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Cell Formation (CF) problem involves grouping the parts into part families and machines into manufacturing cells, so that parts with similar processing requirements are manufactured within the same cell. Many researches have suggested methods for CF. Few of these methods; have addressed the possible existence of exceptional elements (EE) in the solution and the effect of correspondent intercellular movement, which cause lack of segregation among the cells. This paper presents a simulation-based methodology, which takes into consideration the stochastic aspect in the cellular manufacturing (CM) system, to create better cell configurations. An initial solution is developed using any of the numerous CF procedures. The objective of the proposed method which provides performances ratings and cost-effective consist in determine how best to deal with the remaining EE. It considers and compares two strategies (1) permitting intercellular transfer and (2) exceptional machine duplication. The process is demonstrated with a numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular manufacturing is an application of a group technology used to improve the performance of manufacturing systems. A number of factors, including vulnerability to machine breakdown, under utilization of resources and eventual unbalanced workload distribution in a multi-cell plan disturb the smooth working of the factory when using the group technology concept. This paper focuses on a manufacturing cell composed of unreliable machines. We are interested in the problem of cell production availability facing unexpected circumstances due to an internal perturbation caused by machine breakdown. We consider a policy of intercellular transfer in the event of breakdown to improve the availability of the cells. We examine through simulation the performance of the system and evaluate the intercellular transfer policy in terms of some selected criteria. The results indicate, under the assumed conditions, that the developed policy improves the performance of the production cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this paper, a combined Production Line Design (PLD) process which includes many design aspects is presented, developped and validated. Design/methodology/approach: The PLD process is based on the SADT (Structured Analysis and Design Technique) diagram and the Axiomatic Design (AD) method. Practical implications: For a purpose of validation, this proposed process has been applied in a manufacturing company and it has been validated by simulation. Findings: The results of the validation indicated that the production line designed by this process is outperformed the initial line of the company. Originality/value: Recently, the problems of production line design (PLD) have attracted the attention of many researchers. However, only a few studies have treated the PLD which includes all design aspects. In this work, a combined PLD porcess is presented. It should be noted that the proposed process is simple and effective.

Background: Endodontic therapy in pediatric dentistry is a challenging procedure, especially for special needs, uncooperative, and very young patients. A new conservative approach which is the non-instrumental endodontic treatment (NIET) has been developed to simplify the management of primary teeth requiring pulpectomy. This review aimed to compare the efficiency of NIET and conventional endodontic treatment in primary teeth., Methods: Electronic databases including MEDLINE (via PubMed), Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), and Scopus without restrictions on publication year or publication language were searched. Only randomized clinical trials reporting clinical and radiographical outcomes of NIET and conventional pulpectomy on primary teeth were considered eligible. Two reviewers extracted the data according to the PRISMA statement and assessed the bias risk using the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool and a meta-analysis was performed., Results: From 3322 screened articles, seven articles meeting the inclusion criteria were included. The selected studies included 283 primary molars, of 213 children aged between 3 and 9 years, treated by NIET and conventional pulpectomy, and had follow-up periods ranging from 1 month to tooth exfoliation. Two studies reported good success rates for both the NIET technique and endodontic therapy with no statistically significant difference while three studies showed radiographical significant differences with a low success rate for the NIET technique. Only one study reported better outcomes in the pulpectomy group with statistically significant differences. The quantitative grouping of the included studies showed no significant differences between NIET and conventional endodontic therapy regarding clinical and radiographical success (p value > 0.05)., Conclusion: No difference between the NIET technique and the conventional endodontic therapy in primary molars requiring pulpectomy could be confirmed. Results of the present review need to be interpreted with caution since the quality of evidence according to the GRADE was considered as moderate to very low. Therefore, additional clinical trials on the NIET technique are recommended., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Bacillus velezensis M3-7 is a hyperactive mutant, 12-fold improved in its antifungal activity, obtained during a previous study from the wild strain BLB371 after a combination of random mutagenesis and medium component optimization. This study explores the use of this mutant in synthesizing silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) for the control of Fusarium crown rot disease (FCR) in wheat seedlings. LC-MS/MS analysis proved that both strains co-produced different families of lipopeptides and that mutagenesis caused the hyper-production of iturin A C14 and C15, the liberation of iturin A C10 and C12, and the inhibition of fengycin release. Our aim was a further improvement in the antifungal activity of the wild strain and the mutant M3-7 in order to control Fusarium crown rot disease (FCR) in wheat seedlings. Therefore, a nanotechnology approach was adopted, and different lipopeptide concentrations produced by the wild strain and the mutant M3-7 were used as capping agents to synthesize silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with enhanced antifungal activity. Ag-NPs formed using 3 mg·mL -1 of the mutant lipopeptides were found to exhibit a good distribution, improved antifungal activity, a promising potential to be used as a biofortified agent for seed germination, and an effective compound to control FCR in wheat seedlings., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests regarding the present study., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Monitoring palm tree seedlings and plantlings presents a formidable challenge because of the microscopic size of these organisms and the absence of distinguishing morphological characteristics. There is a demand for technical approaches that can provide restoration specialists with palm tree seedling monitoring systems that are high-resolution, quick, and environmentally friendly. It is possible that counting plantlings and identifying them down to the genus level will be an extremely time-consuming and challenging task. It has been demonstrated that convolutional neural networks, or CNNs, are effective in many aspects of image recognition; however, the performance of CNNs differs depending on the application. The performance of the existing CNN-based models for monitoring and predicting plantlings growth could be further improved. To achieve this, a novel Gap Layer modified CNN architecture (GL-CNN) has been proposed with an IoT effective monitoring system and UAV technology. The UAV is employed for capturing plantlings images and the IoT model is utilized for obtaining the ground truth information of the plantlings health. The proposed model is trained to predict the successful and poor seedling growth for a given set of palm tree plantling images. The proposed GL-CNN architecture is novel in terms of defined convolution layers and the gap layer designed for output classification. There are two 64×3 conv layers, two 128×3 conv layers, two 256×3 conv layers and one 512×3 conv layer for processing of input image. The output obtained from the gap layer is modulated using the ReLU classifier for determining the seedling classification. To evaluate the proposed system, a new dataset of palm tree plantlings was collected in real time using UAV technology. This dataset consists of images of palm tree plantlings. The evaluation results showed that the proposed GL-CNN model performed better than the existing CNN architectures with an average accuracy of 95.96%., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Kumar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The development of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 has been a turning point in the international effort to control this disease. However, vaccine development is only the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination process. Correct planning of mass vaccination is important for any policy to immunize the population. For this purpose, it is necessary to set up and properly manage mass vaccination centers. This paper presents a discrete event simulation model of a real COVID-19 mass vaccination center located in Sfax, Tunisia. This model was used to evaluate the management of this center through different performance measures. Three person's arrival scenarios were considered and simulated to verify the response of this real vaccination center to arrival variability. A second model was proposed and simulated to improve the performances of the vaccination center. Like the first model, this one underwent the same evaluation process through the three arrivals scenarios. The simulation results show that both models respond well to the arrival's variability. Indeed, most of the arriving persons are vaccinated on time for all the studied scenarios. In addition, both models present moderate average vaccination and waiting times. However, the average utilization rates of operators are modest and need to be improved. Furthermore, both simulation models show a high average number of persons present in the vaccination center, which goes against the respect of the social distancing condition. Comparison between the two simulation models shows that the proposed model is more efficient than the actual one., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Abiotic and biotic stresses such as salt stress and fungal infections significantly affect plant growth and productivity, leading to reduced crop yield. Traditional methods of managing stress factors, such as developing resistant varieties, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, have shown limited success in the presence of combined biotic and abiotic stress factors. Halotolerant bacteria found in saline environments have potential as plant promoters under stressful conditions. These microorganisms produce bioactive molecules and plant growth regulators, making them a promising agent for enhancing soil fertility, improving plant resistance to adversities, and increasing crop production. This review highlights the capability of plant-growth-promoting halobacteria (PGPH) to stimulate plant growth in non-saline conditions, strengthen plant tolerance and resistance to biotic and abiotic stressors, and sustain soil fertility. The major attempted points are: (i) the various abiotic and biotic challenges that limit agriculture sustainability and food safety, (ii) the mechanisms employed by PGPH to promote plant tolerance and resistance to both biotic and abiotic stressors, (iii) the important role played by PGPH in the recovery and remediation of agricultural affected soils, and (iv) the concerns and limitations of using PGHB as an innovative approach to boost crop production and food security.

Enteroviruses are a leading cause of upper respiratory tract, gastrointestinal, and neurological infections. Management of enterovirus-related diseases has been hindered by the lack of specific antiviral treatment. The pre-clinical and clinical development of such antivirals has been challenging, calling for novel model systems and strategies to identify suitable pre-clinical candidates. Organoids represent a new and outstanding opportunity to test antiviral agents in a more physiologically relevant system. However, dedicated studies addressing the validation and direct comparison of organoids versus commonly used cell lines are lacking. Here, we described the use of human small intestinal organoids (HIOs) as a model to study antiviral treatment against human enterovirus 71 (EV-A71) infection and compared this model to EV-A71-infected RD cells. We used reference antiviral compounds such as enviroxime, rupintrivir, and 2'- C -methylcytidine (2'CMC) to assess their effects on cell viability, virus-induced cytopathic effect, and viral RNA yield in EV-A71-infected HIOs and cell line. The results indicated a difference in the activity of the tested compounds between the two models, with HIOs being more sensitive to infection and drug treatment. In conclusion, the outcome reveals the value added by using the organoid model in virus and antiviral studies.

To estimate the prevalence of dental caries among children affected concomitantly with molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH) and hypomineralized second primary molars (HSPM).Electronic databases, including Medline via PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Science Direct, were searched. Studies written in English involving children with MIH-HSPM and dental caries were considered eligible. Two reviewers extracted the data according to the PRISMA statement and assessed the bias risk with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) criteria.Out of 535 studies identified in the initial research, only two articles were included in the present review. A significant association between MIH-HSPM and dental caries in permanent dentition was reported in the two included records (AOR: 3.70; p  < 0.001). Children with MIH-HSPM expressed significantly higher DMFT and PUFA values than children without MIH-HSPM. However, dmft values did not differ significantly between children with and without HSPM (1.79 [2.4] vs. 1.78 [2.5]; 1.88 [2.73] vs. 1.59 [2.53], respectively.MIH-HSPM lesions were correlated with a higher prevalence and more severe carious lesions in permanent dentition. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously because the findings were generated by only two studies performed by the same authors. Thus, further well-designed studies are highly recommended., Competing Interests: None declared., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

Aim: The present survey aimed to highlight the clinical status of first permanent molars (FPMs) among a group of children aged between 6 and 13 years in public primary schools in Tunisia and to determine the association between FPMs' dental caries, gingival bleeding, malocclusion, dental fluorosis, and enamel defects., Materials and Methods: The survey involved a cross-sectional study based on a dental examination conducted in public primary schools in Monastir Tunisia. A dental caries assessment was performed on FPMs using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System classification; the number of carious lesions in permanent and temporary dentition was established using the decayed/missing/filled teeth (DMFT) index. The Gingival Index and the Dental Aesthetic Index were used to determine the occurrence of gingival bleeding and malocclusions. Dean's index and the modified Development Defects of Enamel index were used to define the enamel defects. The χ 2 test was used to assess the difference between more than two groups, and the level of statistical significance was set at .05%., Results: A total of 545 children and 2080 FPMs were examined. The prevalence of dental caries in FPMs was recorded to be 35.8%. The overall mean DMFT index of the study population was 1.62 and the mean DMFT index was 1.41. The proportion of carious FPMs increased significantly with the age of the children (p < .05). The mandibular first permanent molar presented higher caries prevalence than its maxillary counterpart (p < .05). The presence of surfaces affected by molar incisor hypomineralization was recorded in 4.3% and the presence of surfaces affected by fluorosis was recorded in 4.6% of FPMs. No association was reported between FPMs' dental caries, gingival bleeding, malocclusion, and enamel defects (p > .05)., Conclusion: Although the prevalence of caries in FPMs was considered moderate, health promotion programs should be implemented on a large scale to decrease the prevalence of dental caries among school children., (© 2022 The Authors. Clinical and Experimental Dental Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

During the past 15 years, a plethora of innovative 3D in vitro systems has been developed. They offer the possibility of identifying crucial cellular and molecular contributors to the disease by permitting manipulation of each in isolation. However, improvements are needed particularly with respect to the predictivity and validity of those models. The major challenge now is to identify which assay and readout combination(s) best suits the current scientific question(s). A deep understanding of the different platforms along with their pros and cons is a prerequisite to make this decision. This review aims to give an overview of the most prominent systems with a focus on applications, translational relevance and adoption drivers from an industry perspective., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Covid-19 is a disease that can lead to pneumonia, respiratory syndrome, septic shock, multiple organ failure, and death. This pandemic is viewed as a critical component of the fight against an enormous threat to the human population. Deep convolutional neural networks have recently proved their ability to perform well in classification and dimension reduction tasks. Selecting hyper-parameters is critical for these networks. This is because the search space expands exponentially in size as the number of layers increases. All existing approaches utilize a pre-trained or designed architecture as an input. None of them takes design and pruning into account throughout the process. In fact, there exists a convolutional topology for any architecture, and each block of a CNN corresponds to an optimization problem with a large search space. However, there are no guidelines for designing a specific architecture for a specific purpose; thus, such design is highly subjective and heavily reliant on data scientists' knowledge and expertise. Motivated by this observation, we propose a topology optimization method for designing a convolutional neural network capable of classifying radiography images and detecting probable chest anomalies and infections, including COVID-19. Our method has been validated in a number of comparative studies against relevant state-of-the-art architectures., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Regional odontodysplasia (RO) in permanent teeth is a rare developmental anomaly of mineralized tissues. Three-dimensional images and data from CBCT allowed to provide useful information on the degree of tooth calcification and consequently confirm the diagnosis of RO and establish a treatment strategy to minimize future damages and sequels., Competing Interests: None of the authors has declared any conflict of interest or financial disclosures., (© 2022 The Authors. Clinical Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Sanjad-Sakati syndrome (SSS) is a rare autosomal recessive congenital disorder. The present case report is aimed at describing the orofacial manifestations and dental management of a 4-year seven-month-old, Tunisian boy with SSS. The patient has typical dysmorphic facial features and growth retardation. Intraoral examination revealed micrognathic mandible and maxilla, an arched palate, and small dental arches with an open bite. All the maxillary and mandibular teeth were decayed due to the poor oral hygiene, plaque accumulation, and enamel hypoplasia. Oral rehabilitation involved pulpotomies and root canal therapies on decayed teeth. Resin composite restorations were performed on maxillary and mandibular incisors, and stainless-steel crowns were placed on maxillary and mandibular first and second primary molars. Dental treatment of children with SSS should improve their quality of life and their general health. Undeveloped dental arches associated with dental anomalies as well as learning deficit make very difficult of the oral rehabilitation of such patients., Competing Interests: None of the authors has declared any conflict of interest or financial disclosures., (Copyright © 2022 Farah Chouchene et al.)

Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of ECC among preschool children in Monastir, Tunisia., Methods: The survey was designed as a cross-sectional study carried out between February and April 2021 in the main region of Monastir, Tunisia. A total of 381 preschool children were randomly selected using a three-stage clustered sampling technique from 10 daycares. The dental caries were diagnosed using WHO recommendations and a questionnaire in Arabic language was used to record personnel profile of the enrolled children. The chi-square test was used in bivariate analyses to assess the association between ECC and risk factors. Variables showing significant associations were included in multiple logistic regression models., Results: The prevalence of ECC was 20% and the mean dmft score was 0.89 ± 0.24. The prevalence of ECC increased at the age of 48-59 months ([OR] 2.602; 95%CI: 1.122-2.302), the age of 60-71 months ([OR] 2.845; 95% CI: 1.128-2.072), in children with nocturnal feeding ([OR] 2,417; 95% CI: 1.340-4,358), who take sugary drinks in the bottle ([OR] 1.104; 95% CI: 1.667-2.826), stopped breast or bottle feeding after the age of 18 months ([OR] 2.417; 95% CI: 1.340-4.358), do not brush their teeth properly ([OR] 1.435; 95% CI: 1.207-2.915), had visited a dentist ([OR] 2.444; 95% CI: 2.072-1.108), and decreased in children with a more highly educated parents ([OR] 0.797; 95%CI: 0.171-0.650)., Conclusion: Given the relatively high prevalence of ECC in Tunisia, it is important to review public dental health policies and develop effective strategies to encourage changes in behavior related to the oral health of children to prevent the spread and worsening of this disease., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Chouchene, Masmoudi, Baaziz, Maatouk and Ghedira.)

Severe intrusion injuries of primary teeth are frequently associated with serious developmental disorders. This report describes the diagnostic procedures and the multidisciplinary approach for multiple sequelae to permanent incisors due to a severe intrusive injury of the primary maxillary anterior teeth at the age of 18 months in a 7-year-old girl. Clinical examination revealed hypoplasia of tooth 22, and radiographic examination showed crown-root malformation of tooth 21, impaction of tooth 11, and the presence of an odontoma-like malformation on tooth 12. The affected tooth 12 had a poor prognosis, as highlighted by CBCT, and it was extracted. While for the impacted 11, a surgical extraction followed by an orthodontic treatment is scheduled. Aesthetic and functional problems were solved by a functional space maintainer using a removable partial denture. The occurrence of multiple abnormalities in permanent teeth as a result of intrusive injuries in the primary dentition enhances the need for creating awareness among dentists not only of the importance of appropriate immediate management of trauma but also of the importance of establishing a long-term follow up and subsequent management of any sequelae., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Salinity stress has significant deleterious effects on agricultural lands and plant yields. Plants undergo a series of physiological and molecular changes to reduce salt-induced damage. However, these mechanisms remain insufficient. The inoculation of plant growth promoting bacteria to improve plant health under stress conditions offers promise. Bacillus velezensis FMH2 has been shown to protect tomato fruits against black mold disease and to improve seed tolerance to abiotic stresses. During this study, the major physiological and metabolic changes connected with FMH2 mitigation of abiotic stress tolerance in tomato plants were explored. In presence of different salt levels, FMH2 showed a high potentiality to colonize internal plant tissues and to produce several plant growth promoting metabolites such as siderophores, indole acetic acid, and hydrolytic enzymes. FMH2-treatment promoted plant growth (root structure, plant elongation, leaf emission, fresh and dry weights, water content, etc.) in absence as well as in presence of salt stress. FMH2 treatment decreased endogenous Na + accumulation and increased K + and Ca 2+ uptake. Furthermore, B. velezensis FMH2-treatment improved chlorophyll contents, membrane integrity and phenol peroxidase concentrations, and reduced malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide levels under saline conditions with a significant salinity × strain interaction. The present study suggests the endophytic strain FMH2 involved different mechanisms and regulatory functions to enhance plant oxidative systems and regulate ion uptake mechanisms supporting both growth and stress management., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Children with lymphangioma of the tongue may require a close collaboration between physician and dentist to establish preventive, conservative approaches, and eradicate any sources of dental infections before undertaking immunosuppressive therapy., Competing Interests: None declared., (© 2021 The Authors. Clinical Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Key Message: Bacillus spizizenii is for the first time described as a plant growth salt-tolerant bacterium able to alleviate salt stress in crop plants by improving physiological parameters and antioxidant defense mechanisms. Agricultural soil salinization is a serious issue worldwide affecting agricultural yield. Plant growth promoting bacteria can enhance salt tolerance and plant yield. Bacillus spizizenii FMH45 has been shown to inhibit fungal attacks in tomato fruits and to augment tomato seed germination in presence of abiotic stresses. During this study, we reported for the first time B. spizizenii as a salt-tolerant bacterium able to alleviate salt stress in tomato plants. B. spizizenii FMH45 was examined in vitro for its potential to produce several plant growth promoting characters (siderophores, IAA, and phosphate solubilization) and hydrolytic enzymes (cellulase, glucanase and protease) in the presence of saline conditions. FMH45 was also investigated in vivo in pot experiments to evaluate its ability to promote tomato plant growth under salt stress condition. FMH45 inoculation, enhanced tomato seedling length, vigor index, and plant fresh and dry weights when compared to the non-inoculated controls exposed and not exposed to a regular irrigation with salt solutions containing: 0; 3.5; 7; and 10 g L -1 of NaCl. FMH45-treated plants also presented improved chlorophyll content, membrane integrity (MI), and phenol peroxidase (POX) concentrations, as well as reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) levels under saline conditions with a significant salinity × strain interaction. Furthermore, FMH45 inoculation significantly decreased endogenous Na + accumulation, increased K + and Ca 2+ uptake, and thereby improved K + /Na + and Ca 2+ /Na + ratios. This study proves that bio-inoculation of FMH45 efficiently increases salt tolerance in tomato plants. This sustainable approach can be applied to other stressed plant species in affected soils.

Dentigerous cysts (DC) are the most common odontogenic cystic lesions of inflammatory origin occurring in children. These lesions can be treated by enucleation with or without related impacted teeth or marsupialization/decompression. The latter procedures have been used successfully for many years, but decompression is increasingly recommended in children because of its good outcomes and the preservation of the developing tooth. This conservative surgical technic allows simultaneously the normal eruption of the involved permanent teeth and the ossification of the bony defect. The present report describes an 8-year-old female patient with an inflammatory DC associated with an endodontically treated primary molar accidentally discovered on panoramic radiograph. Decompression of the cyst was performed, by means of a removable space maintainer acting as an acrylic obturator after removal of teeth 83 and 84. Ten months after the decompression procedure, a complete resolution and regression of the cystic lesion with full spontaneous eruption of the premolar were observed., Competing Interests: None of the authors has declared any conflict of interest or financial disclosures., (Copyright © 2021 Farah Chouchene et al.)

Primary double teeth (PDT), referring to either gemination or fusion, are one of the most important and frequent developmental dental anomalies that can affect children's oral health. Many clinical complications are correlated with these anomalies, such as dental caries, malocclusions, periodontal problems, and dental anomalies in permanent dentition. The aim of this report was to describe, through two cases, a case of gemination and another of fusion, the clinical management, the consequent effects, and the possible repercussions of these two developmental abnormalities on permanent successors. The first case involved gemination of the primary maxillary left central incisor (#61) in a 6-year-old boy. The patient presented with dental caries in the geminated tooth and its contiguous primary left lateral incisor (#62). The radiological examination revealed a slight developmental delay in the permanent left lateral incisor (#22). The treatment plan involved performing a pulpotomy and restoring the dental crowns of the affected teeth. The second clinical case describes a 6-year-old girl with unilateral fusion between a primary mandibular lateral incisor (#72) and a supernumerary tooth (#72'). The treatment included restoration of the deep grooves of the fused teeth using flowable composite and coronal restoration of the contiguous left primary canine (#73). Clinical and radiological follow-ups were performed every 3 months to monitor the development of teeth. No clinical and radiological symptoms were noted during the follow-up visits. PDT may require a multidisciplinary treatment. They should be diagnosed early to avoid and treat any possible complications in both the primary teeth and their permanent successors., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Mouna Ben Salem et al.)

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of topical antibiotic mixtures used in noninstrumental endodontic treatment (NIET) of primary teeth., Methods: Electronic databases including MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus database were searched. Randomized clinical trials evaluating the clinical and radiological outcomes of topical antibiotics used in NIET were selected. The revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (RoB 2.0) was used to assess the quality of the methodology of the included articles., Results: Five articles comparing the outcomes of four different drugs combination were included. Three studies conducted to evaluate the success rate of two combinations of antibacterial drugs consisting of ciprofloxacin-minocycline-metronidazole (3 Mix) in one group and ciprofloxacin-minocycline-ornidazole in the other group showed no statistically significant difference between both groups ( P > 0.05). The ciprofloxacin-minocycline-ornidazole group showed better results compared with the 3 Mix group. One study conducted to compare the effectiveness of 3 Mix with ciprofloxacin-tinidazole-minocycline reported no significant difference between both groups, and one study that compared 3 Mix and ciprofloxacin-metronidazole-clindamycin mixture concluded that the overall success rates of both groups were 80.96% and 76.20%, respectively, with no statistically significant difference., Conclusion: Based on the overall success rates, the ciprofloxacin-minocycline-ornidazole mixture was considered more effective than the 3 Mix which was more effective than the ciprofloxacin-tinidazole-minocycline and the ciprofloxacin-metronidazole-clindamycin groups. Clinical Relevance . Different antibiotic combinations, showing good clinical and radiographic success in treating necrotic primary teeth, can be used effectively in NIET and this technique can be considered effective for teeth with advanced root resorption and when conventional endodontic treatment is contraindicated., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Farah Chouchene et al.)

The use of compost extracts is steadily increasing, offering an attractive way for plant growth enhancement and disease management replacing chemical pesticides. In this study, potential mechanisms involved in plant growth promotion and suppressive activity against fungal diseases, of a compost extract produced from poultry manure/olive husk compost, were investigated. Results of physico-chemical and microbiological investigations showed high ability to reduce Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger and Botrytis cinerea growth. The suppressive ability detected using confrontation test and the phytostimulatory effect tested on tomato seeds were related mainly to its microbial population content. Among 150 bacterial strains, isolated from the compost extract, 13 isolates showed antifungal activity against the four tested plant pathogenic fungi. Their identification based on 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed they belonged to different species of the genus Bacillus, Alcaligenes, Providencia and Ochrobactrum. When tested for their ability to produce cell wall degradation enzymes using specific media, the majority of the 13 isolates were shown to synthesize proteases, lipases and glucanases. Similarly, the best part of them showed positive reaction for plant growth promoting substances liberation, biosurfactant production and biofilm formation. In vivo tests were carried out using tomato seeds and fruits and proved that 92% of strains improved tomato plants vigor indexes when compared to the control and 6 among them were able to reduce decay severity caused by B. cinerea over 50%. Principal component analysis showed an important correlation between in vitro and in vivo potentialities and that Bacillus siamensis CEBZ11 strain was statistically the most effective strain in protecting tomato plants from gray mould disease. This study revealed the selected strains would be useful for plant pathogenic fungi control and plant growth promotion.

Aim: Pre-eruptive intra-coronal resorption (PEIR) is a rare condition that can affect children's dentition. Showing the same aspect of dental caries, these lesions are diagnosed in non-erupted teeth. The aetiology is not yet defined and no consensus on their treatment is available. Thus, the aim of the present scoping review of the literature was to try to establish a protocol for treatment and management of PEIR defects., Methods: The search was performed on Medline via PubMed, Science Direct and EBSCOhost' databases using the appropriate Medical Subject Headings (MESH) terms. Studies that described the PEIR were considered eligible and the data from the selected papers were extracted and analysed independently by two authors., Results: Out of 172 articles identified in initial research, 15 articles were selected for reviewing. Interventions varied from preventive treatment to extraction, depending on the lesion severity and its proximity to the pulp., Conclusion: Non-operative procedures, conservative approaches and extractions were recommended for the management of PEIR, depending on the extent of the lesions. Overall, further researches should be conducted to explore the effectiveness of the approaches of PEIR management.

The uses of halotolerant bacteria isolated from naturally saline habitats have the potential to be useful crop protection agents for plants in stressful conditions. These beneficial microbes generate several plant growth regulators and bioactive molecules, which enhance plant protection from adversities, such as plant pathogens, salts and metals stresses. In this study, 15 halotolerant bacterial strains endowed with important antimicrobial activities were isolated from Sfax solar saltern (Tunisia). All of these strains were characterized by biochemical and molecular tools aiming to investigate their in-vitro and in-vivo antifungal potentialities, plant growth promotion capabilities and metal tolerance abilities under saline stress condition. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the isolated strains were affiliated to different phylum and three species were described for the first time as plant growth promoting strains (Idiomarina zobelli FMH6v, Nesterenkonia halotolerans FMH10 and Halomonas janggokensis FMH54). The tested strains exhibited several potentialities: to tolerate high salt and heavy metal concentrations, to produce biosurfactants, exopolysaccharides and extracellular hydrolytic enzymes, to form biofilms and to liberate plant promoting substances. Eight strains were able to protect tomatoes fruits from the proliferation of the fungal disease caused by Botrytis cinerea and six strains improved plant vigor indexes. Principal component analysis showed an important correlation between in-vitro and in-vivo potentialities and two strains Bacillus velezensis FMH2 and Bacillus subtilis subsp. spizizenii FMH45 were statistically considered as the most effective strains in protecting plants from fungal pathogens attack and promoting the growth of tomatoes seedlings under saline and multi heavy-metals stress conditions., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

This study aims to evaluate and compare the applicability of three dental methods for age estimation, including Demirjian's four teeth, Willems I, and Willems II methods in a sample of Tunisian children. Panoramic radiographs of 500 children (241 females, 259 males) aged between 5 and 15 years were examined. The mean absolute error (MAE) was performed to assess the accuracy of age estimation. Independent samples t-test was employed to compare the differences, the chronological age minus dental age (CA-DA), between sexes for the three methods. All of the three methods underestimated the chronological age on the average, and almost for all age groups. The discrepancy between the chronological age and the estimated age was most frequently observed for ages above 8 years for all methods. In our study, the Demirjian's four teeth method underestimated the chronological age by 0.45 years for males and 0.32 years for females, with no significant difference (p=0.124). Whereas the Willems I method is indicted for underestimating the chronological age by 0.40 years for males, and by 0.69 years for females. Willems II method underestimated age by 0.91, and 0.64 years for males and females, respectively. It is established that the Demirjian's four teeth method was more accurate in estimating the dental age than the Willems I and II methods, with a mean absolute error of 0.76 years for males and 0.79 years for females (MAE=1.10, and 0.98 years for the Willems I/1.02, and 0.92 years for the Willems II). According to the results, it is highly recommended that the Demirjian's four teeth method should be applied when estimating the dental age in Tunisian males and females. In forensic cases, when the sex is unknown or doubted, the Willems II method could be appropriate., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Hepatocyte transplantation has emerged as an alternative to liver transplant for liver disease. Hepatocytes encapsulated in alginate microbeads have been proposed for the treatment of acute liver failure, as they are able to provide hepatic functions while the liver regenerates. Furthermore, they do not require immunosuppression, as the alginate protects the hepatocytes from the recipient's immune cells. Mesenchymal stromal cells are very attractive candidates for regenerative medicine, being able to differentiate into cells of the mesenchymal lineages and having extensive proliferative ability. When co-cultured with hepatocytes in two-dimensional cultures, they exert a trophic role, drastically improving hepatocytes survival and functions. In this study we aimed to (i) devise a high throughput system (HTS) to allow testing of a variety of different parameters for cell encapsulation and (ii) using this HTS, investigate whether mesenchymal stromal cells could have beneficial effects on the hepatocytes when co-encapsulated in alginate microbeads. Using our HTS platform, we observed some improvement of hepatocyte behavior with MSCs, subsequently confirmed in the low throughput analysis of cell function in alginate microbeads. Therefore, our study shows that mesenchymal stromal cells may be a good option to improve the function of hepatocytes microbeads. Furthermore, the platform developed may be used for HTS studies on cell encapsulation, in which several conditions (e.g., number of cells, combinations of cells, alginate modifications) could be easily compared at the same time.