Recent Articles

Recent years, the risk of hip fractures in elderly people has exponentially increased due to a progressive loss of bone mass and bone structure deterioration due to osteoporosis and increased incidental falls. It is, therefore, expected that the prediction of femoral strength and fracture location of specific patient will be clinically very useful. It is also considered that some typical femoral diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) and avascular necrosis (AVN) could affect the strength and fracture behaviour of the femurs. In this study, 130 computational femoral models were constructed using CT images of 73 patients. Then, CT image based finite element method (CT-FEM) combined with a damage mechanics analysis was applied to predict the fracture load as the femoral strength and the fracture location of the femoral models. The computational results exhibited that the fracture load tended to increase with increase of the volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) estimated in the femoral head and neck region in all the three types of models, although AVN models showed much wider scatter in the data than the other two types. The bone fracture behaviour was expressed as expressed as the distribution of failure elements in the head and neck region. The bone fracture mainly took place in the neck region for all types of femoral model. In addition, a combination of the head and neck fracture was also observed in all the models. A combination of neck and intertrochanteric fracture was also observed in the normal and AVN groups.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of monitoring professional female dancer health with a variety of subjective and objective monitoring methods, including application of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to modelling menstrual cycle hormones and delivering swift personalised clinical advice. Methods: Female dancers from a ballet company completed a published online dance-specific health questionnaire. Over the study period, dancers recorded wellbeing and training metrics, with menstrual cycle tracking and blood tests. For menstrual cycle hormones AI-based techniques modelled hormone variation over a cycle, based on capillary blood samples taken at two time points. At regular, virtual, clinical interviews with each dancer, findings were discussed, and personalised advice given. Results: 14 female dancers (mean age 25.5 years, SD 3.7) participated in the study. 10 dancers recorded positive scores on the dance health questionnaire, suggesting a low risk of relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). 2 dancers were taking hormonal contraception. Apart from 1 dancer, those not on hormonal contraception reported current eumenorrhoeic status. The initiative of monitoring menstrual cycles and application of AI to model menstrual cycle hormones found that subclinical hormone disruption was occurring in 6 of the 10 dancers reporting regular cycles. 4 of the 6 dancers who received personalised advice, showed improved menstrual hormone function, including one dancer who had a planned pregnancy. Conclusions: Multimodal monitoring facilitated delivery of prompt personalised clinical medical feedback specific for dance. This strategy enabled the early identification and swift management of emergent clinical issues. These innovations received positive feedback from the dancers.

Background: Our anatomical-physiological nervous system, our beliefs, knowledge and affectivity are continuously interrelated, although they are often not well discriminated. Method: This is not a revision, but rather, a qualitative, narrative research, with inclusive and interpretative variables. Results: In practice, thoughts and feelings interwoven with actions conform the individual existential reality. The Jakob-Papez circuit of the limbic system is crucial to the processing of emotions, memories and learning. In particular, learning and memory need the integrity of the basolateral amygdala in the temporal lobe. It is indeed well known that the activity of the hippocampus and the amygdala is im-portant when it comes to memory. This paper will also comment on how stress affects learning and especially, the so-called emotional memory, and that both aggressiveness and violence, as well as the empathetic condition can all be considered parts of the same di-mension. Conclusions: One’s will, beliefs and desires, integrated within the ideological domain explain, together with neurobiology, most of one’s behaviors, including aggres-siveness in general, and violence in particular. We will also emphasize that stress expo-sure, which has such complex effects in the mnemonic encoding, can produce profound changes in physiology and social behavior.

A review of association measures of effect size between two categorical variables in contingency tables is presented. Relationships among measures of effect size are explicated by considering the test statistics of independence, the nominal or ordinal nature of categorical variables, and the size of contingency tables. Tables that contain minimum sample sizes for testing independence between two categorical variables in contingency tables are also presented. Cramer’s V2 was employed as a main measure of association in tabulation. Illustrations are provided using data from 2018 General Social Survey for obtaining test statistics and measures of effect size for contingency tables. Determining appropriate sample sizes for statistical analysis of data in contingency tables is important for studies in behavioral sciences.

Car risk-taking is a concern for governments and road safety agencies around the world. However, few studies on this topic have highlighted the role of both positive and negative emotions. The few existing studies have focused more on negative emotions. Anger has been shown to be related to the driving situation and has deleterious effects on driver behavior. It has also been shown that anxiety both impairs performance and encourages caution. But nothing is yet clearly established about the role of positive emotions. This article aims to identify the different emotions that Cameroonian motorists report feeling when they are behind the wheel, generative situations and underlying risk-taking behaviors. From the semi-structured interviews conducted with 21 participants, it emerges that four emotions are regularly felt by motorists: anger, anxiety, fear and joy. The situations at the origin of these emotions are specific to each sex and the risky behaviors, depending not only on the type of emotion felt but also on the gender of the participant. This study is a course of intervention to be exploited to act effectively on the phenomenon of road accidents related to risk-taking. It can help to effectively define trajectories not only for future studies but also in the development of road safety strategies.

Aim: Ameloblastoma is known to be a benign, slow-growing but locally aggressive and infiltrative odontogenic epithelial neoplasm with a rare capacity to metastasize. Peripheral ameloblastoma is a rare extraosseous variant with histological characteristics similar to those of the common intraosseous ameloblastoma. Methods: The present study describes a case of a 66-year-old woman with a maxillary peripheral desmoplastic ameloblastoma. Clinical features, histopathology, surgical treatment and follow-up are discussed. Conclusion: A clinical case of maxillary desmoplastic ameloblastoma is reported. Two months after surgery, a temporary prosthesis was applied. After the planned follow up, final rehabilitation will include bone grafting to reconstruct the resected maxillary area followed by implants positioning. Further reports of new cases are however necessary for a better knowledge of the origin, the biological behavior, and the clinical treatment of this particular odontogenic tumor variant.

Vermiform appendix anomalies including duplicated appendix are very rare with 0.004% incidence and are usually incidental findings diagnosed intraoperatively. The diagnosis can also be missed even intraoperatively during appendectomy procedure and the patient might present with another attack of acute appendicitis. We report a case of a 34-year-old male patient who presented with a typical picture of acute appendicitis based on clinical assessment, laboratory investigation and radiological studies with his past surgical history significant for appendectomy done few months prior. He underwent laparoscopic appendectomy two times within a 6-month period for two attacks of acute appendicitis both confirmed on histopathological examination.

Field experiment was conducted at the University of Uyo Teaching and Research Farm, Uyo, Southeastern Nigeria during the 2021 cropping season to evaluate agro-morphological characters, and determine correlation coefficients and principal components in 10 groundnut varieties. The experiment which occupied a land area of 21.8m x 4.12m was laid out in a randomized complete block design in three replications. Characters studied were plant height (cm), number of leaves, leaf area (cm2), number of branches, length of petioles (cm), days to first flowering, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, length of pods (cm), circumference of pods (cm), weight of pods per plant (g), harvest index (%), weight of 100 seeds (g), pod yield (tha-1) and seed yield (tha-1). Significant differences (p>0.05) were observed among the groundnut varieties for all the characters. The variety, RC-128B was superior over all other varieties in nine characters, namely number of leaves, leaf area (cm2), number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, weight of 100 seeds (g), harvest index (%), pod yield (tha-1) and seed yield (tha-1), followed by RC-128S in seven, namely number of leaves, number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, harvest index (%), seed yield (tha-1) and pod yield (tha-1), while RMP-24 was superior over the rest in six characters, namely plant height (cm) length of petioles (cm), plant biomass (g), weight of haulm (g), fresh weight of pods (g) and number of pods per plant. Six characters correlated significantly and positively with seed yield, namely number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, circumferences of pods (cm), weight of pods (g), weight of 100 seeds (g), harvest index (%) and pod yield (tha-1). First 3PC with Eigen values greater than 1.0 jointly explained 77.6%…

Background: The purpose of this case report is to illustrate the clinical course of an extremely rare case of Congenital Pulmonary Lymphangiectasia (CPL) presenting as an early pulmonary interstitial emphysema (PIE) complicating respiratory distress syndrome, in an extremely low gestational age neonate (ELGAN) along with a short review of the literature. Case presentation: This 24 weeks ELGAN male with radiologic changes consistent with pulmonary interstitial emphysema (PIE) complicating respiratory distress syndrome which later progressed to bilateral cystic lung changes, expired at 23 days of age. Maternal history was complicated by E. coli urinary tract infection and Group-B Strep chorioamnionitis. The infant remained intubated throughout the hospital course and received antibiotics initially and terminally. His tracheal aspirate cultures also grew Mycoplasma hominis, and Ureaplasma urealyticum, treated with azithromycin. An autopsy revealed diffuse bilateral congenital lymphangiectasia. Postmortem blood and lung tissue cultures were positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Conclusion: Despite its extreme rarity, the authors recommend considering congenital pulmonary lymphangiectasia in the differential diagnosis, in an extremely preterm neonate, presenting with early pulmonary interstitial emphysema (PIE), and respiratory failure refractory to surfactant, antibiotic therapy, and complex ventilator management.

Bockdalek hernia is a rare type of congenital diaphragmatic hernia which was firstly described by Vincent Alexander Bockdalek in 1848.[1] The hernia sac is more commonly located on the left due to protection of the right side of the diaphragm by the liver, and contents can include spleen, small bowel, liver, colon or kidney.[1] Bockdalek hernia with intra-thoracic kidney is extremely rare and the reported incidence is less than 0.25%.[2] During embryogenesis the developing kidney which is located in the pelvis migrates upwards to fuse with the adrenal glands. Sometimes, this upward migration of the developing kidney does not stop at its designated point and thus the kidney reaches into the thorax. [3] Treatment options for Bockdalek hernia may include open or laparoscopic surgical repair, which involve the reduction of the herniated organs and closure of diaphragmatic defect with or without prosthetic mesh.[4] Herein we report a rare case of recurrent Bockdalek hernia including an intra-thoracic left kidney in a 59 year old lady with a past history of a Bockdalek hernia that was repaired at the age of 3, who presented to our hospital with severe lower abdominal pain and vomiting.