Mechanical and Metallurgical In Vitro Evaluation of Electropolished Versus Non-Electropolished Rotary and Reciprocating Instruments.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of electropolishing on the mechanical properties of One RECI and One Curve mini nickel-titanium (NiTi) instruments by comparing electropolished and non-electropolished versions of each instrument type.

Methodology: Electropolished and non-electropolished One RECI (reciprocating) and One Curve mini (rotary) NiTi instruments, all manufactured with identical geometry and heat treatment, were evaluated. Instrument design was analysed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, while metallurgical characterisation was performed using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

Manufacturing Order Matters? Exploring the Impact of Heat Treatment and Machining Sequences on the NiTi Instruments Properties.

This study assessed how manufacturing sequence affects the metallurgical and mechanical properties of two nickel-titanium instruments: Procodile Q (heat-treated before machining) and Procodile +HT (heat-treated after machining). Both instruments (n = 74 each, size 25/0.06) were analysed for design, NiTi composition, phase transformation temperatures and mechanical performance (cyclic fatigue at 20°C and 35°C, torsional fatigue, bending load, buckling strength, cutting ability, microhardness and roughness).

The impact of blade geometry (nonflat, flat or hybrid) and metallurgical composition on the mechanical performance of NiTi endodontic instruments: A multimethod laboratory study.

Aim: To evaluate the influence of blade design (conventional, flat and hybrid) and metallurgical properties on the mechanical performance of nickel-titanium endodontic instruments.

Methodology: Two hundred and seven NiTi instruments (25 mm in length) with three different blade designs were selected for analysis: conventional (n = 69, CC One Blue, size 25/0.08v), flat (n = 69, Platinum V.

A Comparative Analysis of ProTaper Ultimate and Five Multifile Systems: Design, Metallurgy, and Mechanical Performance.

The present research compared the design, metallurgical properties, and mechanical characteristics of the ProTaper Ultimate instruments with five multifile systems. A total of 469 new nickel-titanium rotary finishing instruments, all 25 mm in length but varying in size, taper, and metal alloy composition, from six different multifile systems (ProTaper Ultimate, ProTaper Next, ProFile, Mtwo, EndoSequence, and GT Series X), were inspected for irregularities and analyzed for their spiral density (spirals per millimetre), blade design, surface finishing, alloy composition, phase transformation temperatures, and mechanical performance (microhardness, torsional, and bending resistance tests). Group comparisons were performed using Kruskal-Wallis and one-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey's tests (α = 5%).

Dynamic photoelastic analysis of stress distribution in simulated canals using different heat-treated flat-side rotary instruments.

Objectives: This study aimed to compare the stress produced by three heat-treated flat-side prototype rotary instruments and a non-flat side instrument on the internal walls of simulated canals with three different curvature degrees using the photoelastic technique.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-six resin blocks with simulated canals, comprising three curvature types (45°, 60°, and double curvature), were used in the study, with 12 blocks allocated to each curvature type. These blocks were further divided into four experimental groups (n = 9 per group) based on the heat treatment of the instruments: gold, silver, blue, and a control group with non-flat-side gold instruments.

Ice templating water-stable macroporous polysaccharide hydrogels to mimic plant stems.

Water-stable macroporous hydrogels, inspired by the structural and chemical characteristics of plant stems, are expected to open a wide range of possibilities in soft materials for passive liquid transport. However, obtaining efficient materials for these applications still poses a major challenge due to the complexity of shaping hydrogels at the relevant scale-length. Here, water-stable macroporous hydrogels were fabricated using alginate and TEMPO-oxidized cellulose a new approach involving ice templating and topotactic ion-crosslinking with Ca.

Biomimetic tubular materials: from native tissues to a unifying view of new vascular, tracheal, gastrointestinal, oesophageal, and urinary grafts.

Repairing tubular tissues-the trachea, the esophagus, urinary and gastrointestinal tracts, and the circulatory system-from trauma or severe pathologies that require resection, calls for new, more effective graft materials. Currently, the relatively narrow family of materials available for these applications relies on synthetic polymers that fail to reproduce the biological and physical cues found in native tissues. Mimicking the structure and the composition of native tubular tissues to elaborate functional grafts is expected to outperform the materials currently in use, but remains one of the most challenging goals in the field of biomaterials.

Nursing Process for institutionalized older adults: contributions from knowledge awareness workshop.

Objective: To analyze the knowledge of professionals working in a Nursing Home about the Nursing Process before and after the awareness workshop.

Methods: This is strategic action research, developed with nursing professionals and managers of a Nursing Home in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Data were collected between January and June 2023, through semi-structured interviews before and after an awareness workshop.

Tunable biomimetic materials elaborated by ice templating and self-assembly of collagen for tubular tissue engineering.

Synthetic tubular grafts currently used in clinical context fail frequently, and the expectations that biomimetic materials could tackle these limitations are high. However, developing tubular materials presenting structural, compositional and functional properties close to those of native tissues remains an unmet challenge. Here we describe a combination of ice templating and topotactic fibrillogenesis of type I collagen, the main component of tissues' extracellular matrix, yielding highly concentrated yet porous tubular collagen materials with controlled hierarchical architecture at multiple length scales, the hallmark of native tissues' organization.

ANAMT technical guideline: occupational telediagnosis.

The relationships between work and health/illness are the main task of the occupational physician, with the occupational medical examination being used to address these relationships, together with a workplace study and epidemiological analyses. This study had as a guiding clinical question: Is telemedicine occupational examination (telediagnosis) accurate compared with in-person occupational examination? The studies were selected by four independent reviewers, meeting the eligibility criteria. The searches resulted in 12,654, 29, 3, and 0 articles retrieved from MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases and hand search, respectively.

Interrelationships among skeletal age, growth status and motor performances in female athletes 10-15 years.

Background: Motor performances of youth are related to growth and maturity status, among other factors.

Aim: To estimate the contribution of skeletal maturity status to the motor performances of female athletes aged 10-15 years and the mediation effects of growth status on the relationships.

Subjects And Methods: Skeletal age (TW3 RUS SA), body size, proportions, estimated fat-free mass (FFM), motor performances, training history and participation motivation were assessed in 80 non-skeletally mature female participants in several sports.

Decoding Single and Paired Phonemes Using 7T Functional MRI.

Several studies have shown that mouth movements related to the pronunciation of individual phonemes are represented in the sensorimotor cortex. This would theoretically allow for brain computer interfaces that are capable of decoding continuous speech by training classifiers based on the activity in the sensorimotor cortex related to the production of individual phonemes. To address this, we investigated the decodability of trials with individual and paired phonemes (pronounced consecutively with one second interval) using activity in the sensorimotor cortex.

Pain site persistence and changes from childhood to adolescence: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Pain is a complex experience that interferes with the well-being of youth who experience it. We aimed to assess whether recurrent pain sites in childhood can predict later recurrent pain sites prospectively.

Methods: Pain was assessed using the Luebeck Pain Screening Questionnaire at ages 7, 10, and 13 from the Generation XXI cohort.

Parallel anagenetic patterns in endemic species from three Macaronesian archipelagos.

Anagenetic speciation is an important mode of evolution in oceanic islands, yet relatively understudied compared to adaptive radiation. In the Macaronesian region, three closely related species of (i.e.

Pain history and experimental pressure pain responses in adolescents: Results from a population-based birth cohort.

Background: Sensitized pain mechanisms are often reported in musculoskeletal pain conditions, but population-based paediatric studies are lacking. We assessed whether adolescents with musculoskeletal pain history had evidence of increased responsiveness to experimental pressure stimuli.

Methods: Data were from 1496 adolescents of the Generation XXI birth cohort.

Slash and burn management and permanent or rotation agroforestry systems: A comparative study for C sequestration by century model simulation.

Understanding the effects of agroforestry systems (AFs) on soil organic carbon (SOC) requires long-term experiments, but scenarios simulations can anticipate the potential of these systems to sequester or lose carbon (C). This study aimed to simulate the SOC dynamics in slash and burn management (BURN) and AFs using the Century model. Data from a long-term experiment implemented in the Brazilian semiarid region were used to simulate SOC dynamics under BURN and AFs situations, and the natural vegetation (NV) "Caatinga" as a reference.

COVID-19 Contact Tracing as an Indicator for Evaluating a Pandemic Situation: Simulation Study.

Background: Contact tracing is a fundamental intervention in public health. When systematically applied, it enables the breaking of chains of transmission, which is important for controlling COVID-19 transmission. In theoretically perfect contact tracing, all new cases should occur among quarantined individuals, and an epidemic should vanish.

Circulating Tumor Cells in Cancer Diagnostics and Prognostics by Single-Molecule and Single-Cell Characterization.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) represent an interesting source of biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and the prediction of cancer recurrence, yet while they are extensively studied in oncobiology research, their diagnostic utility has not yet been demonstrated and validated. Their scarcity in human biological fluids impedes the identification of dangerous CTC subpopulations that may promote metastatic dissemination. In this Perspective, we discuss promising techniques that could be used for the identification of these metastatic cells.

Mechanisms of speed encoding in the human middle temporal cortex measured by 7T fMRI.

Perception of dynamic scenes in our environment results from the evaluation of visual features such as the fundamental spatial and temporal frequency components of a moving object. The ratio between these two components represents the object's speed of motion. The human middle temporal cortex hMT+ has a crucial biological role in the direct encoding of object speed.

Magnetic resonance imaging target fusion biopsy vs. transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy - A comparative study of ISUP score upgrading risk in the final radical prostatectomy specimen.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to com-pare the risk of International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) score upgrading between magnetic resonance imaging targeted fusion biopsy (MRI-TB) and tran-srectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TRUS-B) in the final radical prostatectomy (RP) specimen pathological report.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective single center study included 51 patients with prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosed with MRI-TB and 83 patients diagnosed with TRUS-B between October/2019 and July/2021. We compared the rates of ISUP score upgrading between both groups after robotic-assisted radi-cal prostatectomy (RARP) and the specific transition of each ISUP score based on biopsy modality.

Effects of sliding window variation in the performance of acceleration-based human activity recognition using deep learning models.

Deep learning (DL) models are very useful for human activity recognition (HAR); these methods present better accuracy for HAR when compared to traditional, among other advantages. DL learns from unlabeled data and extracts features from raw data, as for the case of time-series acceleration. Sliding windows is a feature extraction technique.

Porous yet dense matrices: using ice to shape collagen 3D cell culture systems with increased physiological relevance.

Standard cell cultures are one of the pillars of biomedical sciences. However, there is increasing evidence that 2D systems provide biological responses that are often in disagreement with observations, partially due to limitations in reproducing the native cellular microenvironment. 3D materials that are able to mimic the native cellular microenvironment to a greater extent tackle these limitations.

C1-C2 Transarticular Anterior Fixation for the Treatment of Atlantoaxial Traumatic Dislocation: A Clinical Case.

Fractures of the odontoid apophysis are one of the most frequent lesions in the elderly population, and an increasingly preponderant problem with the progressive aging of the world population. In the present work, we report a clinical case of an 88-year-old male patient who suffered a fall resulting in a type-II fracture of the odontoid apophysis on the Anderson-D'Alonzo classification. Given the age and comorbidities of the patient, we decided to perform osteosynthesis of the fracture through anterior fixation with a transarticular screw in combination with fixation with an odontoid screw.