Data in mobile cloud environment are mainly transmitted via wireless noisy channels, which may result in transmission errors with a high probability due to its unreliable connectivity. For video transmission, unreliable connectivity may cause significant degradation of the content. Improving or keeping video quality over lossy channel is therefore a very important research topic. Error concealm...

This paper proposes an agent community based information retrieval method, which uses agent communities to manage and look up information related to users. An agent works as a delegate of its user and searches for information that the user wants by communicating with other agents. The communication between agents is carried out in a peerto-peer computing architecture. In order to retrieve relev...

Objective 
 To describe the delay in service confirmation and to implement an intervention improve timely for selected categories of employees, Regional Directorate Health Services (RDHS), Hambantota, Sri Lanka.
 Methods
 Nursing Officers (NOs) Service Assistants (HAS) were identified as most affected by delay. The documents needed promotion delays experienced already permanent e...

The current approach to dental caries focuses on modifying and correcting factors to favor oral health. Caries management by risk assessment (CAMBRA) is an evidence-based approach to preventing or treating dental caries at the earliest stages. Caries protective factors are biologic or therapeutic measures that can be used to prevent or arrest the pathologic challenges posed by the caries risk f...

Local anesthetics are the safest drugs used in dentistry for pain management, but cause undesirable qualities such as stinging and burning upon injection, relatively slow onset of action, and unreliable or no anesthesia when injected into infected tissues. Buffering of local anesthetics has been demonstrated to counteract these undesirable qualities of local anesthetics. Recent advances in tech...

Introduction. The role of healthcare workers’ hands in the transmission of infectious diseases to patients is acknowledged. Indeed, they can pick potentially pathogenic bacteria and fungi from hand-touch surfaces before wearing gloves; these microorganisms multiply rapidly in the moist environment underneath gloves and multiplication rate increases along with the duration of glove use. This rou...

In this paper, a new reversible data hiding (RDH) algorithm that is based on the concept of shifting of prediction error histograms is proposed. The algorithm extends the efficient modification of prediction errors (MPE) algorithm by incorporating two predictors and using one prediction error value for data embedding. The motivation behind using two predictors is driven by the fact that predict...

PURPOSE To assess changes in rod and cone visual functions in a mouse model of Fundus albipunctatus with disrupted 11-cis-retinol dehydrogenase (RDH) genes after pharmacologic treatment with an artificial retinal chromophore. METHODS Retinoid levels and photoreceptor functions of Rdh5-/-Rdh11-/- mice at a variety of light intensities were analyzed with normal-phase HPLC and ERG techniques. Pr...

Retinoic acid is essential for skin growth and differentiation, and its concentration in skin is controlled tightly. In humans, four different members of the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) superfamily of proteins were proposed to catalyze the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of retinoic acid (the oxidation of retinol to retinaldehyde). Epidermis contains at least three of these...

s; and has been awarded over 75 research and service grants, including ones for the study of antiplaque chemotherapeutic agents. He serves as a consultant to many professional organizations and from 2002 to 2005 served on the American Dental Association Council on Scientific Affairs. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral Medicine and the American College of Dentists. ■ JOANN R. GURENL...