Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shaping Ability of Reciproc Blue Versus One Curve in Curved Canal: An In-Vitro Study

The introduction of nickel-titanium (NiTi) rotary instruments improved the root canal preparation of the narrow and curved root canals, especially after the introduction of thermomechanical treated (NiTi) alloys that have a high flexibility to prepare the curved canal reducing the common clinical complication, such as fracture, the change of the original shape of the root canal as a result of the change in the curvature of the curved root canal, the change of the working length which caused by the creation of the ledges, canal transporting and zipping especially in medium and highly curved canal. This study aimed to compare the shaping ability of two heat-treated nickel-titanium single file systems using reciprocation motion and rotary motion in curved canals. Materials and methods Thirty extracted human teeth with one curved root at 25 to 56 degrees were used, two NiTi single file systems were used to prepare the curved root canal in two groups: Reciproc R25 (Munich, Germany: VDW) group (n=15) and One Curve (Besancon, France: Micro-Mega) group (n=15). Curved root canal instrumentation outcomes were evaluated using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Kruskal-Wallis with Bonferroni post hoc test was used to assess differences between working length, the angle and radius of curvature after instrumentation. Results There was a significant difference in angle and radius of curvature (-1.83° One Curve, -2.25° Reciproc blue and -0.18 mm One Curve, -0.19 mm Reciproc blue, respectively) (p<0.05) after instrumentation for both One Curve and Reciproc blue groups, and there was no significant difference in working length change (-0.16 mm One Curve, -0.32 mm Reciproc blue) after instrumentation of both One Curve and Reciproc blue groups (p>0.05). Conclusion The Reciproc blue single file system with reciprocation movement and One Curve with continuous movement cause a significant difference in curvature and radius of curved root canal affecting the original shape of the root canal with no significant difference in working length of the curved root canal.
Physiological and morphological responses to mineral (N, Mg, Mn, Zn) stress in pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivars “Meski Ahrech” and “Alexandrine”

Abstract The effect of nutrient deficiencies on growth, photosynthetic activity, and water status was studied in two cultivars of pear trees, local cultivar Meski Ahrech and an introduced cultivar Alexandrine. Plants were irrigated with a nutrient solution to induce N, Mg, Mn, and Zn deficiencies. Tree height (PH) was higher in Meski Ahrech than Alexandrine under nutritional stress treatments. However, the average leaf area (LA) of both cultivars was not affected by any nutritional stress treatments. As expected nutrient deficit stress reduced chlorophyll index (SPAD), net photosynthesis (AN) in both cultivars, and as result it reduced stomatal conductance (gs) comparing to control treatments. Relative water content (RWC) was maintained almost in the same value in all the treatments and in both cultivars. Leaves were sampled periodically to determine leaf-nutrient concentration. Alexandrine appeared more sensitive to N, Mg, Mn, and Zn deficiency due to the main decrease in growth, AN and SPAD and gs compared to Meski Ahrech. When a symptom appeared, the symptomatic leaves were collected to be photographed. Deficiency symptoms appeared in the range of 66 d after treatments for N and in 94 d for Mg, Mn, and Zn. Leaf-nutrient concentrations to which the symptoms appeared were determined in these two cultivars: leaf N concentration was around 1.6%, leaf Mg concentration was 0.5% in Meski Ahrech, and 0.4% in Alexandrine. Leaf Mn concentration was 30 ppm in Meski Ahrech, 21 ppm in Alexandrine and finally leaf Zn concentration was 15 ppm in Meski Ahrech and 17 ppm in Alexandrine. We deduced that Meski Ahrach is more efficient for mineral nutrition uptake and that Alexandrine exhibited a more conservative strategy with all treatments.
Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury on the Gut Microbiota Composition and Serum Amino Acid Profile in Rats

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) heavily impacts the body: it damages the brain tissue and the peripheral nervous system and shifts homeostasis in many types of tissue. An acute brain injury compromises the “brain–gut-microbiome axis”, a well-balanced network formed by the brain, gastrointestinal tract, and gut microbiome, which has a complex effect: damage to the brain alters the composition of the microbiome; the altered microbiome affects TBI severity, neuroplasticity, and metabolic pathways through various bacterial metabolites. We modeled TBI in rats. Using a bioinformatics approach, we sought to identify correlations between the gut microbiome composition, TBI severity, the rate of neurological function recovery, and blood metabolome. We found that the TBI caused changes in the abundance of 26 bacterial genera. The most dramatic change was observed in the abundance of Agathobacter species. The TBI also altered concentrations of several metabolites, specifically citrulline and tryptophan. We found no significant correlations between TBI severity and the pre-existing gut microbiota composition or blood metabolites. However, we discovered some differences between the two groups of subjects that showed high and low rates of neurological function recovery, respectively. The present study highlights the role of the brain–gut-microbiome axis in TBI.
Seismic behaviour and design of reinforced concrete interior beam column joints

This paper is aimed at improving the current understanding of the mechanisms of shear transfer in interior beam-column joints of reinforced concrete frames. Simple variable-angle truss models are used to illustrate the joint shear transfer mechanisms. The model is used in the paper to evaluate the relative importance of those variables that are deemed to affect the shear strength of joints in the current New Zealand Concrete Structures Standard, (SNZ, 1995). The analyses suggest that some of the variables currently being considered might not be as important as thought and that the current design recommendations can be simplified and, in general, be eased. The authors propose a simple three-component equation for use in design. The design equation is based on the results of a parametric analysis and was calibrated against a database of tests obtained from the literature.
Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes L.) as a Potential Material for Biogas Production

This study evaluated the biogas production potential of water lettuce ( Pistia stratiotes L.) by batch anaerobic di gestion under in-vitro conditions. Twenty-one litre-plastic jars were used to conduct 4 replications over 75 days. The results showed that solution temperature, pH and Eh were suitable for biogas production. More than 50% of the obtained CH 4 was formed within 17–42 days after incubation. The maximum daily CH 4 production was 0.052 L/gVS, whilst the daily H 2 S concentration was low, with a maximum value of 28 ppm within 14–21 d after incuba tion. Moreover, the peak of daily biogas production was seen at day 16 with production of 0.12 L/gVS. The results highlight that water lettuce biomass can be potentially used to produce high quality biogas in anaerobic incubation.
Statistical Nonparametric fMRI Maps in the Analysis of Response Inhibition in Abstinent Individuals with History of Alcohol Use Disorder

Inhibitory impairments may persist after abstinence in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Using traditional statistical parametric mapping (SPM) fMRI analysis, which requires data to satisfy parametric assumptions often difficult to satisfy in biophysical system as brain, studies have reported equivocal findings on brain areas responsible for response inhibition, and activation abnormalities during inhibition found in AUD persist after abstinence. Research is warranted using newer analysis approaches. fMRI scans were acquired during a Go/NoGo task from 30 abstinent male AUD and 30 healthy control participants with the objectives being (1) to characterize neuronal substrates associated with response inhibition using a rigorous nonparametric permutation-based fMRI analysis and (2) to determine whether these regions were differentially activated between abstinent AUD and control participants. A blood oxygen level dependent contrast analysis showed significant activation in several right cortical regions and deactivation in some left cortical regions during successful inhibition. The largest source of variance in activation level was due to group differences. The findings provide evidence of cortical substrates employed during response inhibition. The largest variance was explained by lower activation in inhibition as well as ventral attentional cortical networks in abstinent individuals with AUD, which were not found to be associated with length of abstinence, age, or impulsiveness.
Curative Analysis of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Using Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization Combined with Radiofrequency Ablation

Background Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) can improve the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The purpose was to explore the characteristics of high-risk and low-risk groups of HCC patients receiving combination therapy using a decision tree model. Material/Methods This retrospective cohort study investigated HCC patients treated with a combination of TACE and RFA at our hospital from 2012 to 2018. Decision tree analysis was used to study the 1-year prognosis of patients, and patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups. Results We included a total of 142 patients with HCC, 21.83% female and 78.17% male, with the median age of 60 years old. The median follow-up was 13.5 months; 39.44% of patients had progressive disease or death (high-risk group) and 60.56% of patients did not have progressive disease or survival (low-risk group). The area under the curve (AUC) of the decision tree model was 0.846. There were significant differences in sex (P=0.003), age (P=0.038), tumor number (P=0.043), number of RFAs in the first treatment cycle (P<0.001), alanine transaminase (ALT) (P<0.001), and aspartate transaminase (AST) (P=0.041) between the high-risk and the low-risk groups. Risk of progressive disease or death in the high-risk group was 12.232 times higher than in the low-risk group. Conclusions To improve individual survival, clinicians should pay attention to the identification of high-risk HCC patients receiving combination therapy, especially those with less frequent use of RFA during the first treatment and higher ALT and AST levels.
Economic Viability of Rooftop Photovoltaic Systems and Energy Storage Systems in Qatar

Renewable energy sources and sustainability have been attracting increased focus and development worldwide. Qatar is no exception, as it has ambitious plans to deploy renewable energy sources on a mass scale. Qatar may also investigate initiating and permitting the deployment of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems for residential households. Therefore, a research gap has been introduced regarding the system design, grid compatibility, economic viability, and energy consumption produced from household rooftop PV systems. Additionally, the lack of supporting policies and a feed-in tariff creates further research and development topics. Therefore, using collected data regarding household power consumption and rooftop PV generation, the purposes of this research study are as follows: (1) determining the economic aspects and practicality of using energy storage systems for self-consumption values; and (2) evaluating the economic viability of rooftop PV systems under different policies and electricity rate schemes. The insights of the results of this study can serve as a stepping stone for decisions and policymakers regarding the application of rooftop PV systems in Qatar. This study utilizes empirical evidence and an economic model to evaluate rooftop PV systems in Qatar and can also be applicable in the middle east region. A few studies in the region produce complementary results, which further supports our findings; however, what makes this paper unique is the use of different economic tools and real collected data while investigating multiple economic and energy policy scenarios.
Impact of Cutting Speed and Blade Configuration on Energy Requirement for Miscanthus Harvesting

Abstract. Previous studies have shown that cutting speed and blade configurations play a critical role in crop harvesting. This study investigated the effect of cutting speed, blade oblique angle, and blade mounting in a field setting. To investigate their effect on Miscanthus harvesting power consumption, a hydraulically-driven single disk cutter head platform was developed. It has the provisions to adjust cutting parameters and was instrumented to measure the bending force on a push bar, torque, and cutting speed of the disk cutter. The cutting energy was determined at three oblique angles (0°, 30°, 40°), two blade mountings (fixed, flexible), and three hydraulic flow settings to drive the developed platform. Three hydraulic flow settings were used that resulted in average recorded cutting speeds of 31.5, 47.3, and 63.0 m s -1 . The differences between the blade mountings were found to be negligible. A 40° oblique angle operating at 31.5 m s -1 had the lowest energy consumption, averaging 9.1 MJ ha -1 . Similarly, a 30° oblique angle consumed 16.9 MJ ha -1 and a straight blade consumed 23.1 MJ ha -1 . The results indicate that the cutting speed and blade oblique angle are directly related to the power requirements and efficiency of Miscanthus harvesting machinery. Information about the bending force of the Miscanthus was also collected and compared to the energy consumption of the machine. The data show that the energy consumption was correlated to the bending force. It is expected that the results of this study would help in modifying existing Miscanthus harvesters.
The Impact of Thermal Inertia on the Indoor Thermal Environment of Light Steel Framing Constructions

Typically, reinforced concrete and brick masonry construction is the most common construction system of the majority of the southern European residential building stock. However, the lightweight steel framing (LSF) construction system has been progressively assuming a relevant position in the residential sector. Since LSF is not the traditional construction system, the indoor thermal environment of these buildings has not been widely studied and discussed considering the southern European climate context. The low thermal inertia of this construction system is commonly pointed to as a possible weakness in warmer climates. The present work aims to address this research gap by evaluating and comparing the LSF and masonry construction systems in terms of the indoor thermal environment focusing on the level of thermal inertia. The considered methodology lies in a long-term experimental campaign based on the construction and monitoring of two identical experimental test cells, differing only in the construction system. The test cells are in the central region of Portugal. The monitoring period elapsed over an entire year. Dynamic simulations are also carried out with a model experimentally validated to consider a wider range of climatic conditions. It is shown that internally insulating the ground floor has an impact on the indoor thermal environment of the LSF test cell by accentuating the indoor air temperature fluctuations and magnitude of the extreme peak values. However, the results also reveal that the faster and closer response to the outdoor conditions may be beneficial for LSF buildings during the heating season.
Agronomic Performance of Chickpea Affected by Drought Stress at Different Growth Stages

Susceptibility to drought stress has restrained chickpea productivity at a global level, and the development of drought-tolerant varieties is essential to maintain its productivity. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate genetic divergence in selected genotypes of chickpea and their morpho-physiological responses under irrigated and stressed conditions to identify the traits that account for the better performance of these genotypes under stressed conditions, as well as genotypes with improved drought tolerance. The genotypes were evaluated for two years under irrigated and drought stressed conditions, and significant variation was found amongst the genotypes for different morpho-physiological and yield traits. The maximum reduction was observed for plant yield (33.23%) under stressed conditions. Principle component analysis (PCA)-based biplots and correlation studies established its strong positive correlation with relative water content (RWC), membrane stability index (MSI), chlorophyll index (CI), secondary branches (SB) and yield traits and negative correlations with drought susceptibility index (DSI), days to maturity (DM) and 100 seed weight (100 SW) under drought stress, suggesting their use in selecting drought-tolerant germplasm. Ten genotypes with high values of RWC, MSI, CI, SB, yield traits and lower DSI were identified as drought-tolerant and might serve as ideal donors in the forthcoming breeding of elite chickpea cultivars. The seed-filling stage began earlier in these genotypes, with significantly reduced days to maturity under stressed conditions. Our results indicate selection for earliness offers a promising strategy for the development of drought-tolerant chickpea cultivars.
Community awareness, knowledge, and practice on prevention of mosquito-borne diseases in the state of Maharashtra

Background: Mosquito-borne diseases are increasing problems in various parts of the world, causing high mortality and morbidity for humans. It has revealed a great threat to public health in India. This survey was conducted to study the Community Awareness, knowledge, and practices on prevention of mosquito-borne diseases in the state of Maharashtra. Methodology: A cross-sectional observational study was carried out in the five regional divisions of the state for a period between January 2021 to April 2021. The study was carried out with the help of a pre-tested questionnaire. The data collected was then statistically analyzed and percentage calculation was done. Result: The survey was conducted among 1290 people from various regions and districts of Maharashtra. 23.9% of the respondents were not aware of the mosquito species. 76.6% think that mosquitoes bite in the evening time. 94.4% of the population had awareness regarding the mosquito egg-laying habitat. 83.8% of the population relied on mosquito repellents and chemical insecticides as a precautionary measure. 84.9% never visited the government department and around 56.8% of the population were dependent on social media as a source of information. About 46.5% did not have any idea regarding the Dry day celebrations. Conclusion: There's a crucial need to increase Community Awareness about practices and methods to prevent mosquito-borne diseases amongst people. The efforts need to be enhanced and escalated to achieve community awareness.
STT-BNN: A Novel STT-MRAM In-Memory Computing Macro for Binary Neural Networks

This paper presents a novel architecture for in-memory computation of binary neural network (BNN) workloads based on STT-MRAM arrays. In the proposed architecture, BNN inputs are fed through bitlines, then, a BNN vector multiplication can be done by single sensing of the merged SL voltage of a row. Our design allows to perform unrestricted accumulation across rows for full utilization of the array and BNN model scalability, and overcomes challenges on the sensing circuit due to the limitation of low regular tunneling magnetoresistance ratio (TMR) in STT-MRAM. Circuit techniques are introduced in the periphery to make the energy-speed-area-robustness tradeoff more favorable. In particular, time-based sensing (TBS) and boosting are introduced to enhance the accuracy of the BNN computations. System simulations show 80.01% (98.42%) accuracy under the CIFAR-10 (MNIST) dataset under the effect of local and global process variations, corresponding to an 8.59% (0.38%) accuracy loss compared to the original BNN software implementation, while achieving an energy efficiency of 311 TOPS/W.
Beyond the silver gamer: The compromises and strategies of older video game players

The experience of older adults who play video games illustrates the con­temporary challenges of ageing and the strategies that ageing individuals set up to navigate them. The ethnography of a video game workshop ded­icated to older adults in a French cultural centre offers an opportunity to examine how a group of 15 women aged 60–82 years exert their agency as technogenarians (Joyce & Loe 2011). In order to fully engage in their play, the workshop’s participants have to manage complex and sometimes con­tradictory expectations concerning who counts as a player and what is an acceptable way to play. They cobble together available discursive re­sources to manoeuvre around notions that interfere with their practice. The result is a distinctive play style through which the participants re­claim a right to subvert expectations and, at long last, play.
The Idea of Progress in Forensic Authorship Analysis

This Element examines progress in research and practice in forensic authorship analysis. It describes the existing research base and examines what makes an authorship analysis more or less reliable. Further to this, the author describes the recent history of forensic science and the scientific revolution brought about by the invention of DNA evidence. They chart the rise of three major changes in forensic science – the recognition of contextual bias in analysts, the need for validation studies and shift in logic of providing identification evidence. This Element addresses the idea of progress in forensic authorship analysis in terms of these three issues with regard to new knowledge about the nature of authorship and methods in stylistics and stylometry. The author proposes that the focus needs to shift to validation of protocols for approaching case questions, rather than on validation of systems or general approaches. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
The Placental NLRP3 Inflammasome and Its Downstream Targets, Caspase-1 and Interleukin-6, Are Increased in Human Fetal Growth Restriction: Implications for Aberrant Inflammation-Induced Trophoblast Dysfunction

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is commonly associated with placental insufficiency and inflammation. Nonetheless, the role played by inflammasomes in the pathogenesis of FGR is poorly understood. We hypothesised that placental inflammasomes are differentially expressed and contribute to the aberrant trophoblast function. Inflammasome gene expression profiles were characterised by real-time PCR on human placental tissues collected from third trimester FGR and gestation-matched control pregnancies (n = 25/group). The functional significance of a candidate inflammasome was then investigated using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced models of inflammation in human trophoblast organoids, BeWo cells in vitro, and a murine model of FGR in vivo. Placental mRNA expression of NLRP3, caspases 1, 3, and 8, and interleukin 6 increased (>2-fold), while that of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, decreased (<2-fold) in FGR compared with control pregnancies. LPS treatment increased NLRP3 and caspase-1 expression (>2-fold) in trophoblast organoids and BeWo cell cultures in vitro, and in the spongiotrophoblast and labyrinth in the murine model of FGR. However, the LPS-induced rise in NLRP3 was attenuated by its siRNA-induced down-regulation in BeWo cell cultures, which correlated with reduced activity of the apoptotic markers, caspase-3 and 8, compared to the control siRNA-treated cells. Our findings support the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in the inflammation-induced aberrant trophoblast function, which may contribute to FGR.