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Background: The aim of this study was to assess the fracture resistance of pulpotomized primary molars restored with incremental and bulk-fill composite application techniques. Materials and Methods: In this in-vitro experimental study, 36 extracted primary molars were nonrandomly (selectively) divided into three groups of 12 each. All teeth underwent conventional pulpotomy treatment, and mesio-occluso-distal cavities were prepared in such a way that the buccolingual width of the preparation was two-thirds of the intercuspal distance, and the depth of the buccal and lingual walls was 4 mm. The teeth were then restored as follows: Group 1 (control) was restored with amalgam, Group 2 was restored with Tetric N-Ceram composite using the incremental technique, and Group 3 was restored with Tetric N-Ceram composite using the bulk-fill technique. The restored teeth were subjected to thermocycling and then underwent fracture resistance testing in a universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min. Fracture resistance of groups was compared using the one-way ANOVA and Tukey's honestly significant difference test. Results: The mean fracture resistance was 1291.47 ± 603.88 N in the amalgam, 1283.08 ± 594.57 N in the Tetric N-Ceram incremental, and 1939.06 ± 134.47 N in the Tetric N-Ceram bulk-fill group. The difference in this regard between Group 3 and Groups 1 and 2 was statistically significant (P = 0.019 and P= 0.035, respectively). Conclusion: Bulk-fill composite is recommended for reinforcing the remaining tooth structure after the primary molar pulpotomy procedure. Time-saving characteristics of this material are clinically important for reducing appointment time for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe has been described as an allegory of colonization. Using Edward Said's contrapuntal reading strategy, the present article analyzes Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. This study attempts to shed light on the dark spots of the novel, give voice to the unheard characters of the original story,anduncover new meanings and new aspects of the story.In doing so, J. M. Coetzee's Foe, which is a counter-canonical text revealing unheard voices and dark spots of the original story, is analyzed first. It becomes clear that novels which are manifestations of culture have been a critical first step for imperial powers to subjugate other nations, an ongoing process that hast not ceased to function in the contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on the evaluation of the hydrocarbon potential, retention effect of mineral matrix and the gas-oil ratio potential (GORP) of oil shale from the Kabalar Formation in the Göynük area, Turkey, to assess the quality of its organic matter. The results of Rock-Eval pyrolysis generally suggest relatively high organic carbon content (TOC) for Kabalar oil shale, ranging from 1 to 13.23 wt%. These values are consistent with data on source rocks that may have a good to excellent source rock potential. The kerogen in Kabalar oil shale was characterized based on Hydrogen Index (HI) value, S2/S3 ratio, and organic petrographic studies. The results indicate that most of the studied samples are characterized as containing oil prone (type I and II kerogen) organic matter. The low spore color index (SCI) and high S2/S3 ratio with a commonly low Tmax (< 440 °C) demonstrate that most of the oil shale samples are in the immature to early mature stages of thermal maturity. After calculating the transformation ratio (TR), the oil shale samples were divided into mature (TR = 0.2) and immature (TR = 0) subdivisions in order to take the maturity effects on organic carbon content (TOC) and hydrocarbons retention into account and also select the appropriate GORP overlay. After correcting the mineral matrix effect in the immature subdivision, the mean HI value of the Kabalar Formation increased by about 268 and reached 855 mg HC/g TOC. Due to the relatively higher thermal maturity values, the mineral matrix effect is minimized in the mature subdivision. Based on GORP factor, the TOC(live) of Kabalar oil shale is composed only of oil prone material, which is in good agreement with the results inferred from organic petrographic and pyrolysis studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most countries today, handwritten, paper-based medical prescriptions are the norm. While efforts have been made in the past and are being made at present to migrate toward electronic dispensation of prescriptions, these have generally omitted to incorporate ubiquitous computing technology in their proposed solutions. In this paper, we focus on this issue and describe a Jini-based prototypical solution for electronic prescriptions, which allows for their wireless transmission to in-range pharmacies and the augmentation of the service levels rendered to the user, with, for instance, information about queue lengths and estimated waiting times being provided to the patients. Clinical and user evaluation revealed that there were high levels of agreement as regards the prototype's effectiveness, ease of use, and usefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a significant malignancy with widespread implications. Despite progress in surgical interventions for rectal cancer, improvements in overall prognosis remain disproportionate. Standard preoperative chemoradiation, while established as the standard treatment for the majority of rectal cancers, exhibits limited effectiveness in enhancing disease-free survival (DFS) and mitigating distant metastases, particularly in cases of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC)., Methods: This randomised clinical trial assessed 286 patients with LARC in two paralleled groups. Group A underwent six courses of neoadjuvant MFOLFOX chemotherapy, chemoradiation, surgery, and six adjuvant chemotherapy cycles. Group B received concurrent chemoradiation, surgery, and twelve adjuvant chemotherapy cycles. Patient evaluations were achieved at multiple stages of treatment and follow-up., Results: Group A had significantly lower local recurrence (11.64%) than Group B (21.74%, P = 0.025). The distant metastasis rate in Group A (8.90%) was lower than in Group B (20.29%) but was not significant (p = 0.143). More patients in Group A experienced downstaging (80.82% vs. 60.87%, p < 0.001). Specifically, 72.60% demonstrated downstaging of tumour invasion and 54.79% downstaging of lymph node involvement, compared to 57.25% and 41.30% in Group B (p = 0.009 and p = 0.025, respectively) as well as higher pCR rate (26.03% vs. 15.25%, p = 0.030) and three-year DFS rate (82.19% vs. 71.01%, p = 0.035) in group A compare to group B., Conclusion: This innovative strategy for LARC showed promising results with lower local recurrence and higher rates of downstaging and pCR. Treatment side effects were similar in both groups but less frequent in Group A. Anaemia was the most common haematological side effect (A: 58%, B: 68%), and peripheral sensory neuropathy was the most common non-haematological complication (A: 63%, B: 64%). These findings suggest this regimen could be a valuable therapeutic approach for LARC., Trial Registration: This trial was registered on 2023-12-08 within the IRCT.IR database under the number IRCT20210308050628N1., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Intestinal metaplasia (IM) is a benign lesion with no serious concern for patients' health. On the other hand, gastric cancer (GC) is a malignant lesion that has to be differentially diagnosed from benign intestinal metaplasia. Epigenetic modifications have been suggested to play an important role in cancer initiation and development, and they have been investigated as a reliable biomarker tool even for early cancer diagnosis. Whole blood leucocytes (WBC) are potentially the most accessible tissue for cancer early diagnosis, especially for GC, which is hard to diagnose in the early stage., Objective: This study aims to investigate the methylation status of DOK7 gene CpG island in blood leukocytes of patients with IM and GC compared to normal control groups., Material and Method: DNA was extracted from the whole blood of 30 IM patients, 30 GC patients, and 34 normal controls samples, and MSRE-PCR was utilized to evaluate the loci methylation status., Results: Significant hypermethylation of DOK7 gene CpG has been observed in GC 88.1 % (p < 0.001) and IM 66.0 % (p = 0.03) in comparison to the normal control group 56.8%. A cutoff upper than 84.5 % of hypermethylation is considered as a presence of gastric cancer malignant lesions., Conclusions: This is the first reported on hypermethylation in DOK7 CPG in blood leukocytes of patients with GC and IM and establishing a laboratory blood based test that may be useful as a novel biomarker test in the early diagnosis and screaning of GC and IM., (Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s); Published by Iranian Journal of Biotechnology.)

Energy-efficient and high-data rate are desired in biomedical devices transceivers. A high-performance transmitter (Tx) and an ultra-low-power receiver (Rx) dedicated to medical implants communications operating at Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency band are presented. Tx benefits from a new efficient Frequency-Shift Keying (FSK) modulation technique which provides up to 20 Mb/s of data-rate and consumes only 0.084 nJ/b validated through fabrication. The receiver consists of an FSK-to-ASK conversion based receiver with OOK fully passive wake-up device (WuRx). This WuRx is battery less with energy harvesting technique which plays an important role in making the RF transceiver energy-efficient. The Rx is achieved with a reduced hardware architecture which does not use an accurate local oscillator, high-Q external inductor and I/Q signal path. The Rx shows -78 dBm sensitivity for 8 Mbps data rate while consuming 639 μW. The proposed circuits are implemented in IBM 0.13 μm CMOS technology with 1.2 V supply voltage.