Recurrence analysis of meteorological data from climate zones in India.

We present a study on the spatiotemporal pattern underlying the climate dynamics in various locations spread over India, including the Himalayan region, coastal region, and central and northeastern parts of India. We try to capture the variations in the complexity of their dynamics derived from temperature and relative humidity data from 1948 to 2022. By estimating the recurrence-based measures from the reconstructed phase space dynamics using a sliding window analysis on the data sets, we study the climate variability in different spatial locations. The study brings out the variations in the complexity of the underlying dynamics as well as their heterogeneity across the locations in India. We find almost all locations indicate shifts to more irregular and stochastic dynamics for temperature data around 1972-79 and shifts back to more regular dynamics beyond 2000. These patterns correlate with reported shifts in the climate and Indian Summer Monsoon related to strong and moderate El Niño-Southern Oscillation events and confirm their associated regional variability.

Viability and antibacterial efficacy of four root canal disinfection techniques evaluated using confocal laser scanning microscopy.

BACKGROUND: Several disinfection techniques have been recently introduced with the main objective of improving root canal disinfection in the inaccessible areas of the root canal system. This in vitro study was done to evaluate the antimicrobial effect and viability of Enterococcus faecalis biofilms using conventional irrigation, EndoActivator (Dentsply, Tulsa Dental, USA), diode laser irradiation and photon-initiated photoacoustic streaming (PIPS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Root canals of 130 single rooted mandibular premolars, standardized to a uniform length of 20 mm were instrumented until finishing file, F1 (Universal Protaper Rotary System, Dentsply, Tulsa Dental Specialties, USA). After smear layer removal and sterilization, five teeth were randomly selected to assure sterility before bacterial inoculation. The remaining 125 samples were contaminated with E. faecalis suspension, incubated for 21 days and divided into five groups (n = 25). In Group 1; untreated group (positive control), the root canals were not subjected to any disinfection procedure. Sampling was performed within the canals and the colony-forming unit count was evaluated for 20 samples. Five samples were selected to visualize the pattern of colonization at Level 1 (4 mm from the apex) and Level 2 (1 mm from the apex) by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Samples in Groups 2-5 namely conventional needle irrigation, EndoActivator, diode laser and PIPS were subjected to their respective disinfection procedures. Postdisinfection sample evaluation criteria was followed for all groups as same as that for Group 1. RESULTS: Diode laser displayed the highest antibacterial efficacy and least viable bacteria than the other three disinfection techniques. CONCLUSION: Diode laser group showed better antibacterial efficacy and least viable bacteria when compared to conventional needle irrigation, PIPS and EndoActivator groups in minimally instrumented, experimentally infected root canals.