Background The presented in vitro study aimed to evaluate the fracture resistance of implant-supported systems with different combinations of abutment-crown materials, namely: Computer-Aided Design/ Computer-Aided Manufacturing ″CAD/CAM″ Nano-zirconia ″NZr″, carbon reinforced polyetheretherketone ″CR PEEK″ and polyetherketoneketone ″PEKK″ dental implant abutments were coronally restored by digitally milled monolithic lithium disilicate ″MLD″ as a type of glass-ceramic ″GC″ and Nano-zirconia ″NZr″ crowns following a thermomechanical aging protocol.Materials and methods A total of 60; Nano-zirconia ″NZr″, carbon reinforced polyetheretherketone ″CR PEEK″, and polyetherketoneketone ″PEKK″ maxillary premolar abutments with titanium base were distributed into three equal groups (n = 20). Each group was divided according to the fabricated and cemented CAD/CAM milled crown into two equal subgroups: Nano-zirconia ″NZr″ and monolithic lithium disilicate ″MLD″ (n = 10). The ceramic crowns were surface treated and cemented to the abutments by applying the recommended adhesive resin cement. Those study specimens underwent thermo-mechanical aging (49 N, 1.2 × 10[6] cycles, 5-55 °C). Afterward, the fracture resistance test was performed, and the statistical analyses were made for all subgroups using two-way (ANOVA) analysis of variance and the Tukey post hoc tests (α = 0.05).Results Nano-zirconia implant abutments cemented to NZr crowns exhibited the highest fracture resistance values of all subgroups. In addition, ″CR PEEK″ implant abutments reported higher fracture resistance values than those of ″PEKK″. Within each implant abutment group ″NZr″ crowns demonstrated significant high fracture resistance values over their ″MLD″ counterparts (p < 0.0001).Conclusions Considering limitations of the presented in vitro study, after thermomechanical aging, recently introduced ″NZr″ implant abutments exhibited higher fracture resistance than ″CR PEEK″ that again reported higher fracture resistance than ″PEKK″ abutments. Generally, all abutment materials might withstand the physiologic occlusal forces. Information about the long-term survival of these recently studied implant abutments types seems limited.

The study examined the meat quality characteristics and expression levels of 3 genes (SREBP-1c, PPAR γ , and FASN) affecting fatty acid composition in Lalahan lambs at different slaughter weights. Thirty-six male lambs were randomly divided into three groups and fed intensively. Six lambs from each group were slaughtered at average slaughter weights of 35 (Gr35), 40 (Gr40), and 45 kg (Gr45), respectively. Slaughter weight had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on pH and a ∗ index from color parameters at 24 h post-mortem, but there was no significant effect on Σ PUFA / Σ SFA , Σ UFA / Σ SFA , ω 6 / ω 3 , AI, and TI values. There were no significant differences between groups in terms of the expression of SREBP-1c and PPAR γ genes in either liver or Musculus longissimus dorsi lumbalis (MLD) tissues, whereas the difference in expression was significant for the FASN gene in liver and MLD (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between groups in terms of the expression of the three genes in gluteal adipose tissue. The findings indicate that Lalahan lambs exhibit favorable meat quality traits and lipid metabolism gene expression patterns under intensive feeding conditions. Comparisons with previously published studies suggest that these characteristics may be somewhat better than those reported for Kivircik sheep (Lalahan sheep are a breed derived from Kivircik sheep); however, studies conducted under the same experimental conditions are needed to make direct comparisons among breeds. In short, high-quality meat can be produced from lambs of the Lalahan sheep genotype.

As the cornerstone of semiconductor manufacturing, lithography drives the miniaturization of nanoscale devices. The solution-processed resists commonly used in lithography face crucial hurdles due to solvent-induced defects, such as pattern collapse and interfacial incompatibility. Although dry resists have emerged as a promising solution, the lack of self-alignment hinders the heterogeneous integration required for next-generation nanofabrication. Here, we report for the first time area-selective molecular layer deposition (AS-MLD) for a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) dry resist. By exploiting the differences in the lifetimes of plasma-generated radicals, we achieved self-aligned PMMA growth on an electron beam lithography resist (EBLR) surface, while limiting the growth on an Si/SiO2 surface. The deposition selectivity remained above 97.5%, and the film thickness reached 122.5 nm on the EBLR surface. We found that tuning the process parameters offers control over the thickness from 2.8 Å/cycle to 46.8 Å/cycle, allowing on-demand shrinking for the critical dimension of nanostructures. Moreover, we developed two integrated processes for pattern transfer, demonstrating the versatility of our AS-MLD dry resist.

Gross motor function in metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is routinely assessed using the GMFC-MLD scale, but expert video-based scoring is resource-intensive and difficult to scale across sites and time. We propose a privacy-preserving, skeleton-based framework to estimate visit-level GMFC-MLD scores from long, heterogeneous motor-assessment videos. Using recordings from the multi-site EMBOLDEN phase-2 trial (NCT03771898), we curate MELD-2D comprising 44 children and 303 rated visits, and convert restricted RGB videos into de-identified 2D pose sequences. To handle weak visit-level supervision and within-visit variability, we formulate scoring as ordinal multiple instance learning with an ST-GCN backbone and a clinician-aligned ordinal noisy-OR pooling operator that captures an "at-least-one-good-clip" decision rule. On visits with full rater agreement, the proposed model achieves 82.1% accuracy and 0.806 quadratic weighted kappa against adjudicated labels, with improved class-balanced performance over clip-supervised baselines. The model runs in real time on 2D skeletons and supports streaming inference, enabling potential on-device deployment without transmitting identifiable video. De-identified data and code are released for reproducibility.

Prostate cancer kills ≈350,000 yearly. While localized cases have 99% five-year survival, metastatic prostate cancer is hard to treat, with few options for tumors resistant to androgen deprivation. To leverage the immune system to fight prostate cancer, we developed a non-integrative lentiviral vector, namely "Lenti-PROST-02", which encodes clusters of T cell immunodominant regions of human prostatic acid phosphatase and prostate-specific antigen. Immunotherapy with Lenti-PROST-02 in a preclinical virulent prostate tumor model resulted in complete tumor eradication in vast majority of the treated animals. This antitumor effect was concomitant with induction of poly-functional CD8[+] T splenocyte effectors against numerous T cell epitopes of the antigens encoded by Lenti-PROST-02, increased proportions of tumor-infiltrating CD8[+] T cells with activated/differentiated/effector phenotype and a "cold-to-hot" inflammatory switch of the tumor microenvironment. Immunity induced by Lenti-PROST-02 was long-lasting and prevented tumor relapse. It was characterized by the persistence of CD44[+] CD62L[-] CD127[+] KLRG1[-] CD8[+] memory T cells in secondary lymphoid organs, as well as an antigen-diversified memory response. Therefore, Lenti-PROST-02 therapeutic vaccine is a promising approach for prostate immuno-oncotherapy.

Background: To evaluate anatomical and functional outcomes following pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for traumatic macular hole (TMH), investigate optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based prognostic factors, and compare outcomes between flap-based and non-flap internal limiting membrane (ILM) techniques. Methods: This retrospective consecutive case series included 33 eyes of 33 patients undergoing PPV for TMH between January 2017 and June 2024 at a tertiary referral center. Preoperative spectral-domain OCT parameters, including minimum linear diameter (MLD), basal diameter (BD), hole height (HH), intraretinal cysts, subretinal fluid, epiretinal membrane, and ellipsoid zone disruption, were evaluated. Anatomical closure and postoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) outcomes were analyzed. Results: The mean patient age was 28.7 ± 15.0 years, and blunt trauma accounted for 87.9% of cases. Median trauma-to-surgery interval was 10 weeks (IQR: 4-24 weeks). Mean BCVA improved significantly from 1.34 ± 0.54 logMAR preoperatively to 0.95 ± 0.59 logMAR postoperatively (p = 0.004). Single-surgery anatomical closure was achieved in 28 of 33 eyes (84.8%). Larger MLD and BD were significantly associated with poorer final BCVA, whereas greater HH was associated with successful anatomical closure. Flap-assisted techniques achieved higher closure rates compared with conventional ILM peeling (95.8% vs. 55.6%, p = 0.013). Conclusions: PPV for TMH was associated with favorable anatomical and functional outcomes. Larger hole dimensions were associated with poorer visual prognosis, whereas greater HH was associated with anatomical closure. Flap-assisted ILM techniques may improve anatomical success in TMH surgery.

Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is a common and dose-limiting toxicity in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Effective prophylactic agents are lacking. Tetrandrine, a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid, has shown anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties in preclinical studies. This randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tetrandrine injection for preventing RILI in this population.

Objective.Radiation pneumonitis (RP) is an important toxicity following breast radiotherapy. Although modern treatment techniques limit lung exposure, some patients still develop symptomatic RP, and predicting who is at risk remains difficult. This study aimed to develop and validate machine learning (ML) models based on ipsilateral-lung dosimetric parameters to predict clinically significant RP after breast radiotherapy.Approach.We retrospectively studied 184 women with breast cancer treated with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy using either conventional or hypofractionated fractionation schemes, with or without regional nodal irradiation, including internal mammary node irradiation when indicated. Clinically significant RP was defined as Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE v5.0) grade ⩾2 within six months of treatment. Ipsilateral-lung dose-volume metrics (V5Gy-V45Gy), maximum lung dose (Dmax), mean lung dose (MLD), and effective dose (Deff) were extracted from treatment plans. Four ML models (LightGBM, random forest, support vector machine, and logistic regression) were trained and evaluated using cross-validation. Model performance and feature reduction were analyzed.Results.Fifty-two patients (28%) developed clinically significant RP. All four models showed good and consistent predictive performance, with cross-validated AUC values >0.8. Across all models, high-dose lung parameters were the most reliable predictors. Models with reduced features (using V45Gy,Dmax,Deff, and MLD) showed competitive performance metrics compared to the respective full models.Significance.ML models built from simple, routinely available lung dosimetric data can effectively predict clinically significant RP after breast radiotherapy. Our findings suggest that small regions of the lung receiving higher doses play a greater role in RP risk than low-dose exposure alone. With further validation, this approach could support more personalized treatment planning and earlier identification of patients who may benefit from closer monitoring or preventive strategies.