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Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the polymerization shrinkage of composite attachments and changes in attachment templates during bonding in clear aligner treatments., Methods: A total of 24 extracted teeth were divided into 4 groups, and plaster models were digitized. Attachment templates were produced with beveled attachments on premolars and rectangular attachments on molars. Polymerizations used a halogen curing light (800 milliwatts per square centimeter [mW/cm 2 ] for 20 seconds) and light-emitting diode (LED) curing light in 3 modes (1000 mW/cm 2 for 20 seconds, 1000 mW/cm 2 for 10 seconds, and 3200 mW/cm 2 for 3 seconds). The curing distance was 5 mm, and temperature changes were recorded with a thermal camera. Microcomputed tomography scanning measured volumetric and linear attachments before and after polymerization. Statistical analyses employed a 1-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni corrected Tukey post-hoc for multiple comparisons and the Kruskal-Wallis test for temperature change., Results: Significant differences (P <0.001) were found in temperature among curing lights. The highest temperature was in the LED unit-extra mode, and the lowest was in the halogen curing unit. The LED unit for 20 seconds caused the highest temperature change. A significant difference (P = 0.048) in occlusal attachment length was found between the LED unit for 20 seconds and the LED unit-extra mode. Polymerization resulted in increased attachment template thickness across all groups, with significant changes noted in the halogen unit, LED unit for 20 seconds, and LED unit-extra mode., Conclusions: Temperature generated during polymerization varied between halogen and LED curing lights. Significant differences were found in attachment length at the occlusal level and template thickness postpolymerization. Preferences in attachment bonding protocols may affect the clinical precision of clear aligner treatments., (Copyright © 2024 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Habitat alterations and the introduction of non-native species have many ecological impacts, including the loss of biodiversity and a deterioration of ecosystem functioning. The effects of these combined stressors on the community trophic web and functional niche are, however, not completely clear. Here, we investigated how artificial ecosystems (i.e. reservoirs) and non-native species may influence the trophic and functional niche space of freshwater fish communities. To do so, we used carbon and nitrogen stable isotope and abundance data to compute a set of isotopic, trait, and functional metrics for 13 fish communities sampled from 12 distinct ecosystems in Türkiye. We show that in reservoirs, fish were more similar in their trophic niche compared to lakes, where the trophic niche was more variable, due to higher habitat complexity. However, there were no differences in the trait and functional metrics between the two ecosystem types, suggesting a higher prey diversity than assumed in reservoirs. We also found that the number of non-native species did not affect the trophic niche space, nor the trait or functional space occupied by the fish community. This indicates that non-native species tended to overlap their trophic niche with native species, while occupying empty functional niches in the recipient community functional space. Similarly, the proportion of non-native species did not affect any trophic, trait, or functional metric, suggesting that changes in community composition were not reflected in changes in the community niche space. Moreover, we found that trait richness, but not functional richness, was positively related to the isotopic niche width and diversity, indicating that a wider occupied trait niche space corresponded with a wider occupied trophic niche and lesser interspecific similarity. Our findings underscore the complexity of ecological relationships within freshwater ecosystems and highlight the need for comprehensive management strategies to mitigate the impacts of human activities and biological invasions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no financial/personal interest or belief that could affect their objectivity to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Non-native species can lead to severe impacts on invaded ecosystems, including the decline of ecosystem function through deleterious impacts on species diversity. The successful establishment of non-native species in new environments is the first barrier a species must overcome, ultimately depending on its ability to either cope with or adapt to local site-specific conditions. Despite the widespread distribution and ecological consequences of many freshwater invaders, site-specific and climatic preferences are often unknown. This is also the case of the Eastern mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki, a global invader considered as a pervasive threat to endemic species. Here, we determined the ecological features and preferred site-specific conditions of G. holbrooki in Türkiye, which spans a wide range of diverse biogeographically distinct ecosystems by surveying populations from 130 localities in 2016 and 2017. Gambusia holbrooki were detected by hand-net in 48 of these sites (19 lotic, 29 lentic). It showed a preference for shallow waters with medium sized rocks, and abundances differed spatially across a latitudinal gradient and was influenced predominantly by variations in pH. The only other factors predicting its presence were low current velocities and gravel substrate, highlighting its ecological versatility in utilising a wide range of microhabitats. Bioclimatic models suggest that G. holbrooki is found in areas with a wide average annual temperature ranging from 10 to 20 °C, but with temperature not being a limiting factor to its invasion. Gambusia holbrooki shows a preference for xeric freshwater ecosystems and endorheic basins, as well as temperate coastal rivers, temperate upland rivers, temperate floodplain rivers and wetlands, and tropical and subtropical coastal rivers. These results, particularly the wide occurrence with only few limiting factors, emphasise the invasion potential of mosquitofish and should substantiate the need for localised invasive species management and conservation efforts, particularly in smaller or insular areas where mosquitofish and endemic fish species co-exist., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To evaluate the functional implications of angiographic macular leakage without the presence of intraretinal fluid on optical coherence tomography (OCT) in eyes with intermediate, posterior, or panuveitis., Methods: Retrospective study on patients with a diagnosis of intermediate, posterior, or panuveitis. Patients who had fluorescein angiography, OCT, and multifocal electroretinography (mfERG) within a predetermined time frame were included. Demographic and clinical data including types of ocular inflammation and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), in addition to OCT, fluorescein angiography, and mfERG data were collected. The study cohort was divided into 2 groups based on the presence of angiographic macular leakage and macular edema (ME): group 1 (no ME and no macular leakage) and group 2 (presence of macular leakage without ME)., Results: A total of 29 patients (43 eyes) were included in the study, with 13 patients (17 eyes) in group 1 and 16 patients (26 eyes) in group 2. No statistically significant differences in age, sex, anterior-chamber cells, lens status, vitreous cells, vitreous haze, BCVA, or mean central subfoveal thickness were found between groups 1 and 2. All mfERG values, including N 1 and P 1 response densities and timings for rings 1-5, did not show any statistically significant difference between group 1 and 2. No correlation was found between either BCVA or central subfoveal thickness and any of mfERG values for rings 1-3., Conclusions: In absence of ME, angiographic macular leakage in eyes with uveitis might not be associated with worse macular function when compared with eyes without angiographic macular leakage., (Copyright © 2022 Canadian Ophthalmological Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Deep-learning models have enabled performance leaps in analysis of high-dimensional functional MRI (fMRI) data. Yet, many previous methods are suboptimally sensitive for contextual representations across diverse time scales. Here, we present BolT, a blood-oxygen-level-dependent transformer model, for analyzing multi-variate fMRI time series. BolT leverages a cascade of transformer encoders equipped with a novel fused window attention mechanism. Encoding is performed on temporally-overlapped windows within the time series to capture local representations. To integrate information temporally, cross-window attention is computed between base tokens in each window and fringe tokens from neighboring windows. To gradually transition from local to global representations, the extent of window overlap and thereby number of fringe tokens are progressively increased across the cascade. Finally, a novel cross-window regularization is employed to align high-level classification features across the time series. Comprehensive experiments on large-scale public datasets demonstrate the superior performance of BolT against state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, explanatory analyses to identify landmark time points and regions that contribute most significantly to model decisions corroborate prominent neuroscientific findings in the literature., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The threat posed by invasive non-native species worldwide requires a global approach to identify which introduced species are likely to pose an elevated risk of impact to native species and ecosystems. To inform policy, stakeholders and management decisions on global threats to aquatic ecosystems, 195 assessors representing 120 risk assessment areas across all six inhabited continents screened 819 non-native species from 15 groups of aquatic organisms (freshwater, brackish, marine plants and animals) using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit. This multi-lingual decision-support tool for the risk screening of aquatic organisms provides assessors with risk scores for a species under current and future climate change conditions that, following a statistically based calibration, permits the accurate classification of species into high-, medium- and low-risk categories under current and predicted climate conditions. The 1730 screenings undertaken encompassed wide geographical areas (regions, political entities, parts thereof, water bodies, river basins, lake drainage basins, and marine regions), which permitted thresholds to be identified for almost all aquatic organismal groups screened as well as for tropical, temperate and continental climate classes, and for tropical and temperate marine ecoregions. In total, 33 species were identified as posing a 'very high risk' of being or becoming invasive, and the scores of several of these species under current climate increased under future climate conditions, primarily due to their wide thermal tolerances. The risk thresholds determined for taxonomic groups and climate zones provide a basis against which area-specific or climate-based calibrated thresholds may be interpreted. In turn, the risk rankings help decision-makers identify which species require an immediate 'rapid' management action (e.g. eradication, control) to avoid or mitigate adverse impacts, which require a full risk assessment, and which are to be restricted or banned with regard to importation and/or sale as ornamental or aquarium/fishery enhancement., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Although it is generally accepted that negative symptoms of schizophrenia are associated with larger lateral ventricles, this general assumption could not be validated in patients with primary negative symptoms. To elucidate this issue, we conducted a five-year longitudinal study, including deficit (n = 13) and non-deficit (n = 26) schizophrenia patients with healthy controls (n = 18). Analysis with linear mixed effects modeling showed that both the left and the right lateral ventricles of the deficit patients enlarged more than the non-deficit patients. Our results suggest that structural alterations in deficit patients might follow a different trajectory than those in non-deficit patients., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The COVID-19-related death rate varies between countries and is affected by various risk factors. This multicenter registry study was designed to evaluate the mortality rate and the related risk factors in Turkey. We retrospectively evaluated 1500 adults with COVID-19 from 26 centers who were hospitalized between March 11 and July 31, 2020. In the study group, 1041 and 459 cases were diagnosed as definite and highly probable cases, respectively. There were 993 PCR-positive cases (66.2%). Among all cases, 1144 (76.3%) were diagnosed with non-severe pneumonia, whereas 212 (14.1%) had severe pneumonia. Death occurred in 67 patients, corresponding to a mortality rate of 4.5% (95% CI:3.5-5.6). The univariate analysis demonstrated that various factors, including male sex, age ≥65 years and the presence of dyspnea or confusion, malignity, chronic obstructive lung disease, interstitial lung disease, immunosuppressive conditions, severe pneumonia, multiorgan dysfunction, and sepsis, were positively associated with mortality. Favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were not associated with survival. Following multivariate analysis, male sex, severe pneumonia, multiorgan dysfunction, malignancy, sepsis and interstitial lung diseases were found to be independent risk factors for mortality. Among the biomarkers, procalcitonin levels on the 3rd-5th days of admission showed the strongest associations with mortality (OR: 6.18; 1.6-23.93). This study demonstrated that the mortality rate in hospitalized patients in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic was a serious threat and that those patients with male sex, severe pneumonia, multiorgan dysfunction, malignancy, sepsis and interstitial lung diseases were at increased risk of mortality; therefore, such patients should be closely monitored., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: With this study, we evaluated the perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of benign inflammatory breast lesions for the first time and compared their K trans, K ep , V e values and contrast kinetic curves to benign masses and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC)., Materials and Methods: Perfusion MRIs of the benign masses (n = 42), inflammatory lesions (n = 25), and IDCs (n = 16) were evaluated retrospectively in terms of K trans, K ep , V e values and contrast kinetic curves and compared by the Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, chi-square tests statistically. Cronbach α test was used to measure intraobserver and interobserver reliability., Results: Mean K trans values were 0.052 for benign masses, 0.086 for inflammatory lesions and 0.101 for IDC (p < 0.001). Mean K ep values were 0.241 for benign masses, 0.435 for inflammatory lesions and 0.530 for IDC (p < 0.001). Mean V e values were 0.476 for benign masses, 0.318 for inflammatory lesions and 0.310 for IDC (p = 0.067). For inflammatory and IDC lesions, K trans and K ep values were found to be higher and V e values were lower than benign masses (p = 0.001 for K trans , p = 0.001 for K ep , p = 0.045 for V e ). There were excellent or good intra-interobserver reliabilities. For the kinetic curve pattern, most of the benign lesions showed progressive (81%), inflammatory lesions progressive (64%) and IDC lesions plateau (75%) patterns (p < 0.001)., Conclusions: On T1 perfusion MRI, similar to IDC lesions, inflammatory lesions demonstrate higher K trans and K ep and lower V e values than benign masses. Quantitative perfusion parameters are not helpful in differentiating them from IDC lesions., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Fickian diffusion into a core-shell geometry is modeled. The interior core mimics pancreatic Langerhan islets and the exterior shell acts as inert protection. The consumption of oxygen diffusing into the cells is approximated using Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The problem is transformed to dimensionless units and solved numerically. Two regimes are identified, one that is diffusion limited and the other consumption limited. A regression is fit that describes the concentration at the center of the cells as a function of the relevant physical parameters. It is determined that, in a cell culture environment, the cells will remain viable as long as the islet has a radius of around 142 µm or less and the encapsulating shell has a radius of less than approximately 283 µm. When the islet is on the order of 100 µm it is possible for the cells to remain viable in environments with as little as 4.6×10 -2  mol/m -3 O 2 . These results indicate such an encapsulation scheme may be used to prepare artificial pancreas to treat diabetes., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To evaluate the dry eye findings and Meibomian gland dysfunction as demonstrated with meibography in patients with lamellar ichthyosis., Methods: Twenty-four eyes of 12 patients with lamellar ichthyosis (Group 1) and twenty-four eyes of 12 healthy individuals (Group 2) were enrolled. Comprehensive eye examination along with corneal and conjunctival fluorescein staining with Oxford scoring, tear film break-up time, Schirmer 1 test, ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score assessment, and evaluation of upper and lower eyelid Meibomian glands using infrared filter of slit-lamp biomicroscope (SL-D701, TOPCON, Tokyo, Japan) were performed. The Meibomian glands were graded from grade 0 (no loss of Meibomian glands) to grade 3 (gland dropout >2/3 of the total Meibomian glands)., Results: The mean ages of Group 1 and Group 2 were 25.3±15.6years (range, 9-61 years) and 25.3±13.3years (range, 9-52 years), respectively (p=0.997). No significant difference in terms of best-corrected visual acuity, Schirmer 1 test and Oxford scores were detected in between groups. Mean tear film break-up time was lower (p=0.013), and OSDI score, lower, upper and total (upper+lower) meiboscores were significantly higher in Group 1 as compared with Group 2 (p<0.001, p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.001, respectively)., Conclusion: Lamellar ichthyosis is associated with evaporative type dry eye disease with decreased tear film break-up time, normal Schirmer 1 values and Meibomian gland dysfunction that can objectively be demonstrated with meibography. For this reason, in order to prevent undesired complications, these patients should be examined and treated for dry eye disease especially targeting Meibomian gland dysfunction., (Copyright © 2017 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives:: Pleural effusion is a common diagnostic and clinical problem. The differential diagnosis of pleural effusion may be difficult and may require several procedures, including invasive ones. Certain studies have investigated biochemical parameters to facilitate the diagnosis of exudative pleural effusion; however, it remains a challenging problem in clinical practice. We aimed to investigate the potential role of the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, which can be easily obtained by determining the cell count of the pleural fluid, in the differential diagnosis of exudative pleural effusion., Methods:: Records from patients who underwent thoracentesis and pleural fluid analysis between May 1, 2013, and March 1, 2015, were obtained from the electronic database of our hospital. The patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into five groups according to their diagnosis: malignant pleural effusion, para-malignant pleural effusion, para-pneumonic effusion, tuberculosis-related effusion or other. The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio value was calculated by dividing the absolute neutrophil count by the absolute lymphocyte count. The patient groups were compared according to the given parameter., Results:: A total of 465 patients who met the inclusion criteria among 1616 patients with exudative pleural effusion were included in the study. The mean neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio value was significantly lower in tuberculosis-related pleural effusion compared to malignant, para-pneumonic and para-malignant effusions (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.012, respectively). The areas under the curve for tuberculosis pleurisy compared to malignant, para-pneumonic and para-malignant effusions were 0.38, 0.36, and 0.37, respectively. Lower cut-off values had higher sensitivity but lower specificity for tuberculosis pleurisy, while higher cut-off values had higher specificity but lower sensitivity for this condition., Conclusion:: The pleural fluid neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, which is an inexpensive, reproducible, and easily calculated hematological parameter, may facilitate the differential diagnosis of pleural effusion., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported.

Aim: We present the neurodevelopmental outcome of patients with isolated borderline fetal ventriculomegaly., Methods: The present study was carried out at the Department of Pediatric Neurology, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul University in July-December 2010. Prenatal second trimester detailed ultrasound examinations were performed by obstetricians at the Prenatal Diagnosis Department of Istanbul Medical School, and 31 consecutive patients aged 8-33 months have been included in the study. Four patients with atrial diameters of over 15 mm and three patients with central nervous system development anomalies were excluded from the study. In order to assess the neuromotor development of patients, neurologic examinations and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-III) were used., Results: Nine patients were female (29%) and 22 were male (71%). In the postnatal period, tuberous sclerosis was found in one patient, Down syndrome in one, and equinovarus foot deformity in one. Atrial diameter was <12 mm in 18 patients and >12 mm in 13. Cranial ultrasounds done in the first postnatal month revealed persisting ventriculomegaly in nine patients. The two patients who scored significantly low in all areas on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development were the patients with Down syndrome and tuberous sclerosis. The one scoring low in the motor area was the patient with the equinovarus foot deformity. The BSID-III scores of the patients whose prenatal ventricle diameter was <12 mm were within normal limits. The four patients showing slight developmental delay were the ones whose cranial ultrasound in the first postnatal month showed persisting ventriculomegaly., Conclusion: In patients with borderline fetal ventriculomegaly, atrial diameter being more than 12 mm, the condition persisting in the first postnatal month and the presence of accompanying syndromes and malformations all constitute clear risk factors for neurodevelopmental outcome., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the factors that may influence image quality on multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) coronary angiography (CA)., Materials and Methods: Two hundred twenty-four consecutive patients (161 men and 63 women; mean age, 52 years; age range, 34-76 years) evaluated with MDCT CA were included in the study. The evaluation of the quality of the patients' images was mainly based on the contrast material phase (early phase, optimal phase, or late phase) and the level of stepladder artifact (none, acceptable, or unacceptable). In addition, factors such as patient selection, patient preparation, scanning, processing, and steps of analysis, which may be affecting the quality of a final image, were examined independently., Results: Patients who could not achieve sufficient breath-holding despite multiple breath exercises, those with a calcium score of 500 or higher, those with a heart rate greater than 90 bpm after metoprolol administration (because of shortening of the diastolic phase in the most still period), and those whose scanning was not completed were excluded from the study. The results for the remaining 224 patients were evaluated. Based on the contrast phase, there were 66 (29.5%) patients in the first group (early), 93 (41.5%) in the second group (optimal), and 65 (29%) in the third group (late). Among the 224 patients, the images of 152 (67.9%) had no stepladder artifact, those of 67 (29.9%) were of acceptable image quality, and those of 5 (2.2%) were of unacceptable image quality., Conclusion: It is important to obtain high-quality images to achieve correct interpretation with coronary artery CT angiography. This study aimed to describe a technique performed on 224 patients based on an array of factors ranging from patient selection to postprocessing. The results show that patient selection, cooperation with the patient, and breath-holding exercises play a very important role in obtaining the best images. In addition, a proper scanning technique (e.g., placement of electrocardiographic electrodes and contrast material phase) and postprocessing (e.g., reconstruction interval) may also contribute to obtaining high-quality images.