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Abstract Risks in the supply chain can damage many companies and organizations due to sustainability risk factors. This study evaluates the supply chain risk assessment and management and then selects the best supplier in a gas company in Egypt. A comprehensive methodology can use the experts' opinions who use the linguistic variables in the spherical fuzzy numbers (SFNs) to evaluate the criteria and suppliers in this study based on their views. Selecting the best supplier is a complex task due to various criteria related to supply chain risk assessment, such as supply risks, environmental risks, financial risks, regularity risks, political risk, ethical risks, and technology risks and their sub-criteria. This study suggested a new combined model with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) under a spherical fuzzy set (SFS) environment to overcome uncertainty and incomplete data in the assessment process. The MCDM methodology has two methods: the Entropy and COmbinative Distance-based Assessment (CODAS) methods. The SFS-Entropy is used to compute supply chain risk assessment and management criteria weights. The SFS-CODAS method is used to rank the supplier. The main results show that supply risks have the highest importance, followed by financial and environmental risks, and ethical risks have the lowest risk importance. The criteria weights were changed under sensitivity analysis to show the stability and validation of the results obtained from the suggested methodology. The comparative analysis is implemented with other MCDM methods named TOPSIS, VIKOR, MARCOS, COPRAS, WASPAS, and MULTIMOORA methods under the SFS environment. This study can help managers and organizations select the best supplier with the lowest sustainability risks.

Agriculture is essential for many countries that depend on crops for food production and security. So, evaluating irrigation systems and selecting the best one is critical and gives various benefits such as water use efficiency, productivity, and agricultural development. This paper proposed a framework for conserving water and increasing effectiveness by using a suitable irrigation system. We used the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodology to deal with conflict criteria in the evaluation process. We used two MCDM methods such as Criteria Importance Through Inter-Criteria Correlation (CRITIC) method to compute the weights of the irrigation system criteria, and the spherical fuzzy double normalization-based multiple aggregations (DNMA) method to rank the irrigation systems (alternatives). The main advantage of CRITIC method computes the conflict and variability of the criteria by calculate weights of them. The main advantage of DNMA is used the two normalization method to rank the alternatives. These methods are integrated with spherical fuzzy set (SFS) fuzzy information in the assessment process. It has three values: membership, non-membership, and hesitant degrees to overcome uncertainty in the assessment steps. The proposed methodology is applied to a case study to show its performance. This study used 20 criteria of irrigation systems and 10 irrigation systems (alternatives) to select the best alternative. The results are discussed from the perspective of five experts. The sensitivity analysis is conducted to show the stability of the results. The comparative analysis is performed to show the validity and effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The results show the proposed methodology is more robust compared to other methods.

Lower back pain is one of the problems facing all groups of society, especially the elderly, as the causes of pain revolve around many different factors. The research aims to use intense special exercises accompanied by intermittent electrical stimulation to get rid of lower back pain among professors of the College of Science at the University of Baghdad for ages 50–60 and identify its effect. The research assumes that there are statistically significant differences in the degree of pain before and after the therapeutic approaches. The research sample consisted of professors who suffer from constant pain, numbering (6). The researchers used the experimental method to design one experimental group with a pre- and post-test to suit the research problem. They also used the SPSS program to process the research data statistically. The collected results concluded that the intense special exercises and intermittent electrical stimulation at the beginning of the rehabilitation unit contributed to pain relief by reducing the degree of pain within a short period. The researchers recommended using special exercises and stimulation to relieve pain in other similar cases.

Integrating the metaverse technology with the transportation system has several security and privacy issues. This study assesses the 12 security solutions to select the best one to overcome security and privacy issues (such as data theft, unauthorized access, and theft of personal data) when integrating the transportation system with metaverse technology. A suggested methodology is conducted by experts and decision-makers using linguistic terms and spherical fuzzy numbers to express their opinions on evaluating the criteria and alternatives. Selecting the best security solution (alternative) is critical because it includes several conflict security criteria, such as data theft, authentication, security attacks, and others. This paper introduces a methodology for multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) in a spherical fuzzy (SF) environment. The MCDM method dealt with various conflicting criteria, and SF dealt with uncertainty and vague information while evaluating the criteria and alternatives. The suggested methodology consists of two main phases. The first phase introduces the analytic hierarchy process (SF-AHP) method to compute the criteria weights. The second phase introduces the Weighted Aggregates Sum Product Assessment (SF-WASPAS) method to rank and select the best alternative. The results show the end-to-end authentication protocol is the best alternative (security solution). This study conducted a sensitivity analysis of the stability of the rank by changing the criteria’s weights. The sensitivity analysis results show that the end-to-end authentication protocol is the best alternative (security solution) in different cases. We compare the suggested methodology with six other MCDM methods: SF-TOPSIS, SF-VIKOR, SF-MABAC, SF-CODAS, SF-MARCOS, and SF-COPRAS to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the presented methodology is robust compared to other MCDM methods.

Due to climate change, fossil fuel reduction, growing energy usage, and ecological impacts, the need for renewable energy sources is rising quickly. A large amount of energy comes from the ocean through the tide; renewable energy must be exploited. One important energy source is wave energy converters (WECs), which enhance efficiency and grow energy. This study presented a case study from three layers of the Red Sea in Egypt for selecting optimal wave energy location (WEL), wave energy technology (WET), and WEC. The spherical fuzzy set (SFS) framework deals with uncertainty and vague information in this selection process. The SFS is integrated with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) to deal with various criteria in each layer. This study uses two MCDM methods under the SFS environment: The Stepwise Weighted Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method and the Weighted Euclidean Distance Based Approach (WEDBA) method. The SF-SWARA method is used to compute the criteria weights in each layer. Then, the SF-WEDBA method ranks the alternatives in each layer. The main results in each layer show that the accessibility criterion, Economic factors, and energy production criterion have the highest weight in the three layers. Sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis are conducted in each layer.

Abstract Digital forensics is a process of collection, identification, extraction, and documentation of electronic evidence which is used in a court of law. There are a large number of tools that help us to make this process easy and simple. In this paper, four tools have been chosen to explore and study. The best digital forensic tools have been chosen according to different parameters in each type of digital forensics. The (Stellar) basis tool and (Forensic Tool Kit) have been explored for computer forensic tools while (Network Map) has been chosen for network forensic tools and (OSFmount) has been studied as a live forensic tool. This paper also covers other types of forensic tools like Database forensic tools, O.S. forensic tools, and Mail forensic tools. The role of Artificial intelligence in Digital Forensic tools has been discussed in this paper by using both Decision Stump and Bayes net machine learning techniques. After making an investigation of the IoT device traffic dataset using these two techniques, Decision Stump gives us less accurate results compared with Bayes net.

This paper presents a binary variant of a novel physics-based meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, namely Light spectrum optimizer (LSO), for tackling both the 0–1 knapsack (KP01) and multidimensional knapsack problems (MKP). Because of the continuous nature of the standard LSO that contradicts the knapsack problem's discrete nature, two various transfer functions: S-shaped and X-shaped, are used to convert the continuous values produced by LSO into discrete ones. Some binary solutions produced by the binary LSO (BLSO) may be infeasible, so an improvement-repair strategy is used to convert those solutions into feasible ones by making some improvements on them. Moreover, the classical LSO was modified in this study to propose a new binary variant, namely BMLSO, with better exploration and exploitation operators for overcoming the knapsack problems. Additionally, a novel method, which simulates the swarm intelligence behaviors and the simulated binary crossover (SBX) to accelerate the convergence speed with avoiding stuck into local minima, has been proposed for producing a new binary variant of MLSO known as BHLSO. To verify the performance of the proposed binary variants of LSO, 45 benchmark instances of KP01 and 30 benchmark instances of MKP used commonly in the literature have been used in our experiments. The experimental findings show the superiority of BHLSO for both KP01 and MKP compared with several well-known algorithms in terms of CPU time, convergence speed, and accuracy.

يعد الطالب البطل طالب مميز في رياضة معينة تفوق واجتهد فيها ونال الاوسمة تكريما لما بذله من وقت وجد للحصول عليها، ويهدف البحث الى دراسة واقع الطلبة الابطال الخريجين من كلية التربية البدنية وعلوم الرياضة - جامعة بغداد للعام الدراسي 2022/2023، واشتملت العينة على الطلبة الابطال الخريجين من الكلية وعددهم (32) طالب، حيث تم اختيارهم بالطريقة العمدية، واســتعان الباحثون بالمنهج الوصفي لتحقيق الهدف من البحث، واستخدم الباحثون استبيان مكون من محورين وتم حساب التكرار والنسبة المئوية، ووفقا للنتائج التي تم جمعها توصلوا الى وجود تباين بين اجوبة الطلبة الابطال على فقرات الاستبيان المختلفة في المحور المعرفي والمحور التطبيقي واوصى الباحثون بضرورة اجراء الدراسات المشابهة على باقي الفئات المقبولة في الكلية خدمتا لطلبتها.

The parameter assessment of solar cells and photovoltaic (PV) modules is a challenging task due to the non-linearity behavior of the current–voltage (I–V) characteristic curve. This paper presents two hybrid nature-inspired algorithms for estimating the unknown parameters of the Single-Diode Model (SDM), and Double-Diode Model (DDM). These algorithms are based on borrowed exploration and exploitation schemes from three well-known optimization algorithms: Whale optimization algorithm (WOA), Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA), and Generalized Normal Distribution Optimization (GNDO) algorithm. The first proposed algorithm is called Marine-Whale-Generalized (MWG) algorithm. In addition, MWG is effectively integrated with novel exploration and exploitation schemes to further its exploration and exploitation operators in a new variant known as (MWGG). A solar cell from RTC France and five commercial PV module models, including Photowatt-PWP201 (PWP), Ultra 85-P (Ultra), and STM6-40/36 (STM), are being used to test the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed algorithms. The experimental findings proved that MWGG is more accurate and faster at convergent results compared to other comparators.

تبلورت المشكلة في كثرة الاصابات بهذه العضلة المهمة وهي إصابة التمزق العضلي المتوسط الشدة في بعض عضلات الفخذ الخلفية ويهدف البحث الى معرفة تأثير التحفيز الكهربائي باستخدام جهاز مقترح في التوازن الثابت من خلال تأهيل العضلة (الفخذية الخلفية) للرياضيين المصابين بالتمزق العضلي المتوسط الشدة وفي متغير (التوازن الثابت) واشتملت العينة على لاعبي الألعاب الرياضية الفرقية والفردية المصابين للمدة ما بين (10/11/2022) ولغاية (10/3/2023)، واســتخدم الباحثان المنهج التجريبي بتصميم المجــمـوعة التجريبية الواحدة ذات الاختبار (القبلي، البيني، والبعدي) واستعان الباحثان بالحقيبة الإحصائية (SPSS) لمعالجـة البيانات. ووفقا للنتائج التوصل الى ان التحفيز الكهربائي كان له تأثير ايجابي في عودة اللاعبين المصابين الى ميادين اللعب اذ أسهم في عودة عضلات الفخذ الخلفية المصابة أقرب ما يمكن الى الحالة الطبيعية واوصيا بالاسترشاد بالجهاز المقترح المصمم في اعادة تأهيل عضلات الفخذ الاخرى المصابة.

Developing an appropriate model for accurate prediction of energy consumption is very essential for developing an effective energy management system for residential buildings. In view of this, the Short-term Load Forecasting (STLF) of household appliances has been performing an important role in supervising and managing energy in the residential community. In the domain of big data analytics, data-driven load forecasting approaches have realized an amazing performance in the recognition of patterns of residential electric loads and forecasting energy consumption. Nevertheless, current research emphasizes the use of powerful feature-engineering methods, which are ineffective and result in low generalization performance. Further, considering the differences in the consumption behavior of various home appliances, it is unfeasible to discover energy consumption characteristics physically in the power system. Thus, this study addresses the problems of STLF using a novel two-stream deep learning (DL) model called STLF-Net. The first stream is designed with Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) to learn and capture the long-term temporal representations of the energy utilization data. Simultaneously, in the second stream, the short-term information and positional representations are modeled using a stack of temporal convolutional (TC) modules. The TC module is designated using dilated causal convolutions and residual connection to enable efficient feature extraction while alleviating the gradient vanishing issues. The learned representations from the two streams are fused and subsequently passed to several dense layers to generate the final hour-ahead load forecasts. Experimental assessments on two public energy consumption predictions datasets (IHEPC and AEP) demonstrated the superior performance of the STLF-Net over the recent cutting-edge data-driven approaches.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for efficient and reliable disease diagnosis in smart cities has become increasingly serious. In this study, we introduce a novel blockchain-based federated learning framework tailored specifically for the diagnosis of pandemic diseases in smart cities, called BFLPD, with a focus on COVID-19 as a case study. The proposed BFLPD takes advantage of the decentralized nature of blockchain technology to design collaborative intelligence for automated diagnosis without violating trustworthiness metrics, such as privacy, security, and data sharing, which are encountered in healthcare systems of smart cities. Cheon–Kim–Kim–Song (CKKS) encryption is intelligently redesigned in BFLPD to ensure the secure sharing of learning updates during the training process. The proposed BFLPD presents a decentralized secure aggregation method that safeguards the integrity of the global model against adversarial attacks, thereby improving the overall efficiency and trustworthiness of our system. Extensive experiments and evaluations using a case study of COVID-19 ultrasound data demonstrate that BFLPD can reliably improve diagnostic accuracy while preserving data privacy, making it a promising tool with which smart cities can enhance their pandemic disease diagnosis capabilities.

Objective To assess the potential bidirectional relationship between food insecurity and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa.Design Nationally representative HIV impact assessment household-based surveys.Setting Zambia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Uganda and Tanzania and Namibia.Participants 112 955 survey participants aged 15–59 years with HIV and recency test results.Measures Recent HIV infection (within 6 months) classified using the HIV-1 limited antigen avidity assay, in participants with an unsuppressed viral load (>1000 copies/mL) and no detectable antiretrovirals; severe food insecurity (SFI) defined as having no food in the house ≥three times in the past month.Results Overall, 10.3% of participants lived in households reporting SFI. SFI was most common in urban, woman-headed households, and in people with chronic HIV infection. Among women, SFI was associated with a twofold increase in risk of recent HIV infection (adjusted relative risk (aRR) 2.08, 95% CI 1.09 to 3.97). SFI was also associated with transactional sex (aRR 1.28, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.41), a history of forced sex (aRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.66) and condom-less sex with a partner of unknown or positive HIV status (aRR 1.08, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.14) in all women, and intergenerational sex (partner ≥10 years older) in women aged 15–24 years (aRR 1.23, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.46). Recent receipt of food support was protective against HIV acquisition (aRR 0.36, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.88).Conclusion SFI increased risk for HIV acquisition in women by twofold. Heightened food insecurity during climactic extremes could imperil HIV epidemic control, and food support to women with SFI during these events could reduce HIV transmission.

Abstract This paper proposes a new finite-element modelling of a recent layerwise model for multilayered plates. This layerwise model is built from a specific 3D stress-field expansion along the thickness direction and involves, in particular, interlaminar transverse shear and out-of-plane stresses as generalized stresses. Its main feature is that 3D equilibrium equations and free-edge boundary conditions are directly taken into account into the stress-based construction of the model. A dual displacement-based finite-element discretization is implemented using the FEniCS software package and a remeshing strategy is proposed based on a novel error indicator. The error indicator is built based on the 3D stress field directly deduced from the layerwise generalized stresses and compared to a reconstructed stress field based on the model generalized displacements. The proposed error indicator is shown to identify the most critical parts of a laminate structure associated with complex 3D stress fields such as boundaries or stress concentration/singularity regions (near free-edges or delamination fronts). Through the combination of thickness discretization and in-plane mesh refinement in regions of interest, the proposed framework therefore offers an attractive alternative to 3D solid finite elements for an accurate prediction of stress states in composite laminates.

BackgroundIn the 21st century, understanding how population migration impacts human health is critical. Namibia has high migration rates and HIV prevalence, but little is known about how these intersect. We examined the association between migration and HIV-related outcomes using data from the 2017 Namibia Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (NAMPHIA).Methods and findingsThe NAMPHIA survey selected a nationally representative sample of adults in 2017. All adults aged 15-64 years were invited to complete an interview and home-based HIV test. Recent infection (1000 copies/mL) and antiretroviral analyte data. Awareness of HIV status and antiretroviral use were based on self-report and/or detectable antiretrovirals in blood. Viremia was defined as having a viral load ≥1000 copies/mL, including all participants in the denominator regardless of serostatus. We generated community viremia values as a weighted proportion at the EA level, excluding those classified as recently infected. Significant migrants were those who had lived outside their current region or away from home >one month in the past three years. Recent cross-community in-migrants were those who had moved to the community two years ago to determine the association of migration and timing with recent infection or viral load suppression (VLS). All proportions are weighted. Of eligible adults, we had HIV results and migration data on 9,625 (83.9%) of 11,474 women and 7,291 (73.0%) of 9,990 men. Most respondents (62.5%) reported significant migration. Of cross-community in-migrants, 15.3% were recent. HIV prevalence was 12.6% and did not differ by migration status. Population VLS was 77.4%. Recent cross-community in-migration was associated with recent HIV infection (aOR: 4.01, 95% CI 0.99-16.22) after adjusting for community viremia. Significant migration (aOR 0.73, 95% CI: 0.55-0.97) and recent cross-community in-migration (aOR 0.57, 95% CI: 0.35-0.92) were associated with lower VLS, primarily due to lack of awareness of HIV infection. The study was limited by lack of precise data on trajectory of migration.ConclusionsDespite a high population-level VLS, Namibia still has migrant populations that are not accessing effective treatment for HIV. Targeting migrants with effective prevention and testing programs in communities with viremia could enable further epidemic control.

Building upon recent works devoted to the development of a stress-based layerwise model for multilayered plates, we explore an alternative finite-element discretization to the conventional displacement-based finite-element method. We rely on a mixed finite-element approach where both stresses and displacements are interpolated. Since conforming stress-based finite-elements ensuring traction continuity are difficult to construct, we consider a hybridization strategy in which traction continuity is relaxed by the introduction of an additional displacement-like Lagrange multiplier defined on the element facets. Such a strategy offers the advantage of uncoupling many degrees of freedom so that static condensation can be performed at the element level, yielding a much smaller final system to solve. Illustrative applications demonstrate that the proposed mixed approach is free from any shear-locking in the thin plate limit and is more accurate than a displacement approach for the same number of degrees of freedom. As a result, this method can be used to capture efficiently strong intra- and inter-laminar stress variations near free-edges or cracks.

يهدف البحث الى التعرف على اتجاهات طلبة جامعة بغداد- كلية التربية البدنية وعلوم الرياضة من البنين والبنات وللمراحل اجمع نحو المخدرات ومقارنة الفروق بين الجنسين للسنة الدراسية 2018-2019 وطبق البحث على عينة قوامها 240 طالبا وطالبة وتوصلت الدراسة إلى ظهور اتجاهات ايجابية للبنين والبنات نحو تعاطي المخدرات مع وجود فروق معنوية ولصالح البنات علما ان قيمة الوسط للبنات والبنين اقل من قيمة المتوسط الفرضي والبالغ 110, وفي ضوء النتائج قدم الباحثون عددا من التوصيات والمقترحات ومنها ضرورة تنسيق الجامعات مع رجال الدين لعقد الندوات الهادفة حول الادمان ومخاطر ذلك على الفرد والمجتمع وتشجيعهم على تضمين خطبهم ودروسهم الدينية على دور العقل والروح والنفس في تكوين اتجاه مضاد لتعاطي المخدرات وتشجيع الرياضة بكافة مراحلها (المدرسية- الجامعية- العسكرية- الاندية والمنتخبات ) وينبغي العمل على مساعدة هؤلاء الشباب على تحقيق آمالهم وتقريبها من الواقع وتضييق الفجوة بين ما يسعون ويهدفون إليه والواقع الاجتماعي الملموس وإيصال برامج التوعية للأسر كي تقوم بدورها إزاء أبنائها في منظومة المكافحة الشاملة للمخدرات، وينبغي أن يكون للأسرة دور فاعل ومعتبر؛ فالأسرة تمثل خط الدفاع والحصانة الاجتماعية الأول والأبرز، فجهود المقاومة أو المكافحة ناقصة وعرضة للفشل إن لم تكن الأسرة واحدة من أركان هذه الجهود.

Abstract Background Patients with non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) without obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) are often managed differently than those with obstructive CAD, therefore we aimed in this study to examine the long-term prognosis of patients with NSTEMI according to the degree of CAD on coronary angiography (CAG). Methods We examined 8.889 consecutive patients admitted for first time NSTEMI during 2000–2011, to whom CAG was performed. Patients were classified by CAG into: 0-vessel disease (0VD), diffuse atherosclerosis (DA) (0%

One of the key challenges in cyber-physical systems (CPS) is the dynamic fitting of data sources under multivariate or mixture distribution models to determine abnormalities. Equations of the models have been statistically characterized as nonlinear and non-Gaussian ones, where data have high variations between normal and suspicious data distributions. To address nonlinear equations of these distributions, a cuckoo search algorithm is employed. In this paper, the cuckoo search algorithm is effectively improved with a novel strategy, known as a convergence speed strategy, to accelerate the convergence speed in the direction of the optimal solution for achieving better outcomes in a small number of iterations when solving systems of nonlinear equations. The proposed algorithm is named an improved cuckoo search algorithm (ICSA), which accelerates the convergence speed by improving the fitness values of function evaluations compared to the existing algorithms. To assess the efficacy of ICSA, 34 common nonlinear equations that fit the nature of cybersecurity models are adopted to show if ICSA can reach better outcomes with high convergence speed or not. ICSA has been compared with several well-known, well-established optimization algorithms, such as the slime mould optimizer, salp swarm, cuckoo search, marine predators, bat, and flower pollination algorithms. Experimental outcomes have revealed that ICSA is superior to the other in terms of the convergence speed and final accuracy, and this makes a promising alternative to the existing algorithm.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the relationship between social capital components, social trust, social cohesion, social participation and social security, and sustainable development in city of Salmas, Iran. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale, distributes it among 384 randomly selected people who live in this city. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.92, which is well above the minimum acceptable level. Using regression technique, the study has determined a positive and meaningful relationship between three components of social capital and sustainable development including social cohesion, social participation and social security. However, the study does not confirm the relationship between social trust and sustainable development.

This paper investigates different components on intellectual capital including human capital, structural capital and customer capital in banking industry in city of Salmas, Iran. The study uses the questionnaire developed by Bontis (1998) [Bontis, N. (1998). Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models. Management Decision, 36(2), 63-76.] to measure the effects of human capital. The questionnaire consists of 42 questions and all of them are designed in Likert scale. Cronbach alphas for human capital, structural capital and relationship capital were calculated as 0.79, 0.76 and 0.72, respectively. The implementation of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test has indicated that the data were normally distributed. Using t-student test, the study determined that while management team did not pay enough attention on human capital, there were some statistically significant evidence that social and relationship capitals gained good attention.

Despite well-documented dysregulation in central serotonergic signaling in Alzheimer's disease (AD), knowledge about the potential involvement of the serotonin-2B receptor (5-HT 2B R) subtype remains sparse. Here, we assessed the levels of 5-HT 2B Rs in brain tissue from APP swe /PS1 dE9 transgenic (TG) mice, AD patients, and adult microglial cells. 5-HT 2B R mRNA was measured by RT-qPCR in ageing TG and wild-type (WT) mice, in samples from the middle frontal gyrus of female, AD and control subjects, and in microglia from the cerebral cortex of WT mice. The density of 5-HT 2B Rs was measured by autoradiography using [ 3 H]RS 127445. Both mouse and human brains had low levels of 5-HT 2B R mRNA. In whole-brain mouse samples, mRNA expression was significantly lower in TG mice compared to WT at > 18 months of age. In the Aβ-plaque-burdened neocortex and hippocampus of old TG mice, however, levels of 5-HT 2B R mRNA were two-fold higher over control, with similar elevations observed in the Aβ-plaque-burdened frontal cortex of human AD patients. 5-HT 2B R mRNA expression varied widely in adult microglia and was higher compared to other cortical cell subtypes. In mice, specific [ 3 H]RS-127445 binding in the cortex was first detected after 3 months of age. The density of 5-HT 2B Rs was low and overall reduced in TG, compared to WT mice. Binding was detectable but too low to be reliably quantified in the human cortex. Our results document Aβ-associated increases in 5-HT 2B R mRNA expression and suggest reduced receptor binding in the context of AD. Studies investigating the functional involvement of microglial 5-HT 2B Rs in AD are considered relevant., 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 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To examine the association between social mobility and tooth loss in adults from the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study and whether race modifies this association., Methods: The Oral Health Study used data from 541 individuals who were followed up to 31 years of age. Social mobility, composed of the participants' socioeconomic position (SEP) at birth and at age 30, was categorized as never poor, upwardly mobile, downwardly mobile and always poor. The outcome was the prevalence of at least one tooth lost due to dental caries when the participants were examined at 31 years of age. The effect modifier was race (Black/Brown versus white people). Log-binomial regression models were used to estimate crude and sex-adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and to determine whether the association varied with race. Statistical interactions were tested using an additive scale., Results: The prevalence of any tooth loss was 50.8% (n = 274). In social mobility groups, the prevalence of at least one tooth lost in the never-poor group was about 31% points higher for Black/Brown (68.2%) than for white people (37.4%). Antagonistic findings were found for the interaction between race and social mobility (Sinergy Index = 0.48; 95% CI 0.24, 0.99; and relative excess of risk due to the interaction = -1.38; 95% CI -2.34, -0.42), suggesting that the observed joint effect of race and social mobility on tooth loss was lower than the expected sum of these factors. The estimates for Black/Brown people were smaller for those who were always poor during their lives, relative to their white counterparts., Conclusions: The findings suggest a higher prevalence of at least one tooth lost among people in the downward mobile SEP group and Black/Brown people. Greater racial inequity was found among Black/Brown people who had never experienced episodes of poverty, with Black/Brown people having a greater prevalence of at least one tooth lost than their white counterparts., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: This observational study assessed the differences in the gender of the first and last authors in the most-cited dental articles over the last 4 decades., Study Design and Setting: Articles were obtained through an electronic search of the most-cited articles in dentistry by decade (total n = 400 articles). The 100 most-cited studies in each decade (1980-1989, 1990-1999, 2000-2009, and 2010-2019), with any study design, with results in dentistry were eligible. The gender of the first and last authors was determined using the Genderize database. Comparative evaluation of gender distribution in general and across the 4 decades was performed with the Chi-square test, and the contribution of variables on the citation rate of articles was performed using linear regression., Results: There were statistical differences between the gender distributions, with a predominance of men in the first (83.8%) and the last (86.8%) positions (P < .001). Over the decades, there was a tendency for an increase in the proportion of women as the last author (P = .002; Chi-square trend Test), with an increase of women from 6% to 22% across the last 4 decades. However, no statistically significant differences were observed between the genders for the first author in the last 4 decades (P = .163; Chi-square trend Test)., Conclusion: The findings indicate that men lead a large percentage of the most-cited articles in dentistry and that this trend has not shown substantial modifications over the last years. Nonetheless, for the position of last authorship, an increase in women's representativity was observed over the last decades., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no competing interests for any author., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To describe the temporal trend of notifications of physical, sexual and emotional violence and neglect against children in Brazil between 2011 and 2019., Methods: This was an ecological time-series study based on notifications of violence against children aged 0-9 years held on the Brazilian Notifiable Health Conditions Information System. Age-adjusted notification rates were calculated for Brazil as a whole, by national macro-region and by sex. Trends were assessed using Joinpoint Regression., Results: We analyzed 88,820 notifications of physical violence, 87,141 notifications of sexual violence, 52,359 notifications of emotional violence and 166,664 notifications of neglect. A rising trend was identified for notifications of physical, sexual and emotional violence and neglect for Brazil as a whole and for both sexes. Neglect accounted for the highest rate (95.24 notifications per 100,000 children in 2019). The Northeast and Southeast macro-regions had rising trends for all forms of violence., Conclusion: Notifications of physical, sexual and emotional violence and neglect showed rising trends in Brazil in the period studied., Implications for Services: Increasing trends in notifications of violence against children highlight the continued need for capacity building in health services, crucial for early detection, effective prevention and coordinated intervention, taking regional variations into account., Perspectives: Notification of violence against children by health services requires greater commitment by health workers. Future studies could combine multiple national databases and surveys to increase the accuracy of rates and trends.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate whether discriminatory episodes occurring in the university environment were associated with dental students' self-perceived overall quality of life and assess the cumulative effect of perceived discriminatory experiences on the overall quality of life., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all students enrolled in three Brazilian dental schools were invited to participate in a survey between August and October 2019. The outcome was students' self-perceived quality of life, measured through the overall quality of life item of the World Health Organization-Quality of Life Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BREF). Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable logistic regression analyses (95% confidence intervals and α of 5%) were conducted using RStudio software., Results: The sample was composed of 732 students (70.2% response rate). The great part was female (66.9%), white or yellow skin color (67.9%), and were children of highly educated mothers. About 68% of the students reported having experienced at least one of the seven discriminatory experiences presented in the questionnaire and 18.1% reported neutral or negative quality of life. In multivariable analyses, it was estimated that students who experienced at least one episode of discrimination were 2.54 times (95% CI: 1.47-4.34) more likely to report worse quality of life than their counterparts who reported no experience of discrimination. There was also a 25% (95% CI: 1.10-1.42) increase in the odds of reporting poorer quality of life for each additional discriminatory experience reported., Conclusion: Reporting at least one discriminatory situation in the academic environment was associated with worse quality of life among dental students, and a cumulative effect was also noted., (© 2023 American Dental Education Association.)

Objectives: To estimate socioeconomic inequalities in the maternal perception of children's oral health from a birth cohort study in Brazil., Methods: The data from this study were collected through perinatal interviews and at the 48-month follow-up from the 2015 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study. The main outcome was the maternal perception of children's oral health, dichotomized into positive (good/very good) and negative (fair/bad/very bad). The secondary outcome was untreated dental caries (absence and presence, according to the ICDAS index - International Caries Detection and Assessment System). For the statistical analysis, the absolute inequality index (Slope Index of Inequality - SII) and the relative concentration index (Concentration Index - CIX) were used. Analyses were stratified by maternal educational level, family income and wealth index., Results: The prevalence of outcomes was 19.4% (95% CI 18.2; 20.7) for the negative maternal perception of children's oral health and 15.6% (95% CI 14.4; 16.8) for untreated dental caries. Socioeconomics inequalities were observed in negative maternal perception of children's oral health in both absolute and relative terms. A SII of -16.6 (95% CI -20.8; -12.5) was observed for family income, with higher prevalence in poor families. A higher prevalence of the negative maternal perception of children's oral health was observed in mothers without any educational level or a few years of study (CIX -21.1 [95% CI -24.5; -17.7])., Conclusions: This study demonstrates socioeconomics disparities in the maternal perception of children's oral health and in the prevalence of untreated caries in children. A higher concentration of negative maternal perception of children's oral health was identified among the most socioeconomically vulnerable individuals. The findings reinforce the presence of socioeconomic inequalities in subjective measures about children's oral health., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The aim of the present study was to examine the association regarding sleep bruxism (SB), depression, and stress in Brazilian university students. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a large-sample of university students ( n  = 2,089) in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to classrooms to evaluate socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Possible SB was detected by self-report according to the International Consensus on The Assessment of Bruxism Criteria (2018). The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the Perceived Stress Scale were used to assess depression and stress symptoms respectively. Crude and adjusted Poisson regression analyses were performed. The prevalence of possible SB, high level of stress, and depressive symptoms in the sample were of 20.4%, 16.6%, and 16.6% respectively. Stress in female students was significantly associated with an increased prevalence of possible SB, but not in male students. Regarding depression, the prevalence of SB was 28% higher in students with depressive symptoms. Students with stress or depression had a 35% higher prevalence of SB than those without any symptoms. Conclusion  The findings have shown that university students with stress and depressive symptoms were more likely to be detected with possible SB., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interests The authors have no conflict of interests to declare., (Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).)

Objective: Measure the prevalence of use of dental services in the previous year and associated factors among 31-year-old adults from a birth cohort of 1982., Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that analyzed a birth cohort of 1982 from the city of Pelotas. In 1997, a systematic sample of 27% of the city's census sectors was defined and all households in these sectors were visited, where 1,076 15-year-old adolescents were interviewed. For the oral health studies, 900 of these individuals were randomly selected and followed up at 24 and 31 years of age. The study used data collected from 523 individuals in 2013 (at 31 years old). The outcome was visit to the dentist (use of dental services) in the previous year. Demographic factors (sex), socioeconomic factors (income, education), and oral health factors (reason and type of service, self-perception of oral health, dental pain and caries experience - DMFT) were used as independent variables. Prevalence ratios were estimated using Poisson regression., Results: The prevalence of use of dental services in the previous year was 55.3% (95%CI: 51.0-59.5%). In the adjusted analysis, the reason and type of service, self-perception of oral health, and DMFT were associated with the outcome. A stronger association was found with use of dental services in individuals who visited for prevention and used the private service, who were satisfied with their oral health, and who had more caries experiences., Conclusion: 55.3% of the cohort sample used dental services in the previous year. Individuals who visited the dentist of private service for preventive reasons, who were very satisfied with their oral health, used these services in a higher proportion. In addition, a higher DMFT index also led to higher use of services.

This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the association between self-perceived oral health, oral-health-related quality-of-life (OHRQoL), toothache, and university students' academic performance or dropout. A cohort of 2,089 students from 64 different courses at a public university in southern Brazil was interviewed in 2016 regarding their self-perceived oral health (Locker instrument; dichotomized into good/poor), OHRQoL (Oral Impacts on Daily Performances instrument, OIDP) and having had any toothache over the last 6 months (yes/no). After three years (2020), the academic records of 1,870 of these students were assessed, their average grade over all courses evaluated, and their dropout status was determined. Multivariable linear or logistic regression adjusting for gender, skin color, age, family income and maternal education was used to associate oral health variables (self-perceived oral health, OIDP, toothache) and academic performance or dropout. In 2016, 28.6% reported negative self-perceived oral health through the Locker instrument and 31.4% had toothache in the last 6 months. Over the next three years, 36.2% had dropped out. In multivariable regression, toothache in the last 6 months had a decrease of 0.32 (β -0.32, CI95% -0.59; -0.04) points in the final grade and were 35% (OR 1.35 CI95% 1.08; 1.69) more likely to dropout than students without toothache. In conclusion, this study showed that worse oral health conditions may be associated with worse academic performance or dropping out.

The salting process for meat transformation is a crucial step in conventional industry. Recent developments in label-free spectrometry techniques combined with machine learning hold great promise for high-precision salt processing. In this study, we applied UV fluorescence to characterize salting treatments in pig's Teres major muscle and predict NaCl concentrations. t-SNE analyses based on spectral measurements revealed clear differences between NaCl-free and salted treatments. However, salt treatments were not clearly identified. We then highlighted and exploited a variability seen in the emission spectra at the wavelengths 300, 318, and 360 nm, which reflected structural or compositional changes. Using this information, predictive models could accurately identify the five salted treatments with a high specificity and sensitivity or predict salt concentrations. This study paves the way toward the possibility for industrials to precisely adjust NaCl concentrations with precision during processing., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To estimate the socioeconomic disparities in untreated dental caries in early childhood according to socioeconomic characteristics in three birth cohorts in Southern Brazil., Methods: The socioeconomic data to this study were collected at the 48-month follow-up and oral health studies of 1993, 2004 and 2015 Pelotas birth cohort studies. The outcome was untreated dental caries in children aged 6 (1993 cohort), 5 (2004 cohort) and 4 years (2015 cohort), dichotomized into absence/presence. Analyses were stratified by maternal skin colour/race, maternal education and family income. For statistical purposes, the prevalence difference, relative risk and absolute and relative indices of health inequality (Slope Index of Inequality-SII and Concentration Index-CIX) were used., Results: The prevalence of untreated dental caries in primary dentition was 63.4%, 45.5% and 15.6%, in 1993, 2004 and 2015 cohorts, respectively. The prevalence of untreated dental caries was concentrated in the poorest quintile and lower maternal education group in both absolute (SII) and relative (CIX) measures of inequality, being characterized as a pro-poor event. A higher risk of untreated caries was found in the poorest quintile of family income compared with the richest quintile in the 1993 cohort (RR 1.44 [95% CI 1.05; 1.98]). That risk was higher considering the 2004 Cohort (RR 1.78 [95% CI 1.42; 2.23]) and 2015 cohort (RR 4.20 [95% CI 2.97; 5.94]) data., Conclusions: Over the course of two decades, a higher prevalence of untreated dental caries is concentrated among the most socioeconomically deprived children., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objective: to analyze the difference in the number of primary teeth dental procedures performed within the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: this was a descriptive ecological study, using secondary data from the SUS Outpatient Information System (SIA-SUS), from 2018 to 2021, in the state and in its seven health macro-regions; we calculated the relative and absolute frequencies and the percentage difference of the dental procedures performed., Results: 94,443 and 36,151 dental procedures were recorded before and during the pandemic, respectively, corresponding to a 61.7% reduction; relevant percentage reductions were found in restorative procedures, which reached 20% in the southern region of the state; an increase in the percentage of exodontic and endodontic procedures was found., Conclusion: the results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had negative repercussions on the performance of primary teeth dental procedures in Ro Grande do Sul.

This study aimed to estimate social and racial inequalities in self-rated oral health in adults from the Brazilian birth cohort study. This study belongs to 1982 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study. Data from this study was collected for oral health conditions 31 years old (Oral Health Study). The outcome was self-rated oral health, dichotomized into positive (good/very good) and negative (regular/bad/very bad). Analyses were stratified by gender, racial/skin color groups, schooling level and income. For statistical analysis, the slope index of inequality (SII) and the concentration index (CIX) were used. The prevalence of negative self-rated oral health was 36.1%. Social inequalities were observed in self-rated oral health in both absolute and relative terms. A SII of -30.0 (95%CI: -43.6; -16.4) was observed for income, and -27.7 (95%CI: -41.9; -13.4) for schooling level. Both the individuals' income and the schooling level had negative CIX (CIXincome -14.6 [95%CI: -21.2; -8.0] and CIXschooling level -14.1 [95%CI: -20.7; -7.5]). Furthermore, the prevalence of negative self-rated oral health in black/brown/indigenous individuals from the highest income/schooling level was comparable to prevalence of the outcome in the white individuals belonging to the lowest income/schooling levels. This study results demonstrate racial disparities in oral health regardless of income and schooling levels. Furthermore, a higher concentration of negative self-rated oral health was identified among the most socioeconomically vulnerable individuals. Our findings reinforce the presence of racial and socioeconomic inequalities in oral health.

Objectives: Neck and low back pains are the leading causes of years lived with disability, and using computers or mobile devices in excess could be risk factors for back pain. Our aim was to evaluate the association of the length of time using computers and mobile devices with neck, mid-back and low back pains and the number of regions with pain., Study Design: Cross-sectional study nested in the 1993 Pelotas birth cohort with young adults aged 22 years., Methods: Outcomes analyzed were neck, mid-back and low back pains and the number of regions with pain. Exposures were the number of daily hours using computers and mobile devices. Crude and adjusted analyses were performed to estimate prevalence ratios using Poisson regression., Results: Almost half of the sample reported having back pain, the low back pain being the most prevalent. Compared with individuals using mobile devices for less than one hour, the prevalence of neck pain was 1.41 and 1.81 times higher among individuals using mobile devices from three to seven hours and for seven or more hours per day, respectively. Neck pain prevalence was 1.47 times higher among individuals using computers for more than two hours than among those not using computers. Using mobile devices for seven hours or more was associated to 1.19 times higher prevalence of low back pain., Conclusion: Using mobile devices in excess was associated to neck and low back pains, while the use of computers in excess was associated only to neck pain. It is important that guidelines are developed to recommend the adequate length of time that computers and mobile devices should be used to prevent back pain., (Copyright © 2021 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To evaluate the association between oral health conditions and academic performance and absenteeism in university students., Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on a comprehensive sample of 1865 freshman students from the Federal University of Pelotas/Southern Brazil in 2017. A self-administered questionnaire was applied in the classroom, inquiring about socioeconomic, demographic, psychological, academic characteristics and oral conditions (tooth loss, self-reported oral health and toothache). For the dependent variables, academic performance was evaluated by the question: 'How would you describe your academic performance?' while absenteeism was assessed with the question 'In the last six months, have you missed some class for dental reasons?'. Multivariable analyses used hierarchical Poisson regression with backward selection., Results: The prevalence of low academic performance was 38.6% and absenteeism due to dental reasons 6.2%. The prevalence of toothache and poor self-perceived oral health was 28% and 20%, respectively. Multivariable analysis found low academic performance to be more prevalent in students with poor self-perceived oral health (PR 1.46; 95% CI 1.22-1.77), and absenteeism to be almost six times more prevalent (PR 5.85; 95% CI 3.84-8.90) in students reporting toothache., Conclusions: Poor oral health is associated with both poor academic performance and absenteeism in university students., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objective: To analyze association between dental pain, use of dental services and school absenteeism in Brazilian adolescents., Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with data from the National School Health Survey (PeNSE 2015). The study's dependent variable was school absenteeism due to health reasons in the last 12 months. Socioeconomic characteristics, dental pain and use of dental services were the independent variables evaluated. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI)., Results: Data on 102,072 schoolchildren were included. Absenteeism prevalence due to health reasons was 53.7% (95%CI 53.2;54.3). In the adjusted analysis, there was association between dental pain and school absenteeism (OR=1.35 - 95%CI 1.26;1.45), and an increase in absenteeism occurrence the greater the number of dental visits., Conclusion: The results suggest that dental pain and frequency of dental visits may be related to school absenteeism.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the proliferation and adhesion of mesenchymal cells (3T3/NIH) in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium(DMEM) supplemented with Platelet-Poor Plasma (PPP) in aPlatelet-Rich Fibrin (PRF) scaffold. Human blood was obtained and processed in a centrifuge considering the equation G=1.12xRx(RPM/1000) 2 to obtain PRF and PPP.Cell adhesion and maintenance analyses were performed by MTTassays in a 96 well plate withsupplemented DMEM: PPP (90:10) for 24 hours. Besides, the PRF was deposited in a 48 well plate and 10x10 4 cells were seeded above each PRF (n=3) with 800µl of DMEM: PPP (90:10) and cultured for 7 days. Histological analysis and the immunohistochemical staining for Vimentin were performed. Results were analyzed by one-way ANOVA in Stata12®. A significant decrease (p<0.05) of cells adhesion in relationship to FBSwas observed. However, a similar ability of cell-maintenance for PPP 10% was observed (P>0.05). Fibroblasts culture for 7 days in PRF supplemented with PPP 10% was possible, showing positive staining for Vimentin. Therefore, PPP cell supplementation decreased the initial adhesion of cells but was able to maintain the proliferation of adhered cells and able to support their viability in PRF.It seems that this method has many clinical advantagessince it provides an autologous and natural scaffold with their respective supplement for cell culture by only one process, without using xenogeneic compounds. This could improve the potential of clinical translational therapies based on the use of PRF cultured cells, promoting the regenerative potential for future use in medicine and dentistry., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: None declared