Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative evaluation of stress distribution against the root canal wall at three different levels using novel NiTi rotary files – A finite element analysis

Abstract Background: Recent innovations in the physical and mechanical features of endodontic file systems have diminished the prospect of stress generation and fracture risk in novel endodontic files. Aim: The purpose of this research was to comparatively evaluate the stress distribution of recently introduced endodontic rotary files with distinct features and metallurgy at three different levels of the root canal wall by finite element analysis. Materials and Methods: Forty endodontic files were used in this experiment after being inspected through a scanning electron microscope for any surface deformities. Based on their metallurgy and design, the scanned files were divided into four groups, each with 10 samples: Group A-2Shape files, Group B-F360, Group C-One Curve, and Group D-TruNatomy. To assess the mechanical behavior of these files, the stress produced by computer-aided models of these instruments on the dentinal wall of a simulated root canal was numerically analyzed using ANSYS® 15 Workbench finite element software. Results: A one-way ANOVA was used to assess all the raw data with post hoc Tukey analysis, the Shapiro–Wilk test, and Levene’s test. F360 files exerted the maximum stress on the dentinal wall, while TruNatomy files exerted the least stress at all the distinct levels of dentinal walls. Conclusions: There was no statistically significant variation in the stress generated between the four groups. Therefore, it can be concluded that improvements in rotary file design and metallurgy have the potential to reduce the stress during canal shaping and the risk of instrument breakage during clinical use.
In vitro assessment of thrombolytic potential of red and white ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a leading cause of death, and their pathogenesis is commonly attributed to thrombosis. Although existing medications are effective and fast-acting for thrombosis management, they tend to be expensive and cause severe side effects. Plant-based thrombolytic agents are actively sought after as inexpensive and safe alternatives for the treatment and prevention of thrombosis. Red ginger (Zingiber officinale var. rubrum) and white ginger (Zingiber officinale var. officinale) are widely used in foods and beverages and are believed to confer a wide variety of health benefits. Objective: This study aims to elucidate the thrombolytic and fibrinolytic potential of red and white ginger extracts in vitro.Methods: In this study, in vitro analyses were performed using erythrocyte liberation, euglobulin degradation, fibrin degradation, and fibrin zymography assays. The ability of crude enzyme extracts from both red (rgEx) and white ginger (wgEx) to degrade blood clots was analyzed using the erythrocytes liberation assay. Then, the thrombolytic and fibrinolytic activities of rgEx and wgEx were evaluated using euglobulin and fibrin degradation assays, both of which were visualized using Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Finally, fibrinolytic enzymes were identified using a fibrin zymography assay. Results: Red and white ginger extracts were found to have strong thrombolytic properties via high total liberated erythrocyte count from the erythrocyte liberation assay. The ginger extract proteases can rapidly degrade euglobulin and fibrin, with their priority order beginning with A
How Do Children “Think outside the Box”? Fluid Intelligence and Divergent Thinking: A Moderated Mediation Study of Field Dependent-Independent Cognitive Style and Gender

The interplay between fluid intelligence (Gf) and divergent thinking (DT) has widely characterized current research in the psychology of creativity. Nevertheless, the evidence on the main factors involved in this association during childhood remains a matter of debate. Present research has addressed the interplay between Gf and DT, exploring the mediating role of a field dependent-independent cognitive style (FDI) and the moderating effect of gender in 101 children (Mage = 8.02; SDage = 1.43). Participants carried out Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices, the Children Embedded Figure Test, and the Alternative Uses Task. The results revealed the mediating effect of FDI in the association between Gf and DT, providing evidence that this cognitive style represents a function of controlled mental processes underpinned by Gf, which are useful to thinking divergently. In addition, the findings reported that the interplay between FDI and DT was moderated by gender, suggesting that the impact of FDI on DT was stronger among boys. Through a multidimensional approach, these current research findings provide further insight into the primary children’s factors involved in the ability to find alternative solutions and think divergently.
Perception of Structure in Collective Free Improvisation and its Context Dependency: An Exploratory Analysis

This paper explores the hypothesis that similar structural notions can arise in different creative contexts, such as free improvisation and contemporary composition. Participants segmented a recorded improvisation into sequences based on personal criteria. Two groups were given different contexts: one group was informed the piece was a free improvisation, while the other was told it was a contemporary composition. Each participant analyzed one of 10 recordings. We aligned the segmentations by looking for overlaps within a specific time frame, Δt, considering segments simultaneous if they occurred within [t – Δt; t + Δt] of each other. Results indicated a high degree of similarity in perceived structure: 64% of segments overlapped within a 5-second frame, and 71% within 10 seconds. Additionally, the study found variations in the total number of segments and a correlation between sequence duration and the number of instruments used in the piece. These findings suggest that despite different contexts, there is a comparable perception of structural elements in musical pieces.
Mapping surface liquefaction caused by the September 2010 and February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes: a digital dataset

ABSTRACT We present maps and digital data of the surface manifestation of liquefaction for the two major events during the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence, the 2010 Darfield and the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, in order to show liquefaction extent. Maps include detailed interpretation of aerial photograph mosaics and satellite images captured immediately following each event, and incorporate ground-based surveys of liquefaction occurrences. Evidence of liquefaction includes predominantly silt to fine sand and/or water ejected to the ground surface, and the presence of lateral spreading cracks (with or without ejected sediment). Liquefaction appears to be related to recent alluvial systems, and is more prevalent adjacent to existing waterways and in abandoned stream channels, where young, normally consolidated and poorly compacted sediments are water-saturated. The digital data are available for download in standard geographic information system (GIS) formats, and should provide a reference for future regional scale liquefaction studies.
Factors Predicting Subjective Satisfaction for Successful Hearing Aid Adaptation

(1) Background: For successful hearing aid (HA) use during daily life, an objective parameter reflecting the subjective satisfaction is required. We explored the aided hearing status, hearing in noise test (HINT) scores, and subjective outcomes to predict performance improvements in everyday living. (2) Methods: A total of 406 patients with hearing loss (HL) who were prescribed HAs were included and were divided into two groups according to the symmetricity of HL. The relationship between audiometric data and subjective questionnaires under unaided and aided (3 months) conditions were investigated. (3) Results: Patients with symmetric HL showed a significant HINT signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) change and significant increase in their subjective satisfaction questionnaire score under the bilateral HA condition. On the other hand, the HINT SNR change and subjective questionnaire score showed various significances according to the side of HA (better or worse hearing) in asymmetric HL HINT SNR and was significantly correlated with the subjective questionnaire score in symmetric HL patients and AHL patients with unilateral HA in their better ear. (4) Conclusions: The HINT SNR improvement after long-term HA use could be an effective tool for predicting the subjective satisfaction of HA use and HA validation.
Individual customers characteristics and types of organic food

There is an increasing emphasis on a healthy lifestyle nowadays, so more and more people starting to buy organic food. The organic food market is getting richer with different types of organic food, so people are buying increasingly more organic products. This paper examines the relationship that exists between different types of organic foods and certain consumer characteristics. More specifically, it is examined how often people buy food of organic origin, as well as the potential differences in organic food purchasing habits among people who have a different level of education, income, and different place of residence. In the current research the sample consists of 600 respondents, of different education, income and place of residence. Data were processed using SPSS program version 26. In addition to descriptive statistics, non-parametric techniques such as the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to determine differences in scores between measured variables, due to the distribution of scores significantly deviating from normality. The results showed that in the Republic of Serbia, fruits and vegetables of organic origin are bought the most, while sweets of organic origin are bought the least. Organic food buyers with the highest income and level of education most often decide to buy fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, and bread and cereals of organic origin. Milk and milk products of organic origin are the most common choice for buying organic food products among buyers from urban areas.
Diagenetic controls on the location of reservoir sweet spots relative to palaeotopographical and structural highs

Abstract Many carbonate reservoirs are located on top, or down the flanks, of extant structural highs or syndepositional palaeo-highs. This study examines diagenesis in Pennsylvanian oolitic reservoirs close to the crest and down the flank of a long-lived anticline. It illustrates that the position of the best reservoir quality shifted back and forth during successive diagenetic events. Cement stratigraphy shows that early diagenesis did not enhance reservoir character significantly. Most oomoldic porosity formed penecontemporaneously with compaction. Fluid-inclusion and stable isotope data indicate that late cements precipitated during burial conditions by refluxing brines and later hydrothermal fluids. After initial burial, greater permeability existed downdip, where smaller amounts of early meteoric cement allowed for compaction. Subsequent reflux cementation initially degraded downdip reservoirs preferentially and then progressed updip, resulting in relatively uniform reservoir porosity. Later hydrothermal events are most important in affecting the distribution of the highest quality present-day reservoir. Highest porosity is preserved in wells down the flanks of the structure, where hydrothermal cements are not as prevalent. Understanding the effect of diagenesis on location of the best reservoir in relation to palaeotopographical and structural highs allows for the prediction of reservoir quality using seismic and mapping data typically available in the subsurface.
Pursuit of the Changes of the Descending Aortic False Lumen after Surgical Repair of Acute DeBakey Type 1 Aortic Dissection

Background: After surgical repair of acute DeBakey type 1 aortic dissection (AIAD), most survivors suffer from persistent false lumen in the descending aorta that adversely affects the long-term prognosis, and the need for secondary intervention is prompted. Objective: This study was aimed at providing control data to determine the actual benefits of more aggressive or newer approaches by investigating the changes in the descending aortic false lumen over 1-year follow-up. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study included 83 patients with AIAD ± significant aortic incompetence (AI). On emergency basis, all the patients had undergone aggressive resection of the intimal tear and replacement of the ascending aorta ± proximal or total aortic arch replacement, and aortic valve (AV) repair, replacement, valve sparing re-implantation of the AV or composite replacement of the aortic root (depending on the encountered pathology). Multi-slice CT aortography (MSCT) at 6-months and 1-year was done for segmental analysis of the distal aortic diameter at fixed levels and false lumen status evaluation. Results: The mean age was 47.18±4.87 years. Mortality was 8(9.64%) intraoperatively, 10(12.05%) operative mortality, no late mortality and the overall 1-year survival rate was 65(78.31%). The overall hospital complications rate was 17(22.67%). The descending aortic false lumen remained patent in most [56(86.15%)] survivors. There was no dilatation of the descending aorta at 6-months. At 1-year, there was statistically significant (p<0.001) dilatation of the descending aorta of >10 mm in 24(42.86%) and <10 mm in 32(57.14%) in patients with persistent false lumen. Patients <40 years expressed statistically significant (p<0.001) total resolution of the false lumen and >10 mm dilatation of the descending aorta. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that the significant predictive risk factors for persistence of the false lumen in the descending aorta were age <50 year (OR: 3.10 (95% CI: 0.846-19.320); p = 0.041), Bentall operation (OR: 0.35 (95% CI: 0.026-2.087); p = 0.021) and long-term anticoagulation (OR: 0.19 (95% CI: 0.025-1.289); p = 0.043), and those for thrombosis of the false lumen were age >60 years (OR: 6.13 (95% CI: 5.123-34.162); p = 0.031) and valve-sparing aortic root reconstruction (OR: 4.23 (95% CI: 1.480-14.053); p = 0.007). Conclusion: Residual intimal tear in the distal descending aorta is the major cause of continued false lumen patency. More extensive aortic replacement and avoidance of surgical reconstruction procedures needing long-term anticoagulation could diminish the prevalence of patent false lumen and its adverse sequelae.
It’s Not Always about Wide and Deep Models: Click-Through Rate Prediction with a Customer Behavior-Embedding Representation

Alongside natural language processing and computer vision, large learning models have found their way into e-commerce. Especially, for recommender systems and click-through rate prediction, these models have shown great predictive power. In this work, we aim to predict the probability that a customer will click on a given recommendation, given only its current session. Therefore, we propose a two-stage approach consisting of a customer behavior-embedding representation and a recurrent neural network. In the first stage, we train a self-supervised skip-gram embedding on customer activity data. The resulting embedding representation is used in the second stage to encode the customer sequences which are then used as input to the learning model. Our proposed approach diverges from the prevailing trend of utilizing extensive end-to-end models for click-through rate prediction. The experiments, which incorporate a real-world industrial use case and a widely used as well as openly available benchmark dataset, demonstrate that our approach outperforms the current state-of-the-art models. Our approach predicts customers’ click intention with an average F1 accuracy of 94% for the industrial use case which is one percentage point higher than the state-of-the-art baseline and an average F1 accuracy of 79% for the benchmark dataset, which outperforms the best tested state-of-the-art baseline by more than seven percentage points. The results show that, contrary to current trends in that field, large end-to-end models are not always needed. The analysis of our experiments suggests that the reason for the performance of our approach is the self-supervised pre-trained embedding of customer behavior that we use as the customer representation.
Model for Patients with Multivessel Coronary Artery Lesions in the Highlands Region (Qinghai Province, Northwest China)

Objective: The severity and prognosis of coronary artery disease are closely associated with treatment strategy choice. To achieve timely, accurate, early selection of a suitable treatment plan and assess patients’ prognosis, we developed an effective predictive model for early identification of high-risk patients according to lesion severity. Methods: Among the 510 patients with chest pain admitted to the Qinghai Red Cross Hospital between August 2018 and October 2019, 386 had coronary artery disease detected by coronary angiography. A total of 24 demographic characteristics and serum markers were analyzed in study participants. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression was used to select variables, and multivariate logistic regression was used to build predictive models by using nominal plots. The discriminatory power of the models was evaluated with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Predictive models were calibrated with calibration plots and the Hosmer–Lemeshow test. Their clinical validity was evaluated via decision curve analysis. Results: Data were randomly divided (7:3) into training (358 cases) and test (152 cases) sets. The predictive model included sex, age, smoking status, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, albumin, urea nitrogen, creatinine, uric acid, total cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol as predictors. The AUCs for the training and test sets were 0.793 and 0.732, respectively. The predictive model showed a good fit, and decision curve analysis indicated the clinical validity of the predictive model. Conclusions: We developed an effective risk predictive model with good clinical value for predicting multivessel disease. Smoking cessation, lowering creatinine, and increasing HDL cholesterol concentrations might decrease the risk of developing multivessel disease, thereby avoiding severe disease.
Involvement of Astrocytes in the Formation, Maintenance, and Function of the Blood–Brain Barrier

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a fundamental structure that protects the composition of the brain by determining which ions, metabolites, and nutrients are allowed to enter the brain from the blood or to leave it towards the circulation. The BBB is structurally composed of a layer of brain capillary endothelial cells (BCECs) bound to each other through tight junctions (TJs). However, its development as well as maintenance and properties are controlled by the other brain cells that contact the BCECs: pericytes, glial cells, and even neurons themselves. Astrocytes seem, in particular, to have a very important role in determining and controlling most properties of the BBB. Here, we will focus on these latter cells, since the comprehension of their roles in brain physiology has been continuously expanding, even including the ability to participate in neurotransmission and in complex functions such as learning and memory. Accordingly, pathological conditions that alter astrocytic functions can alter the BBB’s integrity, thus compromising many brain activities. In this review, we will also refer to different kinds of in vitro BBB models used to study the BBB’s properties, evidencing its modifications under pathological conditions.
Buruli Ulcer: Epidemiological, Clinical and Biological Profile of Patients in the Centre de Depistage et de Traitement d’Allada (Benin) from 2010 to 2014

Introduction: The objective of our work was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and biological profile of Buruli ulcer in “Centre de Depistage et de traitement de l’ulcere de Buruli” (CDTUB) in Allada. Methods: A descriptive and retrospective study focused on new cases of Buruli ulcer received in the CDTUB of Allada from 2010 to 2014. The diagnosis of Buruli ulcer was based on epidemiological, clinical and biological arguments. Results: Over 5 years, 274 new cases of Buruli ulcer have been diagnosed. The average age of the patients was 12 years and the sex ratio was 0.8. The average time to first consultation was 45 days. Clinically, 61% had a joint functional limitation. Lesions were ulcerated in 69% of cases, category I (26%), category II (53%), category III (21%) and were present on the lower limbs in 57% of cases. Microscopy was positive in 65.7% of cases and PCR in 78.1% of cases. Microscopy supplemented by PCR confirmed the diagnosis in 81% of cases. Conclusion: The epidemiological, clinical and biological profile of Buruli ulcer in Allada was characterized by a predominant disease in children, a predominance of ulcerated forms and a decisive contribution of PCR to the diagnosis.
Hydraulic characterization and hydrological behaviour of a pilot permeable pavement in an urban centre, Brazil

Considering all the alterations on hydrology and water quality that urbanization process brings, permeable pavement (PP) is an alternative to traditional impermeable asphalt and concrete pavement. The goal of the PP and other low impact development devices is to increase infiltration and reduce peak runoff flows. These structures are barely used in Brazil aiming stormwater management, one of the big hydrological issues in cities throughout the country, with increasing urbanization rates. The main objective of this paper is the hydraulic characterization of a PP and the assessment of its hydrological efficiency from the point of view of the infiltration process. The study focuses on a pilot area in a parking lot in an urban area (Recife, Brazil). Soil elements filling the voids between concrete elements were sampled (particle size density, water contents) and tested with water infiltration experiments at several points of the 3 m × 1.5 m surface pilot area. Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters algorithm was applied to the infiltration experiment data to obtain the hydraulic characteristics of the soil composing the PP surface layer, the concrete grid pavers (with internal voids filled with natural soil) permeability being neglected. Results show that the soil hydraulic characteristics vary spatially within the pilot area and that the soil samples have different hydraulic behaviours. The hydraulic characteristics derived from Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters analysis were implemented into Hydrus code to simulate runoff, infiltration and water balance over a year. The numerical simulation showed the good potential of the PP for rainfall–runoff management, which demonstrates that PP can be used to retrofit existing parking infrastructure and to promote hydrological behaviour close to natural soils. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.