Search Results (837)

Tooth extraction followed by alveolar ridge resorption may compromise the aesthetics and future implant placement, especially in the anterior maxilla. This comparative clinical study assessed the effectiveness of Plasma Rich in Growth Factors (PRGF) for alveolar socket preservation compared with Spontaneous Healing (SH). Twenty extraction sockets were allocated to either of the groups (n = 10 each) and followed for 3 months. Both groups demonstrated dimensional changes following extraction;however, PRGF-treated sockets showed significantly better preservation of the horizontal ridge width at the crest, at 1 mm below the crest, and at 3 mm below the crest compared with SH (all p < 0.001). The PRGF group also demonstrated a significantly smaller decrease in the socket depth and a greater increase in the radiographic bone density (both p < 0.001). Early healing, soft tissue healing, and postoperative pain outcomes were significantly more favorable in the PRGF group during the follow-up period. Histomorphometricanalysis showed no significant difference between the PRGF and SH groups in terms of percentage of new bone formation and connective/ fibrovascular tissue.Though dimensional changes could not be completely prevented, PRGF significantly decreased the post-extraction resorption and improved the tissue quality, signifying its potential as a biologically driven approach for alveolar ridge preservation in the anterior maxilla. Full article

To address the limitations of conventional temporary steel platforms, a novel lightweight temporary steel platform (LTSP) system was developed based on an inland river high-pile wharf project. The proposed system utilizes permanent rock-socketed steel tubular piles of the wharf structure as the primary load-bearing foundation and consists of welded corbels, twin I-beam main girders, secondary I-section distribution beams, and steel deck plates. A construction method integrating permanent and temporary structural components was proposed. Field measurements were conducted to investigate the vibration response characteristics of the LTSP. The results indicate that the platform exhibits relatively high natural frequencies, with all identified fundamental frequencies exceeding 14 Hz, suggesting a low risk of resonance under human-induced excitations. The lateral stiffness of the platform was found to be greater than its vertical stiffness. Pedestrian-induced vibrations were mainly concentrated near excitation locations, whereas vehicle-induced vibrations were more uniformly distributed across the platform. The permanent steel tubular piles provided effective local restraint and enhanced structural stiffness, thereby reducing vibration transmission to adjacent areas. Construction machinery generated the most significant vibration responses, particularly during simultaneous multi-equipment operations. Therefore, to ensure the safety and operational performance of the temporary steel platform, it is recommended to avoid the simultaneous operation of heavy equipment, such as rotary drilling rigs, fully loaded tanker trucks, and truck cranes. Furthermore, as the current findings are based on a single field application case, future studies should incorporate long-term monitoring and numerical modeling to further evaluate the platform’s applicability to other practical engineering projects. Full article

A symmetric integrity seal is worth exactly what its key is worth. Any party holding the keyed-hash (HMAC) key of an Internet of Things (IoT) audit trail can forge a record, re-seal a modified one, and leave no cryptographic trace, so an HMAC-sealed log establishes nothing to an external auditor or regulator beyond the honesty of the operator itself. This paper separates integrity from evidential strength and decomposes the latter into six properties—integrity, authenticity, non-repudiation of the anchored history, third-party verifiability, temporal upper-bounding, and bounded completeness—stating for each what a cryptographic mechanism can and cannot establish. It then presents the Ledger-Anchored Compliance Transformation Layer (LA-CTL), a two-tier architecture for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) in which edge gateways seal each record with HMAC-SHA256 for operator-side verification and anchor RFC 6962 Merkle roots over sealed batches on a Byzantine fault-tolerant permissioned ledger shared with the auditor and the regulator. Records remain off-chain, preserving erasability under the General Data Protection Regulation. All cryptography is real; the consortium is evaluated both in a seeded network simulation and as four validator processes over sockets under LAN and emulated WAN conditions, at steady load and under the failure of a backup and of the primary. Anchoring is batch-priced rather than record-priced: on-chain state falls to 0.57 bytes per record at batch size 1024, while inclusion proofs grow logarithmically to at most 330 bytes. Holding the Merkle batching constant and varying only the publication substrate shows that most detection capability comes from the batching rather than from the ledger—a single-notary log matches the consortium on tampering, insider re-sealing, deletion and reordering—and that the quorum is distinguished on one attack: compromise of the publisher, which is the attack an operator-selected notary cannot withstand. The insider re-seal that the symmetric baseline accepts by construction is detected in all 10,000 trials. What the anchor does not give is stated with equal care: a commit bounds when the committed bytes existed, not when the event they describe occurred. Full article

This study introduces a hybrid framework that combines Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) based on Mean Field Theory (CSMF) with Large Language Models (LLMs) to provide optimized and explainable charging station recommendations for EV users in Turkey. By integrating real-time data from 11,702 stations and 30,941 sockets via the Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Türkiye (EMRA) API, the system captures dynamic information on station availability, socket types, charging power, and pricing, enabling context-aware, user-centric guidance. The proposed architecture follows a Centralized Training and Decentralized Execution (CTDE) framework, in which multiple agents make local decisions while a centralized critic evaluates global states to improve policy learning and reduce congestion. CSMF reduces computational complexity and lowers the average waiting time by 71.8%, while the LLM component translates technical optimization outcomes into human-readable explanations, enhancing trust and transparency. A React Native mobile application demonstrates end-to-end usability, allowing users to filter stations by distance, cost, socket type, and green energy usage, with real-time availability updates. Experimental results show that the hybrid CSMF + LLM approach achieves a 100% Available Facility Rate (AFR) while maintaining low response time (180 ms), outperforming conventional nearest-station, random, and basic MARL methods. By combining technical efficiency with explainable recommendations and real-world deployment, this study presents a scalable, practical, and trustworthy solution for EV charging infrastructure management, offering both academic contributions and a ready-to-use application for drivers. Full article

Objectives: The primary objective of this retrospective pilot study was to evaluate the long-term radiographic stability of peri-implant marginal bone levels (MBLs) at a five-year follow-up, comparing two different socket preservation protocols against spontaneous healing. Materials and Methods: A total of 24 patients who underwent tooth extraction followed by delayed implant placement were divided into three groups of 8 subjects each. Test Group 1 was treated with a heterologous cortico-cancellous bone graft covered by a slow-resorbing bovine pericardium membrane. Test Group 2 received the same bone graft but covered by a rapidly resorbing native porcine collagen membrane. The Control Group was left to heal spontaneously. Marginal bone loss (MBL) was calculated radiographically by measuring the difference in bone levels between the time of osseointegration (T0) and the 5-year follow-up (T1). For each implant, mesial and distal MBL values were averaged to obtain a single mean per-implant MBL value for group-level analysis. Results: The 5-year implant survival rate was 100% across all analyzed groups. Test Group 1 demonstrated the highest peri-implant bone stability, recording a mean MBL of $0.17\pm 0.20$ mm. In contrast, Test Group 2 and the Control Group exhibited greater resorption, with mean MBL values of $0.46\pm 0.12$ mm and $0.45\pm 0.27$ mm, respectively. Descriptive analysis indicated a trend toward improved peri-implant bone preservation in the group treated with biomaterial and a slow-resorbing pericardium membrane compared to both the short-resorbing collagen membrane group and the spontaneous healing control group. Conclusions: Within the limitations of this pilot study, the results suggest that the choice of barrier membrane in socket preservation procedures could affect 5-year marginal bone stability. The application of a slow-resorbing membrane provided a prolonged barrier action and showed a descriptive trend of lower mean marginal bone loss. However, the extremely small sample size precludes establishing clinical superiority over standard collagen membranes or spontaneous healing. Further randomized clinical trials with larger cohorts are necessary to confirm these long-term findings. Full article

Background/Objectives: To evaluate the clinical effects of alveolar ridge preservation using a hyaluronic acid-based product combined with a resorbable collagen cone compared with spontaneous healing. Methods: In this prospective pilot comparative clinical study, extraction sockets were treated either with hyaluronic acid and a collagen cone (test group) or left to heal spontaneously (control group). Mesial and distal ridge height changes (ΔHm, ΔHd), ridge width reduction (ΔW), buccal mucosal thickness changes (ΔTmb), and occlusal mucosal thickness at 3 months (TmoT3) were assessed. Early wound healing was appreciated at 14 days follow-up, and postoperative complications after 7 and 14 days. Results: Complete 3-month follow-up data were available for 18 test and 14 control patients. Mesial bone loss was significantly lower in the test group than in controls [test ΔHm = 1.0 (1.0–1.0) vs. control ΔHm = 2.0 (1.0–2.0); p < 0.001]. Horizontal ridge width reduction was significantly lower in the test group [ΔW = 1.0 (1.0–1.0) vs. 2.0 (1.0–2.0); p = 0.021]. Buccal mucosal thickness was better maintained in the test group [ΔTmb = 0.0 (0.0–0.5) vs. 1.0 (0.5–1.0); p < 0.001], while TmoT3 was greater in the test group, in an exploratory analysis (p = 0.049). A statistically significant difference in early wound-healing scores favoring the test group was observed [4.0 (4.0–5.0) vs. 4.0 (3.0–4.0); p = 0.032]. No statistically detectable difference in postoperative complications was observed between groups. Conclusions: Alveolar ridge preservation was associated with reduced mesial vertical and horizontal dimensional changes and more favorable soft tissue outcomes compared with spontaneous healing. These preliminary findings should be considered hypothesis-generating. Full article

Bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) remains a challenging complication of bisphosphonate therapy because jaw extraction sockets exposed to bisphosphonates represent impaired wound environments rather than ordinary bone defects. This narrative review summarizes clinical, cellular, animal, and biomaterial evidence on the mechanisms that limit BRONJ repair and discusses how these pathological barriers can inform local material design. Current evidence suggests that BRONJ repair is constrained by impaired osteoclast-mediated remodeling, osteocyte and osteoblast dysfunction, oxidative stress, unresolved inflammation, angiogenic insufficiency, microbial challenge, mucosal instability, and changes in bone material properties. Biomaterial strategies investigated to date include local delivery of regenerative factors, restoration of remodeling activity, extracellular vesicles, nucleic acid nanostructures, platelet-derived matrices, antibacterial and ion-releasing hydrogels, angiogenic or lymphangiogenic systems, and mechanically adaptive scaffolds. Most studies remain preclinical and are based on rodent extraction or mandibular defect models, and few establish a direct causal link between a specific material property and durable BRONJ resolution. Future materials should be judged not only by their ability to enhance bone formation, but also by whether they can re-establish a sealed, vascularized, immune-balanced, and remodeling-competent socket capable of sustained jawbone repair. Full article

Background and Objectives: Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) has been widely investigated as a biological material to enhance healing after tooth extraction; however, its clinical effectiveness remains uncertain. This systematic review evaluates the available evidence on its effectiveness in post-extraction socket management. Materials and Methods: A literature search was conducted across eight electronic databases for English-language studies published between 2015 and 2025. Only randomized controlled trials, including parallel-group randomized trials and randomized split-mouth trials, involving PRF with a control group were considered. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool (RoB 1). Due to substantial clinical heterogeneity in PRF preparation protocols, outcome measures, and follow-up periods, a narrative synthesis was performed instead of a meta-analysis. Results: A total of 174 records were identified, of which 9 studies met the inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the studies included was evaluated to assess the risk of bias, in accordance with the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Overall, 394 patients underwent 817 tooth extractions: 414 sockets were treated with different types of PRF, 251 were left to heal after suturing, and 143 were filled with a hemostatic sponge prior to suturing. Conclusions: PRF demonstrated superior outcomes in soft tissue healing and radiographic new bone density, although no statistically significant differences were observed in other parameters. Therefore, the available evidence does not allow us to draw definitive conclusions regarding the clinical effectiveness of PRF for socket filling after tooth extraction. The literature indicates that it may promote soft and hard tissue healing and reduce pain, swelling, and the risk of alveolar osteitis; however, evidence regarding its therapeutic effect on alveolar socket healing remains contradictory. Full article

Background/Objectives: Vestibular socket therapy (VST) is a minimally invasive technique for immediate implant placement (IIP) in compromised extraction sockets that reconstructs the deficient buccal plate while preserving the crestal soft tissue. Despite growing clinical adoption, the randomized evidence on its predictability and biological performance remains limited. Methods: Following PRISMA 2020 and prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD420261288724), PubMed/MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched to January 2026 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating VST with IIP. Risk of bias (RoB 2) and certainty of evidence (GRADE) were assessed. Final follow-up buccal bone plate thickness was pooled using a random-effects model; trials comparing variations within VST were reported narratively but not pooled. Results: Seven RCTs (186 participants) were included; implant survival was 99.5%, with no shield exposure, peri-implantitis, or dehiscence. Meta-analysis of the three trials comparing VST against a distinct alternative technique showed no significant between-group difference in final buccal bone plate thickness at any level: crestal +0.24 mm (95% CI−0.13 to 0.61; I² = 45%), mid-root +0.32 mm (−0.45 to 1.09; I² = 82%), or apical +0.19 mm (−0.48 to 0.87; I² = 67%). VST showed minimal mid-facial recession, stable papillae, and Pink Esthetic Scores of 10.29–13.17. Certainty was very low for all outcomes. Conclusions: VST achieved high implant survival and favorable soft tissue and esthetic outcomes but did not significantly outperform comparator techniques in buccal bone plate thickness, with very low certainty. Adequately powered, independent trials with longer follow-up are needed. Full article

The prosthetic socket is the essential interface between the residual limb and the prosthesis. However, traditional upper-limb sockets are highly sensitive to residual-limb volume fluctuations and rely on experience-dependent manual fabrication processes. Additive manufacturing and 3D scanning technologies offer the possibility of producing personalized sockets, potentially improving accessibility, repeatability, and cost-effectiveness. Despite this potential, there is still a lack of systematic experimental validation directly comparing the fitting performance of personalized 3D-printed sockets with that of conventionally manufactured sockets. This study presents the design, fabrication, and comparative validation of a personalized 3D-printed upper-limb socket and a traditionally manufactured socket produced for the same user. The 3D-printed socket was developed from a 3D scanning of a clinically rectified plaster mold, computer-aided design, and material extrusion by thermal reaction bonding. A comparative validation framework evaluated both sockets under equivalent conditions, including mechanical testing, thermal behavior assessment, and sensorized fitting measurements. The results provide quantitative evidence on how a personalized 3D-printed socket performs relative to a traditional socket in terms of structural behavior, thermal patterns, and interface-related fitting parameters. This work contributes objective data supporting 3D-printed personalized sockets as a technically feasible and promising alternative to conventional methods. Full article

Renewable energy and energy storage stations require frequent updates of monitoring and control logic across heterogeneous devices and changing operating strategies. This paper proposes a rule graph-based reference architecture that combines low-code logic configuration, graph–model semantic binding, and microservice-oriented functional decomposition. A component status matrix separates the target architecture from the implemented subset. The runnable subset comprises a minimal FastAPI backend, REST/WebSocket telemetry interfaces, an in-process queue, and stateful rule evaluators; gateway, authentication, external message bus, time-series database, visual editor, and industrial protocol services remain design-level elements. Beyond the original single-rule example, a priority-ordered multi-device rule is implemented for cooperative BESS dispatch, communication/topology blocking, low-SOC protection, frequency-based load shedding, backup request, and five-sample recovery release. Existing local network benchmarks are complemented by a 600-step software-in-the-loop trace with scripted telemetry fluctuations and communication quality faults and by 500 in-process ASGI timing samples at each of the four point levels. The trace produced no safety dispatch or protected device violations. P99 application path latency ranged from 1.1962 to 5.5287 ms, but one 75.3065 ms outlier exceeded a 50 ms reference deadline, demonstrating that the Windows/FastAPI path is not deterministic. No industrial controller, hardware-in-the-loop facility, field data, or engineer usability study was used. Accordingly, the paper makes no claim of industrial real-time readiness or measured development effort reduction. Full article

Background: Lower limb exoprostheses often lead to stump dermatological pathologies. The mechanisms by which mechanical microtraumas progress to non-healing ulcerative defects due to dysbiosis remain poorly understood. The objective of this study was to analyze mechanical, inflammatory, and infectious stump skin complications and justify the role of bacterial and mycological dysbiosis in blocking tissue regeneration. Methods: A critical narrative review guided by SANRA principles was conducted (PubMed/Scopus, 1980–2026). Data were extracted with a structured query focusing on amputation stumps, prosthetic interfaces, and skin/microbiological complications (dysbiosis, biofilms, and inflammatory markers). Evidence was graded using predefined clinical matrices and integrated through structured evidence collations to synthesize stump–prosthesis pathogenesis. The PRISMA method was not applied due to study heterogeneity. Results: Skin damage dynamics were categorized into three stages: adaptation (up to 12 months), chronic reactive changes (12–24 months), and late proliferative-infectious destruction (>24 months). The sealed liner space creates 100% humidity and alkalization (pH > 6.5). This causes a mycological shift, where resident Malassezia spp. lose dominance to invasive Candida albicans and non-dermatophyte molds (Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp.). These pathogens form polymicrobial biofilms with Staphylococcus aureus. At the molecular level, delayed regeneration is driven by “frustrated phagocytosis”: macrophages, unable to engulf large fungal hyphae, continuously release reactive oxygen species and enzymes, trapping the wound in the inflammatory phase. Excessive matrix degradation and suppressed angiogenic factors further block epithelialization. Conclusions: The skin under a prosthesis socket forms a unique pathological biotope. Successful regeneration requires preventive mycobiota correction and targeted management of biophysical parameters (pH, humidity) within the “skin–liner” interface. Full article

This study presents a small-scale application-oriented vehicle vision-sharing prototype for blocked-view observation in vehicle-following scenarios. The system was implemented using two DuckieBot vehicles and integrates socket-based image transmission, JPEG image compression, You Only Look Once (YOLO)-based object detection, road-plane-aligned image fusion, and fuzzy proportional–integral–derivative (fuzzy-PID) motor control. These modules are adopted as existing techniques and integrated for prototype-level experimental evaluation rather than proposed as new perception, compression, fusion, or control algorithms. Experiments were conducted under controlled small-scale indoor conditions. JPEG compression was quantitatively evaluated using peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), encoded file size, and processing time. Q75 provided a mean PSNR of 39.8777 dB, a mean SSIM of 0.970522, and an average encoded size of 27.78 KB, representing a practical trade-off between reconstructed image quality and encoded data size. The YOLOv8n obstacle detector achieved a precision of 0.9724, a recall of 0.9571, an mAP@0.5 of 0.9851, and an mAP@0.5:0.95 of 0.8585 on an independent test set. Image-fusion evaluation showed that α = 0.60 produced the highest global mean PSNR, whereas α = 0.90 produced the highest global mean SSIM, indicating that the preferred blending coefficient depends on the selected image-quality criterion. A system-level ablation further distinguished shared-view visualization from a warning-only configuration, with the expected obstacle information presented in all 35 positive trials and no false alarms observed in 10 negative trials. The vehicle-following experiment verified the functional operation of the complete perception-to-control pipeline. The results should be interpreted within the controlled miniature-vehicle setting and should not be directly generalized to full-scale vehicles or real-road advanced driver assistance systems. Full article

To evaluate the damage evolution of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) with broken wires and the effectiveness of internal steel-cylinder repair, a three-dimensional finite element model was established using ABAQUS and calibrated with a full-scale hydrostatic-pressure test. Test-calibrated parametric simulations considered three nominal wire breakage levels (5%, 15%, and 25%) and two damage locations: the pipe midspan and pipe-end socket region. Concrete-core damage, original steel-cylinder strain, strengthening-cylinder response, and grouting-layer load transfer were compared before and after repair. The unrepaired pipe-end socket region showed a lower numerical nonlinear-transition pressure and stronger damage propagation because of geometric discontinuity. Increasing wire breakage reduced the nonlinear-transition pressure of the concrete core and increased the original steel-cylinder strain. After internal steel-cylinder repair, the structural responses converged across the investigated damage cases. At 1.2 MPa, the calculated strain reductions between corresponding unrepaired and repaired numerical configurations were 77.2–91.0% for the original steel cylinder. At the maximum applied pressure of 1.6 MPa, the modeled maximum original steel-cylinder strain was 459.11 $\mathsf{\mu }\mathsf{\epsilon }$. The repaired configurations exhibited reduced strain demand and coordinated load sharing over the investigated monotonic internal-pressure range. The test program ended at 1.6 MPa without an ultimate-failure loading stage. Full article

Background and Objectives: Lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET) is increasingly used to augment anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) in selected high-risk patients. Femoral fixation strategies vary widely and may influence construct behavior, tunnel interaction, technical safety, and ultimately knee stability and functional outcomes. The objectives of this review were to map and compare femoral fixation techniques for LET performed with ACLR, to summarize the cadaveric and clinical evidence relevant to fixation choice, to synthesize imaging and experimental data on femoral tunnel convergence and collision-prevention strategies, and to propose an evidence-informed, collision-aware planning framework for femoral fixation selection. Materials and Methods: A systematic review with narrative synthesis was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines. PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched from inception through February 2026. Eligible studies were classified a priori as direct LET clinical evidence, LET biomechanical evidence, LET imaging or convergence evidence, extrapolated anterolateral ligament (ALL) or broader lateral augmentation tunnel-geometry evidence, technical guidance, or contextual background. Results: Thirty-three studies met the eligibility criteria and provided extractable fixation-specific, biomechanical, imaging, or technical data. Femoral fixation techniques clustered into inlay tunnel or socket fixation, onlay cortical fixation, suspensory or indirect concepts, and alternative designs. Biomechanical and imaging studies demonstrated construct-specific differences in restraint behavior, overconstraint signals, tunnel trajectory, and convergence risk. Clinical studies reported fixation-related variation in complications and failures, although comparative fixation-specific clinical evidence remained limited and heterogeneous. Conclusions: Available biomechanical and imaging evidence suggests that the femoral fixation family, implant geometry, tunnel trajectory, and graft fixation angle may influence construct behavior and tunnel safety; however, direct comparative clinical evidence remains limited, and these observations should be interpreted with caution. The fixation taxonomy and collision-aware planning framework proposed here are intended as a structured, evidence-informed aid for describing and planning femoral fixation strategies rather than as a validated decision tool, and they highlight the need for standardized reporting of the fixation family, entry point, drilling trajectory, tunnel or socket dimensions, fixation angle, and collision-control strategy. Full article