• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.291-297
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• 2021

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate the prevalence, distribution, and radiological features (as per the Shear classification) of dentigerous cysts in a Lebanese sample. Materials and Methods: It was an epidemiological, cross-sectional, 5-year retrospective study of 137 dentigerous cysts treated at Lebanese Army Dental Departments. The collected data comprised demographic and radiological information corresponding to patients from July 2015 to July 2020. Syndromic cases were excluded. Demographic data and the radiological features of cases were studied and analyzed. Results: Dentigerous cysts were treated in 109 patients (58.7% males and 41.3% females; mean age: 28.3±16.3 years) out of 6,013 patients(52% males and 48% females), with a prevalence of 1.8%. Dentigerous cysts were more commonly found in patients in their second and third decades of life than in older age groups. Of the 109 patients, 22.9% had multiple dentigerous cysts. Of the 137 cysts, 71.5% were mandibular. The most prevalent anatomical location was the posterior mandible, followed by the posterior maxilla. The most commonly involved tooth was the mandibular third molar. Regarding radiological types, the central type was the most common (60.6%), followed by the lateral type (29.2%), and the circumferential type (10.2%). Conclusion: The results of this study were similar to studies of other populations in terms of distribution and features. Multiple non-syndromic dentigerous cysts were more common than reported in other studies, which warrants further clinical studies to reveal previously undetected factors.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.230-239
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• 2022

Holostemma annulare (Family Asclepiadaceae) is an invaluable vulnerable medicinal plant; the root tubers are used in Ayurveda medicine and by folk healers to treat various ailments. In this study, Schenk and Hildebrandt medium fortified with the cytokinins 6-benzyl adenine, kinetin, and auxins, including indole 3-butyric acid, indole 3-acetic acid, α-naphthaleneacetic acid, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, were checked for their efficiency on root tuber induction from different explants. Adventitious root tubers were more successfully induced from in vitro leaf segments and shoots when cultured in Schenk and Hildebrandt medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l of α-naphthaleneacetic acid. In addition, preliminary phytochemical analysis of in vitro root tubers and identification of different secondary metabolites were conducted. Thin layer chromatography and high performance thin layer chromatography analysis of the crude methanolic extracts of the in vitro root tuber identified the presence of lupeol, a bioactive triterpene. Adventitious root tuber induction offers a novel method for the in vitro production of bioactive metabolites that can be scaled up by bioreactors, thus ensuring the conservation and sustainable utilization of H. annulare. The study warrants further scale-up production and pharmacological investigation that can be extended for pharmaceutical needs.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.639-652
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• 2023

Stepped earth slopes incorporated with anti-slide piles are widely utilized in landslide disaster preventions. Explicit consideration of the three-dimensional (3D) effect in the slope design warrants producing more realistic solutions. A 3D limit analysis of the stability of pile stabilized stepped slopes is performed in light of the kinematic limit analysis theorem. The influences of seismic excitation and surcharge load are both considered from a kinematic perspective. The upper bound solution to the factor of safety is optimized and compared with published solutions, demonstrating the capability and applicability of the proposed method. Comparative studies are performed with respect to the roles of 3D effect, pile location, pile spacing, seismic and surcharge loads in the safety assessments of stepped slopes. The results demonstrate that the stability of pile reinforced stepped slopes differ with that of single stage slopes dramatically. The optimum pile location lies in the upper portion of the slope around L_x/L = 0.9, but may also lies in the shoulder of the bench. The pile reinforcement reaches 10% universally for a looser pile spacing D_c/d_p = 5.0, and approaches 70% when the pile spacing reaches D_c/d_p = 2.0.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1506-1514
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• 2022

Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is an allergen-specific T-cell-mediated inflammatory response, albeit with unclear pathogenesis. Exosomes are nanoscale extracellular vesicles secreted by several cell types and widely distributed in various biological fluids. Exosomes affect the occurrence and development of ACD through immunoregulation among other ways. Nevertheless, the role of exosomes in ACD warrants further clarification. This review examines the progress of research into exosomes and their involvement in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of ACD and provides ideas for exploring new diagnostic and treatment methods for this disease.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.159-166
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• 2023

Background: Free tissue transfer is the preferred method of reconstructing head and neck defects, with a success rate of approximately 95%. Although flap failure is uncommon, it has a major impact on patient morbidity and diminishes quality of life, making it is important to investigate the causes of flap failure. Methods: This retrospective chart review analyzed patients who underwent free tissue transfer during head and neck reconstruction at a single institution between 2016 and 2021. Results: During the study period, 58 patients underwent 60 free flap procedures. Revision surgery was needed in 14 patients. Subsequent free flap surgery was performed in one patient, and three free flaps (5%) could not be salvaged. Cardiovascular disease was significantly associated with flap failure, and venous congestion (thrombosis) was the most common reason for revision surgery. Conclusion: Cardiovascular disease clearly emerged as a factor related to the failure of free flap surgery, and this issue warrants particular attention in patients for whom free tissue transfer is planned.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.33.1-33.7
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• 2023

Background: Laminitis is a complex and debilitating disease of horses. Numerous predisposing factors contribute to laminitis development, however the exact pathogenesis remains undetermined. Serum T4, cortisol, and histamine are components of the innate stress response and could play a causative or contributory role. Stress hormone concentrations in laminitis are largely unknown. Objective: To evaluate parameters associated with stress response in horses with laminitis, and compare these to healthy horses and horses with gastrointestinal (GI) disease. Methods: Thirty-eight adult horses presenting for non-medical conditions, GI abnormalities, or clinical laminitis were prospectively enrolled. Horses were assigned to the appropriate disease group (healthy, GI disease, and laminitis) and had blood drawn on presentation to the hospital. Samples were analyzed for plasma endogenous adrenocorticotrophic hormone (eACTH), serum cortisol, serum thyroid hormone, and plasma histamine. Results: Stress hormone concentrations were significantly different between horses in the laminitis and GI disease groups. Plasma histamine levels were highest in horses with laminitis, compared with GI disease and controls. Both horses with laminitis and GI disease had increased plasma eACTH when compared to healthy horses. Horses with GI disease had higher serum cortisol concentrations than horses with laminitis or controls. Serum T4 was lower in horses with GI disease than in horses with laminitis and controls. Conclusions: Horses with laminitis had relative increases in both plasma histamine and eACTH concentrations. Serum T4 and cortisol concentrations of horses with laminitis did not differ significantly when compared to healthy horses. The role of stress hormones in equine disease warrants further investigation.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 2023

Purpose: Topic modeling is a text mining technique that extracts concepts from textual data and uncovers semantic structures and potential knowledge frameworks within context. This study aimed to identify major keywords and network structures for each major topic to discern research trends in women's health nursing published in the Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing (KJWHN) using text network analysis and topic modeling. Methods: The study targeted papers with English abstracts among 373 articles published in KJWHN from January 2011 to December 2021. Text network analysis and topic modeling were employed, and the analysis consisted of five steps: (1) data collection, (2) word extraction and refinement, (3) extraction of keywords and creation of networks, (4) network centrality analysis and key topic selection, and (5) topic modeling. Results: Six major keywords, each corresponding to a topic, were extracted through topic modeling analysis: "gynecologic neoplasms," "menopausal health," "health behavior," "infertility," "women's health in transition," and "nursing education for women." Conclusion: The latent topics from the target studies primarily focused on the health of women across all age groups. Research related to women's health is evolving with changing times and warrants further progress in the future. Future research on women's health nursing should explore various topics that reflect changes in social trends, and research methods should be diversified accordingly.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2009

Estimating the Bass diffusion model often creates a time-interval bias, which leads the OLS approach to overestimate sales at early stages and underestimate sales after the peak. Further, a specification error from omitted variables might raise serial correlations among residuals when marketing actions are not incorporated into the diffusion model. Autocorrelated disturbances may yield unbiased but inefficient estimation, and therefore invalid inference results. This phenomenon warrants a modified approach to estimating the Bass diffusion model. In this paper, the authors propose a modified Bass diffusion model handling autocorrelated disturbances. To validate the new approach, authors applied the method on two different data-sets: CT Scanners in the U.S, and FPD TV sales in Korea. The results showed improved model fit and the validity of the proposed model.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.23.1-23.20
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• 2020

Sepsis is conceptually defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction that is caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. Although there has been significant advancement in recent decades in defining and understanding sepsis pathology, clinical management of sepsis is challenging due to difficulties in diagnosis, a lack of reliable prognostic biomarkers, and treatment options that are largely limited to antibiotic therapy and fundamental supportive measures. The lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic tests makes it difficult to triage patients who are in need of more urgent care. Furthermore, while the acute inpatient treatment of sepsis warrants ongoing attention and investigation, efforts must also be directed toward longer term survival and outcomes. Sepsis survivors experience incomplete recovery, with long-term health impairments that may require both cognitive and physical treatment and rehabilitation. This review summarizes recent advances in sepsis prognosis research and discusses progress made in elucidating the underlying causes of prolonged health deficits experienced by patients surviving the early phases of sepsis.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.219-223
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• 2014

In line with the advanced wireless communication technology, M2M (Machine-to-Machine) communication has drawn attention in industry. M2M communication features are installed and operated in the fields where human accessibility is highly limited such as disaster, safety, construction, health and welfare, climate, environment, logistics, culture, defense, medical care, agriculture and stockbreeding. In M2M communication, machine replaces people for automatic communication and countermeasures as part of unmanned information management and machine operation. Wireless M2M inter-device communication is likely to be exposed to intruders' attacks, causing security issues, which warrants proper security measures including cross-authentication of whether devices are legitimate. Therefore, research on multiple security protocols has been conducted. The present study applied SessionKey, HashFunction and Nonce to address security issues in M2M communication and proposed a safe protocol with reinforced security properties. Notably, unlike most previous studies arguing for the security of certain protocols based on mathematical theorem proving, the present study used the formal verification with Casper/FDR to prove the safety of the proposed protocol. In short, the proposed protocol was found to be safe and secure.