Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry: The Current Concepts and a Peek into the Future

Introduction: Humans have recreated intelligence foreffective human decision making and to unburden themselvesof the stupendous workload. Artificial intelligence can act asa supplemental tool to improve diagnosis and treatment carebut intelligent machines can never be 'human'. The field ofartificial intelligence is relatively young but has still comea long way in the fields of medicine and dentistry. Hence,there is a need for the dentists to be aware about its potentialimplications for a lucrative clinical practice in the future.

A robust method for nucleic acid extraction from fabrics to study bacterial diversity

The importance of studying microbial load on fabrics has been recently realized with reports on fabrics being a source ofspread of infection in medical and hospitality sectors. However, methodological limitations have restricted the analysis ofmicrobial diversity on fabrics. Hence, the study aimed to develop a robust method for extraction of DNA from differenttypes of fabrics. Bacterial community profiles could be successfully generated with DNA extracted from real life samples,together with identification of different bacterial genera on fabrics. The study opens up venues to study effect of environmental factors on microbial load on fabrics. Also, such a technique will aid correlation between microbial load and typesof fabric so as to come up with recommendation for fabrics bearing minimal microbial load for medical and hospitalitysectors.

The Efficacy of Tranexamic Acid in Cardiac Surgery Requiring Cardio-Pulmonary Bypass (CPB) to Reduce Post-Operative Blood Loss and Requirement of Allogenic Blood Transfusion

Introduction: Cardiac surgery, owing to its invasiveness,need of anticoagulation, exposure to extracorporeal circulation(CPB) and relatively longer duration, is known to be associatedwith an increased risk of perioperative blood loss and allogeneicblood transfusions. Excessive bleeding requiring allogenicblood and blood components transfusion after cardiopulmonarybypass (CPB) is a common complication of cardiac surgeryimparting detrimental health and economic consequences.Many techniques like preoperative autologous blood collection(PAC), Acute normovolumic hemodilution (ANH), use ofminiaturized CPB circuit and use of ultrafiltration duringconduct of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) have been appliedin the past to conserve the blood during perioperative periodin cardiac surgery. Current study aimed to observe the efficacyof Tranexamic acid used during intraoperative period onpost-operative blood loss and requirement of allogenic bloodand blood products transfusion in cardiac surgical patientsrequiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).Material and methods: 120 adult patients undergoingcardiac surgery requiring elective cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) were categorized into 2 groups. Study (“TXA”) groupwas subjected to administration of tranexamic acid (20 mg/kg in divided doses). The 1st dose (10 mg/kg) was givenbefore initiation of CPB, 2nd dose (5 mg/kg) was given duringrewarming on CPB and 3rd dose (5 mg/kg) was given afterweaning off CPB along with protamine. The control (“NS”)group patients received normal saline as a placebo. Statisticalanalysis was done using “z test”.Results: “TXA” group had significantly lower post-operativebleeding and lesser requirement of allogenic blood and bloodproducts transfusion. The mean post-operative blood lossin “TXA” group was 427.42+/- 225.18 ml vs. 728.67+/-301.33ml in “NS” group. The mean PCV units transfused postoperatively in 72 hours in “TXA” group was 0.20+/-0.44 unitsvs. 0.67+/-0.60 in “NS” group. Patients in “TXA” group didnot require any FFP or platelets unit in contrast to “NS” groupwhere few patients required these products.Conclusion: The use of Tranexamic acid during intraoperative period in patient undergoing cardiac surgeryrequiring cardiopulmonary bypass circuit significantly reducesthe post-operative bleeding and requirement of allogenicblood and blood products transfusion.

Daughter Preference and Contraceptive-use in Matrilineal Tribal Societies in Meghalaya, India.

Although son preference in patrilineal society is an established fact, daughter preference in matrilineal society is not thoroughly examined. Very few studies have been carried out on the issue. This paper attempts to explore the daughter preference and contraceptive-use in matrilineal tribal societies in Meghalaya, India. Data from the National Family Health Survey 1998-1999 have been used in this study because, among the large-scale surveys, only this dataset allows identification of matrilineal sample. Mean, percentage, and standard deviation are computed in the present study. Further, the data have been cross-tabulated, and logistic regression has been run through SPSS (version 15). Among the ever-married matrilineal women, 17% desired more sons than daughters but 18.2% desired more daughters than sons. About 11% of ever-married women could achieve their desired sex composition of children. However, a very striking finding suggests that, even after achieving desired sex composition of children, as high as 61.8% of women were still not using contraception mainly because of programme factors while one-fourth were still depending on temporary methods. The rest 13.2% adopted terminal method of contraception, which calls for immediate attention of planners. With the increase in the number of sons but without daughter, contraceptive-use drastically decreased. The most desired sex composition of children seems to be two daughters and a son. Absence of daughter with increase in the total number of sons increased the desire for additional children. Every woman with two or more sons but without daughter wanted the next child to be a daughter. Thus, there are ample evidences to draw the conclusion that there is, in fact, a daughter preference in the matrilineal tribal societies in Meghalaya, India. Policy-makers may, thus, target the women who have achieved fertility and should ensure that daughter preference does not lead to the negligence to sons.