A surface-engineered contact lens for tear fluid biomolecule sensing.

The eyes provide rich physiological information and offer diagnostic potential as a sensing site, and probing tear constituents via the wearable contact lens could be explored for healthcare monitoring. Herein, we propose a novel adhesive contrast contact lens platform that can split tear film by natural means of tear secretion and blinking. The adhesive contrast is realized by selective grafting of a lubricant onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based contact lens, leading to high pinning zones on a non-adhesive background. The difference in contact angle hysteresis facilitates the liquid splitting. Further, the method offers control over the droplet volume by controlling the zone dimension. The adhesive contrast contact lens is coupled with fluorescent spectroscopic as well as colorimetric techniques to realize its potential as a diagnostic platform. The adhesive contrast contact lens is exploited to detect the level of lactoferrin in tear by sensitizing split droplets with Tb3+ ions. The adhesive contrast contact lens integrated with a fluorescence spectrometer was able to detect the lactoferrin level up to a concentration of 0.25 mg mL-1. Additionally, a colorimetric detection based on the fluorescence of the lactoferrin-terbium complex is demonstrated for the measurement of lactoferrin, with a limit of detection in the physiological range up to 0.5 mg mL-1.

Self-negligence and awareness among oral precancerous and cancer patients - A cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Background: The National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) reports that India has the highest global prevalence of oral cancers. The incidence is significantly more in developing countries when compared to the developed countries. Early detection is key to increasing the survival rate of the patients. Important causes for this late diagnosis could be self-negligence, lack of patient awareness about the causes and asymptomatic and subtle clinical presentation of the lesions. Aim: To assess the causes of self-neglect and awareness levels among oral cancer and pre-cancerous patients. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among pre-cancerous and cancerous patients. Methods and Material: A questionnaire with 16 closed-ended questions was framed relating to the causes of self-neglect and awareness of the patients. A total of 45 patients were selected by convenient sampling technique from the Institutional Tumour Board register of which 62 per cent were male patients and 38 per cent were female patients. Statistical Analysis: Data analysis for demographic data, patients' awareness, and causes of self-neglect about precancer and cancer was done using SPSS Version 10. Results and Conclusions: The present study concluded that the patients had adequate awareness that deleterious habits could lead to cancer but had a low level of awareness about the other causes of cancer, symptoms and management options available to treat cancer. The study result emphasizes that the government should plan for more cancer-screening camps in order to prevent the progression of cancer and to increase the awareness. (Reference I.D.: 2015-05006 for funding the project. ICMR).

Smart City IoT System Network Level Routing Analysis and Blockchain Security Based Implementation.

This paper demonstrates, network-level performance analysis and implementation of smart city Internet of Things (IoT) system with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) level cloud computing architecture. The smart city IoT network topology performance is analyzed at the simulation level using the NS3 simulator by extracting most of the performance-deciding parameters. The performance-enhanced smart city topology is practically implemented in IaaS level architecture. The intended smart city IoT system can monitor the principal parameters like video surveillance with a thermal camera (to identify the virus-like COVID-19 infected people), transport, water quality, solar radiation, sound pollution, air quality (O3, NO2, CO, Particles), parking zones, iconic places, E-suggestions, PRO information over low power wide area network in 61.88 km × 61.88 km range. Primarily we have addressed the IoT network-level routing and quality of service (QoS) challenges and implementation level security challenges. The simulation level network topology analysis is performed to improve the routing and QoS. Blockchain technology-based decentralization is adopted to enrich the IoT system performance in terms of security.

Evaluation of Clinical Efficacy Between Forsus and Advansync Fixed Functional Appliance for the Treatment of Skeletal Class II Malocclusion Using 3D Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT): A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVES: The objective is to assess and compare whether AdvanSync gives better skeletal, dental, and soft tissue outcomes than Forsus fixed functional appliance in post-pubertal skeletal Class II malocclusion patients. METHODOLOGY: A prospective study was conducted using 3D-CBCT of patients taken before and after fixed functional appliance therapy. The sample consisted of 16 patients divided into two groups: Group 1 was treated with Forsus and group 2 with AdvanSync appliance. All subjects were in their post-pubertal growth phase. Treatment changes were evaluated between the study groups using 12 angular and 14 linear parameters. The data were subjected to statistical analysis. RESULTS: Statistically significant changes in SNB (P:0.04) and ANB (P:0.01) in Forsus appliance and AdvanSync (SNB, P:008), (ANB, P: <0.001) were found between the pre and post-fixed functional appliance protocol. The effective mandibular length increased in both groups Forsus(P-value: 0.01) and AdvanSync (P-value: 0.01). Group 1 resulted in lower incisor proclination and intrusion, a reduction in an overbite, whereas group 2 resulted in lower incisor proclination, upper incisor extrusion, and retroclination. Both groups showed significant improvement in the molar relation and overjet. An increase in the total facial convexity was shown in group 1; group 2 showed an increase in the facial convexity and total facial convexity. There was no statistically significant difference between the effects of the Forsus and Advansync appliance groups in the post-fixed functional period. Both groups presented similar results. CONCLUSION: Forsus and Advansync appliances are effective with similar results in normalizing skeletal Class II malocclusion in post-pubertal patients. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups using Forsus or AdvanSync. The changes were minimal - mandibular skeletal effects, majorly dentoalveolar effects, and mild soft tissue effects.

An Assessment and Comparison of Root Resorption With Two Different Corticotomy Techniques During Anterior Teeth Retraction: A Split Mouth Prospective Clinical Study.

Aim The aim of this prospective split-mouth clinical study is to determine the apical root resorption of anterior teeth in patients with two different methods of corticotomy namely indentation and vertical corticotomy techniques. Methods Sixteen adult patients with bimaxillary protrusion requiring the need for extraction of the first premolars were included in the study. For each patient, the particular method of corticotomy technique was assigned randomly along with the side and the procedure was performed following which retraction forces were applied with the help of a closed coil Niti spring. The root resorption was recorded during the stage of space closure for which two cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) were taken, one before the retraction forces could be applied (T1) and one CBCT (T2) after the space closure had occurred. The apical root resorption was assessed and analyzed both linearly and volumetrically using the CBCT taken at T1 and T2.  Results There was root resorption present after the space closure was complete in both the maxillary and mandibular arches. The amount of root resorption that occurred in the indentation technique was slightly lesser as compared to the vertical corticotomy technique. Conclusion Indentation corticotomy cuts for accelerated tooth movement are considered to be a much safer, more effective method, lesser invasive to the surrounding tissues, technique sensitive, and good regional acceleratory phenomenon (RAP), with a Rapid healing process compared to the vertical corticotomy technique.

Oil-Grafted Track-Assisted Directional Transport of Water Droplets and Submerged Air Bubbles on Solid Surfaces.

Wettability-tailored tracks are emerging as an efficient approach to collecting and transporting underwater air bubbles as well as water from the mist. However, tailoring the surface wettability by modifying the surface structural features via physiochemical methods to create superhydrophilic-superhydrophobic contrast tracks suffers from long-term durability issues, while the emerging liquid-infused slippery surface has inherent design engineering limitations and issues from infused oil depletion. Herein, we demonstrate that by selective silicone oil grafting onto the glass substrate, it is possible to create a wettability contrast of ∼ 43°. Further, we illustrate the application of such tracks for underwater air bubble capturing and transportation in an aqueous medium with surface tension ranging from 72 to 43.5 mN/m. In addition, the potential of these nonadhesive and adhesive tracks for water collection from the mist is shown and the critical effect of the track dimension and intertrack spacing on the water harvesting rate is investigated in detail. The study illustrates that the nonadhesive nature of the oil-grafted region enables the easy transport of underwater air bubbles as well as water from the flow medium and thus offers an easy and facile approach to creating substrates for underwater air bubble collection and water harvesting.

Non-adhesive contrast substrate for single-cell trapping and Raman spectroscopic analysis.

Droplet splitting by exploiting tailored surface wettability is emerging as an important pathway to creating ultralow volumes of samples that can have applications in bioassays, tissue engineering, protein chips, and material synthesis. Reduction of droplet volumes enables the encapsulation of single biological cells which allows high throughput screening. In this work, we demonstrate a facile fabrication approach to create a non-adhesive contrast quartz substrate that allows droplet splitting under gravitational force and its utilization to trap single biological cells for Raman spectroscopic studies. The non-adhesive contrast surface is created by low-power continuous-wave laser-assisted removal of the region of interest from a biocompatible non-adhesive silicone oil grafted quartz substrate. For a given laser spot dimension, the hydrophilic zone dimension is controlled via irradiation with varying laser powers. The fabricated non-adhesive contrast surface can split a microliter droplet into pico- and sub-picolitre daughter droplets. By using the substrate, the trapping of a single polystyrene bead is demonstrated and the recording of Raman spectra is carried out. Additionally, the Raman spectra of two biological cells, yeast cells and human mononuclear cells (MNCs), from a daughter droplet are recorded independently and from a mixture of the solutions. This single-cell Raman analysis could find applications in cell identification and type discrimination, biochemical imaging, metabolic and functional characterization, and clinical and toxicity studies.

Awareness of probiotics among dental practitioners of Puducherry-A cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Background: The efficiency of probiotics in prevention and also treatment of oral infections including dental caries, periodontitis, halitosis is found to be appealing in the recent literature. Their antagonistic role in oral infections is mainly through formation of biofilm which needs documentation. Though the emergence and practice of oral probiotics is visualized for the past two decades, the consumption and knowledge level is found to be less among the community. Stronger source to spread scientific evidence to the community would be health professionals. Aim: The current study is aimed at assessing the level of awareness of probiotics among dental practitioners of Puducherry thereby aid and assist in the beneficial practice of the same in the community. Methods: The knowledge level was assessed through a cross sectional survey using closed ended questionnaire. Involves practicing dentists of Puducherry (n-173). A prevalidated questionnaire with 17 closed ended and one open ended question was employed as the research tool. Results: The results revealed an acceptable knowledge in 77.4% and a greater level of knowledge in 20.8% of dentists. More number of studies are expected to fulfill the lacunae in the field of safety of usage and long term effects of probiotics. Conclusion: Responses of the current study which was focused on dental practitioners revealed that the knowledge level is well above the acceptable level. There is no profound difference in the awareness level noticed among BDS and MDS practitioners..

Acute Gaucher Disease-Like Condition in an Indian Infant with a Novel Biallelic Mutation in the Prosaposin Gene.

This is the first reported case of prosaposin ( PSAP ) mutation from India manifesting as an acute neuronal Gaucher disease-like condition. A 2-month-old male baby presented with encephalopathy, resistant tonic-clonic seizures, moderate hepatosplenomegaly, hypotonia, and cherry red spot in the retinae. The child had anemia, thrombocytopenia, elevated chitotriosidase, and normal activity of acid sphingomyelinase and low normal activity of ß-glucosidase 1 (ß-glucocerebrosidase 1, GBA). The child succumbed in the fourth month of life due to persistent respiratory distress and refractory seizures. The clinical phenotype, cherry red spots, elevated chitotriosidase, and lysosomal assays led to the suspicion of Gaucher disease. Exome sequencing revealed a homozygous stop codon mutation in the PSAP gene (c.G1228T, p.Glu410ter). Prenatal diagnosis in the next pregnancy revealed a carrier fetus, who was unaffected postnatally. The diagnosis of specific activator deficiency such as saposin C and saposin D deficiency (in the current study) should be considered and tested for when Gaucher disease is suspected in an infant with partially deficient or near normal GBA activity.

Evaluation of multiplex PCR assay for detection of Babesia spp, Ehrlichia canis and Trypanosoma evansi in dogs.

A multiplex PCR test was evaluated to detect the DNA of three important dog haemoparasites by comparing with singular PCR counterpart on clinical blood samples of dogs in and around Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Initial screening of samples was done by microscopic examination of peripheral blood smear and singular PCR and those found exclusively positive for Babesia spp, Ehrlichia canis and Trypanosoma evansi and concurrent infections were used to standardize multiplex PCR. Amplicons of 619 bp, 377 bp and 227 bp corresponding to Babesia spp (18S rRNA gene), E. canis (VirB9 gene), and T.evansi (VSG gene) respectively were amplified, without any non-specific amplification. The laboratory sensitivity (91.7% to 100%) and specificity (100%) of the multiplex PCR were calculated using 'true positive' and 'true negative' dog blood samples obtained in the initial screening process. Clinical blood samples from 287 dogs were screened using singular PCR and multiplex PCR tests for the presence of genome of Babesia spp, E. canis and T. evansi. The multiplex PCR was found to have high level of diagnostic specificity (97.5%-100%) in the detection of all three dog blood parasites and high level of diagnostic sensitivity (95%) in the detection of T. evansi from field level clinical blood samples compared to the singular PCR. However, the diagnostic sensitivity of the multiplex PCR was found to be low to moderate (40.45%-66.7%) in detection of Babesia spp and E. canis from field level clinical blood samples. The strength of agreement between singular and multiplex PCR assays was 'moderate' (0.445), 'good' (0.708) and 'very good' (0.968) in detection of DNA of Babesia spp, E. canis and T. evansi. The multiplex PCR was found to be 10 fold less sensitive in comparison with the singular PCR counterpart.

A first generation whole genome RH map of the river buffalo with comparison to domestic cattle.

BACKGROUND: The recently constructed river buffalo whole-genome radiation hybrid panel (BBURH5000) has already been used to generate preliminary radiation hybrid (RH) maps for several chromosomes, and buffalo-bovine comparative chromosome maps have been constructed. Here, we present the first-generation whole genome RH map (WG-RH) of the river buffalo generated from cattle-derived markers. The RH maps aligned to bovine genome sequence assembly Btau_4.0, providing valuable comparative mapping information for both species. RESULTS: A total of 3990 markers were typed on the BBURH5000 panel, of which 3072 were cattle derived SNPs. The remaining 918 were classified as cattle sequence tagged site (STS), including coding genes, ESTs, and microsatellites. Average retention frequency per chromosome was 27.3% calculated with 3093 scorable markers distributed in 43 linkage groups covering all autosomes (24) and the X chromosomes at a LOD >or= 8. The estimated total length of the WG-RH map is 36,933 cR5000. Fewer than 15% of the markers (472) could not be placed within any linkage group at a LOD score >or= 8. Linkage group order for each chromosome was determined by incorporation of markers previously assigned by FISH and by alignment with the bovine genome sequence assembly (Btau_4.0). CONCLUSION: We obtained radiation hybrid chromosome maps for the entire river buffalo genome based on cattle-derived markers. The alignments of our RH maps to the current bovine genome sequence assembly (Btau_4.0) indicate regions of possible rearrangements between the chromosomes of both species. The river buffalo represents an important agricultural species whose genetic improvement has lagged behind other species due to limited prior genomic characterization. We present the first-generation RH map which provides a more extensive resource for positional candidate cloning of genes associated with complex traits and also for large-scale physical mapping of the river buffalo genome.