Publications by authors named "Pimentel A"

Bulk-fill, monochromatic, and ORMOCER composites were introduced in restorative dentistry with the aim of reducing clinical time and/or alleviating contraction stresses at the interface between the tooth and restoration. While the conversion and immediate properties of these materials are comparable to conventional composites, studies evaluating their long-term properties and the structure of the polymer matrix are lacking. The objective of this study was to evaluate the degree of conversion and, indirectly, the crosslink density of conventional, bulk-fill, monochromatic, and ORMOCER resin composites.

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Cardiac involvement in 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) survivors has been reported frequently. An exacerbated immune response may be the main mechanism of myocardial injury and late cardiac sequelae in this population. We investigated the immune profile in hypertensive and non-hypertensive patients with COVID-19 who developed late cardiac fibrosis and edema, as detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

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UV light emitting diode (LED) disinfection technologies have advanced over the last decade and expanded the design space for applications in point of use, industrial, and now full-scale water treatment. This literature review examines the progression of UV LED technologies from 2007 to 2023 using key features such as total optical power, price, and wall-plug efficiency. The review found that optical power is increasing while the price per Watt is decreasing; however, the wall plug energy (WPE) is slowly improving over the last decade.

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Liquid biopsy with sequencing of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a minimally invasive method for sampling body fluids and offers a promising alternative to tissue biopsies that involve greater risks, costs, and time. ctDNA not only identifies actionable targets by revealing unique molecular signatures in cancer, but also may assess treatment response, treatment resistance and progression, and recurrence. Imaging correlates of these applications are already being identified and utilized for various solid tumors.

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This application note explores how to address a challenging problem faced by many academics and publishing professionals in recent years: ensuring the integrity of academic writing in universities and publishing houses due to advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). It distinguishes AI- and human-generated English manuscripts using classifier models such as decision tree, random forest, extra trees, and AdaBoost. It utilizes Scikit learn libraries to provide statistics (precision, accuracy, recall, F1, MCC, and Cohen's kappa scores) and the confusion matrix to guarantee confidence to the user.

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Purpose: To estimate the association between a previous cancer diagnosis and healthcare use during the COVID-19 pandemic among Europeans and Israelis individuals.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), including the SHARE COVID-19 Survey, which was conducted in the summer of 2020, in 27 countries. Cancer survivors (CS, n = 6409) were country-, sex-, age-, and education-matched (1:2) to non-cancer individuals (NC).

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We report the first conductance measurements of [n]staffane (bicyclopentane) oligomers in single-molecule junctions. Our studies reveal two quantum transport characteristics unique to staffanes that emerge from their strained bicyclic structure. First, though staffanes are composed of weakly conjugated C-C σ-bonds, staffanes carry a shallower conductance decay value (β=0.

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Article Synopsis
  • Wolfram syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that is inherited in an autosomal-recessive manner.
  • A case study highlights a patient with WS who had undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea, leading to serious sleep-related problems like prolonged apnea and low oxygen levels.
  • Treating sleep-disordered breathing in individuals with WS may enhance their quality of life and increase their lifespan.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated cardiac inflammation in long COVID-19 patients, focusing on those who experienced myocardial injury while hospitalized, using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging.* -
  • Out of 180 patients, 53 had CMR imaging; results highlighted that significant percentages had myocardial (43.4%) and pericardial (35.8%) late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), indicating heart damage.* -
  • Follow-up CMR showed some improvements in heart structure for 17 patients, but overall, many COVID-19 survivors still displayed signs of cardiac remodeling post-recovery.*
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Purpose: To evaluate the effects on peripheral neural regeneration of the end-to-side embracing repair technique compared to the autograft repair technique in Wistar rats.

Methods: Fifteen male Wistar rats were divided into three groups with five animals each: denervated group (GD), autograft group (GA), and embracing group (EG). For the evaluation, the grasping test, electroneuromyography (ENMG), and muscle weight assessment were used.

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This study investigated the impact of 'storage condition' and 'period of storage' on selected physico-mechanical properties and fracture reliability of a resin-based composite (RBC). Specimens, prepared from a nanofilled RBC (Filtek Z350 XT; 3M ESPE), underwent tests for degree of conversion (DC), flexural strength (σ), flexural modulus (E), and hardness. The specimens were initially grouped into dry storage at 37°C or wet storage in distilled water at 37°C.

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Microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer (MSS mCRC; mismatch repair proficient) has previously responded poorly to immune checkpoint blockade. Botensilimab (BOT) is an Fc-enhanced multifunctional anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) antibody designed to expand therapy to cold/poorly immunogenic solid tumors, such as MSS mCRC. BOT with or without balstilimab (BAL; anti-PD-1 antibody) is being evaluated in an ongoing expanded phase 1 study.

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Lipids are essential for tumours because of their structural, energetic, and signaling roles. While many cancer cells upregulate lipid synthesis, growing evidence suggests that tumours simultaneously intensify the uptake of circulating lipids carried by lipoproteins. Which mechanisms promote the uptake of extracellular lipids, and how this pool of lipids contributes to cancer progression, are poorly understood.

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The local interpretable model-agnostic explanation (LIME) method was used to interpret two machine learning models of compounds penetrating the blood-brain barrier. The classification models, Random Forest, ExtraTrees, and Deep Residual Network, were trained and validated using the blood-brain barrier penetration dataset, which shows the penetrability of compounds in the blood-brain barrier. LIME was able to create explanations for such penetrability, highlighting the most important substructures of molecules that affect drug penetration in the barrier.

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Introduction: Health literacy is crucial to adherence to medical interventions in therapeutics, prevention, and diagnosis. The basis for literacy is knowledge. To accomplish the goals for the elimination of cervical cancer, one of the most prevalent and preventable cancers, we must understand the determinants of non-adherence and address them specifically to ensure patients' active participation.

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This work shows the first example of using intramolecular London dispersion interactions to control molecular geometry and quantum transport in single-molecule junctions. Flexible σ-bonded molecular junctions typically occupy straight-chain geometries due to steric effects. Here, we synthesize a series of thiomethyl-terminated oligo(dimethylsilmethylene)s that bear [CH-Si(CH)] repeat units, where all backbone dihedral states are sterically equivalent.

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Novel UV sources, which do not contain mercury, provide the opportunity for enhancement of current oxidation technologies through spectral optimization, minimizing inefficiencies that currently limit conventional technology. Wastewater reuse is the primary full-scale application of UV advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) in practice but any background absorbance and the low molar absorption by conventional radical promoters (hydrogen peroxide) have historically limited their system efficiency, resulting in the underutilization of photons in a reactor. This bench-scale research evaluated use of longer wavelength UV light emitting diodes (265, 280, and 300 nm) matched with free chlorine to optimize the utilization of photons for advanced oxidation.

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Background: In areas where cattle graze outdoors, the environmental availability of trace elements is of utmost importance for an adequate intake. Cattle hair trace elements can be used as exposure biomarkers to assess animal intake and help ensure good nutrition and animal welfare. The aim of this study was to evaluate the environmental exposure to trace elements in cattle grazing outdoors in a volcanic region (São Miguel Island, Azores) and assess the corresponding bioaccumulation factors.

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Background: Comorbidities such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes are associated with COVID-19 development and severity, probably due to immune dysregulation; however, the mechanisms underlying these associations are not clear. The immune signatures of hypertensive patients with obesity with COVID-19 may provide new insight into the mechanisms of immune dysregulation and progression to severe disease in these patients.

Methods: Hypertensive patients were selected prospectively from a multicenter registry of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 and stratified according to obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²).

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The control of Wnt receptor abundance is critical for animal development and to prevent tumorigenesis, but the mechanisms that mediate receptor stabilization remain uncertain. We demonstrate that stabilization of the essential Wingless/Wnt receptor Arrow/LRP6 by the evolutionarily conserved Usp46-Uaf1-Wdr20 deubiquitylase complex controls signaling strength in Drosophila. By reducing Arrow ubiquitylation and turnover, the Usp46 complex increases cell surface levels of Arrow and enhances the sensitivity of target cells to stimulation by the Wingless morphogen, thereby increasing the amplitude and spatial range of signaling responses.

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This manuscript describes skeletal isomerization strategies to install one to four quaternary germanium atoms in the sila-adamantane core, in a cluster analogy to precision germanium doping in silicon-germanium alloys. The first strategy embodies an inorganic variant of single-atom skeletal editing, where we use a sila-Wagner-Meerwein bond shift cascade to exchange a peripheral Ge atom with a core Si atom. We can install up to four Ge atoms at the quaternary diamondoid centers based on controlling the SiGe stoichiometry of our precursor.

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In 2022, approximately 600,000 cancer deaths were expected; more than 50,000 of those deaths would be from colorectal cancer (CRC). The CRC mortality rate in the US has decreased in recent decades, with a 51% drop between 1976 and 2014. This drop is attributed, in part, to the tremendous therapeutic improvements, especially after the 2000s, in addition to increased social awareness regarding risk factors and diagnostic improvement.

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Purpose: Myocardial injury is common in hypertensive patients with 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Immune dysregulation could be associated to cardiac injury in these patients, but the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated.

Methods: All patients were selected prospectively from a multicenter registry of adults hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19.

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Background: Levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) is a common motor complication of levodopa therapy in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Doxycycline is a widely used and inexpensive tetracycline with anti-inflammatory properties.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of doxycycline in patients with PD and LID.

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Cervical suction lipectomy (CSL) procedures result in practically inevitable complications after the operation, such as facial edema and bruise. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) can be used for analgesia, modulation of inflammatory processes, and improved tissue healing. We have reported two cases of patients in which this therapy was used to manage complications-related CSL.

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