An obscured obstacle-Prevalence and nature of micro aggressions amongst healthcare professionals.

INTRODUCTION: Microaggressions create negative consequences on the mental health of individuals who experience them, such as feelings of alienation, frustration and low self-esteem. Physicians worldwide are negatively impacted by the detrimental effects of microaggressions and implicit bias. It is imperative to establish the prevalence specificity of the problem hence the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, nature and determinants of microaggressions amongst healthcare professionals. METHOD: The study used an online anonymous survey to collect data including demographics, awareness of the term, experience of microaggression, acts and response. The research findings were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analyses using Chi-square test and binary logistic regression respectively. RESULT: A total of 443 participants (40.9% males, 59.1% females) included 403 physicians (91%), 21 dentists (4.7%), 15 nurses (3.4%) and 4 pharmacists (0.9%). More than half of the participants (59.8%) were aware of the term micro-aggression. The percentage was significantly higher among respondents from the western region of Saudi Arabia than the Gulf/Middle Eastern countries. Approximately 38.1% of the participants experienced microaggression and more than half (55.62%) did not report experiencing microaggression. The most common form of microaggression was passive-aggressive behavior (80.5%) followed by invalidation of an opinion (73.4%). Among those who experienced microaggression, (12.9%) reported anger as the most predominant emotional response. CONCLUSION: Microaggression is a universal phenomenon. Further research is necessary to determine its prevalence in other countries to establish a comprehensive understanding of its cultural context.

Management of a 20-year-old longstanding oroantral fistula: A case report and review of literature.

A systematic treatment plan and an appropriate selection of surgical technique are the critical requirements for an effective closure of oroantral fistula (OAF). A 45-year-old female patient had sinus opening after she underwent a surgical tooth extraction 20 years back. On her frequent visits to the dentists some attempts were made for closure including surgical intervention, only for the lesion to return back. Computerized tomography (CT) scan was taken to rule out any bony extension of a lesion, the CT revealed a 1 × 1 cm radiolucency with a through - through communication from the alveolar bone to the right maxillary sinus because of the bony defect in the floor of maxillary sinus along with thickening of the maxillary sinus lining. The closure of the defect was done by a lateral pedicle flap raised from the right side was elevated and laterally slid to cover the defect without tension and was sutured with 4-0 resorbable interrupted suture while maintaining a bare surgical bed covered by the periosteum and a thin layer of connective tissue. This technique provides immediate repair of the defect to the patient, and also maintains comparatively normal anatomic architecture to the oral cavity. Eight months postoperative follow-up revealed a complete closure of OAF without any complications. The findings of this case suggest that lateral sliding pedicle flap can be a conservative approach in managing a long-standing OAF.

Eliciting the impacts of cellular noise on metabolic trade-offs by quantitative mass imaging.

Optimal metabolic trade-offs between growth and productivity are key constraints in strain optimization by metabolic engineering; however, how cellular noise impacts these trade-offs and drives the emergence of subpopulations with distinct resource allocation strategies, remains largely unknown. Here, we introduce a single-cell strategy for quantifying the trade-offs between triacylglycerol production and growth in the oleaginous microorganism Yarrowia lipolytica. The strategy relies on high-throughput quantitative-phase imaging and, enabled by nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses and dedicated image processing, allows us to image how resources are partitioned between growth and productivity. Enhanced precision over population-averaging biotechnologies and conventional microscopy demonstrates how cellular noise impacts growth and productivity differently. As such, subpopulations with distinct metabolic trade-offs emerge, with notable impacts on strain performance and robustness. By quantifying the self-degradation of cytosolic macromolecules under nutrient-limiting conditions, we discover the cell-to-cell heterogeneity in protein and fatty-acid recycling, unmasking a potential bet-hedging strategy under starvation.

Identification of the novel HLA-A*32:01:01:08 allele in a Saudi individual.

HLA-A*32:01:01:08 differs from HLA-A*32:01:01:01 by a single nucleotide substitution (G → A) at position 2200.

Identification of the novel HLA-B*51:230 allele in a Saudi individual.

One nucleotide replacement at codon 349 of HLA-B*51:01:01:01 results in a new allele, HLA-B*51:230.

Accurate and dynamic predictive model for better prediction in medicine and healthcare.

INTRODUCTION: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have changed the trend into new integrated operations and methods in all fields of life. The health sector has also adopted new technologies to improve the systems and provide better services to customers. Predictive models in health care are also influenced from new technologies to predict the different disease outcomes. However, still, existing predictive models have suffered from some limitations in terms of predictive outcomes performance. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: In order to improve predictive model performance, this paper proposed a predictive model by classifying the disease predictions into different categories. To achieve this model performance, this paper uses traumatic brain injury (TBI) datasets. TBI is one of the serious diseases worldwide and needs more attention due to its seriousness and serious impacts on human life. CONCLUSION: The proposed predictive model improves the predictive performance of TBI. The TBI data set is developed and approved by neurologists to set its features. The experiment results show that the proposed model has achieved significant results including accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.

Robust microbial cell segmentation by optical-phase thresholding with minimal processing requirements.

High-throughput imaging with single-cell resolution has enabled remarkable discoveries in cell physiology and Systems Biology investigations. A common, and often the most challenging step in all such imaging implementations, is the ability to segment multiple images to regions that correspond to individual cells. Here, a robust segmentation strategy for microbial cells using Quantitative Phase Imaging is reported. The proposed method enables a greater than 99% yeast cell segmentation success rate, without any computationally-intensive, post-acquisition processing. We also detail how the method can be expanded to bacterial cell segmentation with 98% success rates with substantially reduced processing requirements in comparison to existing methods. We attribute this improved performance to the remarkably uniform background, elimination of cell-to-cell and intracellular optical artifacts, and enhanced signal-to-background ratio-all innate properties of imaging in the optical-phase domain. © 2017 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.

α-tocopherol decreases interleukin-1ß and -6 and increases human ß-defensin-1 and -2 secretion in human gingival fibroblasts stimulated with Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Periodontitis, a disease associated with chronic inflammation, results in significant destruction of periodontal tissues. Uncontrolled, periodontal disease negatively affects general patient health. We sought to evaluate the effect of α-tocopherol on gingival fibroblast behavior following exposure to Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Primary human gingival fibroblasts were cultured for 24 and 48 h with α-tocopherol at various concentrations (0, 50, 100 and 200 µm) in the presence or absence of 1 µg/mL of LPS. At the end of each time point, cell adhesion and growth were evaluated by means of optical microscope observations and MTT assay. The secretion levels of cytokines interleukin (IL)-1ß and IL-6 and human ß-defensins 1 and 2 were measured by specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Finally, an in vitro scratch wound assay was performed to investigate the effect of α-tocopherol on fibroblast migration. RESULTS: α-tocopherol alone had no adverse effect on cell adhesion and morphology. Fibroblast proliferation increased in the presence of α-tocopherol with and without LPS. α-tocopherol alone had no effect on inflammatory cytokine (IL-1ß and IL-6) secretion. Interestingly, following cell exposure to P. gingivalis LPS, α-tocopherol significantly (p < 0.01) decreased the secretion of these two cytokines and increased human ß-defensin-1 and -2 secretion. Finally, α-tocopherol increased the healing rate of the gingival fibroblasts from 12 h up to 48 h. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that α-tocopherol may play an active role in countering the damaging effect of LPS by reducing inflammatory cytokines, increasing ß-defensins and promoting fibroblast growth, migration and wound healing.

Meeting the security requirements of electronic medical records in the ERA of high-speed computing.

This study has two objectives. First, it aims to develop a system with a highly secured approach to transmitting electronic medical records (EMRs), and second, it aims to identify entities that transmit private patient information without permission. The NTRU and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptosystems are secured encryption methods. The AES is a tested technology that has already been utilized in several systems to secure sensitive data. The United States government has been using AES since June 2003 to protect sensitive and essential information. Meanwhile, NTRU protects sensitive data against attacks through the use of quantum computers, which can break the RSA cryptosystem and elliptic curve cryptography algorithms. A hybrid of AES and NTRU is developed in this work to improve EMR security. The proposed hybrid cryptography technique is implemented to secure the data transmission process of EMRs. The proposed security solution can provide protection for over 40 years and is resistant to quantum computers. Moreover, the technique provides the necessary evidence required by law to identify disclosure or misuse of patient records. The proposed solution can effectively secure EMR transmission and protect patient rights. It also identifies the source responsible for disclosing confidential patient records. The proposed hybrid technique for securing data managed by institutional websites must be improved in the future.