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A novel water-soluble root canal filling material based on sodium iodide (NaI) has been developed to overcome the limitations of existing iodine-based formulations. However, the biological stability of this approach in animal studies remains unverified. This study evaluated the biocompatibility of NaI compared to commercial root canal filling materials (Calcipex II and Vitapex®) in pulpectomized canine teeth to assess its clinical applicability. Following a four-week observation period, none of the experimental groups exhibited tooth mobility or fistula formation. Radiographic and micro-CT analyses revealed no radiolucency in periapical lesions. Histopathologic evaluation demonstrated the absence of inflammatory responses in periapical regions across all material groups, with histological inflammation scoring 0. High-magnification histological examination of periapical areas showed well-preserved periodontal ligament tissue in all groups. Despite certain limitations of NaI-based fillings in the pulp cavity, including loss of radiopacity and tooth discoloration, NaI demonstrates potential as a safe and effective alternative for pulp filling material, particularly due to its minimal risk of root resorption and inflammatory response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Frequency-lowering (FL) algorithms improve the audibility of high-frequency sounds by shifting inaudible high-frequency components to audible low-frequency regions. However, the FL algorithm has yielded mixed findings. This study involved two experiments. The first experiment investigated whether objective and subjective auditory outcomes would be enhanced by activating frequency composition (Fcomp), which is a type of FL technique. The second experiment determined whether auditory training with Fcomp activation would provide perceptual benefits to older hearing aid users. Subjects and Methods: Twelve older hearing aid users with moderate to profound high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss participated in this study. In Experiment I, all participants received a 4-week adaptation period to Fcomp before the measurement, and then the influence of Fcomp was evaluated. In Experiment II, among the 12 participants in Experiment I, five received 8-week phoneme-based auditory training while activating Fcomp, whereas the remaining seven did not receive training but continued to use Fcomp as non-trained controls. Results: In Experiment I, 4-week passive accli-matization period to Fcomp did not improve speech-in-quiet recognition or self-perceived sound quality. In Experiment II, active pho-neme-based training enhanced recognition of consonants and words as well as better speech-quality ratings for trained participants. The consecutive use of Fcomp did not lead to any differences for non-trained participants. Conclusions: Overall, phoneme-based auditory training would allow older hearing aid users to relearn frequency-lowered speech sounds and reduce phonetic confusion. However, the analytical training approach did not lead to transfer to sentence recognition or overall satisfaction with the hearing aids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: We aimed to investigate the relationship between deformational plagiocephaly (DP) severity and anterior fontanelle size and to explore the connection between fontanelle size and developmental delay. Methods: We enrolled 189 (122 boys and 67 girls; mean corrected age, 119.79 days) of the 256 infants who visited our clinic for plagiocephaly between March 2022 and June 2023. This study analyzed the correlation between cranial vault asymmetry (CVA) and anterior fontanelle size as measured using skull anteroposterior (AP) radiography and ultrasonography. The severity of DP was graded from minimal to severe based on the Argenta classification. Infants were grouped according to CVA severity as follows: Group 1 (CVA ≤ 5 mm), Group 2 (5 mm < CVA < 10 mm), and Group 3 (CVA ≥ 10 mm). Additionally, 40 infants underwent the Denver Developmental Screening Test II (DDST-II) for neurodevelopmental delays and were divided into groups based on the presence or absence of developmental delays for fontanelle size comparison. Results: Age showed a significant negative correlation with fontanelle size (correlation coefficient −0.234, p < 0.05), indicating that fontanelle size decreases as infants age. No significant differences in fontanelle size were observed among the three CVA groups (p = 0.074) or between the developmentally delayed and non-delayed groups (p = 0.09). This study found no correlation between CVA and fontanelle size or between fontanelle size and developmental delay. Conclusions: The findings show that, while anterior fontanelle size decreased with age, there was no significant correlation between the fontanelle size and the severity of deformational plagiocephaly or developmental delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) are two promising approaches in the OLED field. In the present work, we systematically engineered a carbazole unit with a substituted cyclohexyl group to develop emitters that incorporate both AIE and TADF features, thereby achieving high efficiency in the deep blue region. We functionalized the cyclohexyl-decorated carbazole donors CyCz and Cy2Cz with a phenyl triazine acceptor, resulting in the development of novel emitters, CyCzTrz and Cy2CzTrz. These emitters exhibit high T1 and S1 charge transfer states and demonstrate an increased photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) in both solution and film forms. Notably, they exhibited AIE, resulting in a threefold enhancement in emission during solvent fraction studies. Crystal analysis revealed that the AIE effect was attributed to the efficient suppression of π–π interactions among carbazole units owing to the bulkiness of CyCz and Cy2Cz. Nondoped organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) emitted the National Television System Committee standard blue color, with maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 3.5% and 4.9% for CyCzTrz and Cy2CzTrz, respectively. The bis[2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl]ether oxide-based device achieved peak EQEs of 7.1% and 14.5%, respectively. These findings can be ascribed to the TADF-mediated reverse intersystem crossing process of AIE emitters, highlighting the potential of employing an AIE-TADF material design strategy for the development of efficient OLED devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Teenagers with epilepsy require special attention to ensure a successful treatment journey. Our objective was to delineate the clinical characteristics of adolescent-onset epilepsy (AOE) and investigate the predictive factors influencing first-year seizure freedom. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients whose first seizure occurred between the ages of 10 and 19 years and who received antiseizure medication (ASM) treatment for at least 12 months. Results A total of 67 patients were included, with an average age of 13.5 ± 2.3 years at the onset of their first seizure. The average follow-up period was 45.2 ± 16.9 months, and comorbid conditions were present in 23 patients (34.3%). The majority of the patient population (83.6%) was affected by generalized epilepsy. The most common epilepsy syndrome was epilepsy with generalized tonic-clonic seizures alone at 70.1% (juvenile myoclonic epilepsy 11.9%, juvenile absence epilepsy 1.5%). Regarding ASM treatment, 31 patients (46.3%) received monotherapy, and 28 (41.8%) received dual therapy. Five patients (7.5%) encountered issues related to medication adherence. First-year seizure freedom was observed in 42 patients (62.7%). In multivariate analysis, a negative family history of epilepsy (odds ratio 12.1, 95% confidence interval 1.27–115.44, p = 0.030) was identified as a strong predictive factor of first-year seizure freedom, along with ASM monotherapy (odds ratio 3.99, 95% confidence interval 1.05–15.21, p = 0.043). Conclusion These findings suggest that AOE typically exhibits effective control of seizures. A negative family history of epilepsy and ASM monotherapy emerges as robust predictor of achieving favorable outcomes within the early stage of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Localization of a sound source in the horizontal plane depends on the listener's interaural comparison of arrival time and level. Hearing loss (HL) can reduce access to these binaural cues, possibly disrupting the localization and memory of spatial information. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the horizontal sound localization performance and the spatial short-term memory in listeners with actual and simulated HL. Subjects and Methods: Seventeen listeners with bilateral symmetric HL and 17 listeners with normal hearing (NH) participated in the study. The hearing thresholds of NH listeners were elevated by a spectrally shaped masking noise for the simulations of unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and bilateral hearing loss (BHL). The localization accuracy and errors as well as the spatial short-term memory span were measured in the free field using a set of 11 loudspeakers arrayed over a 150° arc. Results: The localization abilities and spatial short-term memory span did not significantly differ between actual BHL listeners and BHL-simulated NH listeners. Overall, the localization performance with the UHL simulation was approximately twofold worse than that with the BHL simulation, and the hearing asymmetry led to a detrimental effect on spatial memory. The mean localization score as a function of stimulus location in the UHL simulation was less than 30% even for the front (0° azimuth) stimuli and much worse on the side closer to the simulated ear. In the UHL simulation, the localization responses were biased toward the side of the intact ear even when sounds were coming from the front. Conclusions: Hearing asymmetry induced by the UHL simulation substantially disrupted the localization performance and recall abilities of spatial positions encoded and stored in the memory, due to fewer chances to learn strategies to improve localization. The marked effect of hearing asymmetry on sound localization highlights the need for clinical assessments of spatial hearing in addition to conventional hearing tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In liquid desiccant systems, an operating strategy of mixing small fractions of weak and strong solutions integrated with a closed-loop operating strategy has drawn attention for its ability to improve the system energy performance. This study proposed a passive mixing strategy integrated with the closed-loop strategy for a heat-pump-driven liquid-desiccant (HPLD) air-conditioning system and experimentally analysed its operating performances. Based on the density difference between the weak solution in the absorber sump after dehumidification process and the strong solution in the regenerator sump after regeneration process, the proposed passive mixing strategy can practically mix them without moving parts. The results showed that the passive mixing strategy was found to be feasible to properly maintain the solution temperatures and concentrations of both absorber and regenerator within the target range in the operation of the system. Therefore, the converged dehumidification rate was shown to be 4.3 g/kg and the converged cooling capacity was shown to be 5.4 kW, which satisfied the target performance. Consequently, the closed-loop and the proposed passive mixing strategy can be concluded to be applicable to the HPLD air-conditioning system.