Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Combined Ultrasonic Tip and Mechanized Instrumentation on the Reduction of the Percentage of Non-Instrumented Surfaces in Oval/Flat Root Canals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the ultrasonic tip associated with mechanized instrumentation in reducing the percentage of non-instrumented surfaces of human teeth with oval or flattened root canals. The study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Pubmed/MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online), Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for literature published till October 2022. Only in vitrostudies were included, which compared conventional mechanized endodontic treatment alone against conventional endodontic treatment in association with ultrasonic tips, evaluating the reduction in the percentage of non-instrumented walls (computed microtomography). Four studies were eligible for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The majority of the studies scored low for risk of bias. The meta-analysis comparing protocols demonstrated a reduced percentage of non-instrumented walls in groups using ultrasonic tips after the conventional mechanized technique (p<0.01) with a confidence interval of 1.04 (95%CI: 0.59, 1.50). The ultrasonic tip associated with mechanized instrumentation demonstrates a significant reduction in the percentage of non-instrumented surfaces in oval or flattened canals.
Application of the Tianwen-1 DOR Signals Observed by Very Long Baseline Interferometry Radio Telescopes in the Study of Solar Wind Plasma and a Coronal Mass Ejection

The Tianwen-1 (TW1) Mars probe experienced solar conjunction for the first time in 2021. The China VLBI Network (CVN) observes the differential one-way ranging (DOR) signals of TW1 throughout its phase. This paper explores the application of CVN observation data to study the solar wind plasma. First, the frequency and phase of the DOR carrier and sidetones at each station are calculated using the Doppler method. Then, the variations in both the differential phase delays (DPD) and the total electron content (TEC) are calculated using the phase of the sidetones. We also statistically analyze the fluctuations in the Delta-DOR (ΔDOR) group delay. The results indicate that the fluctuations of the frequency, phase, ΔDOR group delay, delay rate, and TEC variations of the TW1 signals increase with the decrease of the heliocentric distance. On 2021 November 2, a coronal mass ejection (CME) passed across the ray paths of the telescope beams, when the heliocentric distance and heliographic latitude of the projected position of Mars were 30.6 Rs and 3°, respectively. Our data catch the impact of the CME on the DOR signals. The change of the DPD reaches 170 ps, which is equivalent to 986 TECU. We utilize the cross correlation to analyze the frequency fluctuations at multiple stations, and obtain the propagation direction and velocity variations of the CME. Our analysis indicates that multifrequency DOR signals observed by very long baseline interferometry stations have great application to characterize the electron density variations and propagation of the solar wind plasma.
Microcredits and rural livelihood for sustainable conservation of biodiversity: a case study of COCOBA in Mahale ecosystem, Kigoma-Tanzania

This study was done in Mahale Ecosystem to assess the achievement of COCOBA in improving rural livelihood and sustainable conservation. This study was based on the fact that, while there are adequate information o n micro credit and poverty reduction few exist on livelihood improvement and sustainable conservation of biodiversity. Specifically the study sought to document socio-economic activities undertaken by COCOBA group members and others in the study area; determine the performance of COCOBA on the supported socio-economic activities; determine the contribution of COCOBA to livelihood reductiona and to determine the participation of local community in environmental conservation in relation to COCOBA. Using household questionnaire, focus group discussion and key informant discussion from three villages and 120 randomly selected household, the study found that the main socioeconomic activity undertaken in the study area was Agriculture which causes environmental degradation. Small scale business was found to be implemented most by COCOBA members due to credit accessibility. The study further showed that COCOBA has brought positive changes in the standards of living of its members. COCOBA members earned more income per year (1 546 057.56) than non members (828 045.35) as observed at T-test analysis. Furthermore, the study shows that COCOBA model contributes in environmental conservation because majority of its members were engaged in tree planting, beekeeping and uses of improved stoves. The study concluded that since the success of COCOBA model depend much on training, environmental training and post –credit training on entrepreneur, should be offered often to improve its performance. The study draws a number of recommendations including; Allocation of adequate financial resources for lending to micro credit institutions with low interest rate; Government and other development organization should put more effort on supporting micro credit institutions showing interest in environmental activities; undertaking an information campaign to create awareness among the poor on credit issues. ii
Spatial Biodiversity Patterns of Fish within the Aransas Bay Complex, Texas

The goal of this study was to consider the effects of habitat type and environmental conditions on the biodiversity of fishes within the Aransas Bay Complex, Texas and provide a management framework and an ecosystem examination of Essential Fish Habitat (EFH). A stratified, randomized experimental design was used to collect fishes from seagrass, oyster, and non—vegetated habitats within the Aransas Bay Complex from February through May 2010 over large spatial scales at the “bay—complex” level. We developed a biodiversity habitat model using Boosted Regression Trees (BRT). Fitted functions from the “best” fit BRT habitat model indicated that fish biodiversity was greatest in seagrass areas closest to the inlet (< 80 cost—distance units) during early spring, with temperatures < 18°C and dissolved oxygen levels between 7—8 mg O2/L in shallow depths (< 0.5 m). Results from community assemblage analyses showed significant differences among habitats with highest abundance of fishes found in seagrass, followed by non—vegetated substrate, and oyster reef. The relatively high abundance of fishes at non—vegetated bottom compared to the low abundance found at the oyster reef was most likely due to the spatial location of the habitats sampled. Our results indicate that future conservation measures should focus along the eastern and southern areas of Aransas Bay to protect EFH with highest levels of biodiversity. The modeling approach developed in this study provides a framework for natural resource managers to identify habitats supporting the greatest biodiversity of juvenile fishes.
Highly Conductive Peroxidase-like Ce-MoS2 Nanoflowers for the Simultaneous Electrochemical Detection of Dopamine and Epinephrine

The accurate and simultaneous detection of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine (DA) and epinephrine (EP), is of paramount importance in clinical diagnostic fields. Herein, we developed cerium–molybdenum disulfide nanoflowers (Ce-MoS2 NFs) using a simple one-pot hydrothermal method and demonstrated that they are highly conductive and exhibit significant peroxidase-mimicking activity, which was applied for the simultaneous electrochemical detection of DA and EP. Ce-MoS2 NFs showed a unique structure, comprising MoS2 NFs with divalent Ce ions. This structural design imparted a significantly enlarged surface area of 220.5 m2 g−1 with abundant active sites as well as enhanced redox properties, facilitating electron transfer and peroxidase-like catalytic action compared with bare MoS2 NFs without Ce incorporation. Based on these beneficial features, Ce-MoS2 NFs were incorporated onto a screen-printed electrode (Ce-MoS2 NFs/SPE), enabling the electrochemical detection of H2O2 based on their peroxidase-like activity. Ce-MoS2 NFs/SPE biosensors also showed distinct electrocatalytic oxidation characteristics for DA and EP, consequently yielding the highly selective, sensitive, and simultaneous detection of target DA and EP. Dynamic linear ranges for both DA and EP were determined to be 0.05~100 μM, with detection limits (S/N = 3) of 28 nM and 44 nM, respectively. This study shows the potential of hierarchically structured Ce-incorporated MoS2 NFs to enhance the detection performances of electrochemical biosensors, thus enabling extensive applications in healthcare, diagnostics, and environmental monitoring.
Characteristics and formation mechanisms of large volcanic rock oil reservoirs: A case study of the Carboniferous rocks in the Kebai fault zone of Junggar Basin, China

Volcanic hydrocarbon reservoirs are rare and may be overlooked. The Carboniferous volcanic rocks of the Kebai fault zone in the western Junggar Basin contain hydrocarbon (HC) reservoirs in volcanic rock with proven oil reserves of 9.76 × 108 bbl that have a complex filling history. We have investigated the lithology and properties of these volcanic rock HC reservoirs as well as diagenesis and control of faults and fractures in oil reservoirs. The lithology of these Carboniferous volcanic rocks is primarily andesite and tuff. Also present were volcanic breccia and metamorphic rock in addition to rhyolite, felsite, diabase, and granite in the volcanic lava. On the basis of microscopic examination, five types of pores and fractures were observed: (1) fracture–dissolved phenocrystal pore, (2) fracture–intergranular pore, (3) fracture–gas pore, (4) fracture–dissolved intragranular pore, and (5) fracture–dissolved matrix pore. The fractures in these rocks are a significant factor in connecting the pores. Diagenetic processes that control reservoir quality include compaction, filling of pores and fractures, cementation, metasomatism, and grain dissolution. The volcanic reservoirs show a variety of lithologies, and oil has been discovered in all types of Carboniferous rocks. The controlling factors for oil distribution in these Carboniferous volcanic rocks are faulting, fracture development, and degree of weathering when they were subaerially exposed in the Permian. The area in which these faults and fractures developed is the primary area of oil enrichment with high yields. The objectives of this study were to (1) describe the characteristics of different types of volcanic rocks and reservoirs found in this basin and (2) characterize the diagenetic history of these rocks and document how diagenesis controls porosity and permeability.
Quality of Vision in Eyes with Chronic Dacryocystitis After Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy

Purpose To assess the quality of vision (QOV) of patients with chronic dacryocystitis and explore the impact of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (En-DCR) on patients’ QOV, with the aim of increasing clinicians’ attention to the potential QOV changes in patients with chronic dacryocystitis. Patients and Methods Chronic dacryocystitis patients who attended the Department of Oculoplastics, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University from January 2022 to June 2022 and had En-DCR were included. The QOV was evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively using the Quick-contrast sensitivity function test (qCSF) and the OPD ScanIII comprehensive visual quality analyser, and the contrast sensitivity function (CSF), higher-order aberrations (HOAs), and modulation transfer function (MTF) data were recorded. Results Thirty-eight patients with chronic dacryocystitis were included. QOV analysis of those with monocular chronic dacryocystitis revealed that HOAs were significantly higher in affected eyes than in contralateral eyes (P < 0.05), and CSF and MTF were significantly lower in affected eyes than in contralateral eyes (P < 0.05). One month after En-DCR, patients’ HOAs, CSF, and MTF were significantly improved (P < 0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference in the effect of intraoperative combined silicone intubation versus no intubation on QOV (P > 0.05). Conclusion Chronic dacryocystitis can significantly affect the QOV of patients. Successful En-DCR significantly improves the CSF, HOAs and MTF, which can effectively improve the QOV.
Immune mediator expression signatures are associated with improved outcome in ovarian carcinoma

ABSTRACT Immune and inflammatory cascades may play multiple roles in ovarian cancer. We aimed to identify relationships between expression of immune and inflammatory mediators and patient outcomes. We interrogated differential gene expression of 44 markers and marker combinations (n = 1,978) in 1,656 ovarian carcinoma patient tumors, alongside matched 5-year overall survival (OS) data in silico. Using machine learning methods, we investigated whether genomic expression of these 44 mediators can discriminate between malignant and non-malignant tissues in 839 ovarian cancer and 115 non-malignant ovary samples. We furthermore assessed inflammation markers in 289 ovarian cancer patients’ sera in the Swedish Apolipoprotein MOrtality-related RISk (AMORIS) cohort. Expression of the 44 mediators could discriminate between malignant and non-malignant tissues with at least 96% accuracy. Higher expression of classical Th1, Th2, Th17, anti-parasitic/infection and M1 macrophage mediator signatures were associated with better OS. Contrastingly, inflammatory and angiogenic mediators, CXCL-12, C-reactive protein (CRP) and platelet-derived growth factor subunit A (PDGFA) were negatively associated with OS. Of the serum inflammatory markers in the AMORIS cohort, women with ovarian cancer who had elevated levels of haptoglobin (≥1.4 g/L) had a higher risk of dying from ovarian cancer compared to those with haptoglobin levels <1.4 g/L (HR = 2.09, 95% CI:1.38–3.16). Our findings indicate that elevated “classical” immune mediators, associated with response to pathogen antigen challenge, may confer immunological advantage in ovarian cancer, while inflammatory markers appear to have negative prognostic value. These highlight associations between immune protection, inflammation and clinical outcomes, and offer opportunities for patient stratification based on secretome markers.
Landscape-fire relationships inferred from bearing trees in Minnesota

We display the influence of pre-European settlement fire on vegetation across Minnesota by harnessing the power of bearing trees as indicators of past fires on the landscape. Species and genera of trees used as bearing trees in Public Land Surveys were categorized as either pyrophilic (fire-adapted) or pyrophobic (fire-sensitive) and the percentage of pyrophilic trees was calculated and interpolated to create a map showing the inferred importance of fire. Ecological units at four spatial scales (province, section, subsection, and landtype association) were examined against our pyrophilic percentage maps, irregularities noted, and line improvements suggested based on the prevailing fire setting (the set of vegetation and topographic conditions under which fires occur or are inhibited) before European settlement. Our maps and analyses for Minnesota, the Chippewa National Forest, and the Superior National Forest provide a strong ecological basis for locating areas where long-term burning left an indelible mark on plant composition, structure, and biodiversity and thus where prescribed burning for ecosystem restoration is most appropriate today.
LightDepthNet: Lightweight CNN Architecture for Monocular Depth Estimation on Edge Devices

Depth estimation is vitally essential to building 3D perceiving capability of Intelligence of Things (IoT). However, the existing monocular depth estimation (MDE) methods generally sacrifice computational complexity and efficiency in return for obtaining excellent accuracy, or compromise the accuracy in exchange for increased efficiency. To address these issues, we propose a lightweight encoder-decoder network (LightDepthNet) for realizing precise and fast MDE on edge devices. Firstly, we design residual merging upsampling modules to provide comprehensive depth details by extracting the various ranges of depth information. Meanwhile, we introduce the unified connected channel construction scheme to effectively minimize the total amount of channels, for optimally lowering the initial computational cost of LightDepthNet. In addition, we develop a cosine recovery adaptive channel pruning approach to progressively remove the remaining redundant channels in LightDepthNet, with harvesting further reductions of the computational overhead. Extensive experiments demonstrate that both our LightDepthNet and the pruned one are effective on different input resolutions in outdoor or indoor scenes. When compared with the state-of-the-art works, our solution is capable of respectively gaining $2.6\times $ and $4.9\times $ inference speedup on Jetson Nano and TX2 GPU devices with 3.1% lower root mean square error.
Conceptual framework for analysing science-policy interactions for improved climate policy

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for better and more sustainable use of livestock. ILRI is a CGIAR research centre. It works through a network of regional and country offices and projects in East, South and Southeast Asia, Central, East, Southern and West Africa, and in Central America. ilri.org
11. SILICEOUS PHYTOPLANKTON PRODUCTIVITY FLUCTUATIONS IN THE CONGO BASIN OVER THE PAST 460,000 YEARS: MARINE VS. RIVERINE INFLUENCE, ODP SITE 1077

Accumulation rates, concentrations, and relative abundance of siliceous microfossils from Site 1077 are used to reconstruct changes in marine productivity and climate history of the Congo Fan area. The major contributors to siliceous productivity are marine diatoms, which show highest concentrations during glacial stages and cooler substages of the last interglacial. Abrupt changes are observed during Termination II (oxygen isotope Stage 5/6 boundary): (1) the marine diatom signal varies in amplitude and assemblage composition from predominantly marine to marine/brackish and (2) the environmental setting on land obtained from freshwater diatoms and chrysophycean cysts points to changes from more arid conditions accompanied by a large drainage area of the Congo River to more humid conditions and a decrease in the inland water content for the last 125 k.y.
Lack of association between HLA and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection

Human genetic studies of critical COVID-19 pneumonia have revealed the essential role of type I interferon-dependent innate immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conversely, an association between the HLA-B*15:01 allele and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals was recently reported, suggesting a contribution of pre-existing T cell-dependent adaptive immunity. We report a lack of association of classical HLA alleles, including HLA-B*15:01, with pre-omicron asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated participants in a prospective population-based study in the US (191 asymptomatic vs. 945 symptomatic COVID-19 cases). Moreover, we found no such association in the international COVID Human Genetic Effort cohort (206 asymptomatic vs. 574 mild or moderate COVID-19 cases and 1,625 severe or critical COVID-19 cases). Finally, in the Human Challenge Characterisation study, the three HLA-B*15:01 individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 developed symptoms. As with other acute primary infections, no classical HLA alleles favoring an asymptomatic course of SARS-CoV-2 infection were identified. These findings suggest that memory T-cell immunity to seasonal coronaviruses does not strongly influence the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals.
A 6-week randomized-controlled field study: Effect of isokinetic eccentric resistance training on strength, flexibility and muscle structure for the shoulder external rotator in male junior handball players

Background: Team handball involves a tremendous amount of shoulder motion with high forces during repeated extended external range of motion. Shoulder complaints are a common problem in youth handball players. While eccentric training for the lower extremity shows preventive effects by improving strength, range of motion and fascicle length, there is a research gap for the shoulder joint and for advanced tissue characterization using diffusion tensor imaging. Objectives: To investigate the effects of six-week eccentric isokinetic resistance training on the strength, flexibility, and fiber architecture characteristics of the external rotators compared to an active control group in junior handball players. Methods: 15 subjects were randomly assigned to the eccentric training group and 14 subjects to the active control group (conventional training). Primary outcome measures were eccentric and concentric isokinetic strength of the external rotators, range of motion, and muscle fascicle length and fascicle volume. Results: The intervention group, showed significant changes in eccentric strength (+15 %). The supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles showed significant increases in fascicle length (+13 % and +8 %), and in fractional anisotropy (+9 % and 6 %), which were significantly different from the control group. Conclusions: Eccentric isokinetic training has a significant effect on the function and macroscopic structure of the shoulder external rotators in male junior handball players. While strength parameters and muscle structure improved, range of motion did not change. Future research is needed for more convenient field exercises in this context.
Syncytial nets vs. chemical signaling: emerging properties of alternative integrative systems

Here, we critically evaluate the communication and integrative mechanisms in ctenophores or comb jellies, the descendants of the earliest animal lineage. Ctenophores convergently evolved their neuro-muscular systems compared to other animals. Besides the canonical neural organization with distinct synapses, recent 3D electron microscopy reconstruction revealed unique syncytial-type connectivity in some neuronal populations, providing additional support for the independent origins of neurons in ctenophores. Furthermore, it was proposed that non-synaptic transmission is the distinct characteristic of ctenophores, in contrast to other metazoans and Cajal’s neuronal doctrine, highlighting Golgi’s reticular theory. However, the astonishing diversity and higher information capacity of classical synapses and volume transmission indicate that chemical signaling is the hallmark of neural and other integrative systems regardless of their origins.