Study design: Cross-sectional study to evaluate bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture history after spinal cord injury (SCI). Objectives: To determine frequency of osteoporosis and fractures after SCI, correlate extent of bone loss with frequency of fractures after SCI, and determine fracture risk in SCI patients. Setting: The Hines Veterans A airs Hospital in Hines, Illinois, USA. Methods: Femoral neck BMD was measured in 41 individuals with a history of traumatic or ischemic SCI using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA Lunar Whole Body Densitometer Model). Results: Twenty-®ve patients (61%) met the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for osteoporosis, eight (19.5%) were osteopenic, and eight (19.5%) were normal. Fracture after SCI had occurred in 14 patients (34%). There were signi®cant di erences between the femoral neck BMD and SCI duration in patients with a fracture history compared to those without. For patients in the same age group, each 0.1 gm/cm 2 and each unit of standard deviation (SD) (t-value) decrement of BMD at the femoral neck increased the risk of fracture 2.2 and 2.8 times, respectively. Considered simultaneously with age, duration of SCI, and level of SCI, BMD was the only signi®cant predictor of the number of fractures. Conclusion: Osteoporosis and an increased frequency of fractures occur after SCI. Measurement of femoral neck BMD can be used to quantify fracture risk in SCI patients.

We report on the research conducted by the Community Action Against Asthma (CAAA) in Detroit, Michigan, to evaluate personal and community-level exposures to particulate matter (PM) among children with asthma living in an urban environment. CAAA is a community-based participatory research collaboration among academia, health agencies, and community-based organizations. CAAA investigates the effects of environmental exposures on the residents of Detroit through a participatory process that engages participants from the affected communities in all aspects of the design and conduct of the research; disseminates the results to all parties involved; and uses the research results to design, in collaboration with all partners, interventions to reduce the identified environmental exposures. The CAAA PM exposure assessment includes four seasonal measurement campaigns each year that are conducted for a 2-week duration each season. In each seasonal measurement period, daily ambient measurements of PM 2.5 and PM 10 (particulate matter with a mass median aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm and 10 µm, respectively) are collected at two elementary schools in the eastside and southwest communities of Detroit. Concurrently, indoor measurements of PM 2.5 and PM 10

Pierre Robin syndrome or Pierre Robin sequence (PRS) is a congenital etiologically heterogeneous condition presenting with various malformations. Here we are reporting the surgical management of an 18-month-old female baby who was referred from Department of Pediatrics with a complaint of a large cleft palate. She was taken up for palatoplasty with consent for elective tracheostomy. After genetic evaluation, the authors conclude that the presented case was a PRS in isolation with mild cardiac anomalies and an inferiorly placed hypoplastic epiglottis. Patient should be followed up and growth modifications of the jaws should be done.

Figure 8. Summary of the Pearson correlation coefficient between the neural network predictions to the ground truth. The parameters of a) resistance, b) angular displacement, and c) power are measured by three users (each represented by a different color) across five test days. Each box-and-whisker symbol represents 20 test runs.

No abstract