Category: Nevin Manimala

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-26903-8. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Bacterial communities play an important role in maintaining the normal functioning of ecosystems; therefore, it is important to understand the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on the bacterial community. In addition, understanding the metabolic potential of bacterial communities for PAHs is important for the remediation of PAH-contaminated soils. However, the deep relationship between PAHs and bacterial community in coking plants is not clear. In this study, we determined the bacterial community and the concentration of PAHs in three soil profiles contaminated by coke plants in Xiaoyi Coking Park, Shanxi, China, using 16S rRNA and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, respectively. The results show that 2 ~ 3 rings PAHs are the main PAHs and Acidobacteria (23.76%) was the dominant bacterial community in three soil profiles. Statistical analysis showed that there were significant differences in the composition of bacterial communities at different depths and different sites. Redundancy analysis (RDA) and variance partitioning analysis (VPA) illustrate the influence of environmental factors (including PAHs, soil organic matter (SOM), and pH) on the vertical distribution of soil bacterial community, and PAHs were the main factors affecting the bacterial community in this study. The co-occurrence networks further indicated correlations between bacterial community and PAHs and found that Nap has the greatest effect on bacterial community compared with other PAHs. In addition, some operational taxonomic units (OTUs, OTU2, and OTU37) have the potential to degrade PAHs. PICRUSt2 (Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States) was used for further study on the potential of microbial PAHs degradation from a genetic perspective, which showed that different PAH metabolism genes were present in the genomes of bacterial communities in the three soil profiles, and a total of 12 PAH degradation-related genes were isolated, mainly dioxygenase and dehydrogenase genes.

PMID:37071357 | DOI:10.1007/s11356-023-26903-8

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-27084-0. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Accurate estimation of wind speed (WS) data, which greatly influences meteorological parameters, plays a vital role in the safe operation and optimization of the power system and water resource management. The study’s main aim is to combine artificial intelligence and signal decomposition techniques to improve WS prediction accuracy. Feed-forward back propagation neural network (FFBNN), support vector machine (SVM) and Gaussian processes regression (GPR) models, discrete wavelet transform (DWT), and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) were used to forecast the WS values ​​1 month ahead in Burdur meteorology station. Statistical criteria such as Willmott’s index of agreement, mean bias error, mean squared error, determination coefficient, Taylor diagram and regression analysis, and graphical indicators were used to evaluate the prediction success of the models. As a result of the study, it was determined that both wavelet transform and EMD signal processing increased the WS prediction performance of the stand-alone ML model. The best performance was obtained with the hybrid EMD-Matern 5/2 kernel GPR with test (R²:0.802) and validation (R²:0.606). The most successful model structure was obtained using input variables with a delay of up to 3 months. The study’s results contribute to wind energy-related institutions in terms of practical use, planning, and management of wind energy.

PMID:37071355 | DOI:10.1007/s11356-023-27084-0

Forensic Sci Med Pathol. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s12024-023-00607-4. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Forensic age assessments are crucial in the evaluation of criminal responsibility and preventing false age claims. Of all the methods available, the Greulich and Pyle (GP) atlas is most commonly used for age estimation purposes. Therefore, the current study sought to analyze the reliability and applicability of the GP standard and, additionally, to determine any possible association between the socioeconomic status (SES), food habits, and estimated skeletal maturity in the North Indian population. The study included 627 (334 males and 293 females) healthy children up to 19 years of age with varying SES and food habits. The skeletal age (SA) was estimated by three different evaluators using the GP atlas. The chronological mean age (CA) and SA were compared in different age cohorts. A paired t-test and a Pearson chi-square test were applied to show the difference between CA and estimated SA and the association of skeletal maturity with SES and food habits. The estimated skeletal age in males was retarded by 0.142 years or 1.72 months (p ≤ 0.05), whereas in females, it was retarded by 0.259 years or 3.12 months (p ≤ 0.05). In males, the GP method has significantly underestimated SA in age cohorts 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 7-8, 8-9, and 12-13, whereas it overestimated in 10-11 and 18-19 years. However, in females, the SA was significantly underestimated in age groups 10-11, 12-13, and 14-15, respectively. Estimated skeletal maturity had no significant association with SES and food habits. The current study concludes that the GP atlas may not be applicable to North India’s population. The observed difference in assessed skeletal maturity may be due to geographical region, genetics, hormonal effects, etc., which require further investigation. Hence, population-specific standards are necessary to determine the bone age of Indian children accurately.

PMID:37071347 | DOI:10.1007/s12024-023-00607-4

Int Ophthalmol. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s10792-023-02723-0. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To compare the outcomes of combined phacoemulsification and viscogoniosynechialysis (VGSL) with and without endoscopic cyclophtocoagulation (ECP) in primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG).

METHODS: In this prospective interventional case series 52 eyes of 50 patients were enrolled. Twenty-seven eyes underwent combined phacoemulsification and VGSL (PV group) and 25 eyes underwent the same procedure plus circumferential ECP (PVE group). All eyes were followed 1 day, 1 week, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after the procedure. Intraocular pressure and antiglaucoma medications were compared between and within groups using generalized estimating equations. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was carried out to compare intensity to failure between groups.

RESULTS: The mean ± SD age was 63.23 ± 6.87 years and 50% of the cases were male in the entire group. Intraocular pressure (IOP) and antiglaucoma medications were significantly reduced at all time points in comparison with the baseline in both groups (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between groups in either IOP or medications at specific time points (p > 0.05). One eye in each group developed a fibrinous reaction in the postoperative period. There was no statistically significant difference between groups regarding the intensity to failure (P = 0.169).

CONCLUSION: There were no significant differences in IOP and medication reduction between groups. Also, the complications were comparable between groups.

PMID:37071345 | DOI:10.1007/s10792-023-02723-0

J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01486-1. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: There are few conflicting results regarding the treatment and outcomes of Hispanic patients with pancreatic cancer. This study comprehensively evaluated the differences in baseline characteristics, treatments, genomic testing, and outcomes among Hispanic (H) and Non-Hispanic (NH) patients with early-stage (ES) and late-stage (LS) pancreatic cancer (PC).

METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis from 2013 to 2020 of 294 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; data collected included patient demographics, clinical characteristics, treatment regimens, response, germline and somatic genetic testing, and survival outcomes. Excluded those with insufficient data. Univariate comparisons used parametric and nonparametric tests as appropriate to evaluate for differences between H and NH groups. Fisher’s exact tests were performed to evaluate the difference in frequency. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis assessed the survival.

RESULTS: The analysis included 198 patients who had a late-stage disease and 96 patients with early-stage disease at the time of diagnosis. Among the early-stage patients, the median age at diagnosis was 60.7 years in the H versus 66.7 years in the NH (p = 0.03). No other differences were observed in baseline characteristics, treatments offered, and median overall survival (NH 25 vs. H 17.7 months, p = 0.28). Performance status, negative surgical margins, and adjuvant therapy were clinically significant and univariable with improved OS (p < 0.05), regardless of ethnicity. Hispanic patients with early pancreatic cancer were noted to be at a greater risk of death with a statistically significant hazard ratio of 3.1 (p = 0.005, 95% CI, 1.39-6.90). Among the late-stage patients, Hispanic patients with ≥ 3 predisposing risk factors for pancreatic cancer were 44% vs. 25% of NH (p = 0.006). No significant differences were noted in baseline characteristic treatments, progression-free, and median overall survivals (NH 10.0 vs. 9.2 months, p = 0.4577). In the late-stage genomic testing, germline testing performed in NH 69.4% vs. H 43.9% (p = 0.003) revealed no difference among groups. For the somatic testing, the pathogenic variants with actionable mutations were 2.5% of NH and 17.6% of H patients (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSION: Hispanic patients with early-stage pancreatic adenocarcinoma present at a younger age and with more risk factors in the late stage. These patients have significantly lower overall survival compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts. Hispanic patients in our study were 2.9 less likely to receive germline screening and more like to have somatic genetic actionable pathogenic variants. Overall, only a minority of all patients were enrolled in a pancreatic cancer clinical trial or offered genomic testing, highlighting a critical need and missed opportunity in advancing progress and improving outcomes for this disease, mainly in the underrepresented Hispanic population.

PMID:37071331 | DOI:10.1007/s40615-022-01486-1

Ophthalmol Ther. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s40123-023-00709-w. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a violet-light filtering intraocular lens (IOL) compared to a colorless IOL control.

METHODS: This was a prospective, bilateral, randomized, comparative, patient/evaluator-masked multi-center clinical trial at 12 sites in the USA. Patients underwent standard small-incision phacoemulsification cataract extraction. Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and color vision were tested 12 months postoperatively. Patient satisfaction and vision-related quality of life were evaluated based on directed patient responses obtained from a binocular subjective questionnaire.

RESULTS: A total of 250 subjects were bilaterally implanted with the violet-light filtering TECNIS monofocal ZV9003 (n = 126) and colorless TECNIS monofocal ZA9003 (n = 124). Mean uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) was 0.123 LogMAR for ZV9003 and 0.116 LogMAR for the ZA9003 group. Mean corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) was 0.00 LogMAR for both groups. No significant difference was found between the groups for 22/25 questionnaire categories, including color perception. A significant difference was found in favor of the ZV9003 group for day driving, night driving, and frustration with vision. Contrast sensitivity mean difference was < 0.05 log units across all lighting conditions and spatial frequencies.

CONCLUSION: No difference was found between groups for visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, color testing, and adverse events as well as with the majority of optical/visual symptoms. A statistical difference was noted in driving and frustration with eyesight that may be related to benefits of using a violet-light filtering chromophore. Overall, the violet-light filtering ZV9003 showed excellent visual acuity and contrast sensitivity results with a low incidence of optical/visual symptoms.

PMID:37071325 | DOI:10.1007/s40123-023-00709-w

Adv Ther. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s12325-023-02503-3. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Clinical trials often have short follow-ups, and long-term outcomes such as survival must be extrapolated. Current extrapolation methods often produce a wide range of survival values. To minimize uncertainty in projections, we developed a novel method that incorporates formally elicited expert opinion in a Bayesian analysis and used it to extrapolate survival in the placebo arm of DAPA-CKD, a phase 3 trial of dapagliflozin in patients with chronic kidney disease (NCT03036150).

METHODS: A summary of mortality data from 13 studies that included DAPA-CKD-like populations and training on elicitation were provided to six experts. An elicitation survey was used to gather the experts’ 10- and 20-year survival estimates for patients in the placebo arm of DAPA-CKD. These estimates were combined with DAPA-CKD mortality and general population mortality (GPM) data in a Bayesian analysis to extrapolate long-term survival using seven parametric distributions. Results were compared with those from standard frequentist approaches (with and without GPM data) that do not incorporate expert opinion.

RESULTS: The group expert-elicited estimate for 20-year survival was 31% (lower estimate, 10%; upper estimate, 40%). In the Bayesian analysis, the 20-year extrapolated survival across the seven distributions was 14.9-39.1%, a range that was 2.4- and 1.6-fold smaller than those produced by the frequentist methods (0.0-56.9% without and 0.0-39.2% with GPM data).

CONCLUSIONS: Using expert opinion in a Bayesian analysis provided a robust method for extrapolating long-term survival in the placebo arm of DAPA-CKD. The method could be applied to other populations with limited survival data.

PMID:37071317 | DOI:10.1007/s12325-023-02503-3

Tech Coloproctol. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s10151-023-02796-0. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: There is an ongoing debate regarding the extent of resection for splenic flexure tumors (SFT). The purpose of this study was to compare segmental and extended resections in terms of overall survival (OS) and pathologic outcomes.

METHODS: Retrospective analysis of all patients surgically treated for SFT in the National Cancer Database (NCDB) for the period 2010-2019. Outcomes of segmental and extended resections were compared and a 1:1 propensity score matching was used to match for confounders. Primary outcome was OS.

RESULTS: In total 3498/668,852 (0.5%) patients with clinical stage I-III splenic flexure adenocarcinoma in the NCDB were included. Of these, 1533 (43.8%) underwent segmental resection while 1965 (56.1%) underwent extended resection. After matching, mean OS was similar between the groups (92 vs 91 months; p = 0.94). When survival was stratified by clinical N stage, an 8-month survival benefit was shown in the extended resection group for clinical N-positive status (86 vs 78); however, this difference did not achieve statistical significance (p = 0.078). Median number of harvested lymph nodes was significantly lower in the segmental resection group (16 vs 17; p < 0.001) and the percentage of patients with fewer than 12 harvested nodes was significantly higher (18.4% vs 11.6%; p < 0.001). Length of stay was significantly shorter in the segmental resection group (5 vs 6 days; p = 0.027). There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of 30-day readmission or 30- or 90-day mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: While segmental and extended resections were associated with similar OS for clinically node-negative SFT, there might be a survival benefit for extended resection in patients with clinical evidence of lymph node involvement.

PMID:37071308 | DOI:10.1007/s10151-023-02796-0

J Digit Imaging. 2023 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s10278-023-00806-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study is aimed to evaluate effects of deep learning image reconstruction (DLIR) on image quality in single-energy CT (SECT) and dual-energy CT (DECT), in reference to adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction-V (ASIR-V). The Gammex 464 phantom was scanned in SECT and DECT modes at three dose levels (5, 10, and 20 mGy). Raw data were reconstructed using six algorithms: filtered back-projection (FBP), ASIR-V at 40% (AV-40) and 100% (AV-100) strength, and DLIR at low (DLIR-L), medium (DLIR-M), and high strength (DLIR-H), to generate SECT 120kVp images and DECT 120kVp-like images. Objective image quality metrics were computed, including noise power spectrum (NPS), task transfer function (TTF), and detectability index (d’). Subjective image quality evaluation, including image noise, texture, sharpness, overall quality, and low- and high-contrast detectability, was performed by six readers. DLIR-H reduced overall noise magnitudes from FBP by 55.2% in a more balanced way of low and high frequency ranges comparing to AV-40, and improved the TTF values at 50% for acrylic inserts by average percentages of 18.32%. Comparing to SECT 20 mGy AV-40 images, the DECT 10 mGy DLIR-H images showed 20.90% and 7.75% improvement in d’ for the small-object high-contrast and large-object low-contrast tasks, respectively. Subjective evaluation showed higher image quality and better detectability. At 50% of the radiation dose level, DECT with DLIR-H yields a gain in objective detectability index compared to full-dose AV-40 SECT images used in daily practice.

PMID:37071291 | DOI:10.1007/s10278-023-00806-z

Sci China Life Sci. 2023 Apr 13. doi: 10.1007/s11427-022-2240-6. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Cancer is one of the leading causes of human death worldwide. Treatment of cancer exhausts significant medical resources, and the morbidity and mortality caused by cancer is a huge social burden. Cancer has therefore become a serious economic and social problem shared globally. As an increasingly prevalent disease in China, cancer is a huge challenge for the country’s healthcare system. Based on recent data published in the Journal of the National Cancer Center on cancer incidence and mortality in China in 2016, we analyzed the current trends in cancer incidence and changes in cancer mortality and survival rate in China. And also, we examined several key risk factors for cancer pathogenesis and discussed potential countermeasures for cancer prevention and treatment in China.

PMID:37071289 | DOI:10.1007/s11427-022-2240-6