Military personnel involved in weapon training are subjected to repeated low-level blasts. The prevailing method of estimating blast loads involves wearable blast gauges. However, using wearable sensor data, blast loads to the head or other organs cannot be accurately estimated without knowledge of the service member's body posture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Robust connections have been identified between the pathophysiology of mental disorders and the functioning of the circadian system. The overarching objective of this study was to investigate the potential for circadian rhythms to be leveraged for therapeutics in mental disorders.
Methods: We considered two approaches to chronotherapy-optimal timing of existing medications ("clocking the drugs") and redressing circadian abnormalities with small molecules ("drugging the clock").
Pentoxifylline (PTX) is a widely used pharmacological agent for the selection of motile sperm in both normozoospermic and asthenozoospermic ejaculates prior to their use in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), e.g. intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMental health issues have increased substantially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, health policymakers do not have adequate data and tools to predict mental health demand, especially amid a crisis. Using time-series data collected in Singapore, this study examines if and how algorithmically measured emotion indicators from Twitter posts can help forecast emergency mental health needs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Advancements in information technology have facilitated information exchange practices within the Military Health System (MHS), enabling "systems of systems" approaches that broaden and coordinate the set of capabilities available to enhance patient outcomes. This is applicable for MHS modeling and simulation (M&S) applications as well. Learning from successful approaches applied in current interoperability solutions used in the military helps to ensure interoperability practices yield trusted compositions of simulations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Experiences by service members in recent conflicts and training environments illuminate concerns about the possible effects of blast overpressure (BOP) exposure on brain health. Section 734 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 (Public Law 115-91) requires that the Secretary of Defense conducts a longitudinal medical study on blast pressure exposure of members of the Armed Forces during combat and training, and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs was assigned responsibility for fulfilling requirements. The study's goal is to improve DoD's understanding of the impact of BOP exposure from weapon systems on service members' brain health and inform policy for risk mitigation, unit readiness, and health care decisions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Although existing auditory injury prevention standards benefit warfighters, the Department of Defense could do more to understand and address auditory injuries (e.g., hearing loss, tinnitus, and central processing deficits) among service members.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPancytopenia in children with celiac disease (CeD) is postulated to be due to nutritional deficiency such as vitamin B, folate and copper or an autoimmune process resulting in aplastic anemia with hypoplastic marrow. In the present case series, we report the profile and explore the etiology of pancytopenia among children with CeD. There are only a few case reports of pancytopenia in children with CeD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF-coated thin film mirrors are used in high brilliance synchrotron and x-ray free electron laser beamlines due to their low absorption coefficient and high thermal stability. As in the case of gold, platinum, and other thin film mirrors, -coated mirrors also are affected due to synchrotron radiation-induced carbon contaminations in beamlines. In the present study, a graphitic carbon () layer deposited on top of boron carbide ( ) thin film surface is removed by five successive oxygen radio frequency (RF) plasma exposures (RF power, 10 W; flow, 30 sccm; exposure time, 10 min each).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Gastroenterol Hepatol Nutr
January 2023
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the pattern of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQ genotype in children diagnosed with celiac disease (CD) (biopsy proven), and to compare this with a control group; and secondarily, to correlate HLA genotypes with clinical profiles of CD.
Methods: This cross-sectional comparative observational study included 26 controls and 52 patients diagnosed with CD who presented at Sir Padampat Mother and Child Health Institute, Jaipur, from May, 2017 to October, 2018. HLA DQ genotype was assessed for each patients and correlated with clinical profiles.
Background: Blast induced Traumatic Brain Injury (bTBI) has become a signature casualty of military operations. Recently, military medics observed neurocognitive deficits in servicemen exposed to repeated low level blast (LLB) waves during military heavy weapons training. In spite of significant clinical and preclinical TBI research, current understanding of injury mechanisms and short- and long-term outcomes is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanocomposite zinc oxide nanorods capped with oleic acid (ZOR) with positive dielectric anisotropy liquid crystal (LC) 4'-octyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (8CB) filled in unaligned cells exhibit homeotropic alignment of host LC molecules. Further, systematic investigation of the textural, dielectric, and conductivity properties of nanocomposites filled in planar cells is performed with increasing concentration of nanorods. At a nanorod concentration ≤0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Public sentiments are an important indicator of crisis response, with the need to balance exigency without adding to panic or projecting overconfidence. Given the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have enacted various nationwide measures against the disease with social media platforms providing the previously unparalleled communication space for the global populations.
Objective: This research aims to examine and provide a macro-level narrative of the evolution of public sentiments on social media at national levels, by comparing Twitter data from India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the current pandemic.
According to the US Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common form of head injury. Medical imaging data provides clinical insight into tissue damage/injury and injury severity, and helps medical diagnosis. Computational modeling and simulation can predict the biomechanical characteristics of such injury, and are useful for development of protective equipment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Cosmet Investig Dent
March 2021
Background: Palatal rugae are asymmetric and irregular ridges on the anterior palatal region, which have proven to be useful in the field of forensic dentistry. This study aims to use morphological analysis of palatal rugae patterns to assess sex in a South Indian adult population.
Materials And Methods: This cross-sectional study was undertaken to evaluate a total of 300 maxillary dental casts (150 males and 150 females).
Introduction: During training and combat operations, military personnel may be exposed to repetitive low-level blast while using explosives to gain entry or by firing heavy weapon systems such as recoilless weapons and high-caliber sniper rifles. This repeated exposure, even within allowable limits, has been associated with cognitive deficits similar to that of accidental and sports concussion such as delayed verbal memory, visual-spatial memory, and executive function. This article presents a novel framework for accurate calculation of the human body blast exposure in military heavy weapon training scenarios using data from the free-field and warfighter wearable pressure sensors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To study the clinical and laboratory profile and to assess period for viral clearance in COVID 19 children.
Methods: We reviewed hospital records of children (<18 years) admitted from 1 April to 31 May, 2020 at a tertiary-care public hospital and identified those positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) by RT-PCR of respiratory secretions.
Results: 81.
Confinement has profound effects on protein functions. Nanoscale probes for confinement or excluded volume interactions could help us understand how these interactions influence protein functions. This work reports on the increased luminescence of BSA-gold nanoclusters when confined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Synchrotron Radiat
November 2020
Transition elements exhibit strong correlations and configuration interactions between core and valence excited states, which give rise to different excitations inside materials. Nickel exhibits satellite features in its emission and absorption spectra. Effects of such transitions on the optical constants of nickel have not been reported earlier and the available database of Henke et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ability for cells to self-synthesize metal-core nanoclusters (mcNCs) offers increased imaging and identification opportunities. To date, much work has been done illustrating the ability for human tumorigenic cell lines to synthesize mcNCs; however, this has not been illustrated for nontumorigenic cell lines. Here, we present the ability for human nontumorigenic microglial cells, which are the major immune cells in the central nervous system, to self-synthesize gold (Au) and iron (Fe) core nanoclusters, following exposures to metallic salts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJMIR Public Health Surveill
May 2020
Background: With the World Health Organization's pandemic declaration and government-initiated actions against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), sentiments surrounding COVID-19 have evolved rapidly.
Objective: This study aimed to examine worldwide trends of four emotions-fear, anger, sadness, and joy-and the narratives underlying those emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Over 20 million social media twitter posts made during the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak from January 28 to April 9, 2020, were collected using "wuhan," "corona," "nCov," and "covid" as search keywords.
Introduction: Blast-induced neurotrauma (BINT) has been recognized as the common mode of traumatic brain injury amongst military and civilian personnel due to an increased insurgent activity domestically and abroad. Previous studies from this laboratory have identified three major pathological events following BINT which include blood brain barrier disruption the earliest event, followed by oxidative stress and neuroinflammation as secondary events occurring a few hours following blast.
Objectives: Our recent studies have also identified an increase in oxidative stress mediated by the activation of superoxide producing enzyme NADPH oxidase (NOX) in different brain regions at varying levels with neurons displaying higher oxidative stress (NOX activation) compared to any other neural cell.
Deposition of synchrotron-radiation-induced carbon contamination on beamline optics causes their performance to deteriorate, especially near the carbon K edge. The photon flux losses due to carbon contamination have spurred researchers to search for a suitable decontamination technique to restore the optical surface and retain its performance. Several in situ and ex situ refurbishing strategies for beamline optics are still under development to solve this serious issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF