Asahi University

The World Health Organizationhas reaffirmed the efficacy and safety of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in a statement. While vaccine safety has been extensively studied, little is known about the descriptive language used in reports of adverse events. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), managed by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, collects free-text narratives on adverse events following vaccination. This study aimed to examine these narratives to describe vocabulary patterns associated with HPV vaccination.

We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional observational study using quantitative text mining techniques. Symptom descriptions related to HPV vaccination were extracted from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS, 2009-2023). Sentiment analysis was performed with the AFINN lexicon in R ("tidytext" package), which assigns numerical sentiment scores to words. This quantitative scoring approach enabled us to describe vocabulary patterns without qualitative inference of context or emotions.

Sentiment analysis was performed using the R "tidytext" package with the AFINN lexicon. Reports on suspected adverse events were obtained from the VAERS reports spanning 2009 to 2023, comprising 55,919 suspected adverse events. Approximately 6% of these reports involved product handling issues. The analysis showed that sentiments toward vaccination were more negative among females than males.

Healthcare providers supporting HPV vaccination should provide patients with accurate and comprehensive information on vaccine safety and potential adverse reactions.

The purpose of this study is to automatically extract the information necessary for chart recording from panoramic radiographs, to reduce the workload for dentists.

Using 1,085 dental panoramic radiographs (994 of permanent dentition and 91 of mixed dentition) taken at 10 facilities, we conducted tooth detection, numbering, and condition classification. Tooth condition was defined into five classes: natural, partial restoration, prosthetic crown, implant, and pontic. First, the YOLOv7 model was used to simultaneously detect 10 classes of deciduous teeth, 16 classes of permanent teeth, and four classes of tooth condition (excluding natural). We applied rule-based post-processing to the detected objects. Precision, Recall, and F1-score were used to evaluate our method, with an IoU (Intersection over Union) threshold set at 0.5.

We achieved Precision, Recall, and F1-score of 98.51%, 98.38%, and 98.45%, respectively, in tooth numbering. In tooth condition classification, the average F1-score across the 5 classes was 95.47%.

Our method, which detects and classifies the tooth numbers of permanent and deciduous teeth and their tooth condition simultaneously, is expected to contribute to reducing the workload of dentists and improving accuracy.

Static stretching, a common method used to improve flexibility, has traditionally involved repeated stretching until reaching the initial or pre-determined stretching angle or torque. However, recent recommendations suggest that stretching until reaching a new maximal angle may offer greater benefits owing to increased stretching intensity. This study aimed to examine the acute effects of resetting the static stretching intensity on flexibility.

In this randomized crossover trial, 14 healthy participants performed 300-s of static stretching of the right hamstrings randomly under two conditions: resetting the stretching intensity at new maximal knee extension angles every 30 s (10 × 30-s) or no-resetting (1 × 300-s). The outcomes assessed included range of motion (ROM), passive torque (PT) at pain onset, passive stiffness before and after stretching, and stretching angle during stretching.

During the 10 × 30-s condition, stretching angle was increased gradually (p < 0.05). Significant improvements were observed in ROM, PT at pain onset, and passive stiffness (p < 0.05) after stretching under both conditions. Moreover, the relative improvement in these parameters was greater under the 10 × 30-s condition than under the 1 × 300-s condition (p < 0.05).

These findings suggest that resetting stretching intensity can enhance flexibility, possibly due to the increased stretching intensity, underscoring the importance of individualized stretching approaches to optimize flexibility outcomes.