Evaluation of the Genotoxicity of Endodontic Materials for Deciduous Teeth Using the Comet Assay

Objective: To evaluate genotoxicity of zinc oxide, P. A. calcium hydroxide, mineral trioxide aggregate and an iodoform paste using comet assay on human lymphocytes. Material and Methods: Two positive controls were used: methyl-methanesulfonate for the P.A. calcium hydroxide and mineral trioxide aggregate; and doxorubicin for the iodoform paste and zinc oxide. There were also two negative controls: distilled water for the P.A. calcium hydroxide and mineral trioxide aggregate; and DMSO for the iodoform paste and zinc oxide. Comets were identified using fluorescence microscopy and 100 of them were counted on each of the three slides analyzed per drug test. A damage index was established, taking into consideration the score pattern that had previously been determined from the size and intensity of the comet tail. Analysis of variance, followed by Tukey’s test, was used to compare the means of the DNA damage indices. Results: The DNA damage index observed for mineral trioxide aggregate (7.08 to 8.58) and P.A. calcium hydroxide (6.50 to 8.33), which were similar to negative control index. On the other hand, damage index for zinc oxide (104.7 to 218.50) and iodoform paste (115.7 to 210.7) were similar to positive control index. Conclusion: Iodoform paste and zinc oxide showed genotoxicity at all concentrations used

Does the facial pattern give individuals a profile of a crime suspect?

To evaluate the influence of mesofacial, brachyfacial and dolichofacial facial patterns on giving an individual the profile of a crime suspect in the eyes of public security agents. This study had a cross-sectional design, conducted with public security agents of both sexes (n=100), where images of facial composites (police sketches) of individuals with different facial patterns (mesofacial, brachyfacial and dolichofacial) were used. With these images in hand, a questionnaire was created, divided into three parts: the first in which all the images were presented together, allowing comparison among them; the second, in which each image was evaluated separately followed by questions and the third that consisted on a visual analog scale that presented a bar with marks going from 0 to 100, where 0 represented the untrustworthy individual, 50 the individual who could be trusted, and 100 a very trustworthy individual. When all the data had been obtained statistical analyses were performed using the Chi-square and Friedman tests. The level of significance adopted was 5% (α=0.05). The dolichofacial individual was associated with security agents as the most prone to commit crimes and became more insecure and distrustful when compared to the mesofacial and brachyfacial individuals (p <0.001). The dolichofacial profile had a negative influence on the judgment of security agents who attributed to it, a character suspected of a crime and a low level of trustworthiness

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Phonetic damage resulting from lingual nerve injuries

Modificações neurosensoriais, decorrentes de complicações relacionadas a tratamentos odontológicos, estão entre as principais causas de litígio envolvendo cirurgiões-dentistas. Um dos nervos mais acometidos nestes casos é o nervo lingual. Entre os inconvenientes apontados nas queixas judiciais estão as dificuldades na articulação dos sons da fala nessas situações. Neste contexto, o objetivo desse estudo foi verificar se há dano à função fonética resultante da ausência de sensibilidade unilateral da língua induzida por anestesia do nervo lingual. Participaram do estudo 10 sujeitos voluntários, brasileiros, do sexo masculino, com idade entre 21 e 27 anos. Foram realizadas as análises perceptual e acústica das falas gravadas antes e depois da anestesia do nervo lingual. Além disso, os sujeitos da pesquisa responderam a um questionário com o objetivo de avaliar o nível de desconforto e dificuldade na produção da fala. Após assinatura do TCLE e avaliação clínica e fonoaudiológica, os sujeitos foram divididos em dois grupos. As gravações consistiram em conjuntos de vogais e palavras. Para o segundo grupo, a leitura de um texto foi acrescentada para o estudo da fala encadeada. Para a análise perceptual foram observados os comportamentos das falas em relação à inteligibilidade, ao pitch, loudness e co-articulação. Para o segundo grupo, a fala encadeada foi analisada quanto ao ritmo, fluidez, co-articulação e velocidade de produção. Não foram observadas quaisquer diferenças nos parâmetros perceptivo auditivos definidos para o estudo. Para a análise acústica, realizou-se o estudo de cinco vogais isoladas e da fricativa sibilante /s/. Foram extraídos e comparados os valores dos dois primeiros formantes das vogais /a, / , /i/, / e /u/. Foi possível observar que, apesar de existirem diferenças nos valores absolutos dos formantes, eles se mantiveram em faixas de freqüências características das vogais faladas nos dois momentos e, além disso, nenhum indivíduo relatou qualquer dificuldade em relação à produção das vogais. Os parâmetros escolhidos para análise comparativa da consoante sibilante /s/ foram: a localização do pico espectral de maior amplitude, o coeficiente de assimetria, o coeficiente de curtose e o centro de gravidade. As análises demonstraram que os padrões desses parâmetros também foram mantidos após a aplicação da anestesia. Ademais, não foram encontradas diferenças estatisticamente significantes entre os dois momentos, para os parâmetros analisados. Apesar de 03 sujeitos (30%) relatarem dificuldades na produção de determinados fonemas, as análises das gravações de suas falas demonstraram não haver nenhuma diferença significativa entre os dois momentos. O presente trabalho ofereceu informações importantes a respeito de técnicas que podem ser utilizadas nas perícias envolvendo o dano fonético. Ficando claro que é preciso uma interpretação criteriosa dos resultados apresentados, especialmente nas análises acústicas. Os resultados encontrados permitem concluir que não houve dano fonético resultante da inibição funcional unilateral do nervo lingual para o grupo pesquisado.Sensorineural changes due to complications related to dentistry treatments are between the main litigation causes involving dentists. One of the most affected nerves in these situations is the lingual nerve. Speech changes are related as a complication in these cases. The purpose of this study was to analyze the possible phonetic damage resulting from lingual nerve sensorial alterations induced by anesthesia. The study group consisted of 10 men, aged between 21 and 27 years. Perceptual and acoustic analyses of the speech samples recorded before and after the lingual nerve anesthesia were performed. Moreover, the subjects answered a questionnaire to discuss the level of discomfort and difficulty in speaking. The informers were divided into two groups. The recording consisted of a combination of vowels and words. A text reading was added for the second group. Perceptual analyses studied the behavior of the intelligibility, pitch, loudness and co-articulation. For the second group, the pace, fluidity, co-articulation and production speed were evaluated. There were no differences in perceptive parameters defined for the study. The acoustic analyses of isolated vowels /a/, / , /i/, / , /u/ were performed. The first two formant frequencies values were analyzed. It was possible to observe that, despite of the differences in absolute values of formants, they were located in bands of frequencies that are characteristics of the vowels spoken, in both moments. In addition, none of the subjects reported any difficulty in produce vowel sounds. The parameters chosen for acoustic analysis of /s/ sound were: location of the greater spectral peak, skewness, kurtosis and center of gravity. The analyses showed that the patterns of these parameters were maintained after the application of the anesthesia. Moreover, when the two moments were compared, no statistically significant differences for the parameters analyzed were found. Three subjects (30%) reported difficulties in the production of certain phonemes, but the analysis of their records did not show any significant difference between the two moments. This study provides important information about techniques that can be used in phonetic damage investigation. A careful interpretation of the results presented by acoustic analyses in these cases is necessary. It can be concluded that there was no phonetic damage resulting from the unilateral inhibition of the lingual nerve function for the enrolled group

From an Autonomous Soccer Robot to a Robotic Platform for Eldery Care

Current societies in developed countries face a serious problem of aged population. The growing number of people with reduced health and capabilities, allied with the fact that elders are reluctant to leave their own homes to move to nursing homes, requires innovative solutions since continuous home care can be very expensive and dedicated 24/7 care can only be accomplished by more than one care-giver. This paper presents the proposal of a robotic platform for elderly care integrated in the Living Usability Lab for Next Generation Networks. The project aims at developing technologies and services tailored to enable the active aging and independent living of the elderly population. The proposed robotic platform is based on the CAMBADA robotic soccer platform, with the necessary modifications, both at hardware and software levels, while simultaneously applying the experiences achieved in the robotic soccer environment

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data