Portail HAL confremo Archives ouvertes du Moyen-Orient
Not a member yet
3450 research outputs found
Sort by
Revascularization of Non-Vital, Immature, Permanent Teeth with Two Bioceramic Cements: A Randomized Controlled Trial
No full textThe aim of this study was to clinically and radiographically assess the effects of two bioceramic cements as coronal plug materials for the revascularization of non-vital, immature, permanent teeth with apical periodontitis. Twenty non-vital, immature, permanent, anterior teeth with apical periodontitis were included in this study. Samples were randomly divided into two groups based on the coronal plug materials used; group I (GI): Well Root PT (Vericom, Gangwon-do, Korea) and group II (GII): MTA Biorep (Itena Clinical, Paris, France) (n = 10). Follow-up was conducted clinically and radiographically for up to 12 months to evaluate the changes in root dimensions and resolution of the periapical disease and investigate the degree of success. Data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA tests and Mann–Whitney U tests at a 0.05 significance level. At 12 months, none of the patients in either test group had clinical signs/symptoms. There was a slight increase in root length (4.4% in GI and 3.4% in GII) and a slight increase in dentin wall thickness (10.2% in GI and 9.9% in GII) with no statistically significant (p > 0.05) differences. Whilst there was a significant decrease in lesion dimension in all patients after 12 moths of treatment (93% in GI and 91% in GII), there were no statistically significant differences between the two study groups (p > 0.05). Regarding the degree of success, all cases (100%) achieved the primary goal (the elimination of symptoms and the evidence of bony healing), while 60% in GI and 40% in GII achieved the secondary goal (increased root wall thickness and/or increased root length). No statistically significant difference was found between groups (p > 0.05). Both bioceramic cements showed satisfactory clinical and radiographic findings. Premixed calcium aluminosilicate and tricalcium silicate cements could be used as coronal plug materials in revascularization procedures. Bioceramic cements can be considered promising coronal plug materials for the revascularization of immature, permanent teeth with necrotic pulps and apical periodontitis due to their physicochemical and biological properties
Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis: a literature review and case study
No full textInternational audienceCerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX) is a rare but treatable inherited neurometabolic disorder that can lead to severe sequelae if left untreated. Chenodeoxycholic acid is a safe and effective treatment for CTX. Early diagnosis is essential to improve patient outcomes. Neurological disturbances, cataracts, and intractable diarrhea are key features to raise diagnostic suspicion and differentiate CTX from other metabolic disorders in patients with dyslipidemia and xanthomas. The diagnosis of CTX depends on high cholestanol plasma levels, undetectable plasma bile acids, neuroradiological findings, and CYP27A1 gene analysis. This review provides a stepwise approach to diagnosing patients with CTX, aims to improve physician awareness of CTX, and highlights the effectiveness of chenodeoxycholic acid as the standard of care. In addition, we report a unique case of CTX with major premature cardiovascular events, initially misdiagnosed as heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. This review also provides evidence to establish the c.470T>C (p. Leu157Pro) variant of the CYP27A1 gene as a likely pathologic variant
Strategic Change in Resolving the Efficiency‐Equity Dilemma: A Novel Approach to Portfolio Selection
No full textInternational audienceThis paper introduces an innovative portfolio selection methodology that incorporates extended goal programming (EGP) to address the efficiency‐equity tradeoff in international portfolio management. Unlike traditional methods, EGP integrates multiple‐objective optimization, allowing for a balanced consideration of risk, return, and correlation simultaneously. This study not only advances the theoretical framework of portfolio management by extending the principles of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) but also provides empirical evidence of EGP's robustness across various market conditions, including financial crises. Utilizing data from five major global stock markets, which collectively represent over 70% of global market value, the results demonstrate that EGP‐constructed portfolios outperform both global and market‐specific benchmarks. The research contributes to the literature by offering a flexible, adaptable tool for decision‐makers, enabling them to tailor portfolio strategies to diverse investor goals and volatile market environments. This study's findings have significant implications for both academics and practitioners, paving the way for more resilient and optimized portfolio management practices
Mechanical and Physicochemical Characteristics of a Novel Premixed Calcium Silicate Sealer
No full textInternational audienceThe aim of the present in vitro study was to evaluate specific mechanical and physicochemical properties of three calcium silicate-based sealers, BioRoot™ Flow (BRF), CeraSeal (CRS) and TotalFill® (TF). Samples were prepared to evaluate different physicochemical and mechanical properties of the tested sealers. These evaluations were accomplished by investigating the pH changes over time, porosity, roughness, flow properties, compressive strength and wettability. The results were statistically evaluated using one-way analysis of variance. All three sealers demonstrated an alkaline pH from 1 h of immersion in water to 168 h. A higher porosity and hydrophily were detected in BRF samples compared to CRS and TF. No significant difference was found between the tested materials in the flow properties. Lower compressive strength values were observed for BRF compared to TF and CRS. Differently shaped structures were detected on the three materials after 7 days of immersion in PBS. The three materials demonstrated a higher solubility than 3% after 24 h of immersion in water (CRS < BRF < TF). The novel premixed calcium silicate sealer (BRF) had comparable physicochemical properties to the existing sealers. The lower compressive strength values could facilitate the removal of these materials during retreatment procedures. Further studies should investigate the biological effects of the novel sealer
Perception of culinary heritage and innovative food: a case study at European and Mediterranean universities
No full textInternational audienc
Impact of Pretraining Datasets on Point-MAE Performance in Point Cloud Classification
No full textInternational audiencePoint clouds are advantageous for their ability to represent three-dimensional structures and are widely used in applications such as 3D modeling, autonomous driving, and medical imaging. In machine learning, point cloud processing can be approached through self-supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and supervised learning methods. Currently, the number of selfsupervised learning methods is limited, and their efficiency is often studied on single datasets, leaving the overall performance of these methods not well defined. This study evaluates the Point-MAE method for point cloud classification through practical experiments, extending beyond theoretical reviews. By pretraining the model on various datasets, including ShapeNet and ModelNet40, and evaluating its performance on ScanObjectNN's variants, we aimed to verify the performance of this method when dealing with different datasets. Our findings reveal slight discrepancies in accuracies, with ShapeNet pretraining achieving the highest accuracy for classification on ModelNet40 with 92.95% but requiring significantly more time compared to ScanObjectNN pretraining that reached an accuracy of 92.79%. This study highlights the critical impact of pretraining dataset selection on model performance and computational efficiency. The practical insights gained underscore the necessity of handson testing to fully understand the robustness and adaptability of self-supervised learning methods
"Skill Problems and Firm Strategies in the Context of Rapid Higher Education Massification: The Case of Portugal and Lebanon"
No full textInternational audienceRecent decades have seen a notable trend towards higher education massification, with enrolment rates rising quickly in many nations worldwide. Numerous factors, such as the growth of the middle class, the need for more skilled labour in the context of the knowledge economy, and the goal of enhancing social mobility, have contributed to this tendency (Noui 2020). The demand for employability skills among graduates has increased in the context of recent higher education (HE) reforms and massification with graduates’ employability becoming a measure of institutions’ success and quality of provision (Suleman and Videira 2023; Cheng et al. 2021). Nevertheless, an increasing amount of evidence points to the unintended consequences of the emphasis on employability (Tight 2023) and to enduring mismatches betweenemployers’ expectations and graduates’ effective skills (Suleman et al. 2021a). At the same time, the literature shows that in many national and regional settings employers encounter skill shortages, leading to recruitment problems and hard-to-fill vacancies (Sharma et al. 2017; Cappelli 2015). Particularly in a context of successive economic crisis countries with massified HE systems and enduring problems in the labour market, such as Portugal and Lebanon, are particularly affected by graduates’ exodus and brain drain which compounds these problems. To overcome challenges employers resort to a number of strategies amongst which collaborating with higher education institutions for recruitment and training or by providing practical experience and training schemes by themselves (Suleman et al. 2021b).Aim of the paper: The aim is to provide a better understanding of the applicability of the human capital theory in the context of massification of higher education as to better comprehend how firms react and cope with skills problems and what strategies they design to cope with the lack of needed skills among graduates. The case of Portugal and Lebanon are considered.Methodology/Research design: We resort to qualitative analysis of primary data based on semi-structured interviews. These were conducted in 2023 with 16 Lebanese companies and in 2019 with 21 Portuguese firms. The qualitative material was assessed through content analysis for a better understanding of the employers’ skill problems in different companies, major obstacles and facilitators of recruitment relations and access to required human capital as well as the strategies developed and implement by these firms to cope with skill problems and shortages. Main results: Our results suggest that in spite of some national differences at the HE and economic levels employers in Portugal and Lebanon face somewhat similar challenges in terms of brain drain, skill mismatches and in some sectors skill shortages. In both countries most firms are SMEs which hinders their competitiveness at the international level and their ability to offer better employment conditions and salaries as well as to significantly invest in training programs. Coupled with HE massification this leads also to inequalities between graduates’ labour market outcomes and in firms’ competitiveness. In both countries firms’ strategies include targeting graduates from specific HEI’s as well as providing training of specific technical skills and generic soft skills
Exploration des mécanismes de fragmentation du pois jaune au cours du broyage par une approche multi-populations.
No full textInternational audienc
Serious game for radiotherapy training
No full textInternational audienceBackgroundCancer patients are often treated with radiation, therefore increasing their exposure to high energy emissions. In such cases, medical errors may be threatening or fatal, inducing the need to innovate new methods for maximum reduction of irreversible events. Training is an efficient and methodical tool to subject professionals to the real world and heavily educate them on how to perform with minimal errors. An evolving technique for this is Serious Gaming that can fulfill this purpose, especially with the rise of COVID-19 and the shift to the online world, by realistic and visual simulations built to present engaging scenarios. This paper presents the first Serious Game for Lung Cancer Radiotherapy training that embodies Biomedical Engineering principles and clinical experience to create a realistic and precise platform for coherent training.MethodsTo develop the game, thorough 3D modeling, animation, and gaming fundamentals were utilized to represent the whole clinical process of treatment, along with the scores and progress of every player. The model’s goal is to output coherency and organization for students’ ease of use and progress tracking, and to provide a beneficial educational experience supplementary to the users’ training. It aims to also expand their knowledge and use of skills in critical cases where they must perform crucial decision-making and procedures on patients of different cases.ResultsAt the end of this research, one of the accomplished goals consists of building a realistic model of the different equipment and tools accompanied with the radiotherapy process received by the patient on Maya 2018, including the true beam table, gantry, X-ray tube, CT Scanner, and so on. The serious game itself was then implemented on Unity Scenes with the built models to create a gamified authentic environment that incorporates the 5 main series of steps; Screening, Contouring, External Beam Planning, Plan Evaluation, Treatment, to simulate the practical workflow of an actual Oncology treatment delivery for lung cancer patients.ConclusionThis serious game provides an educational and empirical space for training and practice that can be used by students, trainees, and professionals to expand their knowledge and skills in the aim of reducing potential errors
Association between vitamin D deficiency and multiple sclerosis- MRI significance: A scoping review
No full textInternational audienceBackground/Objective: Multiple Sclerosis is a common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Several studies suggested a link between vitamin D deficiency and multiple sclerosis disease activity, which can be evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging. Thereby, the main objective of the following scoping review is to summarize the magnetic resonance imaging findings assessing the probable effects of vitamin D on MS disease activity.Methodology: PRISMA checklist for systematic reviews and meta-analyses was employed to structure this review. Literature was searched for observational and clinical studies tackling the given matter using several search engines including PubMed, CORE, and Embase. Data was extracted in a systematic manner, and the articles meeting the inclusion criteria were quality-assessed by Jadad scale for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and Newcastle-Ottawa scale for observational studies.Results: a total of 35 articles were included. Twenty-one (60%) studies noted a statistically significant association between vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis MRI-detected disease activity. MRI-detected features involved lower contrast-enhancing T1 lesions, lower hyperintense T2 lesions, and a decrease in lesions volume. On the other hand, 40 % (14 articles) of the articles did not detect any significant effect of vitamin D on Multiple Sclerosis disease activity. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies involved, meta-analysis was not employed in the given review.Discussion/Conclusion: there was an abundance in the number of research studies investigating the relationship between vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis while highlighting the significant role of MRI in assessing the activity of the disease. Numerous studies found that higher serum vitamin D levels are associated with decreased new active cortical and subcortical lesions and lower lesions volume. These findings highlight the importance of imaging modalities in the various aspects of neurological diseases and encourage further research to focus on the preventive effects of vitamin D on MS patients