Surgical site soft tissue thickness as a predictor of complications following arthroplasty

Appreciation of soft-tissue thickness(STT)at surgical sites is an increasingly recognized aspect of arthroplasty procedures as it may potentially impacting postoperative outcomes.Recent research has focused on the predictive value of preoperative STT measurements for complications following various forms of arthroplasty,particularly infections,across procedures such as total knee,hip,shoulder,and ankle replacements.Several studies have indicated that increased STT is associated with a higher risk of complications,including infection and wound healing issues.The assessment of STT before surgery could play a crucial role in identifying patients at a higher risk of complications and may be instru-mental in guiding preoperative planning to optimize outcomes in arthroplasty procedures.Standardized measurement techniques and further research are essential to enhance the reliability and clinical utility of STT assessment for arthro-plasty surgery.

Erlotinib combination with a mitochondria-targeted ubiquinone effectively suppresses pancreatic cancer cell survival

BACKGROUND Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths.Increased activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR)is often observed in pancreatic cancer,and the small molecule EGFR inhibitor erlotinib has been approved for pancreatic cancer therapy by the food and drug administration.Nevertheless,erlotinib alone is ineffective and should be combined with other drugs to improve therapeutic outcomes.We previously showed that certain receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors can increase mitochondrial membrane potential(Δψm),facilitate tumor cell uptake ofΔψm-sensitive agents,disrupt mitochondrial homeostasis,and subsequently trigger tumor cell death.Erlotinib has not been tested for this effect.AIM To determine whether erlotinib can elevateΔψm and increase tumor cell uptake ofΔψm-sensitive agents,subsequently triggering tumor cell death.METHODSΔψm-sensitive fluorescent dye was used to determine how erlotinib affectsΔψm in pancreatic adenocarcinoma(PDAC)cell lines.The viability of conventional and patient-derived primary PDAC cell lines in 2D-and 3D cultures was measured after treating cells sequentially with erlotinib and mitochondria-targeted ubiquinone(MitoQ),aΔψm-sensitive MitoQ.The synergy between erlotinib and MitoQ was then analyzed using SynergyFinder 2.0.The preclinical efficacy of the twodrug combination was determined using immune-compromised nude mice bearing PDAC cell line xenografts.RESULTS Erlotinib elevatedΔψm in PDAC cells,facilitating tumor cell uptake and mitochondrial enrichment ofΔψm-sensitive agents.MitoQ triggered caspase-dependent apoptosis in PDAC cells in culture if used at high doses,while erlotinib pretreatment potentiated low doses of MitoQ.SynergyFinder suggested that these drugs synergistically induced tumor cell lethality.Consistent with in vitro data,erlotinib and MitoQ combination suppressed human PDAC cell line xenografts in mice more effectively than single treatments of each agent.CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that a combination of erlotinib and MitoQ has the potential to suppress pancreatic tumor cell viability effectively.

Complementarity in nurse-herbalism: Partnering with plants for the purpose of promoting health

Complementarity is a concept that has been defined by physicist Niels Bohr as a general principle that promotes“mutual understanding and respect among diverse cultures and allows for the unity of human knowledge.”[1]In physics,complementarity is demonstrated as the inclusion of the existence of contrasting particle and wave theories of light.Bohr suggested that complementarity could be used by other disciplines outside of physics.Complementarity in nursing is demonstrated by the integration of diverse health beliefs,philosophies,and healing practices for promoting health as greater balance in body,mind,emotion,and spirit.

Long-term follow-up of kidney transplant recipients admitted to a tertiary care transplant center with SARS-CoV-2

BACKGROUND Kidney transplant recipients(KTR)are at risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)disease and mortality after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)infection.We predicted that hospitalization for COVID-19 and subsequent admission to the intensive care unit(ICU)would yield worse outcomes in KTRs.cohort was stratified by ICU admission.Outcomes of interest included risk factors for ICU admission and mortality,length of stay(LOS),respiratory symptoms at admission,all-cause graft failure at the last follow-up,and death related to COVID-19.RESULTS 96 KTRs were hospitalized for SARS-COV-2 infection.21(22%)required ICU admission.The ICU group had longer hospital LOS(21.8 vs 8.6 days,P<0.001)and were more likely to experience graft failure(81%vs 31%,P<0.001).Of those admitted to the ICU,76%had death at last-follow up,and 71%had death related to COVID-19.Risk factors for ICU admission included male sex(aHR:3.11,95%CI:1.04-9.34;P=0.04).Risk factors for all-cause mortality and COVID-19-related mortality included ICU admission and advanced age at SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis.Mortality was highest within a month of COVID-19 diagnosis,with the ICU group having increased risk of all-cause(aHR:11.2,95%CI:5.11-24.5;P<0.001)and COVID-19-related mortality(aHR:27.2,95%CI:8.69-84.9;P<0.001).CONCLUSION ICU admission conferred an increased risk of mortality,graft failure,and longer LOS.One-fifth of those hospit-alized died of COVID-19,reflecting the impact of COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality among KTRs.

A Different Brachistochrone Problem with Counterintuitive Results

A problem similar to the famous brachistochrone problem is examined in which, instead of a smooth curve, the path consists of two straight-line sections, one slant and one horizontal. The condition for minimum sliding time is investigated, producing results that are both counterintuitive and interesting.

Long-term outcomes of endoscopic submucosal dissection for undifferentiated type early gastric cancer over 2 cm with R0 resection

BACKGROUND Endoscopic submucosal dissection(ESD)for over 2 cm in size undifferentiated type(UD type)early gastric cancer(EGC)confined to the mucosa is not only challenging,but also long-term outcomes are not well known.AIM To evaluate the long-term outcomes of ESD done for UD type EGCs confined to the mucosa over 2 cm in size and compare the results with those where the lesions were less than 2 cm.METHODS 143 patients with UD type EGC confirmed on histology after ESD at a tertiary hospital were reviewed.Cases with synchronous and metachronous lesions and a case with emergency surgery after ESD were excluded.A total of 137 cases were enrolled.79 cases who underwent R0 resection were divided into 2 cm or less(group A)and over 2 cm(group B)in size.RESULTS Among 79 patients who underwent R0 resection,the number in group A and B were 51 and 28,respectively.The mean follow-up period(SD)was 79.71±45.42 months.There was a local recurrence in group A(1/51,2%)and group B(1/28,3.6%)respectively.This patient in group A underwent surgery while the patient in group B underwent repeated ESD with no further recurrences in both patients.There was no regional lymph node metastasis,distant metastasis,and deaths in both groups.With R0 resection strategy for ESD on lesions over 2 cm,20.4%(28/137)of patients were able to avoid surgery compared with expanded indication.CONCLUSION If R0 resection is achieved by ESD,UD type EGCs over 2 cm also showed good and similar clinical outcomes as compared to lesions less than 2 cm when followed for over 5 years.With R0 resection strategy,several patients can avoid surgery.

Bacteria colonization and gene expression related to immune function in colon mucosa is associated with growth in neonatal calves regardless of live yeast supplementation

Background As Holstein calves are susceptible to gastrointestinal disorders during the first week of life,understanding how intestinal immune function develops in neonatal calves is important to promote better intestinal health.Feeding probiotics in early life may contribute to host intestinal health by facilitating beneficial bacteria colonization and developing intestinal immune function.The objective of this study was to characterize the impact of early life yeast supplementation and growth on colon mucosa-attached bacteria and host immune function.Results Twenty Holstein bull calves received no supplementation(CON)or Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii(SCB)from birth to 5 d of life.Colon tissue biopsies were taken within 2 h of life(D0)before the first colostrum feeding and 3 h after the morning feeding at d 5 of age(D5)to analyze mucosa-attached bacteria and colon transcriptome.Metagenome sequencing showed that there was no difference inαandβdiversity of mucosa-attached bacteria between day and treatment,but bacteria related to diarrhea were more abundant in the colon mucosa on D0 compared to D5.In addition,q PCR indicated that the absolute abundance of Escherichia coli(E.coli)decreased in the colon mucosa on D5 compared to D0;however,that of Bifidobacterium,Lactobacillus,and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii,which could competitively exclude E.coli,increased in the colon mucosa on D5 compared to D0.RNA-sequencing showed that there were no differentially expressed genes between CON and SCB,but suggested that pathways related to viral infection such as“Interferon Signaling”were activated in the colon mucosa of D5 compared to D0.Conclusions Growth affected mucosa-attached bacteria and host immune function in the colon mucosa during the first 5 d of life in dairy calves independently of SCB supplementation.During early life,opportunistic pathogens may decrease due to intestinal environmental changes by beneficial bacteria and/or host immune function.Predicted activation of immune function-related pathways may be the result of host immune function development or suggest other antigens in the intestine during early life.Further studies focusing on the other antigens and host immune function in the colon mucosa are required to better understand intestinal immune function development.

乘积空间上粗糙Marcinkiewicz积分算子的一点注记

本文将证明:对于,以及,积域上Marcinkiewicz积分算子为有界,其中1<P<∞.从而改进了以往结果.

Wide & deep learning for predicting relative mineral compositions of sediment cores solely based on XRF scans, a case study from Pleistocene Paleolake Olduvai, Tanzania

This study develops a method to use deep learning models to predict the mineral assemblages and their relative abundances in paleolake cores using high-resolution XRF core scan elemental data and X-ray diffraction(XRD)mineralogical results from the same core taken at coarser resolution.It uses the XRF core scan data along with published mineralogical information from the Olduvai Gorge Coring Project(OGCP)2014 sediment cores 1A,2A,and 3A from Paleolake Olduvai,Tanzania.Both regression and classification models were developed using a Keras deep learning framework to assess the predictability of mineral assemblages with their relative abundances(in regression models)or at least the mineral assemblages(in classification models)using XRF core scan data.Models were created using the Sequential class and Functional API with different model architectures.The correlation matrix of element ratios calculated from XRF element intensity records from the cores and XRD-derived mineralogical information was used to select the most useful features to train the models.1057 training data records were used for the models.Lithological classes were also used for some models using Wide&Deep neural networks since those combine the benefits of memorization and generalization for mineral prediction.The results were validated using 265 validation data records unseen by the model and discuss the accuracy of models using six test records.The optimized Deep Neural Network(DNN)classification model achieved over 86%binary accuracy while the regression models were also able to predict the relative mineral abundances of samples with high accuracies.Overall,the study shows the efficacy of a carefully crafted Deep Learning(DL)model for predicting mineral assemblages and abundances using high-resolution XRF core scan data.

Gait analysis in swine,sheep,and goats after neurologic injury:a literature review

Medical research on neurologic ailments requires representative animal models to validate treatments before they are translated to human clinical trials.Rodents are the predominant animal model used in neurological research despite limited anatomic and physiologic similarities to humans.As a result,functional testing designed to assess locomotor recovery after neurologic impairment is well established in rodent models.Comparatively,large r,more clinically relevant models have not been as well studied.To achieve similar locomotor testing standardization in larger animals,the models must be accessible to a wide array of researchers.Non-human primates are the most relevant animal model fo r translational research,however ethical and financial barriers limit their accessibility.This review focuses on swine,sheep,and goats as large animal alternatives for transitional studies between rodents and non-human primates.The objective of this review is to compare motor testing and data collection methods used in swine,sheep,and goats to encourage testing standardization in these larger animal models.The PubMed database was analyzed by searching combinations of swine,sheep,and goats,neurologic injuries,and functional assessments.Findings were categorized by animal model,data collection method,and assessment design.Swine and sheep were used in the majority of the studies,while only two studies were found using goats.The functional assessments included open pen analysis,treadmill walking,and guided free walking.Data collection methods included subjective behavioral rating scales and objective tools such as pressure-sensitive mats and image-based analysis software.Overall,swine and sheep were well-suited for a variety of assessment designs,with treadmill walking and guided free walking offering the most consistency across multiple trials.Data collection methods varied,but image-based gait analysis software provided the most robust analysis.Future studies should be conducted to standardize functional testing methods after neurologic impairment in large animals.

Has the Twin Paradox Really Been Resolved?

Despite several attempts that have been made to explain the twin paradox, which are based on asymmetry and acceleration, it is shown that none of these explanations can resolve the paradox in the general case. Three specific examples of the twin paradox are provided in which the system is completely symmetric;consequently the existing explanations are not able to resolve the paradox.

Practical stability and instability of regime-switching diffusions

This work is devoted to practical stability of a class of regime-switching diffusions. First, the notion of practical stability is introduced. Then, sufficient conditions for practical stability and practical instability in probability and in pth mean are provided using a Lyapunov function argument. In addition, easily verifiable conditions on drift and diffusion coefficients are also given. Moreover, examples are supplied for demonstration purposes.

Aware Diffusion: A Semi-Holistic Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Routing is a challenging task in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) due to the limitation in energy and hardware capabilities in WSN nodes. This challenge prompted researchers to develop routing protocols that satisfy WSNs needs. The main design objectives are reliable delivery, low energy consumption, and prolonging network lifetime. In WSNs, routing is based on local information among neighboring nodes. Routing decisions are made locally;each node will select the next hop without any clue about the other nodes on the path. Although a full knowledge about the network yields better routing, that is not feasible in WSNs due to memory limitation and to the high traffic needed to collect the needed data about all the nodes in the network. As an effort to try to overcome this disadvantage, we are proposing in this paper aware diffusion routing protocol. Aware diffusion follows a semi-holistic approach by collecting data about the available paths and uses these data to enforce healthier paths using machine learning. The data gathering is done by adding a new stage called data collection stage. In this stage, the protocol designer can determine which parameters to collect then use these parameters in enforcing the best path according to certain criteria. In our implementation of this paradigm, we are collecting total energy on the path, lowest energy level on the path, and hop count. Again, the data collected is designer and application specific. The collected data will be used to compare available paths using non-incremental learning, and the outcome will be preferring paths that meet the designer criteria. In our case, healthier and shorter paths are preferred, which will result in less power consumption, higher delivery rate, and longer network life since healthier and fewer nodes will be doing the work.

A Fatal Case of Chronic Eosinophilic Leukemia Not Otherwise Specified (CEL-NOS) in a 19-Year-Old Male with Acute Transformation into Blast Crisis

Chronic eosinophilic leukemia (CEL) is a rare disorder that is characterized by hypereosinophilia with increased number of blood or marrow blasts (>5% and <20%). CEL is distinguished from hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) by the presence of eosinophilic clonality. Chronic eosinophilic leukemia not otherwise specified (CEL-NOS) diagnosis is made when no fusion genes are detected by most modern molecular testing, particularly the most common fusion gene FIP1L-1/PDGFRA (Factor Interacting with PAP like-1/Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor Alpha). This disease is very rare, and its description in the literature is not well characterized. We report a fetal case of severe CEL-NOS in a 19-year-old male who presented with a plethora of clinical features consists of constitutional symptoms, pancytopenia, intravascular thrombosis, acute stroke and endomyocardial infiltrates. The course of his disease was aggressive and resistant to conventional treatment. After a short period of improvement, an acute transformation into blast crisis (BC) had occurred. The diagnosis was confirmed by morphology and immunophenotyping of bone marrow biopsy. The patient eventually died of heart failure and sepsis. To our knowledge this is the first case report of fatal CEL-NOS transforming into severe blast crisis.

A Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Car Following Model for Electric Vehicle

Car following (CF) models are an appealing research area because they fundamentally describe longitudinal interactions of vehicles on the road, and contribute significantly to an understanding of traffic flow. There is an emerging trend to use data-driven method to build CF models. One challenge to the data-driven CF models is their capability to achieve optimal longitudinal driven behavior because a lot of bad driving behaviors will be learnt from human drivers by the supervised learning manner. In this study, by utilizing the deep reinforcement learning (DRL) techniques trust region policy optimization (TRPO), a DRL based CF model for electric vehicle (EV) is built. The proposed CF model can learn optimal driving behavior by itself in simulation. The experiments on following standard driving cycle show that the DRL model outperforms the traditional CF model in terms of electricity consumption.

MPC-based path tracking with PID speed control for high-speed autonomous vehicles considering time-optimal travel

In order to track the desired path as fast as possible,a novel autonomous vehicle path tracking based on model predictive control(MPC)and PID speed control was proposed for high-speed automated vehicles considering the constraints of vehicle physical limits,in which a forward-backward integration scheme was introduced to generate a time-optimal speed profile subject to the tire-road friction limit.Moreover,this scheme was further extended along one moving prediction window.In the MPC controller,the prediction model was an 8-degree-of-freedom(DOF)vehicle model,while the plant was a 14-DOF vehicle model.For lateral control,a sequence of optimal wheel steering angles was generated from the MPC controller;for longitudinal control,the total wheel torque was generated from the PID speed controller embedded in the MPC framework.The proposed controller was implemented in MATLAB considering arbitrary curves of continuously varying curvature as the reference trajectory.The simulation test results show that the tracking errors are small for vehicle lateral and longitudinal positions and the tracking performances for trajectory and speed are good using the proposed controller.Additionally,the case of extended implementation in one moving prediction window requires shorter travel time than the case implemented along the entire path.

Temperature and Water Vapor Weighting Functions from Radiative Transfer Equation with Surface Emissivity and Solar Reflectivity

Linearization of Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) is the key step in physical retrieval of atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles from InfRared (IR) sounder observations. In this paper, the successive forms of temperature and water vapor mixing ratio component weighting functions are derived by applying one term variation method to RTE with surface emissivity and solar reflectivity contained. Retrivals of temperature and water vapor mixing ratio profiles from simulated Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) observations with surface emissivity and solar reflectivity are presented.

Combination therapy with androgen deprivation for hormone sensitive prostate cancer: A new frontier

Androgen deprivation therapy(ADT)has been the standard of care for the last 75 years in metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer(PCa).However,this approach is rarely curative.Recent clinical trials have demonstrated that ADT combined with other agents,notably docetaxel and abiraterone,lead to improved survival.The mechanisms surrounding this improved cancer outcomes are incompletely defined.The response of cancer cells to ADT includes apoptosis and cell death,but a significant fraction remains viable.Our laboratory has demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo that cellular senescence occurs in a subset of these cells.Cellular senescence is a phenotype characterized by cell cycle arrest,senescenceassociated b-galactosidase(SA-b-gal),and a hypermetabolic state.Positive features of cellular senescence include growth arrest and immune stimulation,although persistence may release cytokines and growth factors that are detrimental.Senescent tumor cells generate a catabolic state with increased glycolysis,protein turnover and other metabolic changes that represent targets for drugs,like metformin,to be applied in a synthetic lethal approach.This review examines the response to ADT and the putative role of cellular senescence as a biomarker and therapeutic target in this context.

Genetic and phenological variation of tocochromanol(vitamin E)content in wild(Daucus carota L.var.carota)and domesticated carrot(D.carota L.var.sativa)

Carrot roots(Daucus carota L.var.sativa)produce tocochromanol compounds,collectively known as vitamin E.However,little is known about their types and amounts.Here we determined the range and variation in types and amounts of tocochromanols in a variety of cultivated carrot accessions throughout carrot postharvest storage and reproductive stages and in wild-type roots(Daucus carota L.var.carota).Of eight possible tocochromanol compounds,we detected and quantified α-,and the combined peak for β-and γ-forms of tocopherols and tocotrienols.Significant variation in amounts of tocochromanol compounds was observed across accessions and over time.Large increases in a-tocopherol were noted during both reproductive growth and the postharvest stages.The variation of tocochromanols in carrot root tissue provides useful information for future research seeking to understand the role of these compounds in carrot root tissue or to breed varieties with increased levels of these compounds.

Atmospheric Profile Retrieval with AIRS Data and Validation at the ARM CART Site

The physical retrieval algorithm of atmospheric temperature and moisture distribution from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder （AIRS） radiances is presented. The retrieval algorithm is applied to AIRS clear-sky radiance measurements. The algorithm employs a statistical retrieval followed by a subsequent nonlinear physical retrieval. The regression coefficients for the statistical retrieval are derived from a dataset of global radiosonde observations （RAOBs） comprising atmospheric temperature, moisture, and ozone profiles. Evaluation of the retrieved profiles is performed by a comparison with RAOBs from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement （ARM） Program Cloud And Radiation Testbed （CART） in Oklahoma, U. S. A.. Comparisons show that the physically-based AIRS retrievals agree with the RAOBs from the ARM CART site with a Root Mean Square Error （RMSE） of 1K on average for temperature profiles above 850 hPa, and approximately 10% on average for relative humidity profiles. With its improved spectral resolution, AIRS depicts more detailed structure than the current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite （GOES） sounder when comparing AIRS sounding retrievals with the operational GOES sounding products.