In vitro and in vivo thermal stress induces proliferation of Blastocystis sp.

Parasitology Research - Blastocystis sp. is known to be the most commonly found intestinal protozoan parasite in human fecal surveys and has been incriminated to cause diarrhea and abdominal...     

Prosthetic rehabilitation after orbital exenteration: A case series

Orbital exenteration is executed by the ophthalmic surgeon to treat various neoplasms or non-malignant diseases. But it leads to several functional, esthetic and psychological problems for the patients. Orbital prosthesis is a good alternative for cosmetic and psychological rehabilitation, if reconstructive surgery is not possible or not desired by the patient. In the following article, different materials and retentive aids for fabrication of an orbital prosthesis given in the literature along with few novel methods have been discussed for four patients who underwent orbital exenteration. Factors that an ophthalmic surgeon should consider during surgery, which may later on help the prosthodontist to obtain good cosmetic results, are also discussed briefly. Remarkable results can be obtained if both work as a team for one common goal i.e. improvement of quality of life of the patient after orbital exenteration.     

Artificial Intelligence Based Skin Classification Using GMM

The number of computer game users is increasing as computers and various IT devices in connection with the Internet are commonplace in all ages. In this research, in order to find the relevance of behavioral activity and its associated biosignal, biosignal changes before and after as well as during computer games were measured and analyzed for 31 subjects. For this purpose, a device to measure electrocardiogram, photoplethysmogram and skin temperature was developed such that the effect of motion artifacts could be minimized. The device was made wearable for convenient measurement. The game selected for the experiments was League of Legends?. Analysis on the pulse transit time, heart rate variability and skin temperature showed increased sympathetic nerve activities during computer game, while the parasympathetic nerves became less active. Interestingly, the sympathetic predominance group showed less change in the heart rate variability as compared to the normal group. The results can be valuable for studying internet gaming disorder.     

Air Pollution and Daily Mortality in Two U.S. Counties: Season-Specific Analyses and Exposure-Response Relationships

I used generalized additive models to analyze the time series of daily total nonaccidental deaths and deaths due to vascular disease over the period 1987-1995 in two major metropolitan areas, Cook County, Illinois, and Los Angeles County, California, in the United States. In both counties I had monitoring information on PM 10, CO, SO 2, NO 2, and O 3. In Los Angeles, monitoring information on PM 2.5 was available as well. In addition to full-year analyses, I performed season-specific analyses. I present the results of both single- and multipollutant analyses. Although components of air pollution were associated with total nonaccidental and vascular disease mortality in both counties, the results indicate considerable heterogeneity of these associations in the two locations and also from season to season. In Los Angeles County, the gases, particularly CO and SO 2 but not ozone, were more strongly associated with mortality than was particulate matter, which exhibited only weak and inconsistent associations with both mortality endpoints. Both PM 10 and the gases were associated with total and vascular disease mortality in Cook County. The association of the gases with both mortality endpoints appeared to be stronger and more robust than that of PM 10. Exposure-response analyses using flexible smoothers showed significant departures from linearity, particularly for PM effects.