The Reliability of a New Device for Measuring the Maximum Bite Force

Objective. To test the inter- and intraexaminer reliability of a recently developed instrument for measuring the maximum bite force (MBF). Material and Methods. Sixty patients who were clinically confirmed as having Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSMF) and 60 healthy controls were included in this study. For each subject, age, gender, weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) were recorded. The maximum bite force was recorded in alternate order with a bite force sensor (D1) and an occlusal force meter (D2). Bite force was measured in the first molar region. Pearson’s correlation coefficient and kappa statistic were applied to assess the reliability between D1 and D2 in the assessment of maximum bite force. The independent t -test was performed to find the statistical significance between the two study groups. The paired t -test was applied to find out the difference between the right and left disease in groups of two devices separately. The one-way analysis of covariance (ANOVA) was performed to find the significant difference between grades of OSMF. Results. The results of the kappa values were 0.8531 ± 0.0724 and 0.7336 ± 0.0737 for interdevice reliability in OSMF patients in right and left sides. Similar findings were obtained in right and left sides of healthy individuals ( 0.7549 ± 0.0816 and 0.9440 ± 0.0806 ) and in the total sample ( 0.8132 ± 0.0544 and 0.8303 ± 0.0538 ). Pearson’s correlation coefficient between two devices revealed a high and significant positive correlation between D1 and D2 separately and in the whole sample. Conclusion. The observations of the present study suggest that the bite force sensor can be used as a reliable device for measuring bite force.

The Impact of Business Attitude on Entrepreneurial Behavior in Postgraduate Students: A Cross-sectional Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Entrepreneurship and business behavior are of great significance in developing countries, such as Iran, due to the unemployment crisis. Today's economic status and population composition have propelled everyone to find effective solutions in the economic arena. Therefore, appropriate educational models for students and programs to encourage students to turn to entrepreneurship and create new businesses are vital. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the impact of business attitude on entrepreneurial behavior in postgraduate students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on the postgraduate students of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2021. Data were collected using the standard questionnaires of Aution et al. and Leon Dice Zamptakis and Vasilis Mustakis. Data analysis was performed in the R software version 4.0.4 using Spearman’s or Pearson’s correlation-coefficient and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results: The mean age of the participants was 28.17 ± 6.297 years. Pearson’s correlation-coefficient indicated a significant, inverse correlation between age and attitudes toward competitiveness and entrepreneurial culture (r = -0.210; P = 0.002 and r = -0.177; P = 0.01, respectively). In addition, the results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that the attitude to business had a significant, inverse effect on entrepreneurial behavior (r = -0.259; P < 0.001). Conclusions: According to the results, students' unpreparedness for self-employment activities highlights the need for changing the attitude of postgraduate students in this regard by explaining the prevalence of the COVID-19. Due to the outbreak of the disease, numerous startups and personal businesses were shut down. Therefore, students are mostly reluctant to become involved in entrepreneurial activities despite their business attitude.

A study on association of serum uric acid and blood pressure in hypertensives at a tertiary care centre

Hypertension(HTN) is the most common and significant cardiovascular disease because of its prevalence and severity of the damage to the mankind globally. Hyperuricemia, a condition of increased levels of Serum Uric acid (UA) has been proposed to have an association with hypertension in various studies. In certain studies, serum uric acid levels has been found to be an independent predictor for developing hypertension. On the basis of the above observations, we have proposed to the present study to compare the relationship between serum UA and hypertension in a single cohort with adjustment of all possible confounding factors.A total of 245 subjects were enrolled in this study during a regular routine health checkup. All subjects were informed about the study aims Individuals having a known history of gout and cardiac or severe renal diseases and patients who are already under medication for anti-hyperuricemic were excluded from the study. General information like Name, Age, Sex, Occupation, Address along with history of any drug intake and anthropometric indices - body weight (BW), body height (BH), hip circumference (HC), waist circumference (WC), and lifestyle information have been obtained. The data has been arranged in tables with mean ± SD for further analysis. The data is analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23. The difference between the groups for baseline variables was done by independent sample t-test (two-tailed). Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was performed to assess the interrelationships between baseline variables and SUA concentrations. The differences for the variables among the groups was determined by using One-way ANOVA.Of the 245 subjects, mean age of the participants was 42.4 ± 8.4 years (range 18–70 years). There was no significant difference in the mean levels of Height, Weight and BMI between the two groups. Mean levels of WC, HC were significantly different between two group (p &#60; 0.05) subjects. The mean levels of SBP and DBP were also significantly more in the hypertensive subjects (p &#60; 0.001). In Pearson’s correlation coefficient test, SUA levels were significantly related with SBP and DBP. In this study, we have observed comparatively a stronger relationship for SUA concentration with hypertension and prehypertension in the participants. The extended mechanism for the effect of SUA on hypertension is yet to be elucidated. There are some hypotheses partly explain the association between SUA and high blood pressure. One of the possible mechanism might be uric acid deposition on the blood vessels walls activates the renin-angiotensin system, suppress the liberate of carbon monoxide, enhance inflammation, and leads to vasoconstriction on later stage, which consequently leads to hyperplasia and incidence of hypertension. Another possibility involving oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction associated with high SUA levels may contribute to high blood pressure.

DNA typing of the gastric mucosa of patients with chronic duodenal ulcer

The work involved a molecular biological technique (ISSR-PCR) using ISSR-primer S-2, with structure (AGC) 6G. Changes in the gastric mucosa in chronic duodenal ulcer disease against the background of severe chronic atrophic gastritis have been analyzed. Noteworthy is the fact that there is a strong correlation between the degree of dysplasia of the epithelium of the gastric mucosa and the mitotic index, the Pearson's correlation coefficient rxy was 0.853, respectively. A strong and very strong correlation relationship between the indicators of the degree of dysplasia of the epithelium of the gastric mucosa by phenotypic characteristics and indicators of DNA typing of samples of the gastric mucosa, the Pearson's correlation coefficient rxy was 0.863, respectively. DNA profiles of the gastric mucosa of patients with duodenal ulcer according to the results of typing by the ISSR-PCR method ranging from 520 to 620 bp. had the character of microsatellite expansions and differed from the profile of the norm, which is evidence of precancerous changes.

Alias Structures and Sequential Experimentation for Mixed-Level Designs

Alias structures for two-level fractional designs are commonly used to describe the correlations between different terms. The concept of alias structures can be extended to other types of designs such as fractional mixed-level designs. This paper proposes an algorithm that uses the Pearson’s correlation coefficient and the correlation matrix to construct alias structures for these designs, which can help experimenters to more easily visualize which terms are correlated (or confounded) in the mixed-level fraction and constitute the basis for efficient sequential experimentation.

Hubungan Intensitas Cahaya dengan Ketajaman Penglihatan Penghuni Panti Asuhan

Rendahnya intensitas pencahayaan pada panti asuhan di Kota Makassar, yang penghuninya didominasi usia sekolah, dapat mempengaruhi ketajaman penglihatan penghuninya. Hal ini dapat menjadi masalah, karena dapat mengganggu fungsi penglihatan yang dibutuhkan dalam perkembangan anak usia sekolah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan antara intensitas cahaya pada panti asuhan dengan ketajaman penglihatan, faktor yang terlibat di dalamnya, serta kondisi penerangan dan ketajaman penglihatan penghuni panti asuhan. Metode penelitian menggunakan analitik observasional dengan desain cross sectional. Intensitas cahaya masing-masing sampel diukur menggunakan lux meter, sedangkan ketajaman penglihatan diukur dengan snellen chart. Analisis data menggunakan Pearson’s correlation coefficient test. Jumlah sampel 47 orang yang berasal dari 7 panti asuhan di Kecamatan Manggala Kota Makassar. Hasil analisis data menunjukkan bahwa hubungan intensitas cahaya dengan visus terbaik tidak signifikan (p value 0,240) sedangkan hubungan intensitas cahaya dengan visus terburuk signifikan dengan korelasi positif (p value 0,046). Faktor yang turut mempengaruhi adalah lama paparan harian (p value 0,019) serta jarak antara mata dan bacaan (p value 0,047). Intensitas cahaya panti asuhan masih belum memenuhi standar (kurang dari 200-300 lux) dan sebagian besar penghuninya memiliki ketajaman penglihatan menurun (kurang dari 6/6). Berdasarkan data objektif dan hasil analisis, ditemukan hubungan yang signifikan antara intensitas cahaya panti asuhan dengan ketajaman penglihatan.

Cross Validation of GOES-16 and NOAA Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) QPE over the Continental United States

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) series provides new opportunities for continuous observation of precipitation at large scales with a high resolution. An operational quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) product has been produced based on multi-channel measurements from the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) aboard the GOES-16 (formerly known as GOES-R). This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of this GOES-16 QPE product against a ground reference QPE product from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) system over the continental United States (CONUS) during the warm seasons of 2018 and 2019. For the first time, the accuracy of GOES-16 QPE product was quantified using the gauge-corrected MRMS (GC-MRMS) QPE product, and a number of evaluation metrics were applied to adequately resolve the associated errors. The results indicated that precipitation occurrence and intensity estimated by the GOES-16 QPE agreed with GC-MRMS fairly well over the eastern United States (e.g., the probability of detection was close to 1.0, and the Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.80 during September 2019), while the discrepancies were noticeable over the western United States (e.g., the Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.64 for the same month). The performance of GOES-16 QPE was downgraded over the western United States, in part due to the limitations of the GOES-16 rainfall retrieval algorithm over complex terrains, and in part because of the poor radar coverage analyzed by the MRMS system. In addition, it was found that the GOES-16 QPE product significantly overestimated rainfall induced by the mesoscale convective systems in the midwestern United States, which must be addressed in the future development of GOES satellite rainfall retrieval algorithms.

Association of Class Attendance and Test with Grades Attained in BDS Final Professional

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to verify the association of class attendance percentage, and regular test marks of each taught subject in BDS final year with marks obtained in final examination. METHODOLOGY: Class attendance and test performance records of all participants were obtained from the college authority, and the final professional examination marks sheet issued by UHS was obtained from the college office. Potential confounders like age, gender and parents’ occupation were also recorded for each student. Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was applied to verify the association of class attendance and class tests marks percentage for different subjects taught with final marks. Multivariate analysis was undertaken by adjusting for confounders in the model. RESULTS: This study found significant correlation between each taught subject class test marks with final marks obtained in each respective subject of the final year. Class attendance of each taught subject had weak, insignificant association with final marks except in one subject i.e., Operative Dentistry. CONCLUSION: Class test marks are a stronger predictor of final examination marks than class attendance percentage.

Using Deep Neural Networks for Predicting Age and Sex in Healthy Adult Chest Radiographs

Background: The performance of chest radiography-based age and sex prediction has not been well validated. We used a deep learning model to predict the age and sex of healthy adults based on chest radiographs (CXRs). Methods: In this retrospective study, 66,643 CXRs of 47,060 healthy adults were used for model training and testing. In total, 47,060 individuals (mean age ± standard deviation, 38·7 ± 11·9 years; 22,144 males) were included. By using chronological ages as references, mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to assess the model performance. Summarized class activation maps were used to highlight the activated anatomical regions. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to examine the validity for sex prediction. Results: When model predictions were compared with the chronological ages, the MAE was 2·1 years, RMSE was 2·8 years, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0·97 (p < 0·001). Cervical, thoracic spines, first ribs, aortic arch, heart, rib cage, and soft tissue of thorax and flank seemed to be the most crucial activated regions in the age prediction model. The sex prediction model demonstrated an AUC of > 0·99. Conclusion: Deep learning can accurately estimate age and sex based on CXRs.

Serum ammonia use: unnecessary, frequent and costly

Background/objectiveWhile ammonia plays a role in the complex pathophysiology of hepatic encephalopathy (HE), serum ammonia is unreliable for both diagnosis of, and correlation with, neurological symptoms in patients with cirrhosis. We aimed to quantify ordering, cost and appropriate use of serum ammonia in a major Midwestern healthcare system.Design/methodSerum ammonia ordering in adult patients presenting to a large Midwestern health system was evaluated from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019.ResultsSerum ammonia ordering was prevalent, with 20 338 tests ordered over 5 years. There were no differences in the number of inappropriate serum ammonia tests per 100 000 admissions for chronic liver disease over time (Pearson’s correlation coefficient=−0.24, p=0.70). As a proportion of total ammonia tests ordered, inappropriate tests increased over time (Pearson’s correlation coefficient=0.91, p=0.03). Inappropriate ordering was more common at community hospitals compared with the academic medical centre (99.3% vs 87.6%, p<0.001).ConclusionDespite evidence that serum ammonia levels are unreliable for the diagnosis of HE and are not associated with severity of HE in individuals with cirrhosis, ordering remains prevalent, contributing to waste and potential harm.