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Parent and offspring Dark Triad traits: Associations with parenting, context, and offspring developmental outcomes
No full textEffect of gutta-percha removal methods on fiber-post bond strength
No full textObjectives: This study evaluated the effect of three root canal filling material (RCFM) removal techniques—mechanical, thermo-mechanical, and chemico-mechanical—on the micro push-out bond strength of fiber posts to root dentin in endodontically treated teeth.Materials and Methods: Forty-five single-rooted human premolars were endodontically treated and randomly allocated into three groups (n = 15) according to the RCFM removal technique used during post-space preparation: mechanical, thermo-mechanical, or chemico-mechanical. Fiber posts were luted using a dual-cure resin cement. Roots were embedded in resin and sectioned into coronal, middle, and apical thirds. Micro push-out bond strength was measured using a universal testing machine. Failure modes were examined under a stereomicroscope and validated using scanning electron microscopy. Statistical analysis used two-way ANOVA and Chi-square tests (α = 0.05). Results: Both the thermo-mechanical and mechanical groups showed significantly higher bond strength values than the chemico-mechanical group (p < 0.001). Across all groups, the coronal third recorded the highest bond strength, while the apical third presented the lowest values (p < 0.001). Adhesive failure at the dentin–cement interface was the most frequent failure mode. Conclusions: The gutta-percha removal technique and the root canal region significantly influence fiber-post bond strength. Solvent-based chemico-mechanical methods may adversely affect adhesion quality. Clinical Relevance: Thermo-mechanical and mechanical removal techniques may provide more reliable post retention during retreatment procedures, improving adhesion and reducing the risk of post debonding in daily practice
Shaping the future of respiratory care: A look into the next decade and strategic recommendations by EUFOREA
No full textChronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) remain one of the leading causes of preventable morbidity and disability worldwide, and affect up to one-third of the total Western population in 2025. Recognising the substantial burden of inflammatory airway diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and respiratory allergy, the European Forum for Research and Education in Allergy and Airway Diseases (EUFOREA) organised the symposium "Shaping the Future of Respiratory Care" in April 2025 in Brussels, Belgium at the occasion of the 10 year jubilee. Featuring keynote speakers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and EUFOREA, this initiative had the following aims: (i) promoting dialogue on translating innovations into daily clinical practice, (ii) encouraging collaboration between the different stakeholders in the respiratory field, and (iii) defining strategic priorities to transform respiratory care and arrest the CRD epidemic over the next decade. The symposium highlighted the importance of moving towards predictive, preventive, and patient-centred medicine, while supporting value-based healthcare systems to improve long-term patient outcomes. This report summarises the main insights and strategic directions discussed at the meeting
Ageing with cystic fibrosis: Challenges ahead
No full textAs life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis continues to improve due to advances in care and CFTR modulator therapies, age-related comorbidities are emerging as new clinical challenges. This short review summarizes insights from a symposium focusing on ageing and CF at the 20th ECFS Basic Science Conference in March 2025 in Pisa, Italy. Mechanisms of ageing and their involvement in CF disease are first outlined. We then highlight two age-associated comorbidities in CF, cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer, and outline future research directions to clarify how CF-specific and general ageing mechanisms intersect. Understanding these processes will be crucial for tailoring long-term care strategies in the ageing CF population.</p
Interacting drivers of Holocene climate change in southwestern Africa: the influence of insolation, rainbelt dynamics and upwelling
No full textUnderstanding regional-scale patterns of long-term climate variability is essential for identifying the drivers of past environmental change. In southern Africa, the continent is often divided into three rainfall zones—summer, winter, and aseasonal—but this framework fails to capture the finer dynamics of transitional areas where tropical, subtropical, and temperate systems converge. This study examines Holocene climate variability along the western margin of the southern African monsoon region using a new 7300-year nitrogen isotope record from rock hyrax middens at Omanyne-4 in northern Namibia. Unlike other Namib Desert records that indicate progressive aridification through the Holocene, the Omanyne-4 sequence shows a long-term trend toward increasing humidity, consistent with insolation-driven enhancement of tropical and Indian Ocean moisture advection. Comparisons with records from northern Namibia, Botswana, and western Zambia reveal a coherent pattern of mid-to late Holocene humidification across the northwestern interior, in contrast to coastal aridification. Periods of both in-phase and antiphase variability with other regional records highlight the role of the Angola–Benguela Front and associated upwelling dynamics in modulating Namibian hydroclimate. These results delineate distinct Holocene climate response regions in northern Namibia and Botswana and demonstrate the non-linear nature of regional responses to insolation forcing and underscore the importance of coastal–inland atmospheric interactions in shaping long-term hydroclimate variability in southwestern Africa.</p
Movable-element RIS-aided wireless communications: an element-wise position optimization approach
No full textA point-to-point movable element (ME) enabled reconfigurable intelligent surface (ME-RIS) communication system is investigated, where each element position can be flexibly adjusted to create favorable channel conditions. For maximizing the communication rate, an efficient ME position optimization approach is proposed. Specifically, by characterizing the cascaded channel power gain in an element-wise manner, the position of each ME is iteratively updated by invoking the successive convex approximation method. Numerical results unveil that 1) the proposed element-wise ME position optimization algorithm outperforms the standard gradient ascent algorithm (GAA) which is easily trapped in local optima; and 2) the ME-RIS significantly improves the communication rate compared to the conventional RIS with fixed-position elements
Rethinking adversarial attacks on neuromorphic models
No full textSpiking neural networks (SNN) are biologically inspired artificial neural networks that emulate the behaviour of biological neurons in spiking-based computational units. However, machine learning models are known to be vulnerable to adversarial noise, and particularly to universal adversarial perturbations (UAP) and adversarial patch (AP) attacks. Despite the claimed inherent robustness of SNNs to adversarial noise, attacks with UAP and AP remain under-explored in the spiking domain. This paper revisits the adversarial noise generation method from its first principles. Specifically, we consider a realistic spiking-aware setting that takes into account constraints from the neuromorphic domain, such as event sparsity and spike-timing integrity. We introduce our approach for creating Spiking-compatible adversarial attacks and a spiking UAP and AP destined for event-based computer vision systems. We propose a novel, efficient spike-based adversarial noise generation approach that respects neuromorphic constraints and show that SNNs can be the victims of more tangible and realistic types of attack
Little red dots as young supermassive black holes in dense ionized cocoons
No full textThe James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has uncovered many compact galaxies at high redshift with broad hydrogen and helium lines, including the enigmatic population of little red dots (LRDs)1,2. The nature of these galaxies is debated and is attributed to supermassive black holes (SMBHs)3,4 or intense star formation5. They exhibit unusual properties for SMBHs, such as black holes that are overmassive for their host galaxies4 and extremely weak X-ray6, 7, 8, 9–10 and radio6,11, 12–13 emission. Here we show that in most objects studied with the highest-quality JWST spectra, the lines are broadened by electron scattering with a narrow intrinsic core. The data require very high electron column densities and compact sizes (light days), which, when coupled with their high luminosities, can be explained only by SMBH accretion. The narrow intrinsic line cores imply black hole masses of 105−7M⊙, two orders of magnitude lower than previous estimates. These are the lowest mass black holes known at high redshift, to our knowledge, and suggest a population of young SMBHs. They are enshrouded in a dense cocoon of ionized gas producing broad lines from which they are accreting close to the Eddington limit, with very mild neutral outflows. Reprocessed nebular emission from this cocoon dominates the optical spectrum, explaining most LRD spectral characteristics, including the weak radio and X-ray emission14,15.</p
Improving student engagement through gamification in a systems security and cryptography course
No full textThis innovative practice full paper describes the impact of gamification as a pedagogical strategy to enhance student engagement in a second-year Systems Security and Cryptography course. In response to historically low attendance and participation, a gamified revision practical was introduced in the second week of the semester. The session incorporated cryptographic puzzles, ciphers, and a collaborative crossword challenge designed to reinforce prior knowledge while fostering interaction and motivation. A mixed-methods evaluation, including comparative attendance data and student feedback, revealed a significant increase in engagement. Attendance during the gamified session reached 62.5\%, compared to 25.5\% in the equivalent session of the previous academic year. Furthermore, 100\% of student respondents rated the experience as “good” or “excellent,” and reported feeling “engaged” or “very engaged.” The findings support the efficacy of cooperative, game-based learning in cybersecurity education, particularly when implemented early in the course. Future work will explore the scalability of this approach across additional sessions and its long-term influence on academic outcomes