The introduction of anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies has shifted Alzheimer's disease care from diagnostic clarification alone to the problem of treatment governance. While lecanemab and donanemab have demonstrated amyloid reduction at the group level, routine clinical care raises a different question: how should treatment exposure be managed in individual patients within constrained healthcare systems? We suggest that amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) may support this task by providing a quantitative baseline reference for target engagement and by informing decisions on treatment continuation, switching, or discontinuation during follow-up. However, amyloid reduction on PET should not be equated with proven individual-level clinical benefit, and the potential role of longitudinal PET must be considered alongside unresolved questions regarding safety, treatment burden, feasibility, and health-system capacity. Drawing on real-world experience from a high-volume European memory clinic, we argue that amyloid PET may have an increasingly relevant role within structured anti-amyloid treatment pathways.
Freshwater lakes are increasingly affected by interacting ecological, infrastructural and socio-economic pressures, yet research on regulated deep lake systems has mainly focused on biophysical processes, with comparatively limited attention to how local stakeholders perceive ecological change and sustainability transitions. This study addresses this gap by examining how stakeholders interpret environmental change, water governance and future sustainability in Lake Idro, a regulated deep subalpine lake in northern Italy. The novelty of the paper lies in integrating limnological evidence with qualitative stakeholder perspectives to show how perceived ecological improvement, governance conflicts and institutional trust jointly shape local understandings of sustainability. The study combines documentary and scientific evidence with a focus group and semi-structured interviews with 21 stakeholders, including residents, institutional actors, environmental associations and tourism operators. Data were analyzed through an inductive approach inspired by the Gioia methodology. The findings identify two interrelated dimensions: Ecological Perception and Participatory Awareness, which captures how visible environmental changes and lived experience inform local interpretations of lake conditions; Territorial Governance and Local Development, which reflects concerns over water regulation, tourism, infrastructure and institutional legitimacy. Stakeholders generally perceive an improvement in the lake's ecological and esthetic condition following reduced water-level fluctuations, while expressing concern that new hydraulic interventions could reintroduce ecological instability and undermine tourism-based development. By connecting ecological evidence with socially mediated perceptions of change, the study contributes to environmental management and adaptive water governance debates, highlighting the importance of knowledge exchange, participatory decision-making and institutional trust in managing regulated lake systems.
The management of Xylella fastidiosa infections relies on integrated strategies of controlling vector populations and removing inoculum sources. The impact of a subspecies pauca strain of this bacterium (XfDD) was particularly severe in olive in Apulia, Italy, where an entire economy was affected, and a territory was devastated. There is an urgent request for strategies to combat the pathogen in planta, as well as for bioinsecticides targeting its vector insect species, and that these should conform to criteria of environmental acceptance. Therefore, this study analyses the Mechanisms of Action (MoA) of three novel biopesticides for pest management of XfDD in olive. In vitro assays showed that the Onion extract (Onion) inhibits the growth of XfDD while the bacterium Paraburkholderia phytofirmans strain PsJN (PsJN) did not. Using a time course transcriptomics approach, the molecular response of olive to the biopesticides PsJN and Onion, aiming to control XfDD, and to the natural insecticide Sankari© were observed. As early as 6 to 12 h after the application of PsJN, Onion or Sankari©, olives showed altered gene expression patterns, which decayed after 15 days. All olives, successively inoculated with XfDD, were analysed 10 days later. All three biopesticides induced an early immune response, including genes related to the control of hormone levels or membrane-associated kinase. In addition, PsJN also modulated ethylene levels, thus showing a potential promotion of plant growth. The expression of a set of early induced genes, monitored by quantitative RT-PCR, confirmed both, the PsJN and Sankari© transcriptomic response. Moreover, XfDD inoculation stimulated a more intense transcriptomic response in treated compared to untreated and inoculated olives, indicating that the biopesticides induced a priming response. Dissecting the MoA of a potential biopesticide complements the evaluation of its efficacy in controlling the pathogen. In the case of XfDD, this assessment requires extensive field trials due to the prolonged period before symptoms appear in infected olives and the occurrence of repeated inoculations under natural conditions.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a hematological malignancy characterized by the accumulation of mature CD5⁺ B cells largely due to defective apoptosis. Prolonged leukemic cell survival has been linked to downregulation of the pro-apoptotic adaptor p66Shc and its transcription factor STAT4, both of which are typically reduced in CLL patients. To date, a clear mechanistic explanation for STAT4 deficiency in CLL has not yet been provided. Restoring STAT4 expression or activating its residual function may represent an attractive therapeutic strategy. Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) directly deacetylates and suppresses STAT4 in T lymphocytes, suggesting that a similar mechanism may operate in CLL cells. In this study, we hypothesized that HDAC6-mediated STAT4 inhibition also occurs in CLL cells and contributes to leukemic cell survival. Accordingly, we tested the potent HDAC6 inhibitor Taginostat (HDAC6 IC50 = 7.9 nM) and found that it enhanced p66Shc expression and restored apoptosis in CLL cells. These effects were reproduced by HDAC6 silencing. Flow cytometric and western blot analyses showed that Taginostat boosted residual STAT4 activity by enhancing its phosphorylation. Moreover, transient transfection with STAT4-luciferase or STAT4-green fluorescent protein (GFP) constructs demonstrated that Taginostat promoted both the nuclear translocation and transcriptional activity of STAT4. In addition, in vivo experiments conducted in the Eµ-TCL1 mouse model of CLL demonstrated that Taginostat treatment counteracted disease development, significantly reducing the leukemia burden. Collectively, these findings validate HDAC6 inhibition as a valuable therapeutic strategy for promoting STAT4 activation in CLL cells, restoring the apoptotic cascade, and counteracting disease progression.
Midbrain dopaminergic degeneration is an early feature of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and AD-Parkinson's disease overlap (AD-PD). However, its direct contribution to the failure of hippocampal inhibitory-circuits, a pathological feature shared across these conditions, remains unresolved. Parvalbumin-positive interneurons (PV-INs) regulate hippocampal excitation-inhibition balance and are directly modulated by dopamine (DA). These neurons are protected by perineuronal nets (PNNs), extracellular-matrix structures supporting fast GABAergic signaling and neuronal resilience. We tested whether midbrain-derived DA loss is sufficient to destabilize hippocampal PV-IN function, potentially promoting their vulnerability or affecting PNN integrity. Through stereotaxic unilateral 6-hydroxy-dopamine lesion of the Ventral Tegmental Area/Substantia Nigra pars compacta in C57BL/6 N mice, we reduced the hippocampal DA tone and midbrain-derived synaptic input onto PV-INs. At 1-month post-lesion, PV-IN numbers were preserved, but the PNN integrity was reduced, accompanied by increased expression of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a PNN-remodeling protease. In CA1 pyramidal neurons, spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents showed reduced frequency with faster decay, and bicuculline unmasked heightened population-spike excitability. By 6-months post-lesion, PV-IN numbers declined significantly, especially in CA1, demonstrating progressive vulnerability. D2/D3 receptor (D2/D3R) activation with quinpirole normalized tPA levels in PV-INs ex vivo, restored PNN integrity after sub-chronic treatment in vivo and increased inhibitory postsynaptic-event frequency, indicating functional recovery of GABAergic drive. These findings support the involvement of a DA-D2/D3R-tPA axis contributing to PV-IN extracellular-matrix integrity and hippocampal inhibitory tone. They also demonstrate that DA depletion is sufficient to trigger PNN breakdown, reduce GABAergic inhibition, network hyperexcitability, and cause progressive PV-IN loss independently of canonical protein aggregates like Aβ, tau or α-synuclein, characteristic of AD, DLB or AD-PD. This mechanism links midbrain degeneration to hippocampal circuit failure, highlighting D2/D3R signaling and extracellular proteolysis as actionable targets for early circuit stabilization across AD, DLB, and AD-PD.
This work presents two fabrication strategies for the development of organic thin-film devices at the micro- and nano-scales. We make use of non-commercial PEDOT synthesized via liquid-phase oxidative chemical polymerization, using vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) as a oxidant. The optimization of this synthetic technique enables the production of homogeneous PEDOT films with a controlled thickness and tunable electrical properties. At the micro-scale, we fabricate a PEDOT microstripe with gold contacts using standard optical lithography and confirm the high electrical performance of the processed PEDOT device. Moreover, at the nanoscale we apply a self-assembling technique, namely the nanosphere lithography, to pattern the thin film over a large area with a hexagonally close-packed array of nanopillars. This technique allows us to achieve individual nanopillar dimensions as small as 255 nm in diameter. The ability to achieve such controlled geometries suggests significant potential for developing organic photonic crystals and metasurfaces. These findings highlight a versatile fabrication framework that bridges standard lithography and unconventional self-assembly, providing a scalable pathway toward advanced organic electronic and tunable photonic devices.
Obesity is a chronic, relapsing, multisystem disease in which cardiometabolic risk arises from excess adiposity and progressive dysfunction of peripheral organs, ultimately disrupting endocrine and metabolic crosstalk among tissues. Within this network, sulphur-based biology, centred on hydrogen sulphide and related reactive sulphur species, has emerged as a key regulator of metabolic homeostasis, vascular tone, inflammatory response and mitochondrial function. Here, we review the chemical and mechanistic landscape of sulphaceutics (pharmacological sulphur-releasing agents) and sulphanutraceutics (diet-derived organosulphur compounds), focusing on their capacity to reprogramme peripheral dysfunctions in obesity. Evidence from experimental models, also supported by emerging human data, indicates that sulphur-based interventions can enhance skeletal muscle insulin signalling and performance, restore endothelial reactivity and reduce vascular inflammation, thereby modulating adipose expansion and inflammatory tone. These actions reflect the engagement of upstream redox-sensitive regulatory nodes rather than non-specific antioxidant effects, consistent with a system pharmacology mode of action.
Sweet syndrome (SS) is an autoinflammatory neutrophilic dermatosis characterized by abrupt-onset inflammatory skin lesions and systemic symptoms, yet its molecular pathogenesis remains incompletely defined. To delineate disease-specific inflammatory programmes, we performed NanoString-based transcriptomic analysis of SS skin lesions and compared them with healthy control skin and pyoderma gangrenosum, a related neutrophilic dermatosis. SS exhibited a distinct inflammatory transcriptional signature marked by robust upregulation of type I and II interferon-stimulated genes, including CXCL9, CXCL10, GBP1, GBP5, IFIT2 and IRF7, distinguishing SS from both control groups. Cell type deconvolution analysis revealed enrichment of dendritic cells, consistent with a prominent type I interferon-driven immune response. In parallel, SS lesions demonstrated altered immunoproteasome gene expression, with upregulation of immunoproteasome subunits PSMB8, PSMB9 and PSMB10 and downregulation of the constitutive subunit PSMB7 suggesting functional remodelling of proteasomal activity. Together, these findings support a model in which dendritic cell-driven interferon signalling promotes immunoproteasome remodelling and sustains neutrophilic inflammation in Sweet. This study identifies a prominent interferon signalling as a defining molecular feature of SS and highlights potential therapeutic opportunities within the interferon-JAK/STAT and proteasome pathways.
The increasing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) presents complex cybersecurity challenges, necessitating a reevaluation of traditional threat assessment. The KINAITICS project addresses these evolving threats by conducting in-depth research into cyber-kinetic attacks, where malicious cyber activities manifest as real-world physical disruptions. The project is also dedicated to developing resilient, AI-driven defense mechanisms. This paper outlines KINAITICS' foundational work, including the creation of a tailored KINAITICS Threat Matrix (KTM). This innovative framework systematically identifies, categorizes, and assesses threats unique to AI-integrated CPS. The paper details the KTM's practical application across five high-stakes use cases, ranging from safeguarding nuclear facility simulations to protecting electronic health record (EHR) systems from sophisticated phishing attacks. A central focus of the KINAITICS project is the rigorous development and evaluation of both offensive and defensive AI tools. These tools are designed to investigate, understand, and mitigate the multifaceted threats posed by cyber-kinetic adversaries. The overarching objective is to significantly enhance the resilience of critical infrastructures against advanced cyber-physical threats, ensuring the continued safety, security, and operational integrity of systems vital to modern society.
Organizational justice represents a key construct in healthcare settings, influencing professionals' well-being, quality of care, and the sustainability of healthcare systems. In nursing, the perception of fairness in decision-making processes, resource allocation, and professional relationships plays a particularly relevant role. This study aimed to analyse organizational justice in nursing settings, exploring its antecedents, consequences, and measurement approaches, integrating evidence from the literature with nurses' perceptions. A narrative literature review was conducted, consulting PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar using search strategies structured around specific thematic areas. To further explore the findings, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted, based on semi-structured interviews with 16 nurses selected through purposeful sampling. Data were analysed using narrative synthesis and thematic analysis. Organizational justice emerged as a multidimensional construct articulated into distributive, procedural, and relational dimensions, and associated with outcomes such as job satisfaction, psychological well-being, burnout, and turnover. Key antecedents included leadership styles, decision-making processes, organizational communication, and recognition systems. Qualitative findings highlighted how organizational justice is experienced as a concrete, everyday phenomenon, shaped by inequalities in opportunities, limited participation in decision-making, lack of recognition, and relational dynamics perceived as arbitrary. These conditions are associated with frustration, loss of motivation, and progressive disengagement, leading to outcomes such as burnout, turnover, and forms of withdrawal, including forms of withdrawal that may be interpreted as quiet quitting. Organizational justice can be considered a structural dimension of healthcare settings, crucial for professionals' well-being and quality of care. Promoting transparent, participatory, and fair decision-making processes, together with inclusive leadership and recognition practices, represents a strategic priority to prevent disengagement and support the sustainability of healthcare systems.
Beached Posidonia oceanica seagrass fibres are an abundant yet underutilised Mediterranean biowaste with potential for sustainable reinforcement of cement-treated sediments. We present a first multiscale bio-chemo-hygro-mechanical characterisation, combining high-resolution synchrotron X-ray tomography with a 250 nm voxel size, FE-SEM/EDX, tensile testing, water-retention measurements. An image-based method links Aegagropile diameter to fibre length, enabling targeted selection of fibres in the 10-25 mm range to minimise clustering and favour reinforcing-network formation within the potentially-treated material. Air-dried fibres exhibit higher tensile strength, whereas pre-soaked fibres show greater porosity, tortuosity, ductility and toughness, and water-retention capacity, highlighting a moisture-dependent trade-off between strength and deformability. Water-retention curves reveal two storage domains: intra-fibre absorption within the lumen's porosity and capillarity in the inter-fibre pore space of bundled fibres. Within a cement-treated sediment mixture, 1% fibre addition does not significantly increase the unconfined compression strength, which is mainly governed by curing and cementation, but improves post-peak response, residual resistance, distributed cracking, ductility, and damage tolerance while maintaining comparable internal compactness. Ultrasonic pulse velocity results support that fibre inclusion does not compromise the internal compactness of the cement-treated sediment, while curing promotes progressive matrix densification. This dual mechanical and moisture-storage functionality positions Posidonia oceanica fibres as a circular bio-based reinforcement for cement-treated sediments.
In multiple sclerosis (MS), real-world evidence supports early intensive treatment (EIT) with high-efficacy therapies (HET) over escalation (ESC), although comparative data on long-term safety across sequences remain limited. To compare the incidence of infections and neoplasms in patients treated with different treatment sequences. Data were extracted from the Italian MS and Related Disorders Register. DMTs were classified as moderate-efficacy treatment (MET), continuous HET (C-HET) or pulsed HET (P-HET). Six therapeutic sequences were reconstructed: MET-only, C-HET-only, P-HET-only, MET→C-HET, MET→P-HET and P-HET→MET. Incidence rates (IRs; per 1000 person-years) and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were estimated using multivariable Poisson regression, adjusting for age, sex, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), disease duration, MS phenotype and prior relapse activity. A total of 37,375 patients were included in the analysis, with a median duration of treatment exposure of 8.8 years. Infection risk was significantly higher with C-HET-only (IR, 24.82; IRR, 3.12), P-HET-only (IR, 13.43; IRR, 1.69), MET→C-HET (IR, 10.46; IRR, 1.32) and MET→P-HET (IR, 12.30; IRR, 1.55) versus MET-only (IR, 7.94), while P-HET→MET showed no significant difference from MET-only (IR, 7.67; IRR, 0.97). Regarding neoplasm incidence, P-HET-only showed the lowest rates (IR, 0.18; IRR, 0.24), whereas it was significantly higher in C-HET-only (IR, 1.33; IRR, 1.79) and MET→C-HET (IR, 1.01; IRR, 1.36) versus MET-only (IR, 0.74). This is the first real-world study to compare the safety of different sequences in a national registry. ESC strategies did not confer a long-term safety advantage over EIT. Among HET regimens, C-HET was associated with the greatest risk of both serious infections and neoplasms, whereas P-HET showed the lowest neoplasm incidence.
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Oropharyngeal dysphagia is a common and disabling consequence of stroke. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown potential in promoting swallowing recovery, although evidence remains limited. To determine whether bilateral anodal tDCS combined with intensive speech-language therapy (SLT) improves swallowing outcomes compared with sham stimulation in patients with post-stroke dysphagia. Exploratory analyses examined the influence of treatment phase, sex, lesion site, and baseline severity. This multicenter, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial enrolled patients with supratentorial or infratentorial ischemic stroke and oropharyngeal dysphagia. Participants received either bilateral anodal tDCS or sham stimulation (1.5 mA, 20 min/day, 5 days/week for 2 weeks) combined with intensive SLT over 6 weeks. Swallowing outcomes were assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, and 6 weeks using the Dysphagia Outcome and Severity Scale (DOSS, primary outcome), Penetration-Aspiration Scale (PAS), Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA), and Swallowing Quality of Life questionnaire (SWAL-QoL). Forty-six patients (24 active, 22 sham) completed the protocol. Both groups showed significant improvement across all outcomes (p < 0.001), with no significant difference between active and sham stimulation. The DOSS was the most sensitive measure, showing sustained improvement over time. Exploratory analyses indicated greater MASA gains with active tDCS in infratentorial strokes (p = 0.04). Correlation analyses showed that greater baseline dysphagia severity was associated with larger functional gains. Intensive SLT was associated with meaningful recovery in post-stroke dysphagia, regardless of stimulation condition. Exploratory findings suggest that bilateral tDCS may confer additional benefit in selected lesion subgroups.
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a tumor-derived, circulating bioanalyte that can be detected in blood using minimally invasive, blood-based biomarker procedures and has prognostic value in early breast cancer. Quantitative features of ctDNA, including baseline detectability and levels, have shown prognostic potential in early breast cancer by reflecting tumor burden and biologic aggressiveness, thereby supporting risk stratification. Post-treatment ctDNA detection may identify minimal residual disease and can precede radiologic or symptomatic recurrence by several months to years. Nevertheless, ctDNA has not yet been adopted in routine clinical practice in early breast cancer, partly because of biologic constraints, including low and heterogeneous tumor DNA shedding, as well as pre-analytical and analytical variability that can affect testing sensitivity. Ongoing efforts are focused on methodological standardization and clarification of the clinically actionable context. This narrative review examines the challenges in applying ctDNA to early breast cancer, spanning patient selection, sampling logistics, specimen handling, assay performance, and sources of assay failure. The authors outline determinants of ctDNA measurement that restrict the proportion of evaluable patients and limit translation to clinical practice and then summarize evidence supporting ctDNA for early response monitoring during neoadjuvant therapy, postoperative minimal residual disease detection, and longitudinal molecular surveillance. Finally, ctDNA-guided therapeutic interception strategies and emerging multimodal cell-free DNA approaches are discussed. A test that measures tumor DNA in the blood, called circulating tumor DNA, may help assess how a patient is responding to treatment, whether cancer may still be present after surgery, and whether relapse may occur before it becomes visible on scans or causes symptoms. This review summarizes the current evidence in early breast cancer, the main limitations of this approach, and what ongoing studies need to clarify before its routine use in clinical practice.
Goal-directed actions, such as picking up, manipulating, or using objects, are so ubiquitous that impairments in these skills can severely impact quality of life. Reaching-grasping behaviors are driven by a frontoparietal network, with the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and the primary motor cortex (M1) serving as critical frontal nodes. PMv-M1 connectivity can be modulated using cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation (cc-PAS), which involves repeated paired transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of both nodes. Stimulating M1 with an anterior-posterior (AP) current direction selectively enhances corticospinal excitability during isometric precision grip, but not during isometric power grip. However, it is unclear how the plasticity induction in the more superficial PMv-M1 connectivity may influence the preparation and execution of goal-directed, naturalistic reaching-grasping actions. In this study, participants performed reaching-grasping actions toward small or large objects, requiring precision or power grip, before and after applying the PMv-M1 cc-PASAP protocol. The plasticity-induction protocol selectively modulated the joint angles temporal synergies during precision grip actions, suggesting a reorganization of whole-arm reaching-grasping coordination. The analyses of the joint angles spatial synergies did not reveal comparable effects. Taken together, these findings suggest that the PMv-M1 plasticity-induction protocol primarily modulated the temporal, rather than the spatial, control of joint angles recruitment during precision grip actions. Given that such basic skills are often permanently lost in stroke patients, our findings may offer valuable insight for the development of innovative therapeutic approaches for this clinical population.
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a progressive inherited myopathy characterized by muscle weakness, fatty infiltration, and consequent reduction in functional capacity. In this context, physical exercise (PE) has been proposed as a non-pharmacological strategy aimed at preserving physical efficiency. However, its prescription in FSHD has historically been approached with caution due to concerns regarding overwork weakness and potential exacerbation of muscle damage. As a result, clinical management has often remained conservative, with limited and non-standardized PE recommendations. Nevertheless, physical inactivity may further contribute to deconditioning, loss of autonomy, and deterioration in quality of life, highlighting a clear tension between perceived risk and potential benefit. In this framework, identifying safe and effective PE strategies represents a central unmet need in FSHD care. Possibly due to disease rarity and historical concerns, the available literature on PE in FSHD remains fragmented, limiting the strength of definitive conclusions. A structured synthesis of existing evidence may help clarify feasible and potentially effective exercise modalities, as well as guide the development of optimized intervention strategies. This review critically examines the current evidence on PE in FSHD, with specific reference to aerobic, anaerobic, and combined training interventions. The potential synergistic role of concomitant nutritional strategies is also considered. The critical analysis highlights exercise modalities that appear more consistently safe and potentially beneficial, while underscoring substantial methodological limitations across studies. Finally, emerging concepts in exercise tailoring are discussed, with the aim of addressing the clinical variability of FSHD and informing future prospective, controlled investigations.
Electric toothbrushes are known to outperform manual devices in plaque removal, yet most comparative trials rely on conventional examiner-based indices and none have evaluated efficacy across smoking profiles using objective fluorescence-based measurement. This 24-week, 2-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial compared an oscillating-rotating electric toothbrush (Oral-B iO 6) with a manual toothbrush in 126 adults aged 18 to 50 years attending a dental clinic for routine scaling and polishing. Current smokers and never-smokers were enrolled to allow prespecified subgroup analysis by smoking status. Dental plaque accumulation was quantified using quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) technology. The primary endpoint was ΔR30 (percentage of tooth surface with fluorescence increase ≥30%, reflecting total mature plaque); ΔR120 (fluorescence increase ≥120%, reflecting thick plaque and calculus-like deposits) was the secondary endpoint. The primary analysis used analysis of covariance adjusting for baseline plaque levels, treatment arm, smoking status, and their interaction. Use of the electric toothbrush was associated with significantly lower ΔR30 at 24 weeks compared with manual brushing (β = -1.84, 95% CI [-3.27, -0.41], p = .012), an effect that remained robust after adjustment for age, sex, and habitual oral hygiene behaviours. Baseline plaque level was the strongest predictor of follow-up values in both outcome models. No significant treatment effect was observed for ΔR120 (β = -0.77, 95% CI [-1.71, 0.18], p = .112). Subgroup analyses showed significant between-arm differences on both outcomes among never-smokers; among smokers, differences were directionally consistent but did not reach statistical significance, and the treatment-by-smoking interaction was not statistically significant. Oscillating-rotating electric toothbrushing produced significantly lower plaque accumulation than manual brushing over 24 weeks, as indexed by QLF-derived ΔR30. These findings support the potential advantage of oscillating-rotating powered toothbrushes for reducing plaque accumulation in adult patients and further support the utility of QLF as a precise and reproducible outcome measure for toothbrush efficacy trials. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06358482.
Following a discrepancy observed between the presently recommended 7.45(1) days (1σ) 111Ag half-life and the two most recent values reported in the literature, we carried out a new determination by measuring the decay of a111Ag sample using state-of-the-art γ-ray detection systems fully characterized for their long-term efficiency stability. The measurement was carried out by recording two consecutive observation sequences lasting about 33 days each and performed with two detection systems working under different measurement conditions to test the robustness of the adopted method. The resulting 7.4236(11) days (1σ) value is not in agreement with the recommended value and confirms the observed discrepancy. A comprehensive uncertainty budget including the contribution due to counting statistics, pulse pile-up, detector stability, decay correction and γ-peak fitting was produced to support the achieved 1.5 × 10-4 relative standard uncertainty, which is more than one order of magnitude lower than the uncertainties found in literature.