Nevin Manimala

Environ Monit Assess. 2022 Sep 10;194(10):764. doi: 10.1007/s10661-022-10449-2.

ABSTRACT

Sea level rise is one of the serious aftermaths of global warming on the hydrosphere. The scientific community often depends on global climate models (GCMs) for projection of future sea levels. Numerous GCMs are available; thus, selecting the most appropriate GCM/GCMs is a critical task to be performed prior to downscaling. In this study, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques, namely, Preference Ranking Organisation Method of Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE-II), Elimination Et Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE-II), and compromise programming, were used to identify appropriate GCMs whose projections can be used to downscale sea level projections at Ernakulam, Kerala, India. Support vector machine was employed to statistically downscale the sea level projections from the projections of GCMs. Five statistical metrics, namely, correlation coefficient ([Formula: see text]), normalized root mean square error, absolute normalized average bias, mean absolute relative error, and skill score, were adopted in this study as the performance criteria. The weightage of each criterion was computed using the entropy method. Six GCMs (GISS-E2-H, CanESM2, ACCESS1-0, CNRM-CM5, GFDL-CM3, and CMCC-CM) were considered for the analysis based on the availability of predictors. GISS-E2-H, CanESM2, and ACCESS1-0 occupied the first three positions respectively in all three MCDM techniques.

PMID:36087169 | DOI:10.1007/s10661-022-10449-2

Neurol Sci. 2022 Sep 10. doi: 10.1007/s10072-022-06372-6. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: People often ignore the usefulness of stroke prevention, the typical onset symptoms, and the efficacy of the new therapies. In order to attempt to correct this situation, we performed a wide educational campaign addressed to students of high schools in Liguria and Piedmont Italian regions.

METHOD: The campaign consisted in two phases: (1) compilation of a simple questionnaire on stroke, followed by a scientific lecture on the disease, distribution of didactic materials, and final open discussion; (2) re-filling and sending by participants of the same questionnaire for the statistical evaluation of the improvement of stroke awareness.

RESULTS: The global initial percentage of wrong answers (number of subjects 2,264) was 33.4%: (A) stroke general knowledge 23.5%, (B) stroke risk factors 37.6%, (C) stroke early symptoms 34.1%). At the end of the campaign, the total percentage of wrong answers (number of subjects 1883) attained the 11.4%.: (A) stroke general knowledge 3.7%, (B) stroke risk factors 11.7%, (C) stroke early symptoms 12.5%). All these differences were strongly significant.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that our educational campaign obtained an important improvement of stroke awareness in our sample. Girl students, Lyceum students, and less young students attained significant better knowledge improvement. We hope that the enhanced awareness might induce a more frequent diffusion of prevention strategies, an increased capacity of recognizing onset stroke symptoms with shortening of patients’ presentation in the emergency room of the hospitals when they can undergo reperfusion treatments.

PMID:36087147 | DOI:10.1007/s10072-022-06372-6

Brain Struct Funct. 2022 Sep 10. doi: 10.1007/s00429-022-02556-0. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The functional roles of the precuneus are unclear. Focal precuneus lesions are rare, making it difficult to identify robust brain-behavior relationships. Distinct functional subdivisions of the precuneus have been proposed based on unique connectivity profiles. This includes an association of the anterior division with bodily awareness, the central region with complex cognition, and the posterior division with visual processing. Our goal was to test the hypothesis that the central precuneus is preferentially involved (compared to the other sectors of the precuneus) in executive function, as estimated from performance on the trail-making test (TMT). 35 patients with focal brain lesions involving the precuneus were included from the University of Iowa and Montpellier University. Multivariate lesion symptom mapping of TMT performance was performed to evaluate whether lesion location was associated with impaired task performance. Lesion symptom mapping revealed a statistically significant association of central precuneus lesions with impaired TMT performance (r = 0.43, p < 0.01). Further, a functional network derived from this precuneus region showed connectivity to other cortical areas implicated in executive function, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal lobe. This analysis provides support for the role of the central precuneus in executive function, consistent with the unique connectivity pattern of the central precuneus with a broader network implicated in cognitive control and executive function.

PMID:36087124 | DOI:10.1007/s00429-022-02556-0

Dysphagia. 2022 Sep 10. doi: 10.1007/s00455-022-10515-4. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Either effortful swallowing exercise or repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is considered as an effective method to treat dysphagia after stroke. Thus, synchronizing these two interventions may improve the efficiency of treatment. This trial intended to explore the effects of rTMS and effortful swallowing exercise on the recovery of swallowing function in patients after stroke. A total of 56 patients with post-stroke dysphagia who were able to actively cooperate with the training were analyzed in this study. We experimented with different intervention effects of rTMS synchronization with effortful swallowing training (group 1), rTMS (group 2), and traditional swallowing training alone (group 3). Every patient completed conventional swallowing training 5 days a week for 2 weeks. Patients in group 1 and group 2 underwent 10 consecutive sessions of 5 Hz rTMS over the affected mylohyoid cortical region. Fiberoptic endoscopic dysphagia severity scale (FEDSS), penetration/aspiration scale (PAS), standardized swallowing assessment (SSA), and functional oral intake scale (FOIS) were assessed and compared across the groups. No significant difference in FEDSS, PAS, SSA, or FOIS scores was found at baseline among the three groups. The mean change values of the FEDSS score, PAS score, SSA score, and FOIS score between baseline and post-intervention of the three groups (H = 16.05, P < 0.001; H = 21.70, P < 0.001; F (2, 53) = 9.68, P < 0.001; H = 18.26, P < 0.001; respectively) were statistically significant. In addition, the mean change values of FEDSS, PAS, SSA, and FOIS scores in participants in group 1 (all P < 0.001) and group 2 (P = 0.046; P = 0.045; P = 0.028; P = 0.032; respectively) were significantly higher than in group 3. Similarly, the mean change values of FEDSS, PAS, SSA, and FOIS scores were significantly higher in participants in group 1 than in group 2 (P = 0.046; P = 0.038; P = 0.042; P = 0.044; respectively). The results revealed that the conjunction of rTMS and effortful swallowing training was an effective method to facilitate the recovery of swallowing function in stroke patients. The present clinical trial provided a new treatment method for the functional restoration of swallowing in stroke patients, which may further facilitate the recovery of swallowing function in stroke patients with swallowing disorders.

PMID:36087120 | DOI:10.1007/s00455-022-10515-4

Dysphagia. 2022 Sep 10. doi: 10.1007/s00455-022-10517-2. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Oral stereognosis is the ability to recognize, discriminate and localize a bolus in the oral cavity. Clinical observation indicates deficits in oral stereognosis in patients with vascular or neurodegenerative diseases particularly affecting the parietal lobes. However, the precise neural representation of oral stereognosis remains unclear whereas the neural network of manual stereognosis has already been identified. We hypothesize that oral and manual stereognosis share common neuronal substrates whilst also showing somatotopic distribution. Functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI; Siemens Prisma 3 T) from 20 healthy right-handed participants (11 female; mean age 25.7 years) using a cross-modal task of oral and manual spatial object manipulation were acquired. Data were analyzed using FSL software using a block design and standard analytical and statistical procedures. A conjunction analysis targeted the common neuronal substrate for stereognosis. Activations associated with manual and oral stereognosis were found in partially overlapping fronto-parietal networks in a somatotopic fashion, where oral stereognosis is located caudally from manual stereognosis. A significant overlap was seen in the left anterior intraparietal sulcus. Additionally, cerebellar activations were shown particularly for the oral condition. Spatial arrangement of shaped boli in the oral cavity is associated with neuronal activity in fronto-parietal networks and the cerebellum. These findings have significant implications for clinical diagnostics and management of patients with lesions or atrophy in parietal lobule (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, stroke). More studies are required to investigate the clinical effect of damage to these areas, such as loss of oral stereognosis or an impaired oral phase.

PMID:36087119 | DOI:10.1007/s00455-022-10517-2

J Crohns Colitis. 2022 Sep 10:jjac132. doi: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjac132. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The number of prospective population-based studies on Crohn’s disease(CD) is still limited from Eastern Europe. The present study is a continuation of the Veszprem IBD cohort. Our aim was to analyze incidence, prevalence, disease phenotype, treatment strategy, disease course and surgical outcomes in a prospective population-based inception cohort including CD patients diagnosed between 2007 and 2018.

METHODS: 421 consecutive inception patients were included (male/female:237/184; mean age at diagnosis: 33.3±16.2years). Both in-hospital and outpatient records were collected and comprehensively reviewed. Demographic data was derived from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office.

RESULTS: Mean incidence rate was 9.9 (CI95%: 9.0-10.9)/10 5 person-years in this 12-year period. Prevalence rate was 236.8 (CI95%: 220.8-252.8) in 2015. 17.6% and 20.0% of the patients had stenosing(B2) and penetrating(B3) disease behavior at diagnosis. The probability of disease behavior progression from luminal to B2/B3 phenotype was 14.7%(SE:2.2) at 5 years after diagnosis. Distribution of maximal therapeutic steps during the total follow-up (8.5y, SD:3.3) were 5-ASA in 15.7%, corticosteroids in 14.3%, immunosuppressives in 42.5% and biologic therapy in 26.2%. The probability of receiving biological therapy after diagnosis was 20.9%(SE:2.0) at 5 years. The probability of first resective surgery was 20.7%(SE:2.0) at 1 year, 26.1%(SE:2.2) at 5 years and 30.7%(SE:2.4) at 10 years, while perianal surgery rate was 31.3% among patients with perianal involvement.

CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of CD in Hungary was high, similar to high-incidence areas in Western Europe. Treatment strategies are reflecting the biological era. Disease behavior progression was lower, as well as long-term (10y) surgery rates decreased compared to data from previous decades.

PMID:36087109 | DOI:10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjac132

Physiol Plant. 2022 Sep 10:e13779. doi: 10.1111/ppl.13779. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The current study was performed under controlled conditions to study the effects of exogenous potassium application on carotenoid contents and drought tolerance in Camelina. Water deficit levels such as 100% FC (control) and 40% FC (drought stress) were imposed after germination of Camelina plants grown to maturity, and different treatments of exogenous K+ were applied at the vegetative stage. We have reported seventeen traits of plant growth, physiology, antioxidant enzyme activity, focusing on carotenoids in Camelina to explore their potential yield and yield components. For this purpose, we used multivariate analysis techniques (descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and principal components analysis (PCA) to determine the best relation between potassium and studied traits. The results showed a large number of variations in the studied trait under control and water deficit condition. Plant fresh weight (g) was negatively correlated with shoot length and SOD insignificantly correlated with plant fresh weight (g) under water deficit conditions. Potassium loading predicted that foliar application (3mM K2SO4), foliar application (6mM KNO3), foliar application (12mM KNO3) and foliar application (12mM K2SO4) are the important doses that contribute the most to enhance the growth, physiological and biochemical activities and carotenoids to improve the Camelina yield under water deficit condition. These doses should be considered in the future to improve the Camelina yield under semi-arid conditions with increased genetic diversity (varietal selection). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:36087099 | DOI:10.1111/ppl.13779

Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 Sep 10. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26068. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We aim to synthesize brain time-of-flight (TOF) PET images/sinograms from their corresponding non-TOF information in the image space (IS) and sinogram space (SS) to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast of abnormalities, and decrease the bias in tracer uptake quantification. One hundred forty clinical brain ¹⁸ F-FDG PET/CT scans were collected to generate TOF and non-TOF sinograms. The TOF sinograms were split into seven time bins (0, ±1, ±2, ±3). The predicted TOF sinogram was reconstructed and the performance of both models (IS and SS) compared with reference TOF and non-TOF. Wide-ranging quantitative and statistical analysis metrics, including structural similarity index metric (SSIM), root mean square error (RMSE), as well as 28 radiomic features for 83 brain regions were extracted to evaluate the performance of the CycleGAN model. SSIM and RMSE of 0.99 ± 0.03, 0.98 ± 0.02 and 0.12 ± 0.09, 0.16 ± 0.04 were achieved for the generated TOF-PET images in IS and SS, respectively. They were 0.97 ± 0.03 and 0.22 ± 0.12, respectively, for non-TOF-PET images. The Bland & Altman analysis revealed that the lowest tracer uptake value bias (-0.02%) and minimum variance (95% CI: -0.17%, +0.21%) were achieved for TOF-PET images generated in IS. For malignant lesions, the contrast in the test dataset was enhanced from 3.22 ± 2.51 for non-TOF to 3.34 ± 0.41 and 3.65 ± 3.10 for TOF PET in SS and IS, respectively. The implemented CycleGAN is capable of generating TOF from non-TOF PET images to achieve better image quality.

PMID:36087092 | DOI:10.1002/hbm.26068

Am J Hematol. 2022 Sep 10. doi: 10.1002/ajh.26724. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

RUNX1-mutated (mRUNX1) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has historically been associated with poor outcomes in the setting of conventional chemotherapy. The prognostic impact of mRUNX1 AML is not well-established in the current era of lower-intensity treatment regimens incorporating venetoclax. We retrospectively analyzed 907 patients with newly diagnosed AML, including 137 patients with mRUNX1 AML, who underwent first-line therapy with intensive chemotherapy (IC), low-intensity therapy without venetoclax (LIT without VEN), or LIT with VEN. When stratified by RUNX1 status, there was no statistically significant difference in outcomes between mRUNX1 and wild type (wtRUNX1) AML, regardless of therapy received. However, among patients who received LIT with VEN, there was a trend towards superior overall survival (OS) in those with mRUNX1 AML (median OS for mRUNX1 vs wtRUNX1: 25.1 vs 11.3 months; 2-year OS 54% vs 33%; P=0.12). In patients without another adverse-risk cyto-molecular feature, the presence of mRUNX1 conferred inferior OS in patients who received IC (P=0.02) or LIT without VEN (P=0.003) but not in those who received LIT with VEN (mRUNX1 vs wtRUNX1: 25.1 vs 30.0 months; 2-year OS 59% vs 54%; P=0.86). A multivariate analysis showed possible interaction between RUNX1 mutation status and treatment, suggesting a differential prognostic impact of RUNX1 mutations when patients received IC versus LIT with VEN. In summary, the prognostic impact of mRUNX1 AML may be treatment-dependent, and the presence of RUNX1 mutations may not impact clinical outcomes when venetoclax-based regimens are used. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:36087091 | DOI:10.1002/ajh.26724

Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2022 Sep 10. doi: 10.1111/ceo.14167. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To explore the use of a thermoreversible copolymer gel coating to prevent donor tissue scrolling in Descemet’s membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK).

METHODS: PLGA-PEG-PLGA triblock copolymer was synthesised via ring opening polymerisation. Two formulations were fabricated and gelation properties characterized using rheological analyses. Endothelial cytotoxicity of the copolymer was assessed using a Trypan Blue exclusion assay. Thickness of the copolymer gel coating on the endothelial surface was analysed using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (OCT) (RTVue-100, Optovue Inc., California, USA). Gold nanoparticles were added to the copolymer to aid visualization using OCT. Prevention of Descemet membrane donor scrolling was represented via a novel, in vitro, immersion of copolymer coated donor graft material.

RESULTS: Two different formulations of PLGA-PEG-PLGA copolymer were successfully fabricated and the desired peak gelling temperature of 24°C was achieved by polymer blending. Application of 20%, 30% and 40% (w/v) polymer concentrations resulted in a statistically significant increase in polymer thickness on the endothelium (p<0.001). There was no detectable endothelial cytotoxicity. The polymer was easy to apply to the endothelium and prevented scrolling of the DMEK graft.

CONCLUSION: This PLGA-PEG-PLGA thermoreversible copolymer gel could be exploited as a therapeutic aid for preventing DMEK graft scrolling.

PMID:36086942 | DOI:10.1111/ceo.14167