using next-generation sequencing-based approaches. Nevertheless, sequencing the whole genome of thousands of mutagenized individuals remains expensive. But the NGS-based technologies can be applied to TILLING, either in the form of whole exome sequencing or by using target re-sequencing. We at AgriGenome Labs are working on development of NGS-based TILLING platforms in various crop species like Chilli, Cotton, Rice, and Tomato, among others with the plan to further expand to other important crops. Currently, a large mutagenized population of the above crops is at different stages of development. The developed mutant populations will help in the identification of novel mutations for various biotic and abiotic stresses. We are aiming to provide complete and customized solutions to research institutes, companies and individuals for developing and providing genetic variations for their crops of interest with improved trait quality.

The treatment of pediatric maxillofacial fractures is unique due to the psychological, physiological, developmental, and anatomical characteristics of children. Method. This case report describes the management of symphysis fracture of mandible in a 5-year-old boy. The fracture was treated by acrylic splint with circummandibular wiring. Results. The splint was removed after 3 weeks. The patient had no complaints, and radiograph revealed a healed fracture. Conclusion. The clinical outcome in the present case indicates the management of mandibular fractures in pediatric patients using acrylic splint with circummandibular wiring.