Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining the perceived versus the actual knowledge about forensic odontology: A cross‐sectional survey among dentists

Dentists should have the basic essential skills and knowledge about forensic odontology, to better collaborate with law enforcement and investigations. The objective of this survey was to assess the perceived and actual knowledge toward forensic odontology among dentists and to question their willingness to attend training courses on this specialty. A cross‐sectional survey based on a self‐administered questionnaire was conducted in various districts of Saudi Arabia. Four hundred dentists responded to a questionnaire that tested their actual knowledge of forensic odontology based on answering 15 statements using the alternatives correct, incorrect, do not know. The perceived knowledge was registered as strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree, then assigned scores respectively from four to zero. A willingness to attend a training course in the future was recorded by (yes/no). Scores were summated then subjected to descriptive statistics and regression analyses. Responses were received from 360 study participants (89% response rate). The percentage of correct answers, that is, the actual knowledge, was 67.9 (standard deviation [SD] ± 18.4). About two thirds of the responders (n = 251, 69.7%) indicated a willingness to attend a forensic odontology course in the future. Differences in both actual and perceived knowledge were identified on the basis of gender, work experience, education level, attended a course in forensic odontology, and having previously provided a past bite‐mark examination. The perceived knowledge on forensic odontology among dentists was moderate to low. The gap between perceived and actual knowledge signifies low self‐confidence. Dentists with higher education levels and experience tend to have better knowledge.
Comparing the precision of panoramic radiography and cone-beam computed tomography in avoiding anatomical structures critical to dental implant surgery: A retrospective study

Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlations between measurements made using panoramic radiography and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) based on certain anatomical landmarks of the jaws, with the goal of preventing complications due to inaccurate measurements in the pre-surgical planning phase of dental implant placement. Materials and Methods A total of 56 individuals who underwent panoramic radiography and a CBCT evaluation before dental implant surgery were enrolled in the study. Measurements were performed to identify the shortest vertical distance between the alveolar crest and neighboring anatomical structures, including the maxillary sinus, nasal floor, mandibular canal, and foramen mentale. The differences between the measurements on panoramic radiography and CBCT images were statistically analyzed. Results Statistically significant differences were observed between the measurements on panoramic radiography and CBCT for all anatomical structures (P<.05). The correlation coefficients (r) between the paired samples obtained from panoramic radiography and CBCT were closely correlated (P<.05), with r values varying from 0.921 and 0.979 for different anatomical regions. Conclusion The results of this study support the idea that panoramic radiography might provide sufficient information on bone height for preoperative implant planning in routine cases or when CBCT is unavailable. However, an additional CBCT evaluation might be helpful in cases where a safety margin cannot be respected due to insufficient bone height.
Seroprevalence of parvovirus B19 in blood donors: the risks and challenges of blood transfusion in Zambia in the era of HIV/AIDS at the Kitwe Central Hospital, blood bank

Background Human Parvovirus (B19V) is a small, single-stranded, non-enveloped DNA virus which is pathogenic to humans causing a wide array of clinical complications which include erythema infectiosum, aplastic crisis and hydrops foetalis. It is generally harmless in healthy individuals but may be life threatening in immunocompromised individuals such as patients with sickle cell disease, cancer, HIV and pregnant women. It has been shown to be transmissible by blood transfusion but donor screening for the virus is not yet mandatory in most sub-Saharan African countries including Zambia. Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional study undertaken at the Kitwe Central Hospital, blood bank and Tropical Diseases Research Centre at Ndola Central Hospital. A total of 192 blood samples were screened for Ig M antibodies against parvovirus B19 by ELISA. Objectives The general objective of the study was to determine the seroprevalence of parvovirus B19 infections among healthy blood donors at the Kitwe Central Hospital blood bank. Specific Objectives were to detect parvovirus B19 Ig M antibodies in donor blood using serology and to analyse the age and sex distribution of parvovirus among blood donors. Results The prevalence of parvovirus B19 Ig M in this study was 15.6%. The majority of the positive cases were in the age group 15–22 years (17.8%) but there was no statistical significance between occurrence of parvovirus and age ( p value=0.703). Prevalence in males was higher than in females that is 16.4% and 13.8%, respectively. The relationship between gender and parvovirus B19 occurrence was however not significant either (p value=0.516) Conclusion This study showed a 15.6% prevalence rate of acute Parvovirus B19 infections in blood donors at the Kitwe Central Hospital, blood bank. Studies with larger sample sizes are needed to validate these results.
Thyroid function in healthy and unhealthy preterm newborns

Background The thyroid gland and hormonal regulation are among the most important systems to be investigated in pre-term infants. This study sought to investigate thyroid hormone levels of healthy and unhealthy pre-term infants. Methods The prospective study included 53 consecutive premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit within a duration of one year. Of these preterm babies, 20 were healthy, while 33 had problems such as asphyxia or RDS. Venous blood samples were collected at baseline 0–24 hours, 7 and 14 days and FT3, FT4, and TSH levels were determined. Other data recorded included demographic characteristics of the patients and clinical variables. Results The most frequent health problems were RDS (87.9%), sepsis (30.3%), and retinopathy of prematurity (24.2%). The mean TSH levels showed a consistent decline at three consequent measurements in both groups, which were always significantly lower in unhealthy pre-terms. In both groups, TSH levels showed significant decreases on Day 7 and Day 14 compared to the baseline levels (p<005). The levels of FT3 and FT4 consistently showed significant correlations with gestational week and birth weight at each of the three measurements. Conclusion Pre-term infants, especially those having problems, have significant hypothyroxinemia that may require thyroid hormone replacement therapy.
Substance abuse among students in selected secondary schools of an urban community of Oyo-state, South West Nigeria: implication for policy action

Background Substance abuse among youths is fast becoming a global Public Health concern. Objectives This study assessed the prevalence and factors associated with substance abuse in selected public schools in Ogbomoso, South-West Nigeria. Methods Cross-sectional study design and multi-stage sampling method were utilized among 249 study participants who gave informed consent/assent. Data were collected using facilitated, self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics using the Chi-Square test were carried out at p<0.05. Results The mean age of our respondents was 16.3±2SD; 40.0% of them had positive attitude to substance abuse while 21.7% had ever consumed alcoholic drinks. In all, 31(26.3%) of the respondents satisfied the criteria used in defining substance abuse. Tramadol was the most commonly abused substance apart from alcohol; reported by 39.0% of the substance abusers. Most (35.5%) of the substance abusers did so believing it could enhance their academic performance. The proportion of respondents who were substance abusers was significantly higher among students who had not received any formal lectures on the subject at school compared to those who had. (47.5% vs 29.7% ;p=0.023). Conclusion Our findings underscore an urgent need to intensify awareness against substance abuse among secondary school students in Nigeria.
Under nutrition and associated factors among school adolescents in Dangila Town, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

Background Under nutrition in adolescents is an important determinant of health outcomes. Yet, adolescents are not usually part of health and nutrition surveys. Therefore, this research was conducted to assess factors associated with under nutrition among school adolescents. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted among 424 school adolescents from November 1–15, 2015. Simple random sampling was used to select the study participants. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS version 20 software. Both bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were carried out to identify predictors of under nutrition. Furthermore, anthropometric data were calculated using Anthro-plus software. Result The prevalence of stunting and thinness were 24.8 % and 7.1 %, respectively. Male gender [AOR=3.2, 95 % CI: (1.7, 5.8)], infrequent food intake [AOR=4.6, 95% CI: (2.6, 8.0)], unavailability of latrine [AOR=2.7, 95 % CI: (1.2, 6.0)], and poor hand washing practice [AOR=3.9, 95 % CI: (1.9, 8.1)] were independent predictors of stunting. Factors associated with thinness were being male [AOR=11.5, 95% CI: (3.3, 39.5)], illness in the last two weeks [AOR=2.9, 95 % CI: (1.2, 7.0)], and having more than five family members [AOR=3.6, 95% CI: (1.3, 9.4)]. Conclusion The prevalence of under nutrition was high in this study. Infrequent food intake, unavailability of a latrine, poor hand washing practice, and large family members were the factors associated with under nutrition. There is need to implement nutrition education to school adolescents by giving emphasis on environmental and personal hygiene.
Safety and efficacy of biodegradable polymer-coated thin strut sirolimus-eluting stent vs. durable polymer-coated everolimus-eluting stent in patients with acute myocardial infarction

Introduction The biodegradable polymer drug-eluting stents were developed to improve vascular healing. However, further data are needed to confirm the safety and efficacy of these stents in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Aim We sought to determine the 1-year clinical follow-up in patients with AMI treated with a thin strut biodegradable polymer-coated sirolimus-eluting stent (BP-SES) versus a durable coating everolimus-eluting stent (DP-EES). Material and methods We analyzed patients with AMI (STEMI and NSTEMI) treated with either a BP-SES (ALEX, Balton, Poland, n = 886) or DP-EES (XIENCE, Abbott, USA, n = 1054) with available 1-year clinical follow-up using propensity score matching. Outcomes included target vessel revascularization (TVR) as the efficacy outcome and all-cause death, myocardial infarction, and definite/probable stent thrombosis as safety outcomes. Results After propensity score matching 672 patients treated with BP-SES and 672 patients treated with DP-EES were selected. Procedural and clinical characteristics were similar between the groups. In-hospital mortality was similar in both tested groups. One-year follow-up demonstrated comparable efficacy outcome TVR (BP-SES 7.1% vs. DP-EES 5.2%, p = 0.14), as well as similar safety outcomes of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, and definite/probable stent thrombosis. Conclusions The thin-strut biodegradable polymer coated sirolimus-eluting stent demonstrated comparable clinical outcomes at 1 year after implantation to the DP-EES. These data support the relative safety and efficacy of BP-SES in AMI patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.
Dimensional changes in reconstructed nipples: autologous versus prosthetic breast reconstruction

Purpose The creation of the nipple-areola complex is the final stage in breast reconstruction and highly affects patient satisfaction. The neo-nipple is well known to shrink over time, particularly in the nipple projection. Currently, no reconstruction technique is clearly superior in terms of nipple size maintenance. We evaluated nipple size changes among several methods of breast mound reconstruction. Methods Seventy-eight patients received nipple-areola complex reconstruction secondarily after breast reconstruction. C-V flap nipple reconstructions were performed using a free transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (TRAM) flap in 25 cases (TRAM group), a latissimus dorsi (LD) myocutaneous flap in 27 cases (LD group), and an implant in 26 cases (implant group). The circumference and projection of the neo-nipple were measured using a flexible ruler, immediately after reconstruction and average 10 months after surgery. Results The overall circumference and projection at the final measurement were 91.43% ± 7.11% and 62.16% ± 21.55%, respectively, of immediate postoperative values. The change in circumference did not significantly differ among the 3 groups. In contrast, the change in projection was significantly worse in implant group compared to that in TRAM and LD groups. In addition, among the patients in implant group, greater inflation was significantly associated with greater decrease in the nipple projection. Conclusion Breast mound reconstruction with autologous musculocutaneous flap techniques achieves better long-term maintenance of the neo-nipple projection compared to that achieved with expanded tissue and implantation. Considering the prospective loss of long-term nipple dimension, the preoperative design should be oversized in accordance with its origin in mound reconstruction.
Effects of aqueous extract of Moringa oleifera seed on cadmium-induced reproductive toxicity in male Wistar rats

Background Moringa oleifera seeds have been reported to increase sexual activity of male rats but its mechanism of action remains unknown. Objective Cadmium is a heavy metal that induces reproductive toxicity. To elucidate its possible mechanisms of action, the effects of aqueous extract of Moringa seeds (AEMS) on Cadmium-induced reproductive damage were investigated. Methods Thirty male rats (180–200g, n=5) were grouped as follows: Control, Cadmium (2mg/kg), AEMS (100 and 500mg/kg), Cadmium+100mg/kg AEMS and Cadmium+500mg/kg AEMS. Single intraperitoneal dose of Cadmium was administered while AEMS was given daily (p.o) for 6 weeks and thereafter sacrificed by cervical dislocation. Sperm variables were examined microscopically while serum was analysed for sex hormones and antioxidants, testicular and epididymal total protein from tissue homogenate. Data were analysed using Students t-test and ANOVA. Results Cadmium caused significant decrease in sperm variables. The AEMS decreased sperm motility, count and testosterone. These declines were dose dependent. Total testicular protein was significantly lowered by AEMS but total epididymal protein was not affected. Serum catalase and SOD was reduced by AEMS while MDA increased. Conclusion Moringa seeds may exhibit male reproductive toxicity, as observed from its deleterious effect on androgen and sperm variables. It failed to prevent cadmium-induced alteration in reproductive variables and serum antioxidants.
Indexes of jaw muscle function in asymptomatic individuals with different occlusal features

This study aims to assess the correlation between indexes of jaw muscle function and dento‐skeletal morphology. A sample of 35 temporomandibular disorders‐free healthy individuals (10 males, mean age 26.7 ± 9.8 years) underwent surface electromyographic (sEMG) assessment of bilateral masseter and temporalis muscles, to evaluate sEMG activity during maximum voluntary clenching (MVC) with a dedicated device (Easymyo®, T.F.R. Technology, Udine, Italy). Four outcome parameters were assessed for each individual: MCV on cotton rolls; MVC on teeth; chewing on right and left sides; clench/relax test. Electromyographic recordings were assessed based on five standardized indexes of muscle function, to evaluate the degree of muscle asymmetry during static and dynamic function (i.e., percentage overlapping coefficient [POC], Impact, Asymmetry, Activation, and Torque). For each individual, the presence of a number of occlusal and skeletal features was assessed: asymmetry of molar class; deviated incisor midline; deep bite; open bite; and crossbite. Skeletal class and vertical dimension of occlusion were also evaluated. Based on normality distribution of data, t test and analysis of variance, when needed, were used to compare muscle function indexes between individuals with and without the different dento‐skeletal features. None of the muscle function indexes (POC, Impact, Asymmetry, Activation, and Torque) was significantly different between individuals with or without the various dental and skeletal features. Gender differences were also not significant (p > 0.05). Despite some minor differences were observed, none of them was significant. Thus, the interaction between form and function is too complex for hypothesizing a simple one‐to‐one relationship between interarch tooth relationship and muscle function patterns.
Towards Thwarting Social Engineering Attacks

Social engineering attacks represent an increasingly important attack vector growing in use by sophisticated hackers to compromise organizations. Water-hole attacks, in particular, have been leveraged in many recent high proﬁle hacks. These attacks compromise a legitimate website to execute drive-by download attacks by redirecting users to another domain with an exploit kit. To prevent water-hole attacks, organizations use a slew of countermeasures that alter the environment information given by employees visiting websites. In this paper, we explore this domain and introduce a game-theoretic model that captures the most relevant aspects for an organization protecting itself from a water-hole attack. This model provides a foundation for an organization to implement an automated protection policy that uses technological based countermeasures. Our main contributions are (1) the Social Engineering Deception Game model, (2) detailed analysis of the game model, (3) an algorithm to solve for the optimal protection policy, (4) heuristics to improve the scalability of our approach, and (5) detailed experiments that analyze the application of our approach.
Characterizing Long-Running Political Phenomena on Social Media

Social media provides many opportunities to monitor and evaluate political phenomena such as referendums and elections. In this study, we propose a set of approaches to analyze long-running political events on social media with a real-world experiment: the debate about Brexit, i.e., the process through which the United Kingdom activated the option of leaving the European Union. We address the following research questions: Could Twitter-based stance classification be used to demonstrate public stance with respect to political events? What is the most efficient and comprehensive approach to measuring the impact of politicians on social media? Which of the polarized sides of the debate is more responsive to politician messages and the main issues of the Brexit process? What is the share of bot accounts in the Brexit discussion and which side are they for? By combining the user stance classification, topic discovery, sentiment analysis, and bot detection, we show that it is possible to obtain useful insights about political phenomena from social media data. We are able to detect relevant topics in the discussions, such as the demand for a new referendum, and to understand the position of social media users with respect to the different topics in the debate. Our comparative and temporal analysis of political accounts can detect the critical periods of the Brexit process and the impact they have on the debate.
Processing bias: extending sensory drive to include efficacy and efficiency in information processing

Communication signals often comprise an array of colours, lines, spots, notes or odours that are arranged in complex patterns, melodies or blends. Receiver perception is assumed to influence preference and thus the evolution of signal design, but evolutionary biologists still struggle to understand how perception, preference and signal design are mechanistically linked. In parallel, the field of empirical aesthetics aims to understand why people like some designs more than others. The model of processing bias discussed here is rooted in empirical aesthetics, which posits that preferences are influenced by the emotional system as it monitors the dynamics of information processing and that attractive signals have effective designs that maximize information transmission, efficient designs that allow information processing at low metabolic cost, or both. We refer to the causal link between preference and the emotionally rewarding experience of effective and efficient information processing as the processing bias, and we apply it to the evolutionary model of sensory drive. A sensory drive model that incorporates processing bias hypothesizes a causal chain of relationships between the environment, perception, pleasure, preference and ultimately the evolution of signal design, both simple and complex.
Understanding What Drives Bitcoin Trading Activities

Cryptocurrencies have gained tremendous popularity over the past few years. The purpose of this study is to try to understand the factors that are driving cryptocurrency-related trading activities. Focusing on the well-established cryptocurrency called Bitcoin, we find that online search popularity and the volume of trade in unrelated stock markets positively and negatively, respectively, influence Bitcoin trading volume. We also find no statistical evidence that the underlying sentiment behind relevant financial news influence Bitcoin trading volume. We believe these results might be of great value to investors interested in cryptocurrencies and might instigate further research on this topic.
A Comprehensive Survey on Graph Neural Networks

Deep learning has revolutionized many machine learning tasks in recent years, ranging from image classification and video processing to speech recognition and natural language understanding. The data in these tasks are typically represented in the Euclidean space. However, there is an increasing number of applications, where data are generated from non-Euclidean domains and are represented as graphs with complex relationships and interdependency between objects. The complexity of graph data has imposed significant challenges on the existing machine learning algorithms. Recently, many studies on extending deep learning approaches for graph data have emerged. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of graph neural networks (GNNs) in data mining and machine learning fields. We propose a new taxonomy to divide the state-of-the-art GNNs into four categories, namely, recurrent GNNs, convolutional GNNs, graph autoencoders, and spatial–temporal GNNs. We further discuss the applications of GNNs across various domains and summarize the open-source codes, benchmark data sets, and model evaluation of GNNs. Finally, we propose potential research directions in this rapidly growing field.
Wi-Fi Sensing: Applications and Challenges

Wi-Fi technology has strong potentials in indoor and outdoor sensing applications, it has several important features which makes it an appealing option compared to other sensing technologies. This paper presents a survey on different applications of Wi-Fi based sensing systems such as elderly people monitoring, activity classification, gesture recognition, people counting, through the wall sensing, behind the corner sensing, and many other applications. The challenges and interesting future directions are also highlighted.