Children's post-burn scars in Mongolia

This study aimed to identify some risk factors for post-burn scarring in children aged 0–18 years. One hundred and eighty two participants were involved in this cohort study. Under the age of 18 who were admitted to the Department of Burn Reconstructive Surgery with a diagnosis of upper and lower extremity burns were followed for 6 months. A total of 182 participants (62.1% male, and 37.9% female participants) enrolled in this study. Age ranged from 1 to 17 and the average age was 3.95 ± 3.35. The degree of burn and the anatomical location of the burn had a statistically significant effect on the development of hypertrophic scars. The length of the patient's hospitalisation days and the area of ​​the burn were statistically correlated with wound healing (P = 000, P = .074). For example, the average length of hospitalisation days was 8 ± 5 days in the hypertrophic scars group of patients, and in the group with normal scars, average bed days were 6 ± 3 days (P = .000). Grade IIIb burns increased the risk of hypertrophic scar development by 4.9 times and grade IV burns increased it by 2.5 times. In addition, when the area of burns was 11% or more, the risk of hypertrophic scar development was increased by 58.8%. In the case of wound swab infection, the risk of hypertrophic scar development was 12.4% higher (B = 1.124, 95 EI = 0.55; 2.28, P = .748). Participants' age, burn area and degree of burn are statistically significant risk factors for post-burn scarring in children aged 0–18 years.     

Noninvasive in vitro measurement of pig-blood d-glucose by using a microwave cavity sensor

We have developed an electromagnetic microwave cavity sensor based on the resonant frequency shift for real time measurement of the glycemia in pig blood. We could determine the concentration of d-glucose in pig blood in the range of 150-550mg/dl at the resonance frequency near 4.75GHz with a bandwidth of 300MHz. The change in the d-glucose concentration in blood brings microwave reflection coefficient S(11) changes of about 6.26dB and resonance frequency shifts of about 11.25MHz due to the electromagnetic interaction between the cavity resonator and the blood filled plastic tube inserted into the cavity. This proposed system provides a unique approach for real time noninvasive and contactless glucose monitoring.     

Effect of auditory input on activations in infant diverse cortical regions during audiovisual processing

A fundamental question with regard to perceptual development is how multisensory information is processed in the brain during the early stages of development. Although a growing body of evidence has shown the early emergence of modality‐specific functional differentiation of the cortical regions, the interplay between sensory inputs from different modalities in the developing brain is not well understood. To study the effects of auditory input during audio‐visual processing in 3‐month‐old infants, we evaluated the spatiotemporal cortical hemodynamic responses of 50 infants while they perceived visual objects with or without accompanying sounds. The responses were measured using 94‐channel near‐infrared spectroscopy over the occipital, temporal, and frontal cortices. The effects of sound manipulation were pervasive throughout the diverse cortical regions and were specific to each cortical region. Visual stimuli co‐occurring with sound induced the early‐onset activation of the early auditory region, followed by activation of the other regions. Removal of the sound stimulus resulted in focal deactivation in the auditory regions and reduced activation in the early visual region, the association region of the temporal and parietal cortices, and the anterior prefrontal regions, suggesting multisensory interplay. In contrast, equivalent activations were observed in the lateral occipital and lateral prefrontal regions, regardless of sound manipulation. Our findings indicate that auditory input did not generally enhance overall activation in relation to visual perception, but rather induced specific changes in each cortical region. The present study implies that 3‐month‐old infants may perceive audio‐visual multisensory inputs by using the global network of functionally differentiated cortical regions. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.