Towards a Density-Based Description of Chemical Bonds and Noncovalent Interactions with Pauli Energy

Chemical bonds and noncovalent interactions are extraordinarily important concepts in chemistry and beyond. Using density-based quantities to describe them has a long history in the literature, yet none can satisfactorily describe the entire spectrum of interactions from strong chemical bonds to weak van der Waals forces. In this work, employing Pauli energy as the theoretical foundation, we fill in that knowledge gap. Our results show that the newly established density-based index can describe single and multiple covalent bonds, ionic bonds, metallic bonds, and different kinds of noncovalent interactions, all with unique and readily identifiable signature shapes. Two new descriptors, NBI (nonbonding and bonding identification) index and USI (ultra-strong interaction) index, have been introduced in this work. Together with NCI (noncovalent interaction) and SCI (strong covalent interaction) indexes already available in the literature, a density-based description of both chemical bonds and noncovalent interactions is accomplished.

Quality and Reliability of Halitosis Videos on YouTube as a Source of Information

Halitosis is a common condition that adversely affects quality of life. Through YouTube, people access oral health information. This study aimed to analyze the quality and comprehensiveness of the content, and reliability of halitosis videos hosted on YouTube. In total, 300 videos were collected based on three search keywords, and the number of likes, dislikes, views, duration, interaction index, viewing rate, and source category. Subsequently, the video score, which represents the content quality and comprehensiveness was used to categorize videos as poor, good, and excellent. DISCERN score was used to assess video reliability. Of the 105 videos analyzed, 68 (64.8%) were uploaded by personal users. In general, videos were categorized as poor and have low reliability. Videos sourced from healthcare professionals showed the highest quality, comprehensiveness of the content, and reliability (p < 0.05). There was no difference in the number of viewers for video duration less than or more than 4 min (p > 0.05). YouTube users prefer low-quality videos over high-quality ones, indicating that viewers cannot differentiate between reliable and potentially biased content. It is critical to enable viewers to critically assimilate information hosted on YouTube to make effective oral healthcare decisions.

Cultivar Grain Yield in Durum Wheat-Grain Legume Intercrops Could Be Estimated From Sole Crop Yields and Interspecific Interaction Index

Ensuring food security for a world population projected to reach over nine billion by 2050 while mitigating the environmental impacts and climate change represent the major agricultural challenges. Diversification of the cropping systems using notably cereal–legume mixtures is one key pathway for such agroecological intensification. Indeed, intercropping is recognised as a practice having the potential to increase and stabilise the yields in comparison with sole crops while limiting the use of inputs notably when species exploit resources in a complementary way. However, predicting intercropped species grain yield remains a challenge because the species respond to competition through complex genotype x cropping mode interactions. Here, we hypothesised that the grain yield achieved by a cultivar in low nitrogen input durum wheat–grain legume intercrops (ICs) could be estimated using a few simple variables. The present work is based on a 2-year field experiment carried out in southwestern France using two durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.), four winter pea (Pisum sativum L.), and four winter faba bean (Vicia faba L.) genotypes with contrasting characteristics, notably in terms of height and precocity, to explore a wide range of durum wheat–grain legume phenotypes combinations to generate variability in terms of yield and species proportion. The major result is that the yield of durum wheat–grain legume IC component in low nitrogen input conditions could be correctly estimated from only three variables: (i) wheat cultivar full density sole crop (SC) yield, (ii) legume cultivar half density sole crop (SC½) yield, and (iii) an indicator of legume cultivar response to interspecific competition. The latter variable, the interspecific interaction index (IE), reveals cultivars' competitive abilities and tolerance to competition. However, to propose generic IC design and management procedures, further mechanistic understanding is required to better understand the links between tolerance to interspecific competition and cultivar phenotype characteristics. In particular, a special emphasis on the grain legume is needed as their response to interspecific competition appears less predictable than that of durum wheat. Cultivar choice is a key element to optimise the functional complementarity and subsequent IC advantages. This work proposes a simple tool to assist the design of specific breeding programs for cultivars ideotypes adapted to intercropping.

Information on YouTube: Orthodontics and COVID-19

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess YouTube videos about COVID-19 in relation to orthodontics. Methodology: A YouTube search using the keyword “coronavirus orthodontics” was conducted on January 11, 2021. The top 50 videos were evaluated. The exclusion criteria were as follows: videos in other languages, duplicates, irrelevant videos, and duration longer than 15 minutes. The remaining 22 videos were scored by one examiner. Each of these videos was classified into one of three categories: useful, misleading, or news update. The modified DISCERN reliability index, number of views, number of comments, duration (in minutes), number of likes and dislikes, interaction index, viewing rate, and source of each video were also recorded. Results: Useful videos accounted for 77% of those examined, misleading videos accounted for 14%, and news updates accounted for 9%. Most of the videos were uploaded by orthodontists (95%) and most of these were classified as useful (81%). Useful videos had a significantly higher DISCERN score than misleading videos (p<0.05). Conclusion: Most of the orthodontics-related YouTube videos about COVID-19 were useful, and the most popular video was uploaded by an orthodontist. How to cite this article: Olkun HK. Information on YouTube: Orthodontics and COVID-19. Int Dent Res 2021;11(Suppl.1):245-9. https://doi.org/10.5577/intdentres.2021.vol11.suppl1.36 Linguistic Revision: The English in this manuscript has been checked by at least two professional editors, both native speakers of English.

Application of Choquet Integral-Fuzzy Measures for Aggregating Customers’ Satisfaction

Choquet integral is a type of aggregation operator that is commonly used to aggregate the interrelated information. Nowadays, this operator has been successfully embedded with fuzzy measures in solving various evaluation problems. Inspired from this new development, this paper aims to introduce a combined Choquet integral-fuzzy measures (CI-FM) operator that uses the Shapley value standard and interaction index to deal with the interactions between elements of information. The proposed operator takes into account not only the importance of elements or their ordered positions but also the interaction among criteria during the evaluation process. A case of customers’ satisfaction over two fast restaurants in Malaysia is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed aggregation operator. Based on three customers’ satisfaction criteria, restaurant 1 and restaurant 2 received CI-FM scores of 0.711011 and 0.704945, respectively. Interestingly, the criterion “services” constantly received the highest rating across both restaurants. In addition, the proposed aggregation operator successfully identified which restaurant is superior in the eyes of customers. Finally, this study offers some research ideas for the future.

Efficacy and safety of the metformin-mazindol anorectic combination in rat

The current study investigates the anorectic interaction and safety of the mazindol-metformin combination in rats. Isobologram and interaction index were used to determine anorectic interaction between mazindol and metformin in the sweetened milk model. The safety profile of the mazindol-metformin combination was determined by measuring anxiety, blood pressure, hematic biometry and blood chemistry. An acute dose of mazindol and metformin administered per os, individually or as a mixture, has reduced the milk consumption in rats in a dose-dependent manner. Theoretical effective dose 40 (ED40t) did not differ from the experimental effective dose 40 (ED40e) obtained with the mazindol-metformin mixture in the anorexia experiments, by Student′s t-test. In addition, the interaction index confirmed the additive anorectic effect between both drugs. A single oral dose of ED40e mazindol-metformin mixture induced anxiolysis in the elevated plus-maze test. Moreover, oral administration of mazindol-metformin combination for 3 months significantly decreased glycemia, but not blood pressure nor other parameters of hematic biometry and blood chemistry. Results suggest that mazindol-metformin combination exerts an additive anorectic effect, as well as anxiolytic and hypoglycemic properties. Mazindol-metformin combination might be useful in obese patients with anxiety disorders or diabetes risk factors.