Corticotomy is an essential procedure for deformity correction and there are many techniques described. However there is no proper classification of the fracture pattern resulting from corticotomies to enable any studies to be conducted. We performed a retrospective study of corticotomy fracture patterns in 44 patients (34 tibias and 10 femurs) performed for various indications. We identified four distinct fracture patterns, Type I through IV classification based on the fracture propagation following percutaneous corticotomy. Type I transverse fracture, Type II transverse fracture with a winglet, Type III presence of butterfly fragment and Type IV fracture propagation to a fixation point. No significant correlation was noted between the fracture pattern and the underlying pathology or region of corticotomy.
The central coast of Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, along with other regions, was severely hit by the tsunami on 26 December 2004. A strange spawning behaviour of the Indian horseshoe crabs (Tachypleus gigas, Müller) was observed after the tsunami disturbance. Along the northeast coast of India, the horseshoe crabs normally migrate towards the shore in large numbers coinciding with the tidal height and grain size of the sediment and spawn in nests made in sand. The spawning behaviour was normal until November 2004 and throughout that period about 35 to 45 nests in 200 m2 of area of the breeding beach were examined. However, no nesting was observed from December 2004 to March 2005, i.e. after the occurrence of tsunami. The number of nests per 200 m2 of area (~82) and the number of eggs per nest (750-1000 eggs) were increased considerably when the normal conditions were restored in April 2005. The absence of spawning migration, from December 2004 to March 2005, is totally an unusual behaviour and this happened for the first time during the past several years of the study period.
Ten selected brands of commercial chicken burgers were analysed for their proximate composition, texture profiles, colour and sensory properties. Results show commercial chicken burgers consisted of moisture, proteins, fat and ash in the range of 46.72-69.37%, 11.08-18.77%, 9.08-20.54%, and 1.50-2.96%, respectively. Meanwhile, texture profiles comprised of hardness ranging from 8003.25-19038.15g, while chewiness had the value ranging from 650.78-1275.78 g. On the other hands, cohesiveness had the value ranging from 0.223-0.371, while springiness recorded the value in the range from 0.141-0.443. Colour analysis of cooked burgers resulted in lightness (L*) ranging from 48.21-73.59, redness (a*) from 0.75-9.08, and yellowness (b*) from 21.56-31.24. In sensory evaluation, the most acceptable colour of chicken burger was the one which had the medium lightness (L*) with the value of 63.96), medium redness (a*) with the value of 7.00) and the highest yellowness (b*) intensity value at 31.24. In addition, the most acceptable texture was the one with medium hardness value of 12590 g, high chewiness value of 1195.42 g, high cohesiveness value of 0.371, and medium springiness value of 0.254. It can be concluded that the Malaysian commercial chicken burgers complied with the Food Act of Malaysia and contained different levels of chemical compositions, textural characteristics and colour properties.
The ultrastructure of the odontoblast reflects the certain phases that the cell undergoes in their lifecycle. Ultrastructure studies of the odontoblasts have often been carried out using young teeth. In this study, teeth from an older individual have been used to study the odontoblasts from the crown and root area. The odontoblasts from the crown area retain their columnar shape while odontoblasts from the root area appeared to be flattened. The organelles present in the odontoblasts either from the crown or root area was observed to be reduced.
Studies conducted on the various geometric properties of skeletons of water bodies have shown highly promising results. However, these studies were made under the assumption that water bodies were static objects and that they remained constant over time. Water bodies are actually dynamic objects; they go through significant spatio-temporal changes due to drought and flood. In this study, the characterization of skeletons of simulated drought and flood of water bodies was performed. It was observed that as the drought level increased from 1 to 9, the average length of the skeletons decreased due to reduction in the size of the water bodies and increase in the number of water bodies. As the drought level increased from 9 to 15, the average length of the skeletons increased further due to vanishing of small water bodies. Flood caused an increase in the average length of the skeletons due to merging of adjacent water bodies. Power law relationships were observed between the average length of the skeletons of the simulated drought/flood and the level of drought/flood. The scaling exponent of these power laws which was named as a fractal dimension, indicated the rate of change of the average length of the skeletons of simulated drought/flood of water bodies over varying levels of drought/flood. However, errors observed in the goodness of fit of the plots indicated that monofractals were not sufficient to characterise the skeletons of simulated drought and flood of water bodies. Multifractals and lacunarity analysis were required for more accurate characterisation.
This survey elucidated the perceptions and implementation 0f orthodontic Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) by all ortlmduntistc and dental officers in the Ministry of Health Mahysia (MOH). Two different set: uf xelf-administered questionnaires were targeted at first·year dental officers (FYDO), dental officcrx (DO) and administrative Senior Dental Officers (SDO) in one group and unhocluntists in another group. Only 30% responded from a total of 1,327 MOH dental officers, with no participation from three States. Majority (89%) of officers have heard of CPG: although some were unsure of their purpose and usage. About 69% have read orthodontic CPG; of whom 87% have read other MOH dental CPG:. About 78.6% found CPGs 'gaud to excellenf but 16,0% did not answer this question. Same comments received included: language was confusing, inadequate details and pictures, need improvement, irrelevant, need CPG: for other orthodontic problems, need more knowledge first and requests for mare copies. Only 27.7% used them often, 53% occasionally and 15% hardly follow CPG:. About 82% felt that they were encouraged to use CPGx in their workplace and the majority (86%) knew where they were kept especially SDC: and DO; About 90% in the orthndonzist group have received hard copies of orthodontic CPGs but the majority (76%) has not seen them on the website. Although all felt that CPG; were useful to officers and encouraged their use, only 62.5% have introduced CPGs to their officers. There was generally more awareness and usage of CPGS among SDOs compared with DOs and FY DO; The dissemination and availability of orthodontic CPG: is reasonably good. However, the implementation by mthodontists and administrative officers can be improved for better awareness, understanding and usage by dental officers, especially FYDOs.
Introduction: The New Zealand White (NZW) rabbit model is commonly used for the research of
posterolateral intertransverse lumbar arthrodesis. The standard approach reported by many
researchers are a muscle splitting approach through the intermuscular plane between multifidus and longissimus muscles. Methods: In this research the fusion bed was exposed by retracting the three groups of paraspinal muscles (multifidus, longissimus and iliocostalis) medially. Results: This alternative method showed good exposure of the transverse processes and intertransverse membrane with less bleeding from the muscles observed. No death due to surgical complication was observed out of twenty-four rabbits operated. Conclusion: An easy and safe method for performing posterolateral intertransverse lumbar arthrodesis was demonstrated and recommended as an alternative approach for surgery on New Zealand White rabbits.
Introduction: The New Zealand White (NZW) rabbit model is commonly used for the research of
posterolateral intertransverse lumbar arthrodesis. The standard approach reported by many researchers are a muscle splitting approach through the intermuscular plane between multifidus and longissimus muscles. Methods: In this research the fusion bed was exposed by retracting the three groups of paraspinal muscles (multifidus, longissimus and iliocostalis) medially. Results: This alternative method showed good exposure of the transverse processes and intertransverse membrane with less bleeding from the muscles observed. No death due to surgical complication was observed out of twenty-four rabbits operated. Conclusion: An easy and safe method for performing posterolateral intertransverse lumbar arthrodesis was demonstrated and recommended as an alternative approach for surgery on New Zealand White rabbits.
The problem of difficulty in obtaining cloud-free scene at the equatorial region from satellite platforms can be
overcome by using airborne imagery as an attempt for introducing an economical method of remote sensing
data; which only requires a digital camera to provide near time data. Forty three digital images were captured
using a high resolution digital camera model pentax optio A40 (12 megapixels)at a selected location in the same day in Penang Island from a low-altitude flying autopilot aircraft (CropCam) to generate land use/land cover (LULC) map of the test area. The CropCam was flown at an average altitude of 320 meters over the ground while capturing images which were taken during two flying missions for the duration of approximately 15 and 20 minutes respectively. The CropCam was equipped with a digital camera as a sensor to capture the GPS points based digital images according to the present time to ensure the mosaic of the digital images. Forty one images were used in providing a mosaic image of a bigger coverage of area (full panorama). Training samples were collected simultaneously when the CropCam captured the images by using hand held GPS. Supervised classification techniques, such as the maximum likelihood, minimum-to-distance, and parallelepiped were applied to the panoramic image to generate LULC map for the study area. It was found that the maximum likelihood classifier produce superior results and achieved a high degree of accuracy. The results indicated that the CropCam equipped with a high resolution digital camera can be useful and suitable tool for the tropical region, and this technique could reduce the cost and time of acquiring images for LULC mapping.
This work describes the effects of different cooking temperatures in repetitive cooking-chilling (RCC) process on resistant starch (RS) content in fish crackers prepared in a ratio of 1:1 fish to sago starch formulation. In this work, three sets of four RCC cycles were performed on fish crackers, in which each set was cooked at fixed temperatures of 100, 115 and 121°C, respectively. The chilling temperature was fixed at 4°C in all cases. Subjecting the fish crackers to a higher cooking temperature for up to 4 cycles of RCC can increase the RS content. However, quality degradation was observed in the characteristics of the fish crackers. During the first RCC cycle, cooking at a higher temperature had caused the crackers to crack and burst. Besides, defragmentation to the shape of the fish cracker gels was also observed during the first RCC cycle, coupled with softer texture and high moisture content. When the products were subjected to frying, their linear expansion decreased, the texture became harder and the colour turned darker. This work demonstrated that the application of higher cooking temperature up to 4 RCC cycles was able to enhance the RS content in the fish crackers, but it was less able to attain the product's perfect shape. On the contrary, fish crackers that were exposed to lower cooking temperatures contained lower RS but with less shape damage.
Preclinical drug testing is an important area in new drug development where animals are used. An ideal animal model for this is one which is simple, reliable and can be extrapolated to humans. Topical drugs for inflammation are conventionally tested on the skin of animals after induction of inflammation. A gingival model would be simple as inflammation can be induced naturally by the action of plaque. Rats are a popular animal model for testing drugs as well as to study various diseases of the periodontium. Periodontal disease including gingival inflammation develops in
rats in relation to indigenous plaque or experimentally induced bacterial products. A number of features of rats ranging from anatomy, histology and response to bacterial insult can be seen mirrored to a great extent in humans. There is a lot similarity in the development and resolution of inflammation as well as the gingival wound healing of rats and humans. This paper tries to explore the feasibility of using the rat gingival model for preclinical testing of drugs acting on or influencing inflammation and concludes by identifying potential areas of research using this model. The addition of such a simple and inexpensive model for preclinical testing of drugs will be welcomed by the drug developers.
Known as ‘belangkas’ in Malaysia, horseshoe crabs have been used by locals for food, bait and as fertilizer. Currently, these ancient mariners are gaining a lot of attention as the amoebocyte from their blood are harvested by the biomedical industry for use to detect human pathogens in patients, injectable drugs and intravenous devices.