Talk with Ted: an embodied conversational agent for caregivers.

Communication is key to the success of any relationship. When it comes to caregivers, having a conversation with a person living with some form of cognitive impairment, such as dementia, can be a struggle. Most people living with dementia experience some form of communication impairment that reduces their ability to express their needs. In this case study, we present the design of an embodied conversation agent (ECA), Ted, designed to educate caregivers about the importance of good communication principles when engaging with people living with dementia. This training tool was trialed and compared to an online training tool, with 23 caregivers divided into two cohorts (12 in the ECA condition, and 11 in the online training tool condition), over a period of 8 weeks using a mixed evaluation approach. Our findings suggest that (a) caregivers developed an emotional connection with the ECA and retained the learning from their interactions with Ted even after 8 weeks had elapsed, (b) caregivers implemented the learnings in their practice, and (c) the changes in care practice were well received by people living with dementia.

Detection of polypharmacy side effects by integrating multiple data sources and convolutional neural networks.

The consumption of drug combinations, named polypharmacy, is commonly used for treating patients with several diseases or those with complex conditions. However, the main drawback of polypharmacy is the increased probability of harmful side effects. The polypharmacy side effects are caused by an interaction between two medications. It means that the drug-drug interaction causes changes in their activities due to interfering in each other's performance. Therefore, discovering these side effects is one of the most challenging and important aspects of drug production and consumption as it is associated with human health. In this paper, a method has been introduced for predicting the polypharmacy side effects, called PSECNN. It is a multi-label multi-class deep learning method that combines various basic features of drugs to predict the polypharmacy side effects. Firstly, PSECNN collects five basic features of drugs, such as individual drug's side effects, drug-protein interactions, chemical substructures, targets, and enzymes in order to create a novel combination of drug features. A feature extraction module creates five feature vectors with the same dimension for each drug based on the Jaccard similarity index. Based on the feature vectors, a unique representative is then created for each drug. These representative vectors are given in pairs as input to the deep neural network to predict the occurrence probability of side effects. According to the experimental evaluations, PSECNN could outperform the state-of-the-art polypharmacy side effects prediction methods up to 74%. It has been found that PSECNN has better performance with polypharmacy side effects with a cause of molecular basis due to the novel combination of basic drug features.

AVF of superficial temporal vessels after thread brow lift, report of a case.

This report presents iatrogenic arteriovenous fistula of superficial temporal vessels after thread brow lift, which emphasizes on consideration of such rare complications during the procedure. A young woman presented with pulsatile mass of scalp after tread brow lift. Color Doppler and duplex sonography of the mass revealed an AVF (arteriovenous fistula) of superficial temporal vessels, a complication that in a few articles has been mentioned. Patient had received conservative treatment and the mass became very small and about to be disappeared. physicians must be aware of possible vascular injury during thread face lift and should be trained enough to avoid it.

Antinociceptive effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Thymus vulgaris.

Previous investigation has shown that Thymus Vulgaris (TV) modulates pain. The aim of this work was to examine the role of TV on acute and chronic pain and compares its effect with dexamethasone (DEX) and stress (ST) by using hot plate, tail flick and formalin tests in mice. In this study male albino mice (25-30 g.) in 21 groups (n=147) were used. TV (100, 500 and 1000 mg/kg), DEX (0.5, 1 and 2 mg/kg) and vehicle (VEH) were injected 30 minutes before pain assessment tests. Stress was applied by 1 min swimming in cold water (18-22 degrees ). Acute and chronic pain was assessed by hot plate, tail flick and formalin tests. For assessment of the role of opioid receptors in antinoceception of TV extract, Naloxon (NAL, 2mg/kg, ip) as opioid receptor antagonist was injected before the injection of the more effective dose (500 mg/kg) of TV extract. Results indicated that TV, DEX and ST have analgesic effects in all tests (P<0.01 in comparison with control group). Above findings showed that TV extract, DEX and ST have modulatory effects on acute and chronic pain. Further research is required to determine the mechanisms by which TV extract has an inhibitory effect on pain sensation.

Effect of phentolamine mesylate on duration of soft tissue local anesthesia in children.

OBJECTIVE: Addition of vasoconstrictors to local anesthesia results in prolonged pain control. However, associated soft-tissue anesthesia (STA) of the lips and tongue typically lasts 3-5 hours which is longer than required time for pain control after routine dental procedures can lead to inadvertent biting of the soft tissue, particularly in children. The present study aimed to evaluate phentolamine mesylate (PM) effect on duration of STA and incidence of soft-tissue trauma after mandibular block injection. METHODS: This randomized, double-blinded, controlled clinical trial included 54 patients with the age of 4-11 years. In group 1 at the first visit, the children received ordinary local anesthetic (LA) consisting of lidocaine 2% and epinephrine 1:80,000 and the PM injection was performed 30 minutes later. At the second visit, the contralateral side received LA injection then the dental procedure was done and a sham injection was performed. In group 2 at the first visit, patients received control injection and at the second visit received PM injection. Then the reversal time for normal sensation of soft tissue, the vital signs, and the incidence of soft-tissue trauma in a period of 3-5 hours after injection were evaluated. FINDINGS: There was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001) in recovery time of normal lip sensation between case and control groups and also between two groups (P < 0.003). Incidence of soft-tissue trauma between case and control groups showed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.039). CONCLUSION: PM can be considered as a safe and effective drug for reduction of reversal time of STA after dental procedures.