bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social participation of women with breast cancer compared to the general population 5 years after primary surgery—what role do medical data and cancer-related complaints play?
Authors: Sperlich Stefanie , Noeres Dorothee , Holthausen-Markou Sophia , Park-Simon Tjoung-Won , Sahiti Eranda , Geyer Siegfried
Published: August 2024

Purpose

This study analyzes levels of social participation in patients with breast cancer on average 5 years following primary surgery as compared to women in the general population. In addition, the role of breast cancer-related complaints and medical data as possible influencing factors on levels of patients’ social participation is investigated.

Methods

A total of n = 454 patients after primary surgery (t0) were recruited for a third follow-up study, and n = 372 completed this survey (t3), corresponding to a response rate of 82.2%. For measuring breast cancer-related complaints, participants completed a written questionnaire. Social participation was measured by a questionnaire on different leisure activities that was taken from the Socio-Economic Panel Study. Medical information was extracted from medical reports at t0. A principal component analysis was carried out to identify different dimensions of social participation. Chi2-tests and logistic regression analyses were applied to analyze social participation as compared to the general population and the role of possible medical and diagnosis-related influencing factors thereby.

Results

Compared to the general population, patients show lower levels of social participation in the domains “socio-cultural participation” and “participation in institutions,” while no significant differences for “social participation in the private sphere” and “social participation via social media” were found. Psychological symptoms, pain, and a history of mastectomy were most strongly associated with restrictions in social participation.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that social withdrawal may happen due to disease-related symptoms, preventing some breast cancer patients from participating fully in society. Cancer-related follow-ups should address this issue and support patients’ reintegration into society through appropriate therapeutic interventions.
Coupled Conditional Neural Movement Primitives
Authors: Pekmezci Mehmet , Ugur Emre , Oztop Erhan
Published: August 2024

Learning sensorimotor trajectories through flexible neural representations is fundamental for robots as it facilitates the building of motor skills as well as equipping them with the ability to represent the world as predictable temporal events. Recent advances in deep learning led to the development of powerful learning from demonstration (LfD) systems such as Conditional Neural Movement Primitives (CNMPs). CNMPs can robustly represent skills as movement distributions and allow them to be ‘recalled’ by conditioning the movement on a few observation points. In this study, we focus on improving CNMPs to achieve a higher resource economy by adopting a divide-and-conquer approach. We propose a novel neural architecture called Coupled CNMP (C-CNMP), that couples the latent spaces of a pair of CNMPs that splits a given sensorimotor trajectory into segments whose learning is undertaken by smaller sub-networks. Therefore, each sub-network needs to deal with a less complex trajectory making the learning less resource-hungry. With systematic simulations on a controlled trajectory data set, we show that the overhead brought by the coupling introduced in our model is well offset by the resource and performance gain obtained. To be specific, with CNMP model as the baseline, it is shown that the proposed model is able to learn to generate trajectories in the data set with a lower trajectory error measured as the mean absolute difference between the generated trajectory and the ground truth. Importantly, our model can perform well with relatively limited resources, i.e., with less number of neural network parameters compared to the baseline. To show that the findings from the controlled data set well-transfer to robot data, we use robot joint data in an LfD setting and compare the learning performance of the proposed model with the baseline model at equal complexity levels. The simulation experiments show that with also the robot joint data, the proposed model, C-CNMP, learns to generate the joint trajectories with significantly less error than the baseline model. Overall, our study improves the state of the art in sensorimotor trajectory learning and exemplifies how divide-and-conquer approaches can benefit deep learning architectures for resource economy.
Utilization of genetic algorithm in tuning the hyper-parameters of hybrid NN-based side-slip angle estimators
Authors: Essa Mohamed G. , Elias Catherine M. , Shehata Omar M.
Published: August 2024

This paper proposes a solution to enhance and compare different neural network (NN)-based side-slip angle estimators. The feed-forward neural networks (FFNNs), recurrent neural networks, long short-term memory units (LSTMs), and gated recurrent units are investigated. However, there is a lack in the selection criteria of the architectures’ hyper-parameters. Therefore, the genetic algorithm is integrated with the NN-based estimators to find the optimal hyper-parameters for the studied architectures. The tuned hyper-parameters in this work include the number of neurons, number of layers, activation function, optimizer type, and learning rate. The objective function of the optimization problem is minimizing the root-mean-square error (RMSE) on multiple testing data. The optimal models are further included in the design of a hybrid NN estimator with Kalman filter. In the hybrid estimators, the optimal NN estimators are used as virtual sensors to correct the prediction of the side-slip angle resulting from the mathematical lateral vehicle model. Eventually, the performance of the best selected model is evaluated in terms of different metrics; mean RMSE, mean error variance, mean training time, and mean estimation time. LSTMs are found to achieve the lowest mean RMSE while being tested on highly generalized data yielding the highest training and estimation time. However, FFNNs achieve the lowest RMSE while being tested on low generalized data and the lowest training and estimation time. Meanwhile, it is observed that the hybrid estimators achieved lower RMSE with great enhancement compared to the non-hybridized ones proving the effectiveness of the proposed approach and increasing the side-slip estimation generalization ability in unknown environments with high uncertainties, which are not covered by the training dataset for the NNs estimators.
Strain Field Development, Fracturing, and Gas Ejection in Decoupled Charge Blasting Using Granite Cylinders
Authors: Chi Li Yuan , Xu Xuan , Zhang Zong-Xian , Yang Jun
Published: August 2024

This study explored the fracture process of granite cylinders with a centric charge, varying decoupling ratios by conducting laboratory-scale experiments and numerical simulations. In experiments, the three-dimensional (3D) digital image correlation (DIC) technique was employed, using frames captured by two synchronized high-speed cameras. This instrumentation permitted the observation of full-field strain variation, the development of fractures, and gaseous products escaping from the cylinders’ surfaces. Granite cylinders measuring 240 mm in diameter and 300 mm in length served as specimens in blasting experiments, and each specimen had a charge of approximately 3 g. Specimens had a centric blasthole with a diameter of either 10 mm, 14 mm, or 20 mm. The corresponding decoupling ratio varied from 1.8 to 3.6, and the gap between the charge and the blasthole wall was filled with water or air. The experimental results showed that: (1) specimens with decoupling ratios of 1.9 and 2.6 exhibited initial strains on the cylindrical surface between 20 μs and 40 μs. (2) Specimens with water-filled blastholes developed fractures faster and in a denser manner compared to those with air-filled blastholes. In addition, fractures resulting from air-filled blastholes appeared smoother than those from water-filled blastholes. (3) The gas ejection time for the air-filled blasthole remained basically consistent across decoupling ratios ranging from 1.5 to 3.61, varying between 400 μs and 520 μs. The utilization of water-filled blastholes effectively minimized the escape of gaseous products from the cylindrical surface. Numerical simulation conducted with LS-DYNA exhibited results that aligned well with the observed fracture patterns in the experiments. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of rock behaviors in decoupled charge blasting.
Psychosocial Factors Linked to Uncontrolled Infection and Mortality among People Living with HIV Who Use Substances: A Latent Class Analysis
Authors: Schmidt Renae D. , Horigian Viviana E. , Duan Rui , Traynor Sharleen T. , Davis Carly A. , Gonzalez Sophia T. , Forney Derrick J. , Mandler Raul , Del Rio Carlos , Metsch Lisa R. , Feaster Daniel J.
Published: August 2024

To determine whether endorsement patterns of psychosocial symptoms revealed distinct subgroups, or latent classes, of people living with HIV who use substances (PLWH-SU), and to assess whether these classes demonstrated differential health outcomes over time. This study uses data from 801 PLWH-SU initially enrolled across 11 US hospitals during 2012–2014 and followed up in 2017. Latent class analysis included 28 psychosocial items. Regression analysis examined class membership as a predictor of viral suppression. Survival analysis examined class as a predictor of all-cause mortality. The selected model identified five unique classes. Individuals in classes characterized by more severe and more numerous psychosocial symptoms at baseline had lower likelihoods of viral suppression and survival. The study demonstrated the importance of considering patterns of overlapping psychosocial symptoms to identify subgroups of PLWH-SU and reveal their risks for adverse outcomes. Integration of primary, mental health, and substance use care is essential to address the needs of this population.
Cascaded cross-modal transformer for audio–textual classification
Authors: Ristea Nicolae-Cătălin , Anghel Andrei , Ionescu Radu Tudor
Published: August 2024

Speech classification tasks often require powerful language understanding models to grasp useful features, which becomes problematic when limited training data is available. To attain superior classification performance, we propose to harness the inherent value of multimodal representations by transcribing speech using automatic speech recognition models and translating the transcripts into different languages via pretrained translation models. We thus obtain an audio–textual (multimodal) representation for each data sample. Subsequently, we combine language-specific Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers with Wav2Vec2.0 audio features via a novel cascaded cross-modal transformer (CCMT). Our model is based on two cascaded transformer blocks. The first one combines text-specific features from distinct languages, while the second one combines acoustic features with multilingual features previously learned by the first transformer block. We employed our system in the Requests Sub-Challenge of the ACM Multimedia 2023 Computational Paralinguistics Challenge. CCMT was declared the winning solution, obtaining an unweighted average recall of 65.41% and 85.87% for complaint and request detection, respectively. Moreover, we applied our framework on the Speech Commands v2 and HVB dialog data sets, surpassing previous studies reporting results on these benchmarks. Our code is freely available for download at: https://github.com/ristea/ccmt.
SEH1L siliencing induces ferroptosis and suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma progression via ATF3/HMOX1/GPX4 axis
Authors: Feng Ziyang , Cao Ke , Sun Haojia , Liu Xuewen
Published: August 2024

SEH1 like nucleoporin (SEH1L) is an important component of nuclear pore complex (NPC), which is crucial in the regulation of cell division. However, the interrelation between SEH1L expression and tumor progression is less studied. In this research, we performed a systematic bioinformatic analysis about SEH1L using TCGA, Timer 2.0, Cbioportal, UCLAN and CellMiner™ databases in pan-cancer. Besides, we further validated the bioinformatic results through in vitro and in vivo experiments in HCC, including transcriptome sequencing, real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), western blotting (WB), immunohistochemistry (IHC), cell proliferation assays, clone formation, EdU, transwell, flow cytometry and subcutaneous tumor model. Our results suggested that SEH1L was significantly up-regulated and related to poor prognosis in most cancers, and may serve as a potential biomarker. SEH1L could promote HCC progression in vitro and in vivo. Besides, the next generation sequencing suggested that 684 genes was significantly up-regulated and 678 genes was down-regulated after the knock down of SEH1L. SEH1L siliencing could activate ATF3/HMOX1/GPX4 axis, decrease mitochondrial membrane potential and GSH, but increase ROS and MDA, and these effects could be reversed by the knock down of ATF3. This study indicated that SEH1L siliencing could induce ferroptosis and suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression via ATF3/HMOX1/GPX4 axis.
Sequential query prediction based on multi-armed bandits with ensemble of transformer experts and immediate feedback
Authors: Puthiya Parambath Shameem A. , Anagnostopoulos Christos , Murray-Smith Roderick
Published: August 2024

We study the problem of predicting the next query to be recommended in interactive data exploratory analysis to guide users to correct content. Current query prediction approaches are based on sequence-to-sequence learning, exploiting past interaction data. However, due to the resource-hungry training process, such approaches fail to adapt to immediate user feedback. Immediate feedback is essential and considered as a signal of the user’s intent. We contribute with a novel query prediction ensemble mechanism, which adapts to immediate feedback relying on multi-armed bandits framework. Our mechanism, an extension to the popular Exp3 algorithm, augments Transformer-based language models for query predictions by combining predictions from experts, thus dynamically building a candidate set during exploration. Immediate feedback is leveraged to choose the appropriate prediction in a probabilistic fashion. We provide comprehensive large-scale experimental and comparative assessment using a popular online literature discovery service, which showcases that our mechanism (i) improves the per-round regret substantially against state-of-the-art Transformer-based models and (ii) shows the superiority of causal language modelling over masked language modelling for query recommendations.
Plants as an alternative to the use of chemicals for crop protection against biotic threats: trends and future perspectives
Authors: Aremu Adeyemi Oladapo , Omogbene Temitope Olorunyomi , Fadiji Tobi , Lawal Ibraheem Oduola , Opara Umezuruike Linus , Fawole Olaniyi Amos
Published: August 2024

This review entails a critical appraisal on the potential of plants as alternatives to synthetic chemicals for crop protection, aligning with the global shift towards green-based approaches in agriculture. Utilising a defined set of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 235 papers were extracted from Scopus. These articles were analyzed to address specific research questions related to plant-based biocontrol methods. Approximately 25% of the literature was published in journals such as "Industrial Crops and Products", "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry", "Pest Management Science", and "Frontiers in Microbiology". Thematic analysis identified core focus areas, including the chemical properties of antifungal agents, bioactive compounds, environmental protection, and the use of fungicides. Italy and China emerged as countries with the most represented authors, while China, India, and USA led in scientific production, corresponding authors' publications, and citation impact. We identified 91 plant species from 28 families, notably from the Lamiaceae, with strong potential as biocontrol agents. The most promising plants were Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco, Mentha piperita L., Foeniculum vulgare L., Coriandrum sativum L., and Allium ascalonicium L. This study offers valuable insights and practical applications in the field of plant-based biocontrol, thereby underscoring the relevance and efficacy of green-based approaches in contemporary agricultural practices. There is an increasing scientific interest in sustainable crop protection strategies and the potential of plant-based biocontrol agents in addressing biotic stresses in crops. Overall, this review contributes to the understanding of plant-based biocontrol for crop protection, providing a foundation for further research and application in sustainable agriculture.
Evaluation of Fe-doped calcium phosphate for 65Zn sorption
Authors: Moussa Saber Ibrahim , Dakroury Gehan Abdel Rahman Sadek , El Shazly Ehab Abu El Soud Abdel Halim
Published: August 2024

65Zn, a fission product found in cooling water reactors, poses significant environmental risks due to its toxicity. This study explores the use of Ca–Fe2+ phosphate (SB1) and Ca–Fe3+ phosphate (SB2) as sorbents for Zn(II), prepared via the wet chemical method. The Zn(II) solution, spiked with 65Zn radionuclides, was analyzed radiometrically. Optimal sorption conditions were determined to be pH 4.5, a contact time of 24 h, and a sorbate volume to sorbent mass ratio of 1:10 at 20 °C. The Langmuir isotherm model best fit the adsorption data, indicating monolayer adsorption capacities of 0.574 mmol g−1 for SB1 and 0.621 mmol g−1 for SB2. Sorption kinetics followed a quasi-nth-order model. Furthermore, 0.1 M FeCl3 effectively desorbed 99% of Zn(II) from both sorbents. The sorption process was found to be spontaneous and endothermic. These findings suggest that SB1 and SB2 have potential applications in recycling Zn(II) from the black mass of expired batteries.
Designing a personalized thermo-mechanically optimized liner for transfemoral prosthetics
Authors: Rodríguez-Morales Ángel Luis , Ventura-Aquino Elisa , Elvira-Hernández Ernesto Alberto
Published: August 2024

Elastomeric interphases (liners) protect the residual limb and distribute mass bearing to the prosthetic socket. However, discomfort due to excessive sweat and heat in the residual limb is the most relevant factor that negatively affects the quality of life in transfemoral prosthetics users. Additionally, a warm and humid environment and the non-uniform mass distribution can compromise blood flow in the residual limb; these factors favor the development of skin lesions, the dropout rate of prosthetic use, and subsequent amputations. Previous mathematical models that predict skin temperature distribution based on Pennes' model and explain the Fourier and non-Fourier thermic response are available. However, these models require knowledge of difficult parameters to obtain in conditions that lead to amputation. Therefore, the current study aims to propose an experimentally based method to design a personalized liner with areas of different diffusivity rates by using perforations according to thermal needs, preserving the mechanical properties of the liner. After thermal and mechanical characterization, we elaborated a personalized plane liner according to the thermal expression of the anterior thigh using infrared analysis. We tested the liner to probe its ability to dissipate heat.
Bioactivity-driven fungal metabologenomics identifies antiproliferative stemphone analogs and their biosynthetic gene cluster
Authors: Ayon Navid J. , Earp Cody E. , Gupta Raveena , Butun Fatma A. , Clements Ashley E. , Lee Alexa G. , Dainko David , Robey Matthew T. , Khin Manead , Mardiana Lina , Longcake Alexandra , Rangel-Grimaldo Manuel , Hall Michael J. , Probert Michael R. , Burdette Joanna E. , Keller Nancy P. , Raja Huzefa A. , Oberlies Nicholas H. , Kelleher Neil L. , Caesar Lindsay K.
Published: August 2024

Introduction

Fungi biosynthesize chemically diverse secondary metabolites with a wide range of biological activities. Natural product scientists have increasingly turned towards bioinformatics approaches, combining metabolomics and genomics to target secondary metabolites and their biosynthetic machinery. We recently applied an integrated metabologenomics workflow to 110 fungi and identified more than 230 high-confidence linkages between metabolites and their biosynthetic pathways.

Objectives

To prioritize the discovery of bioactive natural products and their biosynthetic pathways from these hundreds of high-confidence linkages, we developed a bioactivity-driven metabologenomics workflow combining quantitative chemical information, antiproliferative bioactivity data, and genome sequences.

Methods

The 110 fungi from our metabologenomics study were tested against multiple cancer cell lines to identify which strains produced antiproliferative natural products. Three strains were selected for further study, fractionated using flash chromatography, and subjected to an additional round of bioactivity testing and mass spectral analysis. Data were overlaid using biochemometrics analysis to predict active constituents early in the fractionation process following which their biosynthetic pathways were identified using metabologenomics.

Results

We isolated three new-to-nature stemphone analogs, 19-acetylstemphones G (1), B (2) and E (3), that demonstrated antiproliferative activity ranging from 3 to 5 µM against human melanoma (MDA-MB-435) and ovarian cancer (OVACR3) cells. We proposed a rational biosynthetic pathway for these compounds, highlighting the potential of using bioactivity as a filter for the analysis of integrated—Omics datasets.

Conclusions

This work demonstrates how the incorporation of biochemometrics as a third dimension into the metabologenomics workflow can identify bioactive metabolites and link them to their biosynthetic machinery.
Clinical Performance Comparison of a Long Versus a Short Axial Field-of-View PET/CT Using EARL-Compliant Reconstructions
Authors: Roya Mostafa , van Snick Johannes H. , Slart Riemer H. J. A. , Noordzij Walter , Stormezand Gilles N. , Willemsen Antoon T. M. , Boellaard Ronald , Glaudemans Andor W. J. M. , Tsoumpas Charalampos , van Sluis Joyce
Published: August 2024

Purpose

To ensure comparable PET/CT image quality between or within centres, clinical inter-system performance comparisons following European Association of Nuclear Medicine Research Ltd. (EARL) guidelines is required. In this work the performance of the long axial field-of-view Biograph Vision Quadra is compared to its predecessor, the short axial field-of-view Biograph Vision.

Procedures

To this aim, patients with suspected tumour lesions received a single weight-based (3 MBq/kg) 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose injection and underwent routine clinical ($$\sim$$
∼
15 min) scans on the Vision and 3-min scans on the Quadra in listmode in balanced order. Image quality (IQ), image noise (IN), and tumour demarcation (TD) were assessed visually by four nuclear medicine physicians using a 5-point Likert scale and semiquantitative analysis was performed using standardised uptake values (SUVs). Inter-reader agreement was tested using Wilcoxon’s signed rank test and the SUVs were statistically compared using a paired t-test.

Results

Twenty patients (mean age, 60 years ± 8.8 [standard deviation], 16 male) were enrolled. Inter-reader agreement ranged from good to very good for IQ and IN (0.62 ≤ W ≤ 0.81), and fair for TD (0.29 ≤ W ≤ 0.39). Furthermore, a significant difference was found for TD (p = 0.015) between the systems, showing improved TD for the Quadra.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that the Quadra can be used in routine clinical practice with multiple PET/CT systems or in multicentre studies. This system provides comparable diagnostic image quality and semiquantitative accuracy, improved TD, and has the advantage of shorter scan durations.
Impact of Rare Earth Elements in sediments on the growth and photosynthetic efficiency of the benthic plant Myriophyllum aquaticum
Authors: Gjata Isidora , van Drimmelen Chantal K. E. , Tommasi Franca , Paciolla Costantino , Heise Susanne
Published: August 2024

Purpose

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are becoming more present in our everyday life. With this work, we aimed to study and compare the toxic responses of the REEs lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd), and gadolinium (Gd) to the macrophyte Myriophyllum aquaticum. The scope was to evaluate if these elements trigger a response on the photosynthetic system (PSII), which causes inhibition of the growth rate of the plant.

Methods

We measured the fluorescence yield by pulse-amplitude-modulated chlorophyll fluorometer (PAM) which enabled simultaneous high-resolution fluorescence measurements of the whorls daily for the whole duration of the test (10 days) and fresh weight change (FWC) at the end of the test.

Results

Our findings suggest that La significantly decreased FWC at the highest concentration (500 mg kg−1) but did not cause any significant effects on the fluorescence yield. Ce and Nd significantly decreased the chlorophyll fluorescence between days 2 and 4, and after that the yield was not significantly different with respect to the control. Of all the REEs tested in this study, Gd showed the most negative effect as the whorls exhibited chlorosis/necrosis and the fresh weight at the end of the test decreased significantly compared to the same plant at day 0. The yield of M. aquaticum showed time-dependent effects for Gd at the highest concentration.

Conclusion

Gd was the most toxic REE, strongly affecting both the yield and FWC. The measurement of the fluorescence yield of the PSII is a useful effect observation and of high environmental importance. The difference in sensitivity between the functional and growth endpoints may give hints about the mode of action of contaminants to aquatic plants.
Adaptive neighborhood triplet loss: enhanced segmentation of dermoscopy datasets by mining pixel information
Authors: Xu Mohan , Wiese Lena
Published: August 2024

Purpose

The integration of deep learning in image segmentation technology markedly improves the automation capabilities of medical diagnostic systems, reducing the dependence on the clinical expertise of medical professionals. However, the accuracy of image segmentation is still impacted by various interference factors encountered during image acquisition.

Methods

To address this challenge, this paper proposes a loss function designed to mine specific pixel information which dynamically changes during training process. Based on the triplet concept, this dynamic change is leveraged to drive the predicted boundaries of images closer to the real boundaries.

Results

Extensive experiments on the PH2 and ISIC2017 dermoscopy datasets validate that our proposed loss function overcomes the limitations of traditional triplet loss methods in image segmentation applications. This loss function not only enhances Jaccard indices of neural networks by 2.42$$\%$$
%
and 2.21$$\%$$
%
for PH2 and ISIC2017, respectively, but also neural networks utilizing this loss function generally surpass those that do not in terms of segmentation performance.

Conclusion

This work proposed a loss function that mined the information of specific pixels deeply without incurring additional training costs, significantly improving the automation of neural networks in image segmentation tasks. This loss function adapts to dermoscopic images of varying qualities and demonstrates higher effectiveness and robustness compared to other boundary loss functions, making it suitable for image segmentation tasks across various neural networks.
Precision in prostate cancer detection: integrating prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD) and the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) to provide additional risk stratification for a more accurate diagnostic decision
Authors: Hrubá Terézia , Kubas Viliam , Franko Martin , Baláž Vladimír , Spurný Martin , Mištinová Jana Poláková
Published: August 2024

Purpose

This study focuses on integrating prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD) and Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) for enhanced risk stratification in biopsy-naïve patients.

Methods

A prospective study was conducted on 339 patients with suspected prostate cancer, utilizing PSAD and PI-RADS in combination. Logistic regression models were employed, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis performed to evaluate predictive performance. The patient cohort underwent multiparametric MRI, targeted biopsy, and systematic biopsy.

Results

When patients were stratified into four PSAD risk groups, the rate of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) increased significantly with higher PSAD levels. Logistic regression confirmed the independent contribution of PI-RADS and PSAD, highlighting their role in the prediction of csPCa. Combined models showed superior performance, as evidenced by the area under the curve (AUC) for PI-RADS category and PSAD (0.756), which exceeded that of the individual predictors (PSA AUC, 0.627, PI-RADS AUC 0.689, PSAD AUC 0.708).

Conclusion

This study concludes that combining PSAD and PI-RADS improves diagnostic accuracy and predictive value for csPCa in biopsy-naïve men, resulting in a promising strategy to provide additional risk stratification for more accurate diagnostic decision in biopsy-naïve patients, especially in the PI-RADS 3 group.
How to Optimize Goal-Directed Medical Therapy (GDMT) in Patients with Heart Failure
Authors: Newman Emily , Kamanu Chukwuemezie , Gibson Gregory , Brailovsky Yevgeniy
Published: August 2024

Purpose of Review

Heart failure is a clinical syndrome with signs and symptoms from underlying cardiac abnormality and evidence of pulmonary or systemic congestion on laboratory testing or other objective findings (Bozkurt et al. in Eur J Heart Fail 23:352–380, 2021). Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), when heart failure is due to underlying reduction in ejection fraction to $$\le$$
≤
40. The goal of this review is to briefly describe the mechanisms and benefits of the various pharmacological interventions described in the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guidelines focusing on Stage C: Symptomatic Heart Failure HFrEF, while providing basic guidance on safe use of these medications.

Recent Findings

Use of medications from each class as recommended in the 2022 Guidelines can provide significant morbidity and mortality benefits for our patients.

Despite advances in therapeutics for patients with HFrEF, patients are frequently under treated and more research is needed to help optimize management of these complicated patients.
Prevalence of Frank’s sign in healthy young individuals, morphological characteristics, and its association with family history of chronic disease
Authors: Aksu Feyza , Akkoc Ramazan Fazil
Published: August 2024

Frank’s sign (FS, earlobe crease) is known to be associated with many chronic diseases i.e. coronary, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular diseases. The objective of this study is to investigate the presence and grade of FS in healthy, young-adult individuals aging between 18 and 25. Furthermore, to evaluate the relationship between FS and the chronic disease history of first-degree family members. 853 healthy people with a mean age of 20.09 years were imvolved in the research on a voluntary basis. Of 853 individuals, 85.3% (n:728) had no FS, whereas 14.7% (n:125) had. Of the 125 people observed FS, 41.6% (n:52) were female and 58.4% (n:73) were male. Of the 125 people diagnosed with FS, 32.8% (n:41) had no family history of any chronic disease, and 67.2% (n:84) had at least 1 family history of chronic disease as well. It was determined that there was a statistically significant (p < 0.05) relationship between FS identified in healthy individuals and familial chronic disease history. In this study, while no FS was observed in 85.3% of the participants, grade 1 was detected in 12.4% (n:105), grade 2a in 1.9% (n:16), grade 2b in 0.2% (n:2), and grade 3 in 0.2% (n:2). To the best of our knowledge, this study investigated the relationship between the presence and grade of FS in the healthy, young, Turkish population and the presence/absence of chronic disease in the first-degree relatives of individuals for the very first time. As a result of larger studies, being aware of the presence of FS, especially in young healthy individuals, may help predict some chronic diseases, and caution may be taken to avoid these diseases at an early age in at-risk individuals.
Pneumoperitoneum after placement of the temporary pacing wires: transverse colon injury at the base of a diverticulum
Authors: Gasparovic Ivo , Artemiou Panagiotis , Durdik Stefan , Drangova Erika , Hulman Michal
Published: August 2024

We present the successful management of a patient presenting with pneumo-peritoneum early after surgery due to transvere colon injury after placement of the temporary pacing wires. The patient was asymptomatic, underwent computed tomography, the temporary pacing wires were removed and he was managed conservatively.
Progesterone and brassinosteroids synergistically enhance progesterone removal and antioxidant capacity of Solanum nigrum L.
Authors: Pinto Ana , da Silva Daniela Correia , Cardoso Ana , Fernandes Fátima , Soares Cristiano , Valentão Patrícia , Fidalgo Fernanda , Teixeira Jorge
Published: August 2024

Progesterone (PROG) has been detected at various concentrations in the environment and has adverse effects on humans and wildlife. This work evaluated the impact of PROG in Solanum nigrum L. plants, its removal capacity, and how 2,4-epibrassinolide (24-EBL) affects this process. Three treatments were used: (1) control, (2) irrigation with 0.8 µM PROG, and (3) treatment with 0.8 µM PROG after a pre-treatment with a foliar application of 1 µM 2,4-EBL (PROG/24EBL). After 20 days of treatment, no PROG was detected in the nutrient solution or plant tissues, indicating that the PROG was removed and metabolized. Lipid peroxidation significantly decreased in response to PROG in shoots and roots, and this effect was even more significant for both organs of the PROG/24EBL plants. Additionally, both treatments in both organs showed a decrease in H2O2 levels, and both steroid hormones increased the plants’ antioxidant system at both the biochemical and gene expression levels. In conclusion, S. nigrum can swiftly remove PROG without affecting its growth, and the use of 24-EBL synergistically decreases oxidative damage by increasing the activity of the antioxidant system and enhancing plant PROG removal ability.
Plasma Levels of Neuron/Glia-Derived Apoptotic Bodies, an In Vivo Biomarker of Apoptosis, Predicts Infarct Growth and Functional Outcome in Patients with Ischemic Stroke
Authors: Díaz-Maroto Inmaculada , Castro-Robles Beatriz , Villar Miguel , García-García Jorge , Ayo-Martín Óscar , Serrano-Heras Gemma , Segura Tomás
Published: August 2024

Evidence demonstrating the involvement of apoptosis in the death of the potentially salvageable area (penumbra zone) in patients during stroke remains limited. Our aim was to investigate whether apoptotic processes occur in penumbral brain tissue by analyzing circulating neuron- and glia-derived apoptotic bodies (CNS-ApBs), which are vesicles released into the bloodstream during the late stage of apoptosis. We have also assessed the clinical utility of plasma neuronal and glial apoptotic bodies in predicting early neurological evolution and functional outcome. The study included a total of 71 patients with acute hemispheric ischemic stroke (73 ± 10 years; 30 women). Blood samples were collected from these patients immediately upon arrival at the hospital (within 9 h) and at 24 and 72 h after symptom onset. Subsequently, isolation, quantification, and phenotypic characterization of CNS-ApBs during the first 72 h post-stroke were performed using centrifugation and flow cytometry techniques. We found a correlation between infarct growth and final infarct size with the amount of plasma CNS-ApBs detected in the first 72 h after stroke. In addition, patients with neurological worsening (progressive ischemic stroke) had higher plasma levels of CNS-ApBs at 24 h after symptom onset than those with a stable or improving course. Circulating CNS-ApB concentration was further associated with patients’ functional prognosis. In conclusion, apoptosis may play an important role in the growth of the cerebral infarct area and plasma CNS-ApB quantification could be used as a predictive marker of penumbra death, neurological deterioration, and functional outcome in patients with ischemic stroke.
Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards Antibiotics Use Among Medical Sector Final-Year Students in Egypt
Authors: Emera Nourhan M. , El-Baraky Iman A. , Abbassi Maggie M. , Sabry Nirmeen A.
Published: August 2024

Introduction

Medical sector students must be well-educated and competent to spread public awareness of antibiotics among the public to combat antibiotic resistance. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of students regarding antibiotic use and resistance in Egypt.

Methodology

A cross-sectional questionnaire was specially designed and self-administered by final-year students (medicine (MS), pharmacy (PS), dentistry (DS), and nursing (NS)) during the last semester at nine universities.

Results

Among 1250 recruited students, with an 89% response rate, PS and MS showed the highest knowledge level, whereas NS scored the lowest. The study revealed some misconceptions and malpractices among students. Two-thirds of PS and NS, half of DS, and a third of MS believed antibiotics treat sore throats. Sixty percent of NS and DS were unaware that vancomycin treats methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Over half of MS and NS and a third of DS and PS lacked knowledge of amoxicillin safety during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The prevalence of antibiotics self-medication (ABSM) was highest among PS (30%), followed by NS (27%) and DS (25%), while MS reported the lowest rate (16.6%). One-third of students preferred to use newer and more expensive antibiotics. Seven percent of the students used the local guidelines, 12% used the international guidelines as sources of information, and only 8% received relevant formal training.

Conclusions

The study found misconceptions and injudicious antibiotic use among medical sector students. Effective educational interventions and relevant training are needed to enhance their KAP on rational antibiotic use to minimize antibiotic resistance.
Beyond finite additivity
Authors: Howson Colin
Published: August 2024

There is a Dutch Book argument for the axiom of countable additivity for subjective probability functions, but de Finetti famously rejected the axiom, arguing that it wrongly renders a uniform distribution impermissible over a countably infinite lottery. Dubins however showed that rejecting countable additivity has a strongly paradoxical consequence that a much weaker rule than countable additivity blocks. I argue that this rule, which also prohibits the de Finetti lottery, has powerful independent support in a desirable closure principle. I leave it as an open question whether countable additivity should be adopted.
Free Infragravity Waves on the Inner Shelf: Observations and Parameterizations at Two Southern California Beaches
Authors: Lange A. M. Z. , Fiedler J. W. , Merrifield M. A. , Guza R. T.
Published: August 2024

Numerical predictions of nearshore waves and shoreline runup are usually initialized on the inner shelf, seaward of the surfzone, with sea‐swell (SS) waves from local wave buoys or regional wave models. Lower frequency infragravity (IG) waves are not reliably measured by buoys or included in regional models. Here, co‐located pressure and velocity observations are used to characterize IG waves in 10–15 m depth in southern California. Shoreward propagating IG waves are often dominated by free waves, with the boundwave energy fraction <30% for moderate and low energy incident SS waves. Only 5% of records, with energetic long swell, show primarily bound waves. The shoreline slope of concave beaches increases by ∼3 between spring high and low tides, and free seaward and shoreward IG energy in 10–15 m vary tidally. The observed linear dependency of free IG energy on SS energy and period is consistent with Ardhuin et al. (2014, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2014.02.006)'s parameterization (R2 = 0.71). Including the tide level as a proxy for beach slope and modifying the SS frequency dependency increases R2 to 0.91. The ratio of free seaward to shoreward propagating IG energy suggests between 50 and 100% of the energy radiated seaward in depths of 10–15 m is trapped offshore and redirected shoreward. Free (random phase) and bound (phase‐coupled) IG waves are combined to initialize the SWASH numerical model. SWASH predicted runup is only weakly influenced by waves at the offshore boundary. Nonlinear IG generation and dissipation in the shoaling and surfzone overwhelm the effects of shoreward propagating waves observed at the offshore boundary.
Source Levels of In‐Cloud Air in Shallow Cumulus: Consistency Between Paluch Diagram and Lagrangian Particle Tracking
Authors: Lamraoui Fayçal , Wei Xin , Kuang Zhiming
Published: August 2024

The Paluch diagram is a widely used tool for interpreting aircraft measurements of shallow cumulus clouds. A prior study conducted by Heus et al. (2008, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008jas2572.1) concluded that the source levels of in‐cloud air inferred from the Paluch diagram exhibit biases, sometimes of several hundred meters, in comparison to those derived from Lagrangian particle tracking. In this short study we revisit this comparison. The results indicate that the upper source levels of in‐cloud air determined from the Lagrangian Particle Tracking and the Paluch diagram are consistent, and the choice of statistical methods is crucial. The significance of this research lies in confirming the reliability of the Paluch analysis, enabling its confident application to aircraft data.
Wideband LP to CP Converter Using a Reflectarray Based on Modulated Admittance Surfaces Capable of Wide‐Range Beam‐Scanning for Ku/K Band Applications
Authors: Tahermanesh Hamid , Abrishamian Mohammad Sadegh , Ghattan Kashani Zahra , Salehi Mahdi
Published: August 2024

This study provides the design and demonstration of a Ku/K band horn‐fed linear polarization (LP) to circular polarization (CP) converter using a reflectarray antenna based on the holographic technique and the generalized law of total reflection without any iterative algorithms. The proposed hologram performs wide‐range frequency beam scanning with minimum gain losses and cross‐polarization levels. It comprises 2,500 diagonal slotted octagonal subwavelength metasurfaces with a periodicity of 0.266λ0 = 4 mm at 20 GHz as the center frequency. Two equations are defined to compute Y11 of the proposed unit cell regarding its dimensions for TE(0,0) and TM(0,0) Floquet modes. They significantly simplify the coding procedure and reduce the computational time for synthesizing the hologram. The antenna is simulated using the CST software from 14 to 25 GHz. As a confirmation, a prototype is manufactured and measured at 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 GHz to verify its performance. The simulated and measured results are well‐matched. The presented hologram achieves 40% 1.8‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth (16–25 GHz), 40% 3.3‐dB gain bandwidth (16–24 GHz), and above 30% 2‐dB gain bandwidth (16–22 GHz). Moreover, the antenna can perform beam scanning from 42° to 24° by changing the frequency from 16 to 24 GHz with peak gain values greater than 20.33 dBi. The LHCP pencil beams are at least 24° off‐broadside, so the proposed hologram avoids the feed blockage. These achievements make the hologram one of the best candidates for satellite communications, radar applications, short‐range communication, and point‐to‐point communication.
Solar Wind Drivers of Auroral Omega Bands
Authors: Cribb V. , Pulkkinen T. I. , Kepko L. , Gallardo‐Lacourt B. , Donovan E.
Published: August 2024

Omega bands are mesoscale auroral structures emerging as eastward moving quasi‐periodic poleward protrusions well within the closed field line region of the auroral oval. Neither specific conditions of their appearance nor their causes are well understood. We perform a superposed epoch analysis of OMNI and SuperMAG measurements taken during 28 omega band events recorded by auroral all‐sky imager observations from 2006 to 2013 to identify their solar wind drivers. We find local enhancements in the solar wind flow speed, magnetic field, pressure, and proton density at the time of the omega band observation. In the magnetosphere‐ionosphere, we see enhancements in the ring current, partial ring current, and auroral electrojets. These features are consistent with geomagnetic activity caused by stream interaction regions (SIRs). 19 of our events overlap with SIRs from published event catalogs. Our findings suggest that omega bands are driven by compression regions commonly associated with SIR events.
Orbital Observations Suggest Decoupled Olivine and Carbonate Enrichments in Jezero Crater
Authors: Ye Cheng , Edwards Christopher S. , Salvatore Mark R. , Rogers A. Deanne , Glotch Timothy D.
Published: August 2024

It has been hypothesized that the olivine‐ and carbonate‐bearing units within Jezero crater are part of the broader olivine‐carbonate rock unit found in the Nili Fossae region. Further, it is commonly proposed that olivine and carbonate are closely associated with each other in Jezero crater based on visible/near‐infrared spectral data. In this work, we investigate the olivine‐ and carbonate‐rich units in Jezero crater using spectral, thermophysical, and morphological analyses to determine the relationship between olivine‐ and carbonate‐rich units. Thermal infrared spectral data indicate largely weak to absent olivine signatures in the marginal carbonates. Our analyses suggest a decoupled relationship between olivine and carbonate in Jezero. The distinct appearances of olivine and carbonate in Jezero crater compared to the regional olivine‐carbonate rocks in Nili Fossae may imply unique formation mechanisms for olivine and carbonate in Jezero or variable levels of olivine alteration across the broader region.